But overall this was definitely a tree. In fact, it was a lot more like a tree than a tree normally is.

Practically no other tree in the forest looked so tree-like as this tree. It projected a sensation of extreme barkness, it exuded leafidity. Pigeons and squirrels were queuing up to settle in the branches. There was even an owl. Other trees were just sticks with greenery on compared to the sylvanic verdanity of this tree ...

... which raised a branch, and shot another tree. A spinning orange ball spun through the air and went splat! on a small oak.

Something happened to the oak. Bits of twig and shadows and bark which had clearly made up an image of a gnarled old tree now equally clearly became the face of Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully, Master of Unseen University (for the extremely magical) and running with orange paint.

'Gotcha!' shouted the Dean, causing the owl to leap from his hat. This was lucky for the owl, because a travelling glob of blue paint removed the hat a moment later.

'Ahah! Take that, Dean!' shouted an ancient beech tree behind him as, changing without actually changing, it became the figure of the Lecturer in Recent Runes.

The Dean spun around, and a blob of orange paint hit him in the chest.

'Eat permitted colourings!' yelled an excited wizard.

The Dean glared across the clearing to a crabapple tree which was, now, the Chair of Indefinite Studies.

'What? I'm on your side, you damn fool!' he said.

'You can't be! You made such a good target!'1

The Dean raised his staff. Instantly, half a dozen orange and blue blobs exploded all over him as other hidden wizards let loose.

Archchancellor Ridcully wiped paint out of his eyes.