One With Nature

Tea With a Fascinating Stranger: 1

After Ragnarök I was just... lost. I honestly didn't know what to do.

I was just walking to... I don't know. I was just walking.

I long left the Norse territory and just headed at literally any direction I felt like. Who was going to stop me or change my course?

Apparently, a dragon thought it could.

Suddenly appearing from the sky, a very large dragon dropped in front of me. It was way bigger than the other dragons I saw. It had white and dark blue scales with what appeared to be veins of red energy coming from a core on its chest.

That's weird. Most Phantasms run away from me as soon as they see the Archtype Earth mark. This dragon, however, stared intensely at it with a glare.

Oh great. It wants to challenge me. Freaking Dragon pride.

"Look, I'm not in the mood. Just leave me alone and I won't kill you," I groaned out.

Did that thing listen? Judging by how it reeled back its head and blasted fire at me, it didn't.

My body along with the area around were almost instantly burned by how powerful the blast was. This thing was obviously head and shoulders above the other dragons I've encountered before.

But did the blast hurt? I probably wouldn't have even known it attacked if I didn't see it. I just reformed my body from the clouds and smoke, only I made sure it was matching the dragon in size.

"I said," raising my hand, I created a sword of divine metal while making sure it's covered in lightning and 'Anti-Dragon' Runes. "Leave me ALONE!"

Swinging down the sword, I made a large cut into the dragon that sent blood flying everywhere. The dragon also ended up being knocked on its back with steam - or was it smoke? I can't tell - coming out of the wound and blood.

I dismissed the sword - by turning it into a pile of air - and glared at the dragon. "Next time, I WILL kill you," and with that, I just turned back to normal size - for me at least - and kept walking while ignoring the fallen dragon.

It was surprisingly still alive. It must be REALLY powerful to survive an attack from a sword that had both Divine Properties and Anti Dragon properties. But it was still really hurt. It definitely won't be getting up for a while.

Hopefully, that dragon isn't anything important.

Judging by how a certain 'King of Knights' always jumps and takes a few steps back whenever I held a sword or that a certain white-haired loli goes into hiding whenever I was around, that Dragon was in fact important.

But anyway, I was like that and stuck with an attitude for a while. That thankfully changed one day.

It's been... I don't know how long since Ragnarök happened. Yggdrasil never got to teach me how to keep track of time from a human perspective.

I was in a forest after I passed the ocean. I didn't really keep track of what land I was in. I wasn't exactly a geography expert not to mention this is still nearly three thousand years before modern time, so I wouldn't know even if I met the locals.

I just kept walking and walking. I really didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, I felt something off. The area around was... different. The magical energy in the air was not stronger, but it just felt more... 'pure' I guess is the description.

Honestly, I almost ignored it completely but... might as well see what this is about.

So, I started heading in the direction this 'pure' energy was coming from. In the end, I found the source near a small bond of water.

It was a man wearing nothing but red robes. He had them wrapped around his waist and around one of his shoulders while having the other exposed. He had green hair that was tied to a bun and long earlobes.

The man was sitting cross-legged in front of a small fire that had a pot carved out of stone on it. I think he was making tea by the fact there was a few leaves and herbs next to the fire.

The man turned his gaze at me and looked at me with golden eyes. "Hmm... you're a peculiar creature."

"I get that a lot," I replied out of habit more than anything.

"And you speak, too?" The man chuckled with a small smile.

"Usually, people get creeped out when a tree monster walks up to them and actually talks," I commented.

"Monster or not, the fact you speak means you can be reasoned with, and you have done nothing unreasonable so far," the man replied.

How chill is this guy?

"What if I'm just pretending to make you drop your guard?"

"Are you doing that?"

"No."

"Then I have nothing to worry about. Would you like some tea?"

This guy's level of chill is actually kind of scary.

"I really can't drink anything," I said while shaking my head.

"I see," he then closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. "Do you need to be somewhere?"

"... I don't know."

"Then why not join me? I'd appreciate the company," the man motioned for the spot in front of him across the fire. "Besides, you seem burdened. Do you wish for someone to speak to?"

"... I'd like that."