"Alright Cole, curb your enthusiasm because, luckily for us, there isn't actually a body to bury." Kreme announced, being met with Cole chuckling quietly.

Kreme paused.

"You okay?" He asked, a tint of concern could be heard in his voice. Cole nodded and stepped off the deck onto the ground below in front of Kreme. Kreme followed and walked down the cobblestone pathway alongside Cole. As soon as they rounded the corner of the house, both stopped before the view. In front of them, far off in the horizon, was a enormous tree that stretched into the sky; bigger than any building the teens had ever seen in the real world. At the base of the tree were many buildings surrounding it. It gave off a blue glow that radiated around the buildings and conveyed a strong presence, like a mountain in the distance.

"Well that looks like a plot device if I've ever seen one. Can you scan it?" Kreme asked, patting Cole on the back. Cole pointed his palm at the enormous glowing tree and cast scan. There was a long pause.

"Its out of range."

Kreme frowned then looked at their surroundings. Behind them, the house. In front of them the cobblestone path turned to gravel and traveled in the direction of the looming tree. Not much else aside from the nearby wheat fields and several trees beyond them.

"Cole stay here for a sec." Kreme dashed back into the house to see Mac sitting with a large pile of books next to him. Upon entering the room, Mac stood up.

"Good timing, I now have a basic understanding of this world."

"Already?"

"Yup. Turns out that to read these books all I had to do was look at them and pretend I was constipated for a few seconds. Then it all came to me." Mac laughed. "Did you find something outside?" Kreme nodded.

"Yeah." Kreme led Mac outside, walked him around the house, and presented the view of the enormous tree to him. "I found a tree."

"Oh wow, I didn't think a Yang's Oak would be so close." Mac remarked. Kreme tapped Mac's head playfully and spun in front of him.

"Neato. You can explain to us what that is while we walk in that direction."

"Before we do that, are we all set to go? All we have is this bag here and a few tools. I didn't find any food in the house and I don't think we can turn the wheat into anything."

Cole looked back at the worn down, dusty, house they had spawned in. He then noticed a grey dust slowly creeping along the ground, and slowing crawl up the house. Cole tugged on Kreme's robe, grabbing his attention, and then pointed to the creep that was slowly approaching them.

"Alright, that answers that. Time to leave." Kreme said as the trio briskly left down the gravel path towards the tree.

A warm breeze whisked past the trio as if to push the teens away from the creep. While walking, Mac periodically checked behind them to make sure it wasn't catching up to them.

"So, while we're walking, lets hear this lore." Kreme said.

"Alright, so, the first book I read was about this thing called Yang's Oak; which is what that huge tree is over there. Its a spirit tree created by a god named Yang to preserve the world in case she, or her brother Yin, died. It didn't say what would happen if they died, or how they would be preserving anything, but it did say it was very important and that all major towns had one in the center. The second book was a journal written by the guy who bought us as slaves, and he said in it that he was worried that something called the petrifaction would come and eat everything he owned."

"That would probably be the grey stuff behind us, and given the order that things are going in, the big tree is what keeps it away." Kreme remarked. Mac nodded.

"Probably. The third book was a history book and was apparently really old because I only got bits and pieces of it. There was this race of these really strong beings called archons that went extinct a couple hundred years ago in a huge war--"

"Wait, look!." Kreme cut Mac off and pointed to a fork in the road. One of the pathways led to a village off in the distance, while the other path led towards the Yang's Oak. "Before we continue, I think we should stop over there and uh, I guess beg for some food or something. I'm hungry."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Mac nodded.

"I'm hungry too."

The trio took the pathway towards the small village, but as they got closer, they could see that the petrifaction was creeping all around it. Several small houses were completely consumed by it while the bigger ones were still standing with the creep just starting to crawl up the walls. Mac stopped Cole and Kreme.

"Well that's not good." Mac stepped forward and looking around the village. Suddenly, one of the houses that was enveloped in the petrifaction collapsed in on itself spraying a vile grey dust into the dying air.

"I don't think there's anyone here." Kreme said.

"But if we're fast we can probably loot some of the bigger houses that aren't affected yet. Just don't touch the grey stuff." Mac pointed to the largest of the houses, which was decorated with marble pillars and overall looked very fancy. One of the rooms was completely covered in petrifaction, but the rest was unaffected.

"Lets start with that one." He said as he approached the two large wooden doors, being careful to walk around the patches of creep on the ground.

Mac tried to open the door. Locked.

