“Hello, there sleeping guy.” A familiar voice sounded.

Sweet gasped as the person that was carrying him over her back was Cinna. He opened his mouth and asked with surprise, “Cinna?! “Wait, how? And… Where is Nick?!”

“Hehe, it’s not only me, but Jasper also came.” Cinna giggled and before she got the time to tell him about Nick’s condition, she added: “Hold on tight, the thread is starting to unravel completely, we are about to touch bottom.” Cinna did a strange motion while jumping over the walls as if she was doing a special type of rappel inside a cylindrical space.

Sweet sensed the movement but Cinna’s hops were so perfectly done, that they almost produced no sound. “Bottom?!”

As a ball of thread in Cinna’s abdomen became smaller, she did the last jump accelerating a bit before she balanced their bodies as a pendulum. The perfectly done movement adjusted their direction towards a strange passage in the walls. Sweet couldn’t think with such a fast occurrence. Cinna threw him softly as he rolled on the ground while thinking, ‘I touched the floor?!’

A male voice sounded from inside the passage. “Hey, aren’t you excessively surprised from such a small rescue?”

“Jasper?!” Sweet exclaimed but weakness could be sensed in his shout. He looked at the male bunny wearing strange black ops apparel and added, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Saving you, of course. It was all planned after we found you were kidnapped,” confirmed Cinna with proudness in her voice as she exchanged something with jasper.

“Cinna, he wants to hear the whole ‘how’ but we don’t have much time. Sweet, follow us. We will take you back to the surface so that you can also learn how to use the power of heroes. The Master of the Green-pea Plains will explain things better to you. He hasn’t explained all of the situations to us. The guy just doesn’t want to tell all of that two times.” Jasper grumped as he then instructed Cinna to do something while he opened a series of camouflaged locks and a door.

Sweet looked with curiosity, followed by weirdness at the scene. ‘What are these guys doing? Actually, where did they learn to do all that?!’ He thought as he gazed at their ‘abilities’ and followed them towards a tunnel surrounded by strange glowing wood.

“Come on, we don’t have much time before they discover the trick we used to rescue you.” Jaspers's voice came from the other side of the tunnel.

After being hurried, they quickly advanced through the hollowed wood. It was a long run and Sweet’s legs hurt since he was in a weakened and tired state. Cinna took him over her back as they followed Jasper who told them to maintain silence after his last instruction.

Sweet was so tired that he fell asleep for short minutes until Cinna awakened him because they arrived at the surface.

“Ugh…” Sweet opened his eyes slowly with light giving him a slight discomfort. It was after sensing Cinna’s hand squeezing his leg in a fast-repetitive manner. After a little inner thought, it didn’t take much to realize it was a signal.

“We have arrived at the surface. I’ll put you down. We can finally talk calmly.” Cinna explained softly.

“Thanks.” Sweet hopped off her back and landed on the ground. He was in the known Green Plains, which were still misty, but depicted an incredible environment with the sun lighting all from above. “Hmm, where is Jasp-“

“We are near our rendezvous point. I expect them arriving in 5 minutes or less.” Jasper appeared out of nowhere interrupting him, and explained.

“Jasper, stop doing that…” Cinna mentioned towards the shadowy bunny. After she finished a sound came from the open area.

“They are here! Stand behind me.” Jasper shouted as the sound appeared to close in distance.

Sweet and Cinna went behind Jasper. It didn’t take long before a huge Green ball with stripes arrived rolling. It was enormous and was going directly for them.

“Wait! Jasper, shouldn’t we move?” Sweet asked panicked.

“No problem, I thought the sound came from ‘them’ finding our current location. That big ball is… Well, that’s our exit transport.” Jasper informed leaving an astonished Sweet, then he stared at Cinna while adding, “Cinna it took you too long to bring Sweet out, Nick should be feeling lonely.”

“I know, but he needs to learn to do things by himself. I hope he treats the little bunny well...” Cinna expressed.

“Eh? Nick is already in another place?!” Sweet asked.

“We rescued Nick way before you. That’s the reason why those things may find us. But it seems we were overthinking things.” Jasper spoke trying to clarify some of the events.

“Don’t think too much about it Sweet, things will be clearer when you meet the Green-pea Plains master.” Cinna encouraged.

Sweet nodded at Cinna and then awaited the rolling bowling ball that evaded the bigger trees as if it was some game. He expected that the watermelon-like object would smash the trees but after seeing that he calmed down.

The big object stopped a meter before them. A strange growl was produced from its insides. At the same time, the huge green sphere started to slice by itself. It was like an armadillo unrolling as it extended perpendicularly to their facing. Myriads of small insect red limbs crawled from its sides. They were actually chubby but with a fluffiness like those mops that are used to clean cars. A huge mouth with weird eyes turned as in a welcome towards Jasper. Sweet scanned with interest the rare creature as it unpacked itself. He felt panicked at first, then fear became a curiosity. And in the end, he decisively wanted to pet it. The reason for this was that it looked extremely cute! Like some animated cats with an innocent and dumb gaze. It also had a smaller leave sprout over its head, with curls before the leaves, like some hat or hair.

