Chapter 1. Beginnings [Reincarnanted as a Tree]
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Receding light, a fear of darkness. Those were my notable reactions to the first moments, as until I came to understand- Remember the meaning of dusk and the sun whisking away. A purple azure flickered atop distant hills as skylight set, two moons rose one half sunken in the other forming visible rings. The bright day sky was topped black adorned in varying sparkling dots, far guttural howls all spoke in varying tune; almost if in kind the forest floor too began to shift anew, glowing shrooms in odd hues of blue and green layered atop clumps and holes.
Plumes of small oval-like shapes fell down from varying branches, catching the cold air in idle meanderings. Like floating jellies, releasing a visible pulse though their translucent forms. Swept in the currents of wind dozens formed to soon a more innumerable amount. A soft hum played amidst it all, beeping aphids and more small insects roamed out harmonizing their own tiny outlets.
There was movement, a flurry of rushing pattering along trunks and soil to heads popping out of shrooms and holes' in any direction I saw; once a multi-legged body scurried along on my crystal shell and just as it leapt- It soon found itself aloft between a beak to a newly formed nest. If this what it meant in all, I would never go back into that hollow place. The winged creature, took its quarry nestling between my branches it chirped, as it brought down a leg almost like a striking pose. It was the same one, its emerald eyes curved upward happily now dancing...
The one that brought tapping, without it would I have ever left that place?.. The savior of all and beacon to those lost. Fluff? I had a name, it should too. Fluff had saved me from that place. Intentional or not, the end was the same. It was an fitting name resembling the hero its tiny twig legs and all.
I took all that I could, in this newfound place as I occupied myself with the each nook and cranny visible. As I settled, I.. Was brimming with a palpable desire and thought. In no doubt now, it wasn't a delusion or morbid vision. It was all real I felt it, I perceived it my sight was true. I could spot a distant hill, lined in the same trees, till sporting white caps, I would find creatures small roaming inches from me, others flying, and more laying beside rocks and stone; there were sounds, a familiar chirp and unseen growling obscured in darkness 'n bush.
It was unlike the abyss, there was more here than what I saw- Then I would have ever guessed. But I couldn't run from my reoccurring thought, 'What if?' What else was there? It wasn't stagnant, it breathed and flowed, the distant hills and reaches beyond my sight alluded to more. There had to be as I found myself wanting to see it all. I wouldn't be still like the abyss, so I held on to my new sensations to feeling all that I could.
I soon grappled the feeling of touch, to dwelling on each minute vibration that coursed though from my wooden skin, down to my core. I took to each twitch and jerk with Fluff padding its nest. I more than wanted, I needed to move as I focused on this fleeting sensation, to nothing else but it. I wouldn't be stagnant, occupied with nothing else I didn't relent for it would be cursing back on what I vowed.
..
The multitude of scenes around me grew darker, more in so that I lost track of them. Far from my thoughts, as I had been until now. The moons had risen now obscured by tree canopy, but I didn't mind, I didn't need their light for this. My fascination and Fluff's own small form was enough, in a rhythmic pattering of breaths and in shades of opal white, depend green; Fluff's coat of feathers shone as if in the least to signify, the small beacon of all it was to me. I had done it now, I could feel more than before.
I curled my branch that held Fluff, closer so I could more clearly see. I could manipulate my leaves, in a small ruffle shook my swaying limbs like a wet dog.. It had took many tries, but in this moment of night my battle had been won- If I could... My sight faded, surroundings went blur-
Till I saw nothing for the briefest of moments then Fluff was gone.
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I had came too, it had seemed like just a moment but, it was eerily familiar.. I felt different, once more it changed billowing fog ranged low skittering across the floor. The sun had already begun its journey, it was more than a mere moment. Fluff's nest laid barren the tiny hero was gone, and morning edged on as I came to try in understand of what had happened.
Emptiness flowed through me. Just as I had felt the drain seconds before night was taken away, before I lost time. It was all too familiar. I had perceived moments, a false truth; reality struck as it felt just like the abyss. It may have been just that, maybe I could have deluded myself- Even as a sharp pain struck my core. I bore it as the cursed sensation rocked my crystal shell, reaching more to each tip of my branch and folds of leaves. My core dimmed in the pain, it nearly engulfed me.
