The door whooshed open, as Ivy held up a pair of hand clippers threateningly.

The black helmet revealed no emotion, as the guard viewed her. "I am reporting for duty. I am assigned to protect you."

"No."

"That is my correct designation. Thankyou."

She shook her head, "No, I mean... It's..."

The truth was, the only reason she didn't want him as her guard, was the awkwardness of it all. However, he had already proven himself. He'd crash-tackled her out of the air and saved her life, or whatever he'd done to make sure she woke up, alive, on the ground.

"Nevermind. Sorry."

"Apologies are unnecessary, but always appreciated."

Ivy looked at him with a lop-sided smile, "You're... Different. But I'm sorry that I've been as mean as I have."

"It is expected that one behaves in unusual manners, after encountering a life risking situation. It is not something to treat as if it were a normal situation and that the behaviour is of the regular attitudes."

She blinked, "Aha... So... Things still creeping and scaring the hell out of me. You're here because a guest wants to cut my roots. Um... Got any training for that kind of anxiety?"

"It may sound presumptuous to offer any advice."

"Please. Presume away."

The helmet inclined, looking her up and down, and her anxiety reached even greater heights. She could not at all figure what he might be thinking, and it felt leaf ruffling to have him wordlessly examine her.

"I would suggest a visit to the gardens."

Ivy blinked, "Gardens? Aren't there lots of hiding places there, for a really creepy guest who wants me dead?"

"I will be there."

Ivy had to laugh at his confidence. His arrogance really did not seem to have any limits. All the same, she did feel somewhat... Comforted. This was a man who could jump off an orbiting spacecraft without a hesitation. He was exactly who she wanted between her and some gardening shears.

She shrugged, "Lead the way."

He turned and walked quick-fast from the room, and she found herself skittering to keep up with him. Which, at least, was an excuse not stop and put on shoes. Her soft and still-healing feet just about danced on the warm textures of the floor.

They made their way up to the top deck again, and then moved to a small hallway near the official offices. Ivy followed him, surprised that such a place even existed. It didn't seem like the guests would really want to go here.

At the end of the hall, was a glass door, that led into a dome.

As soon as they stepped inside, Ivy had to bury a moan. Her first breath of air was so much more oxygen rich than she was used to. It set a fire burning through her veins, spreading out her leaves and exposing her completely.

She swayed, shivering, and feeling an unhealthy dose of euphoria. Her flowers hesitated for a moment, knowing that everything was off, but then they gave in and spread out - drinking in the rich air.

"This is an area that is not usually accessible by guests. It is unlikely the guest who has spoken threats against you can obtain access." The guard stated flatly.

She giggled and pushed his shoulder gently, "You're so serious all the time."

"I am an Autonomous Security and Wellbeing Unit."

"So?"

That darn helmet.

Couldn't see if he even blinked at her question, but he didn't answer it. Which annoyed her, and so with a giggle, she stepped close to him and grabbed the helmet from either side and tried to lift.

He didn't seem to respond, but the helmet didn't move a single inch, either. She struggled and pulled, but nothing happened. Ivy sighed, guessing that whatever was making her float, was also making her pathetically weak.

She turned away from him, and skipped down the path.

The plants surrounded them on all sides. Tall trees, and low bushes, all of them covered in flowers of every kind. These were genetic hybrids, bred and created by methods not available to nature.

Between the path and the plants were a small and low barrier, made from an ugly aluminium blend. She wasn't sure what, and her mind was spinning too quickly for her to snatch out any recognition. Why would they have a barrier?

It wasn't fair, and it wasn't nice.

She leaned her elbows onto the bar, looking out to the nearest tree, and then she began to softly sing. A light and airy voice, coming from somewhere deep in her chest.

> "Sing with me, oh the garden's alive!"

> "Feel the warmth of the sun, hear the buzz of the hive."

> "All of us together, in harmony,"

> "A living, breathing tapestry."

The notes of her song reverberated through the air. Slow and deliberate, carrying with them a sense of peace, tranquillity. As she sang, the garden around seemed to awaken.

The flowers on the trees blossoming, the trees groaning and standing taller, leaves rustling in time with her melody. All of the trees, except for the one right in front of her.

> "Deep roots hold me to the earth."

> "As long as I will live, I'll give birth,"

> "To leaves and flowers of every hue"

> "I am the garden, and the garden is me, too."

