What had been crammed into the cover was a plant, but unlike any other in the world. There was a single blue-tinged vine growing out of the ground. It was thick like a tree trunk at the base, but got thinner the higher it went. The vine shot up for a few feet, before it suddenly curved and drooped down.
At the end of the vine’s tip was a large fruit protruding from a blooming flower, dangling like it could fall off at any moment. The fruit was in the shape of a teardrop and was blue like the vine. But it was also bright, a shimmering gleam drifting up and down the skin with an endless glow at its core.
Drim plucked the fruit, having to carry it in both hands due to its size. All light faded from it until it was listlessly dull. To everyone’s surprise, the next thing he did was pelt it as hard as he could. The moment the fruit passed the circle in the ground, it popped, but there was no juice. In fact, there was nothing at all. It just exploded then vanished out of existence.
“That’s why the circle is there,” Drim reinforced what was now obvious. “Well, one of the reasons. If the fruit passes that border, it’s immediately destroyed.”
Drim plucked a new fruit from the vine, which made everyone’s eyes widen further. They had been too focused on the one he’d thrown to notice a new one had grown. “When the old fruit is either eaten or removed from the area, a new one grows in just a few seconds.”
“You never told me about this. What is it, exactly?” Phon walked over to him and put a hand on the fruit.
“I have no idea,” Drim was as clueless as everyone else. “In all my time here, I never figured it out, which is why I never bothered to mention it. Too hard to believe if you don’t see it with your own eyes. What I can tell you, though, is that it wasn’t here when I landed.”
“The Cosmic Boon may have made sure that my landing was soft, but it didn’t exactly put me somewhere safe.” In preparation for his story, Drim went and sat in his old chair and then took a bite of the fruit. He winced, “Just as flavorless as I remember.”
“Anyways, as you know, this place is filled with monsters. With the unchecked radiation, it became one of the most prolific breeding grounds early in the war. It didn’t help that the island inhabitants were keeping beasts underground that were basically monsters already. All that combined, it led to what we now know as some of the worst monsters in the world.”
“When I was dropped here, the radiation was far worse too. Not like it is now, where you can barely notice it. Everything had a slight haze that made it harder to see too. I would have been killed within minutes, had I not been a Fiend. That may be why we have that particular power, if the entity that made us knew I’d need it to survive.”
“Not that I still didn’t almost die immediately anyways. I didn’t land far from here, a few feet I guess. Hard to know the exact spot since I was a bit delirious. By the time I’d finally gotten my head clear enough to take stock of my situation, monsters were already hounding me.”
“There was nowhere to run, so I hid under the closest pile of rubble, about where I’m sitting right now. It was tight, and I could barely slide into it to begin with, so there wasn’t much wiggle room. And there I stayed, not sure for how long, but a few days at least.”
“I couldn’t really see anything, just a small hole of light where I could watch the passage of time—and nearly zjik my pants any time a shadow passed over it. The monsters never gave up all the while, always circling or clawing at the rubble. I guess they could smell me and didn’t want to give up a fresh meal.”
“On the last night, I had convinced myself I was going to die in my sleep. At the time, I didn’t know about all of our Fiend privileges. I was so cosdamned thirsty and weak that I had convinced myself I’d never wake up again if I passed out from dehydration. In reality, I probably would have been fine for a few more days or weeks, but I’d given up hope.”
“But then the monster growls turned to whimpers, and I heard them all scurry away. The little bit of light I could see turned blue at the same time. I didn’t know if I thought it was a flashlight, or a helicopter, or aliens, or what, but I didn’t expect this. Just as you see it now, this vine and fruit had sprouted next to the rubble.”
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“Of course, the first thing I did was rush over and scarf it down. I didn’t question where it had come from or even notice that it was tasteless on the first bite. Then another grew, and I probably ate three or four more.”
