Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 14: Stay brave!

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Stay brave!

I placed three spoonfuls of water in the pan, placed the lid, and then placed the smoking pieces of wood over it. I knew that the soufflé pancakes were going to be nice and fluffy.

Fifty before these three had been. I had no reason to worry about such things.

And yet, as another strong wind began to batter against my old girl’s tree, and Marinus began to put the last of his mana inside his sea horn, ready to die but not let her fall, I knew that it was time I did my duty.

The dream catcher activated.

"Would you like a story?" The dream catcher needed to be refilled, and soon. As it was now, with the intensity of the storm, it was going to provide only three hours of safety.

I hated talking about my past. I was never someone who’d claim they were a saint.

But this was a good story. A kind one. Something that might bring a smile to these people’s faces.

"Is it a funny one?" Anne asked, a hand over the shaking grannie’s shoulder, who looked like she was freezing, despite the blanket.

"Well," I said, my shoulders hunching. "It has a happy ending?"

Anne nodded, cuddling into the poor woman next to her.

Almira looked me dead in the eyes. She told me of her pain. I owe her this courtesy.

"Once, I was the nymph of a Bristlecone Pine Tree," I told them. There were many of those, back in my homeland. Many, long-lived, for the natives refused to cut them down.

Then the white men came.

The Bristlecone Pine Trees, which were not hiding in a mountain, surviving by the skin of their roots, had been cut down without a shred of mercy.

I still remember how my tree got cut. How some of it ended up being the curiosity of a tavern.

I gritted my teeth.

"And I used to think the world was a small place," I admitted. For my tree had been hidden. Had been strong.

Not that it mattered in the end.

"Really?" Anne asked. I could not help but appreciate this little girl. She had this feel to her, that a priestess sworn to heal those who could not be healed had.

I vowed then, without uttering a word, that Anne was never going to end up with a blackened heart.

"A small place?" Almira asked, sitting down. Her hands folded on her lap.

"Yes! Quite small! Just my mountain, my tree, and the shrubs which had no nymphs!" I chuckled at my own nativity. Oh, I had been such a silly child, once. "I walked as far as my tree allowed me to. Made watering holes for the animals. There is a trick to that!"

I did not want to tell these people about the day my tree was discovered. Perhaps, one day, I will.

But for now, I wanted to charm them!

"You have to find the old riverbed first! Water has memory, you know? There, where it once flowed, will flow again!"

I saw how Almira’s lips turned up for just the fraction of a second. Anne clapped.

I did a slight bow, as I prepared to check on the pancakes. Wanting everyone to snack on one.

"Once you find the waterbed," I said, as if it were a great secret. My voice barely above a whisper. My blonde curls made to light up by the campfire. "You have to find where the shrubs grow!"

"Sylvan! Did you kill the poor shrubs?" Anne waved her finger at me. I knew that I was in for a scolding.

"What? No! Anne, I am a nymph! I do not kill shrubs, I replant them!" Which was even the truth. Most people believed that plants were just there to clear up the air and be used for food.

But to a nymph, even a shrub without a nymph, was like a cherished cousin.

"Yes, you replanted them. Somewhere where there was not as much water," Almira said, her eyes narrowed.

"Oh, no," I told her, for that would have been too cruel for words. "I replanted them near my tree!"

And, it seemed, I was still pretty much proud of that.

"Your tree must have looked like a garden overtaken by weeds," Almira said, not bothering to hide her smile anymore.

"Oh, yes! But then again, Methuselah would have been lonely otherwise! Besides, his mana made it so that the shrubs got plenty of water! Oh, if you could have seen them!"

I closed my eyes. Letting my mind bring me back to the one I loved most. Even more than my old girl and Grumpy Pants. The one whom I still missed.

"Green. Green like leaves in spring," I began, my eyes still closed. My smile began to hurt me. "But for them, the spring never ended! Some of them had blossoms! Purple, like a butterfly! Or yellow, like the sun during sunrise. Or...!"

I could have spoken about my home for hours, had a tear not fallen down my cheek.

Ah, there truly could never be a joy, which did not bring pain.

"Your tree was cut down, wasn’t it?" Almira asked. I blinked, as I noticed that she was sitting next to me.

When had she gotten up?

"Yes. They even uprooted the shrubs," for some reason, that pained me more than when the axe was brought down time and time again.

A siege with only one ending.

"Why didn’t you fight for your home?" Almira asked, a hand over my shaking one.

"You humans," I began, bitterness at the tip of my tongue. "Do not care about those who you deem too low for your respect."

It was the truth as I understood it. The painful, bitter poison, which was making me still think of how to pay the gnomes, instead of how to get more mana for the barrier.

"But I am not like that! I have never been like that. And..." I closed my eyes. Heard as Methuselah toppled to the ground. "I pray I never become like that."

"Good," Almira said, as she opened the pan, and flipped the pancakes for me. "And we won’t let you."

I was no longer alone...

I poured more mana into the dream catcher. Knowing I would use it all up.

I could not protect Methuselah, but I would protect this one.

I will protect my humans!