The world around me fell apart as I walked on; the grainy VHS tape-style animation had given way to the same empty fields I had walked through when I first arrived. I intended to go in Autumn's direction and hoped that through my intent, the Zone would lead me to them. Because the idea of wandering around through differently themed stories forever wasn't on my bucket list.

A path had formed under my feet at some point, but it didn't seem to lead anywhere except forward. Now and then, the road would fork, and I was given the choice to go towards a field of flowers.

I never chose to take that path. It just gave me a bad feeling, but I wasn't sure why.

After passing by the same eerie field of flowers for the fourth time, I left the path, walking in the opposite direction from the field into the tall grass. I hoped the Zone would have received the memo by that point.

After what felt like a mile of trudging through tall grass with Novi's insect form following along behind me, the world started to shift.

The world started transitioning, the colours sharpened, and textures smoothed out into that weird hyperrealistic style that happened when you took too much DMT while forcing your eyes to stay open. Every blade of grass looked more real than real grass, and when I moved my face close to it, I could see small patterns swirling away along them. I blinked uncomprehendingly at the change.

This was unexpected. I thought this Zone had to involve scenes inspired by animation. This was distinctly completely impossible to show somebody who wasn't tripping balls normally. You just couldn't replicate it because the human eye didn't have the resolution capable of mimicking this hyperrealism.

Which meant this style was intended for non-human eyes.

Earth's animation industry had clearly inspired the areas I was in before. But that's because I was there, wasn't it? Given that the Zone was showing a completely different style, it must have been influenced by Autumn.

Rushing forward through the tall grass, it seemed to flow around me like water, not even touching my shell. The deeper I went, the more the world shifted, colours danced in the air, and patterns wove themselves into the fabric of reality around me.

Then the grass broke and I found myself in a clearing in front of a massive tree, its leaves on the cusp of turning red, marking the start of autumn. The tree was housing dozens of buildings within its canopy and along its trunk. Bridges made of vine and bark connected the platforms spiralling up and across its surface, creating a lattice of homes, halls, and walkways suspended among the branches. The bark shimmered with the same hyperreal sheen, and each leaf curled together into a pattern that I felt deep meaning in but couldn't quite understand.

Along the pathways on the tree were tiny plant-like beings. Not quite spriggans, as none of them were in any way anthropoids. Flowers with legs, twigs that crawled, and leaves that drifted slightly off the ground moved about the tree like a colony of ants.

At the base of the tree was an entryway guarded by two much smaller trees, each armed with clubs held in wooden arms that appeared to be made of braided branches.

If this weren't the right place, I'd eat my shoes.

Given that the Skill [Friend of the Forest] meant plants wouldn't be innately hostile to me, I wasn't all that worried about being harmed.

So I just walked up to the entrance.

"Welcome, friend of Summer," one of the trees gestured with one hand as I passed by. My ploy was working perfectly, even if the execution was going a little oddly. I didn't know what I had to do with Summer for one.

"Hiya, bud," I gestured back, and got to see what a tree looked like when it was confused.

I had stumped it.

I waited for a moment, but Novi didn't chastise me for the pun. Something must have really gone down for her not to be listening to what I was thinking at all.

Based on the Oath she swore to me, I was supposed to get an update with her memories of the day later on. So I decided to let her be. I'd figure out what happened in due time.

Passing in between the two guardians, I entered the entrance at the base of the tree. A light misting of water passed over me as I crossed the threshold.

Turning around, I could see that the effect was caused by channels of Mana flowing through the tree that activated when I passed through. It wasn't an artifact, and those weren't circuits. It was more like the tree had a set of living Mana veins within it.

While I was studying the intricate channels, the scent of a flower graced my nose. That wouldn't normally be enough to divert my attention, except for the fact that the scent contained a meaning.

"Hello friend, can this lowly anthid help you with anything?" The scent asked of me.

Turning towards the source of it, I was met with a large bulbous pink flower standing on two legs.

"Oh, right, I'm looking for The-One-Who-Sits–Beneath-The-Autumn-Canopy. I'm fairly certain they're around here somewhere," I replied in Rootspeech. I was surprised I actually remembered Autumn's full name. I think they only mentioned it to me once.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

If Novi hadn't just stolen the last dregs of my Mana, I would have started trying to figure out how to replicate the scent-based speech. It seemed pretty neat.

What was next? A taste-based version of Root? I bet that would make using my tongue a lot more interesting in be—

"Follow me! I can take you to Autumn!" The flower spritzed into the air before taking off up the staircase, grown into the centre of the trunk. I had to fast walk to catch up with the plant because its legs were unfairly longer than mine.

While following along, I wondered what Autumn's storyline was. Was the tree going to be besieged by invaders and burned down at some point? Was there court intrigue happening in the upper layers of this plant society?

