Anarchy Rising Book 2: A Hunted Wasteland

Jasmine

Jasmine ignored Zhi's jokes concerning her level of maturity and the like, and left the ghouls to Rho. When the door was finally opened, she moved through briskly, radiating impatience. While usually stoic, it didn't seem to matter in the circumstances - Zhi knew her too well, she cared about Rho too little, and Coyote could read her anyway. As such, she let her annoyance at all tje delays show.

When they finally reached the trickster god himself, he greeted them lightly and Rho answered in kind. A bit too lightly, in Jasmine's opinion. "We came here to find out where is Stein," she cut in right after Rho's question.  "As some people seem to have forgotten already, someone dared to attack Dionysus's fiefdom while we were there. It seems like Stein's work to me, but if you know anything that suggests otherwise, I'm all ears." Her voice was cold, but it was easier than usual to infer her actual feelings - the fact that she was taking the attack personally. Should Coyote require further details about the attack to provide an answer, she would explain all the circumstances to him.

ZHi

Rho's answer amused Zhi but jasmine quickly cut in and went straight down to business.
"Well yes that's the "official" reason for being here, but were not ruling out nukeing any minor deity's, I like to keep an open mind afterall" Zhi joked after Jasmine finished talking not really feeling like taking everything so seriously.

In regards to the constant shift in the "aura" of this place, zhi found it weird at first but quickly got used it, afterall finding balance by zigzagging between extremes was about as human as one could get.

Zarok, Mariana, Cheon, Arkhan
Tianna’s whispered, her voice barely audible over the soft patter of the rain. “There is something in the shadows.” The emphasis on the word in letting on that it was something more than a predator using the cover of shade to hide.

The shadows seemed to grow and lengthen across the ground, their shapes beginning to blur and coil as the shadowy shapes seemed to strain to break free from the confounds of the objects which had cast them. It wasn’t enough to be noticed at first, had that branched moved when the tree didn’t? Was there really a bird flying overheard? However it wasn’t until a shadowy limb broke free from the rigid square shadow which had been cast from a building, that the truth unnatural sense broke through.

A large figure now loomed across the ground, altogether humanoid but stretched and distorted. The limbs where too long the shadowy head which lacked any distinction was too long and pointed, and the fingers curved in an unnatural way to the rest of the sharp lines which composed its body. It hadn’t yet pulled its body out of the concrete floor of the street before the group but the shadows within it writhed as they seemed to boil forth.

“Run!” Tianna yelled as the elf bolted down a side alley, pure terror staining her delicately pretty features. Zarok tried to shadow walk the group away but was sent crashing into the floor with a loud crack as if he had leapt straight into solid steel. And one of the arms was free, already snaking from shadow to shadow as the darkly transparent limb snaked towards them.

Chryse.

“Im asleep again?” Fenix asked confused, his face a torn between deciding whether to be terrified or interested. “That does sort of explain that though” He said pointing behind Chryse to reveal a large purple teddy bear which seemed to be stalking after the pair through the halls. Its feet squeaking with each awkwardly bouncy step.

“Not sure what happened, everything was black for a while, then everything was white, then I was hear, then I was in the cemetery with your family, and that little fairy girl kept trying to get in. And I don’t know who those people are but I am guessing they are the souls the nephalim stole originally and I cant get them out, so when I am in hear they try and rip their way out.” The youth seemed to go a little pale at the thought of an army of ghost ripping through him.

“We need to get out of here though. Longer we are here quicker they find us.”

Rover, Carlos, Ray, Selena.
The roots and vines dug painfully into Carlos and Selena, thin streams of blood beginning to drip from where they coiled around the pair. The little girl wagged her finger towards them as if telling off a house pet. “Nu-uh-uh Bad Kitties.”

“Now then Sweetie, as the pets have hopefully stopped misbehaving and wont need to be punished, what are you doing in my home?”

The Fae’s (who was now hanging upside down but face to face with the tiny newcomer) cool seemed to be broken for the first time since the group had encountered him as he gulped, apparently at a loss for words. “Well you know, I…..”

The sound of cracking bone is very distince, a wet snap that raises hairs and just sounds like what pain should sound like. So when the Fae’s forearm was bent to a different angle, everyone knee what exactly had happened before the yelling started. “Now then Tristin my love You know I do not care for our peoples dishonesty through truth.” The little fae said sweetly, beaming up at her hissing ex. “And to think that little ***** of a sister of mine would send you to help these mortals undue my new home tsk tsk tsk. Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize your scent.”

