Roda Questing 1- Meeting

Prompt

Your bean has found an injured young animal. After hours of waiting and no sign of the parents, they realize they’ll have to nurse it back to health themselves. (Changed to your bean finding another injured bean)

----

The woods are quiet this far out, she quite enjoys it. The leaves of the trees and bushes whisper lightly in the breeze, almost seeming to call her forward deeper into the foliage. Her family would be horrified by how far she has strayed from the village, far past the outer reaches of their region where none are brave enough to venture past. There are tales of monsters and dangers outside the protected confines of their small settlement, horrors only the gods blessings can keep at bay. It’s said that to stray outside the reach of the god’s protective barrier around the village surely means a painful death.

But she’s experienced none of those things. Small feet tread daintily over soft grasses and weeds that kiss her ankles when she walks, a sky as blue as she’s seen from her house’s window shines warm light filtered between translucent spring leaves. It’s just as beautiful out here as it is within town, actually if she were to be honest the forest puts her home to shame. It’s quaint, but her village lacks the luscious greenery she is currently froliking through. Here where flora grow large and vibrant and full of life, nothing like the dried, brittle grasses that blanket the fields at home. A curious notion, why is the land out here more full of life than the fields the gods blessed back home? She makes a mental note to pray over this when she returns, perhaps there’s something the gods have been trying to tell her that she’s been missing. She’s still in her early years of training so it’s possible. If only the priestess before her hadn’t passed so suddenly, she’d have known what to do.

She comes round a giant tree trunk, it’s gnarled roots churned up in the earth like a web when a particularly weak root gives way under her. She lets out a startled yelp and falls to her knees, caking them in earth and leaf litter. “Stupid tree…” she mutters under her breath, brushing the clinging dirt off herself with a huff when something in her perifial catches her attention.

She looks up, blinking at the tree trunk for a moment with critical eyes; hardened bark caked in moss and fungi, just what you’d expect a tree to look like. However she keeps looking, something about it looks… off. Gently she glides her fingers down the aged bark, rough and dusty… wait. Her eyes narrow in curiosity. That part felt… soft. She touches the portion of the tree again finding it gives under her finger. How strange, is it rotted from the inside?

Childlike tendencies make her poke it harder and her confusion grows. It feels so weird, it almost feels like skin… She scratches the area with her nail when a small chunk of bark just above her hand breaks away. It takes her a moment to register before she lets out a gasp and jumps back in shock.

An eyeball! There’s an eyeball in the tree! She barely has time to process this when other sections of the tree begin to undulate, bark and moss breaking off in chunks. She can only watch in a mixture of horror and fascination when the shell of the tree falls away revealing… a man? She’s unaware she’s holding her breath watching the bark with the eyeball shift, bits of tree breaking off to reveal a mostly human face.

The eye, a vibrant gold, shifts to look at her.

She doesn’t move for a moment, stuck between fight or flight. But when the oddly human figure doesn’t move her body slowly relaxes and she stares at the odd sight before her. Now that the bark has broken away she can definitely see the definition of a man underneath the foliage; broad shoulders covered in moss and dirt, and above that, half hidden behind a veil of ivy and fungi, a human face.

Fear slowly melts away into curiosity, and with great caution she creeps back up to where she was before, watching the eye follow her every movement. It takes a moment for her to find her voice. “Hello?” The man’s eye watches her but he doesn’t respond. She creeps slightly closer. “Hello?” she calls again. The man’s head turns slightly to keep her in sight and it’s only now she sees his exposed skull, fungi sprouting from the hole where his other eye should be.

Oh! This has to be one of the creatures the village elders were telling her about! It’s odd, it doesn’t look like anything they described, and it’s definitely not trying to eat her like they warned her they would. As is the nature of a child her caution swiftly falls to the wayside, instead replaced with curiosity. Just what is this?

“Are you a monster?”

