'Who was that?'
[From the beginning of time, onwards to the present, and further to the future, I, the Tree of Life, have and will exist.]
'The Tree of Life?'
For some reason, when the voice spoke, Hiiro felt an immense wave of calmness and comfort wash over him. The voice was similar to that of a mother's; warm and filled with nothing but love.
Perhaps this voice could explain some things to him.
'Um, Tree of Life? Can you tell me what is happening? What am I and where am I?'
[My dearest child, it appears you possess the soul and memories of another from a world far away from here. Your presence in this world can only mean that you were purposefully put here by one of the Gods who govern it. For what reason? I am afraid I cannot tell you.]
[As for what you are, you are my child. A spirit and one of the caretakers of the forest that we reside in. As you grow older, it will become your duty to watch over this forest as your siblings have done for centuries.]
'A spirit. A forest spirit…' thought Hiiro with wonder. That would explain his green skin.
[But it appears you are a little different from your siblings, young one. Compared to them, the power you hold is far stronger and more diverse. Unlike the spirits - your siblings before you, you have the potential to evolve…]
'Evolve? What does that mean?'
[That is all I can tell you, I'm afraid. You will find out more yourself as you grow older.]
Hiiro wasn't satisfied with that answer but let out a sigh and accepted it.
[Your potential will show when the time arrives. Until then, I urge you to fulfill your duty to the forest and listen to your siblings. We will talk again someday, but for now, I wish you all the best…Dagian.]
'Dagian…is that me?'
Hiiro, no, Dagian, received his new name and decided then and there that he would make the most of his rebirth.
'Protect the forest…look after its inhabitants…the job doesn't sound so bad,' he thought.
"Now little one, since you've met everyone, it's time for you to sleep again. Growing infants like you need all the rest you can get so you can grow up strong like the rest of us," the chibi human said.
She lay him down on the leaf again and patted him to sleep.
Dagian blinked his eyes trying to stay awake but eventually, he could no longer fight against his natural instincts and let sleep take over him.
—---
Days passed which later turned into months.
Dagian was officially seven months old and was now considered the forest spirit equivalent of a teenager.
It wasn't hard to adapt to his life as a different lifeform that took care of nature. In fact, he rather enjoyed his new life as a spirit. He enjoyed taking care of and protecting the forest, as well as interacting with the forest's inhabitants outside of his older siblings.
The squirrels and sparrows were chatterboxes that always had something say. The wolves were quiet creatures who tended to keep to themselves. The bears were intimidating but soft-hearted toward the spirits. The snakes were cunning creatures and conversations with them often left Dagian feeling unsettled as if they were planning something malicious.
But he knew they wouldn't harm him or any of his siblings.
The regular animal inhabitants of the forest respected the spirits and would never harm them intentionally. The irregular animals, or mutants as Dagian secretly referred to them as, were a different story.
Whilst the majority of them respected the forest spirits and didn't harm them, there were a select few that voluntarily attacked the spirits in hopes of consuming their core.
Forest spirits carried a special core inside their bodies which, when consumed by another, can increase their magical abilities to an incredible height. The reason is due to the Tree of Life who holds the highest power in the forest. Since forest spirits are a direct product of the Tree of Life, they naturally carry an essence of it in the form of cores.
Dagian was warned from the moment he could talk to never get caught alone with an irregular animal or a mutant. Because there was no telling whether mutant is one of the good ones or the malicious ones.
He took the warning seriously and didn't get close to an irregular animal by himself. Dagian prioritized his safety and his family's safety above all else. The Tree of Life said that he held enormous potential to evolve and gain incredible strength but until he can unlock his potential, he was just the same as any other spirit. Perhaps even weaker since he was still very young.
"Youngest brother, I heard you were in charge of the east division patrol with Hydria."
Dagion was in the middle of healing a broken tree branch when the voice of his eldest sister, Astoria, called out to him.
Spinning around, he greeted her, "Eldest sister, what you said is true. Is there something wrong?"
The female spirit nodded her head, "We haven't seen him since that time you two went on patrol. And just now…mother's lost her connection with him."
"What?" Dagian was shocked. "What do you mean?"
"Did anything happen when you two went on patrol?" she asked seriously. "I know he likes to go off on his own so he may have gotten himself in trouble. When was the last time you saw him?"
Dagian thought back to earlier this morning and said, "Well, we started patrolling as usual and as you said, he went off on his own somewhere but he found me sometime later and told me to return home. H-He didn't say anything else and it didn't seem like anything was wrong with him so I followed his order."
Dagian suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over him. What if something happened to his older brother due to his negligence? Should he have blindly followed his brother's orders back then? He should've alerted someone.
"I'm…I'm sorry, eldest sister. I-I should've told someone…" he stammered.
However, Astoria shook her head, "No. You are not at fault Dagian. You couldn't have known if something was wrong or not…Hydria tends to be unreadable when he isn't in a cheery mood. And he didn't tell you to get help so it must've been something he thought he could take care of by himself. Don't fret youngest."
How could he not fret?
Shaking his head, Dagian flew closer to his sister and said, "I'll help look for him with you. Let me come."
"Absolutely not! It could be dangerous. No, you stay here with Zphyr and the others okay?"
Dagian couldn't accept this. But he knew she wouldn't budge on the decision so he could only nod unhappily, "I understand…"
"Good," she kissed his cheek and quickly fluttered off.
Unfortunately, if she thought that Dagian would stay still, she was sorely mistaken.