I was looking at some kind of well. The gentle susurrations of flowing water filled my ears, otherwise I might have never guessed the structure's purpose.

  My eyes had never seen anything like it before. Made hly shaped stones with, seemingly random, whorls carved deeply into their surfaces. I think I had seen something with markings like that on the History el once, a long time ago. However, I couldn't remember what it was about exactly. Some of the engravings reminded me of the moon, in several different phases.

  The truly bizarre part was the water itself. This water illing over the edge of the well, into a small shallow moat. The moat had a stream leading off from it, which glowed with a silvery blue light despite still being translut.

  There was some kind of blue fme at the top of the well, but I got the se wasn't really fire. This was a small blessing at the moment, because, judging by the visible sky it was nighttime. The soft light allowed me to see some of my surroundings, keeping me from stumbling around blind in this new enviro.

  The Brany arm gave a rustle.

  [ Adjusting...]

  [ A Moon Well lio aradimensional water source. The water inside is and pure, while being infused with the essence of Elune. Slowly infusing mana into the enviro. This will provide mana, both to yourself and your troops.

  While in its viity gain +10 Mana Regen.

  Drinking the water straight from the well is not advised. ]

  Yeeeah. I was totally going to take a drink from strange glowing water. Not.

  None of the informatio a thing to me. I didn't even know where to start. The fact that a floating s resenting description to me, was challenging to unpack to begin with. I didn't eveion the s, because that was hardly the strahing going ht now.

  But at least the structure looked like something you'd call a Moon Well. So that was an easy adjustment.

  "What is mana?" I asked to no one in particur. The word sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite pce it.

  [ Mana, also known as magical energy, is the Fuel of Life. ]

  "Magic? Really?" Despite everything, I had a hard time believing that. Oher hand, The Well was glowing and that fire did look pretty odd. But just because I didn't know how it worked, didn't make it magi odd chemical rea perhaps.

  I thought back to the Rooms, shuddering, maybe it wasn't so io think that magic might exist.

  F my attention bay surroundings, the stream the glowing water flowed into had a cobblestoh running parallel. Both lead down an obvious slope. So I was on a hill, or a mountain? Could be.

  I looked back up at the night sky, searg for something familiar. I could make out a few steltions. Hey, that looked very close to the sky from home, except there were a couple of extra lights I didn't remember. Satellites maybe? I could also make out the glow of a City's lights boung off the sky in one direust have been a big one. Maybe I could get home if I found this city, or at least ao why I was brought here.

  Later, let's put a pin in that.

  That helped me frame out the horizon though, which lead me to the thought that I might be in a valley. I was surrounded by mountains, insofar as I could tell in the darkness.

  I looked at the path, well when in doubt follow the trail. There were stoandio the path, about waist high also with whorls carved into them. These stones had a hole toward their tops filled with more of that blue fme. There was something sad, but also cheery about them. Bittersweet. Like they meant something more than I could uand. I checked over the closest one, and slowly pced my hao the fme. I felt something, but it wasn't warmth like from a normal fme. Huh.

  Wait. I k down and looked more closely at the grass, there were two types. Oype was blue, which was just right around the Moon Well. The other type of grass urple, the vast majority of the grass was this type. File that away uhe growing pile of other shit that I didn't uand.

  Walking along the path I must of passed a hundred of those stones, when I came to a pond. The water filling the pond still glowed with the silvery blue light. What caught my attentiohough was the tree growing on an isnd in the ter of the water. I had started seeing it's outline on the way down, but didn't think too much of it. Now that I was closer to it, I was shocked. First it retty big. Somewhere over 50ft tall, and it would take maybe three of me with arms fully exteo surround it. I noticed the bark was silver and the tri-pointed leaves were purple, just like the Branch I had embedded in my arm.

  "Is that where you e from?" I questiohe Branch. It twitched but nothing else happened. I guessed that was a maybe?

  I found a bridge, leading to the isnd, and thought it might be io see the big tree up close. The bridge was made out of purple wood also covered in swirls and whorls. The anchor posts had small holes ihat also had blue fmes in them.

