And lo and behold another chapter. R&R and enjoy :)

Mac silently prowled the edge of the forest, biding his time. His eyes remained fixed on the blond team leader as he knelt next to one of his unconscious team members.

In the untouched area where the flames haven't reached, Mac observed with a feral irritation that the entire environmental group had survived. Some were sitting, nursing their burns whilst others were pacing with adrenalized patience. The betrayer Roberts was unconscious and was being tended to by Zack and another unharmed comrade. Smoke inhalation was the likely cause to his collapse and judging by the regular coughing fits by the team, they had narrowly avoided a similar fate.

Mac watched as the man beside Roberts spoke animatedly to Zack, waving his arms dramatically before bringing a hand to his head to rub it anxiously. Mac was too far away to hear what being said, but he had a pretty good idea.

Soon after Zack had finished conversing, he began seeing to the rest of his team, comforting them and urging them to move.

Mac narrowed his eyes as the group started helping each other to their feet; two of them needed human crutches to limp their way out of the treeline. There was only one place they could go to now and with the injured slowing them down, Mac would have a good head start getting there first and setting up an ambush. This time he would make sure to get rid of his loose ends.

Crysta surged ahead with Pips loyally following beside her. They had to act fast. Once they had reached the heart of Ferngully they gave each other one last reassuring look before splitting into different directions, leading their own group to their assigned tasks.

Crysta guided her group beyond the wall of trees that surrounded the lush area and drew all her attention to her given responsibility. First she had to establish how much time was predicted before the flames reached this part of the forest and work in an area that wasn't choked in smoke. Already the smoke tendrils were crawling along the ground like gaseous snakes and Crysta forced her group to a stop. She really didn't like the method used to control the fire, but she didn't have much choice if she wanted to save the forest as a whole.

Choosing a tree as a marker, Crysta landed in front of it and instructed her group to form a line a couple of tree widths between them on either side of her. Crytsa knew they must be baffled by the strange command but they obeyed her unquestioningly.

Taking deep breaths, Crysta gave them a moment to get in place and then knelt, laying her palms flat against the ground. She turned to the fairies closest to her and watched as they mimicked her, turning their heads to the others to do the same.

Knowing that everyone was in position, Crysta took a moment to get her thoughts together. Searching through the memories from the lessons Magi Lune had taught her, she allowed a brief moment to make sure she had all the information and essential executive methods clearly laid out in her mind, because in the end, this is what it all built up to. Without this knowledge, no one would be able to do what they were about to do right now.

Crysta let one more nervous breath escape her lips and then she began to glow. The pale blue light that radiated from her body seeped into the soil and illuminated the roots of the tree. The light continued to spread into the neighbouring roots of the trees beside it. The fairies either side of Crysta watched with fearful awe as the light eloped from tree to tree, coming closer to their own and then something happened that they had never seen before. The tree roots began to move.

Slowly but firmly, the roots began to arch out of the soil. Glowing with the magic that fuelled them, they began to crawl like florescent, stiff limbed octopi back towards Ferngully. Once the magic in the roots reached the trees in front of the other fairies, they tapped their own magic into the roots and helped power the spell into moving the trees away from the incoming fire.

The process was a slow and arduous one. Forcing plants to move unnaturally drains a lot of energy and to move trees that are this old, tall and heavy was very dangerous. Magi Lune taught Crysta that moving plants involved a lot of focus. She would have to be very aware to how the plant moved and be extremely precise to how much magic is used to make that movement. The result of using too much could end a fairy's life so this wasn't a skill that can be mastered by just anyone.

As the trees backed up and came into contact with others, the magic spread and those trees began to back up as well. The speed of the first row of crawling trees dramatically dropped as the magic was shared to the others. Crysta strained to keep the magic flow equal; if she pushed too much in too fast she could easily drain all of them of their magic.

Sweat was beginning to form on Crysta's brow and they had only managed to achieve 3ft. More smoke was gathering in heavier plumes and it wouldn't be long before the fairies would be forced to leave the ground.

Crysta held her breath for as long as she could when the air close to the ground was becoming un-breathable. When the strain in her lungs and focus became unbearable, she stopped the spell and flew upwards hastily, inhaling the clean air desperately. She saw the rest of her group shoot up into the air and gulp down the air similarly to how she was just doing. She felt a sense of pride that they fought to keep the magic going for as long as they did.

As they gathered around her, Crysta observed the results of their efforts and there was perhaps a 10ft gap between the trees. It would have been better if it was a little bit wider, but Crysta encouraged her team to use whatever energy they had left to bend the trees away from each other, making a significant difference between the branches. This would hopefully prevent the fire from spreading through the trees. The earth that was once occupied by trees had been torn up by removal of roots and buried any dry vegetation that would have aided as a bridge to the other side.

