412 Little Imp

The view was daunting to Ailwin.

"What is wrong with them...why are they like this?"

"I don't know...no one knows really. They just started rotting." Mano spoke to distractedly as he was looking for traces of his daughter's footprints in the dirt.

"There…!" Mano shouted and pointed before taking off in that direction.

Ailwin followed closely behind, he didn't know the orchards fields and didn't want to get lost. Furthermore, if Lord Mano thinks Mika might be in trouble he couldn't very well turned back around and leave.

Mano was really worried now, Mika's footprints were leading straight into the contaminated area, Maybe she got lost on her way out?

With both of them running and searching for her, it was long before they found her kneeling at a tree.

Lord Mano wanted to run to her and pull her away to safety, but a tight grip on his arm stopped him. Turning around to look back at Ailwin, Mano saw him hold up a finger to his lips, telling him to keep quiet and wait.

Mika bent at the bottom of a tree with the last batch of nanos in her hand. She had tried four other times to get the nanos into the tree, but all the four times failed.

The environment here was more toxic than the one at the cavern. Maybe it was due to its close off setting or that there are more trees here, she didn't know.

All she could do was make changes every time she tried, in hopes that one way would work.

The first time she tried, she just let the nanos out at the base of a tree. However, the nanos didn't survive long enough to even make it to the trunk before dying at her feet.

Caught unaware by her nanos death, Mika cried as a deep ache developed in her heart.

It took her a few minutes to recognized that this feel was their death, she was actually feeling them die.

Did Analise feel this with the spirits....

After collecting the batch of dead nanos and regaining her composure, Mika tried again. This time she wanted to try with a tree closer to the edge of the dead zone.

The second batch, she used a little blade to slice a section out of the trunk of the tree before urging her nanos out.

However, like the first batch they died after five minutes. They lasted longer than the first time, but still they ended up dying.

Collecting as much of the dead nanos she could, Mika moved on.

The following two batches, she tried releasing them in a little stream and the other on top of the highest branch she could reached.

She hoped that the water might help the nanos to get to the roots more easily, unfortunately, those died just as fast as the first batch.

The fourth batch placed at on the highest branch lasted the longest. With the fresh wind up above helping air quality, nanos weren't as affected by the pollution as the ones before. Yet, as the nanos tried to tunnel their ways inside the wood, they too died.

Dishearten and very frustrated, Mika was not eager to release the last batch.

Walking towards the very back of the orchards, Mika felt herself getting light headed, but she refused to turn back after sacrificing so many of her little pups.

This time she planned on following what she did at cavern, she will manually force the nanos into the tree after burning away some of the infection.

She didn't want to have to do this as touching the tree with her bare hands was not something she was looking forward to.

Looking for tree similar to the one in the Steppes, Mika stopped in front of a massive old Silent Shadblow[1]. That look to be perhaps one of the first to go bad.

Walking with unsure steps towards the tree, Mika stood before it in awe. If it was still healthy it would be a contender with tree Drakonas lives in back in her mother's cave.

Snapping out of her admiration when black dots started to appear in her eyesight, Mika raised her hands to call the winds.

Great force of winds began to blow, tossing her hair.

"What is she doing?" Mano whispered, Ailwin shook his head.

Creating a tornado, Mika clear away some of the heavy air out of the space so she could breath again.

Mano and Ailwin also notice the change in air quality, it wasn't hundred percent but it definitely was better than before.

Calming down the winds until a smooth funnel was made to surround her and the tree.

Using all her concentration, Mika needed to keep the winds going as she use her flames to sear the tree from its roots up without burning it to a crisp.

As light blue flames covered her hands, Mike bent down and dug her hands into the ground.

The heat from fire raised the temperature in the ground and the soil began to let out fumes of toxins which her winds swiftly carried away.

Every minute that ticked by, Mika fluctuated the heat making to never burn the tree.

Once, she saw that the amount of fumes the old Silent Shadblow was giving off lessen substantially, she slowly extinguished her flames.

In a thirty meter radius, Mika had burn everything to a crisp except for the tree and herself.

Mano and Ailwin were shocked by the now dry and caked the ground was.

When did my daughter have such power…

...Didn't Mika tell me her gift was water…

Realizing that the wool has definitely been pulled over their eyes, the two vowed to have a good talk with their daughter/fiancée.

Happy with the results, Mika continued on to the next part as she knew the farm hands should be arriving soon.

Turning towards the surround area, Mika absorbed all the water in the air and ground.

Filtering out the toxins, she gradually gathered enough to water the severely dry out tree. After that was all said and done, Mika walked towards the Silent Shadblow with the nanos in her hand.

Placing her hand gently on the tree bark, Mika guided the nanos inside with the bubble of water.

As the tree was critically dehydrated, the water seeped into the wood without a drop remaining.

Keeping her hands on the trunk, Mika monitored her nanos progress inside.

Mano and Ailwin watched as she stood there with her hands on the tree for several minutes without moving.

Feeling that something wasn't right, Mano brushed off Ailwin's hand on his arm and walked towards his daughter.

Mika was so engrossed in overseeing her nanos survival, she didn't hear her father walking up behind her.

[1] Look up 'Ombu Tree' for imagery.