  As I crossed the Bridge I saw a giant face had been carved into the tree. The faehow veyed a sense of timelessness and wisdom.

  My Branch rustled,

  [ This is Meadran, desdant of the Great Trees. He has agreed to act as your Tree of Life.

  The Tree of Life is the heart of your outpost. If Meadran falls, you lose any ce of achieving the pany Goals.

  Trees of Life produce Wisps of various types. Wisps have many uses, including building and resathering. ]

  The eyes of the Tree began to glow.

  "HELLO YOUNG ONE!" A boomi gentle voice filled the Valley. It's echoes vibrated for a long time.

  "Ahh!" I tried to backup but fell on my ass.

  What the fuck?

  "H-hello? Are you Mr. Meadran?" Well it would have been rude, not to return his greeting. I ged at the thought that I was on my ass talking to a tree. A tree that had just punked me.

  "HO HO! I HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO DO THAT IN A LONG TIME." He had toned down the volume some, but as giant Tree Person, he had a massive amount of bass.

  A talking tree. A tree that talk! That retty cool.

  "It was funny. I guess everyone where you are from knows about you?" I got bay feet and brushed myself off.

  "YES. AT LEAST OF MY KIND. YOUNG ONE, I KNOW IT IS SUDDEN BUT TOUCH MY BARK, SO WE MIGHT BETTER INTERFACE." Huh? I kind of wao touch him anyway. A talking Tree!

  My hand already reag for him froze as years of training kicked in. As ari, you don't touch strahings without testing them first.

  The inner battle didn't st long, I got a stronger sense of trustworthiness from Meadran than I had rarely gotten from any human I'd ever met.

  The bark was warm and gave off a current of the same kind of tingles as the blue fmes. Was that Mana? Seemed like a safe bet that it was a reted force at the very least.

  [ Adjusting...]

  [ Tree of Life Meadran is ected to the Great Tree work.

  Options:

  Choose Css

  Raise Level

  Create Wisp ]

  'Ah, better, now we unicate like this, up to a distance of 50 miles.' Now that it was in my head, his voice sounded kind of like my Old Gramps. It was bizarrely f. Gramps had been a skilled carpenter, so I had gotten along with him far better than I did my father.

  "That is much better, Thank You!" Maybe, I could start getting some answers. Below my calm exterior, I was frightened, pissed and fused in equal measure. I needed some kind of touchstone, a stabilizing force. Meadran seemed like he could be exactly that.

  'You need not speak, Young One. With tration your thoughts reach me.' I got a sense of amusement in his thoughts, that bubbled into the air around us.

  I sighed, trying to hold myself bao, I couldn't do it, I couldn't hold bay longer. 'Mr. Meadran what is going on?' I'm sure my frustration was carried over in my thoughts.

  'ht, you were picked by { THEM }. They are always stingy with information, knowledge is power after all, and they ot bare to part with power cheaply.' (This is going to be hard to describe, { } will denote Layered Words or Thoughts. You hear the word but multiple meanings are forced into the same space. Even this way of looking at it isn't quite accurate. In this case the yered meanings are, Annoyance, Grief, Sorrow, Obligation, and faintly Hope. There won't be too much of this, but it will tain important hints when it happens.)

  I wobbled this was like someone pushed me from every side, but in my head. 'Ouch.'

  'Sorry, I fot how the Elder Speech affect the very young races. The pany's agents are all like that. They just uand what they o uand, just because they want to know something, and fet or 't imagihat other species 't do the same.' He paused, I could feel a sense of loss in the air now. 'We, but mostly you, are here to Grot and Propagate, in order to return Harmony to this Corrupted World.' He was emphasizing those cepts as if they had a much deeper meaning, 'Mana and by extension Life must be spread and defended, so that the pself might Reawaken.' A sense of sorrow from him, and disappoi.

  I could kind of see what he was talking about in my head, a verdant World full of massive trees and huge megafauna. I had the sehat it was a savage paradise, red of tooth and cw, but beautiful and majestic.

  'So "Save the P" but for real?' I tried to show him all the bullshit I had entered in the past.

