What horses? She's sure she couldn't have missed a group of horses in these plains! Were they invisible except for an enormous aura of fear?

Now she's annoyed; it irks the tracker in her, the woman who lives and breathes and knows the land she moves in, to whom nothing is unfamiliar except the utterly unnatural and often not even that.

But she squashes the feeling ruthlessly. However familiar and friendly this world looks, it is alien. She must expect the unfamiliar - must suspect herself of missing it when she does not see it, even - and she also must grow used to feeling that way for decades to come.

And she can't go chasing down every unfamiliar trail, even though she'd love to do just that for those long decades to come, while a forest in danger has no druids to protect it.

Tora would like to reassure the nearby animals that they have nothing to fear while she's around, but this presents as many as several difficulties!

They'll press on to the forest, then, and give the wizard's tower a wide berth for now. They pass without trace, and stay out of sight of the humans and orcs, to discourage them from following her exactly; but she does not make their approach entirely undetectable. If sharp-eyed scouts report to Saruman that a pair of tigers entered the forest, well, let him worry. He will not see her coming if she truly takes to the warpath; until then, they will not live a life of fugitives.

(A real wizard might see her coming; but real wizards do not need to fell a forest to fuel their forges - they use bound fire elementals instead.)

Fangorn Forest feels instantly cooler and slower-paced and less eventful than the plains around it.  Birds peer down at them from the branches above.

The trees seem to lean in toward them inquisitively.  It might be a wind they can't feel among the trees... or maybe something more.

"We seek the guardians of the forest," Aria calls out. "We come in peace, and hopefully with aid." What was the name Gandalf gave her - "we were sent by a friend to find the treant Treebeard."

Unfortunately she can only speak the human tongue of Rohan, without someone to target with her tongues, but hopefully the treants might know it? She repeats herself in Sylvan, which is said to be a universal tongue, although she really doesn't expect that to hold off-planet. (Then again, this place has humans and tigers and treants...)

If no reply is forthcoming quickly, she will ask the local birds if they know of any local trees that walk around. She hopes that one of these straightforward approaches will work, because the treants really should be keeping a close watch on the edge of their forest that is being killed, even if they are not yet ready to fight an all-out war. Finding treants that are trying to hide could take her a long time.

The trees might be nodding, but if they recognize either of those languages, they aren't answering anything more.

But when she asks the birds, one crow jumps down to a lower branch, looks at her, and nods before flittering off northwards further into the forest.

They follow carefully, watching out for any danger; a forest generally hostile to outsiders is a place to step lightly.

Will the crow let them keep up with it on foot? Aria can fly after it but Tora can't (easily) do the same.

Oh yes, the crow keeps looking back and alighting on branches to wait for them to catch up.

It's some ways (with rabbits and other small ground animals scurrying out of their way), over stretched-out tree roots reaching out to little rivulets or patches of sunlight.  The wood is getting richer and browner now as they're deeper in the forest.

Before too long, they come to a sharp slope, with a set of rocks leading up it that almost look like steps... but uneven steps, so uneven they might be natural.

Something relaxes minutely inside her at the sight of a healthy forest, well-cared for and well-lived in.

She wants to go home eventually. After she has helped this forest and grown to know it and the lands and world around it. If she had to be transported to another world then this one, with its forests and birds and tigers, and rangers instead of wizards - it is not a bad world to live in, for a while.

Tora is so glad to see Aria relaxed and happy(er)!

She thinks it's not just the sense of clear mission, either. It's probably some little sign of the forest that a foreign tiger can't quite smell, some tuft of cloud speaking of the rains and the rainbow to come.

All of Aria's stories about a part inseparable from the whole, a race that can only live in a life-web of a myriad others, are really metaphors about herself. Aria can't thrive and be happy without the world she loves, the tangled web of relationships that only she is wise enough to grasp. 

Tora is very simple. She just needs Aria, and needs her to be happy; everything else she needs, prey and meadows and sunshine and friendly people, follows from that, part of Aria's life-web. She'll follow where she leads, and do anything for her, because Aria is the world she swims in.

Right now that means following a crow up a hill, which is a very ordinary kind of experience really. Later she might need to bite off an evil wizard's head in his tower. Whatever it takes, for the world to be healthy and thriving and with enough space to be Good.

The forest is a little thinner at the top of the steps, with fewer oaks and more rowans.  Their plump fruit dangles from thick grey branches covered with green leaves.  A rivulet is babbling not far away.