“Hey, hey! How did it go? My little friend?! Jasper shouted at the creature using a sarcastic 'little' in his greeting. However, the answer from the creature made him exclaim again. “Wait… S-Stop it!!!” The creature licked jasper with a tongue bigger than the trees around the bunnies. It left a sticky and sweet pink drool all over Jasper.

Jasper continued to try to stop it from licking him, but it didn’t seem to surrender its intimate time. It was till the point that Jasper was triggered and pinched the creature’s tongue with both arms as if strangling it. He also added to the action with an angry shout: “I told you to STOOPP! You damn BUG!”

The creature separated a little distance from jasper and held its tongue with its two frontal limbs. It even made a puppy-eyed expression with its tearful and enormous eyes. Sweet gazed at the scene feeling sorry for the creature, he sooooooo wanted to pet the damn thing.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Why didn’t it like me?!” Cinna shouted towards the air behind them with an envious expression.

“Humph! Shut it Cinna, he selected me. Come on pal! We need to go now. Please show us your belly.” Jasper gazed grumpily at Cinna and then smiled at the strange creature. He was moving his arms trying to get the liquid out of his face and clothes. He then threw some strange glowing crystal to the puppy-eyed insect which eyed its parabolic trajectory before biting it with gusto.

“Ehm, Sweet… This is Jugger. It is a Watermelon pill bug, it’s a creation of… Never mind, you will know about it in a short while.” Jasper scratched his cheek after explaining. “Take this, throw it to it.” He gave Sweet one of those crystals to throw towards the ‘bug’.

“Here you go,” Sweet shouted before he threw the crystals that were easily munched by the big creature.

The satisfied insect gave a cute sound that was totally unexpected for its colossal size. The noise was followed by a roll towards its left side which made it smash a cluster of trees. Its green shell touching the ground and a pink-red belly with mottled patters facing the sky. One of its bigger frontal ‘paws’ or ‘Fluffy and chubby limbs, waved at the bunnies as if saying ‘hi’.

“It’s saying ‘hi’ to you, you should return the greeting…” Jasper said.

“Hi there, nice to meet you Jugger.” Sweet waved at the creature which closed its eyes and hummed a tune happily.

“Ok pal, let down the bridge. We need you to take us to your owner.” Jasper instructed the belly patting bug.

The pill-bug blinked and opened its eyes again, it uttered a soft growl as the middle limb on one of its sides formed a staircase like an airplane. The bunnies followed Jasper as they entered the weird abdomen of the creature. Sweet looked around at what seemed an airplane interior only that its inside had fewer seats and was red-pink in 'design'. The windows didn’t show the outside but instead glittered with a soft green-orange glow. The seats were black with wood-like patterns, they were cozy and comfortable.

“Sweet you need to adjust your seatbelt. Jugger will be entering another underground tunnel and it can become turbulent, so try to remain in the seat as much as you can.” Jasper informed.

“Thanks,” Sweet said while contemplating the instruction before securing his seatbelt.

“Okay, pal! You can roll now!” Jasper shouted as answering growls came down from something akin to speakers. “By the way sweet, see that bag in front of you. Hold onto it, you will… Need it” Jasper added in the end.

“…” Sweet looked towards Cinna who had the bag near her mouth and didn’t talk, but before he could grab it, the place started to tremble.

The whole thing vibrated and jumped, making sweet have a hard time remaining in its seat before he could finally grab the bag-like thing. He felt as if his stomach wanted to come out from his mouth, an awful and nauseating adventure. The whole travel’s duration was about 5 hours. The uncomfortable sensation of the trip was produced by the pill-bug changing directions or smashing dumbly against some things in its way.

When they arrived, the bunnies took their time to adjust their ‘green’ faces. They descended slowly with tipsy movements. Jasper seemed to be less affected as he was descending without much trouble. They arrived towards a huge underground cave with wood threads in the ceiling that were bigger than Jugger’s width.

Sweet could also notice many tunnel-exists at randomly made altitudes or directions. 'Another strange place...' was what he could think about. However, everything outside caramel falls should be like this, giving him these weird reactions. He released a long exhale before exiting such thoughts.

“Thanks, pal, here you go!” Jasper threw another crystal as they left the happy creature in what seemed to be a huge cat bed. It patted its belly producing drum-like sounds with a happy motion, till a snot bubble formed over its head.

They laughed and walked a wooden tunnel that took them to another area. In there they used a leave-staircase that automatically pulled them up.

“Where are we going, Jasper?” Sweet couldn’t hold his curiosity and ask.

“We are going towards the master root’s room,” Jasper explained.

