A WALK IN THE WOODS

BY CHRISTOPHER TOILKIEN

[ part 2 ]

It moved as silently as a breeze, creeping over the short grass that was allowed to cover the ground under the great oaks gigantic limbs. The sounds of human vocal cries, screams and finally silence had sparked the modicum of interest in Hominid activities still left.

As it approached, one biped was moving away from the source of the sounds, and another was suspended in midair. The heartbeat of the moving one was rapid, its heat signature high and its spoor strong. The others heartbeat was slowing down, its temperature slowly dropping, but the scent of its pheromones was still strong. It was a strong breeder, and references poured in.

This one was a submissive breeder, the other a dominant seed carrier. The humanoids were divided into two dissimilar types, and they warred constantly, what a waste of energy.

Approaching the stationary one, it reached out to make physical contact. The outer layer was covered in salty water, but was rapidly cooling. Intake of oxygen and discharge carbons was gradual, but getting shallower. Was it shutting down? Research into past contacts indicated this one was close to no longer processing nutrients.

Other faint memories pushed themselves to the fore. She faintly remembered being something else once a long time ago. Had she been as this one, a sacrifice to the great oaks in another stand, a very long time ago?

Maybe it was time to add another. The trees grew more frequent with every cycle, and lately there simply were not enough active periods to check on them all. She needed to create another dryad like herself to assist her and be her companion through the ages.

It planted itself between the suspended ones lower limbs and sent forth-questing extensions. Contact at lower limbs brought increased sensations long forgotten. A soft outer layer smooth and tender as a young sprout to the touch. It sent them further up, gradually covering the entire surface of the subject. It stirred, made low-level sounds that were felt rather than heard. An explorer touched a soft piece of flesh between its outstretched lower limbs and the subject’s body squirmed. A few researchers were directed towards it, one entering, and bringing further tremors. Another located a tighter one on the other side and was sent in probing deep. Again flooding it with sap and moving it in and out drew vibrations and vocalizations. She remembered a similar touch, long ago, but little else of the event.

Memories flooded in, temporarily separating outer and inner input. The probes were flooded the appropriate transmutation liquids and increased in length and diameter, slipping in and out of the breeder, producing more vibrations and tremors. Two explores moved upward circling the feeding areas, gently brushing them. Vibrations of the entire contact surface increased, as sounds increased in frequency.

Then it went rigid for an instant of time, as they understood it and the entire subject body relaxed. It was ready for transformation.

A probe reached the upper openings and the time of decision had arrived. The transformation would be completed. Seedpods blossomed and after removing a dead piece of flesh held in its input orifice the probes slipped in, further and further. Agitation of the subject increased until the correct fluids were released, calming the subject. Surface and internal body temperatures rose then started their long decline. She was beginning to transform and it withdrew contacts as the outer layer started to harden into a covering resembling her charges outer layer. It would protect the incubating dryad inside, hiding it as a new sapling until it was ready for emergence. She would spend a cycle as a sapling, and then be transformed into a fully mobile immortal dryad, shepherd, symbiote and keeper of the great oaks.

Those bipedal humanoids thought they were the keepers and guardians, but the oaks had existed before them, and knew very well how to look after themselves. Even if it meant pretending to coexist with them until they grew tired of them, and then they would just be a source of nutrients.