They entered the clearing with great caution, searching for anything that could bring them harm. Finding nothing of the sort they began to spread out and check in greater detail. They were all male, young men who were full of vigor, scouts presumably. After they had turned every stone twice and made sure it was safe, one of them left through the way they had come. The others, to my great shock, were all heading straight to me. As they entered the first of my tree circles I could see why too. Through my magic perception, I could see clearly that they hadn't eaten in a while. They were after my apples!
The soon reached the place where I was rooted but from there they couldn't reach my apples. So they started to climb up on me! The cheek!
Naturally, I couldn't permit climbing on my magnificent body.
'System, how do I get those little pests of my body?'
'Simple and effective, I like it.'
Soon after an undulating of magic power spread from my core, catapulting the climbers a good distance away. They were terrified, trembling like leaves in the breeze they put some distance between us.
„Spirit tree, great ancestors we found a spirit tree."
'Spirit tree, what's that?'
So they thought I was one of those incredibly highly evolved trees that had obtained consciousness after countless millennia. That explained why they were now scared to come closer. I kind of liked the feeling of being looked at with great reverence.
But now that they had discovered me they didn't stay long, they all left together in the direction the came from.
My best guess was that they would now contact their leader or elder and tell him or her about me. And my guess wasn't far from the truth. A day later a bigger group arrived. They had two wooden carts pulled by a bunch of oxen, laden with bags but mostly carried their belongings on their backs.
From the leading wooden cart, an elder descended and, after having confirmed that I was, in fact, the tree the scouts had mentioned, approached me. I mean it would have been pretty embarrassing if he mistook me for another tree. And as the elder came closer, I could tell he was no ordinary human. He was a mage. Albeit a strange one, it seemed to me. His magic flow was all disoriented and if not for its vastness compared to others I might have mistaken him for an ordinary human. The mages I was familiar with in my past world would all, without exception, have a clear flow of magic in their body, yet this man just had too much to not be a mage.
Stopping all this fruitless guesswork I decided to just wait and see what this elder would do.
„Greetings great spirit tree. I am Narvi, an early stage knight magus and elder of the... elder of this group of people. I apologize for some of our boys trying to climb you and wish to thank you for being lenient with them. But you must understand great tree spirit, we have all lost our homes and food is sparse out here. And you have so many wonderful apples yet you can't eat them, couldn't you give us some?"
The crafty old fox was trying to swindle me out of my apples! I mean he was right, I didn't need them... but that was no reason to give them away. Also, it wasn't like I could actually answer him.
But the important crux was now solved, it would seem there was a wholly different system of magic out there. This guy had said he was a knight magus? The old conundrum had been solved but a new one had arisen. How strong was this knight magus thing?
I didn't get to dwell on this matter for long though as a young woman pushed through the crowd and walked up to the elder. She too had a stronger magic power inside her albeit weaker than the old man's. She turned to address the elder.
„Grandfather, please let me take care of this matter. I'll be sure to get us a good deal."
While the elder was still thinking about it I took a closer look at the girl. She had red hair, reminding me of the feathers of a phoenix, her slender body was hidden beneath a light blue dress that had definitely seen better days and her deep, hazel eyes gave her an air of maturity.
The elder, having decided to leave things to his granddaughter, nodded and stepped back. The girl, now standing before me alone, gave an elegant bow while slightly lifting the sides of her dress and began her introduction.
„Greetings, I am Nerida, an intermediate stage maga. Since you don't seem to have the ability to speak let's establish a code shall we. Drop one apple for yes and two for no. Do you understand?"
What a crafty little brat, she took after her grandfather. If I had hands I would have even applauded her for this genius proposal. Doing this she would receive some apples no matter the outcome and even set a deterrent against me saying no. Now not answering would make me look like I was scared so had to answer.
One apple dropped to the ground and Nerida hurried to grab it.
„Good, now that we have a basic understanding we can continue. As mentioned before, we have a serious lack of food at the moment so would you be willing to give us your apples?
Two apples dropped near instantaneously. As she caught the apples her previously perfect smile became slightly stiff and she started biting her lower lip. While she had expected a no she hadn't thought it would come this quickly without even a second thought. She unconsciously pulled at her dress, exposing a slight bit of her cleavage. To bad that for this distance I relied mostly on my magic perception which made me see things in a totally different way, so my mind remained undisturbed. Mostly undisturbed.