Oasis

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens on a blasted landscape of rock and desert scrub; Ellen's using a tin-walled shack's door for the Milliways trip. Nearby a two-headed cow is contentedly chewing on a low, scrubby bush. One head lifts to get a better look at the new arrivals. The other one continues eating.

"That's Shiphrah and Puah," Ellen says, "my riding Brahmin. We're not far from Oasis- the path is through that rock formation up ahead."

Comments

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack has seen deserts before, of course. Most recently he lived in Las Vegas for two years.

This is different.

He staggers a little from the sheer desolation of the place, and grabs hold of the tin door frame.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Are you all right?" Ellen asks, alarmed. "Do you need a hand, there?"

Dogmeat, who was watching the cow, gets up and pads over to see what's wrong. You know. Just in case.

[jack_inthegreen]

"Yes," he says and presses a hand to his eyes. "I'm all right. It's just--I've never--it's like seeing a corpse."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It has that effect on humans," Ellen says soberly. "I can't even imagine what it must be like for you."

[jack_inthegreen]

It's all he can do not to weep. It hadn't occurred to him to prepare for this, though how could he have? Even the heart of the Sahara doesn't hurt this much.

"Sorry," he whispers and finally looks up. "That's why we're here, of course."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "That's why we're here," she agrees. "Come on. I think you'll probably feel better once we start moving."

If only because once they manage to find the narrow, narrow path among the rocks that leads slowly up and in, there are small green things growing- and then larger ones, as they go.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack nods, slings the bag across his chest, and puts on sunglasses.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The Treeminders will be waiting for us," Ellen notes as they move along, prodding the Brahmin ahead of her. "I told them I was bringing someone that Harold would want to meet. Harold apparently said any outsider I brought would be just fine with him, so..."

[jack_inthegreen]

"That's good. I'd rather not fight my way to him. I'm not very good at fighting."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'd find a way to talk you in if I had to," Ellen says. "The Treeminders don't always listen to poor Harold, but they're good people for the most part, and I'd rather not get into a fight with them over something like this."

Up ahead, a cluster of branches with slender green leaves can be seen growing from between a pair of rocks. Shiphrah (the right-hand head) stretches over to sniff it, then keeps moving.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack reaches out to touch the little cluster.

They stand up a little straighter.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There's more like that as we go," says Ellen, and indeed there are- the little proto-bushes in one place, a haze of grass in another, some kind of climbing twisting vine hiding in a cleft in the rock wall to the left. "Some of these weren't here when I came last time. Leaf Mother Laurel's liniment is really speeding up Harold's growth."

[jack_inthegreen]

"Good," Jack murmurs, and he everything he can reach as they walk. "This feels better."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen smiles at that. Dogmeat darts out past the cow and after something small and scurrying- "Ground squirrel," Ellen murmurs. "They're smaller than mole rats, so you don't see them much unless you're hunting or trapping them. You get a lot of them around here."

Almost anyone with a nose to speak of could catch the difference in the air now, this close to their destination.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack tilts up his head and sniffs. "Growing things."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "Just this way-"

The path turns, and ahead there are trees- real ones, at least fifteen or twenty years old. True, they're mostly behind a gated barricade, but they're tall enough to see over the top of said barricade.

A young woman, maybe a few years older than Ellen, pokes her head over the top. She's blonde, and wears some kind of rough-woven hooded garment. "Oh," she says, "hello, Outsider. Is this the new visitor you spoke of when you came here last?"

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack beams at the trees, taking them in with delight.

"I'm Jack," he tells the woman.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The woman nods. "Branchtender Maple," she says by way of introduction. "Just a moment, and I'll open the gates for you."

She disappears behind the wall. Ellen murmurs, "She may be a little standoffish. She's always been afraid of things going wrong if the outside world found out about this place, from what the others tell me."

[jack_inthegreen]

"If this works, it won't matter," Jack murmurs in reply.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That's more or less my feeling," Ellen says as the door opens. Maple gestures the two new arrivals inside.

Beyond is not only a place of trees, but of every other kind of plant one could reasonably expect to grow in this part of the old country, and maybe a few other kinds besides. It is, after all, post-nuclear. Mutated growing things are still growing things. Even someone with only the senses of a particularly attentive human could feel the presence of living things here- in the ground, below it, and all around. And there are birds, too, although they're more heard than seen.

"If you'll wait here," says Maple, "I'll go and fetch Leaf Mother Laurel and Tree Father Birch. They'd like to meet you."

[jack_inthegreen]

"Yes, of course," though Jack is already going to the nearest tree to lay his hand on it, get to know it.

The rustling in the little grove increases because of his presence. They want to say hello.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Maple nods and darts off, disappearing somewhere among the branches to the left, beyond the gazebo that appears to be the grove's only building. Not long after she returns, with a dark-skinned woman and a tan-skinned man in tow. The two are in their fifties, perhaps a little older, and are dressed in rough robes similar to Maple's.

[jack_inthegreen]

Now, Jack hasn't been a commonly worshiped god for many centuries. The tribes who knew him first have long since disappeared, absorbed into invading forces or neighboring tribes or died out, and even the stonemasons who carved his face into churches didn't know his name.

And he doesn't like to pull rank around mortals. It's tacky.

Still, this is important. This is a whole world that needs his touch and care.

So when the others return, the man they find is not quite the unassuming gardener who left Milliways with Ellen. He's a little taller and his voice is a little deeper and more resonant, and the many centuries he's seen are visible in his eyes.

"Hello," he says. "I am the Green Man."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Now, understand, the Treeminders have been in this valley and fixated on Harold for quite some time. The sight of a tree that could speak like a man was enough to sway them to Harold's worship as a god of growing things in the blink of an eye.

The sight of the real thing is another thing altogether, and leaves the three arrivals speechless. It's some time before the man clears his throat and speaks.

"Welcome, sir," he finally says, his voice just a little shaky. "I am Tree Father Birch, and this is my wife, Leaf Mother Laurel. We... knew we had a guest coming, but no one told us of your nature."

[jack_inthegreen]

"Best that way, don't you think?" Jack says calmly.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Tree Father Birch, Leaf Mother Laurel." He gazes from one to the other.

"I'd like to see Harold as soon as possible."