To the uninitiated, the System is forgiving with first times. Especially when regarding the nature of things that the System recognizes. Creatures and Locations, among others. The System likes to supply a small amount of information regarding the topic at hand if one hasn't ever encountered anything similar. Too, the System seems to understand when we want that information. Other times, it knows we don't care or have better things to do than sit and pay attention to whatever the System manifests as for us.

- That Which Governs Us, Jelas Hyusn Level 37 [Wise Philosopher]

The patterned runes didn't lend themselves to any clarity as to how they constituted the entrance to the [Runic Skies] Dungeon. But, a decent guess could be made.

Stepping into the runic circle, he'd been expecting some instantaneous transportation. There had been budding theories of teleportation back home. Theories and nothing more. He'd read up on them, idly and without any real technical interest. It was always described instantaneously. In fact, that's how it was usually portrayed in television and movies.

Apparently, that wasn't the case when it came to magic.

To say that the runic circle was thick with markings, symbols, patterns, and motifs was an underappreciated statement. At least it was up until the runes rose from the circle at his feet. The markings became alive. They slowly rose around Jayke spinning with different rotational speeds, sections of the pattern peeled off the floor and became living moving symbols in the air. They burned an iridescent blue, spinning faster into bright streaks. Blue lines which seared the eyes in brilliance.

Jayke flinched, blinded.

The absence of the searing light was the first sensation worth noting. He found himself standing upon a raised dais, twisting right out of the ground. The sunlight outside hit the platform, revealing the brown color and texture. The beams of soft light were solid in the way actualized by motes of floating undisturbed dust.

He was in a domed room all of it was-

"Wood?" He mumbled. He bent down, noticing the dais seemed to surge from the floor like some gnarled growth. Runes decorated its perimeter. A familiar pattern and motif. "Depowered runes, huh?" He spoke softly to himself. This might be his entrance as well as his exit. It was a possibility he had considered.

He followed the sunlight. There was an opening where it was pouring in with enough strength to light up the runic circle, but not the rest of the room. He clung to the shadows of the room, pressed against the smooth wood. He stared out of the ring of sunlight.

His eyes flinched at the light, adjusting to the brightness as everything came into beautiful fruition.

His gaze locked itself into the distance before anything else. Islands. Floating way off in the background. He blinked as he saw distant winged shapes flying above and around the islands. Jayke saw no traces of land below.

Then his eyes focused on the foreground of his view.

He poked his head out and peered up and down, left and right, and off to the sides. He stared far down to the ground, at giant deep blue pools of water crossed with small peninsulas. Once that was all done, he pulled his head back in and examined the room he had appeared in. Then, he looked back out. He was unmistakably staring out at a branch, a single step and he'd be walking on it. The problem was that this particular branch could've stood in for a road. A large road.

"I'm in a tree." He looked around the 'room'. "This is a giant tree hollow." Staring down at the runic circle, he realized it had grown right from the tree's bark. It didn't just look like a gnarled growth, it was one.

"I've got a week to spend here, less than that since I need to make my way back." He spoke to himself. "Now, how do I go about finding something notable enough to bring back? Maybe some kind of creature's hide? Treasure?"

There was a piercing screech outside and Jayke quickly made his way the hollow's entrance and scanned the view. Making sure to keep himself within the hollow, he looked around. The sound had been a bird, no doubt. Giant birds were one of the first things he'd suspected. He wasn't at all far from the truth.

Two shadows collided with a squawking crash. One red and one blue. Jayke craned his neck and found the twisting forms spiraling down in a flap of frantic feathers. If the branch had been the size of road, these birds were the cars. The red one broke away while the blue one sliced at its wing, spreading frost. Jayke stared at the sparkling crystals before he registered what he was looking at.

"Ice." He whispered. "Predatory birds."

The former cried out in pain and its wing became leaden. There was a flash of flame and Jayke blinked again as he witnessed a second element. The blue raptor gusted the red one with cold winds and the latter performed the inverse. Jayke leaned forward observing the way their feathers seemed to brim with power. He realized he was witnessing the effects of the ambient magic of the runes which the Dungeon description had mentioned.

These were elemental birds. He'd read about magical creatures before. Elementally attuned ones were somewhat more common. He just couldn't believe he was seeing them.

They tumbled through the air, eventually breaking away from each other angrily. When they flew off to nurse their wounds Jayke had been staring at them intently, wondering if they were deemed Creatures by the System. It didn't seem like that was the case. Or he was simply too far for anything to determined.

The speculations did little for his current situation though. The point of this delve was to find some kind of proof he had been successful in braving the Dungeon. Jayke looked out the hollow. From up here, there wasn't much headway to make. Taking on any of those birds as a trophy was out of the question.

The branch which extended from his hollow lead nowhere on its own. Staring outward he could make out a few other ones which were a step lower than his. They were much more lush, growing out like a fan. He eyed the offshoots of smaller 'twigs' which connected his own branch to those lower limbs. There were enough tangling sections that he deemed it safe enough to pass over, every small twig was as large as a log after all. Those lower boughs were covered in leaves, leaves large enough to act as blankets. If he made it down to them he could at least move freely in cover. More importantly, the lower limbs of his tree acted as bridges to another.

He nodded, he hadn't been anywhere near enough to pick up on the data of those birds, so he wasn't able to detect them visually. Sometimes using his detection program was completely unnecessary though. He had eyes so he didn't need any assistance spotting giant birds.

