My brother kept a firm grip on my hand for the entire run back home. My legs and arm were starting to hurt, but he had no signs of letting up. I thought we would slow as we reached back to the house, but I could tell something was strange. Usually, somebody would be outside doing some chore. Hanging or washing clothes, chopping firewood or anything. There was always much work to be done.
But today, there was nothing. The clotheslines hung empty and the axe, which usually stuck out of the old tree stump that dad chops firewood on, was nowhere to be seen. Not a single flick of movement was about the whole place.
We kept running, past the house.
"Where are we going?" I yelled.
"To the village!" Maris replied. No further explanation given.
As we approached the village, I could see a frenzy of action. People were running about the place. From a distance, I could see the telltale signs of magic being used. Light blue lines flying high into the hair before being cut down quickly. Hastily formed boxes of golden magic being rapidly filled in with dirt, rocks and pieces of wood.
"Maris! Lily!" I heard somebody scream.
Maris heard it as well and began angling towards the voice. It was our dad, and he seemed to have been helping out as well. As we approached, he squeezed us both into a warm hug.
"Lily where were you?" he asked.
"She's apparently been playing with Lord le Cuid's son," Maris said before I could even speak.
"Le Cuid? Lily you have to be careful not to offend the lord or his son."
"I'm not going to offend him, we just play with magic!"
My dad looked at me, with the look a child knows too well: when a parent doesn't believe a word they are saying.
"There's no time, get somewhere safe!"
With that, my brother once again grabbed at my arms and pulled me deeper into town.
"Why are the ents moving now?"
"They're a month early!"
"We aren't prepared at all for this."
People were clearly anxious. I turned to Maris.
"What's going on?" I asked, "what are ents?"
Maris paused, looked around, and deeming we were safe, told me: "Ents are dangerous wooden creatures that inhabit this area. Usually they come alive and rampage every year but they're a month early this year so we have to rush to get our walls built. They come out at sundown so stay here in the middle. They're not too strong but they're resilient and there are a lot of them."
I looked around. Although the raw materials were gathered, there seemed to be nobody constructing the shapes for the walls.
Scratch that, there are people. But they're so slow!
The sun was nearing the horizon line. They're never going to finish at this rate.
"Lillian, Mom is in that building there, go find her. I need to help dad and Anthony prepare for the fight."
"Wait, why are you fighting? We can just wait here when the walls are up!"
"There's not enough time for walls so we have to do the most we can."
"I can help!"
"No, Lillian you're only 8 years old. Just stay here."
With a last worried glance, Maris ran off towards the front. I watched with dismay as he disappeared into the bustling crowd of worried people.
I looked around. The walls were coming up at a nail biting pace.
Do they not know to use props!?
I paused to reflect on the fact that I was taught by the very son of the Lord of these lands; he was a renowned sorcerer of magic. These normal people probably never got the opportunity to learn a fraction of what I knew.
Then I have to help!
Instead of running over to the building Maris pointed out, I ran over to the edge of the village.
Crowds of men and women stood around piles of what looked like trash and rubble. They were speaking amongst themselves to the point of yelling.
"No, no, no! You have to make the walls straight! It'll fall over otherwise!"
"Oh yeah? Let's see you do it old man!"
"Enough yelling, does anyone remember how to do this?"
"The Kingdom usually sends a mage to help us out but it's too early!"
"Damn it, do we have enough for big slopes? We can make triangles right?"
"There's not enough material for that!"
I ran up to the edge of the crowd and began to look around. Clumps of dirt, rocks of all sizes, bits of gravel, broken pieces of wood. Was this all we have to work with?
"Hey little kid get out of here!" A man who noticed me tried to drag me by the collar of my dress.
Squirming, I was able to get out of his grasp and run towards the proper edge of the village, past the final houses. Some adults in the crowd began to notice my struggle and ran to catch me.
"Little girl, this is a dangerous area!"
"Get away from there!"
I didn't care about these words. Instead, I focused in on my inner world and began constructing.
First a line, two circles there. Good. Place a dot there and draw a perpendicular line. Repeat on the other side and enclose it on top. Now extend the shape!
Opening my eyes with a quick flash of hand and arm motions, I cast a spell outlining a tall rectangular wall. Throwing my hands downwards, I anchored it down. I could hear gasps of exasperation from the people chasing after me.
"Listen! I will form the shapes, all you have to do is use magic to fill it in!" I yelled turning around.
My screams got the attention of everyone nearby. I could tell it took a second for each person to realize what had happened.
Had this young girl really just do that, that easily? Ha!
"What are you waiting for! Come on, the sun is setting!"
They all instantly sprung to action, realizing that in fact time was running short.
I began my to run along the very edge of the village, quickly constructing each wall in a jagged fashion so that each could support one another. I could hear behind me the sound of each of my constructions being quickly filled in, along with an entourage of people explaining why an 8 year old was running around the front line building walls.
I wrapped nearly fully around the entire village before night set.
As I was constructing my last wall, I heard a deep rumbling all around the village.
It sounded like a stampede of animals, except it wasn't just the sound of rumbling. There was also a cacophony of creaking wood and rustling leaves that followed. Over the horizon it came.