“Well I..” This time his collar bone went and the scream burbled forth.

“No worries everyone” she said turning to the rest of the group. “I will get to you all soon.”

Leiv wrote:

Ghosty

Spoiler:

Team-M-

Maxwell
Raven
Surge


Raven felt a tingling sensation surge through her wings as the lightning elemental signaled the bird by sending a little purplish hued static charge through her feathers.

Instantly the little blackbird took a nosedive towards the earth. Unfortunately Surge was always on the look out to rub defeat into the face off the only female member of the group. She maybe little, but not determined, that was a thing you couldn’t hold against her. An out of place deformed, snickering face with sharp mountain tops in place of teeth loomed in front of the determined and highly competitive Raven.

“Get your lazy head out of the clouds!! You’re slowing me down!” Raven bellowed inside her mind.


Taking the hint, Maxwell wordlessly jacked out from Raven’s psyche by reentering his corporeal state.. Due to the fact that they were still quite some ways off into the air, and also taking Raven’s feelings into consideration; the hundreds of ethereal diamonds began to collide a little distance off in the direction his friends were heading off into. Raven jetted past the mass of fluttering robes that was taking on some solid structure as Maxwell’s physical body filled the space as it reentered Earth Realm from the pocket dimension.

Part of the quickly dispersing clouds around the trio began to collect around the water elementalist. Dragniir’s illumination gave off a ghostly glow from within the mass of white cumulus clouds which were gradually descending towards the foot of the forest.


Holding his crimson lightning staff high, overhead, Surge was without a question first to reach the ground. Raven metamorphosed in mid-air, her humanoid feet touched the earth with a slight thud. The wisps of cloud scattered away from Maxwell as he too took to facing the foreboding dark forest.


Maxwell was half expecting some snarky comment coming from Raven, about him arriving last but when he turned to face her, Raven had a mesmerized look pasted onto her face. The seer, thinking the situation being a bit out of place, quickly unleashed his ocular vision so as to shed some light on the bizarre behavior of his friend who had by now accumulated spittle around her gleaming lips. Following his friend's entrapped gaze, Maxwell’s deep orange globes uncovered the truth behind Raven’s petrification, which turned out to be nothing more than a greedy child standing in front of a house constructed solely out of assorted candy. The once looming forest before Maxwell had now turned into a swaying sea of Turquoise energy. It wasn’t demonic in nature, but still had its own distinctive presence. Clearly, Mother Nature here had been overshadowed by Mystical forces and as Raven utilizes all Mystic forces as fuel, it was no surprise that she would feel like as if she was swimming or looking at a large castle made out of jelly.


“Hey snap out of it!!” Surge placed his hand on Raven’s shoulder, feeding another jolt into her body.

The fleeting feeling of the earlier jolt, sparked life into the statue she had turned into. ”Hey what gives? Can’t a woman fondly gaze upon the forbidden fruit without any prejudice from others?” she stated with a little whine.


Before Surge could reply, Raven fired back, “You touch me one more time like that, so help me, you’ll find me chomping on your sorry fingers.” She ended.


Surge, giving her the cold shoulder, turned to face his other teammate, “Why so serious, Maxwell?”

Maxwell, who was still peering into gloomy forest that only Surge could see it as such, “That map, are we at the correct location? Did you get a pinpoint on the elder-tree?”


Surge was lost in concentration as he surveyed the area and looked at the sky above, before answering “From the Looks of things, we might have landed out of reach from the tree, but the general area seems about right.”

“Ha ha-ha and you questioned my sense of direction.” Raven was quick to attack her sparky friend. “While you old ladies bicker about directions, I’ll go have a quick munch on that delicacy.”


“Stay your ground Raven, remember our mission, in and out before we get on our adversaries’ radar.”

Raven groaned, “Tch, you’re such a downer, Maxii” and began creating a small dust cloud by kicking the ground with her feet.


“Speaking of the mission, I just wanted to clarify one thing; The Witch of Thorns, you’ve never met her before right?” Surge questioned Maxwell.

“Yeap! Never heard about her too. No idea who or what she is. None, what-so-ever.” Maxwell had a cheeky smile on his face and mischief gleamed in his orange eyes.

