The black feather`s ways of growing stronger were getting odd.
First moss; Kind of understandable for Kaelen, it could be considered just food and eating is important for a growing boy
Second murder and theft ; Also understandable, take the power from someone else. And a knife.
But climbing the biggest tree in the world with his bare hands?
"Are you insane" Kaelen looked at his chest as talking to an empty space felt weirder than this.
We are not
Up
You will go up where the light is
Up where the meat is
"Alright. If you say so" Kaelen grabbed a quick snack of moss and mushrooms before grabbing the bark at the base of the biggest root in the area. A good grab for the hands, with rough texture and a lot of sticking out points.
So he pulled and....
Very very slowly pulled himself up. His foot went up and found a piece of a branch to hold on to and again ; higher.
Incredibly slowly.
"Why am I doing this again?"
To go up
To get to higher ground
Up boy up
The feather didn`t seem to have an answer, but if it said to climb the hard way up ; Kaelen will do just that.
Very very slowly.
And painfully after a while.
His palms were roughed up by the bark, splinters were coming in and out often, and his stomach growled. But there was food on the tree. Whenever he found a critter, patch of mushrooms, tree sap even, his mouth would grab that and crush it with the teeth, just so the body could climb a bit higher.
And he repeated the process until he was no longer climbing a wall but walking up a steep hill that turned into a nice walk up then into a plane ; the root was conquered. Just half an hour of painful grabbing and pulling.
"pant pant SO....This...pants .. is your idea...pant pant ...of me getting...stronger" Kaelen was catching his breath on the surface of the root.
No.
"WHat!!" His breath caught of the scream midway through, but it was really annoying for him that he was climbing the tree the hardest way possible, even if there is a path made centuries ago for people to walk on.
But now you will get better
Listen to us
We will show you the way
Watch us
After getting the rest of his lunch, he walked up to the actual bark ; He was another chunk away from the nearest ledge on which he could rest. It was actually already close to the main road around the tree, maybe there will be people on it. Maybe...bad people.
Kaelen started to grab the points again but the feather stopped him
Not like this.
This is slow. Tiring. Useless
Harder
"uummm okey?" Kaelen grabbed the bark as hard as possible before the splinters started to break his skin
NO NO NO
HIT IT
HIT THE TREE
Kaelen stepped down with his palms red and almost bleeding "Hit. the tree. Are you getting worse ? More insane?"
No.. hit the tree. Hard.
"This is so dumb" His hands were rolled into a fist and...a weak punch to the bark. HARDER
A normal punch then. A bit hurtful for his knuckles but HARDER
An actual punch, force behind the hand and with a mindset to break whatever was in front of it.
WHY ARE YOU SO WEAK
Do not try to kill the tree
HIT IT
HARVEST
Haven`t you worked this tree your life
DEEPER
You know how to make the bark go
You know how to break it
Kaelen massaged his hand and sighed, with his thoughts mixing in with the feather`s voice he was brought back to the not-so long ago time of slavery. Days of striking the tree. Days of collecting the bark. He did know the tree better than most, where it was weaker, where the bark would shatter.
"Fine. If I break my hand don`t blame me" he muttered before pulling his hand back.
Instead of his fist, he just prepared to grab the tree, his fingers hard and stable as if they were nails trying to break the wood. He imagined his old tool - a small pick with the sharpest point he knew, never wavering and never breaking.
His muscled twitched and his arm lunged forward with insane speed.
CRACK
There was no bones broken, no splinters in the skin and no bark blown away.
It was just his hand lodged in the tree.
"What the" Kaelen was stunned -No pain. Not even a little.
But he had another slight issue. "Let ... me ... out" He pulled on his hand but it was stuck.
Pulling, pushing away with his leg, both of them even...nothing
Grab it more
Crush the wood
Destroy it
And well, instead of loosening up his hand or pulling it out, he listened . Grabbing the wood and trying to crush it between his fingers. Cracks started to appear and...
He pulled it back to see his fingers turned black and were slowly returning to normal color. They were hard and cold like the rocks in the ground.
In his hand there was the wood ; really really attached to his hand, almost as if it grew on him. Small roots were popping out of his skin and after a while, the piece of bark was left on the ground.
We told you
Hit it hard
Hit it properly
"Man" Kaelen smiled a bit "You need to talk about those things better"
And the climb up begun again. Although now much much easier.
Hit the tree, rip the piece out, and he had a nice big hole in the tree for the whole foot to fit.
And up up he goes.