Thick fibrous stalks reached high into the midday sky, their sheer volume seeming to blot out the sun. They undulated in waves as the wind swept through them. The edges started small, relatively speaking. The plants started farther apart, sunlight filtering through the thirty-foot-tall plants. There were still normal trees there, though their trunks and higher limbs were still serving as a trellis for the other plants that grew here.
They grew in an even slant, the thin tops of the plants creating an illusory tidal wave of tufted seeds and flowering tops that yawned lazily in the warm late summer glow. People often talked about how the edges of the Okocea looked to them. City folk from the mountains would often say that it unsettled them. The long stalks that swayed and creaked day in and day out. They said it looked like it was beckoning the little towns that littered its shores.
“Come on in! It’s nice and cool and shady in here” It would say to the towns it knew it would one day consume.
A friendly seeming preamble to its white-knuckled roots that would one day tear apart their homes and bury everything they loved. They had the perspective of seeing more of it as they came down the winding paths that had been cut into the mountains. They saw past the thinner Shoreline where there was light and you could still hear the birds chirping.
They saw the giant trees that dominated the deeper parts of the Okocea, thick, bloated trunks hundreds of feet wide, with tangling vines wider than the roads they walked on wrapped around each one, warping the wood until it looked like it was being squeezed out from between the hundreds of plants that clawed their way up its form. Some of the ones who stayed up late at night watching the wind sweep across the tops and peered at the Ocean of Tree and Vine, saw things they wish they hadn’t.
They saw things moving along the vines, and thought nothing of it. Until they remembered the scale of what they were looking at, nd wondered how big a snake had to be for it to be visible at this distance. They would dismiss them as the darkness playing tricks on them, and never speak about it again. Only remembering when they would hear some outlandish rumor of the things that went on out that deep, feeling a slight shiver run down their spine.
The locals that lived right on the edge didn’t mind the creaking waves or the sounds of the wind sweeping through the brush. The low roar of it was white noise to them, it was a pleasant song that sang them to sleep at night.
The times that bothered the locals were the days when the winds were still. The towering plants would stand at attention, the sweltering heat of the sun pushing down on them. They looked like silent watchers, waiting for something with an unceasing patience that seemed to rival only the march of time itself. These were the times they feared. When the roar died and they heard the whispers of things that shouldn’t exist call to them from the depths of the Okocea.
Across the top of the flowing surf, the myriad colors and textures were beginning to wilt. The smells of pollen and sweet nectar beare ing replaced by that of rich loamy earth and the sickly sweet smell of decay. Throughout the land, people were getting ready, venturing forth into the deepest reaches of the Okocea to reap the rewards of their earlier efforts. It was autumn, the season where the ending of things began. The season where the verdant greens of the Okocea gave way to softer golds and browns. Things were moving in ways they hadn’t before, because it was here.
The season of change.
------------
Kad Green was running at top speed down the dirt paths that led from the mountains.
“Shit, shit shit shit” he muttered under his breath, trying desperately to hop left and right to situate his work harness on his hips. He was still wearing the same work pants from yesterday, made from thick canvas material that stopped the brambles and sharper foliage from cutting into his legs as he moved. The old T-shirt he was wearing reeked of the cheap blackberry wine that Raya loved so much.
“Never listen to Raya on a work day, you always show up late and hungover” he said it to himself like a mantra that never quite stuck. He knew he’d go without question if she showed up at his tent tonight with another bottle and a wild look in her eye. He was a sucker for chaos, and that girl knew how to orchestrate chaos on a level he’d never seen before.
He pounded down the path to town, away from Raya’s house that she kept up in the hills. Every step made the pounding headache behind his eyes throb, but he couldn’t be late today. He smiled as he saw them coming down the mountain paths. Houses, bobbing up and down in a steady rhythm as the crawler frames they sat upon moved down toward the Shoreline.
The frames were just wide platforms that sat upon thick metallic legs that made them look like overgrown spiders. In their current form, they moved hundreds of homes down from the mountainous cities. Workshops and businesses designed to take advantage of the harvests that would come in.
Every year they came down, rented their spot along the Shoreline and set up business. Some of them would let the spiderlike limbs dig themselves into the dirt, then deploy a staircase that would allow people to get up to the raised platform where they could trade. Others would extend the limbs into long stilting tendrils that pushed the frames up above the Surf, so they could serve as docks for the specialized craft that could cross the tops.
Kad looked as he ran, dodging the deep gouges in the path that the crawlers had left behind. There were a lot of new families this year. He could tell by the state of their frames. If you took a frame down to the edge of the Shoreline and set up camp, by the end of the season they’d be wrapped in the quick growing vines and roots that the Okocea produced year round.
At the end of every harvest season, the richest of the merchants or the vainest of the wealthy families would pay the root workers like Kad an exorbitant rate to clear all the dead plant matter off the legs. Judging by the number of shiny metal legs that were moving down the mountain paths, Kad estimated a few dozen more families were coming to Rootsaw alone.
