Journey to the Trinity Tree

Envy's nose wrinkled in distaste as she and the other remaining champions were directed towards the garden. Suddenly, she was regretting her decision to not follow that strange lure, or, even better, to volunteer to go through the portal in the first place. Gardening was something much more suited to Lust than to Envy; she had absolutely no interest in the plants and other wildlife. Even Gluttony would be better suited for (and more interested in) tending for saplings than she would be, and she had been molded by her previous group to be a ruthless killer (and who suffered from more than a few differences that put her securely in the "crazy" camp in Envy's opinion).

Though, while thinking of her better suited group members - for there were many in the Graveyard of Gods who were better equipped to garden than Envy, who had better things to do - Envy couldn't help but think of Pride. The mere thought of him attempting to garden had the golden she-cat stifling her laughter; the tom cat wouldn't know what to do. Envy would pay to see that entertainment, because entertainment it would be. He wouldn't last long at all before trying to push the job off onto someone else, if he even bothered to make an attempt. Envy supposed that would depend on how easy someone made the task sound; the harder it sounded, the more likely Pride would abandon the task before he even began.

The thought of Pride attempting (or not even bothering to attempt) the task didn't just serve to amuse Envy, however; it also was what inspired her to actually get to work, because, despite the fact that Envy had no interest in gardening, she wasn't going to do the exact same thing that Pride would do, even if she was technically playing along in the same charade as the Graveyard of Gods' leader. She wasn't going to be a complete brat for no reason, no matter how much she'd rather be looking around for more information as opposed to tending to random trees. She would just do a haphazard job to get it over with, and if they really cared, someone could go over her work again and fix her mistakes.

If she actually put in the effort, the golden she-cat was sure she knew enough to actually plant them properly, but Envy didn't care, so she didn't even bother to think of what the plants would need to grow correctly.

Envy fidgeted as she took a brief break after planting a few saplings. What was the point of this exercise? It was obvious that the general saw some reason for it, but she didn't understand what it was. Envy considered herself to be intelligent, but she really didn't know what planting saplings had to do with fighting. What did these saplings have to do with the tree housing the goddess? Honestly, if she thought about it, she was sure that she could figure out some logic behind it, but if she was being honest, Envy didn't care that much. It was a curious matter, a question she wouldn't mind hearing the answer to, but she wasn't going to lose sleep agonizing over it. It was probably some stupid life lesson that he was trying to instill in them, and honestly, Envy couldn't care less. She may consider herself to be morally superior to Pride, mainly because she didn't have any interest in lying and using other cats to the extent that he did, but she didn't care about being perceived as actually good. That was Lust's forte, not hers.

Envy glanced at the last few saplings she was meant to plant before rolling her eyes. "I'm done with this," she said with a sigh, shaking her head. "Someone else can do this busy work. I have more important things to consider."

And with that, the golden she-cat abandoned the saplings and gardening tools they'd been provided with, stalking off to do her own research instead.

Despite the tree's words, filled with conviction and what seemed to be genuineness, Cole was not so easily convinced about what was being said. It all sounded great in theory, but there was nothing to prove what he was saying. At the moment, it was this tree god's word against the word of the tree goddess they originally met, and though she was not the most forthcoming (especially in comparison to this new god), Cole was not convinced they should immediately believe him because of that.

But Kina already seemed enraptured with what he had to say. "That explains both calls feeling so similar," she whispered to herself, and despite being interested in what she meant like that, Cole didn't ask her to clarify. He was too nervous to do that, especially since it would mean he would want to put his full attention on her and he would have to stop paying close attention to the newly reinvigorated army of decay around them, and besides, even if he wasn't too scared to ask, the statement obviously wasn't directed at him. Cole did not want to upset her by asking about something he wasn't meant to hear or pay any mind to. "To upset the balance in such a way...that's terrible. She has to be stopped."

Cole bit back the urge to state his own hesitations with the matter. If the goddess in the tree really was trying to circumvent death all together and grant eternal life, then she had to be stopped. While such an idea sounded good in theory, Cole immediately saw the flaws with such an idea. And yet, if she wasn't, then the champions fighting against the other champions, assisting the decaying army of death in reaching the tree, would be disastrous. There was no telling what that would do to the balance of things;  Cole didn't even want to think about the consequences of their actions if this tree was lying. The ramifications of that idea were absolutely terrifying.