The man doesn’t respond, in fact it doesn’t look like he can even speak. Where’s his mouth? Is it covered by dirt? Leaning forward on her knees she carefully brushes her fingers over his face, fingering away clumps of earth and plant fiber before finally finding his mouth, or part of it. Half his lips and cheeks are gone, exposing the teeth and bone underneath. Huh, how curious. “There, now you should be able to talk.” Giving one last brush for good measure she sits back and waits for it to say something, but he never does. She frowns, thinking. Maybe he’s thirsty? She has a hard time talking when her throat is dry, maybe he does too. It does look like he’s been here a while. “I’ll get you some water, wait here.”

Standing she makes back the way she came, retracing her footsteps until she runs across the small stream she crossed earlier. Taking the scarf from around her neck she soaks it well and good in the cool water before hurrying back with the soaking garment. Returning back to the tree she kneels and presses the scarf to the man’s mouth, slowly squeezing the water out. She can’t tell if he’s drinking it, but it does wash more of the dirt away.

When done she once again sits back, staring at the man who returns her gaze without speaking. Maybe she needs to introduce herself first? “My name’s Yonah.” she announces. “What’s yours?”

“....”

“Are you hurt?”

“….”

“Where did you come from?”

“....”

Maybe she really is talking to a tree. She sits there for a while longer, peppering it with questions but never getting a reply. When the sky inevitably started to turn dark she was forced to give up, returning home positively burning up inside from a mix of curiosity and utter frustration.

The next day as early as she could manage she rushed back into the woods back to the man. And the day after that. And the next after that one. And another. Yonah made it a habit to visit the tree man everyday whenever she could get free from her priestess training in a vain effort to learn more about him. She brushed all the earth and foliage from his body as best she could and talked to him about all manners of things. She brought him milk from their goats, cheese and bread to eat, she even brought some of her toys. But nothing worked, all her efforts were met with staring and silence.

----

A new day dawns and she continues this cycle, finishing up her priestess duties before diving into the forest. She sits before the man, brows furrowed in a pout and says nothing. He wont talk, why? Maybe he can’t talk? But he could do something else, he’s barely moved since she cleared away part of the tree trunk that had grown over half his body. Frustrated she sighs and leans back on one of the roots, staring up at the sky, not knowing what else to do.

The breeze and sunlight feels so nice. She closes her eyes, enjoying the ambience of nature. Without realizing it she starts to fall into the lulls of a nap when a sudden sound startles her awake. “W-what?” she asks blearily, looking around before staring at the man whose eye is already trained upon her. She lets out a huff, laying back down. Silly of her, she could almost swear she just heard him spea-

“Eeeyaeeehh”

Yonah snaps to attention, heart lightly pounding in her chest. “D-did you just talk?” The man stares at her for a long while, his single eye, a brilliant gold, seeming to absorb her very form. Then his jaw moves and makes a sound like crunching gravel. “Weeehye.”

Her heart starts beating faster now and Yonah crawls closer. “I’m sorry I can’t understand you. Your voice is very hoarse.”

The man almost seems to swallow, his torso heaving as if taking a breath causing bits of debris to fall away. It’s obvious he’s putting effort into speaking, and Yonah can just barely make out what he is saying. “W…..y…..wh…...y.”

She blinks, taking a moment to understand. “W- why? Why…. what?”

The man’s body heaves, the forming of words appearing to be a monumental task. Yonah waits patiently as the man sounds it out, jaw bones clicking with every move.

“W… hy… a… re… y… yo… ou... h...ere….” The words come out like splinters, as if he hasn’t used his voice in hundreds of years.

“Why am I here?” she repeats for clarity, perplexed by the question. “I wanted to talk with you. And you ignored me.” she ends with a huff.

The man doesn’t respond and Yonah cocks her head to stare at him. She’s asked him so many questions and he didn’t answer, why should she try again? But he just talked, maybe he’ll answer this time? “Are you a monster?”

The man blinks, mouth moving as if trying to figure out how to form the words for his answer. “N… no.”

