[Exam] Root and Rock (Lily Ambrosia)

"So you need me to talk to the guardian of the spring?" Lily was speaking to a triad of amazons inside their village, the three taller women eyeing the dryad with some curiosity. The rest of the village was a bustle of activity as always, as the amazons weren't a people who'd spend their time lazing about when there were things to do such as hunting, crafting and training. On her way to the centre of the village Lily had also noticed some of them spending their time on such things as making music and sculptures, but it was clear that this tribe had developed a culture where you were encouraged to be active, whether it was for yourself or for the tribe as a whole.

It was a stark contrast with Lily herself: as a dryad she was closer related to trees than any kind of animal, which meant that for her it was pretty natural to spend an entire day barely moving as she observed the world passing by around her, the rain wetting the foliage that was her hair and the sun drying it afterwards.

The three amazons shared a glance with one another before turning their attention back to Lily. "We just need it out of the way so we can get to the spring. How you go about it is not our problem." The one on the left talked as the other two nodded. They never said anything about talking to the guardian: they just wanted access to the spring. It was clear that so far as they were concerned chasing it away or killing it would be just as appropriate for the situation, given that the guardian had been a thorn in their side for quite some time now.

Lily nodded in understanding, although she'd already made up her mind that she'd try to do this the peaceful way. Guardians like the one who was protecting the spring usually were there for a reason, and going around destroying them couldn't be good for nature or the world as a whole. She'd have to see why this guardian was protecting the spring, and see if she could convince it to let the amazons gather water from it. "I'll try my best then!" Giving the three a friendly smile she turned around and walked out of the village, leaving the three amazons staring at her back before shrugging and returning to their own business. They'd already informed her of the location of the spring, so for them the only thing left to do was wait and see what the green-haired girl would end up doing.

The reason why Lily was the one who'd been assigned this task, despite there being several people in the guild who'd be more capable of taking down a guardian, was twofold. The first reason was that the dryad was known for having a good record getting results with minimal damage, and while Rakshasa was a guild which would gladly destroy civilization if that was needed to protect nature such a thing as a guardian for a spring had to be handled with a little more care.

The second reason was that Lily had been part of the guild for a while and the higher ups had decided that they wanted her to tackle a meatier problem to see how she would manage. As a nucleus of life and magic Lily's rather short stature contained a lot of power but she still couldn't channel a lot of it. As a dryad she was still developing and learning what she could really do.

The journey towards the spring was rather uneventful, as was usually the case for Lily. The creatures of the jungle had little reason to be hostile towards her and there were very few outsiders who managed to invade the jungle's depths. And even if they did they didn't last long.

As she walked she went through the information the people at the guild and the tribe had shared with her. The amazons were the only tribe known of humans (or humanoids, anyway) who'd managed to create a home for themselves in this portion of the humongous jungle. They relied mostly on physical might and knowledge of their environment to survive, but they were very good at it. That said they still had to deal with wounds and illnesses, and knowing which plants and animals were poisonous didn't mean they couldn't get you nonetheless. To deal with those issues they'd wanted to gather water from a spring with regenerative properties, but whenever they got close a guardian made of stone would drive them back. This was an issue which had haunted them for years apparently, as despite their great physical strength the creature's stone body rebuffed all their attempts at forcing it aside. The only saving grace was that the guardian seemed to have zero interest in actually killing them so they hadn't had any casualties trying to get to the spring yet, but they were quite frustrated by the entire issue.

Coming closer to the spring Lily could feel its potency even from a distance. She was connected not only to the plants but also to the earth and the waters themselves, and she could sense that the amazons weren't lying when they said that this spring had powerful regenerative properties. It probably served as a point where the natural magic of the world gathered and coalesced in the water. Drinking waters filled with so much of Gaia's essence would restore life and health to just about anything.

It was little surprise that such a place would be protected by a guardian. Stories might have told of some kind of water spirit, but a guardian of rock made a lot more sense if you thought about it. A core aspect of the nature of stone was endurance, and a guardian would have to protect such a place for many years, never wavering or growing bored. In addition to that an earth guardian was practically immortal, as even destroying their body would only incapacitate them for a while before they reformed.

