“Does that mean we’re not going to have showers today?” Lady Morrie asked in disappointment. She thought that the team was going to make camp at the pond, but now that they knew there was a dragon beast there, they had to go elsewhere where they wouldn’t face the same threat.
Abel’s portal bracelet was out of water. They could’ve used the pond to refill the water, but there simply wasn’t enough time to do that. Running away was all they could do. The dragon beast was not to be taken lightly.
Carrie had no time to listen to complaints. She was too busy telling Lady Jenny to guide the way. Soon, they found a flat ground that was hidden in the midst of the trees.
A camp was made shortly afterward. After the elven ladies were ordered to find some food, Abel began closing his eyes to converse with the nearby trees. From what he could sense, the roots of these trees stretched far and wide. These trees have grown very strong over the years, and they could communicate with each other in a way that humans couldn’t understand.
After spending some with them, Abel knew that these trees actually knew what the geography of this place was like. After reading their minds with telekinesis, he began seeing some similarly-looking images in his own mind.
He could form a map with these mental images. From what they looked like, there was a water source located not far from here. The way there would take about ten minutes of walking towards the northwest. That’s where the birds and beasts would take their rest at.
Abel said as he came to Carrie, who was busy tidying up the tent, “I’ll be off for a bit, Carrie. I’m going to get some water.”
Carrie asked, “What do you mean, Abel? (she called him by his first name because there wasn’t anyone around) Did you find a place to get water?”
“I’ll be honest with you now,” Abel suddenly said, “I found out about it a while ago. I’m actually just like Jenny. I can talk to the trees as well!”
Abel wasn’t hiding from Carrie. To him, being a soul speaker wasn’t a secret that’s worth hiding. If anything, he should just be open about it in case if something dangerous happened later.
Carrie was quite speechless, “You know, Abel, I sometimes think that you are actually not a human. Do you know how rare soul speakers are? Like, especially amongst the elves.”
It was right for Carrie to think that way. If she hadn’t seen Abel taking off his transformation necklace, she would’ve never thought that a human could become a druid. And now he’s saying he was also a soul speaker. Just how slim would the odds be?
“Are they that rare? I thought Jenny was a soul speaker,” Abel said whilst shrugging his shoulders. If a five-people team like this had a soul speaker in it, the soul speakers might just not be that rare to the elves.
“Agh!” Carrie tried to explain how much of a miracle Abel was in a way that he understood, “Jenny was born to a family of soul speakers, do you understand? Her ancestors were soul speakers, so it’s more likely for her to be one! Most soul speakers come to be in the same way, and that’s only a small percentage of the elven population.”
Carrie decided to ask about the water source, “So the trees told you where the water is at? Is that it?”
“Yeah,” Abel nodded.
“Well, go ahead. No one’s stopping you,” Carrie shooed Abel away whilst rubbing her forehead. If the trees really did tell Abel where the water was, then he would’ve already been a better soul speaker than Jenny. That was just too unbelievable, and it was giving her a headache.
Once Abel got on Black Wind’s back, they quickly traveled between the trees and went towards the water. The trees said that it would be ten minutes, but Black Wind took two minutes to reach the place.
From what Abel could see, the water source was a part of an underground stream that came out of the ground. It was on top of a sloppy hill, with a few birds and two mountain rabbits already drinking there.
Instead of disturbing the animals, Abel jumped down from Black Wind from a bit of a faraway distance. After telling Black Wind to stay where it was, he walked towards this stream.
Abel wanted to use his soulspeaker’s ability to talk with the animals. From what Jenny told him, he just had to release a part of his little druid’s soul to be a member of nature. When he did so, he felt like he was much calmer than usual.
Abel tried to walk closer towards the animals. When he did, one of the mountain rabbits threw an alert look at him. Yet, instead of running away, it just kept on drinking water from the stream. It must’ve thought that he was not a threat.
It was the same for the other animals. They, too, just continued with drinking their own water. It’s almost like Abel was a guest to a party, and they were all just welcoming him into it. He was really starting to get interested in the druid class.
Once five of his large containers were filled with water, Abel placed them all back into his portal bracelet. When he did that, he got a few more containers to fill with water. Throughout this entire time, the mountain rabbits and birds did nothing to guard against him.
So, from this point onward, no non-spiritual beasts would be a threat to him. Never again would he be in trouble like what the savage bees did to him. He was like the elves, the masters of the forest.
When Abel returned, he could feel the trees having all kinds of conversations with him. He could feel a great weariness that was passing on from his druid spirit. That’s when he quickly switched off his soulspeaker mode.
“What’s wrong, Bennett? Lady Jenny asked when she saw Abel returning with an exhausted look on his face.
“Oh, hey there!” Abel tried to lift his cheeks to smile, “it’s nothing much. I just need to get some rest.”
After coming to Carrie, Abel dropped five filled large containers by the tent. After he’s done his job, he began finding a spot to sit at.
“You saw any spiritual beasts?” Carrie asked with a concerned look on her face. By this point, Abel was already much better after switching to his main sou.
“No, no,” Abel stretched for a bit, “I just entered into the soulspeaker mode for too long.”
“You…” Carrie squinted her eyes for a bit, then turned to Lady Jenny, “Jenny, can you come here for a bit? It’d be nice if you teach this amateur what being a soulspeaker is about.”
Lady Jenny covered her mouth in surprise, “Oh, wow! Bennett is a soulspeaker?”
“A freak is what he is!” Carrie said with certainty.
“Wait, Bennett!” Jenny turned to Abel in curiosity, “So the trees told you where the water is?”
“Yeah,” Abel nodded his head. Unknown to him, Lady Jenny just tried the same thing, but she only talked to one tree, and it never gave her a reply that was clear enough to be interpreted.
Actually, it wasn’t just Lady Jenny or her family. Anyone with some knowledge to soulspeaking knew how hard it was to talk to the trees like Abel did.
Abel tilted his head in confusion, “Uh, obviously you can’t know by just talking with one tree, but if you talk to multiple of them, you can pretty much get a picture of where the stuff you are looking for is at.”
“You what? Multiple of them? At once?”
Lady Jenny dropped her jaws. After remembering the word that Carrie said just then, she started saying it as well.
“You are, uh, a freak, aren’t you, Bennett?” Lady Jenny asked nervously. Abel was just sitting there and taking it. He didn’t understand what’s there to be shocked about.
Lady Jenny continued to explain, “Soulspeakers are meant to talk to one plant at a time! If you are communicating with all of them at once, the most you’re going to get is their general feelings! You can’t get any useful information from that!”
“I’ve never heard about a case like you before, but hold on. Maybe I can find some relevant literature once I get back. Yes, that’s what I’ll do! Just hold up till I get back, will you?”
Abel was more curious about something else, though, “Um, Jenny, why did I feel so tired when I was riding my way back here? I was on top of Black Wind’s back, and I wasn’t traveling for too long, either. So, I don’t know, why did I feel so tired when I was talking with the trees on my way back?”