  He chuckled, that was a hing. A tree chuckled, in my head. 'Yes, exactly so. You have been given options for spreading Life, yes. But also you have been given options for war. I imagihe people of this world will not let you carry out your task peacefully.'

  'War, but I'm ari, I don't know anything about war. I barely know anything about fighting.' Panic, yeah that's panic. I sat down. My mind noticed that the purple grass was very fortable. Almost like a natural cushion. It also had a gentle mint-like st.

  'Fear not, Young One. We shall teach you.' He projected peace at me, or at least I think that's what he did. I started feelier.

  [ You are not Alone. ]

  A vast forest existed within the greater text of reality, and for a brief moment I art of it. This forest was made up of all the versions of all the Greater Trees, in all the universes all at o was too muy fragile human brain to remain ected to, but it had given me a moment of purpose.

  'Now we have to get you a Css, and the rest of your Starting Package. Then you have to meet the other side of your forces.' He seemed sad that these other forces were necessary.

  I accessed the menu by toug him again. 'Choose Css.'

  [ Css Options,

  Please note you may ge your Css iain circumstances.

  You may also Multicss. This be potent but it has draw backs. ]

  [ Druid of Bance

  +2 to Will

  +3 to Spirit

  A Druid of Bance keeps the natural world in order. Removing Corrupting Influences.

  Starting Spells: Moonfire, Blessing of Elune ]

  [ Druid of Renewal

  +1 to Will

  +4 to Spirit

  A Druid of renewal heals the nd, and it's creatures. Makes the polluted.

  Starting Spell: Regrowth, Blessing of Nordrassil ]

  [ Druid of Extremes

  +3 to Will

  +2 to Spirit

  A Druid of Extremes finds the Middle by adding pressure at the Ends. Often they bee unstable themselves, while gaining great power.

  Starting Spells: Sunfire, Blessing of Terra ]

  'So I'm going to be a Druid then? I mean I've heard the name, but I have no clue what it means.' I felt like I was getting shoehorned again. A forced choice with limited information isn't really a choice.

  'To be a Druid is to seek Wisdom. Uanding not just knowing is the goal of a Druid. For example, you know I am a tree, but do you uand what it is to be a tree?' I had activated his teag mode. Again images of my Gramps teag me to work with wood filled my mind. He used to say that uanding the grain of the wood was critical.

  Being a tree. Well, no, I couldn't say I uood a tree's perspective. How would I even start to uand what it was like to be rooted io breath through leaves or the draw in nutrients with my roots?

  'Seeking that uanding is the primary differeween a Druid and say a Wizard, Arist e. Knowing is the Wizard's struggle and passion. For a Druid, it is not enough. You might never gain the breadth of knowledge of a Wizard but you will live and breathe what you do know.' Yeah, that kind of went over my head. 'Well it is better experiehan expihat why the many awakened beasts follow the path of the Druid, when they find their minds expanded. So learning by doing is the best.'

  I was sure he oking fun at me. I was okay with that. It was a normal thing in an abnormal situation.

  I was already sitting down, so I took my time and thought about it. Rolling the bits and pieces around in my mind. So far, I got that I was here to heal the World, somehow. So it seemed best to be a Css that was structured around that cept. It also sounded like I would get some kind of troops to protect me. Yeah, and if I don't like it I could ge it. Maybe.

  'Druid of Renewal.'

  [Adjusting...]

  Green energy rose from the Earth and sank into me. Everything burned, but in that good way, like after a great workout. Of course, that was a little messed up when it happens in your eyeballs, and other pces that don't have muscles. Odd and disturbing but not pletely unpleasant. It kept going.

  [ You have gained +1 Will

  You have gained +4 Spirit

  You have gaihe Ability: Mana Sense

  You have gaihe Ability: See Ley Line

  You have gaihe Ability: Shape Mana

  You have gaihe Skill: Ritual at rank 1

  You have gaihe Skill: tration at rank 1 ]

  'HA HA, Wele Ryawood, the Druid of Renewal.' Meadra his joy at me, and our sense of e strengthened.

  I passed out.