9 I Wuv You

Child of Shadow

Chapter 9 - I Wuv You

By theMadLad

Beta: Old man of the mountain, Shub-Niggurath

It was such a rush.

I have no idea what the hell Rose was talking about? Magic focused!? The lads only gave a shit about hitting something, and then hitting it harder!

"We should spar sometime!" Someone spoke to me over the loud music as we all danced about in the celebration hall.

"Huh?" I responded in bafflement at their words.

"We should spar some time!" He repeated, thinking I might not have heard him.

It was fucking Thor.

Thor, the God of Thunder and one of the Top Ten Strongest Beings in existence.

—So of course I could only give one answer.

"Fuck yeah we should!" I responded with glee as he laughed in response. We smacked our mugs together before downing the mead in our mouths in a single smooth motion.

After finishing the mugs we both raised them in the air before shouting, ""Another!"" Then, magically, they were once more filled to the brim.

I fucking love Asgard.

"Brother! Connla!" We then heard someone call our names in between swings of mead and both turned to the speaker.

"Brother!" Thor responded as we both turned to the voice, where a smiling man stood before being engulfed in a hug by Thor, which the man also reciprocated with a large smile.

I also took the moment to take a good look at him. The man appeared to be extremely handsome—a-almost as handsome as me… almost!

He had long golden hair and seemed to physically glow with charisma and friendliness. He let go of Thor with a smile before he turned to me with a mug held out in greeting while speaking with a grin, "Nice to meet you, I'm Baldur!"

I slammed my mug into his with a smile, "Nice to meet you too, though you seem to have already known of me."

He nodded with a smile on his boyish face, "Aye, I did. I watched your match, you're pretty strong. We should spar some time!"

Of course I could only give one answer, "Fuck yeah we should!"

While maybe not as strong as Thor, he was still a god in his own right and he was invulnerable as well, so fighting him would be fun as fuck! No need to hold back at all.

From that point on we continued to talk for some time, with Thor commenting on the match and his impression with my runes while Baldur would interrupt with occasional tidbits as I told them about the way I healed Brynhildr.

"Trees. It's all trees." I spoke.

""Aye!"" They agreed like the intellectuals they were.

"The vessels and veins are roots, the bones are branches, the skin is bark, and the spine is the trunk!" I spoke druidic wisdom to them like an avid conspiracy theorist revealing that birds were actually drones.

To heal her, I turned Brynhildr into a mere extension of the planet's network of life, a tiny branch linked to earth's all encompassing Mycorrhizal network. I simply gave her access to the nutrients needed to regrow and repair herself, and her body's makeup which could resemble that of plants or trees repaired itself as if it was made up of them.[1]

"W-what about the-uuhh brain?" Thor spoke with a slur as the divine mead infiltrated his body.

"The crown. The tree's khrown!" I slurred right back.

"Khrown?" Thor asked.

"You know, thee top part! Wit the branches and leaves n' shit!" I replied while bringing my hands up in circular motions, mimicking a tree top as best as I could.

Thor was about to respond but Baldur interrupted with a sudden question as he turned towards me with concern, "I-Is it alright for you to tell us thiss?"

I casually waved him off, "Who gives a shite, not like theres many druids left anyways. If someone else could do it then all the powerrr to 'em, not like theys could ever do it like I can!" I finished with a boisterous laugh.

Did it matter if someone tried to replicate what I could do? No. Because no matter how hard they tried… I was better.

Thor and Baldur were stunned at my words for a moment before they joined in on my laughter, "I knew there was a reason I liked ya!"

"Aye!" I responded while we smacked our drinks together once more.

From there on we only got progressively more drunk. At some point I think I became the liquor, as I seemed to have started a sea shanty and by the time I was sober enough to realize—everyone else had already joined in!

What a great fuckin' time.

""""—We'll take our leave and go~!"""" Everyone in the hall sang as the song ended before breaking out in cheers. Naturally I did the same, but had taken the opportunity to also get some more mead in the process.

By the time the song had ended most of us had become sober once more. Alcohol could only do so much to us with our supernatural constitutions, divine or not.

And after I noticed someone… I couldn't help but ask about it as well, "Um, is it alright for him to be here?"

Baldur looked towards the direction of my target before giving a shrug as he turned back to me, "Loki? Eh, it's not too big a deal."

