"I do not want to be here… I do not want to be here," Chún thought desperately at his locus; "Why can I not just leave?"
The images returned were of tens of snakes striking like lightning if Chún attracted their attention in any way - Chún dying painfully from Essence enhanced venom and crushed by enhanced constrictors.
Very close to panic, Chún considered trying to send out Essence to ask the plants to attack as he had done for the Panther or to blast the snakes away with a Metal Essence strike as he had for the Bear.
The Mountain responded with the likely outcome of both attempts - in the first, the snakes simply moved faster than the branches, roots and vines and killed him.
With the second, the blast pushed the snakes away, but as he was neither falling from a great height to add power to the strike, or clashing with another attack, the resulting blast was much weaker than the previous one and the snakes would recover and kill him before he would have a chance to leap away.
"You are the Mountain - tell them to let me go! Please?" No response left Chún trying desperately not to cry and he noticed the nearest snakes were beginning to orient in his direction as their tongues flickered out, obviously starting to pick out his scent.
"Please do not notice me, I am nothing, not important, just a rock, not a threat, not warm..not here, not interesting," Chún squeezed his eyes shut - but it did not help as not only were his five senses now so sensitive he could hear the slithering and hissing made as the snakes moved, he could sense the threads and coils and sinuous curves of differently coloured Essence for each snake.
Part of him realised he would probably be fascinated by the sight if he was not a dragon's whisker away from death. The rest of him just wanted to hide.
A gentle nudge from the Mountain pushed his attention to his own Essence pattern, which was swirling with familiar shapes of hiding, silence, concealment, unremarkable, unimportant… they pulsed with a desperation that reflected his feelings.
Before he had really thought about it, he visualised the Rune of Unnoticed he had comprehended previously from his Cultivation session with the Heaven and Earth Vine. The character immediately leapt into being, the necessary segments of the other shapes slamming into place without his guidance with a thunder that seemed to echo through his soul.
That quiet sensation of concealment, protection and success he recalled from comprehending the leaf dropped over him again, his perception shifting with a familiar ripple, almost as if a curtain of mist obscured him, but also clouded his Essence sense.
Even with the decrease in his sensitivity, he could see that the Essence patterns of the snakes which had been starting to flare in agitation, drop down into quiescence and regular levels of curiosity. A few of the larger snakes showed some signs of puzzlement, but slowly lost interest like their smaller brethren, focusing on the most energetic of the new Essence plants and herbs.
Slowly opening his eyes, he watched carefully as the snakes flowed over the clearing and around him towards whatever Essence plant took their interest, with no particular concern towards him whatever. Greatly daring he shifted his hands and weight slightly and the only response was for the snakes currently shifting close to his body to redirect their path out of the way - with no aggressive response or signs of startlement at all.
With rising relief, he realised he had successfully formed a pattern that would let him be present and responded to, but not draw any particular notice or attention - unless he made a specific effort to interact with someone, he guessed, seeing the snakes did change their path in response to his movements. He was not going to see what would happen if he managed to gain attention of a snake or snakes though; he was going to wait until all the snakes found a plant or herb to guard and then leave the area as quickly as he could without disturbing any of them.
"I wonder what the difference was this time," he speculated aloud to himself as he sat ignored, near the edge of the clearing, "other than that first willow, I never managed to… coalesce... the character properly, even when all the other shapes had parts that would fit. But this came together without any direction from me - I just provided a mould..."
"Becausse your Dao wanted to be hidden. It only lacked...direction, man-child."
The answer to his question clicked into place so beautifully - and the young boy had gotten so used to answers popping into his head from thin air - that Chún replied excitedly without considering the source. "Of course! The little willow agreed only the worthy should see it. Every other time, I tried to push the pieces together from outside.
He dropped his face to his hands in disturbed realisation, groaning at his stupidity as he worked it out, "Obviously, that would not work, even if their Dao contained the right shapes - it was not something they wanted. It was something I wanted...ugh, I was behaving like a Consumer."
"Yess." The timber and intonation of the voice suddenly registered with Chún and he froze in mid gesture, eyes widening. "Mountain? That... is not you, is it?"
"No." The voice, probably from a snake - if he had to guess from the slight hissing that underlay the words - contained definite tones of amusement and interest.
A quiet pulse from the link confirmed the words, simultaneously sending a strong suggestion of greetings and respect - along with a memory of Chún bowing as he backed away from the willow tree; there was also an apologetic tone to the whole communication.
Chún closed his eyes in his palms for a moment in helplessness, thinking furiously. An Orphidian Essence Beast the Mountain was wary of probably explained why its help with the snakes had been so limited; obviously whoever it was did not have any trouble seeing past the Rune of Unnoticed which meant it was powerful, skilled or both - and no doubt older than him. And… behind him, according to his Essence Sense.