Crysta and the other fairies landed to catch their breath, but they couldn't stay there for long. From the top of the leaning branches, where they rested, Crysta could see the giant smoke cloud coming ever closer and acting as a early warning for the flames that would soon follow.

The sound of trickling water had Crysta smiling as it signalled Pips' success with his own task. Slowly but surely, water began flowing over the dry ground and between the masses of tree roots. The churned up earth soaked up the water like a sponge and soon the wide uneven path became saturated with muddy puddles. Orange flames could be seen between the trees as the water reached the other side.

With the extra distance from the trees leaning away from each other, the fire shouldn't be able to spread through the trees and the added water should dampen any chance of it igniting anything on the ground. Crysta felt her heart clench painfully for the trees they couldn't save. The fire precaution ensured that the forest would continue when the fire finally dies, but it also meant they had to abandon so much life to secure the safety of the rest. A necessary, yet cruel sacrifice that Crysta wasn't sure how she was going live with.

Crysta let her tears fall to join the steady stream of water below. As guardians of the forest, they had failed the indigenous life forms that were unable to save themselves.

With a heavy heart, Crysta and her group followed the water upstream back into Ferngully. When they arrived they saw the reason for the free flowing water. A large tree had been crookedly grown across the river, operating as a dam and forcing the water to break its banks. Many small bushes were tightly grown together to form a watertight channel and guided the water to the newly formed mud hole.

The melodic music of Pip's pipes drew Crysta to the damming tree. Vines emerged along the furrowed bark and snaked its way into the grass, pining the tree in place. Crysta flew over to a branch that just hovered above the swollen side of the river and let her hands dip into the cool water. She cupped her hands and brought the refreshing liquid to her face, rubbing vigorously like it would wash away the guilt.

Pips ceased playing his pipes and allowed the last note to fade into silence. He glided over to where Crysta sat with her head on her knees and her arms tucked in, her hands covering her face as her shoulders shook with barely silent sobs. Pips watched her with a pitiful expression and descended slowly to land beside her. Sitting down, Crysta immediately latched onto him and began to bawl into his chest. He understood her pain, but he could do nothing but comfort her as they waited for the worst to be over.

Glancing around, he noted that the other fairies had also settled into the nearby branches and were holding hands with their eyes fixed on the rolling black cloud of smoke that was gradually crawling over the edge of the tree tops. The sun's light began to wane as the smoke eased its way overhead, leaving a pale circle in its wake and sweeping the area into overcast shadow.

Pips grasped Crysta's hand and entwined their fingers, allowing his own tears to fall as they sat helplessly, listening and waiting to the destruction of their home.

To an outsider's eye, it looked like any other tree. An interesting one, but a tree nevertheless. Large roots supported a large stem whose bark twisted and stretched towards the sky in its desire to seek sunlight. Healthy green leaves clustered its many twigs that splayed like fingers on its branches. Luscious bright flowers brought clusters of colour to it's green canvas, but despite its welcoming appearance, no birds roosted in it's canopy, no animal lived among it's branches or roots and no insects feasted on its flowery buffet.

Even with its lack of inhabitants, no one would suspect that beneath its vast root network, the remains of a metal tree eating monster was the foundation of its existence or that the tightly entwined bark was a prison for a great destructive evil.

Despite the security that the great tree reinforced, it was by any standard, just a normal tree and it was as susceptible to parasites and illnesses as any other. The work of the fairies made sure that the tree was continuously in good health, but the threat approaching it now could undo all their hard work in a heartbeat.

Batty was prepared to do anything he could to stop that from happening. Perched on the highest branch, he watched as the smoke cloud loomed over Ferngully and made its seemingly undisputable path towards him. He ignored the uneasiness he felt from being in contact with the bark.

He would never forget how close he had come to death confronting the deadly abomination trapped beneath his feet. Right now he had no fairy-sized human to smack his antenna to snap him into another mind-set and completely override his natural instinct of self-preservation. The fact that he was alone in this battle terrified him. Last time Zack was there to guide him and stop him from making stupid mistakes that his antenna-character would drive him to make. This time he was alone, in his sane, uninfluenced mind and was very aware of the danger he was about to put himself in. It was taking all of his will power not to spread his wings and fly away.

He only prayed that Crysta would realise the danger in time.

Dum-Dum-Dum Duuuuum. Whatever could happen next? So much happening at once. I'm kinda proud how I've somehow unintentionally split the story to several viewpoints, well I just hope you guys like it cuz it's probably gonna be like this for the next couple of chapters at least. R&R