Nita has herself a final lookout - absently grabbing hold of one last vine to soothe - before she takes her gaze, and her hand, to the trunk of the very hostile tree.

Or-

You're not a tree, she says, in her head and not even in the Speech.

You're pretending to be, maybe you're trying to be, but you're not.

Mongeese will have an easy time getting to her, but she simply freezes them, again and again.

But whatever you really are... you deserve to be recognized for whatever that is. Accepted, for whatever that is.

She makes that contact and holds it, holds it for all its worth.

If she's wrong, it's not as if she'll die in here. But if she's right-