The teacher waved a hand and cut her off. "That’s good enough for me," he said. "Have you chosen your research subject yet?"
"N-no," Faizan answered truthfully, and glanced at his two companions. "But I was thinking— if my group doesn’t mind— I wanted to inspect the Elysian Trees. Defenor Forest is the only place outside of Ghab-Ha where they’re fully preserved, and I’m… interested in them."
"I’m fine with it," Adrian said nonchalantly.
Alice nodded in agreement. "If that’s what you want, we’ll do it."
"There you go," Lucas said, shooing them away. "Just make sure you make actual observations about them— like the special properties of their wood or how their leaves seem to produce mana into the air. Don’t just write about what you’re interested in, and cover as much as you can in your paper."
"Yes, Mr Lucas," the three students chorused.
They left their baskets with the teacher, before heading off. They were graded by the ingredients they brought back, and Adrian was certain they gathered enough to get the highest grade— a Distinction. Once the field trip was over, all the ingredients would be equally divided amongst all students for their Alchemy class next week.
"So," Adrian said, breaking the silence, "where are these Elysian Trees at?"
"You mean you don’t know what they look like?" Alice turned to Adrian in surprise. "Have you never seen one, ever?"
"Uh, nope." Adrian scratched the back of his head. "Is that something I should know?"
Alice just stared at him for a moment, then she blinked as a moment of realization sunk in. "I forget you’re from Vitae sometimes," she said, resting her palm on her forehead. "Elysian Trees don’t exist on that side of the world, right?"
"No." Adrian first heard about them when Walden mentioned them in one of his lessons back in Villamcreek. However, he knew nothing about them beyond bare bits of information— they would only come up in a third year elective, so he had no reason to study them. "What’s so special about these trees?" Adrian asked.
"Well, first things first is that Elysian Trees produce mana," Alice said, wagging a finger. "Sure, it’s minuscule in amount, but we have evidence that they do create mana.
"Furthermore, they are considered sacred by the Elves. The Great Hero Xander planted the first seed of the Elysian Tree after the Demon Lord was defeated. He said it was bestowed upon him by the Goddess as a gift for his second wife, the Elf Princess Qabul, when she announced that she was pregnant with his child.
"Each tree takes around two decades to fully mature, and they don’t produce many seeds, making them incredibly rare. And since they aren’t officially recognized as something ‘holy’ by the Church, many rich nobles cut them down to use their incredibly strong bark as a building or crafting material."
"It’s terrible," Faizan finally spoke out, picking up where Alice left off. "The only reason why all the trees haven’t been chopped down yet is because we— I mean, the Elves— are preserving and growing them." He paused, eyeing something in the distance, then added, "Plus, they’re massive." The Half Elf boy pointed up, towards the sky.
Adrian turned his gaze heavenward, and he felt his breath caught in his throat. "That’s an Elysian Tree?!" he exclaimed.
The boy was staring up above the canopy of trees, at a protrusion that jutted out of the treetop like a hill in the distance. Except, it was not a hill— it was a gigantic tree.
The Elysian Tree rose up, far above the rest of the Defenor Forest, reaching out for the clouds up above. There were a few dozen of them, and each had to be at least 500 feet tall. Their trunks were 50 feet in diameter at their thickest; it was not the widest tree proportional to their size, but Adrian could not help uttering an oath, "Sacred piss, you weren’t kidding. Those are massive."
"They are," Faizan said, a hint of pride showing on his face. "And Ghab-Ha has hundreds of them."
"What’s so special about their wood?" Adrian asked. "Why would anyone want to cut them down?" The boy was pretty sure felling a single one of those trees was a hazard to whoever was given that job.
"It’s because of their wood," Alice piped up. "It’s called wisened wood because of what happens to them once the tree dies. It becomes harder than what it already is, and you don’t even have to dry the wood— they simply don’t decompose. Or if they do, we haven’t seen it happen yet."
"They’re also fireproof," Faizan added. "Which makes disposing of fallen Elysian Trees incredibly difficult. And that’s not including all the work required cleaning the other trees crushed by the fall."
Adrian was still staring at the enormous trees in the distance. He could not see them as clearly above the treetops now that they were closer, but the image of the Elysian Trees was burned into his mind. Then a thought crossed his mind.
"If we know all that, what are we even doing observing it?"
"Well, there’s a difference between what we read in books and actually seeing it for ourselves. We want to compare the information in our notes with the preconception we have, as well as observe how the Elysian Trees interact with the wildlife in the area," Alice explained, her blue eyes sparkling with even more life than usual.
"You really like researching these types of things, huh?" Adrian remarked, and the girl blushed. "You seem even more excited for this than Faizan."
"Hehe…"
Faizan glanced between the two of them. "H-hey," he started, "are you two—" He never got to finish.
A rustling of the bushes interrupted the Half Elf boy. The three students tensed.
"Monster—"
And a figure burst out from
