TJ only began to complain and insist he didn't need treatment, but before he could get a full word out of his mouth, Stanton grunted again. "Kid. Let me take a look at you."
Confronted with irrefutable old man logic and insistence, TJ walked forward to where Stanton groaned and stood up.
"This tree's given too much to use again." Without further explanation, Stanton walked off into the forest. He didn't seem too concerned about another pukwudgie attack, but TJ couldn't help but keep his eyes peeled and constantly roving around. There wasn't any suspicious movement through the branches, but that wasn't much of a guarantee. Feeling inside himself, he could feel that level 7 of Neophyte wasn't too far off, but it would require another fight of about that same caliber that they'd just gone through. Or, at least as many deaths on the enemies' side. The thought again turned his stomach. He could still taste the blood on his tongue, and TJ fought the urge to wash out his mouth with some of the limited water in his pack.
Prying his mind from his brief fixation, TJ instead watched Stanton approach several of the tall, proud trees and seemingly confer with them for a moment. None suited his fancy, until they reached the fourth majestic, solitary tree. Differently from most, it stood in somewhat of a clearing, nothing nearby. Stanton only needed to brush a finger across the thick bark before he nodded appreciatively. The old man gestured for TJ to approach, and he did so.
"Put your hand on it."
"The tree?"
"Of course." The old man rebutted.
TJ did as he was told, feeling a little silly. Even so, he trusted Stanton, they'd saved each others' lives multiple times already, what was touching a tree compared to that.
"Thank you." The older man muttered.
"You're welcome?"
"Not you." Stanton rolled his eyes and looked up at the crown of the tree. Before TJ could ask any more questions, he felt something push into him from the place he was touching the trunk. With a quiet hiss of surprise he pulled his hand back. Stanton immediately grabbed TJ's hand and pressed it back to the trunk.
"Don't move."
TJ, now anticipating it, felt the exchange of… energy, he supposed he'd call it. There was a faint warmth that accompanied an eerie, uncomfortable tickling sensation, as if a crawling vine was climbing up his veins. Despite the strange feeling, TJ embraced the warmth, trusting Stanton. As he allowed the energy to permeate his body, TJ's aches and pains died down. His nose cracked faintly before stopping its aching, while the two puncture wounds that remained in his stomach and thigh itched unbearably.
He fought the need to scratch the itches, groaning for a moment as the itch transitioned to pain before fading. With a faint expectation of what had occurred, TJ lifted his shirt to look at the wound in his stomach. The scab had become a puckered scar, no longer threatening to tear at slight movement. On his back, the wound was mostly healed, a smaller scab remaining, while the one on his thigh had also formed into a thick scar.
"That's all the tree and I can do for now." Stanton interrupted TJ's self-examination. "I figure you'll be fine for now. There was something in you, but I think your body was ok with it. Maybe bacteria, maybe something else. I'd say take a couple weeks to figure out how you're feeling, but you can't. It might be miserable, but that's all I can do for now. If, for some reason, it gets worse, let me know and we'll find something else to work with."
"You healed me! That's more than enough. Thank you!" TJ leaned forward and took the older man into a hug. Stanton, surprisingly, didn't resist more than a quiet grumble.
"Don't thank me. Thank the tree. It was willing to give up its own health for you."
"It what?"
"This tree was strong enough, and willing, to give up some of its own life for you. It should recover, but it might not. A proud old coot, like me."
"I… have so many questions."
A grunt. TJ was getting used to reading the subtle implications in his tones. Or, he was losing his mind. Either way, TJ decided to ask.
"You can talk with trees?"
"Eh. I can understand them, more like. This one was willing and proud when I asked."
"And Natural Harmony let you take its 'HP' and give it to me?"
"Something like that." Stanton gave no further information.
"Dammit old man!" TJ couldn't help himself as he stepped closer to the stubborn man. Stanton held his ground, but TJ didn't care. He didn't want to intimidate him, but the hot emotions boiling inside demanded release. "I get you don't like to talk, but information will save someone's life. I want to be able to help myself, help you, and if we can, help others. My son is somewhere I can't find, and all I can do is trust the shitty 'god-making' System to keep him safe and let me see him. However, right now, your 'nature' could be keeping us back from saving someone's life in the future, and so help me, if you keep standing between me and him I will leave you to be eaten by the pukwudgies! So be a grumpy fuck on your time, not mine!"
Stanton leveled an inscrutable gaze at TJ as the younger man swiped furious tears from his face. "Fair. I can 'siphon HP away from natural creatures and organisms into a willing recipient.' It takes MP for me to do it, and I'm mostly out now. I can't refill Suzie, and that'll be my next priority for now. As for why we went on a little walk, I figured that since there wasn't any rush, I'd look for a healthier tree before I used the Skill on you. No need to kill the trees conscripting them when we can look for volunteers." An unexpected fierceness colored Stanton's words in the last sentence. He deliberately calmed himself and continued, "Natural Harmony lets me pick up on the emotions of the organisms in the immediate surroundings. I think that's about it."
"Thank you."
Stanton grunted, though there was a certain twinkle in his eye as he did. When TJ noticed it, Stanton chuckled, "Let a grumpy old fuck keep his grunts and mumbling. I'll work with you, but I'll be a pissy codger as I do. Complaining is the spice of life."