A loud snap shook me from delirium, something hunched behind a rose bush at the corner of my vision. In the turbulent blur I could barely make it out. Maw first it inched, receding from shadow as reddish light bugs drifted around, scaling the creature. Still it remained half cloaked, it wasn't praying on surroundings- No, its fiery eyes were locked, settled upon me.
It had a savage beak, cut like a saw and jutting bone on each side resembling spikes. Small clawed limbs drooped below its chest as they swiveled cutting the air in an odd twitch. It was long, standing on two legs etching out from shadow with a cocked head unrelenting in the stare. Something akin to dread. It wasn't an idle gaze, it was layered with primal desire; like a coiled snake it sprung, dozens of meters were seized as a trail of dirt was flung- Instinctively I turned my trunk with force I didn't know was within me, brought down branches with a wreath of leaves.
It arched as I moved, still it bore forward in a adjacent run with my movement its mouth ajar gazing towards my core. It looked manic, for what reasons it wanted me- Well, whatever it craved with my core wouldn't be pleasant. Would I cease to be if it took my core? The worrying thoughts confounded as the creature stopped its gait in the broad light. Deformed lumps perforated at the creature's side, a tightening mass had itself wrapped, intertwined between differing limbs and sections of its form. Wiggling vines were locked around its neck as if strangling it, oozing puss seeped from them.
It was rotting, deformed. It's body layered in muck, vine and portions hollowed- But.. That wasn't it. Down to the wood only twisted, leaves that adorned it like a mane. I saw and it looked like me.
..
It was sick, for that much I could tell. A vine-like creature had enveloped it, in a unending throb almost pulsing as if it sucked something- Kin to a parasite. It swayed in place seemingly fighting its all to stand, with a deep growl it shook itself before focusing again on me. Witnessing its state, my vision again drifted as something left me; it struck. Serrated teeth punctured my trunk a hairbreadth away from my core.
Its bloodshot eyes were piercing, more so than the agony of teeth thrashing to get loose. Sensation left me as it tore greater chunks like a savage beast- As it was, it didn't relent. Even in its state, I could sense its desire, its rage and pain most of all hunger. So I reacted, in a thrust two of my branches wedged the creature, pushing it further down with all I could muster. It flailed erratically as I increased the pressure, it bulged squirming, chomping the air as it tried gnawing closer to my core.
It somehow exhaled, releasing labored cries as meaty insides leaked from its carapace of wood. Force grew lax as I kept the pressure till a large crack popped, like a stone on water it drooped. All of the emotion and force gone. Just weight, the jaws unclenched sliding down my trunk resting beside the armored form. In the quiet moment its eyes fell on me one last time, there was no anger or hunger anymore. Relief?.. I didn't know, but its madness had stopped, so had its movements, so did its life as eyes rolled back.
Had it gone to darkness, an abyss? I wondered, at the creatures fleeting moment it didn't seem scared nor afraid. I shuddered both physically and mentally at the thought, had something drove it to feel such? Could it even understand and perceive like I could, or was it purely instinctual?.. I felt hollow and not just from stinging pain that coursed though my roots. As I looked at the laying corpse something still moved. The wrapped creature still pulsed and began to slither loose.
Off with it fluids drained, flecks of the creature rotted. Under the ooze mandibles detached viciously- Was that it? A parasite, leech some damned thing was eating it, feasting on it as it lived-- It let out a weak screech, collapsing to the ground as purplish goop fell of my branch. Instantly I had skewed it, the sight of it made my mind crawl, its skin like a soft sponge. It riled unease just at the implications of what it meant, if there was more. The pain rushed back, as I tore off the parasite flinging it to the side, a gooey set of teeth ripped with it.
The stomach and underside of the other had been gouged, as I tore the last viney pieces. Despite my pain, the thought of that thing sitting there disturbed me, would I become like the creature it had ensnared?...
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