After my trip down to the lake and back, I had stocked up on more light crystals and filled myself up on the delicious lake water. As I continued up what I have dubbed the ‘Main Path’, I came across many more ‘offshoot’ pathways. They all either went sharply upward, or the opposite, sharply downward, but they all seemed to be clearly diverging from the path I was on. My path kept the same curve towards the right and the same upward incline. I was hoping that this was the pathway that connects to the opening at the base of the tree.

Thankfully, not only was I right about the pathway being the same, but the few hours it took to reach the entrance were uneventful.

Standing in the entrance of the cave, the previous feeling of it being alive and wanting to devour me, was all but gone, like it was all my imagination from the very beginning. Of course I wasn’t buying it. My very existence in this world was beyond natural, much less everything that I’ve seen or experienced here so far. Just because it seemed normal now, doesn’t mean I was imagining things earlier.

That said, if the cave had giant spiders, who knows what lived in the forest just out of sight. So now I’m torn. The cave with spiders and who knows what else, or the forest with simply who knows. Honestly, the choice wasn’t that hard. I really hate spiders. But I’ll need to go back down there for water at some point, regardless of dangers. Now that I think of it, I’m getting ahead of myself. What I wanted to do before I got sidetracked by the evil cave, was climb the tree to at least try to scout the area.

Thinking back, the little way I walked around the massive tree, there wasn’t ant spot that was particularly easy to climb. Either way, due to the rough and twisted nature of the tree, it should be relatively easy to climb. And at maybe 15 feet high, the trunk became clustered with branches.

But no matter how easy it looked, it was a more than large enough drop to injure myself should I slip and fall before reaching the first few branches. It didn’t help that I haven’t climbed a tree in at least over ten years, but with how thick those branches are, twice as thick as my shoulders are broad, and how densely packed they are, I’m at least a little confidant in catching myself on one of those if I slip out above the lowest hanging ones.

What gave my a little confidence though, was that I had raised the ‘Control’ stat. I was still a bit dubious whether or not it had actually changed my body in any way, but I was putting faith in both the weirdness of this world, and my understanding of what ‘Control’ meant in the first place.

So with shaky confidence, I make my to the tree and tentatively start climbing. Oddly enough, it wasn’t even that hard. In what felt like no time at all, I made it up to the lowest branch on my side of the tree.

From there I took a small break, sitting on the branch and leaning back against the trunk. It wasn’t that I was really tired, but I can’t see the top of any tree, even from here. So I wanted to conserve my energy a bit. From my vantage point, everything was still just a wall of green.

Once my heart rate went back down, I set back out to conquer the tree. Considering its size, I might as well call it Yggdrasil. With that kind of nonsense in my head to keep my mind busy, I kept climbing the tree, taking breaks every now and then to keep myself from overdoing it and falling. I was glad at least that now that there were branches everywhere, it was a lot easier to climb the tree.

I want to say it was about 4 or 5 hours before, to both my amazement and relief, I saw patches of blue peeking through the leaves. It seemed like that I my tree to the point where I was already beyond the tops of the rest of the forest. Just then I realized I had a small problem. Do I keep climbing upward, or do I climb along a branch until I could see past all the branches and leaves.

After considering for a moment, I think it might be best to go all the way to the top, so I could get a full 360 degree view. It would really suck if I went along a branch now, only to not see anything on this side. It would also be really frustrating if I wasn’t high enough to see very far.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But still, it took forever to climb this high, and even if its only because of the immense number of branches, I still couldn’t even begin to see the top of my tree. So I hesitate for a moment, then I harden my resolve and keep going. It doesn’t even take an hour before I start to notice that not only are the branches getting less dense, but they are also starting to look thinner. In my excitement, my breaks become less frequent and shorter as I start to rush my way up.

Of course after another hour of that, I’m drenched in sweat and my arms are starting to shake. In rapid succession, I notice the shaking, I choose to ignore it, and right after that, I slip out.

With a huge shot of adrenaline, I flail about before I catch a branch moments later. So for a moment I just hang there shivering, as I start to register pain in my arms from what I assume is a mixture of scrapes and bruises. I then slowly get on top of the branch and lean into the tree trunk. As I sit there, taking a break for the first time in awhile, I notice that I can see a lot more of the sky now. But I also realize that the sky has turned from a light blue to a much darker shade. Its getting darker. At least it wasn’t cold. And there wasn’t any wind either. As a matter of fact, I haven’t noticed any wind at all yet.