“Once the hunger had passed, I finally noticed all the eyes staring at me. The monsters never went anywhere, they’d just backed away. That’s when I realized that they couldn’t approach the plant, like there was some magical barrier repelling them. This is what the circle is for. After much trial and error, I made the circle to know exactly where I was safe. It’s also why I made sure not to bring Pox along, since I was afraid of what the fruit would do to him.”
“Alright, I think I get the picture,” Xard studied the area. “You started with this small circle. It’s why all your stuff is inside of it. That way, if the other defenses failed, you knew you’d be safe regardless. Guessing you built a perimeter around the circle first, then slowly built it outwards. Since that fruit grows endlessly, you must have used that to gather nature energy.”
“Close, but not quite,” Drim corrected him and absorbed the remainder of the fruit. “Despite its large size, the fruit has surprisingly low nature energy, about the same as a single grape. But, it’s still an endless supply. So on days when I was too tired or feeling unmotivated, I’d just lay under the vine for hours and absorb the fruit constantly after it grew.”
“More often than not, though, I found myself pretty impatient. I’d walk around and absorb any plants I could safely reach. It’s why there’s not a blade of grass left on the path and why there were cutouts in the wall, so I could only risk a hand if I got unlucky. On days I was feeling very bold, I’d wear the cage and explore to find more plants.”
“Oh, do you guys want to try it by the way,” Drim plucked the newly grown fruit and started tearing it into pieces before passing it around.
Everyone took a bite, and then their eager faces turned to dour depression. “The texture’s good, but the lack of flavor is pretty unforgiving,” Phon tried to give it some credit at least.
“It’s like eating crispy water,” Xard forced his bite down.
After chewing it for a while, Kada started spitting it out and even stuck her fingers in her mouth to scrape the rest off her tongue. “This is what you lived on?” She rushed over and gave him a hug. “I’m so sorry, no one should have to put up with that.” The other two couldn’t even be mad enough to chastise Kada for the hug since they’d just all shared the same unpleasant experience.
“Got used to it I guess,” Drim merely shrugged. “Can’t say I ever enjoyed it, but eating it just became part of daily life, at least until I learned how to hunt.”
“That’s why you made a bridge instead of a raft then, isn’t it?” Phon had figured something out. “You mentioned in your letters that you’d returned here a few times after escaping. Guess that’s because you ran out of food?”
“Yeah, I was still too scared to lose my lifeline,” Drim admitted. “There’s not exactly much around here even once you get to the shore, so I’d come back every few days and eat my fill until I finally found civilization.”
“So why does the path only go one way?” Kada was curious about one more thing. “You explored all over the place, right? Didn’t find anything else of interest? Nothing else worth preserving for the future?” Her vested interest was leaking.
“Well, it did branch initially,” Drim confirmed. “But once I realized that only that way led to land, I moved all the walls and resources to secure that path. That said, I did explore damn near this entire island and found some pretty messed up and confusing things. It’s best to just start from scratch.”
“I also did find some old food, but never ate any of it. Like I said earlier, I didn’t know about our Fiend resistances. But even then I doubt I would have risked eating roughly twenty-year-old expired food that had been exposed to radiation for all that time, even if it had been preserved in a can.”
“As for this vine, though, I think preserving it is our only option. As far as I can tell, it can’t be destroyed or removed. My Curse doesn’t work on it. I can’t break it, and when I dug around the bottom, the root extended forever as far as I could tell. Probably best to hide it away, or make it so people won’t be able to get close to it if you want to include it in the decor. Hard to say how people would react to an endlessly growing fruit of unknown origins.”
“Well, speaking of that, we should get to work!” Kada’s eagerness to start making her dream a reality was bubbling over. “Not that I don’t want to hear more of your time here, Drim, but I’d rather do it when this place is a nice place to be.”
“Alright, I’m ready to finally put this place behind me,” Drim was just as eager as she was. “Ledmer inspired a lot of my beliefs today since I was forced to live in the destruction they left behind. Let’s make this the first marker in restoring what was lost, free of the suffering of the past.”