The atmosphere of the giant tree, illuminated by its glowing baubles, was as peaceful as it was eerie. Though, that peace was so easily shattered the moment Zidane opened his mouth. Auron turned his clearly annoyed gaze to the boy as the blonde suggested that he would go explore first and that the clearly more seasoned warrior should run if something went awry. The guardian heaved a sigh from his gut, maximizing the amount of stupid youth energy it could possess. However, he didn’t reach out to stop Zidane – not this time.

He watched carefully as the blonde began to scale the tree, each of them surely waiting for something to happen in response. However, nothing came of the action. The tree was still a tree, and the mysterious lights still grew in number as they settled among the leaves that seemed to go higher and higher into the sky; difficult to fully see. Auron rose from his crouched position at the roots, crossing his arms as he approached the base of the tree and catching sight of the adventurous youth that seemed intent on finding any way to aggravate their current situation.

“You asked what made me so cautious,” Auron mused, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he recalled their earlier conversation before coming upon the giant tree, “Experience, age, and death. You’ll surely find yours sooner rather than later should you keep acting without thinking.”

Though his tone was laced with a dark humor, each of Auron’s words hung heavy with truth. Being a dead-man-walking had made him less cautious in some ways, but he was still always the one to slowly focus on a situation, take everything in, make a plan prior to acting. He was never one to try something completely new and unknown unless he absolutely had to – say, following after a different rambunctious fool. While he wasn’t necessarily worried about Zidane’s fate, the kid was a stranger after all, he couldn’t help but feel some sense of responsibility in making sure the youth didn’t suddenly get eaten by a monster or smashed by a suddenly living tree.

While nothing came out to attack Zidane and the tree didn’t move, the wind did shift as the lights nestled in further against the bark. As they all found their places, they began to suddenly twinkle simultaneously – pulsating with the same rhythm. Auron took a few steps back as he took in the strange sight, just to keep from having to crane his neck to observe it. The lights glowed together gently, slowly … but as the seconds ticked by, they began to blink faster and faster, each bauble growing slightly in size from being able to fit in the palm of one’s hand to being the size of a grown man’s head. Their gentle golden glow began to change to differing colors of pink and purple hues, casting the dark world around them in stranger and stranger light, making the undergrowth more difficult to see.

The wind stilled, and some kind of survival instinct in Auron suddenly had the hairs on the back of his neck standing, his now-living heart pounding harshly in his chest, and every muscle in his legs screaming run. The shift was so sudden he felt stunned for a moment, frozen rather than in flight, confused by what had so suddenly caused him to feel such human fear.

“Get off the tree,” he warned Zidane suddenly, among the stillness, his deep tone the only sound carrying in the dark forest.

As the words left his mouth, the enlarged lights began to slowly drop from the branches – no longer sweetly carrying along with the wind, but purposefully coming straight toward the only two sentient creatures in sight.