Bambou

Bambou won the race while the court was sleeping. Giant bamboo — the fastest-growing woody plant on Earth — can add a meter in a single day, and he once took a bet against a whole grove of young Skyreach climbers: dawn to dawn, tallest new growth wins. They measured him at sunset, laughed at the modest shoot, and went to bed. At dawn he was four feet taller, and the grove paid up in the only currency that matters: astonishment. "Speed," he says, "is just patience that learned to sprint." His culms are thick as a thigh, his stands a green cathedral built overnight. The Wanderers love him — a tree that treats the road as a racetrack. Old trees warn that fast growth is weak growth. He bends in the typhoon and straightens after, and says: "Weak? I am still here. Check the scoreboard."