One With Nature

Big Tree, Bigger World: 1

"Keep it up, you're doing great!"

"M-Meistari, what's the point of this?"

I was now looking at the eighteen year old Svend who was standing on a wooden pillar while balancing heavy metal cuffs in each hand. That doesn't sound so hard if you ignore that the ground around him was on fire.

"It builds your balance. You're not gonna always have steady and solid ground to stand on," I said as I stomped the ground and more wooden pillars appeared and created a path. "Now, get a move on. You have to reach the other side before those burn and you no longer have any ground at all."

Svend nodded while sweating, either from heat or nervousness, and took a deep breath before jumping to the next pillar. He almost fell and I was ready to extinguish the fire instantly, but he regained his balance and began jumping between pillars slowly.

"He's getting better," I said while crossing my arms.

"You might have to give him some actual combat soon," Yggdrasil commented from behind me.

"Training seems to go well," someone said behind me, but it wasn't Yggdrasil.

I turned around and found myself staring at a being that was... I didn't actually know what to call it.

It looked similar to a squirrel, but was as large as at least three people stacked together. It had green fur and red marks running around it's body. It was looking at me with a creepy pair of eyes. Their voice sounded squeaky and almost cartoon-ish.

"Thanks," I just said while turning back to look at Svend.

The squirrel(?) tilted it's head and blinked. "That's it? That's not as big of a reaction as I thought."

"You're Ratatosk, right? Yggdrasil already told me about you and I'm actually surprised it took you so long to show yourself," I replied with a shrug. Drasil already explained the beings that live in on her body, so there wasn't exactly any hype when it came to meeting them.

"Ah, so you CAN talk to the World Tree? I thought you were just crazy?" He said and I looked at him with my head tilted before turning my look to Yggdrasil.

"Just because they live on me doesn't mean they can speak to me like you can. At best, they can feel my emotions when they try," Yggdrasil explained and I just turned back to Ratatosk.

"And as for Why I didn't meet you before... well, that mark on your chest can give mystics quite the fright. I was using the other side this whole time to travel through the world tree," Ratatosk added.

Well, that explains why I haven't seen him until now. Yggdrasil is absolutely ginormous. You can't even tell what's happening on the sides, let alone the back.

"Why did you show up now then?" I asked.

"Well, I realised you might not be so scary after keeping a human child around for so long. At first, I thought you were gonna eat him," I deadpanned at the squirrel as much as my skinless, monstrous, wood face can allow me. "But you've been keeping him here for a few years now. So, unless you're really into slow cooking, you're taking care of him."

"Drasil, is he usually that annoying?" I asked.

"You should hear what he says to the Eagle and the Snake," Yggdrasil replied.

"Well, I can see when I'm not wanted, I'll see you later," Ratatosk said before he walked towards Yggdrasil and began climbing up.

"Hmm," I hummed as Svend finally reached the final pillar. The squirrel, despite how annoying he was, did bring my attention to something important.

Later that day, me and Svend were sitting in the small living space I made for him. It was honestly just a small wooden shack with a couple of stone chairs for us to sit in outside.

Svend grew up in the last few years. He was just eighteen but was already tall enough to reach my chest, which isn't a small feat considering that I needed to look down even when talking to Medusa in her adulthood.

He also gained quite the muscle mass. He was actually more muscular than Gilgamesh when he was at that age. And, despite the fact Gil wasn't one for physical training, he was still quite built himself.

"Hey, Svend, I realised we hav had our whole training here," I said as we sat in the stone chairs, facing each other. "I think we should start going somewhere else for training."

"Why?" He asked while removing his hair from his eyes. His hair grew a lot.

"What do you mean 'why?'?"

"Isn't it just training? What difference does it make where we have it, Meistari?" He asked me again.

"Kid, there is so much out there in the world that can teach you stuff training can never teach you," I explained while motioning to the world around us.

"I highly doubt that, Meistari. The world can't be THAT big," Svend replied.

"Okay, that settles it. We're going on a trip," I said while he removed his hair from his eyes again. "And I'm definitely giving you a haircut."