Rounding the last bed, Kad saw the line of crawlers that were standing still, waiting for the town guard to take their silver marks and assign them a plot. He dipped and wove around the limbs. He looked up, waving at the people who were hanging their legs off the ends of the frame, looking half asleep at the speed of the bureaucratic process before them.
As he approached the blockade, Kad spotted Simon, a guard he’d known since they were little boys playing in the streets of Edgeport, the nearby city. He smiled, smoothing his wild tangle of brown hair before walking up to Simon.
Simon had a broad, flat face. A bulbous nose was smashed against his face, hanging over a thick black beard. He spotted Kad and smiled with a mouth full of huge white teeth. The man had to be a head taller than Kad by now, his barrel chested frame in stark contrast to Kads smaller wiry build. He threw a hand out, catching Kads’ hand and giving it a quick shake.
Kad flashed his new badge at Simon and the other guard working the post. He’d taken the test and qualified for Rank 2 work. The sizeable bump in his pay rate and new depth limit was the main reason for his weekend long celebration with Raya. Simon gave a low whistle.
“Rank 2, nice work Kad. Cornelius is still gonna kill you for being late.” Simon said with a shake of his head, stepping aside to let him pass.
Kad waved him off “It’s harvest season, he’ll be making enough money every day to match my monthly wage. He’ll be in a good mood” He said, starting into a light jog into town. Simon shouted after him
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Later Kad, give my best to Moz.”
Kad just threw up a hand as he jogged on. The streets of Rootsaw were busier than he’d seen them in several years. The town was little more than a place to house the workers who spent the off seasons clearing paths into the deeper reaches, maybe provide them with some entertainment to unwind from the tedium of the work.
Now the usually empty plots were full of businesses, markets plying trinkets and foods from other areas. Kad wove his way through the crowds, trying to move quickly. He stopped at the work board near the entrance to the Shoreline, searching for his name.
He winced when he saw that his partner Moz’ name had been taken off the active board and placed under medical leave. She’d decided to pick up a couple extra runs this weekend after passing her rank 2 certification. She was never one for partying and had simply decided to take advantage of the higher pay rate.
Kad checked the time on the large clock tower that was attached to the top of the city hall building. He was already too late for excuses and the hospital building was on the way to the departure zone he’d been assigned for the day. So he decided to pop in and see what had happened.
The hospital building, like most of the other semi-permanent structures in town was a ramshackle longhouse that had been thrown together quickly. Permanent buildings weren’t done this close to the Shoreline, the roots would crack foundations and in a decade the house would be swallowed by the creeping edge of the shoreline.
Moz was asleep and on pain killers, but the nurses told him that she’d been on a solo run down to the Reef. It was a thick wall of vines and brambles, mostly thorny plants that overgrew into a barrier between the shoreline and the deeper reaches. A lot of valuable resources could be found out there if you were lucky and smart. Apparently she’d taken a hard fall after her harness had slipped and gotten nearly gutted by a thorn the size of a butcher knife.
Kad shook his head, tossing the housekeeping lady a full silver mark to have her take extra good care of Moz. Even at his new pay rate it was more than he’d probably make in a week, but it was worth it. Even with the powerful poultices and medicines they could make from the more uncommon plants that grew in this region, she’d be laid up and losing money for at least a week, so she might as well be comfortable. The cleaning lady had even thrown in a hydration shot she swiped from the stock room, helping to kill the headache and get him ready for work.
Heading out, Kad passed the outer reaches of Rootsaw into the worker camp, a shanty town full of tents and shacks slapped together with bark stripped from felled stalks. It was mostly empty by now, the seasonal workers had left early to try and get their bounty and get out.
Kad stopped by his tent, going in and moving the locked trunks of his belongings aside to reach the small lockbox he kept hidden in a hole in the ground, covered by dirt. He opened it and looked at the neat rows of Silver Marks. The thin triangular wedges of metal were the savings he’d put together over his two years of work. He slid his last silver mark into a row and put the box back, doing mental math as he did so.
It was a five to one step up for monetary value, the wedges fitting together to form a hexagonal plate of each tier. Iron to copper, copper to silver. Then from there it was a full five plates to get the next tier of mark. This went through gold and black metal, topping out at the shiny green marks covered in a motif of vines. He had no idea what they were actually made of but he didn’t think about it too hard. Even if he worked every day for the rest of his days, the odds of him saving up even a black mark were slim.
He’d managed to save a full four and a half plates of silver, and the plan was to save up to two gold marks, buy a crawler frame and travel the edges getting contract work recovering lost heirlooms and artifacts. The Okocea was known for swallowing entire cities back in the old days, and there were no shortages of people willing to pay for a silly little trinket from a lost city.