Surge had to turn his face away at that answer. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.” He was shaking his head by now. “So then, why did you except the job from the masked person?“ Surge brought up the question.

"Even without these eyes, I could sense that something was off, with him, crossing him then and there without a higher advantage of any preparation.. Well let’s just say that he gave us an easy way out. Plus how hard can it be to place the flask inside an old tree, huh?” The team leader responded back.

“First we need to find the tree from within this thicket. It’s like looking..”

“For a needle in a haystack? Heh-heh my friend, that’s where Moréna’s gifts come into play.” Maxwell finished Surge’s sentence for him.


Surge shook his head once again, “In my time there was such a thing called as fair-play. Sometimes I’m shocked to think that you’re my descendent.”

“Hey grandpa, times change, for better or worse. This reality is harsh; we need not hold anything back. I’ve died once; never want to go through that process again.” Ending with that, Maxwell concentrated on the frequencies emitting from the forest, those in his inner radius which gave off a distinct Psychic scent, while at the same time deciphering different shades of old and new, stronger or weaker energy force that the entire forest was entwined with. This was a concept that his mind attuned to when he had met the Saint Sarah, back at the cathedral, her energy levels and strength had fluctuated right in front of his eyes in close quarters. Maxwell acted as the conduit, into which all frequencies, like that of a spider’s silky thread convolved at the epicenter, working their way backwards.


Trees, bright blue-green trees, were spread in every direction that Maxwell looked towards. Even the earth was mixed with the same energy as the roots and undergrowth had spread everywhere. Just like Mother Nature, this energy too had a life-force of its own. It definitely needed to have its own core; was what Maxwell was thinking as he entered the Turquoise Forest. Every step he took, the frequencies would guide him closer to that one off into the distance that Maxwell could see but couldn’t clearly decipher. But he knew, it wouldn’t take them too long to reach that tree which shone like an energy beacon amidst all the other energized trees that which seemed to be stemming from that one.


“Careful now Raven, take care not to touch.. well in your case eat anything. We are in the Witch’s Forest after all; need to use our own arcane energies to blend in with the environment as much as we can.” Maxwell cautioned his team.


“Bah, You know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. Personally, I don’t fancy her.” Raven informed Maxwell.

“Wait, are you saying that you actually know this person?” Surge questioned Raven with a surprised tone.


Raven cocked her head sideways “Oh, do I, know her!” she said in a condescending way “Nope not really.” She smirked, like Maxwell did when Surge had asked of him the same question. “But during my reconnaissance trips sanctioned by Mother, I overlooked this place when it was in its infancy. At that time I witnessed the brutality The ***** of Thorns displayed as she took over this place with her enchanted forest. I lost many friends during the hostile takeover. Her critters didn’t spare any birds, animals or humans that came in the way of the forest’s overgrowth.” Raven had a solemn tone all till the end, “Ooh! That reminds me, you better be on the lookout for those vile creatures, and they have the tendency to sprout out from literally anywhere. Unlike the trees, they reek of the filth they’re made off. I got their stench down so I’ll be able to sniff them out before they become a threat but I’m warning you, they are quite the sneaky pests.” The primal huntress blood rushing in her veins made her sound somewhat evil like the creatures or the witch she was describing.


Surge first glanced towards Maxwell and then back to Raven, “Well we appreciate the honesty and the heads up, but shouldn’t you have told us this before we began our flight towards here?” Surge rolled his crimson-yellow eyes, “If you knew the location of the forest, I would have saved using the device for later, or right now so as to save time[/color].”

“I don’t remember being asked for directions, plus I thought you wanted to take charge for once, so stop being such an ungrateful..” Raven fought back, before being interrupted by Maxwell.

“Alright! What’s done is done. Let’s just focus on the task at hand. We’ll deal with anything that comes our way when it’ll happen. Just be sharp and on guard.” The team leader brought a stop to the bickering before it accelerated or brought the entire populace onto them.


With silence once more restored to the masses, Maxwell began releasing a slight mist from under his robes that steadily spread around the trio, though mostly staying at a little above ankle level. This would enable the water elementalist to instantly be notified of any changes to their surroundings in any direction from around them, while at the same time decrease the casting time for any constructs, even though they were in a thick forest where draining moisture from anywhere shouldn’t be any issue.