Her voice was higher pitched, but powerful. As she sang, birds that had been hidden away came out, flocking around her onto the path.

Sitting and listening, before chirping along. Joining in the song, with their own sweet melodies.

> "If high walls keep you from the sky,"

> "And you're feeling lost, wondering why,"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

> "Come take a walk, let me show you where."

> "Nature can heal, without a care."

The garden seemed to shimmer with a quiet energy, as it pulsed with life, seemingly magic. She continued to sing, notes rolling over the plants and creatures, filling them with a gentle spark.

It wasn't magic, of course. She didn't know if she believed in magic. It was science, and one that was rather basic. She was a catalyst, helping to smooth out the regular transformation processes within each living thing.

This wasn't much different to the first job she'd had, when she was still in high school. Someone had to tend the gardens for the fast food.

She turned to the guard, smiling brightly at him, before launching back into the chorus, trying to get that impassive helmet to listen, to act. To do something apart from feel like a giant lump of coal, resting angrily upon the ground.

> "So sing with me, oh the garden's alive!"

> "Feel the warmth of the sun, hear the buzz of the hive!"

> "All of us together, in harmony,"

> "A living, breathing tapestry."

No didn't react at all.

Ivy rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and pushed out the feelers of her roots. Daring him to say or do something, anything, as she crept around the edges of the stone, or more a concrete, and into the soil below.

She cracked the rock, she pushed through the powder. Violating and vandalising the pathway, as she stared down the guard watching her. The roots instantly found some of the healthiest, moist and delicious, dirt that she ever had tasted.

Not that she ever really rooted herself that often. That was something you did in your bed, but never in public. It was a vulnerable sort of thing.

She wasn't a plant - if someone came along and cut off a root, it wasn't something that she could just regrow. That would be years of physical therapy and medication.

He didn't react at all.

In a complete pout, Ivy crouched into herself. She pulled in her leaves, and focused only on the air, the sun, and the soil. She closed her eyes, snuggling into the depth of it all.

She was swallowed up be the earth, nestled safely into the cozy darkness. Little by little she grew. Good sun, nice soil, fantastic air. She couldn't resist the desire to sprout, stretching out delicate stems towards the sky.

The warmth of the sun shot through her, bursting as it touched her delicate leaves, filling her with an energy more than any she had felt. Petals unfurled, and she stretched higher and higher. The air around her was so crisp and clean, with just enough moisture.

Birds sang out, flitting around the garden. Some of them stopping to perch on her petals, tidying away at their wings. She grew and grew. The sun getting hotter, the air cooler, and the soil richer. She bloomed and bloomed, turning into a dazzling display of colours.

She continued to soak up the warmth of the sun, drinking and glugging away on the air like tomorrow was to be forgotten.

Suddenly, she stopped. She felt a tug, like a string pulling her back. A coldness that she couldn't quite place.

She was being lifted out of the dirt, out of the comfort of the garden, trailing quickly through the air. She felt calm about it, even as she knew it was bizarre to fly. She wasn't an insect. She couldn't shake her booty like a bumblebee.

She screamed, as she realised why the tug and coldness was so familiar.

As she landed in the angry guest's mouth.

His giant tongue looped around her waist, as he tried to drag her down and into his unhinging jaw. A growl emerging from somewhere deep in his throat as wet walls closed in all around her.

The dizzy and completely incapable Ivy thrust one hand up into the air desperately. She didn't know what she was reaching for, she was surrounded by slimy muscly wetness. There was no one that would risk themselves for her. She probably didn't even deserve to be saved.

She had come onto this ship with selfish desires. Maybe the universe had sensed that, and set this guest on quest to wrest her into their blessed chest.

A giggle escaped her, even as she knew she was about to die.

Her head felt dizzy.

It... It...

Oxygen!

Too much oxygen!

She was as high as kite, even though she was lying as low as a dog! She was not even sure what to say, her mind was lost in a different way, she was stuck in this world of her own, like a dog with a bone.

Her mind was lost in a daze, floating in a throat's pink haze, she couldn't seem to find her way. Where was she headed today? Her thoughts are all jumbled up, like a puzzle in a cup, she couldn't seem to piece it all together, her mind was lost like a feather.

The colours around her became so bright, they blended the day and night. She was not sure what was real anymore, was she on land or on a seashore?

The music came in so loud and clear, but her head feels like it was nowhere near. The beats were mixing with her thoughts, like they are dancing in her heart.

She wished she could just snap out of it.