After not too long, the crow perches in a lower branch of a rowan and starts preening itself.

Next to the rowan the bird is perched in is another rowan tree that looks sparser than most, without any fruit.  Its bark is smooth, with fine grey-green covering its crown.

After a minute, it sways toward Aria and Tora, even though they can't feel any wind.

... Or at least, he looks like a rowan tree.

The tree doesn't, exactly, look like a treant. But this is a strange forest; it might be another plant creature, or a treant's animated servant.

Aria turns towards it, and repeats her message. If that gets no reply, she'll cast speak with plants and try talking to the tree that way; unfortunately that spell only lasts a few minutes, so she can't exactly canvass the forest with it, while her permanent tongues should get across to any plant creature.

The ent bends down to look at her.  She can see his eyes now, amid his leaf-like hair and beard.

He bends a branch - arm - over to scratch at his beard, and replies - to her tongues statement - in what she might be able to tell is a different language* than what Gandalf or the villagers spoke.

"Humm, humm, it has been long since a friend came in peace to the forest.  Too long, perhaps.  And even longer since we saw any speaking cats...  Where do you come from?"

* Sindarin

A treant after all! Excellent.

"I greet you, treant of Fangorn forest," she replies formally in the same language, and makes a gesture of respect (*). "I am Aria, a druid of the Verduran Forest circle." (Does it handle the term 'druid' as well as Rohirric did?) 

"With me is Tora. She cannot speak your language; I have tongues, a translation spell, but I can only use it on myself. With your permission, I would like to cast share language on you, a spell to let you speak our language for a day, so she can join the conversation." 

"The Verduran forest is on the continent we call Avistan, on the planet we call Golarion. We came here in a teleport (**) accident a few days ago. One of the first people we met was a human mage -" she's not going to call him a 'wizard' in yet another unknown language, that sounds like it would just complicate and confuse matters - "who called himself Gandalf. He thinks this is another world than Golarion entirely."

"He also told us about the danger to your forest from Saruman's tree-logging, which is why we came straight here. On Golarion, druid circles serve as the protectors of forests, and logging is one of the most common threats from human neighbours. We hope to be able to help." Logging is, in fact, the threat to the Verduran, because of its blackwood trees. If Gandalf had wanted to distract her, he'd chosen the best possible call for action to set her immediate course.

"And we would love to learn more, of your forest and these lands and this world, if you will teach us about them, and if time permits." (In her experience, treants love to talk.)

(*) Like bowing, but with your forelimbs and your tail.

(**) instantenous-translocation. What a a good language this is! (Although, 'an accidental translocation out of The Cage' might sound a bit problematic...)

The spell renders "druid" as "friend of plants and animals", unlike in the other language.

"Humm, humm, so many new places you have come from!"

Quickbeam nods deeply with interest to this strange... Elf in tiger shape?

"And yes, that rascally traitorous smoke-blowing orc-gathering little wizard Saruman is causing so many problems with the Forest.  I have been thinking it would be good to do something about him, if something can be done...  Ah, that is the question.  If something can be done, and if any of us Ents will still be left after doing it...

"But that can wait.  Come, first, show me this translation spell!  I would be happy to wrap my tongue around this new language of yours, and speak with you of all the beautiful places you have come from!  This world called 'cage'?  And this forest you call the Verduran in the short-language - what is it like?"

Aria casts share language (Sylvan) on the treant, and beastspeak on Tora.

And now they can finally have a proper conversation, in a language they all share, about the shared things they all care about.

And Tora can finally contribute!!

She likes treants. Unlike many creatures, they don't see tigers as either threat or competition (or prey). They can take their time, lying together in the sun, telling stories of the forests they've known and the animals they've met (Tora is admittedly a bit weak on the plants side, at least when the plants aren't talking to her).

Also, they're most often Good, and are dedicated to the protection of others. A whole race naturally born - or, well, sprouted - with the values that take most druids painstaking decades to fully appreciate; that's something she really admires.

In druids' defence, treants have a rather easier job! They are Good, and protect the forests, and foremost the trees. Druids care about all life, and all (Neutral) alignments, and that forces them into contact with much more unpleasant parts of the world. 

(Not that she would dream of telling a treant as much, or Tora for that matter. Being committed to Good and to trees is, well, good, and some druids are Good too. It's just not what druids, in general, are for.)

Anyway, she'll happily tell the treant as much as he wants to hear about the Verduran Forest! 

