Free Nature's Servant by Duncan Pile

thirstily sucked in the latent energy in the soil. A long green shoot burst out of the seed’s casing and thrust upwards. It broke the soil with its long, green finger, eliciting another, louder gasp from Emea, and continued to thrust upwards. Gaspi found himself wrestling with the energy lines that fed it. The seed was drawing energy in at a tremendous rate, and it was as much as he could do to keep up with it. The green shoot was several feet tall now, turning brown and fibrous at its thickening base, and still it grew. He could feel the ground weakening in places, drained by the thirsty seed’s growth, and he knew instinctively that if he didn’t stop drawing from those places, the ground would cave in. He took those lines of energy and moved them to new positions, feeding the seed from all round the quad as the tree grew. And a tree it was! He spared a moment to glance at what had been a green shoot just a minute earlier. It was over twelve feet tall now, its trunk turning glossy brown and sprouting branches.
    Gaspi focussed all his attention on getting the energy to the tree without caving the ground in. He moved the energy draws further out towards the edge of the quad, soaking up the available nutrients in the soil. As the energy in even the most far flung draws began to run out, he glanced again at the tree. Its branches were spreading beautifully but it was only half grown and he ’d used up nearly all the energy in the quad. He knew the tree wasn’t going to stop until it was at its full size, and had no choice but to keep the energy coming or it would start drawing directly from his own life force. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he pushed the lines out even further, beyond the boundaries of the quad, reaching out several feet beneath the paths and buildings surrounding them, plunging the lines deep beneath the stone surfaces and into rich, untapped soil. The strain made him feel stretched thin, pulled tight like the skin of a drum, and he wondered how much more he could take.
    The tree continued to thrust upwards, three quarters of its full height now, its branches spreading widely as foliage budded and grew, covering it with thick, resinous needles. Sweat was rolling down his face, his teeth gritted as he pushed out the lines of energy once more. He ’d had no idea growing a tree would take this much power, or draw this much energy from the ground. He felt the sharp edge of panic as his hands began to shake. What if he couldn’t do it? What if he ran out of strength before the spell was complete? Would he burn out? He looked at the tree. Was its growth slowing down? It looked to be almost the size of a regular koshta tree. Yes it was slowing! Gaspi focused, calming his breathing, forcing himself to concentrate just that little bit longer. He had very little energy left, and couldn’t push the lines out any further, but he was almost there.
    The branches spread out another inch or two and finally stopped, the foliage lustrous and thick, and the upwards thrust had stopped too. Gaspi could feel the tree making one last demand on the energy lines as hard, dark brown shapes formed, one on the end of each branch. They swelled until they were the shape and size of the seed he ’d placed on the soil, and then mercifully, the draw stopped. Releasing his shaky hold on the magic, he fell to his knees, utterly spent.              
    “ Gaspi,” Emea cried and ran over to him, pushing back his head with her hand and looking into his eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked, her eyes searching for something within his.
    “ I’m okay,” Gaspi said, and then he grinned weakly. “That was hard,” he said, turning his eyes to the brand new koshta tree. It stood over a hundred feet tall, its branches spreading proudly in the dawn light. “Looks like it worked though!” he said, staring up at its great height.
    “ It’s beautiful Gaspi,” Emea said, clearly still worried about him, “but why don’t