Kad very pointedly didn’t look at the letter that was stuck to the inside lid of the box, or think about who it was addressed to. That was a problem for whoever found the box if he kicked the bucket on the job. Putting the box back in its spot, Kad left his tent and walked over to the clearing where people were still milling about, mostly support personnel getting things ready and cleaning up after the root workers.
He passed a few tents that had been collapsed in on themselves, covered in trinkets and mementos to the people who had died on the job. He shook his head and moved on, thinking about the increasing number of fatalities he’d seen lately. It was getting more dangerous out here by the day.
Kad slinked up to the gear station and started attaching things to his harness, shoving things in pockets and loops. He kept an eye out for Cornelius, dreading having to talk to the giant foreman to get his assignment. He wanted to be ready and geared before he was ever seen.
He grabbed a small machete to clear the heaviest of the foliage where he was going, and a stalk spike. The long tri-bladed spike was loaded with a powerful herbicide to weaken the plants he hit with it. It was for clearing a path should he manage to find anything of value, and maintaining the paths if he saw something growing too close.
He grabbed a relay box, the little device used to alert the camp if he found something, and to check in every few hours, in case they needed to send a team out to retrieve him. He clipped it to the harness, and was checking his straps when he heard the footsteps to his left.
Kad looked over at Cornelius Boone, the massive foreman for the root work being done in Rootsaw. He stood over six and a half feet tall, muscle bound with thinning gray hair. His face was set in a perpetual frown, deep creases on the sides of his eyes and mouth. A bushy salt and pepper mustache propped up his nose. The bags under his eyes looked bigger than usual, and he did not look pleased.
“You’re late again Kad, we talked about this” He said, leaning on the doorway of the equipment shed. It creaked heavily.
“Listen Corn, I was checking on Moz, whose fine, by the way, thanks for asking” he said, trying his best to sound indignant. Cornelius’ frown only deepened.
“You’re three hours late and you smell like cheap wine and cigars, and don’t call me Corn, we’ve talked about this”
“The woman wanted a drink to celebrate her survival, who am I to deny her that” he said, his voice making it sound like a question.
Kad almost didn’t see the big meaty paw swipe out and clobber him in the side of the head. His vision swam, the headache that had been erased by the hydration shot now back in full force.
“You’re a quick one Corn, I’ll give you th-“the words didn’t even leave his mouth before the hand came back, sending him to the dirt. Kad opened his eyes and looked up at the foreman. He had a look on his face that was daring Kad to keep running his mouth.
“Point made, I’ll head out now and stay late. Where am I going?” he said, rubbing the spot where the hand shaped bruise would show up.
Cornelius huffed then checked a clipboard he had tucked into the back of his work pants.
“You’re running Edmonds’ old route into the Reef. The E.F. wants it done today. It’s classified as R2 and up only and you’re our only rank 2 right now since Moz is out, so you’re going solo.” He looked up at Kad, any hint of joking gone from his face. “Be careful out there, the Reefs’ been acting up an awful lot lately, lot of activity.”
Kad nodded, his heart in his throat. His first work day as a Rank 2 worker and he was already being sent out to the Reef. He’d only been out that far on the day he and Moz had done their certification and that was with Expedition Force members around to kill anything truly hazardous.
Cornelius walked off toward a building on the edge of the shoreline. The worn building was backed against the tidal wave of vines and stalks, dwarfed by the waving mass behind it. It was a relay center where they got the pings from everyone checking in.
“It’s fine, they’re watching you, and it’ll be ok” Kad said to himself.
He walked over to his entry point on the very end of their zone. He took a deep breath and stepped onto the path that cut into the shoreline, fighting every instinct in him telling him to turn back. The path was wide, the rich black soil was speckled with huge salt crystals. They salted the paths out here in an attempt to stop the plants from growing over the paths. It partially worked, slowing it down enough for them to cut the Shoreline back to its old edge.
The sounds of town were drowned out by the loud swishing and creaking of the plants out here. Kad could still see through them enough to see the signs of the opening, but everything, even the grass was wildly large out here. the fibrous, corn like stalks that composed the shoreline were thick around as average trees were on the outside. the further in he walked, the closer together the foliage grew, the thickening plants blocking the wind and the sound until it became a near stifling silence.
Kad stopped, looking at the warning sign that marked the beginning of the Reef. The path further on was dark enough that he pulled a headlamp out from the strap on his harness, clicking it on. The thin beam of light cut into the darkness, revealing brambles that hung in thick curtains on either side of the path. roots spiderwebbed across the dirt.
Kad looked at it and nodded. "yeah, that doesn't get any less ominous the second time around" he said, pulling the stalk spike and machete from their hooks and walking onto the narrow path.
"alright everyone, no murdering me while i look for expensive herbs please, deal?" he said to the deathly silent surroundings. He nodded at the silence that seemed to be smothering him entirely. "Cool, I'm gonna take that as confirmation that i won't in fact be murdered and eaten by anything here." Kad took his first steps on a solo mission out into the Reef. He'd been training for this day for years, It couldn't go south.
Right?