Adi reached out his arm and ran his hand down the bark of the tree. The rough texture brought him back to his senses.

His heart started to beat loudly. It roared in comparison to the silence surrounding it. His breathing became shallow and his hairs stood on end.

Was he dreaming? No, the tree felt too real for it to be a dream. Maybe some sort of weird coma brought on by the apple? Was he transported to another dimension?

Or maybe…

No, it couldn’t be. Otherwise he couldn’t think and feel. But, this situation was too weird for it to be anything else.

Was he dead?!

He started to sweat. And he ached to have ground to step on so he could pace back and forth. He was starting to panic, this wasn’t good.

Suddenly something in front of him touched his shoulder and he twitched in surprise. The branch he was holding onto had bent up, and the one above him had twisted down unnaturally so it could rest itself on Adi’s shoulder. Almost as if to say ‘calm down I’m here for you’.

Adi froze. The tree was alive. The tree was sentient.

He dared not move an inch. He slowly scanned the tree for any sign it was going to move.

The trunk shook a little and let out a barely audible whisper of a sigh. It radiated exasperation as it unbent its two branches and moved away from the teenager before it.

Adi gulped. His voice was shaky. “Hello?..”

The tree shifted a little, acknowledging Adi.

“Um, what are you?” He subconsciously flinched. Way to make a first impression to the sentient tree monster.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The tree stood still. Before it twisted a branch back at itself and then to a cherry blossom at its side.

“Cherry tree, right.” He wasn’t getting anywhere with this. ‘Okay yes or no questions should be easier to work with.’

“Alright. So I’ll ask a question, and you answer with yes or no. wiggle right for yes, left for no.”

The tree didn’t move.

Adi thought of something. “Uh.. I mean, unless you don’t want to.” Was he an idiot? He gets sent to some weird limbo and the first thing he does is boss around the only other person there?

Well.. only other tree there.

The tree twisted a bit to the right. It didn’t seem to care about politeness.

Relieved Adi went back to questioning.

“So, be honest with me. Am I dead?”

The tree stood still for a second, before gyrating up and down in amusement. It did this for a while before slowly twisting to the left.

Adi let out a sigh of relief. “Alright so, I’m not in limbo. This is good. Very good. Next question.”

“Um, can I leave?” Adi held his breath.

The tree shook for a bit before twisting to the left. Drat.

Before he could ask another question though, the tree wriggled in excitement and bent a branch behind it. Revealing a freshly plucked cherry. Sitting on its branch. It studied it in delight and after it observed it for a couple seconds it sighed again in satisfaction before presenting it to Adi.

“What is it?” The tree bent a bit before giving him a light thwack on the top of the head.

“Agh! Oh right, yes or no questions.”

“Do I eat it?” He glanced up at the tree doubtfully. “The last time I ate a wild fruit I almost died.”

After being persuaded by a couple thwacks to the head Adi ate the fruit. Careful not to eat the seed. He swallowed and looked back up at the tree.

“It’s good but I can’t really sustain myself on cherries.” The tree pointed at the seed in his hand and then the darkness surrounding the two before making a digging motion.

“You want me to plant it? But there's no dirt.” The tree thwacked him. “Agh! Fine I’ll plant the damn seed.”

He looked around in confusion before taking the seed in his hand and placing it in the air next to him. The seed just sat there and started to spin.

A feeling of warmth flooded Adi as he stared at the floating seed. He felt something attach itself to his consciousness. And soon he could see the image of the seed perfectly rotating and floating in his head.

Woah, Weird.

He reached out a hand in his mind and touched the seed. It felt so real. Maybe he could…

Adi took his mental projection and used it to spin the seed in his head to the left instead of to the right light it had been rotating before.

He opened his eyes and to his surprise the seed that had just been spinning to the right next to him had changed directions.

It dawned on Adi. He could control things with his mind here. He looked up at the tree in shock.

He Imagined the tree growing a foot. He opened his eyes excitedly to focus on the tree that had…

Not grown an inch. The tree seemed annoyed and thwacked Adi again. “Okay, okay yeesh.”

He thought back and focused on his mental bond with the seed. He tried cutting it, bending it, and reforming it and he understood that he had full control of the bond.

He thought about the seed and decided that he wasn’t going to be getting out of here anytime soon. So why not experiment?