“There it is,” Quartes had murmured.  Keto had to double check herself.  It had been at least an hour since she had brought anything up and she hadn’t realized they were looking for something.  Furthermore, she had no idea what it was that Quartes had now seen.  They had left the Greenway this morning, Keto’s question as to where they were going having been met with Quartes’ all too common silence.  The trail they walked on well enough maintained but they had spent several hours going down it.  It had turned up from following a ravine and as they crested the hill there were the open fields of the Provinces before them.

Well, that and a tree.  Which is what Quartes seemed to be heading towards.

“Are we here for a tree?”  Keto asked as Quartes’ long strides took him out ahead of her.  The landian once again did not answer her question.  He continued to head towards the tree, eventually a palm reaching out and placing itself against the trunk.  Keto looked up at it, there where pink and white flowers and amongst them the bright red of apples.

“It looks like you’ve had a good crop this year,” the landian was saying as Keto neared.  His hand still rested on the trunk, his pupil-less gaze looking up at the bright flowers and deep green leaves of the branches.  There was a small smile on his face, a rare enough sight to further draw Keto’s interest.  She heard a slight snap, Quartes’s gaze shifting and the landian backing up so as to catch a falling apple.  “Thank you,” he responded before he looked over his shoulder at Keto.  Turning back to the tree he add, “I have a companion, would you spare a second?”  There was another small snap and Quartes caught a second apple.

Keto’s eyebrow had raised by now, fully turned upon Quartes as he gave the tree trunk a pat and then turned with both apples in one hand.  “That tree understands you?”

Quartes shrugged, “As long as it has an apple on its branches it has always dropped one more me, seems worth my thanks.”  He handed one of the apples to her, “Try it, they’re very good.”  Quartes settled down, a knee popping as he sat, his back leaning against the tree trunk.  After a moment Keto joined him, unable to miss how the roots seemed to settle around the landian as if they were supports or the armrests of a chair.

“This can’t just be a tree,” Keto continued.  Quartes had drawn his knife and was cutting his apple into slices.  She leaned in towards him, “Tell me we didn’t take a half a day detour for a tree.”

“I accidentally planted this tree fifty-four years ago when I chucked an apple core while chasing a hagerc across these plains,” Quartes answered, finishing with his knife and laying the apple slices in his lap.  “Months later I was passing through here and saw the sprout.”  He lifted one of the slices up on his knife, taking a bite from it.  “I hadn’t recalled growing anything before,” he added thoughtfully as he chewed, “I stuck around, kept an eye on it as it grew.  Kept coming back to keep an eye on it, brought it water, built it a brace during a stormy season.”  Quartes looked up at the branches, chewing on another slice, “I’ve removed a few branches that have been damaged were unhealthy over the years.”

Keto let her skepticism give way to a smile as Quartes spoke.  “You made something living,” she commented, Quartes smiling as he finished a slice.

“I didn’t even have to kill something to do it,” he added, gaze flashing up to the branches with a smile.  “I talked to some farmers over the years that grow apples, the seeds from these may not make the same type of apple.”  He looked up at the tree again, “This may be a unique apple in the end.”

“Have you named it?” Keto asked.

Quartes’ gaze came back down to her, his eyebrow raised, his form straightening up from the tree.  “I never thought to do that.”

Keto laughed, “People do often name the things they make.”  She shook her head as Quartes slid another apple slice into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.  Keto’s gaze looked over the rolling hills around them, returning as her mind thought over some of the landian’s previous words.  “You do understand how amazing it is to save a life?”

“I do,” Quartes responded, lowering his remaining slices, his face stern once more.  “I’ve no lost sight of that, nor of the importance of fighting Dragons, but…” he paused.

“It’s nice to make something, vice dealing with something already there,” Keto offered and Quartes nodded.

“Being the Last Landian doesn’t give me much other opportunities.”  He had said the line lightly but had quickly slid another apple slice into his mouth.

“I can’t imagine not having any of your kin around, it has to be hard.”

Quartes swallowed, “Sometimes more than others,” he offered with a slight smile.  “I haven’t ask, and you’ve mentioned your parents at times, but any kin?”

“Oh,” Keto answered at first, shocked by the turn in their conversation.  “Ummm, yeah both of my parents are still alive, or were a few years ago when I last past through home.  In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re taking us up into Koric, and I’ve been thinking of asking you to make a detour.”

“Of course,” the landian offered, “We’ve still got some days to spend and spare.”

Keto didn’t ask after their timeline.  Quartes had been recalcitrant on where they were heading, she didn’t see a point in losing that line of questioning again.  Beside she found herself smiling at the thought of heading home to see her family.  She bit in to her apple.  It really was great, juicy, sweet, and yet still tart.