Chapter Thirty-Seven.

Before he even opened his eyes, Cameron felt scared, wanting to curl up into a ball and cry. The voices were gone, unable to be sensed again.

It took him several minutes to calm down and open his eyes. The first thing he saw was a massive branch above him that stretched into the distance above him. Sitting up, he found himself resting on a branch half a mile across.

The great tree itself stretched to either side as far as the eye could see, only a dozen feet from him. Slowly turning around, he saw other branches in the distance, some off the main tree, some off the ones he could see. Nothing but darkness surrounded him, though he could see the tree itself without issue.

The bough he was standing on stretched into the distance, and without a clue of what to do, he began walking, until he came across one of its smaller branches. The leaves were all colors of the rainbow, and pear-shaped fruit hung from it.

There were five different fruit hanging from the branch. One was the deep, rich purple he'd come to associate with magic, one was silver, another gold, the fourth black, and the fifth was completely translucent.

Cameron reached out to feel the clear fruit nearest to him. It was higher than him, and he had to stand on his toes. Cursing his height, he stretched as high as he could, only to find his fingers barely brushing the smooth, cool fruit.

He climbed up, doing his best to hold onto the thick branch without sliding down, thankful for the bark and the grip it gave him, though not for his bare arms and legs, which were scraped against the bark. Once he was level with the clear fruit, he reached out and touched it again.

It was as smooth as it looked, and cool to the touch, yet not cold.

So it's not ice, he thought. Maybe a crystal? But it feels too soft to be something that hard.

Stomach rumbling, Cameron decided that maybe the big tree wouldn't be unhappy with him eating her fruit. She had directed him there, and he could only see her around him. Then again, she was an ancient tree said to permeate all of existence.

Maybe it'd be best to ask for permission, first.

"May I eat something?" He asked.

He received no answer, felt none of her presence in his mind, even if he could feel her in the tree. Deciding to take the lack of a rejection as an acceptance, based on his previous assumption, Cameron plucked the crystal fruit from the tree.

As carefully as he could, Cameron made his way back down the branch and stood on the massive bough, looking at his arms and legs. He'd gotten cut up a little bit more, and wished he hadn't gotten rid of the rest of his clothes before jumping in the lake.

The moment he thought that, Cameron shivered, realizing how cold and chilly he was. The air there wasn't really all that warm, and he was still wet. Now that he paid attention, he noticed his body was covered in goosebumps.

Giving himself a small shake, Cameron lifted the fruit to his mouth and took a bite of it. Crystal-clear juice ran down his chin as he chewed it. It was the most delicious fruit he had ever eaten in his life, and the sweetest. Despite the sweetness, however, it wasn't overpowering. Instead, it was just right.

Before taking more bites, Cameron inspected the fruit, to see what its meat looked like. Much to his surprise, it was clear as well, though he could see his bite marks warping the appearance, as well as the juice on the surface of the 'wound'.

Giggling, Cameron took another bite, then another. It wasn't until he was nearly finished that he realized the sting in his arms and legs had faded. His eyes widened when he looked at the cuts. Though the blood that had risen to the surface was still there, his injuries had healed.

"That is so cool!" He exclaimed. "It's healing fruit!"

Giggling again, Cameron ate the rest of the fruit, then licked his fingers of the juice before wiping his chin on his sleeve.

Are the rest of the fruits that delicious? He wondered, looking back up at the branch.

He didn't like the idea of eating the black fruit. That just screamed 'you will die' at him. In all-caps. By a skeleton cloaked in shadows who was carrying a scythe. Directly into his head without passing through his ears.

Yeah, he didn't want to even touch that fruit.

The silver and gold fruit looked interesting. He knew from myths and stuff he'd heard that they were real. No one had ever told him what the fruits were for the big tree, with Adam claiming that no one knew, but the myths probably had some truth. Maybe. Silver for immortality? Or gold?

He didn't think he wanted to be immortal. Living forever would be boring after awhile. That was why Adam started training him and Eden, after all, and why he ran the warehouse. He was bored. He'd already done pretty much everything he could.

There was also the possibility those were just human myths, too.

The purple fruit was just plain weird, and it reminded him of eggplant. The last time he ate eggplant, he puked for a week.

Well, that was exaggerating. It was only for seven hours. But it felt like a week, so that's what he said when anyone asked.

Well, no one has, he thought to himself, then shrugged.

Deciding to go with the safety of the healing fruits, he began climbing the branch again. He knew what those felt like, and what they did. After carefully walking across one of the branches offshoots, he slowly sat down with one leg on either side of the branch, using one hand to steady himself as he reached for the fruit growing off to the side.

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"I wouldn't, if I were you."

Cameron nearly jumped. He couldn't tell where the voice had come from, so he expanded his mind outwards until he brushed the one belonging to the female who'd spoken.

"I can't see you," he looked down at where she was.

A moment later, a woman wearing a dark green dress trimmed with silver came into view. She wore no jewelry, but Cameron had to admit that she was beautiful without it. He bet she didn't even wear makeup.

Her hair was as black as the fruit in front of him, her lips thick and red, her eyes a deep, rich, forest green, her skin paler than the moon back on Earth. The thing that made him nervous was that as soon as she became visible, he felt an extremely strong aura around her, similar to the one he'd felt when he met his father.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I have many names," she said. "Though most have been forgotten to time. I am a goddess, and judging by your divinity, you're either a god or a demigod."

"I'm a demigod," Cameron said. "By my divinity's been bound. I was told it can't be sensed?"

"It is?" She asked, her gaze moving to his sleeve. "Ah. You've already eaten a clear fruit, haven't you?"

"How'd you know?" He asked, having missed the slight shift in her gaze.