Thor followed up with a scoff, "He's so obsessed with causing Ragnarok yet has no idea how to. But that doesn't stop him from causing endless trouble with his relentless attempts."

I had a thought. But one that hadn't quite connected yet, so I asked a follow up question, "Then why let him roam around freely?"

"As much trouble he causes us, he does the same for our enemies as well. He isn't a god of evil, not truly, he's more of a god of trickery and chaos—someone whose nature is to sow discord. We also prefer to keep an eye on him from doing anything too drastic, and not restricting him much is better for everyone in the long run—keeps him from doing too many actions in the shadows, his excessive pride also helps." Baldur answered with a chuckle before finishing with an amused smile, "It's not like he would ever find out how to start Ragnarok to begin with, he's been at it for thousands of years… and to no avail."

Then it hit me.

My past life's Norse Myth and this world's Norse Myth likely weren't the same. Because if it were… then Loki would know how to begin the end of the world.

The Norse Myth of my old world mainly originated from two books, the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, which mainly consisted of prophecies tied to Ragnarok.

Prophecies which would have told Loki exactly how to begin Ragnarok… starting by killing the invulnerable man right in front of me.

Baldur.

The Norse God of Light, and the eldest son of Odin.

His death would cause an endless winter, one which would foretell of Ragnarok's beginning. But, no. He wasn't just still alive—he was here getting shitfaced alongside me.

I knew that the Book of Revelation from the Bible still existed—I could confirm that for sure, so it wasn't that prophecy was impossible or anything.

…Maybe it wasn't that the Norse prophecies didn't exist, but that they were hidden. Baldur's amused grin when describing Loki's predicament came to mind.

After all, this wasn't a world where the Norse Gods existed alone. This was a world where every mythology existed all at once. Having those prophecies out and about was the same as giving the enemy a guidebook on how to kill you.

So of course they were hidden. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions a bit, but if it were true then that meant I was one of the only people who knew how to kill Baldur in existence.

…I could even do it right now.

But, it was just a passing thought.

Though I did wonder what else may be different in this world that wasn't from my own, what else had changed? What else was hidden?

I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice that Thor and Baldur left, or that someone else had approached me in their place.

"Connla?" A voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

It was Rossweisse.

"Rose?" I responded, a little confused at her sudden appearance. She stared at me with a very resolute face that was honestly pretty sexy.

—Then she proposed to me.

"T-take this ring." Rossweisse spoke, causing my heart to leap out of my chest! W-what the hell, it was so sudden!

I could feel the entire room go absolutely silent and stare at us. She really put me on the spot here. A-and fuck was it working, my h-heart was gonna pop out of my chest!

I could feel a faint blush crawl to my face, but from what I knew of Rossweisse after days of interacting with her… was that this was impossible.

If this was real, she would have been an adorable, stuttering mess that could not even utter a cohesive word—much less a sentence!

So I asked, "…Rose, are you proposing to me?"

She paused.

And then it was all laid bare to see, "H-h-h-hahh!? N-no, this ring allows you to summon the bifrost—N-not, t-that I would m-mind—!" She stammered to reply with a growing nuclear blush that would put the Tsar Bomb to shame.

It only got worse as she seemed to actually smoke up after noticing how everyone was paying attention to us.

I couldn't help it, I laughed, and not just any laugh, but a deep bellowing laugh that reverberated throughout the silent hall and echoed against its walls. By the time I had finished, I noticed she was trying to get a word in… but I was having none of that.

"Silly girl." Was all she heard before I pulled her into my chest and stole her lips, I couldn't give a fuck about anyone watching—this girl was just too damn tempting with her unintentional seduction.

But of course I didn't just steal her lips, no—I had taken them for all their worth and then some, before devouring them whole. By time we finished, minutes had passed, and the amount of saliva we exchanged was more than enough to fill a damn swimming pool.

From an outside perspective it must have been the most disgusting, raunchy, and trashy thing imaginable.

But for me?

For me it was hot as fuck.

And that was all that mattered.

Rose's legs gave out from how intense it was, and I couldn't help but pat myself on the back before throwing the dazed Rose over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

That was the action that finally brought the room back to life, as the silence instantly descended into sudden noisy whispers. I could make out various voices of both criticism and jealousy, but I didn't give a single shit.

