Withering Leaves

Nina left the hollow tree and went back to her house in the grove. Mytill and Autumn were out on a mission together so she didn't have anyone to spend the day with. She could just follow elder Gildor around and help him with his tasks since he was very busy, but she knew that she would only hinder him. She wasn't suited for paperwork and any of the things that Gildor needed to do.

On her way home, she saw that the leaves were falling in large quantities. She held her hand out and caught one on her palm as it gently fluttered down from the branches above. The leaf color was rather dull, indicating that the tree was either malnourished or that autumn was coming. Was it summer? Nina had no clue. The grove was always cool no matter the season thanks to a magic barrier surrounding the forest, and the only way the elves could tell what season it was, was by looking at the color of the leaves.

The leaves were a rich green color in spring, a fading green color in summer, a red-orange color in autumn, and a white color in winter. But these falling leaves were probably due to lack of nutrition and not due to change of season since the leaves were all brittle and dry. Even if the leaves changed color, their physical properties remained the same. The elves' magic kept the trees in perfect condition.

Nina let the leaf fall to the ground and turned around to head back to Gildor's tree so that she could report this to him. This was an important matter since if the trees were weak or in the even more severe case that the barrier was broken, the elves needed to know about this before something bad happened.

Since elves built their home in and on the trees, they needed the trees to be healthy so that they didn't die on them. The last thing they wanted was for a tree to fall since it would mean a lot of injuries and maybe even deaths.

Nina hurried back into the hollow tree and climbed up the stairs into Gildor's office. She found him sitting at his desk filling out some paperwork. He noticed Nina walk in and stopped and looked up at her. "Back so soon? Did something happen?"

"Yes. One of the trees may be malnourished."

The elf's eyes shot wide open when he heard that. "And how did you discover this?"

"I found a brittle leaf when I was on my way home."

"That's not good..." Gildor got up from his seat and went over and grabbed his staff which was also his walking cane. "Show me where it is. This is a serious problem."

Nina led the old elf out of the hollow tree and to the area where she found the dried leaves. She bent over and picked up one of the leaves and gave it to Gildor so that he could see for himself.

"Hmm..." The elf examined the leaf and then crushed it in his hand. It broke into pieces and scattered into the dirt. He then looked around at the trees surrounding them to try to pinpoint which tree the leaf belonged to. All the trees looked fine so it was hard to tell which one it was. They would have to climb up to the branches to check the leaves.

Well, that was one option. Luckily for them, they had other ways to do so without having to scale the tall trees. Gildor raised his staff and spun it around in a circular motion before putting it back down. Within seconds, a couple of leaves from each of the trees spiraled down.

"Can you check the leaves my dear?" Gildor asked Nina. His back was terrible and he couldn't do it himself.

"Of course." Nina went around and examined the leaves on the dirt one by one. "I believe it's this tree," Nina told him while pointing at the closest tree on their right. From the looks of it, the leaves likely came from that tree.

Gildor walked over to the tree and planted his hand against the trunk. He closed his eyes and let his magic pour into the tree.

"Oh, this is horrible..." Gildor opened his eyes and took his hand away from the tree.

"What is?"

"Someone, or something, poisoned the tree."

"The tree is poisoned!?"

"Yes."

"What do we do!?"

"You don't have to do anything my dear. You've already done more than enough by reporting this to me before something bad happened. I'll have the Sylvs look into this." Gildor pinched his brows and turned to head back to his tree. "You can go home and rest. You don't have to worry about a thing," he told her again.

"Are you sure? I can help."

"No need. Things like these are too dangerous for you to be involved in."

"Okay." Nina said bye to the elf and then turned and headed back home. Upon making it to her small cabin, she found that some of the flowers she had just recently planted were withering.

Strange... Nina tried to pick up one of them but it crumbled from her touch and melted into the soil. Seeing this, Nina walked around the vicinity of her cabin, checking all the plants and smaller trees nearby to see if they were fine. They weren't. All around the backside of her cabin, the plants and trees there were all starting to die. The leaves were turning brown and the color was overall fading.

What was going on? Could it be that these plants were poisoned as well? Since Nina couldn't use nature magic, she had no way to tell for sure. Maybe she could ask a nature spirit or an elf to check for her, but she was pretty certain of the answer even without them confirming it. These plants and trees were likely poisoned as well.

The question is who, or what. Poisoning the plants and trees here is a grave crime that is punishable by death. All elves obey this rule and do their best to take care of the plants here. Well, not all elves apparently if there were things being poisoned.

Nina contemplated whether or not she should go back to Gildor and report this to him. After a bit of hesitation, she decided to not report this. The elder was already busy enough and she couldn't bother him about every single thing she came across. She needed to take matters into her own hands and investigate this herself.

Nina left her cabin after just returning to it and went back into the forest. There were a few elves walking about on the forest floor while the rest were either up in the trees or out on a mission.

She approached a random elf that was taking a stroll and greeted her.

"Blessings be with you, is something of that matter?" the elf asked Nina.

"Yes. Some of the plants and trees here have been poisoned. I was wondering if you know anything about it."

The elf raised an eyebrow. "Poisoned? Are you sure?" The elf was reluctant to believe Nina since poisoning the grove is a very big crime and no one would have the guts to do it.

"That tree over there is poisoned." Nina pointed her finger at the tree that she showed Gildor and the two of them went over to it. The elf noticed the dry leaves on the floor and picked one up. She took a good look at it before tossing it back to the floor and approached the tree.

"Spirits, answer me." At the elf's command, several nature spirits appeared from within the tree and crawled over to her. They whispered something in her ear which made her frown. After telling the elf what she wanted to hear, the nature spirits disappeared back into the tree.

"You weren't kidding," the elf said to Nina. She knew now that she was telling the truth and the tree was indeed poisoned. "Have you reported this?"

"I already told elder Gildor about this. He told me to let the Sylvs handle this."

"He is right. Letting the Sylvs handle this is the right call. So why are you bringing me into this?" she asked Nina.

"It's because we thought that it was only this tree. But I just found out that some of the plants near my house are also poisoned."

"They are too?"

Nina gestured for the elf to follow her and she took them across the grove and back to her cabin. "They're over there." Nina showed the elf where the supposed poisoned plants and trees were and she took a look at them.

"Spirits. Spirits. Spirits?" The elf tried calling for nature spirits to appear but no one responded to her for some strange reason. "This is odd. There are no spirits here..."

Nina watched as the elf walked over to a young tree that wasn't poisoned and tried again. "Spirits, answer me." A small nature spirit appeared from behind the tree and stared shyly at the elf. "Do you know what happened here?" The spirit nodded its head yes.

"What? Tell us!" Nina begged the spirit. Her loud voice frightened the spirit and it hid behind the trunk. "Oh, sorry.," she apologized to the spirit for scaring her.

The spirit peeked its head back out and pointed at the sky. Nina and the elf looked up at the sky but saw nothing. There were a couple of branches followed by some leaves and then the sky. Neither of them understood what the spirit meant.

"Umm... What does that mean?" Nina tried to get the spirit to elaborate but it just kept shaking its head and continued pointing at the sky. It was too young to speak and this was the only thing it could do.

Since it was hopeless to continue asking the spirit, the elf thanked it and dismissed the spirit. She then went around and tried to find other spirits to ask but couldn't find a single one other than the young tree spirit.

"It seems that all the other spirits here have moved away..." the elf concluded after looking around the area.

"Does that mean anything?"

"Yes, it means that the poison has been here for some while now."

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