It wasn't scary but it was grotesque. Roots which acted as legs followed by a number of bright yellow eyes with orange irises that wrap around the tree, seemingly capable of seeing everything around them. Tree limbs acted as literal limbs.
Following this lone tree ent came dozens more behind it in every direction. Each, a different number of root legs and eyes.
"ATTACK!" a man yelled.
I saw a wave of people rushing out of the opening.
They ran headfirst into action, narrowly avoiding the lumbering ents who were swinging their entire bodies around in an attempt to hit them.
The people of the village seemed to target the small ones first.
They looked like little saplings, bouncing around on just one root leg, their varied numbers of branches swaying about.
Soon, they were set upon by axes and knives.
The attacks of the villagers seemed slow, methodical almost. Each strike was deliberate and counted.
"Why are they attacking like that?" I asked.
"It's the fastest way to kill an ent," an old man said, "you could bash it until its in pieces or if you can find the weakness in its roots, then they collapse instantly."
"What do you mean 'find the weakness in its roots'?"
"Each ent has a weakness that depends on the number of branches they have. It's like a fatal number. If you strike each root with their fatal number, then they collapse into sawdust. Look!"
I watched and saw a Anthony my older brother run up to a sapling. The sapling had a head of 5 branching roots. With 5 quick strikes to the root of the sapling, the ent crumbled apart.
"Wow! But what about over there? Those ents have more than one root."
The old man looked over towards where I was pointing and saw a lumbering ent approaching the walls that I had hastily constructed.
"Ah if I count right that's 5 major branches and 6 minor ones. I think 2 strikes on one root and 3 strikes on the other ought to do it."
Just as the old man predicted, a man ran up and made those exact strikes leading to the ent collapsing in place.
"Over there too, 4 major branches and 4 minor ones. Two strikes on each root!"
Two people ran up and in synchronization, swung at the roots.
The ent however had a different idea. With a quick kick, the ent sent one flying out.
"Stan!" screamed the other, "you'll pay for this you damned ent!"
The man was quick with his knife. In a blur, the ent collapsed.
I took that instant to run towards the incapacitated man.
"Young girl wait!" I heard the old man scream.
There's no time to wait! This man might get trampled if I don't act now!
I ran forward where I found the man that was kicked.
His breathing was uneven and there was blood flowing out of the corner of his mouth.
He's injured but he's alive!
Dragging at his body, I found I could slowly budge him. Looking up, I saw wave after wave of ents approaching.
Shit shit shit!
I pulled and pulled but with each tug, the man barely budged. I could only move him an inch at a time, not enough to get him to safety.
What do I do? Do I just make a run for it?
I turned and saw the other man he was with. He was rushing this way, his eyes open in desperation.
No I can't just leave a man to die.
With haste, I threw up a wall construct and used the dirt around me as material.
It was no use.
The ent burst through with utter ease. The ground rumbled with each step they took closer.
There was no hope. I was too late and I had to give up. The ents were going to be upon me at any moment.
I loosened my grip on the unconscious man and sighed.
Perhaps this is the best way. I tried my best, but it was never going to work out.
"Lillian!" I heard a voice yell. It was my new dad.
I saw his face in utter anguish as he recognized the situation I was in. In a moment, I understood the depth of emotion he was feeling. The unmistakable feeling that you were going to see someone you love disappear from your eyes.
To know that you will never see them again.
I knew the feeling because I had felt it before too.
With my dad.
For the first time in years, those feelings gushed out of me. The repressed and hidden sadness that I had pushed down since the death of my dad welled up again.
All the times I had spent crying myself to sleep, begging to the universe to see my dad again. The years I had spent dazed and wandering through life, barely conscious of it all. I couldn't bear to live without my dad, who cared and loved for me with all of his heart.
Is that what I want to do now? To leave this man without a daughter?
Am I to throw away this chance, to both live again and live for my dad?
Never.
When I resolved that to myself, I could almost feel myself getting lighter. It was as if a massive mental burden was driven from me and I could see everything with such clear and precise detail.
I saw the ent's graceful lumbering toward me. It came at an incredibly slow speed. I could count the seconds, the breaths I took between when I first noticed it to when the ent's root landed on the ground.
A whole minute.
Without a word, a single thought flowed into my head explaining what this was. Flow state.
I have to make use of this precious time! Who knows when this will end.
I gathered all of my thoughts together. There wasn't a way to escape this situation, the ents were far too close.
Then I simply have to defeat them all.
I grabbed at the knife that the unconscious man had on him, the one he was going to use before being mercilessly kicked away.
Think! What did the old man say before? 5 major branches and 6 minor ones means you slice 2 and 3 times? 4 and 4 makes 2 on each root? What's the pattern here?
My mind raced as I looked between the ents.
2 major branches and 1 minor branch? 4 major branches and 3 minor branches? Wait a minute, I've seen these numbers before!
A hypothesis formed in my head. A guess, for a way of defeating these ents: on each root, strike the numbers that multiply to the number of minor branches and add to the number of major branches!
I clenched at the knife hard in my small hands.
I guess it's time to put my guess to the test!