Resolutely he dropped his hands to his lap and raised his eyes. "Apologies for any disrespect. May I rise and turn to greet the Respected Elder?
There was a pause. Then a sound of something slithering and the voice came abruptly from somewhere above him. "Granted."
Carefully Chún rose to his feet without his staff, keeping his eyes on the ground as he turned around, bent at the waist like he had seen the village mayor do once when visited by a high ranking officer.
"This insignificant Junior, formally greets Respected Elder."
"Sso… you are the True Cultivator everyone hass been gosssiping about... you may risse."
Cautiously, Chún straightened from his bow and looked up. And up, And Up.
An enormous snake towered above him, coiled up on itself like a small tower of gleaming scales. The head was enormous, spade shaped and flared, with the suggestion of a crown of horns ringing its skull just beneath the surface. A black eye the size of his head considered him, unblinking.
"Flood Dragon… a thousand pardons, your majesty," Chún stuttered out in shock with wide eyes, "this lowly being did not mean to disturb.."
A great rumble came from the immense beast as its head dipped down to regard him directly. "Not dissturb? In Our clearing you fought… We would have been mosst disspleassed if it had been... damaged."
Chún paled, remembering the state of the clearing prior to his channelling the Essence of the fight back into it.
There was a blast of fishy smelling odour as the dragon laughed like a bellows being pumped. "Your… Improvementss are acceptable recompensse for the dissturbancce. My Ssubjectss are pleassed - it will help them grow sstronger."
Chún swallowed, "I am glad to have been useful. With your Majesty's Permission, I will cease to disturb you and leave."
"Wait one moment." The dragon turned its head and hissed, sending Chún's neck hair rising. Moments later, a tiny silver snake, only the width of Chún's smallest finger and the length of his fingertips to wrist appeared from the forest and after hissing back at the dragon, began winding up Chún's leg.
Before Chún could do anything but freeze in terror, the dragon spoke again. "He will not harm you, unlesss you attack him firsst; We ssmell Metal Esssencce on you and your weapon. None of the Esssencce here, isss ssuitable for him; feed him Metal Esssencce and he will guard your cave."
Chún blinked in ssupri - no, he blinked in surprise. Doubtless the little Esssence Snake was deadly, but he was tiny.
The dragon chuffed again in amusement. "Feed him and he will ssuprise you."
Chún realised his problem with a sinking heart. "Honoured Majesty, I do not have any more Metal Essence than what you can sense - it comes from an Essence Ignition I was exposed to yesterday - there was this bush, on some rocks and I helped… well, then it was tiny willow made out of precious metals and jade and semi-precious stones for fruit...and it hid, because I said, well I thought Consumers might try to…"
The dragon reared back in what seem to be surprise and an excited tone entered its voice. "You helped the Iron Bush become a Ssilver Tree. That iss exccellent newss. It iss a pure ssourcce of all the mosst powerful metal Esssencce."
Chún swallowed. "I could bring the honoured snake, to the Silver Tree, to guard it and feed well there."
The dragon swayed its head. "No, it would be too powerful for him. We sshall guard it Oursselvess"
Suddenly, the smaller snake who was now coiled lightly around Chún neck like a torc, hissed and the dragon blinked, making a sound like a great horn.
"Yesss, the amount of Metal Esssencce is too sstrong just for that to be all. There are no ssourccess of Metal Esssencce in your cave, man-child?"
"There is a mineral hot spring and veins of metal in the cave walls, but no concentrated source, your Majesty. And the little willow was the first time I saw a living source of Metal Essence."
The small snake hissed again and the dragon nodded. "Tell Us the full sstory of your meeting with the Ssilver Tree."
So Chún recounted the previous days events with both the dragon and the snake listening intently. When he reached the part about the little willow giving him a fruit, the snake constricted so hard Chún started choking.
The dragon released a great gust of fishy smelling breath in amazement, looking at him with what could almost be described as respect. "You are very fortunate, Cultivator. The Ssilver Tree musst have conssidered your asssisstancce to be a great boon. Lissten to Our insstructionss and then return to your cave to complete them."
It lowered its head to gaze Chún directly in the eyes. "If the ssmall ssnake doess not vissit with newss within a moon - We will find you. You do not want Us to have to do that."
The dragon's tongue flickered out and touched the snake, hissing quietly at it. The little snake coiled restlessly around Chún's neck in response but stilled as a warning rumble came from the much larger snake.
"The small ssnake is not to eat the fruit of the Ssilver Tree. It would be too much Esssence at once for him. I have commanded him thuss. He will not dissobey." Chún could feel the small snake's head weaving vigorously up and down in assent.
"Ass for you, Cultivator, thiss iss what you and your locuss musst do..."