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Philza looked out over the forest, feeling something distantly familiar settle in his chest. He had seen this all before, it was all a cycle.
He stayed on the porch of his home, careful not to go near the tree line in case of tricks. It was still an unknown, even if a voice in the back of his head told him exactly what it was.
The Neighbor and other visitors who dared coming to the home all had a disregard of the forest that made him nervous. Sure at first they were shocked and questioning. Where did it come from? It hadn’t been there just hours before. But it soon wore off and they brushed away the strangeness of it all as just another patch of trees.
The Neighbor at least had the sense to be slightly frightened of whatever it was. He would venture into the tree line, and try to probe Phil with questions about what he meant that first day the forest appeared, but in the end he knew it was something bigger than either of them and treated it as such.
Philza stood there on the porch after feeding the animals, staring out at the forest that glowed ever so slightly when night fall came. It had been a few nights since it last snowed, so the porch was still clear from when he last shoveled it, and he didn’t have to worry about snow soaking the bottoms of his robes.
“Afternoon,” the Neighbor called from across the makeshift courtyard, breaking the peaceful silence.
“Afternoon,” he called back. He took a sip from the mug of tea he had made up, but didn’t look away. Their odd neighbor had silent footsteps, but still he liked to believe he could hear him as he approached.
“I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s getting bigger,” Ranboo said, just behind him now. “I was looking around the outer tree line. It goes further out than it used to.”
“It will keep growing until it connects up with another forest,” Phil said. “It’s the way of nature to keep growing until it can’t anymore. If left to its own devices, it will eventually destroy itself and regrow again.”
“That’s a thought,” Ranboo said, a huff of nervous laughter escaping him. “But it’s not really natural, is it? I thought you said it was Her?”
That distant feeling pulled again. He tried to stifle it by drinking more tea, but it refused to budge or be distracted.
“You don’t know who She is,” he said. It wasn’t a question, it was a fact. He knew for certain that his neighbor didn’t. There was no way he could.
“I don’t,” Ranboo agreed. “But She sounds important.”
“I don’t even know if it’s really Her,” Phil mumbled. He kept telling himself that, at least. But he knew. He always knew.
They stood silent for a long moment, Ranboo being unsure what to say, and Phil having nothing left to. The wind picked up, and one of his hands left his mug to pull his robes closer. There had been a time when the cold didn’t bother him. Back then, he had his wings to pull around himself for warmth. Now they were rickety things, barren of many chunks and feathers and completely imobile. They were held against his back under his robes by a harness to keep them safe from further damage, but he almost couldn’t help but wonder what the point in protecting them was anymore.
“Do you think it will reach the room?” Ranboo broke the silence again.
“It might,” he said. “If it does, it won’t actually touch it. Any greenery that would try to grow near the entrance would just catch on fire and burn. It’s too far underground for any roots to affect it either.”
“I guess that’s true,” Ranboo said.
There was another silence, but Ranboo didn’t let it stretch on for very long this time, “What do you think he’ll do about it?”
“What?” Finally he managed to tear his eyes away from the forest, looking to their strange neighbor. Their eyes met, and the neighbor shrunk back just a bit.
“Techno. You know, when he gets back. It’s his property after all. Do you think he’ll like it? Or would he just cut it down?”
Phil thought over his words for a moment, and his attention was drawn to the cabin’s front door. His ender chest was in there with the will Techno left tucked inside. He still had a little more time before he was supposed to enact its wishes, but every day that passed made it feel more and more like it was too long.
“He doesn’t tend to mess with things like this,” he said, looking back to the forest. “I taught him better than that. He probably won’t think anything of it at all.”
“That sounds like him,” Ranboo said, and there was that laugh again. “He’d probably like the cover it gives the cabin.”
That made a smile tug at Phil’s lips. He thought about Techno walking along the fence, taking in the forest with a critical eye before deciding it could stay. As though he ever would have tried to remove it in the first place.
“He probably would,” Phil agreed.
“Wilbur thinks it’s weird,” Ranboo said. “He won’t go near it.”
“I taught him better as well,” Phil said, unable to contain the smallest chuckle. “I’m glad to see at least that hasn’t changed.”
“Should I stay away from it too?” Ranboo asked. “If Techno and Wilbur wouldn’t go near it, then it’s not really a good idea for me to, is it?”
“Do what you believe is right, Ranboo,” Phil said. “Don’t rely on what others are doing to guide your actions. You need to make those calls for yourself.”
Ranboo didn’t respond.
No matter how much Phil liked to pretend he could hear him, he couldn’t be sure how long it had really been since he left when he turned to go back inside.