There are incredibly strange trees, deep in the woods and far from the town. Their patterns are subtly different from any Tsond has felt before. Nothing like this should have been created at all recently. It's not close to seeding (how does it even seed? It's not obvious) and it's too big to uproot so she breaks off some small branches and heads back, consciously stopping herself from running.
Several weeks later, she returns, her housemate in tow. Skei investigates the unusual patterns of most of the plants in the area while Tsond looks for the edges of the phenomenon, or any hint of a cause.