"Go on."
The Mother Tree of Desire spoke with extreme reluctance.
"..."
Lynn stared at the hole, his body visibly stiffening for a while. As he gradually seemed to grasp what the Mother Tree of Desire meant, his eyes grew unnaturally vacant. Still, he graciously walked over and looked down into the tree hole.
Then Lynn fell into a prolonged silence.
To be fair, the tree hole really was exquisitely crafted, nothing like the holes in pine trees or those pecked out by woodpeckers.
But that wasn't the point.
In the prolonged silence.
He lifelessly reached out and measured it with his thumb and forefinger.
"..."
He remained silent.
"Mother Tree, I know you really are a tree, but don't you think this opening is a little too narrow and short for me?"
He looked up, his eyelids twitching violently, and held up his little finger.
"Like a little finger!"
"What do you mean?"
"..."
Silence settled over them once again.
After a long while, the Mother Tree of Desire stared at him and said:
"My true body is a tree. What else do you want? I already told you we're not the same species. You should be grateful there's even a tree hole, and you're still being picky!"
"If you want it bigger, I'll make it bigger!"
Whoosh-
The little tree hole instantly expanded into a person-sized opening.
Wind blew out of it and buffeted Lynn's face.
"..."
╬!
The temples of Lynn's consciousness began to throb.
Hard!
Hard!
His fist had become rock-hard.
Lynn closed his eyes and held up his fist.
"Mother Tree, you're showing absolutely no sincerity here. You aren't seriously expecting me to hug a tree and gnaw on it, are you?"
The Mother Tree of Desire: "So what?"
Lynn: "..."
Fine.
Since things had