Doonk. Doonk. Doonk.

The rhythmic sound of something hitting the ceiling wakes me up. I slowly sit up in the sheet, looking around, and discover the source of the noise- a bored-looking Igby with a rubber ball. A small, fuzzy ear twitches and he grabs the ball out of the air, his head snapping towards me.

“You’re awake! I was so bored!” he says, shooting both fists in the air.

I nod.

He lugs his little stool over from the spot near the desk to where I am, and then runs back to the desk to grab a notepad and a pen. Plopping down on the stool in criss-cross position, he gets the pen ready. “Doktur asked me to ask you how you feel when you wake up. How’s your headache?”

I think for a second, and say “pretty much gone.”

He jots some notes down.

“Dizziness, pain in the neck or back, nausea?”

“Nope, nope, and nope,” I say, swinging my legs out of the sheet.

He flips the notepad shut loudly.

With a big smile, he says “ok, sounds like you’re good then! I’m discharging you. What do you wanna do?”

I tilt my head. I’ve never been to a hospital before, but shouldn’t the doctor be doing this part?

“Can you make those decisions?”

“Doktur left me in charge, so it’s fine,” he replies, standing up and extending a hand to me, “you came looking for Don Tom right? I can take you there!”

“If it’s not too inconvenient for you, yeah, that’d be great!” I say, taking his hand and standing up.

“Oh, don’t worry about inconveniences. I’m super bored!” he says, grabbing a blue bag off the desk and leading me out the door.

When the door opens, I’m greeted with a wild variety of different smells, the sound of hundreds of people walking and talking, and the sight of towering trees with cabins and platforms built on, up, and around them as far as I can see.

Stepping outside and onto the wooden deck, my eyes go wide and my mouth falls open. I can hardly believe that this is the planet right next door to mine!

“How can you be so bored?” I say, “There’s so many people here!”

“I know,” he looks at me, almost pitifully, “and I’m running out of people to learn from.”

“Wait, really?” I ask. He hadn’t really struck me as the type to spend all day learning. But I guess he’d be good at it, with all his energy.

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“Yep,” he leans on the railing, “whenever I’m bored I just find someone to follow around. They usually like putting me to work, and getting to talk to someone about their passion. But after I get the hang of it, I just wanna move on to the next thing. Unfortunately, that means I’m running out of people to apprentice for here.”

Huh. So I guess that’s why he’s helping Doktur out.

“Which is why,” his smile returns, “I’m hanging out with you now, until you leave. We’re friends now. You need to see Don Tom, right? I can take you there.”

And he runs off towards a bridge and into a crowd of people, leaving me no choice but to take off after him.

He’s barely in my line of sight as he slides between people’s legs and ducks under people’s arms, dodging the crowd swiftly and effortlessly. Meanwhile, I’m trying really hard to just slip between everyone, failing, and apologizing quickly. I consider trying to move like him for a brief second, and trip over someone’s leg. Moving around like this has never been this hard for me, but it almost feels like the air is slightly heavier. Maybe I’m severely injured after all?

I finally catch up to Igby, and he’s leaning against a wall next to a door.

“Took you long enough,” he teases, “we’re here.”

“Don’t… go in yet… I need… to catch… my breath…” I wheeze, and lean against the wall next to him.

“How are you gonna be an explorer when you’re this out of shape? Is the gravity on your planet that much lighter than here?”

Ah. So it wasn’t just my imagination.

“So… the gravity… really does vary… from planet… to planet?” I wheeze out again, still working on the whole breathing thing.

“So I’ve heard. I personally haven’t left this planet, so I don’t know what it’s like anywhere else. Doktur gets patients with gravity sickness sometimes though,” he explains, “one time there was this TINY little guy. He was about half my size. I think he said his home planet is closer to the center, and has crazy strong gravity. Said he comes out here near the edges to study different ways of living? But yeah, I guess he gets really sick sometimes when he’s traveling to places like this because his body decompresses. He also tripped a lot, which was hilarious.”

“What do you usually do for that?” I’m now almost breathing normally.

“It depends on the symptoms,” Igby shrugs, “it’s really just an adjustment thing, so it’s not really something you cure so much as something you just kinda deal with when traveling. Some people get cold packs on their heads. Some people need to be hung upside down for a little while. Some people just need a nap. I usually give them puapols, it seems to really help.”

“Puapols?” I tilt my head.

“Oh! I meant to give you one too! Here, eat this.”

He reaches into his bag and pulls out a long, vibrant purple fruit. I take it from him and stare at it in my hands. It’s smooth to the touch, and has ridges along the length of it.

“...Do I just…” I lift the puapol to my mouth to take a bite.

“No! Stop that! Here,” he pulls another puapol out of his bag.

First, he takes a small bite out of the end of it, and spits it out to the side. He puts the now open end in his mouth, and squeezes it from the bottom.

“See? Bite, slurp, squeeze. Easy. World tree fruits like this tend to have inedible skin, and soft, nutritious flesh inside,” he explains.

Nodding, I go to copy him. Bite, slurp, squeeze. The skin is firm, but still pretty easy to bite off. I spit it to the side, in the same direction Igby did. I lift it back to my mouth, and slurp, per Igby’s instruction. And wow. The fruit itself is a thick, sweet kinda almost-liquid with small, soft seeds. I start to squeeze from the bottom, slurping more. Life returns to my skin, and the air feels a little less heavy. The rest of my body also feels less heavy. Did this fruit just give me super strength?

“Feeling better?” he asks.

“Are these fruits magical?” I ask back.

He laughs.

“I have a theory,” he starts, “that world trees grow fruit that helps you adjust to their planet’s gravitational climates on purpose so that more people will stay to help cultivate the planet. When you throw the skin on the ground, it gets soft and helps other plants grow too. No one’s taken me too seriously about it yet though. I’ll just have to travel to more planets and eat all their food.”

“Maybe you can come with me then!” I jump, “I’m going to travel all around the universe and see all the different planets!”

His grin fades, as he looks up at the sky. He seems deep in thought, for a split second. Just as quickly as his grin faded away, it came back.

“I’ll think about it,” he says, “anyways, we’re at Don Tom’s. Maybe I’ll come along if your boat is cool enough.”

Turning to the door, I now realize that “DON TOM” is written on it in big, green letters. I have no idea how I didn’t notice that before right now. I reach for the door to open it, but before I can, it swings open and inside is a… big… moving tree thing. It’s covered in flowers in a way that resembles a face, with petals that open and close. A line of purple petals opens up, and the voice that comes out is low, and smooth.

“I heard. Come on in.”