Weed, ferns and wild plants grew along the barbed walls- some grew at a distance, standing peculiar and vulnerable, and others grew hidden behind the green curtain. The grass beneath Ria’s feet though remained even throughout as she prowled toward the tree. She felt incredibly uncomfortable walking in the open and lit garden; even the grass seemed to annoy her with its brashness. Most of her discomfort stemmed from her unfortunately bare and unclothed chest, making her feel more than just naked in this open area where she was sticking out like a sore thumb; and some of her discomforts were related to her swollen feet.

Her feet, which had very much adapted to being submerged all the time, were finding the sometimes soft-sometimes sharp blades of grass very jarring to walk over. She was already accustomed to the Itchiness and the irritation which the sewer water had brought, but her every step over the grass bed was making her think that something was very wrong with the ground. She was frustrated, and she had every right to feel that way, but she wasn’t angry about it. She knew that her frustration was also keeping her mind occupied, and she wanted it to remain that way until she was ready to confront her feelings.

The closer she got to the tree, the amazed she grew at its blusterous size. It wasn’t tall by any means, but it was thick, very thick. It was only after she stood at its feet could she start to imagine what its true height might have looked like in the past.

“Is this just the stump? Just how big…” She trailed off, her eyes focusing at the top where the broken end of the stump touched the ceiling and the branches grew outwards.

As if the tree’s width wasn’t surprising enough, multiple braids of interwoven branches hung lifelessly from the ceiling in front of the tree stump. Most of them were bare, dry and dead, while Fruits enveloped in an incandescent golden glow grew at the flat ends of a handful of these braids -still green and bright- connected by tens of extremely fine tendrils.

These pineapple-shaped oddities were unfortunately too far away from Ria to get. To put salt on her wounds, not only were the fruits hanging right above her, the sweet and luscious scent wafting from them was awaking her hunger with pangs, making her extremely restless.

Gulping the saliva gathering inside her mouth, she jumped, thanking her mind for not cutting her toes at the previous stage. The decision hadn’t been made rationally, but it was serving her greatly now. The sewer water held a much too dangerous potency to be walking around in its filth with wounded toes. That’s just asking to be infected.

Ria, however, found herself falling way short from the fruits. “No way,” she complained, slumping to the ground, hand still extended overhead, eyes staring at her prize. Gritting her teeth, she looked around for stones to throw at the fruits, hoping that one would fall when hit but found no help from her surroundings.

She even tried to scale the tree, but its dried bark broke with a simple pull, leaving her bruised, battered, and hungry with her body heavily shaking. Wary of the guardian who might be stalking her from the shadows, and utterly exhausted from her meaningless act, she took a deep breath of the cold air circulating freshness around her, and let her body fall on the motionless grass. She lay back with her limbs spread-eagle and watched the fruit first, and then the crystal growth past it.

Light twinkled inside the crystals transparent confines, moving around like a tempest. They were similar to stalactites in make but geometrical in shape -rather than pointed conical growths- with straight fine lines creating their lengths. To her amazement and then stupefaction, she found out that the tempest swirling inside the crystals was similarly flowing through the veins of the few green braids at the ends of which the fruits still grew.

Before long she was drifting toward the world of dreams. No wind, no voice, and finally no foul smell and darkness, she really felt out of place. Like something was missing.

“If only the fruits weren’t hanging so high.” She said sighing.

It was peaceful, however. The scent of flowers and the fruit, and the chirping of birds, they added a well-needed charm to the place; one she was in desperate need of. If only she could eat the fruit and give her body its much-needed reprieve, then everything would be great again. She wouldn’t be out of danger, but rest would do her well. Clicking her tongue against her optimism, she tried to fall asleep, when something thudded next to her. One moment she was lying and in the next moment she was up and active with her back to the tree. Her reaction even surprised herself. Her eyes darted from left to right, panning the area to find the anomaly. She found nothing distressing, other than a fruit lying a few feet away from her- it was glowing golden.

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Eyes up, she looked around at her surroundings, at the distance, and then back at the fruit. She stared at it, took a step forward, but then stopped.

