In a twisted manner, the presence of her daughters was comforting. Aloe was no longer as perturbed as before once she stopped thinking about the dryads as children she might have given birth to, but something else. Some people took care of their pets like their own children, so she assimilated a similar perspective. The dryads have spawned from her being, so they deserved at least the respect a progenitor should give to their descendants.

  "Rise," Aloe mouthed, and the dryads obeyed.

  Her level of control over the relaxed Xochipilli as she felt his heartbeat slow down, but it disgusted her. This level of devotion wasn't natural, wasn't healthy. Children weren't in awe of their parents, which made it easier for her not to see them as such.

  She stood still for a moment trying to think of her next actions, but the vegetable woman found herself overwhelmed. It was just too much. Maybe she wasn't thinking of them as direct daughters, but there were still hundreds of them. And she just couldn't process them all.

  Thankfully, she needed not to take the first step as a dryad did it for her. She wasn't Kadashayka, but another one. Aloe didn't know what it was about her, if her height or her vitality, but she felt older than the dryad with the wooden claws.

  This pioneering dryad was lithe, far more than a human of her height could be yet still with a somewhat voluptuous shape, but she also was one of the eyeless dryads. The sight of this sapient plant would have been once unnerving as she presented no eyeballs, nose, ears, or hair, but instead had a fungal growth of polypore – that type of fungus that grew on vertical surfaces and had a terrace-like structure – on her upper head that could pass up as a crown.

  I don't know what that slaver was on when he said he hadn't seen a dryad with a crown before. Aloe recalled her first day after coming out of the chasm. That looks very much like a crown to me, and it isn't just her, but many others have such growths or plants on their heads. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that man had never seen a dryad before.

  But focusing back on the dryad standing before her, she was almost more like a sapient fungus rather than a sapient plant as it wasn't only the polypore on her head, but also her skin. Most dryads were brown or green, the colors one would associate with vegetation, but this one was white. A shade of green so light and pale that could only be called white, at least. And the reason for this was obvious: lichen grew all over her body.

  "Oldest of them all I am, oh mother, yet I must apologize for my looks." The pale dryad – what one could consider the albino version of them – bowed to her.

  "Apologize not, for there is nothing unsightful of you," Aloe responded. She didn't know why she had switched to her tone of scribe of commoners, yet it felt appropriate. "There is nothing wrong with your fungal growths."

  "This one has explained herself incorrectly," she swayed her head. "Tis not the nature growing on my substratum I am seeking pardon, but for my height. There is nothing more blasphemous than standing higher than our creator."

  Aloe instantly put a hand on her hand and giggled, which arose the gaze and confusion of many dryads, the pale one included.

  "Sorry, sorry," she continued chuckling. "It is only that I care not for that. Once upon a time, even after my growth had halted, I stood at a low height myself. Most of you are taller than me than I was back then, so if I had continued to be that way, most of you would be 'blaspheming'. So, no. I do not care about such trivial manners."

  "Oh, mother," the pale dryad led her branch-thin fingers to her heart. "Your magnanimity knows no bounds."

  The mother could only smile at that, for she knew very clearly her limits. "I would never judge my daughter for things beyond their control, especially when you had no chance of knowing how I looked like."

  Kadashayka nodded at her words and many dryads imitated her.

  "May I abuse that magnanimity?" The fungal dryad asked with her body still arched in a bow.

  "Ask away."

  "May I be blessed with a name?" And that question was what caused the barely kept silence to collapse.

  "Not fair! I also want one!" A high-pitched sounding dryad exclaimed.

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  "Me! Me!" Another one asked.

  "I want a name…"

  "Names! Names!"

  "Desire for a name I'd love."

  "…" There were many of this last type, for they were the mouthless dryads, yet somehow, they were one of the loudest types.

  To which Aloe responded with a weak "Silence."

  And silence was made. The unnatural obedience of the dryads unsettled her to no limit, but she couldn't let them act loose.

  "I am afraid I am not capable of naming you all at this current moment." She explained. "For starters, I am pressed for time, but also, my disciple here is not accustomed to your presence, so I must ask you that you give him some space."

  Even if it had been somewhat of a rhetorical petition, the dryads took a step backward, the pale one and Kadashayka included. Aloe nodded and continued speaking.

  "I intend to come back here, but tomorrow Xochipilli and I will march elsewhere. Could you wait for a name until then?" Their answer was overwhelming silence. It was a bit hard to understand, but for the dryads that seemed to be an affirmation. "For now, I'd like to know if you have food suitable for humans and a litter for him to sleep in."