Spoiler:

Arkhan/Cheon/Mariana/Zarok


As they crushed down to the floor, Zarok, Cheon and Arkhan quickly stood up to their feet and shrugged it off. Zarok tightened his jaws, as it was the first time it had happened."Damn, talk about my bad timing..."  Cheon quickly shouted, "We have no time to stand like this! Quick take cover!" However, it was too late, the monstrous shadow figure's hand was free. Arkhan quickly opened his hand and summoned one of his demonic swords. "Void Eater!" As the sword appeared in his hand, the dark sword reacted to the giant shadow being, as the Void Eater eats summoned shadow powers, and like other sources of energy, Arkhan impaled to the dark figure. The shadowy being should feel the diminishing power of his, and the freed hand would be no longer free, and it would feel restricted as it would be sucked by the hungry sword that acts like a black hole. If it was made with unholy power/shadow power like Zarok(or else it would not have been able to block Zarok's shadow walk)/other source, it would not be able to escape easily.

Mariana, on the other hand, had made a transition to the shadow of the leaf, before Arkhan summoned void eater, and waited for the battle between her allies and shadow being to be finished.

Ghosty
The thick canopy of gnarled limbs blocked out the sun leaving the forest in a near state of perpetual knight. Around the small group it was still and quiet to the point that their footfalls on the dry ground sounded like drum beats which echoed the maze of twisted trunks. And the very shade itself seemed to coil and weave itself through the seemingly endless maze. Each thicket looked like the last, each gnarled trunk or rotten log seemed like the ones which had come before it.

The forest was a maze of twisted monotony, a labyrinth of sensory deprivation. And all around them the trees themselves seemed to creep in or closer. To the point that they could sweat that tree had moved a foot to the left or that trunk was 3 inches farther away before they blinked.

It was maddening as the monotony of the maze seemed to bleed into the paranoia. The trees were magical, they could sense as much, but even the energy of the enchanted forest seemed to sit still, as the small group quickly grew hopelessly lost.

Nex
The sword passed harmlessly through the shadowy hand. And a bone chilling cold shot through arkhan where the shadowy appendage grazed him. The rest of the shadowy giant pulled itself out of the street floor and condensed into a 12 foot black humanoid with no features. I seemed to sniff the air, momentarily confused about where it was, before its arms stretched out reaching for Mariana, somehow sensing her.

“having trouble?” An oddly out of place cheery voice yelled down from the roof of an adjacent building. When the small group looked up they saw a man in an overcoat with eyes like flaming ice, with his arms and torso covered in fresh bandages. “I mean I swear, you monsters for being around so long seem to never have a clue on how to handle the next alpha predator that comes along. Try this.” The man said happily tossing down a large flashlight and a pack of batteries.

Arkhan/Cheon/Mariana/Zarok

Zarok, with his quick reflexes, quickly grabbed what oddly looking fellow tossed at them. "Huge flashlights?" Said Zarok then Cheon quickly come to Zarok's side, "I should have known," said Cheon quickly turning on the large flash light, aiming at the shadowy figure who was heading to the tree; Cheon ready the battery that was given by the stranger if they needed more 'light' power.

Arkhan was injured, "missed it barely..." said Arkhan looking at his wound. "What is that thing anyway?" the vampire complained as he quickly put his distance against the shadowy figure, putting himself close with Arkhan and Zarok.

Mariana quickly felt the unwanted presence coming close to her, she quickly launched herself to other object that could contain her power. 'Is that thing really sensing me?' thought Mariana, moving her shadow to somewhere else. As the huge flash light turned on, she would already have herself move to the side of where others are. The shadowy figure would have to face the huge flashlight that was turned on.

Chrys

Chrys listened to Fenix as they moved on through the corridors of his mind. When he finished, she asked about the most confusing and vital parts: "How can you not notice you're asleep? Anyway, how can I help? I could try to guide the other spirits out peacefully... or just tell me how to help you wake up. I'm pretty sure I could just slip back out, can't you piggyback a ride back to consciousness with me?" Strange encounters in Fenix's mind aside, there was no clue as to how to solve the situation - and Chrys was just a kid with little experience. Without help, she probably wouldn't be able to figure it out.

As for Ray, he was in a right predicament. There was no way he'd survive the treatment the fairy was showing to the fae that the group picked up, or even to Carlos and Selena. It seemed like a horrible idea to try and speak to her, but sinve she wasn't communicating with the one person that actually knew her, he doubted he could make it worse as ling as he was polite. It was certainly better than letting Carlos speak. As it was, Chrys and Fenix were their only chance, but if he didn't stall, they may nit live until their saviours woke up.