I didn't care anymore, fuck everything. I was getting laid tonight.

I looked at both Thor and Baldur, who gave me a proud smirk in response while nodding their head with satisfaction. Then as if synchronized by reading each other's minds, we all raised our empty mugs and shouted.

"""Another!"""

Damn, those bros… they were cool as shit.

But not as cool as me. How could they compare? I had one hand occupied with some divine liquor and the other… gripping the bubbliest, juiciest ass imaginable.

——————————————-

By the time we got back to Rossweisse's home she had already returned to being coherent. But, she still neglected to say anything out of shyness.

Because she knew that after tonight… she would lose the virgin in her title of 'Virgin Valkyrie.'

"C-c-connla." Rose finally spoke with an intense stutter.

"Yes?" I spoke with a husky voice that could barely convey the sheer horniness building up inside of me. I was so goddamn hard that it hurt to speak.

"I u-um, I left Odin." She nervously replied.

"What?" I asked, visibly confused to the point of stopping in the middle of my walk even though my higher brain functions had long been stolen by Connla Jr.

"I am n-nolongerOdin'sValkyrie!" She spoke while finishing the words so quickly that they had jumbled together into a mess by the end.

But I understood her.

So I had to ask, "Why?"

"B-b-b-b-because I-I wanted to be with y-you."

Holy shit.

That was the cutest, most wholesome shit I had ever heard in my entire existence. She essentially just told me that she had thrown away everything she had ever worked towards, for me, some guy she'd known for less than a week.

My hands shook as I felt my heart leap out of my chest from her words. This silly, loveable girl just threw everything away for me.

And it shocked me.

I knew love made people crazy, but this? This was a whole 'nother level.

Love. This girl fucking loved me.

That kind of pure innocent love, backed by an insane amount of resolve shook me to my core. I realized right then and there that she was something else, something special.

If I had been hard before, now my pants were visibly tearing.

This girl was a ride or die, the best kind of woman possible. She wasn't the kind of girl you should have sex with, no—she was the kind of girl you should have raw sex with.

"R-Rose." I forced the words out of my mouth through tremendous effort, my throat was hoarse from the sheer need in it.

It seemed she could hear it as she was unable to do anything but make various noises and attempt to squirm her bottom that was held in place by my hand's grip.

"I'm going to teleport us home, and then I'm going to put a baby in you." I said not as a request or anything, but as a statement of fact informing her of exactly what I was about to do—that being, fucking the shit out of her.

"O-o-o-o-o-o-kay." She replied in the same hoarse tone I had used moments prior as her entire body shuddered in place. I took the mead in my hand and quickly chugged half of it before gripping Rossweisse's ass hard enough to make her 'eep!' and lowering her to my chest so I could carry her with one arm.

I just had to see the face she was making, because if I didn't, I would definitely regret it. And boy was it something to see, her skin was no longer white and instead her whole body had turned red… like a chili pepper.

I wanted to calm her down a bit, so before she could realize, the mug in my free hand was in her grip. "Take a sip, it'll calm your nerves."

By the time she finished drinking it I had already teleported us to her room, and just as quickly as we got here, her demeanor changed. I only noticed it when her arms had suddenly wrapped around my neck as she started to suckle on my earlobe.

"…I wuv you." She whispered into my ear with a hushed slur before laying kisses down my neck. But that wasn't all—she kept repeating it in-between each kiss!

F-fuck, I was being seduced! The meek girl seconds prior was gone, replaced by some kind of s-succubus!

I grabbed the now empty mug from her hands and tossed it aside before sweeping her into a bridal carry and laying her onto the mattress at the center of the room. She merely gave a dazed laugh while whispering words such as 'Hero,' 'Connla,' or 'Einherjar' under her breath as I carried her there.

I wanted to pull back and undress but she was having none of that, instead choosing to wrap her arms around my torso and pull me down onto the bed with her. Somehow she seemed to have made the armor over her chest vanish, causing me to land head first into her large pillowy breasts.

She tightened her hold over my torso, squishing my face further into her breasts as she began to ramble incoherently, "IwuvyouIwuvIwuvyouIwuvyou~ I. Wuv. You." before kissing my forehead and whispering into my ear, "My hero."