Slowing down her step the dryad looked around, then up at the rocky formation that was rising up before her. The ground around her feet was getting muddy and she could feel water spreading throughout the jungle in the form of many tiny streams. It looked like long ago there had been a mountain here, but over many millennia it had been worn down to something akin to a plateau with a basin in the middle. The plateau caught a lot of water from he clouds and then waterfalls led it to the basin, from which it sunk into the earth and flowed out across the jungle as one of the many sources of nourishment. The basin housed the spring, and the reason why the amazons couldn't just use the streams was that the nourishing and rejuvenating properties of the water were absorbed by the thick plantlife that surrounded the plateau.

The air was slowly filled with the sound of rushing water as the leaf-clad dryad approached the one entrance of the spring. One of the main reasons why the amazons had a difficult time with the guardian: with only one approach it could defend the spring just by blocking that one approach. The presence of the spring and the waterfalls made the air as humid as it was warm, and the only surfaces which weren't covered with moss, mushrooms and other small plants were those which were constantly washed clean by the waters. Yet at the same time there was a refreshing sensation.

Lily's feet splashed about water with every step and her toes navigated their way over the slick rocks which had been polished by the waters over the many years. The dryad kept moving forward until she left the chokepoint behind and entered the basin itself. The water was now at her ankles and she was surrounded by waterfalls at nearly every side. The entire basin was one large spring, the only relatively dry spots being some of the rocks that stuck out of the water and the outcrops which the waterfalls twisted their way around. Above the waterfall she could see that the plateau itself was overgrown by tall trees and other forms of life. Nature's power was at its apex here.

As she stood there and marveled at the scene before her the ground rumbled and shifted. Lily would have slipped and fallen if it wasn't for her steady stance, almost as if she had roots embedded into the stone below. In the middle of the spring a particularly large stone began to move, water cascading off of its smooth surfaces as it straightened up. A cracked side turned into a hand complete with fingers and a thumb, the moss and vines which had covered the top turned into a mantle draped across a bulky back. A set of smaller rocks cropped up against the bigger one turned out to be a pair of sturdy legs akin to petrified tree trunks or fossilized elephant feet.

The guardian finished standing up as a monolith of a figure, tall and built like a mountain. In its angular head glowed a single eye of blue as it looked towards Lily and then lumbered towards her. The dryad watched with awe and curiosity as the guardian approached slowly but with a sense of inevitability, each step causing another small tremor and leaving a trail of ripples which extended all the way to the edges of the basin. As it moved it slowly accelerated until it was lumbering at a speed where most normal folk would have a hard time outrunning it. Raising one hand it formed it into a fist and then swung it straight at Lily, the dryad stiffening but not moving from her spot as she looked at that single blue eye. The fist was more like a boulder in its own right, large and solid. It was the kind of thing where if it hit you you'd be lucky if you were just knocked unconscious. If you were unlucky you'd be mashed into a fine paste.

Right before the fist would have sent the dryad flying the guardian stopped moving, frozen in place as if it had never moved in the first place. The smooth surface of its stony fist was so close to Lily's face that if she'd learned forward she could have rested her forehead against it. Instead she was still looking at that blue eye, which was also looking back at her. Slowly the hand lowered until it was resting on the bottom of the spring. The other hand joined until the guardian was standing right in front of Lily on all fours, the two of them motionless like two silhuettes in a drawing.

Roots slowly began to grow from Lily's feet, finding cracks in the stone bowl which formed the bottom of the spring. As they grew they dug deeper and deeper until there was an entire root network extending from the dryad's feet into the ground, her tail also having stabbed the ground to sprout more roots. Through those roots she could feel the earth, as well as the stony entity standing in front of her. It didn't communicate with words or any other sound. It communicated on a deeper level, a level where most creatures would be unable to either perceive it or answer. The earth was old, older than anything living. It was from earth and water that life had been born in eons past. The guardian's soul was something vast yet slow, and its thoughts had a similar inexorable sensation to them.

