I saw the creature at the exit of the seemingly endless cedar forest. It was my first time seeing a humanoid other than a human. I could not move from my place because of my fear. This creature was 1.80-1.90cm tall, had gray green skin. There were lines similar to tree roots spread out on certain parts of its body. It had flat-soled hooves similar to goats' hooves. It had a square face, the curled intestines of the animals were drawn on its face with a single curled line.
Its private parts were covered with handmade clothes made of leaves.
Its eyes were completely white. I felt like I was going to disappear as I looked into its eyes. There were stitches on the part where its mouth was, as if it had been stitched and then unraveled and not liked. Our eyes locked. I did not see the surprise of encountering a creature like me for the first time in its eyes. It was as if it had been used to humans for a long time.
My fear had diminished, but I could neither move nor did I intend to communicate with it. It didn't glance at me as if it were either enemy or friend. It was neutral towards humans, like nature. Its intentions towards me would shape according to my actions. I don't know why, but that's how I felt.
"Siri, is there any information about this creature?" I asked.
"Scanning memory history... No results found. Would you like me to save data about this creature?" Siri said.
Yes, let's do that," I said.
We continued to stare into each other's eyes for a while. It was as if we were playing a little game. Whoever averted their eyes would lose the game. I had no intention of losing no matter what. As a new immigrant to this world, I had no choice but to win. This thought had become ingrained in my life by now. Of course, a human had its limits. The creature didn't know what it was to give up. We had been dueling for half an hour, but it showed no signs of admitting defeat. A black crow-like bird landed on the creature's shoulder. Crows were usually the messengers of bad news in my old world.
The bird, as black as coal, approached the creature's ear and tried to tell it something by whispering. After the black bird gave its news, it flew away in an instant. Suddenly, I saw disgust and hatred on the creature's face that I had never seen before. The creature stopped focusing on me and dived into the depths of the forest. While running, I had dropped some materials in the basket in my hands. I collected the materials on the ground and set off towards home.
The running made my sick body even more tired and exhausted. If the creature had left the forest and jumped on me, I wasn't sure if I would make it out alive. Many questions came to my mind as I walked on the road. Why did this creature follow me? What was this creature? Where did it go when the black bird pretended to tell it something? Many questions were occupying my mind. I was focusing so much on the creature that I was missing a point.Each of the cedar trees had small fog-like tufts floating in the air.
"Siri, can you show me the fog recorded around the trees?" I said.
"Your wish is my command," Siri said.
Images suddenly started flowing through my mind. Although the size of the fog around the trees varied, each of them was surrounded by at least one and at most seven patches of fog. What were these fogs? What did the fog mean?
"Siri, can you compare the fogs? Show me the similar ones separately, put the unique ones last, and show them all in order. Also, can you check if there are any differences using the visual filters?" I said.
"Accessing data... Comparison is being made... Preparing presentation for comparison... Presentation is ready to be displayed... Fog has passed through visual filters... New data has been obtained. Obtained data is being processed. Data has been processed. Ready to be displayed," Siri said, as cold but reliable as always.
"Show me the processed information," I said.
Thanks to the features of my old phone, I learned a lot about fog. Although not every fog was the same, a few were similar. The size of the fog was variable, sometimes the size of a needle tip, sometimes the size of a thumb. The colors of the soot varied from light gray to dark gray. Thanks to the filters, these fogs had patterns like Fraser spirals. It was difficult to see the patterns with normal eyes. What was really strange was that the matching fogs were matched according to the similarity of the pattern. Why did these fogs appear next to trees? Were these fogs produced by trees? If they were produced by trees, why were they produced by these fogs?
I always thought that we should think outside the box. What if trees use them to talk to each other. After all, we don't need language to communicate, there are other ways to talk. For example, mute people use sign language to communicate. Some animals communicate through smell. A lion who wants to mark his territory pees around his territory, every lion that approaches his territory knows that this place belongs to someone. Even a one-way message is an example of communication.
My thoughts seemed crazy to me, but this world and the creature I saw a moment ago had proven that nothing is impossible. There was no point in being surprised anymore. I wonder if I could learn what trees talk about with Siri? I wonder if what I hear from trees will make me regret it?