I couldn't take it anymore.

I ripped myself out of her grip and tore off my clothes in an instant, I no longer had the patience to stop myself from breeding this adorable Valkyrie.

I turned back towards the now nude Valkyrie who had vanished her armor with tangible lust, I was so goddamn hard that my lust layered through the air like some kind of horniness induced killing intent, one which was so intense that it caused even her emboldened drunken self to blush from embarrassment.

Milliseconds later I was looming over her stripped form, taking in all of her naked curves while feasting on her beauty with my beastly eyes. She was so damn sexy.

She tried to speak up but I shut her up by mauling her lips, briefly exchanging fluids with her before eventually pulling slowly back—much to her discontent, as she mewled for more.

"M-moar, k-kissu." She stammered between deep breaths that caused her chest to visibly bounce while she puckered her lips up in search of mine.

But I ignored her, much to her irritation… but not for long, as she soon gasped in pleasure as I instead chose to cup the underside of her breasts, roughly gripping them between my palms while extending my fingers to pinch her stiff nipples.

She squirmed as I twisted them, causing her to tightly grip the sheets as I leaned back over to her neck and whispered back the same hushed words that she had spoken to me minutes prior, "…I wuv you."

Her entire body shuddered from my words, but I didn't stop there. I nibbled her earlobe before laying kisses down her neck, slowly moving my way down while giving a separate smooch each to her collar, chest, stomach, and navel, until finally reaching her pelvis. While doing so, my hands were also busy, massaging their way down her body while on the lookout for any hidden sensitive spots, causing her to groan in pleasure with my touch.

She was beautiful, and not just in form but in mind as well. There was a reason that I wanted her, and it was because there was not a single thing I did not like about her… including her smell.

As I reached her pelvis, I was confronted by the faint mound of white hair resting on it that seemed to blend in with her pale skin. So, like any sensible man who had the opportunity to reach a waifu's snatch, I gave it a whiff.

…And just like her namesake, it smelled like roses.

The frequency of my kisses picked up as my upper lips reached her lower ones. Rossweisse moaned as I approached her pussy while spreading her legs wide and placing my head between her creamy smooth thighs to get a better look.

It was a thing of beauty, with soft pink lips that were already gushing with rose scented liquids. I simply couldn't resist lowering my tongue onto her vagina, making her whimper as I began to lick it, steadily forcing her moans to double in volume. "O-oh F-fuck."

Hearing her speak so crudely was strange, but I didn't want it to stop… as I found it really sexy. Especially with the knowledge that it was something only I could hear. So, without hesitation, I doubled the speed of my ministrations while lapping my tongue across her pussy with fervor.

Her breath hitched, causing her to pause her sensual moans as I reached her clit, bringing my tongue under its puffy form before encircling it with lips. "Ooo-o-oh. T-t-that—W-wait!"

While her pussy had earlier been glistening like a honey pot… now it was different, fluids seemed to gush out of her like a fountain, increasing with each lap my tongue made around her cherry as I sucked her lower lips for all their worth.

"I-I-I'm-m c-c-c-cum-Cum-CUMMING~!" She hollered like a banshee, carving her voice into the room's walls as she cried out with all her being. I felt her legs break out into shakes as her pussy squirted rivers worth of her juices into my mouth.

Which I gladly tasted with glee.

Her cry of ecstasy eventually faded as she screamed herself hoarse from the force of her orgasm. But I wasn't done, no, I was only just starting.

I stood up to my full height and watched as her sweat glistened body struggled to take deep breaths due to the weight of her E cup breasts. She mumbled incoherently as I lifted her limp legs over my shoulders before injecting her with an adrenaline shot's worth of life force, flooding her system with energy while ejecting out any remaining alcohol.

Instantly she was back to life, and this time sober.

"C-C-C-c-c-connla?!" She screamed in embarrassment as she hid her breasts beneath her arms while I watched as her pale skin turned tomato red.

I didn't respond, merely looking down on her with enough lust to drown her in it. Her blush only became greater due to my gaze, causing her to dart her eyes around in shyness—desperating looking at anything but me.

…And for her, that ended up being below—where my twitching, hard cock laid rested on her bushy mound between both her thighs. I heard her gulp in nervousness when her gaze rested on my girth, causing her to shiver from its touch.

