200 The Spirit Tree
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After dinner we were inside of Eric’s room and we constantly talked about the book contents. Well, mostly Chris and Erika who had been left out about all of this for two whole weeks. I can tell why they felt a bit sad and joined together to come annoy us. It’s not like I mind being with them, but Eric seems annoyed by how noisy they are, and I can’t help but agree with him.
They continued reading through the pages happily. Erika was sitting all over the bed and moving the pages each time she saw a new drawing, she didn’t even bothered reading. Well, not like they had a good reading comprehension. Chris didn’t know how to read yet and Erika had been taught the basics, but her father had told me she has been unwilling to learn how to read lately, and even asked me to teach her myself in exchange for items he has stored. I had accepted so I might be teaching her stuff the coming week.
“Oooh… And what’s this one?” Asked Erika. She had opened the plants book and went to the last page directly, as if finding them all boring. The plant that was shown was… a gigantic tree. I hadn’t reached this page before, and this book wasn’t the ones that Eric had lend to me, it was one he had said was a copy of the plant ones he lend to me, or more like the original while the one he gave to me were copies he was remaking because the old ones had very delicate pages that were slowly decaying. I had not paid attention to it until I saw that gigantic tree drawing.
“Oh, that’s a giant tree! Look, it shows land below it and… are those mountains? They’re too small!” Said Chris. “Hey Eric! Is there a tree this big out there?”
Eric seemed a bit tired of explaining things, but when they asked him about this gigantic tree, he couldn’t help but grow a bit more serious. Eric nodded and then began to read a bit of what the pages said.
“Yeah, I’ve read this a couple of times. It was written by the grandfather of my grandma’s grandfather…” Said Eric. “I don’t know if its even real. My aunt and uncle always say it was just a fairy tale or something… This is called the Spirit Tree, Yggdrasil.”
“Spirit Tree?!” Asked Erika. “Does it has spirits?”
“Certainly so!” Said Eric. “But it is more complicated than that… Apparently this giant tree is said to be far away, far into the oceans, in another continent… It is said that this tree is the origin of all spirits in the world for some reason. And there is a tale that it gave birth to humanity through its fruits! Elves are said to be Yggdrasil’s messengers, but they’re rare people… I don’t know if there had even been an elf in this village.”
“Elf?” Asked Chris.
“They’re people with pointy ears, and often have colorful hair, like green, gold, red, blue…” Said Eric. “In the book there are some illustrations about them… It says they live for thousands of years and have powerful magic like nobody else.”
“Woow… Is there such a big tree out there?” Wondered Erika. “Maybe we could climb it one day?”
“Hmm… W-Well, I doubt we’ll ever be able to get to another continent-“
“I think we can get there eventually. Yggdrasil Trees are filled with great mysteries and are often the creators of life… If I could find one, I could gain a lot of knowledge and power…” I said to myself, but my words ended coming out of my mouth.
“Huh?” Asked Eric while tilting his head.
“Yeah! We’ll get the tree one day!” Erika said. “If Blake is confident about it, we’ll get it!”
“Are Yggdrasil Trees that amazing?” Asked Chris.
“I… Erm, well yeah.” I said.
“You sound like you know them? I’m sure this is the first time I showed this to you, Blake…” Said Eric.
“Yeah, I just read all of it in this page and I made a lot of assumptions. Well, isn’t it true though? If this tree really exists, I bet it has a lot of magical and spiritual power. We could gain unprecedented strength.”
“Right… You’re right I guess, but crossing the seas… Isn’t that a bit risky though?”
“Certainly so, but it should be doable. Aren’t there boats in this world? We just need to buy one or pay someone to bring us to another continent where this tree might be. Perhaps in this continent it is barely a fairy tale but if its in anther continent, that continent’s people could know more about it and treat it as an everyday thing.”
“Oooh, sounds interesting!” Said Erika. “I’ll go anywhere you go, Blake!”
“I guess me too. I can’t let you go around by yourself. You’re a bit too reckless sometimes after all. I’ll take care of your back.” Said Chris.
“T-This is completely insane! You can’t be serious about this! T-That’s… just impossible!” Said Eric, getting all worked up over something we’ll do far in the future.
“Come on, Eric, what happened with your adventurous soul?” I asked with a smile. “I told you we’ll protect you. Don’t you trust your friends?”
Eric opened his eyes widely for a bit, as he nodded timidly, smiling a bit.
“Y-Yeah but… Sigh… I guess you’re really hopeless, Blake!” Said Eric. “I’ll have to go, I can’t let you go without a proper medic and alchemist, you’ll be dead in a week without me.”
“Haha, that’s a bit too much…” Said Chris.
“A bit too much? You’re so reckless every time you do mock battles with Blake that you end up all covered in bruises. If it wasn’t for my healing and treatment you would be always covered in painful wounds…” Said Eric, reprimanding Chris.
“Well, I suppose you’re someone we’ll definitely need.” I said.
“Yeah, it’s not the same without you, Eric!” Said Erika.
“Haha… Y-You’re being a bit too exaggerated…” Giggled Eric with embarrassment.
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