"Excuse me, madam. I'm sorry, I don't know how to address you. I just wanted to point out, with all due respect, that we are just looking for someone here. We have no intention to harm you or your forest." During the whole speech, he kept his gaze low and looked as unthreatening and respectful as possible.

Carlos and Selena

The two lycans grinned their teeth under the increase pressure of the vines but wouldn't give in as far as to loudly express the pain, however Selena did grimace upon noticing the fae's arm bent in such a strange way.

When Ray spoke up Carlos decided to "help", apparently couldn't helping himself from making another smart ass comment.
"What he said, anyway this is clearly a private matter for you, so if you wouldn't mind letting us go, we will be quietly on our way." Despite his smart mouth, his tone did let out subtle traces of pain from his current position, which wasn't exactly comfterble.

Despite agreeing with Carlos, Selena couldn't help but shigh at his words, there were countless better ways in which he could of said that.
"What my friend here was trying to say, was that we had no intention of causing any sort of trouble for you, his smart mouth is just a coping mechanism due to his ego." Selena spoke up trying to repair any damage Carlos' attitude might of caused.

Nex
The newcomer gave an overly exaggerated sigh and pout from his perch on the rooftop. “And even more so you think being around as long as all of you have been would give you plenty of time to learn some manners. See when people help you say thank you.” His casual tone seemed to make him either ignorant or unconcerned about the situation below him. Both frightening prospects.
“ For an immortal vampire your pretty slow aren’t you.” The oddly cheery man called down to Arkhan. “It’s a shadow demon, not entirely sure which one it is exactly but as you can tell they don’t have a lot of distinguishing features. See now you got it.” The man jeered as the flashlight seemed to rip through the shadowy appendages of the shadow as it closed in on Cheon. The shadowy giant recoiling back.

Rin, Silver,

‘Chryse
Fenix pondered for a moment, thinking over Chrys’s suggestions. “Ya the piggyback thing will probably work. Or at least I think it well, ya, yay a lets go with that… like now!” Fenix seemed terrified to stay inside his own head any longer. And given the pack of spirits trying to rip him to shreds it sort of made sense.

Gravyard
The little fairy girl seemed to not notice the others aside from her Fae ex currently having bones broken until Ray spoke up. She blinked as if waking up noticing the small boy for the first time. “You are adorable” She squealed delightfully pinching both of Ray’s cheeks, the vines tightening around carlos and selena seeming to go a bit more lax at the fairies delight. “look at you, you are so tiny, such an adorable little baby.” And at that she noticed Carlos and Selena’s words. “OMG PETS!!!!” she squealed again even more gleefully rushing over to carlos and selena and scratching their hair. “Good kitties who wants a treat, yes you do yes you do.”

Arkhan/Cheon/Mariana/Zarok

"Well, thank you, stranger and I have to honest with you. I am pretty young for a vampire." Said Arkhan, looking at the man with a smile.

"Sorry, and thank you stranger. Our life was in danger and so I had forgotten my manners." Zarok added as well, staring at the shadow demon, and he held the large flash light with ease and let the light touched the shadow demon, causing the demon to step further away from the group.

Cheon on the other hand, let the strong lycan take care of heavy flashlight, summoning Revelation on both of his hand, enchanting it with the sacred bullet and light property.
He fired at the shadow demon; with such enchanted property, bullets would explode as it touches the shadowy figure, and as it explodes the holy light would be illuminated. "Well, thank you stranger. Name is Cheon. Yours?" Cheon asked the the stranger, glancing at him for few seconds and returning his gaze at the shadow demon.

Mariana who was still in shadow form, would not be affected by such property as she moved further away from the shadow demon.

Leiv wrote:

  Ghosty

Spoiler:

 
Team-M- Maxwell Raven Surge

 

  “How long has it been, team leader?” questioned Raven as the trio continued to slowly progress forward.

  “According to my smart watch with the built in GPS technology, Oh wait you people didn’t present me with one with the new getup.” Clearly the atmosphere around the group was getting snarky.

  “You should have grabbed if from that one dead guy that we saw on the road behind. Clearly it was useless to him.” Raven continued.

  “What dead guy?” Maxwelll questioned the bird lady as he turned to his left to look at her.
  