"R-Rose…!" She heard me groan in anticipation, with the vibrations of my strained vocals reverberating throughout the room.

Her eyes darted around the room, desperate to take control of her whirling thoughts… until eventually, she did. She stared into my eyes with enough love to even overpower my own lust, with soft eyes that stared into my own before speaking a single sentence that sent me into insanity.

"Fuck me." Rose whispered, forcing the foul word out of her mouth as I watched the love in her eyes become drowned in a haze of lust that mirrored my own, "Fuck me fuck me fuckmefuckmefuckmefuckmefuckme—!"

I plunged into her depths, ripping her virtue in two as I split her pussy in half with the girth of my cock. Instantly I felt like I reached Heaven, or in this case Valhalla, as Rossweisse completed her sworn duty as a Valkyrie and sent me straight into paradise.

Her screams shook the room as my penis poked her cervix, spraying 15 years worth of built up cum directly into her womb. I wasn't ashamed to admit that I had instantly came, I couldn't help it—I was so fucking horny, that her velvet walls' crushing virgin grip milked me without effort.

…It didn't help that I felt her do the same as I unloaded into her.

My eyes rolled into the back of my head as I tightened my grip on Rossweisse's juicy thighs, holding her in place as her body started to spasm from our shared orgasm.

Then, without even slightly wilting or pausing, my dick continued to hammer into her without remorse. Our shared supernatural physiques brought us untold pleasure as I slammed into her snatch with enough force to crumble a freight train, before gasping in pleasure and busting another load straight into her fertile womb as she bounced her hips right back.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—!" She screamed in delirium as I squeezed her thighs together, tightening her pussy around my cock as I continued to pick up the pace. I forced orgasm after orgasm from her body as she freely squirted onto me, but I wasn't much better, as she wrung out load after load from me in return.

I leaned over her as we fucked, baring my full weight onto her body as I position her into a mating press, stealing her lips as I pistioned into her quickly enough for my balls slapping against her ass to sound like the rapid firing shots of an automatic rifle—except instead of unloading bullets, I unloaded cum.

"O-o-oooh, it feeels sooo good~!" She groaned between breaths as I brought my mouth to her bouncing breasts, sucking them like a starving babe desperate for its mother's milk. "Fu—CK!"

My consciousness was already in the backseat as my instincts took over, pounding into Rose as directed by my lower brain. It was only after Rose suddenly gripped my cheeks and forced me to look into her eyes did I regain any coherence.

"My hero~!" She spoke, intoxicated from pleasure as she leaned our foreheads together. I felt my jaw tightened as I stared into her eyes, plowing into her pussy with enough strength to physically bounce the magically reinforced bed off the floor.

"Iloveyouiloveiloveyou~!" She murmured with fervor as her eyes rolled to the back of skull.

Feeling the incoming orgasm in my loins, I slowed my thrusts, before steadily strengthening the force behind him in compensation, "I'm about to cum!"

Her disarrayed eyes gained a new found focus as she zeroed in on my eyes, "I-Inside. Cum inside!" I felt my feet almost buckle from her words, but she didn't stop there!

"Make me a mother! I want all your babies, twins, triplets—quadruplets, I want them all! Cumcumcumcum!" She spoke with crazed eyes as our foreheads touched before she wrapped her legs around my waist to pull me deeper inside.

She had won, that fact that I came inside her already meant nothing, this succubus had successfully sucked the soul out of me.

I heard the bed frame snap under the force of my final thrust, as my cock drove through her impossibly strong vaginal muscles and directly pierced her cervix, unloading fertile cum into her unprotected womb.

This time it wasn't just her who started shaking, my own legs seemed to give out as well.

But I wouldn't—no, couldn't stop here. A vine suddenly emerged from the bedroom before wrapping around my ankle and flooding my body with energy.

By the time I had exited my orgasmic high, I was left with the clear view of Rossweisse laid out spread eagle on the bed. Her hair was ragged from our fucking as her sweat visibly stained the bed.

But, I don't think she ever looked more beautiful.

…and that definitely wasn't because I could clearly see her eyes were rolled behind her skull while hidden under sagging eyelids. Not to mention her stuck out tongue which could do nothing but drool due to the absence of higher brain function.

O-ok, that may be partially why.