"I'll take it." TJ answered, a wry smile of his own answering Stanton's and breaking the thickening tension. They walked back to the trail, where they put their backpacks on and resumed their walk towards the highway. The crunching of their shoes (and moccasins) accompanied the swirling winds through the trees. TJ imagined he could hear a voice in the air, a breathy tone, but he knew it was in his imagination and Skill. For once, it was Stanton who broke the silence.
"It's good to see you pissed off. To let loose. Lets me see who you really are."
"Cause I cussed you out?"
"Cause a guy as calm as you in this situation, with some voice in your head and your baby missing, seems like a psychopath. Even if you puked cause you ate someone."
TJ fought to keep his gorge down at that last sentence. He opened his mouth to argue but instead took deep breaths through his nose.
"You've acted like a regular guy who's just on a longer hike than expected, is all. I believe you have a kid, and he's obviously not here. But seeing you soldier on like that was weird. Seeing you crack cause of something stupid shows that you're just dealing well with the pressure."
The old man didn't say sorry or anything like that, and TJ didn't expect him to. It would have felt disingenuous or hokey if the flinty man had. Even so, the apology was clear, and TJ nodded his thanks. Stanton grunted for good measure, and they returned to walking forward towards their destination.
—---
To their relief, there were no more pukwudgie ambushes for an hour, going off TJ's HP recovery, as the rough trail transitioned to a packed dirt road, to a gravel road. Stanton worked to refill the revolver, resummoning it every couple of minutes to channel another bullet into the individual chambers in the cylinder. Fifteen minutes after beginning their jog on the gravel road, a small pack of five coyotes lunged out of the brush to attack, but TJ hadn't needed to activate Divine Transformation to deal with them. Suzie appeared in Stanton's hand frighteningly quickly, and he squeezed two shots off. One fell while another whimpered and limped. TJ shrugged his backpack off to ensure that Primal Savagery would activate. Then, after taking two steps forward, he punted another in the bottom of its chin. Its jaw and neck cracked unpleasantly as it flopped to the ground in an insensate heap.
Only two healthy coyotes remained. Stanton fired one more time, and the wounded coyote dropped, dead. The two remaining canines turned tail and fled. They disappeared into the surrounding brush, making no further sound beyond the stepping of their feet.
3 Coyotes, Level 4-5 slain. Experience gained.
Again, TJ could feel that he wasn't too close to that 7th level of Neophyte. Somehow, this journeying through the forest on foot seemed to be providing some modicum of experience to Savage, though not much. Maybe continued "savage" actions would give more experience, but for now, TJ knew he wasn't going to get a level by journeying to Pine any time soon.
He almost wanted a couple more fights to happen, just so he could be sure that he would continue getting stronger, but TJ instead preferred the possibility that he could make it to the town without dying. After that, he could focus on getting levels. Even so, he couldn't help but wonder what level the coyotes that'd fled were. Then, he remembered he was an idiot.
Just after he'd gotten the Skill, TJ had Appraised the pukwudgie leader that'd spoken to him. And he hadn't used the Skill since, except to look at the leather he prepared or the moccasins he'd made. He'd never even used it on Stanton. TJ turned his gaze to the older man, who was channeling his MP into the gun to refill as much as he could. With a thought, he Appraised him.
Acolyte, 4
"Is your race level 4?" TJ asked.
"No." Stanton replied, then seemed to check. "Actually, yeah. Acolyte 6, Druid 3. Why do you ask?"
"At Human 5, I got a new Skill, Appraisal, and I realized I'd never used it on you. All it tells me is that you're an Acolyte and level 4. I guessed it was in human, since I know you're at least level 5 in Acolyte."
Stanton, true to form, grunted. "Doesn't seem too useful."
"It isn't for now. But I realized I could have used it on the pukwudgies or coyotes or any other number of things, so maybe it could have been useful."
"Then use it."
TJ didn't say anything as he did as much, his vision flicking over a dozen things.
Ponderosa Pine Tree
Bush
Rock
Sandstone
Indian Toilet Paper
Pine Needles
And so much more. The Appraisals didn't give TJ any additional information, like it did on his coyote leather and moccasins, though.
"Why does it only sometimes give a name?" TJ wondered as he touched a rock only labelled "rock" next to a "sandstone".
"Do the rocks have names?" Stanton asked, his face confused.
"No, it just calls this one rock, while that one is sandstone."
"Does it not know what basalt is?"
As soon as Stanton asked, the label for the rock shifted to basalt. "It's based off what I know." TJ said, the information clicking nearly immediately. "What can you tell me about these forests?"
"Well, that there is sometimes called Indian or Cowboy's Toilet Paper. Proper name is mullein. Those are brittlebush. Those over there are creosote. That bush there is a jojoba." With each word that was spoken, TJ's Appraisal shifted to instead display the information he'd been given. When Stanton explained what a Mormon Tea bush was, though there weren't any nearby, TJ got the distinct impression he'd opened a can of worms he hadn't wanted to dive into. Even so, the can refused to close, and TJ focused on the twitching bushes as Stanton spoke.
Wait, twitching shrubs?