“Don’t worry Sweet, it is the place where the Green-pea Plains master awaits for the heroes.” Cinna completed the answer.

“Wait, isn’t ‘he’ supposed to be this tree?” Sweet questioned, as the elder bunny’s notes haven’t been wrong till now.

“Yes and no. You will get a surprise when you meet him… Actually ‘It’ is a better way to describe the thing.” Jasper answered but hesitated in a muffled tone towards the end.

“Huff…” Cinna sighed without muttering additional information.

Sweet tried to comprehend what was behind Jasper’s message but ultimately failed. He followed the other two bunnies across many places inside the wooden structure. They arrived towards another intensive chamber, it had a door behind where a strangely shaped creature stayed. It was bigger than Jagger, and that was enough to describe how big this ‘chamber’ inside of the tree was.

The creature was silvery-white and as it opened its eyes you could see multiple dark colors appearing. It was similar to Jagger in cuteness, but it had the appearance of a white dragon. It had four wings resembling white glass and multiple organized crystal spheres as scales. It had a purple scarf surrounding its neck and its mouth was shyly hidden inside of it. Two feathered protrusions akin to dark golden horns curved over its chubby face. Its colorful eyes changed tonality depending on its mood, turning from a dark color towards a blue after it awakened. The cute but majestic face moved groggily, it seemed relaxed but when its eyes scanned Sweet they turned red. The next event was the creature adopting a defensive pose as its scarf trembled.

“Halt there stranger! State your business for entering the forbidden chamber.” A female cute voice resounded from the creature.

“Sweet, introduce yourself as a hero, we are already recognized,” Cinna explained.

Sweet approached the giant white monster and introduced himself. “Hello there, I am Sweet. A hero from Caramel Falls.”

“Hello, little bunny. My master was expecting you. I am known as Artace. I am sorry for my rude questioning. However, I need to confirm your identity as my master doesn't like me to do an incomplete job. I will follow my orders perfectly so don’t expect me to show favoritism.” The creature informed, then it opened its wings revealing a mottled pattern. White crystal lines could be seen in its wings, and its tail and horns were adorned by feathery like crystals apart from some golden sparkling dust.

“Artace, your master has Sweet’s spoon so he can’t show you the proof that way,” Cinna interjected.

The strange feathered-dragon like creature stopped before it could start its test. It looked confused as to what to do. As it brainstormed its next action, something made it tremble before it voice out. “My master has decided to let you in without the test, I was sleeping and he didn’t inform me. But it seems my movement made him aware of your arrival. You can proceed.”

The doors opened as Artace moved away from the doors, not by using its 6 limbs but by shrinking into the size of a white butterfly and flapping its wings. It hovered like a paper combat plane moving to the highest place in the current area. It was normal for such a big creature to have a big enough room, but it seemed to be able to go anywhere it wanted after shrinking. It also flew with such speed that its wings produced an airplane’s noise; its tune changed to high pitched after it reduced its size and left.

Sweet gazed as the little white creature entered another root, leaving the current doors unprotected. He wondered why it left or why it went towards another place. The doors opened but inside of it wasn’t another room; instead, you could see a flow of water moving upwards. Waiting for some minutes, a thing inside the water appeared.

“This is a water elevator Sweet, it uses water to push up this crystal structure. It will send us to the core area.” Jasper apprised and advanced with Cinna into the elevator.

“I see.” Sweet related his understanding to Jasper as he followed them inside the ‘elevator’ inside a reverse flowing waterfall.

The elevator had crystal-like walls, and you could see weird lifeforms that resembled fishes swimming inside the water. Even Cinna and Jasper watched the scene without boredom. As such, it didn’t take much for it to stop at their destination. The doors opened, and a green starry like mist entered their vision. They seemed to adjust to it as they felt the surrounding area turn clearer. Many smaller roots like hoses glowed with green-yellowy light over the ground.

In the middle of the room, two symmetrical columns were hanging from the ceiling. In each of the columns, there was a rock-like sphere. The height they were at made the rocks touchable if you were about 2 meters of height, something the bunnies could achieve with a jump. However, Sweet looked at something that called his attention.

The rock on the left had a huge sign with many lights saying: “I am a normal rock. Just your everyday rock.”

In comparison, the other rock on the right side had more than 30 blinking signs pointing towards it. They displayed the words: “It’s me!” - “Ask me and turn off the lights!”  - “I need more cats and love!”-  “Beep me!” - “Everyone wants to talk to me!” - “I am the tree!” - “I need honey to work better!” -“Welcome, I added you to my memory!”

Sweet looked confused towards the scene. He gazed at the other two bunnies with a dumb expression as he thought: ‘What’s this supposed to be?’

Jasper and Cinna were flabbergasted as they both answered Sweet’s doubtful gaze at the same time, “Don’t look at us!” They looked towards each other and scoffed their ‘resonance’ for saying the same things.