I then slowly pulled myself out of Rossweisse's vagina with monumental effort, warring both my own reluctance and her own velvet walls' vacuum chamber of a pussy. But finally, my dick managed to come out with an audible 'pop,' bringing a flood of cum onto the bed that was so large that Moses himself would be needed here to part it.

After I finished groaning from the blissful sensation, I then grabbed her body before rolling her over, making sure to place a pillow under her face to keep her out of all the sweat and cum covering the bed.

Then, I just stared in a daze as I finally had that delicious bubbly ass in front of me. It was already puffy and red, but definitely more so closer towards her vagina. I couldn't resist, so with a lifeforce infused hand, I slapped her fat ass and watched it jiggle with enough force to spurt out some of my cum that was hidden deep within her.

"—Ah!" Rossweisse cried out from the sudden smack that returned her to coherence. "W-wha—?" Was all she could say before I hilted myself back into her, causing both of our toes to forcefully curl from the endorphins flooding our brains.

"Fuck!" I couldn't help but shout as spots dotted my vision while Rose buried her face into the pillow and silently screamed. From then on, I got into a good repetition of hilting myself inside of her and slapping her ass hard enough to leave my handprint in red.

Hours passed like that, with us simply fucking endlessly. Sometimes I would stand over her while on top of the bed just so I could angle my thrusts deeper while pounding her into the bed, while other times I would pull her hair back while railing into her from behind like a man possessed.

Time continued to pass as we fucked endlessly due to the support from my manipulation of lifeforce. We went through positions like a millionaire went through dollars, with us changing them so frequently that we could tell when the other wanted to do so without needing to be prompted.

At some point we stopped even speaking to one another in anything but grunts or moans, doing nothing but primal sex like two wild animals who overdosed on aphrodisiacs.

…And then finally, perhaps after multiple days—we stopped. Not because we ran out of energy or anything, but because the sheer stench of the room brought us out of our lust induced stupor.

And when it did, holy shit… it was kinda scary. Other than her entire room being just completely fucking disgusting in a rancid 'needed to burn down with fire' kind of way, was the thought that if the smell had not stopped us… we may have continued fucking forever.

Or, until someone stopped us. Which would have been pretty embarrassing when paired with how nasty the room was. Going forwards we would need to be careful of having sex without preparing for that.

This time I didn't bother granting us any more lifeforce, instead I chose to just use some magic to clean up the room, which Rossweisse helped a bit with before we both collapsed back onto the bed in exhaustion.

She then quickly molded herself to my side like she was trying to blend herself together with me, and soon enough, we were a tangle of limbs that was only separated by our heads, and even then, our faces were still side-by-side, staring into each other's eyes.

No words were necessary as we embraced, any shyness in our actions was gone as we held hands and gave each other a lingering kiss. I rubbed her back, particularly her booty, which she responded with the use of a smug smirk, before she rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me while starting to trace her fingers over my chest.

But eventually, we drifted off to a well deserved rest as she nudged her head at the crook of my neck, but not before leaving me a final whisper.

"I-I wuv you."

Haha.

"…I wuv you too."

Silly girl.

Even though she may not have actually proposed to me earlier, it didn't matter, as this girl was mine… and I was never letting her go.

==================

Author's Notes

AHHHHHHH I WANT TO FUCKING PUKE!!

I cringed so hard writing this, so if you liked it then pat yourself on the back—because your happiness came at the cost of mine!!! Anyways, this was my first time writing smut, tell me your thoughts.

Leave a like if you enjoyed, and comments, comments make me happy!

Join the discord at, https://discord.gg/AMyqBN2

Glossary

[1] Mycorrhizal network, also referred to as the Wood Wide Web, is an underground hyphal network created by mycorrhizal fungi that connects individual plants together and transfers water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals.

Several studies have demonstrated that mycorrhizal networks can transport carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, water, defense compounds, and allelochemicals from plant to plant.

The flux of nutrients and water through hyphal networks has been proposed to be driven by a source–sink model, where plants growing under conditions of relatively high resource availability (e.g., high-light or high-nitrogen environments) transfer carbon or nutrients to plants located in less favorable conditions. A common example is the transfer of carbon from plants with leaves located in high-light conditions in the forest canopy, to plants located in the shaded understory where light availability limits photosynthesis.