I was grateful that it seemed I wouldn’t freeze overnight, although the fact that there was a night in this world gave me mixed feelings. I didn’t want to think about nighttime predators. But now I probably needed to stay on this branch until daytime again. I just hoped it wasn’t as ridiculous as a year long night or something along those lines. I was in a different world after all.

Either way, it was probably a good time for me to get some rest. But now that I think about it, why aren’t I hungry? Thinking back, after I drank water from the lake, I haven’t felt hungry since. Magical water? I don’t know, but the idea of being hungry doesn’t appeal to me, so for now I’ll just hope it is magical water until I figure out my food situation.

Shifting around, I get as comfortable as I can without feeling like I was going to fall off. Feeling the exhaustion of the climb and the low of the adrenaline leaving my system creep up to me, I close my eyes and drift off into a light sleep, to tense from the height to sleep deeply.

With a start, I wake up. Flailing my arms in panic, I nearly fall of from my perch. Once I get a firm hold on the branch to steady myself, I get another, but more pleasant shock. The world around me was glowing in a soft blue. It was a beautiful and breathtaking sight, so much so that it almost made everything that happened so for worth it.

Looking closer, the glow was coming from the leaves and moss that grew on the bark of the tree. The sheer amount of both, set the world awash with the almost shimmering light. Just in that moment, a soft and warm breeze brushed across my face, followed by an almost quiet roar of rustling leaves. Not sure if I should consider the sound loud or not, but the noise was pleasant. For whatever reason, a feeling of peacefulness set in and for a few moments, I just sat there, loosing myself in the surreality and beauty of the world I have found myself in.

And for a brief moment, I feel that it wouldn’t be too bad to spend the rest of my life here, in the tranquility of this place.

But an accidental glance at my pants set the decision in stone. No way am I going to stay anywhere near a nest of giant spiders. My mood ruined with that thought and nothing else to do, I stretch and work the kinks out of my joints, then continue climbing.

Another slow hour of climbing later, I find myself at the top of the tree. The trunk just suddenly ends, branching out and creating a perfect place for the giant nest that was built into the crown of the tree. Of course, a whole day of climbing, just to serve myself on a silver platter to a what might as well be a dragon. That said, I didn’t see any scales, just feathers the size of my arm. As if that made any difference. I just hope the bird prefers bugs of humans. Preferably spiders.

Still, I don’t have much of a choice. I could just climb around the tree just below the nest. In the last bit that I had climbed, the branches and leaves exponentially grew more sparse and right up here I still had a mostly clear view… And my god, what a view. It’s hard to give a description that would do it justice. An ocean, complete with waves as the breeze swept through. Even the sound of the leaves in the wind melted together to reproduce the sound of ocean waves. But instead of a deep solid blue, it was an ethereal blue, twinkling and shimmering with the movements of the leaves.

I force myself to concentrate on the matter at hand. I need to know whats in the nest and whether there’s something there. It’s always better to know of possible dangers than to blindly ignore it and regret it later. So I slowly and as quietly as I possibly can, creep upward to the edge of the nest. I peek over it, heart throbbing in my chest.

With the sparsity of the leaves and moss up here, the glow barely shines into the nest, leaving everything in shadows. With a sharp but small intake of breath that I can’t hold back, my heart nearly jumps up to my throat. There was just enough light to see a large form roughly the size of a car, curled up and moving rhythmically in a way that I take as breathing. So yes, there was some giant bird in the giant nest. There was no way I was going to clamber around, and god forbid, in the nest, not at the risk of waking that thing.

So after thinking a bit, the best solution I can come up with at the moment, Is to climb just far enough down to hopefully be safe, but still high enough to notice if the thing leaves. It’s dangerous, but I want to wait until it’s gone and use that opportunity to quickly climb into the nest and use that moment to do a quick survey of the area.

I choose to believe that i won’t have much time, so I need to prepare myself in any way I can. On the current branch I’m standing on, I pull the moss off it, marking this branch as both the entrance and exit of my plan, keeping in mind that it was fairly easy to get up to the edge from here and that I don’t even dare try to look for a better spot right now. I stuff the still glowing moss into my pockets, hoping that it’ll still be glowing later for what I had in mind. With just that, my preparations were pretty much complete.