"If your divinity was bound," she said. "But able to be sensed, then you've eaten of the clear fruit. To consume one with bound divinity is to undo the bindings, to eat another with your divinity whole is to lose it entirely."

"M-my divinity's unbound?" Cameron's eyes widen. "B-b-but I'm not an adult yet! I haven't hit my growth spurts yet!"

The woman laughed, a melodic sound the filled the air, and Cameron shot her a glare.

"This is serious!" He said.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"Twel-thirteen," he answered. "I just turned thirteen… a bit ago? I think a month ago? I'm not sure what the date is."

"You're a demigod," she said. "You age to adulthood faster than normal mortals of your species. What was your mortal half? Human?"

"Y-yes," he answered. "Age fast? But I'm not done growing! I haven't hit my growth spurts!"

"Eat another of the clear fruits," she said. "And you'll be able to finish your growth. However, as you are human, and speaking in this particular language, know that you have a year, two at most, before you finish growing."

"Eden said that with a good diet and lots of exercise, I'll be able to grow a bit more!" Cameron cried. "I don't want to lose my divinity, but I wanna grow!"

"You could always ask your godly parent to bind you again," she said. "Depending on your relationship with them, they might comply."

Cameron grumbled under his breath, and she laughed.

"Did you say 'Ulrima'?" She asked. "I thought your divinity felt familiar. You're right in your skepticism, he wouldn't do such a thing."

"What do I do?" Cameron wailed, and she laughed again. "I'm going to be puny forever!"

"Demigods have a unique spell in the time school of magic," she told him once he calmed down a bit from his fit. "They can control their rate of aging simply by their will alone. It's inherent to them with their divinity. If you don't want to stop aging, you simply won't. It's as simple as that. The misconception is given mostly to mess with young demigods and the actual mortals."

"So I-I'll get my growth spurts?" Cameron asked.

"Indeed," she answered. "Because you don't want to stop aging yet, you won't. You would need to forcibly stop the spell to working, and to me, it seems as if you don't wish that to happen, so it would be quite difficult to do, even if you did try."

Cameron nodded, wiping his eyes with his hands. That calmed him down a lot.

"Um," he said. "How do I get out of here? My friends are in trouble."

"There are two ways out," she told him. "The first is through death. The second… is by consuming two fruit, then plucking a third. Only the one you pluck after consuming the other two will travel with you outside. It will act as your 'key' to open the passage out of here."

Cameron nodded, looking around the tree, then back down at her.

"How do I open the passage?"

"Choose your fruit," she told him. "Then I'll take you to the pool."

"The pool?" Cameron screwed up his face in confusion. "I'm going swimming again?"

"No!" She laughed. "It is a pool of nectar. You will lower yourself into it, and as you do, you'll be transported out of here, so long as you've consumed two and are carrying the first one you plucked after."

"Where will I end up?"

"That depends on you," she answered. "The place you most desire to be will be the place you find yourself. And know this, Cameron: you will be unable to tell anyone about what you encountered here, nor the truth of the fruits. It is simply the way things are."

He began to nod, then an idea formed in his head.

"The black fruits kill, right?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered. "To eat one in its entirety will kill any being that is neither a god nor truly immortal."

Which meant it would work on Titania. And if he couldn't speak of the truth of the fruits, then maybe he could lie about one.

"Do I have to eat the fruit I take with me?" He asked.

"If you wish," she answered. "Or you can use it in a potion, to create a realm, or give it to another. What you do with it is your choice."

"Create a realm?"

"Yes," she floated upwards and sat on the branch beside him, gently touching a golden fruit. "The golden fruits will spawn a realm of your design when you plant it. Two have been taken before, one by a niece of yours by the name of Belana, the other by a demigod by the name of Alexander Lesovar."

"I know Alex!" Cameron said. "Wait! That's how he has the island, isn't it?"

"The island?"

"He has his own island that shimmers in and out, or something like that," Cameron shrugged. "Adam told me he wasn't sure how Alex did that. I guess this explains it."

Cameron grinned at the thought of knowing something Adam didn't.

"So," he said. "What do the other fruits do?"

"Every fruit has two parts," she said. "You know the fruit of divinity's. The fruit of death's kills anything that is neither truly immortal nor a god, or if it's already dead, will restore it to life when 'fed' into their body. The golden fruit can create a realm when planted, or destroy a realm when planted.

"The purple fruit," she said. "Will complete your connection to your tree, greatly augmenting your magical prowess. For some, they might only see a decent improvement in their control and learning, in others, it could be a massive leap. No one truly knows until they try."

"I spent two weeks doing nothing but connecting," Cameron pouted. "But my improvement doesn't seem to be that much better."

"Then it might not do much," she told him. "Either way, it will still give you some greater level of control. It's possible you're a natural already, and that's why your connection doesn't do much."

"Yeah, okay," Cameron said. "So what's its other side?"

"It'll completely sever your connection to the tree," she said. "Stripping you of all your magic and preventing you from ever reforging it. However, that's only if your connection has already been forged to the unbreakable level, which eating it without that will do."

Cameron nodded.

"And the silver?"

"The fruit of immortality," she answered. "It will grant you true immortality, so that death will never claim you. If you are already truly immortal, it will strip that away."

Cameron looked at the tree, then nodded.

"One more question," he said. "Can I tell someone that something is a fruit's property when it isn't?"

"Yes," she smiled. "You are only prevented from telling the truth. I take it there's someone you want to kill?"

"Yes," Cameron's gaze darkened. "She killed my friend, scared my other friends, and did everything she could become truly immortal, even attempting to turn me into a fucking tree. I am going to kill the Fairy Empress, Titania."