Her brain was caught in a pit.

Confusion and delirium, her thoughts echoed like she was in a stadium.

The throat seemed to go straight on like a tunnel, dipping down. Ivy found herself falling down a very deep well. It was either very deep, or she fell very slowly, or she was going very crazy, because she had plenty of time to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.

She tried to look down, and make out what she was coming to. The tongue should be pulling her to a throat, to fall and slip towards a stomach. But instead, she saw nothing below her. It was entirely too dark to see.

However, she was able to see about the sides around her. Ivy mouthed several swearwords in confusion, as she saw that the sides of the throat were lined with what looked like cupboards and bookshelves. She even saw a map or two, hung upon pegs.

She scooted closer to a shelf, and snagged a book as she floated gently by it. Ivy frowned at the sad looking catgirl on the cover, especially under so happy a title as '*Everyday Life with Bubbles!*' Exclamation mark and all. The book ought to be happy.

She shrugged and dropped it onto another bookcase as she passed.

Some authors never found the mark.

As she continued to float like a leaf on the wind, Ivy caught glimpses of peculiar objects inside the cupboards. There were mysterious vials with swirling colours, and jars with little men, and even odder artefacts that seemed to radiate with a strange energy.

The cautious in her, told her not to touch.

The scientist in her grinned like a madcat as she tried to snatch one of the jars.

She missed, suddenly further away, flying away, from the walls. The confusion and disorientation only seemed to increase, but she couldn't help but feel a certain sense of excitement. There was something altogether enchanting about this bizarre descent into the unknown.

She couldn't escape the feeling that she had stumbled into a hidden realm. A place where the rules of reality where just waiting for someone to test them out, find out. Where everything she knew was twisted and distorted, and just... Better.

Ivy gasped as she hit the bottom.

Touching down was lighter than it should have been. She found herself on some kind of giant, pink and fleshy trampoline. It almost felt like she was sitting on a jellyfish or a kid's gelatin fruit cup.

She bounced a couple times, and then fell on her face when she tried to walk on it. However, as she rolled to the floor, she found the walls around her opening up. Leading into a massive, cave-like room.

Ivy managed to find her feet as she reached it, looking around in bewilderment, as she found herself surrounded by glowing crystals, and deep and dark glistening pools of a liquid that even she did not recognise.

The air was thick with a smell that made her dizziness all the worse. Sweet and spicy, yet somehow still with a hint of musk. The air itself seemed to spark, to sparkle, to pulse with a strange sort of energy that she couldn't understand.

The crystals reflected the lights, dancing like fireworks, like drones that spun and shaped childhood fairytales. They cast strange glowing patterns across the room - a room that now seemed to have no door.

Ivy was absolutely in awe as she took in her surroundings. It was unlike anything she had ever seen or experienced before. She felt as if this truly was a completely new world that she had fallen into.

How had she fallen? She couldn't remember.

She crouched by the strange liquid, feeling uncertain about it. Not afraid, not just curious. An anxious sort of something that she had never felt before. Ivy's green eyes were reflected on the dark surface, but as she watched, her own reflection seemed to drift away.

Falling deeper and deeper into the water.

Ivy went to scream, but her lungs filled with water, as she found herself falling away and staring up at her own reflection. She tried to struggle, to fight her way back up to the surface, but her limbs felt heavier than any oak.

She cried out, but only bubbles escaped from her mouth, as she sank deeper and deeper.

Panic flooded her veins as she realized she was trapped, unable to breathe, her vision growing blurry and her body weakening.

As the last bit of air left her lungs, Ivy's body went limp. Succumbing to the suffocating grip of the water. Her mind began to drift, her thoughts scattering like fallen leaves in the wind. She wondered if this was the end, if she would forever be trapped in this watery grave.

Roots, oversaturated, falling apart.

Rotting alone in this strangeness.

She could no longer flail, she could not scream for help. The current or her weight, or something, pulling around her stomach, dragging her deeper and deeper with a strength that should have been awe inspiring.

Her fear and panic turned to acceptance, as the water swept into her, drowning all of her. Her thoughts slowed to a creeping pace, pulling in the day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.

All her yesterdays had led her here, to this saturated death. She was nothing but a sapling, pushed over by the west wind.

Her entire life had been nothing but a walking shadow, a poor player. She had strut and fret her hour upon the stage, and now she would be heard no more.

Her whole life had been nothing. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.

Signifying nothing.