Chapter 8: Chapter 8
The journey began calmly, Theodor and Elizabeth were placed in a circular wooden basket that Hegani, the ent who carried them, hung on his chest. Frigglene took the opportunity to meditate and recover energy, after everything that had happened she did not feel safe, only her power could guarantee her husband and children's lives. For the rest of the trip she closed her eyes and let the wind caress her skin. She was not interested in looking at the exotic landscape through which they passed or in conversing with any of the beings around them. Her breathing began to take a special rhythm and soon her senses were isolated from the world.
On the other hand, Darthañan was fascinated with the sauropodxylon, if he had not heard the name he would had called it a long wooden neck. As he called long neck any type of dinosaurs known as sauropods.
Darthañan absorbed all the knowledge that Hegani gave him about these magnificent creatures, their habitat, diet, average life, tastes and other things that only a beast tamer or a lover of fauna would be interested in learning. Along the way, Darthañan was amazed at how these wooden giants traversed the forest without damaging a single tree. The sensation generated by being on the sauropodxylon gave him the feeling that they were moving slowly, but, on the contrary, these enormous wooden beings were traversing five kilometers in only five steps.
The landscape that Darthañan could see was incredible, the foliage that he usually saw from the forest was only a first level, trees of about 15 to 25 meters on average, this first level covered everything around him, but from time to time he could see that, above them, in a much more scattered way, there were colossal trees that reached between 50 and 120 meters in height. The colossal trees he saw most often were pines, sequoias, and other very curious ones with the appearance of a swamp cypress.
Darthañan felt the need to comment on these trees with his wife, but when he noticed her so concentrated he decided to leave her alone, unlike him Frigglene did not have the compulsive need to ask about everything.
"Excuse me..." said Darthañan turning to see the ent.
"Mr. Hegani, what are those trees called?"
The ent lowered his gaze to see Darthañan and then turned his head to where the human was pointing.
"Of those trees, there are only three types on this side of the island" Hegani said in his deep voice.
"Pines ..." He grabbed Darthañan and showed him the three.
Darthañan already knew about that, but in order not to be rude, he let the old tree explain to him what he already knew.
"Sequoias…"
The slowness with which he said it and showed him each tree tested Darthañan's patience. Because, even without wanting to, he felt annoyed by the way the tree was explaining, but mentally Darthañan reminded himself that he had asked and that the ent was responding to him in good will.
"And that one over there is a Lignum Vitae ..."
"Lignum Vitae" Darthañan repeated as if he wanted to memorize the name. For a moment he frowned and after thinking for a few seconds asked.
"Is it called the tree of life?"
Hegani dropped Darthañan back onto the sauropodxylon before answering.
"Yes, it is a rather special tree"
The ent paused again.
"Although it's not actually a tree, it consists of several trees entangled with each other. And the most fascinating thing is that they cannot survive on their own"
Hegani inhaled and exhaled before continuing. Darthañan got a little more irritated.
"If only ten or less saplings are born together they will never reach that height and die after 10 years"
"And why are they called the tree of life?"
Darthañan sighed after asking. Why did he keep asking if the way the tree answered bothered him?
"That is the most fascinating thing, because unlike other trees, the Lignum Vitae can survive in almost any place because they only need to absorb any mineral that has carbon to produce oxygen, water and fruits…
"¡Wow!" Darthañan exclaimed fascinated.
"And a little CO2 when he breathes" Hegani added as if he was muttering to himself.
Darthañan thought of all the benefits that a tree like that could offer in the territories of extreme climates, how such an incredible tree had been ignored by all the powers?
"Do you know if they have ever tried to plant them in other places?"
Hegani smiled.
"Long ago all the rulers wanted to take the seeds or transplant these trees to flood their lands with prosperity…."
"However, none of the attempts worked. The seeds did not germinate and the inside of the bark cannot be cut by any known material. In an extreme case the roots came alive and attacked a team trying to extract the entire tree with its soil ..."
All of Darthañan's ideas for bringing prosperity to places like deserts suddenly fell apart.
"The most peculiar thing of all, is that we can only find functional Lignum Vitae already in their adult phase, never when they are still saplings. The only saplings found are the defective ones sentenced to die in 10 years.
Darthañan's eyes sparkled at that moment.
"And those saplings produce during those 10 years?"
Hegani thought about it for a moment.
"Nothing that attracts foreigners…"
"During their first 10 years of life they only absorb CO2. It produces neither oxygen, nor water, nor fruits, and has not yet generated the strange wood of its inner bark"
Darthañan was disappointed, but he couldn't help but keep asking about anything that caught his attention during the trip. On the route they only had to camp once more, and by the next day in the afternoon, they were already on the outskirts of Vorpiax.
Witnessing the huge and strange city left Darthañan speechless. Such was the impression that he had to move Frigglene to show her where they had arrived. Frigglene was annoyed at being shaken so suddenly, but when she opened her eyes she swallowed the words with which she was preparing to admonish her husband.
Vorpiax, the city of the Ent, capital and only establishment of the island of Lhimkio. There were 12 Lignum Vitae trees, each more than 100 meters high and all made up of at least 30 trees with which they reached maturity. Each of these Lignum Vitae were divided into levels of around 15 meters high, the tree with the most levels built had 7 while the tree with the fewest levels had 3.
The first level of all the trees was empty, it looked like a well-maintained grassland. At this level, construction was prohibited because, although the Ents could climb and walk through the other levels, in order to sleep they need to bury their roots directly into the ground.
The following levels could be described as small cities, built as rings around the Lignum Vitae. Since on one hand, the bark could not be cut down and culturally the citizens were against damaging flora. This was the reason they didn't carved their homes into threes. These mini cities were interconnected by bridges and different means of transport, such as: trains and floral cable cars.
Of these trees one only had 3 levels, five had 4 levels, three had 5 levels, two had 6 levels and the most central tree of all reached 7 levels, where the huge wooden castle of the Lord of Vorpiax was located, Baron Helvella. From where anyone could admire the entire metropolis that was Vorpiax.
All means of transportation, from the stairs and elevators to the trains and cable cars, could be found at any of the four cardinal points of the trees: north, south, east and west. Separating each ring into four sectors, which could be divided into residential, industrial, and commercial zones, among others.
The architecture of the establishments within the rings was as diverse as the citizens of Vorpiax. From the simple shops of the ents to the complex buildings of the ubax. The materials of the constructions varied between different types of woods, rocks and even crystals. All this diversity of sizes, colors and shapes gave a chaotic feeling to each ring, not taking into account all the levels and the interconnections between them. At a glance it could be assumed that the Lignum Vitae were plagued, as their appearance could be compared to a tree full of parasitic organisms.
Darthañan at one point came to think that all citizens, depending mostly on the resources of the Lignum Vitae, were indeed parasitic in some way, but remembering everything he discussed with Hegani and knowing that they were not harming it in any way he let go the thought.
"Hahaha welcome to Vorpiax" Helvella laughed jumping with his mount on the sauropodxylon and observing the surprised faces of Darthañan and Frigglene.
The peculiar baron had been waiting the entire trip to see how the mammals reacted.
Vorpiax was a unique city. In none of the thousands of islands of the empire was there a similar city. Although before the cataclysm it is said that there were many cities like this, as today Vorpiax is the only one of its kind. So very few people manage to contain their surprise to see this magnificent city, as peculiar as it is unique.
"It's time for you to know what Lepiota hospitality is" Helvella continued with a laugh before jumping down with his Deerxylon, leaving them behind.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Danielruar
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