  "That we do," the pale and oldest dryad responded. "We will have it arranged for your disciple, oh mother."

  With a sway of her head, the rustle of leaves became deafening as dryads started moving to fulfill her will. Her daughters may have not exchanged words, but they had certainly communicated. Many of the dryads that left to prepare her petition were mouthless ones.

  "I have many questions, and most of them will not be able to be answered in this short night I will stay here, so take this as a guarantee of my return." Positive silence, again. "But an ungrateful mother I am not, so before I do anything else, your petition I will answer, eldest daughter."

  Elder. Eldest. Fungi. Growths. Lichen. White. Crown. Hmm… Aloe liked the name she had given to Kadashayka, so she felt appropriate to reciprocate in kind with the pale dryad by giving her a name in Asayn. The crowned of the daughter, white and eldest… Pale Monarch, yes, that's it.

  "Aleahilhahiba," Aloe responded. "That will be your name."

  "Honored I am, oh great mother," the eldest daughter bowed, and suddenly her gesture appeared to be more regal. "Aleahilhahiba it is I, and your commands are my pleasure."

  Many of the dryads pouted and expressed some unrest at having one of her sisters being named instead of them, but none openly protested.

  Having given her daughters too much focus for now, Aloe turned to face Xochipilli. She squatted before him and placed her hands on his shoulders, they almost didn't fit on the boy's small frame.

  "I know the dryads look scary to you, but I also know that you are tired. Don't tell me you are not." Her disciple avoided her gaze. He, apparently, was going to say exactly that. "So I want you to eat and rest. It's been a long day, and I don't want you to be exhausted for the journey back. Have I made myself clear?"

  "Yes," Xochipilli responded sheepishly.

  "Good." Then she ruffled his hair and stood up. Her eyes landed on Kadashayka. "He's intimidated by your sisters, but at least he knows you. Can you guide him around?"

  "It would be my pleasure, mother!" The dryad expressed with her characteristic excitement as her eyes glowed yellow, or rather, reflected more light than normal.

  Kadashayka guided Xochipilli elsewhere, and some dryads followed him. Aloe hadn't instructed them to do so, but at the same time, they were their own independent people so it wasn't like she could stop them from going elsewhere.

  Once the young boy was out of sight, the warm smile disappeared from Aloe's face and she turned toward the World Tree. It was better if Xochipilli didn't hear or see the things she was about to do.

  "Follow me, Aleahilhahiba." She chanted silently but the pale dryad heard her perfectly.

  The rest of the dryads understood her intentions perfectly as if they were connected to each other as they parted on their ways. Only the eldest daughter accompanied her.

  Aloe walked right to the trunk of the World Tree. There were many holes that there wouldn't be on a normal tree, but this wasn't on a normal tree. It wasn't even a ter'nar, for the bark before her was brown.

  "Tell me, Aleahilhahiba, is the World Tree a single being?" As long as the name she had given to the dryad was, Aloe had no difficulties pronouncing it. Asayn felt more natural than normal on her tongue, perhaps because it was now closer to the Ydazi she knew.

  "No, oh mother." The pale dryad responded with her hands clasped together before her crotch. The man from the pawn shop back in the dream had been right, there was a cavity there, even if hers was practically hidden with the lichen. "The World Tree is similar to me. A result of many organisms working together with one another."

  "Symbiosis," Aloe mouthed and the dryad nodded.

  Instead of asking another question, Aloe grew an Aloe Veritas on her hand and took a leaf. She did not need word of mouth when she could see the answers with her own eyes. Aleahilhahiba reacted at the sight of the parchment-like succulent, even if she was without eyes. Her facial polypore reacted like a raised brow would on a human face, but she kept herself silent.

  The vegetable woman rubbed the cut leaf against the dark bark and the ink in the parchment shifted in response. Aloe had seen that moving ink for centuries now, yet it hadn't stopped being magical once to her. Soon it read:

  Species: Nature's Bounty

  Sobriquet: Thick Stump

  Description: An evolved member of the Malvaceae family, a species known for its ability to spread its roots in a wide area and boost the growth rate of nearby flora.

  Alignment: Life, Time

  Many thoughts flourished and withered her mind after reading the description. She had suspected that it could be this specific plant, especially because she had never had the chance to see this evolved plant fully grown, but the only thing she did was giggle.

  "Wide area, indeed." Never before had there been a description so amusingly humble.

  Bii