OOC: Am I on a planet, standing on the ground, seeing stars in the sky?  Or am I standing on a tree that is traveling through space?

:: Dearest LORD, please guard and guide me now, I pray... ::

:: Ring, are you online?  Please acknowledge.  If so, begin monitoring and recording.  Summarize contents of any available transmissions. ::

:: Are you awake yet, dear daughter? ::

I regard the squirrel with interest.

:: 'Peace be unto you.'  I am called Oak, and I am new here.  Please, who are you, and where are we? ::

In reply to Oak (msg # 3):

You're standing on a trunk so the space idea seems more likely.

Your prayer seems rewarded with a sense of wait.

Your Ring does not reply.

:Partially.:: Ogre #119 replies.

The squirrel says something in a language you don't know, then it throws an acorn the size of a medicine ball at you.  It hits you hard, breaking several ribs, despite your armor, and knocks you down.  But before you can attack physically, it scampers off.

Ranged attacks are possible.

My relief at breathing fresh oak-scented air instead of onion-scented air is now somewhat tempered by the pain from my ribs with each new breath.

:: Dearest LORD...  Please heal me now...  I pray... ::

I manually raise my kinetic shield, in case I receive any further gifts unexpectedly.

Then I reach out with my telepathic senses toward the departing squirrel, seeking information about what it said to me, why it attacked me, and any other useful information available about our current universe...

A sense of regret accompanies your prayer. You are not healed.

Neither does your button work, let alone the kinetic field.

Reaching out with your telepathy....and brain burn.  You've got a pounding headache to  go with the broken ribs.

A few minutes later, an extremely handsome human looking pygmy walks down to you.

"Hello, I am Third Seventh." He's not speaking English, but you understand him clearly. "The Great Squirrel sent for me."

I look up at him painfully from where I was knocked down by the Great Squirrel, and muster a rueful smile between labored breaths.

"Hello, I am Oak.  'Peace be unto you', Third Seventh."

"I just arrived here, and tried to greet the Great Squirrel, but it hit me with a large acorn, and injured me."

"Please, where are we?  And are you able to heal me?"

He smiles with joy.

"Peace be unto you, as well.  It is hard to tell if your kind is injured, my apologies."  He steps over to you, touches you on the shoulder, and suddenly you're healed.

"We are on the Mary Piper, and I do not heal."

I take a grateful painless breath, and smile back at him warmly.

"Thank you, friend Third Seventh.  How was I just healed?"

My mind grabs onto the name of this ship.  Mary Piper... just like the ship on that universe with the emeralds of power, where I served with Balsom the Panda and Kyle the Ariatte.  What strange parallels there were through the multiverse...

With that thought, I check for scriff vectors.

"Please, tell me of this ship, and of where it travels, and of those who dwell here..."

"I asked the One to heal you." He smiles, and then laughs. "Four generations of the Family live here, and the Aesir have woken from sleep, as well as some of their creatures, like the squirrel you met.  You must be cautious of the Aesir, they do not serve the One as you do."

You detect no other scriff sources.

"Others will waken from the long sleep soon.  The Tree, it is great and the whole sharzhinka.  It grows toward Ceteris, a sun, even now.  Soon enough we will pass by, and then go between."

Efforts to understand what 'shar....' means prove difficult.

"Now, I must tend the emerald seeds."  He nods, and begins to walk away.

"Do you mind company, or would you prefer to carry out your tasks alone?  I would be happy to help you, if you wish..."

He grins.

"I would enjoy your company."  He leads you up and out along branches that get finer and finer.  You've gone several hundred yards, and he keeps on heading outward now, on branches that sway under your feet.  And the air is getting thin, but he's not bothered by it.

Perhaps fifty yards further out, at the tips of tiny fronds, you can see tiny green sparkles.  He points to them and laughs.

I take my own emerald out to show him.

"They look like my own emerald.  Do they grow on trees here?  What are they useful for?"

In reply to Oak (msg # 13):

"We plant them to grow Trees like the Mary Piper.  We name the tree after whoever planted it.  But these emerald seeds are still very small.  They need to be...." He holds his hands to show a cantaloupe sized seed.

Then he walks out to the edge, where the branches are too thin to hold you, and he sparkles and shines.  He tends to several seeds, and then comes back.  As he comes back ice melts off him, and he starts breathing again.

"Okay, next one."

I walk with him as he moves on to the next work area.

"Please tell me about yourself.  What paths have brought you here to this place, giving me the pleasure of your company?"

In reply to Oak (msg # 15):

"I was born, the seventh of my father's sons, five stars ago.  In that time, I've learned to walk the Trunk, bend light, and fought in eleven conflicts, and I've spoken to the One, twice." His face lights up at the last.  And you feel a radiant joy from him, a piercing clarity that hurts.

He looks at you, and shakes his head.

"I forgot to shield my light.  I'm sorry, I can't heal you from that."  And he backs off, hiding behind a branch, making to leave.

Blood is dripping down your face.

"There is no need to be sorry from wounds from the light of the One, friend Third Seventh.  Do you have any advice for how I should tend the wound?"

"Please, tell me of the Family, and of the Aesir, and of any others I should know about..."

In reply to Oak (msg # 17):

"No, we, we don't have that sort of thing.  I need to leave.  Its hard for me to hold myself down."  And he flees leaving you dripping blood from your nose.

I plug my nose, and pray for healing, and lean my head back to stop the bleeding.

Then I look at my surroundings via Sight...

In reply to Oak (msg # 19):

The healing arrives the slow way.  In a few minutes, your nose is clotted up.

You feel a burn, a slice inside your soul.  But despite that twinge of pain, its a good feel.  As if something that was not quite right, among many other things, inside you, was now right.  Its like you had popped a stiff back, and felt relief.

Activating your Sight, you see the Tree glowing with life.  The still tiny emerald seeds each have a Tree floating by them.  Inside one of the branches nearby is a star and a long math equation.

And walking down the Main Trunk is a line of ten glowing beetles, each a foot long.  Oddly, they are completely invisible to your normal sight.

Do the invisibeetles have any symbols associated with them?

I move onto the branch with the star, in order to allow the invisibeetles free passage down the main trunk.  I remain aware of their progress, in case they seem to be heading toward me rather than simply moving down the trunk past me.

While waiting for them to pass by, I examine the equation, so that I can reflect upon it via Perfect Memory later.

Then I pray for wisdom regarding whether or not these invisibeetles are hostile, and look for potential escape routes if needed...

I reach for my Superintelligent Shard, seeking insight into this equation...

In reply to Oak (msg # 23):

Suddenly it shivers on, and you understand the equation for a living battery powered by turning solar energy into psionic energy.  And more, you see a field of energy woven through space, forbidding technology more advanced than clockwork from working.  It comes from a device named 'Gungnir'.  And Gungnir sees you, and is coming like an arrow in flight.

"I begin to wake." Ogre #119 says.

I pray for wisdom, and seek insight from the Shard for options regarding Gungnir's impending arrival.

:: Greetings, dear daughter.  This universe is hostile to technology.  Potential danger approaches.  You may wish to observe quietly until the danger passes... ::

"As you say, father."

Seconds away you realize.  And Gungir, while a mind is also a weapon of great power.  Its a technological device.  Dodging, or counterattack strategies run through your brain.  You realize that turning the Shard on is what drew it.

Your Sight is gone.

"I will help you, save you from this attack, but I must have a favor." A ceramic garden gnome standing on a nearby branch says.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:27, Mon 17 July 2017.

"If it is pleasing in the sight of the LORD my God, I am able to agree... but if not, then I am not."

"Please speak, friend.  What favor do you seek?"