Whatever it was, I was hoping we could just dip out before Autumn got too entangled in it and was cursed to stay until the end of their storyline. Or some other bullshit that would absolutely happen if we didn't get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible.

Actually, wait, can't I just ask what's happening here?

"Hey, could I get some direction, please?" I whispered quietly in English.

A window appeared in front of me in response to the request.

Stage Direction: Character: Winter-Frost-Lays-Upon-Still-Boughs Scene: "Summer" is visiting the Autumn Canopy for the first time. Autumn wishes to broker a peace agreement with the season. Direction: Winter has come to the Canopy in the guise of Summer to trick Autumn into declaring war on the season of warmth and growth.

Ah, there it was, a plot about seasons going to war going on in the background. That explained the Summer thing as well.

I had no intention of tricking Autumn into anything, though. I was sure they had been dealing with enough of their own troubles. The one involving me couldn't be the first plotline they've experienced. They've been here for too long.

After what I went through, really, anything was possible. Because there had to be a reason they were stuck here and never came to find me.

It's gonna be okay, Autumn. I'm here to save you from a mediocre storyline about backstabbing!

The flower stopped at a solid mass of vines and leaves near the top of the tree and spoke a two hundred and fifty six character code. The wall of vines parted as the tree's Mana veins smelled the password.

From there, we walked across an incredibly stable bridge made of twigs. Which sounded like an oxymoron, but these twigs were somehow extremely durable.

When I stopped to try and steal a small sample, the flower stopped with me and turned to watch what I was doing. It didn't even have eyes. Why did it turn around? Just to show that it caught me?

Head hung low. I proceeded without my sample. It probably would have been a really interesting material too. This tree was far older than the Storygrove from the story I was in.

Walking along the bridge, I looked down over the edge of the railing. Surrounding the tree was a massive autumnal forest. The grassland I had emerged from was nowhere in sight.

At the end of a bridge was a house woven into the branches in such a way that it almost looked natural. That was quite an engineering accomplishment, considering that it shouldn't even be possible for it to look that way.

The flower rapped on the door to the house twice with one of its feet. A moment later, the door opened, revealing a large open space filled with plant beings of all shapes and sizes.

I took a deep breath. I couldn't act out of character without being punished, but I was going to have to in order to leave as quickly as possible.

Walking into the house, I quickly spotted Autumn.

They were lying on one of those lounge chairs, being fed some kind of dried fruit by a nymph-like plant being.

"Oh, Ellie, you're alive!" Autumn called down to me.

That would have been fine except for the fact that the courtesy name I'd given them in Rootspeech for me was 'Winter's Breath'. Which was also the only reason they could actually say my name without the Zone punishing them.

Story-wise, they had just called me out for being here under a false identity.

I let out a sigh as I dashed backwards, dodging the entire room of plants lashing out at me all at once. Along the way, I snatched Novi's drone.

Then, with a snap of my fingers, I activated the Zone reward to allow me and Autumn to exit the Inkbound Vale. The world turned dull, and I could feel the boundaries of the Zone as if I were touching them.

Opening my minimap, I could see that along the boundary, there were specific locations I was allowed to choose as exit points, or I could go back to where I came from.

Which I was absolutely not doing. The Zone was massive; walking around it would be an absolute nightmare.

I chose the closest location I could exit the Zone to the location I had to go for the Divine Quest.

As I selected the exit point, a prompt appeared.

Confirm Exit? Eligible Parties: Ellie Winters, The-One-Who-Sits–Beneath-The-Autumn-Canopy Y/N

Warning: Once you have left, you will be unable to re-enter Inkbound Vale

I hit 'yes,' and my vision went black with a click, like an old CRT television being turned off.

Then reality came back into focus, and I found myself standing in a rocky area with sparse tree coverage. Directly behind us was that massive white wall that marked the start and end of the Inkbound Vale. We could never go back in there, thank fuck for that.

It was the middle of a moonless night, and the sky was cloudy to the point that I had barely twenty feet of vision.

"Hey, Ellie. Been a little while," Autumn said.

"Yeah… Were you being hand-fed fruit by a dryad?" I asked.

"Oh, no, that wasn't a dryad, it was a nymad," they replied. "That was a nice Zone, I think I really needed that opportunity just to relax. It has been ages since I didn't have any res—"

Autumn was interrupted when I slugged them in the face as hard as I possibly could.

"RELAX? YOU GOT TO RELAX? OH THAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, I'M GLAD YOU GOT A CHANCE TO RELAX!" I screamed at nobody in particular.

Then I collapsed on the spot, curling up into the fetal position, "I'm so tired."

I wanted to fall asleep and spend the rest of eternity dozing away in this exact spot. But I couldn't, I didn't even have a sleep function.

A moment later, I felt Autumn sit down next to me and rest a hand on my head.

I stayed lying there until dawn.

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