"Want me to kick it down?" Kreme asked. Mac shook his head.

"I have a better idea. One of the books back at the house also taught me a little magic. Watch this." Mac said eagerly, drawing a small circle in the air with his finger.

"Hepto cannon." Mac's voice echoed as the circle he had drawn began to glow. Then suddenly a small yet forceful jet of air launched from the circle and hit the two doors, blowing them off their hinges and into the house. Kreme clapped.

"Cool." He remarked, stepping into the house. Inside it was dim as there were no lights and the windows had their blinds down. Fortunately, there was no petrifaction inside to corrupt the otherwise beautiful house.

"Look for a kitchen. I'll poke around in some of the rooms." Mac said, branching off from the trio and walking towards a hallway on the other side of the marble room. Cole and Kreme approached what appeared to be a large countertop made of marble. Next to it, an oven, and several fine wooden cupboards lining the marble walls. Kreme opened one of the cupboards, revealing several jars of pickled vegetables and meat. However, before he could grab any, Mac called out from down the hallway.

"Uh, guys. I got a live one over here."

Kreme and Cole turned and peered down the hall towards a doorway that Mac had opened. Mac was standing just inside, looking at something in the room just out of view with a very concerned expression.

"Just take what you want and leave." A young girls voice could barely be heard. Mac looked at Kreme and Cole and motioned for them to come over.

It was a bedroom almost completely consumed by petrifaction, except for the entrance. In the middle, just in front of the doorway, was a queen sized bed with two dog-like humans laying in it. Everything was petrified, except for a young girl who was sitting on the floor just beside the doorway, with the petrifaction just starting to creep onto her dress. It was too dark to see any of her features, but it was evident she was crying.

"Oh no." Kreme's usual cheery expression fell, seeing the petrified bodies on the bed, then seeing the girl. "I'm so sorry."

"Go away." She sniffed, her voice shaking.

"We can't leave her."

"Kreme, we can't take her. She's just another mouth to feed."

Kreme bent down and helped the young girl to her feet.

"Mac, surely your moral compass is against the idea of leaving a child to die, right?"

Mac twisted his face, but then looked down at the ground to see the petrifaction slowly inching towards them. He then looked towards the bed with the two petrified bodies. He exhaled loudly.

"Yeah, you're right." Kreme gave a small smile, then led the girl out of the room with Mac and Cole following behind them, shutting the door. In the slightly better light of the living room, the trio could see the girl more clearly. She wasn't human either. She was short, shorter than Cole, and was wearing a fancy pink and yellow sundress as well as shiny leather shoes. She was covered in cream colored fur and had several dog-like features, including large wavy ears and a black nose. Her tail couldn't be seen, being hidden under her dress.

Kreme nudged Mac.

"We found some food in the cupboards over there." Mac gave him a thumbs up and split off towards the kitchen with Cole to stock up. Kreme turned to the girl, trying to keep a reassuring expression.

"What's your name?" He asked politely.

"Chyrie." She replied. Kreme smiled at her, trying to ignore the fact that those two petrified in the bed are likely her, now dead, parents.

"Nice to meet you Chyrie, I'm Kreme. Those guys are my bestest friends in the whole wide world. The tall one is Mac and the shmol Asian one is Cole."

Chyrie didn't reply, only depressingly looking at the floor, only for her and Kreme to perk up to Mac noticing the creep was starting to get inside the house.

"Hey, you two, its time we get out of here. The creep is starting to climb up the walls." Mac yelled out from the kitchen. Him and Cole briskly walked to the doorway leading outside with the harvester's bag completely filled.

Kreme took Chyrie's hand and led her out of the house. The trio briskly left the village, being careful to avoid the, now much bigger, patches of creep on the ground, and quickly headed in the direction of the tree again. By the time they were back on the trail, the entire town was completely consumed.

Chyrie tugged on Kreme's robe.

"Does your master know you're out here?" She asked. Kreme gave her a confused expression.

"What do you mean our master?"

"Well, you guys are obviously slaves." Kreme cleared his throat, trying not to sound offended.

"We're not slaves. We're just starting a bit rough. And the reason we took all this food is because we need to eat so we can not die." Mac suddenly cut off Kreme's sarcastic tone.

"Hey, Chyrie, random question: Are you royal by any chance? That house looked really nice compared to everything else."

"I think so. My mom told me our family was special because we have archon blood in us." Mac inhaled loudly.

"The plot thickens."