Envious Brambles

< A hollow vessel born with the purpose of being filled. So it asked itself: “Why were we born needing nutrients from the world if not to complete us?” >

ORIGIN : Trauma

ATTRIBUTE : Obsession

< 1 >

There was once a tree that lived in the center of a secluded forest. It lived alone in a large clearing, surrounded by nothing but dried grass. It asked itself as it looked at the green pastures beyond its reach:

“Why was I born this way?”

The tree had no mouth to speak, unlike the animals that visited it. Nor did it have any ears to hear their voices. It had no nerves to feel how they brushed by its trunk, or hands to thank them for keeping it company.

It stared at the beautiful spires of a distant palace. The benevolent queen of their lands lived there and was said to be the reason why the kingdom was so prosperous.

The tree looked at itself again and wondered once more:

“Why can’t I be like them?”

Years of observing the animals led it to a strange epiphany. It had seen how the jaws of animals sank into others. Even bears ate their own kind, whereas trees did not. The trees merely took nutrients from the soil.

So it wondered as the innards of a bird were smeared picturesque across its hollow trunk.

“Can I be like them if I stuff myself full of their viscera?”

It recognized that all things that lived carried red fluids. Trees, however, could only produce sap.

Envious brambles grew from beneath its roots, repackaging excess viscera into apples so that others stuff themselves full to become free.

* * *

The tale had similar nuances to the Still Unborn and the Still Unmoved. They were creatures born to consume, but in the Envious Bramble’s instance, they sought to change their diet in hopes of becoming something else.

Corrupted were born in strange ways and interpreting their tales literally was not always correct. Red knew that trees could not live, although this was also up in the air. It felt more like a metaphorical representation of something.

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The reason why she felt this way was because of how similar it was to the Still Unborn… no, the Attribute of Obsession.

… Both were a weird contemplation of wanting something. The Still Unborn asked ‘why’ they were incomplete then they were born. The Envious Brambles are asking ‘why’ they were born this way…

The nature of the world was far stranger than Red imagined, but it only further fueled her curiosity. Before she could dabble further into the deep end and overload her 2 brain cells, Agate gave her an answer.

Verdanian

< A plant-based race that can speak to nature >

“Like trees? But that doesn’t make sense. Are you saying that plants are alive?”

< Unknown >

If she wasn’t hurrying up towards the screams, then she would have lashed out at Agate. Now wasn’t the time to get riled up. Not when a friend was in danger.

“I wonder if that tree really was the origin of the Envious Brambles. Do you think the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns believes in the same thing?”

Agate left her to marinate in silence for the nth time, as if to allow Red to come to her own conclusions.

“Such a headache. What’s next, a Corrupted tomato with a backstory of how it was cut up and put into a sandwich? But, you know… now that I think about it – doesn’t that make you think that Corrupted are born because –!?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Another scream broke out before she could finish her words. Whatever she had in mind had to wait as she bent her upper body parallel to the ground.

She pushed forward against another wave of Envious Brambles, hoping that Snow was ok.

* * *

Red had heard enough screams to the point where they all sounded the same. But in a way, she also felt like she hadn’t heard enough where she could discern their level of distress.

Screams usually came when someone was either frightened or faced with death. Trepidation was ultimately the root cause.

Yes. Fear was why people screamed. She remembered her time in the Sites – the facilities that harvested the Corrupted. The humans that worked on them were as disposable as an ant in a colony of thousands. And yet, they screamed the loudest when they were faced with death.

Red remembered calloused hands being melted away by acrid goop spat out by a singing toad, or how a Worker danced until their boots degraded, and their feet becoming so sheered that all that remained were bones.

Or when Workers were sent into a room called an elevator to immediately suppress her. Moving through the Site’s layers induced a phenomenon with two outcomes.

The first was when one descended too quickly and resulted in a person being crushed by the air alone.

The second occurred during the ascent. The elevator doors would open, revealing flesh, blood and raw fat spread across the elevator interior. It was a reaction so violent that blood would evaporate.

The scent of fresh viscera and blood, and the way the trees dribbled with human remains from their hollow cavities reminded her of this common scene. The screams she followed brought her to a series of dead ends and recently deceased bodies.

Thankfully, none of them seemed to belong to Snow. Red scrutinized the remains of the Envious Brambles, finding torn clothes sprawled across the ground.

“Snow wears white robes. And the hair on those heads up there aren’t white either.” Red commented, looking up at a crown of impaled heads above the tree in question. “Plus, I don’t remember anyone wearing these clothes in the village. Everyone must’ve made it out, but how come I can still hear Snow?”

Red hadn’t actually heard Snow scream before. But for some reason, her mind had gone to the woman. Was she worried about Snow?

“Of course I am. Snow is my first human friend. I want to know where Rockie went too. You’d think a giant boulder would stand out in the middle of a forest.”

Indeed, Rockie would have stood out immediately by silhouetting against the vertical and thin shapes of the forest with their giant, round body.

It had already been a few hours since she woke up; at least from what she could tell. And yet, there were still people screaming around her. Screaming so loudly that Red couldn’t help but to now wonder if they were actually…

“Traps…? They could take over people, so maybe they can even mimic their voices?”

Red didn’t find any evidence of this yet, but it was definitely possible. Her instincts told her to be cautious as she applied logic to the situation.

“Right. Who in their right mind would yell in a dark forest? You’re just asking to get attacked first. If Snow’s clever…”

Suddenly, she heard a dull thwack in the distance. To the untrained ears – this sound would have easily gone unnoticed.

But Red saw this as a definite sign of life.

“… then she’d keep her mouth shut. That reminds me. Wasn’t she calmer than the villagers?”

It was a throwaway thought, but a part of it lingered in the back of her mind as she followed the sound of the thwack.