No? Well it makes sense she supposes, she’s always been told monsters kill humans and he hasn’t done anything like that to her. He even looks human. “Well if you’re not a monster then what are you?”

The man glances down and doesn’t answer, but she’s tired of being ignored and persists. “Are you a human? No, half your face is gone. Are you a demon? A goblin? Fairy?” The man still doesn’t respond. “A wizard? Elf? God?” The man twitches at the last term; Yonah begins to smile a bit. “That’s it, you’re a god aren’t you?”

He doesn’t respond.

“What are you doing half grown into a tree? Does it not hurt?”

The questions seem to make him uncomfortable, his eye trained at the ground and he sits frighteningly still. Yonah feels a twinge of guilt and wilts slightly. “Hey… I’m sorry.” she apologizes, scooting up to sit right in front of him. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, I’ve just never seen anything like you before.”

The man doesn’t respond nor move.

Yonah hangs her head for a moment, trying to figure out what to do next. “Do you have a name?”

The man doesn’t respond and Yonah hangs her head farther, not sure what else to say.

“I...it... m… ma… tters... N… ot….”

Yonah lifts her head to find the man staring blankly into space; he looks so… sad. For a reason she doesn’t understand something inside her stirs, warm and determined, and she sits up. “It does matter.” she announces. “Names are important, they help define who you are. And how else am I supposed to get to know you if I don't know your name?”

“…”

“…”

“You… would… not… have… heard…. of … me….”

“So you ARE a god. Only gods speak like that!” she proclaims in awe. What in the world is a god doing out here like this? She was told the gods were glorious and beautiful and lived atop the farthest reaches of the sky, not down here on earth, and especially not half buried in a tree trunk. Looking at him again she frowns over the missing parts of his body; well that explains how he’s still alive. But how did he get that way in the first place? Did he get in a fight and fall down here? She wasn’t aware of gods losing battles.

However he was a pitiful sight, half man, half skeleton with flora sprouting from where flesh should be. He’s been here a long time it seems too. Surly if he did fall the other gods would have looked for him? His voice is so cracked and dry she can barely make it out, did he not call out for help? How long has he been out here?

Yonah is bursting with questions she can barely contain, but keeps them to herself for now. Instead she goes to kneel in front of the god and offers him her hand. “Come back to my village with me.” she offers with confidence. “We don't have much, but we can give you a bath and clean clothes, and medicine for your wounds.”

The god stares at her, the expression in his singular eye unreadable. “There's… nothing you… can do… for…. me.” he croaks after an eon of silence.

“I’m a priestess, it’s my job to honor the gods.” she declares with a hint of pride. “And if you’re a god then I need to honor and take care of you. I don't know much about how gods live but I do know that they aren’t supposed to be covered in moss and mud.”

The god continues to stare at her and Yonah offers her hand to him again with a small smile. His gaze shifts to the hand, back to her face, then to the hand again. It hangs there for such a long time her arm begins to go numb. But after what feels like an eternity the god shifts, dislodging a half formed arm covered in dust and scurrying beetles from the trunk he’s encased in and, after a moment of hesitation, his bony fingers gingerly clasps hers. Yonah doesn’t bother to hide her huge smile.

Being a small child it takes a lot of heaving and pulling to dislodge the god from his prison, and when he is finally pulled free chunks of tree and earth still cling to his frame; half rotten twigs jut from an exposed rib cage and all manner of insects scurry from between joints. It’s a ghastly sight, and it doesn’t even occur to Yonah to consider how the village would react to the visual horror.

The god’s legs are mostly exposed bone and caked on earth with bits of flesh hanging here and there, it’s a miracle he can even stand on them much less walk. But after some persuading and assistance from Yonah he allows the young girl to slowly guide him to her village.

“You’ll like it there.” Yonah tells him, practically bursting with excitement. “My mom is a really good cook and my dad can fix practically anything. They’ll take care of you.”

The god doesn’t respond, in fact he doesn’t appear to be phased by this turn of events at all, expression as unreadable as when she first found him. But along with her he goes anyway.