He was glad to get these saplings back to their parents so he could continue his journey. Anything to get them to be someone else’s problem because he doesn’t miss his job back on Earth. Maybe he missed his parents, girlfriend and friends at the community garden.

  John thought about Kelsey often. He hoped that Kelsey at least made it back home safely since she didn’t come through the portal before it closed. He knew that if she knew where he was, she would have loved it.

  And if his fellow gardeners could see the insane and wondrous variety of flora and funga that he had come across since stumbling into this world, they would want to cultivate some of these new species in their garden to share with everyone.

  Unfortunately there was no chance for John to be able to communicate with them, let alone going back to Earth as quickly as he had wanted to.

  John was brought back from his thoughts when Peona shouted “Mama, mama! I have a human with us! His name is John!”

  She bounded over to a tree so tall it could have been an old growth cedar tree. A really thick branch came down with a palm cupped then scooped Peona and John up to eye level with the adult Ent. The adult Ent looked like she had the same bark as Peona but had branches filled with wildlife above her head.

  “Hmm. I see Peona. Nice to meet you John, I’m Eva Evers. Peona, could you wait by my base while I chat with John?”

  “Sure Mama!” Peona leapt from the palm John and her were on to her mother’s other palm before being brought down to the ground.

  Eva closed her eyes for a bit, “hmmm… I see…”

  Then she opened her eyes to regard John, “hmmm... John, are you good with younger ones back on Earth?” Eva inquired.

  John pulled his eyebrows in and adjusted his glasses as he shifted a bit on his feet.

  “Oh, don’t be shocked. We, ents, communicate through the vibration in our roots even though we’re perfectly capable of speech. Saplings aren’t the greatest at sharing information like us older growths, but when we get in touch it’s instant.”

  John took a breath before answering “not really. No, but I hope that I was good company to your saplings.”

  “Actually I find you to be more than good for them. I think it would be nice if we could employ you to look after them since they often like to explore away from us and we have no way of keeping up with them due to our heights.”

  John held his hands together, shifted his eyes to the side thinking back on his journey so far before coming back from his pause. John carefully spoke, “I feel flattered that you think that I would be a good guardian for your offspring. As you can see, I’m currently travelling through the forest to catalog all of the plant life within Sirius Orbis with a deadline to get this all done within 6 years. I have covered the Fequarian desert, and approximately three-fourths of Dwarvfwyach mountain. I have only done this in the last 3 months on this planet, and I want to try to get this done as quickly as possible.”

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  Eva asked “and what do you get in return for your efforts?”

  “Passage to get back home to my original planet,” said John with a wistful smile.

  Eva cracked a warm smile, “I think we can match that offer with something faster than the sorcerer’s magic.”

  John’s eyebrows raised above his glasses.

  “We have an old friend who can travel between dimensions whenever he wants and can go directly wherever you may want to return to. Unfortunately, he might terrify you since he is a dragon.” She looked at John’s attentive expression before continuing, “we will have our dragon friend to take you back home if you tend to our saplings and teach our tall growths how to mind them within a year. Does that offer appeal to you?”

  Tension in shoulders and muscles close to his spine relaxed, John had a more feasible way of getting off of this planet. John could go back home sooner to see Kelsey and friends and parents; tell them about the most bizarre trip he had ever been on. John had to blink a little to keep his eyes from watering and maintain his composure.

  “I will gladly take you up on your offer, thank you Eva.” John bowed to the old growth ent.

  “Excellent, we’ll meet again in the morning. You can set up camp by the scuttlebushes. Peona will show you.”

  Peona was rustling over before Eva set John down on the ground.

  “You’re staying! I don’t know where we should start, but I’m gonna take you around our woodland! I gotta show you the wobble stalks and the…” Peona trailed on as she showed John around the common spaces and some of her favourite plants.

  They came to a stop by a long cluster of bushes with small round blue-green leaves sparsely covering the branches.

  “This is where Mama said to drop you off, and she said that I should let you have some time to yourself. If you’re bored, y’know where I’ll be!”

  John chuckled to himself, now that changes the meaning behind make like a tree and fly off.

  He took his time setting up his tent and sleeping equipment before pulling out his notebooks to review. He still wanted to record everything he saw. Yet he didn’t feel the urgency to get as much done within the day. John took his time going over sketches before coming back to his notes on the system.

  The system was a curious thing to him as he wasn’t much of a gamer like his colleagues back at the company. John may not have the greatest luck, but he was lucky in his connection with the dwarves where they explained almost all of it to him. Maybe even all of the system’s capabilities.

  Seamus O’Connor happened to be hiking in the forest when they met. It was the day after the sorcerer’s wyvern dropped off John after flying him around the Akka desert. John was walking through the trees when Seamus bumped into John and knocked him over. John’s glasses flew off and landed by Seamus’ feet. Seamus picked them up by the lenses and cracked them. Seamus apologized and brought John into Gwillin, the city within Dwarvfwyach Mountain.

  In Gwillin, Seamus gave John a potion that improved his eyesight and had an artificer turn his glasses into sunglasses. Seamus introduced John to his fellow nature enthusiasts and his family. Seamus worked a corporate job like most dwarves did in Gwillin. Gwillin was almost like downtown Vancouver but not as compact and with far better traffic. The dwarves of Gwillin also acted like people who worked in the offices. The dwarves had something similar to a New Yorker accent and could talk without needing to take a breath in between. The dwarves differed from what John had experienced when he read about them in The Hobbit.

  Seamus insisted that he stay with them for a few weeks, argued that he’d “give better advice than that wrinkled old fart in the red clay stick.”

  So John did learn about his class, what made Wisdom different from Intelligence and more. He felt like was in a Dungeons and Dragons boot camp tailored to him. John took lots of notes, mainly because of his ADD and lack of time to study it all.

  Here by the scuttlebushes with the sun snaking behind the bumpy tip of Dwarvfwyach Mountain, John began finished his studies. He successfully opened his pocket dimension, pulled out a piping hot stew and half of a crunchy sourdough.

  Such a shame that the system doesn’t do messages because I gotta tell Seamus his wife made a great stew and bread.