WIP Excerpt: Chaos Season--Jenna's Tree

Yesterday was the summer solstice. In my fantasy world of the Season Avatars, solstices and equinoxes are important in the country of Challen. The Season Avatars are all born on the first day of their seasons--in fact, no one else in the country is ever born on a solstice or equinox. The Summer Avatars have plant magic and bond with a tree to help them use this magic. Here's a scene from my current work in progress called Chaos Season. This book is told from the point of view of Jenna Dorshay t'Reve, the current Summer Avatar. Here's part of the scene where she sprouts her oak tree.


The embryo inside her chosen acorn cried out for joy as it sucked in its first drops of water. Having already missed the best sprouting time, it was eager to grow. Jenna needed to force-grow it past the most vulnerable stages.

She put her hands on the mud, reaching for the sprout and encouraging it upward, toward the sun, and downward to create a strong root network. A green tip burst through the soil. Jenna directed nourishment at it. She grinned as it became a twig, then shot out its first true leaves.
“Back off on the rain a bit, Kay,” she said. “My tree needs sun too.”

The leaves worked frantically to make its own nutrients. Although the tree grew much faster than it normally would, Jenna longed to see it reach its full potential. She laid a finger on the still-delicate sapling, watching it lay down rings of growth around its trunk. Soon it was as high as her waist and as thick as her thumb. But that wasn’t enough. The tree grew taller and wider. When it was as tall as her, branches split apart from the top. Now she could press both hands on it, urging it to keep going. It obliged. She stared at its most intimate parts, mesmerized by the dance of life going on at levels no one else could see…

I hope you enjoyed that and had a great solstice!