Eli lay on the floor, groaning. His body had already sunken in quite a bit; if he didn't pull himself out soon, it might cause some real problems.
To say he expected more was an understatement—something transformative, or at least dramatic. It didn't have to be pleasant, but it shouldn't have been the same. Was this really all he was getting?
It was a strange feeling.
He wasn't quite hopeless yet. A sliver of belief still lingered that things might improve, but he was tired of waiting.
He groaned again, louder this time.
His Focus Marble pulsed, and something nudged the mind sphere—just slightly. Just enough to notice it had shifted back a bit.
Out of nowhere, a strange sensation washed over Eli.
He raised a hand to his face, shielding his eyes. Then he sat up, the floor sticking to his back like bubble gum.
A dog?
There was something red in the mind sphere now—a presence.
Eli felt an immediate rush of excitement. Something new. But it came tangled with a thread of dread.
Is it a dog? he wondered. It feels more like a wol—
A sharp snap cracked through his mind.
The mind sphere fractured, the cracks scraping against each other as they slammed shut, bathed in red light.
It wasn't pain, not exactly.It was like hitting your elbow in just the right way—numbing, buzzing—but magnified a hundredfold.A scraping, choking, grinding sensation.
A thousand invisible teeth gnashing through his nerves.
It was agony.
"Ahhhhh!"
Eli jolted upright, screaming. His hands slammed to the ground. Leaves crunched beneath them.
"Wait, what?" Eli muttered, completely confused. He lifted his hands.
He stared at them. A small yellow leaf slipped from his fingers and drifted to the ground.
"A leaf. In the hospital?"
He shifted, expecting the soft give of a mattress—Instead, he met the cold, dry crunch of the forest floor.
He looked around. He was in a clearing, surrounded by trees.
After surviving something like that, he figured he should be in a hospital. Even if not there, then somewhere with floors, not leaves.
Maybe not enough time has passed yet, he thought. How did I get here, though? Was I teleported away from that guy? Did nobody find me?
If this was the best-case scenario, he had been teleported away from the strange man, and no one had noticed he was gone yet.
But that didn't feel right—not after everything.
He pushed himself up slowly, planting his hands, then his knees. As he stood, he rose higher and higher. His body felt unfamiliar—stretched.
He looked down, then quickly covered himself.
Thankfully, no one was around.
Looking back at the ground, Eli felt a bit strange. Was it always that far away?
He tried to take a step but nearly stumbled. His feet moved farther than expected.
Reaching out, he placed a hand on a nearby tree and leaned on it for support.
This was really odd. Why are my legs acting so weirdly?"Do as you're told," he muttered aloud.
Looking at the trees around him, Eli felt a strange detachment.
He needed something familiar. The only things that came to mind were his powers—and the hospital.
He blinked a few times.
The forest lit up with a soft, strange light.Comforting, somehow.
Threads of light curled through the air, weaving between trees like strands of breath.They twisted and tangled into patterns he could almost—but not quite—follow.
He turned to look at the tree.
Normally, he wouldn't study a tree so deeply. If he understood them—really understood them—it became harder to do his little experiments. Once something speaks to you, it's harder to cut into it.
The threads flickered.
Some reached far beyond the tree in front of him, trailing off into the woods, linking it to other random trees.
That was another thing about trees.
You couldn't understand just one.
You had to understand all the other trees it was connected to—whether through shared roots or entirely different ones linked by mycelium.
As long as there was some connection between two trees, they would share essence.
The same could be said for other living things—it was like how a baby mimics its mother, adapting some of her traits and responses.
This, though, was more pronounced in trees.At least on the essence side of things.
It was almost like grafting.
Eli shook his head. He couldn't afford to go off on a tangent now. He needed to figure out his situation.
Strangely, this time it felt... easier.
The strands made more sense.
Is this just my imagination? he thought.
He shook the feeling off."Focus on the task at hand," he muttered, berating himself.
What he really wanted was to find that grove near the hospital—The one he'd walked through before... just before—
He shuddered at the memory.