  Raven appeared to be shuffling her feet along as she mindlessly tried to keep up with the strides of the other two. The light in her eyes seemed far away like as if her entire self wasn’t with them.
  

  “Hey, what’s up with you? You with us? We need you alert here.” Spoke a concerned friend of hers as he snapped his fingers in front of those vacant eyes.

  “Huh, what, the bastard had it coming!” Raven spoke out load as she snapped back at the sound of Maxwell’s fingers snapping.

  “Seems like she even fantasizes of torturing people even when sleepwalking.” Surge remarked as he too stopped to look at her.

  “Raven! What’s gotten into you? If you can’t walk then turn into you other form and perch up on my shoulder.” Maxwell sternly told her, in hopes of jolting her out of her stupor.

  “Stop shouting at me! And what’s gotten into me you ask. I’ll tell you what’s gotten into me. I’ve been walking for what seems like hours and we haven’t gotten any closer to wherever we have to be and we walk past all these trees and I’m not allowed to eat anything. I’m tired and I just want to lay down on the ground and chomp on the next succulent thing beside me!” Raven bellowed out like as if she was having one of her fits, when she doesn’t get what she wants, fast. She then turned towards Surge and snapped at him next, “I thought you said that you had this and that we’ll get there in no time, all you’ve done is get us lost. Do you even know where the heck we are, because it all looks the same to me!?”

  “We are in a forest after all, it’s supposed to look the same. Do you even know what a forest is?” Surge retorted back with raised eyebrows and a smirk.

  “Why you…” Raven was ready to pounce at Surge as Maxwell held her back as she thrashed her arms about.

  “You’re not helping.” Maxwell told off Surge.

  Turning back to face front, “she’s gotten back her strength, hasn’t she. Seems to me she’ll live for now.”
  

  After things settled down, basically meaning that Raven was no longer scowling at Surge, Maxwell cleared his throat to get their attention.

  “Okay, it seems like we aren’t getting anywhere by simply moving forward or sideways for that matter. The trees aren’t being any help… physically that is.” Maxwell walked towards the next tree closest to them, “I was really hoping that It wouldn’t have come to this but I feel like we might be getting low on time and I don’t feel like testing the Masked-Man’s patience.” The seer calmly placed his palm on the tree trunk. Digging into his robes with his right hand, Maxwell drew out the flask with the yellow liquor that they were to plant into the elder tree; handing the flask to Raven, “I’ll be quick to return, but if I pop out at the elder tree, I’ll send you the location with our telepathic bond. In that case, the two of you would need to speed through to reach me. Surge can carry the flask as he can leave parts of his body materialized while the rest is turned into fluid energy when needed to increase his mobility.”
  
  Raven held onto the flask with the engraved runes as she stepped back.
 
  “You sure about this, Maxwell, it could backfire?” Surge questioned his teammate with a warning tone.
 
  Maxwell smiled, “I’m aware of the double edge nature but we’re running out of options. Plus, I may be in and out before raising any flags. It’s just like hacking into a target company’s servers.” But then with a solemn face, turned away from them, “If I fail and you deem it necessary, you have my permission to blaze through. The picnic spot must be found.”
  

  There was a flash as Maxwell’s body exploded into countless energy particles before all seeping into the tree that he had his hand upon.
                                                                                                                 
  

Spoiler:

  “That’s the easy part and now to find the open ports where the transmission would be forwarding from.”

  The theory is that as all plants are living sentient beings and are connected to each other by their roots. Maxwell should have entered into a network of thoughts channeling from one plant to another and as the living energy flow is present, Maxwell should be able to decipher the source root direction which it would be emitting from. The draw back would be to not give away his intentions of locating the Elder tree as his picnic spot to any other higher sentient being that may be tapped into the mystic energy that the forest is bathed in. Maxwell in the past has managed to push thoughts into sentient creatures from the Animal Kingdom to make them think of his presence as their own, but he didn’t have that much experience with plants. He knew that they were living, but always used them as stepping stones to get from one spot to another whenever needed. He has traversed through entire landscapes in huge leaps by riding the life force of entwined patches of greenery so he has the understanding of Mother Nature’s Mystic energy flowing through objects touched by it but understanding them on a sentient level, communicating, interfacing with the thought process of a plant; let’s just say that Maxwell was not a Druid or Sage in that department.