...well, for a few days anyway. She's well aware he could listen (and she could talk) for a year, but they are on a bit of a schedule here, unfortunately.

(And she would enjoy hearing about Fangorn Forest as well.)

Quickbeam can indeed listen and talk for ages!  He'll happily listen about the Verduran Forest, and how the druids convinced the humans to leave it alone; and share about Fangorn as well, pointing out each grove of trees around them and its state.  He'll break into song -

- well, he'll look like he's about to break into song, but instead just stand in a beam of sunlight through the leaves and break out laughing for joy.

There's a background sorrow that comes out at some times, especially in references to felled trees and lost old friends who it's not clear whether they're the same or different.  The Forest was much bigger in older times, and Quickbeam is perhaps resigned to it but still hasn't forgotten.

Tora will be disappointed to find Quickbeam weaker on the animals side, though least weak with the birds who nest in the branches of trees and the squirrels who bury seeds.

At first, he'll roll the words of Sylvan over his lips in a contemplative sort of way.  But it's a while before he brings that up, remarking this language seems less beautiful than a language should.  "Not that it's bad at talking; it has maybe fewer words but we can build words up from each other like a tree builds layers of wood upon wood.  But here, the Elves want each word of their language to be beautiful.  I thought for a while - while we were speaking - that you were an Elf; is that not so?"

"I'm not."

"I'm not an elf, but - the druid ideal is to take on our shapes fully. I am technically, by some laws of magic, a human, but I don't think of myself as a human in dire tiger form; I am simply what I am. A druid, who favours the shape of the tiger among four-legged animals, the eagle among birds, and the human among the two-legged humanoids.(*)"

She has been technically-an-elf in the past, but that's a druidic secret not revealed even to close allies. And her present, temporary inability to take on the form of an elf is neither here nor there.

"This language, Sylvan, is spoken by most animals and plants on Golarion who can speak, sometimes in addition to their own languages. I could share with you the language spoken by Golarion elves, but Tora doesn't speak it; relatively few non-elves do. I visited Kyonin several times, the original elven settlement on Golarion and still the biggest one in Avistan, but I was focused on the local fauna. They have a very complex culture, and I know the language is an ancient one..."

"I could also share the human language of the countries around our forest, which Tora does speak, but I don't think it's particularly more beautiful than Sylvan."

(*) Unlike in Taldane, the Sylvan word for humanoids does not stem from 'human'.

"Tigers don't have our own language. I learned Sylvan and Taldane-human to talk to most people I meet. Learning new languages is hard! Of course I can always talk to Aria, even before I knew any language. And other druids."

"Humm, humm, I see your order of Druids goes deeper than I thought in your love for nature!  'Lovers of plants and animals' I heard you say in Sindarin when you first spoke to me, and indeed that you are.  I have heard Elves sing wishing for wings, or for leaves that can take in the light of the sun...

"I know some Elves have been able to change shape, though I have never talked with any of them myself..."  He shakes his head, with a rustling of leaves.  "Indeed, I have not seen with any elves lately.  The Elves have been seen traveling less, and the forests have been dwindling, and I believe the humans fear us.  Which has at least quieted their hunger for felling trees, except that of late we have had even less friendly visitors, those ravaging consuming chopping orcs..."

He shakes his head and turns to run his hand over a nearby rowan tree.

"Myself, I am content with my current form, as the ages might grow and mold it.  And that could be much more than most humans or Elves - these arms of mine have completely changed their joints in the last hundred years.  But you say you care for more things than just the forests, at your home?"

"There are several ways to change one's shape that are known on Golarion. Wizards (*) can do it with spells which temporarily change the body, but leave the mind unaltered. They study magic, and learn to understand the spell, but they don't need to understand anything about the shape they assume... and it only lasts for a short time. Anyone can learn to be a wizard, in theory, if they're very smart and spend a lot of time and of course have the right tutors."

"I actually know a similar spell; it makes me look like a tree, but it doesn't make me a tree, or an intelligent plant creature like yourself. It's used for camouflage, to hide, not to - understand trees. The feeling of sunlight on leaves is beyond my reach, and any but the very greatest of druids."

"I wonder if the local elves change shape as a wizard does, or as a druid?" Quickbeam had not heard of druids before, but the local 'wizard' she met was actually a ranger, so perhaps the local shapeshifters follow a tradition she would feel some kinship with.

(*) Lit. cunning-mages.