He was looking for those trees specifically because he remembered their essence:Warm and bittersweet, like the relief felt by a patient who no longer needed the hospital.
A strange comfort.The best kind of goodbye.
It made sense.
The way the road was angled, those trees were the last thing you'd see when driving past—just before the hospital vanished from view.
Strange, then, that those were also the first trees you'd see when approaching the hospital.
Eli guessed the goodbyes must simply happen more often.
Or maybe it was just that…Who really notices trees when they're desperate for help?
He chuckled, realizing he was getting distracted again.
Returning his focus to the threads of light running through the tree, he picked one that felt similar to the essence he remembered.
But this one was much darker.
The sense of relief it gave off was sharper, almost violent, and wrapped in a feeling of inescapable confinement.
No.This was not it.
He did not want to see where that essence led.
This tree was not connected to the ones he was looking for.
He would need to find another.
Good thing he didn't have to search tree by tree.At least now, he knew which trees not to search.
Taking a clumsy step forward, he made his way to another tree.
This one wasn't connected to the previous group either. He searched it, and still found nothing.
Maybe if he looked deeper, he could find some faint connection.
But he really didn't want to stop making potions.Because he could hear the ingredients crying.
Repeating this process with several other trees, Eli found that not one of the groups was connected to the grove he was looking for.
But he was starting to notice something.
It was a constant between all the trees he'd come in contact with.
He'd ignored it at first, simply because it was always there. Something so consistent that it faded into the background.
But now he realized it because of that consistency.
Humans were humans, yes—but even the part of their essence that said so was different for everyone.
So why was this one the same in every tree?
Was it just because they were trees?He doubted it.
"I don't feel any malice from it... Let's see where it goes," Eli wondered aloud. It was better than being lost.
And if that feeling belonged to a tree connected to all other trees, then maybe—just maybe—he could find what he was looking for.
It took him some time, but eventually, he reached an area with far fewer trees. He was walking more easily now.
Passing between two trees, he came upon a stump—a really big one. He could probably sleep on it and still have room left.
Eli walked closer, but he started to feel something strange—like he was about to appear in front of the Hale house.
Nothing happened, but the feeling remained.
He looked at the tree nearby.
Was this its doing?
He had a lot of time to think about it.
Was this the tree responsible for teleporting me all over Beacon?
It felt really weak now, and the several cracks along its bark looked younger than the rest of the tree.
If it was weak because it helped him, then it was only right to help it in return.
But what could he use?
Looking up at the threads still flooding the air, he followed a particular pair that led behind the tree.
Eli lifted his eyebrows.
In front of him was a hospital gown—and a drop of blood on one of the thick roots.
"This..."
He picked up the gown and examined the blood.
It wasn't his—which was good, at least.But he knew whose it was.
It belonged to the fox detective.
Eli wondered if he was okay.
And how did this blood get here?
This wasn't enough, though.
He needed a bottle...
His thoughts paused.
In front of him, deep in the ground, was a glass vial, almost covered by dirt.
Eli stood up. This was getting too strange.
Was he being watched?
He looked around, expecting to sense someone's essence hidden in the forest.
But there was nothing.
He focused more intently with his eyes. He needed more detail.
More energy flowed down the paths in his mind that he knew were safe.He avoided the red patches that had somehow replaced the holes.He did not want to see what would happen if his energy overflowed there—not yet. He needed to wait until he was 100% safe. Or at least 90%.
The air in front of him lit up. The forest became almost as bright as the sun to him.
But he found what he was looking for.
First: The tree in front of him was not dead or dying. It was focused—using all the power it had left to contain something.
Second: The blood had not been willingly given, but the detective had not died to give it.
And third... what?
Eli blinked.
It looked like a burning dog had brought these things here.
He was almost more confused than when he started.
He wasn't sure whether or not to trust the tree.But being teleported out of here would be really nice right now.
He scooped up the drop of blood into the glass vial, brushed off some of the dirt, and said:
"Upgrade."