“It’s happening again, isn’t it? I’m not alone anymore, right?” She said out loud, asking no one in particular. A child's voice, however, answered her, sending her lurching toward the tree.

“Aren’t you hungry?” The voice said and then started giggling with a childish furry.

“Who is it?” she blared, baring her teeth. Amusingly, she noticed a knife being held in her safe hand; it was the same knife she had recently used to maim herself, and now she was using its edge as a form of protection. There were dreadful memories associated with the knife, but she didn’t drop it. She didn’t remember bringing it along- but she didn’t remember much of anything that had happened after she had paid her price to the Croc, either.

“Why aren’t you eating?” The childish voice spoke once again; the giggles soon followed.

Ria had been looking for the source of the voice and she found it. She looked up. Right above her head stood a tiny figure, no bigger than her palm, with its feet resting on the tree’s stump, staring directly at her through its unusually big green eyes.

“hey!” It said and Ria scurried forward and staggered to a fall. She almost fell on her hands, but managed to push her left shoulder forward and roll away from the tree. Controlling her momentum, she peered back at the tree trunk but found it bare. The thing had vanished from there.

“What are you looking at? Is it fun? Why are all of you humans so tall?” She found the thing scampering around her in a circle, bobbing its head left and right, humming a fairly simple tune, most probably from a children fairytale.

Ria glared at it at first -pointing her knife’s drop point at it- but watching it harmlessly flitter about, she let her knife hand drop and exhaled. “What are you?” She asked, meeting its eyes and the tiny thing stopped, facing her. It straightened the wrinkles out of its brown robe, giggled, and went to drag the fruit toward her.

She saw it laboriously drag the glowing fruit to her feet and wiping the sweat off its head with a grass blade. It wheezed looking at her with expectant eyes, patting the fruit holding a shy blush on its cheeks, as if saying, I have brought this for you.

“Here-here, eat this.” It said, looking between her face and her hand, jumping restlessly for her to pay attention; but when Ria refused to comment or receive the fruit, its eyes dropped and it leaned its head on the fruit, grouching.

Its sulking made Ria feel bad. Its big wet eyes, furry face, and pawed hands, only added to its appeal. If she hadn’t faced the goblin and the croc before it then she probably would have ended up rubbing her face upon its. It was that cute.

“What,” Ria really wanted to have nothing more to do with it or the fruit, but all the walking, running, and everything she had endured in the last few day or weeks –she didn’t know- had left her drained. To tell the truth, she was famished and was really hoping to eat the fruits if she could, but she didn’t want help from a creature of this sewer. No matter how cute and harmless it looked.

Its ears perked hearing her speak, and it jumped to face her holding the sweetest smile she had ever seen anyone or anything wearing over their face.

“Does it do?” She hesitantly asked, feeling stupid for letting the thing fool her with its appearance.

It instead moved to lift the fruit and holding it with trembling arms spoke with a strained voice, “Here-here, it will help your wounds. Eat, before the glow vanishes.”

“Wha-”

“Hurry- It’s falling, Eeeee, I’m going to get squished under the fruit of life!”

Ria hesitated, but held the fruit just as the furry thing almost died under its weight, and raised it to her eye level. She heard breath laboriously, laying on the grass with its tongue out, and ended up snickering at its foolishness.

“Ha-ha,” the chuckles soon grew into full-blown laughter with tears welling into her eyes.

“What- what, what happened? Why are you laughing?” She heard it say and found herself busy curling on the ground with her arms wrapped around her chest.

Although it didn’t understand her reason, the furry being started laughing anyways, making her spurt out all her restlessness and fear. It took her a long time to calm down, but even then she couldn’t stop her body from trembling with general happiness. The laughter worked like a charm releasing some of her pent up frustration and weight burdening her mind. She lay curled on the ground, with her legs tucked against her belly. Her eyes stared at the furry thing sleeping across from her. She still had the fruit clutched in her safe hand.

Ria felt relatively safe and light-hearted. She didn’t know whether it was safe to assume whether the thing was telling her the truth or not, but she took a bite from the fruit anyways. She believed in her decision. However just as she did, a thundering crackle exploded from the tree stump and the furry being opened its eyes, wide and dangerous.