Lily stood there for quite some time, listening to what the guardian had to say. Its thoughts were of wariness, but also of expectation and curiosity. There was worry and there was resolution. There was determination and there was doubt. As a creature of the earth it didn't get bored, but it still saw Lily's arrival as something new, something to inspect and show interest in. She was a creature of nature but she wasn't an animal or anything like it. If anything the two of them were quite alike, sentient manifestations of Gaia even if one of them was born from a tree and the other from a mountain.

Above all its thoughts were about the need to protect the spring. This spring was source of life for its surroundings. A constant flow of magic gave it its magical properties, and those properties resulted in this part of the jungle being as overflowing with life as it was. If it left the spring along animals and outsiders could begin drinking the rejuvenating waters. Perhaps if allowed they'd drink so much that the jungle would suffer from it. The amazons weren't the only ones who'd tried to get the water throughout the years. If anything they were only the latest, and that was not even mentioning those animals who had yet to learn that the spring was off limits.

Thinking about this the dryad raised one hand and placed her palm upon the smooth and flat surface of the guardian's face. While she could listen to its earth-deep thoughts she couldn't reply in the same manner. However she knew for a fact that while the guardian wouldn't speak it could and would listen to her. "You've been here for a long time, haven't you? Always protecting the spring... I imagine you've been here for long enough to watch the land change many times." She gave the guardian a tender and friendly smile. "You're worried that if you let them drink from the spring the jungle will begin to wither. I can understand such worries. But I think I can help you solve that problem so you don't have to worry about it anymore."

There was another silence as the two of them stared at one another. After a good amount of time had passed the earth guardian began to move again, stepping to the side so Lily could pass it by. As her smile became grateful and reassuring Lily's roots drew back into her legs and tail and she stepped towards the centre of the spring, where the water was deep enough that it came to her knees. Concentrating on her magic she spread her arms and then called upon the earth, ushering it upwards until she could feel it rising beneath her feet. Slowly, ponderously did a small island form in the middle of the spring, small enough that only a handful of people would be able to stand on it.

Reaching into her hair Lily produced a single seed. Planting it in the middle of the tiny island she stepped back and placed her hands together as she concentrated. The earth guardian slowly moved to join her, watching her and her work.

After several minutes the seed sprouted, and after the first green tendril had risen up the rest of the process quickly followed. With a loud groaning the sprout expanded and rose up: roots shot out and wrapped themselves around the island, digging into the stone bowl of the basin and spreading themselves deep underground. Branches grew from the trunk and were covered in many leafs. Within less than a minute the process finished, resulting in a tree large enough that it could bask in the light of the evening sun. Due to the size of the basin there was still plenty of sunlight for the spring below, but anyone who entered the basin after this point would find their eyes drawn to that single wooden giant in the middle.

"There is enough life and magic here that even if all the animals drank from it the jungle would not suffer." Lily didn't turn around to face the guardian just yet, instead admiring her own work. "All I had to do was help amplify and stabilize what was already there." She then looked at the guardian. "If something does start draining all the life from this spring this tree will help slow it down for long enough for us to come and do something about it."

The guardian didn't immediately answer: it was too busy looking at the tree. Its head slowly lifted so its eye could move along the trunk all the way to the top. Finally it lowered its head again to look at Lily again, and the dryad could sense a gratefulness that would never be fully expressed in words.

"Do you want to come with me? I think the amazons are waiting for the good news, and you'll get the opportunity to protect a great many more things in this world. There's more than one jungle in this world you know?"

It took several minutes before the guardian extended its stony hand, palm up. Understanding the offer without words Lily stepped onto the hand, which was then lifted into the air until it was at shoulder height for the guardian. With one hand resting on her new companion's shoulder for support Lily smiled as the guardian walked out of the basin for the first time in its existence, leaving behind the tree which would protect the spring -and the jungle- in a more passive fashion.

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