Each creak and sway of the branches above them make Lollihops feel… uneasy. It's not quite the word they're looking for, but it is the one that sticks out in their mind. Perhaps it isn't so much unease as it is that uncanny feeling when something looks similar but is just wrong enough to set your hair on edge. That's what this tree was doing to them.

They lay their ears flat against their head, staring up at the tree. It was illuminated, though they couldn't pin point where the light was coming from. It certainly wasn't from the lantern they carried. Those shadows were underhoof and long compared to the cool white tones blanketing the tree.

In another life perhaps they would have been able to identify what kind of tree it was. Or the shade wizard would have told them.

They turn their head away, their tail flicking idly as they carefully pace the perimeter. The roots shift under their hooves. They looked like gnarled hands reaching up for something. Salvation, perhaps?

Maybe the tree was a holdover from the buried kingdom. Magic had a way of sinking into living things, changing them. Lollihops would know. They still had their quirks, after all, from when they'd been a frog.

"Lollihops…"

It's no more than a breath, a whisper on the non existant breeze, but it makes Lollihop freeze with one hoof in the air. A branch creaks above them. Something slithers out of the corner of their eye and they resist the urge to jump, to spook and run. They were an adventurer. A little whisper and a root moving in the breeze wasn't going to scare them—

Root moving in the breeze.

Root moving in the breeze?

Something touches their hind leg and they yelp, finally darting sideways and further away from the trunk. The root that had touched them recoils slowly, sinking back into the dirt and stone.

Right. Lollihops was going to leave now. They were not about magic trees trying to drag them down into the depths. They snort and shake their head.

"Farewell, weird tree. Try and feed on the next one." They swish their tail and trot off away from the tree, leaving its groans and creaks behindthem.