There were flocks of each of them. Lined up on the branches like legions for war. Aside from red and blue, he spotted yellow and a handful of other colors. Each type of bird laid claim to the biggest branches above. The branch Jayke had access to was one the smallest. Thankfully, because of that, it was overlooked and all of the birds seemed to be interested in the largest perches.

He opted to stay in place until he got a better understanding of his surroundings. For now, it looked like his hollow would stay undisturbed. With only a single entrance as large as he was, he doubted any of the birds would be interested in it. Not to mention the fact that none had ever neared him.

The skies were awash with the whistling dives of high-speed birds. Predatory birds inundated with magic. Jayke spotted one wreathed in fire diving like a phoenix, only to collide with a flash of lightning. He spotted burning carcasses falling from the collision. An icy howl marked the gusts of one of the blue feathered raptors, speeding as fast as a shard of ice.

He kept watching for hours, struck by the magical presence and sublimity of the flying beasts. The bursts of magic sent physical waves of power booming through the sky. Each enough to match the raw force of a car accident.

Something shifted on the branch and Jayke's eyes fell immediately to the movement. He discerned the forms immediately and registered the fact he was looking at something non-avian. They came in pairs. Twos and threes. Jayke started, moving carefully away from the hollow entrance. A pack of six-limbed creatures, each of their four furry arms contributed to their movements, balanced throughout by two tails.

They shuffled in place, padded feet silent on the branch. Jayke's face was covered in shadow, eyes observing from deep in the hollow. The creatures were a dark brown, moving stealthily in the sunlight. Camouflaged near-perfectly with the tree. The sunlight had dimmed to the point that the colliding magical powers above flashed brightness across the tree.

They were pack animals. He determined it immediately. They were speaking to each other, communicating. Freezing at the sight of any nearing raptor. Pausing at the display of magic above. But they were moving. They had crawled from under the branch. He saw another handful of them cresting the limb.

Wordlessly, Jayke watched the creatures crawl passed his hiding spot, making for the lower branches that Jayke had seen earlier. One of them neared his hollow, peering at the hole. It had diverged slightly from its pack.

Jayke held his breath as four furry hands probed the hollow. Slowly, curling fingers gripped the edges of the entrance. With unsettling caution, the hands tightened and pulled the head of the creature through. It blocked the filtering sunlight and Jayke didn't move a muscle.

Unknowingly, it was staring directly at Jayke.

It tilted its head around the room, murmured, and made sounds lowly. Then it snapped its head backward and hissed, pulling away from the entrance.

When he deemed it safe, he found they had all gone. The System hadn't even recognized those creatures. They were just... there. Unextraordinary, and yet, the intelligence in that thing's face was disconcerting. A normal denizen of the [Runic Skies]. He frowned at the implications that-

Jayke choked as something grabbed him by the neck. Two furry hands choked him. An upside-down sneering face snarled in satisfaction. It had been hanging right above the entrance Jayke realized with wide eyes. His eyes bulged as its grip strengthened. He reached for his sword. The creature dropped down from where no doubt its other limbs were holding it against the tree and flipped over using its rotation to hurl Jayke out the hollow.

His body lurched and he hit the wood with a painful thud. He groaned but rolled to his feet. He'd managed to grab his sword and staff before he was thrown.

It wasted no time and lunged at Jayke with more arms than he was used to. He slashed but the creature's hands blocked his swing at the arm. His kick caught it in the jaw as the creature's form was low to the ground. It stumbled in a snarling hiss and Jayke didn't let up. He swung hard and chopped clean through an arm.

It bit its tongue and bled on the branch. Angrily, it tried getting passed Jayke but his swinging sword kept it at bay. Its friends weren't here. This one had just decided to fuck with him. He needed to end this quick before-

Then its eyes went wide as a flash of yellow feathers sent it flying off the side of the branch with a scream. Jayke jerked upright when the raptor flew by, shooting across his vision like a bullet. The mangled body of the six-limbed creature went flying off the side and Jayke realized the yellow raptor was hungrily diving back down for it. On the ground before him, nothing but blood painted the wood.

Jayke froze like a deer but forced his attention upward. His heart stopped and he yelled.

"[Reinforce]!"

In an instant, magical armor spread solidly across his body, hardening and strengthening to enduring opacity. His arms and legs lost the ability to move as his armor tightened and refused adjustment. His entire body stiffened but that didn't stop his eyes from imprinting the image of the raptor into his mind forever.

Wings tucked deep into its sides. It was a fierce scarlet red and cut a trail of fire through the air. Its talons were outstretched, the size of a computer monitor, and wreathed in flames. Its beak opened with a sickening screech that threatened to bleed his ears. Like a sleek fighter jet, the entire bird of prey screamed lethality.

With overwhelming force, Jayke was blasted into the sky by a burst of feathered flame.

Then he was freefalling, twirling uncontrollably in the air and grasping frantically as his sword and [Gnarled Rootstaff] flew off end over end. His rotational velocity threatened to black him out but thrusting his arms and legs outward - giving up on his lost weapons - stabilized his fall. He panicked, staring upward just in time to see the scarlet raptor's diving form. He grunted as another blast of fire and swiping talon sent him careening at another trajectory. Before he could even think of recovering something solid hit him in the back. Heavy talons caused bruising along his back despite his Skill.

He yelled in pure terror, trying to center his perspective.

His armor held strong and suddenly he had his first glimpse of how absolutely hopeless his situation was. He was facing down for the first time in his freefall and his jaw went slack at the sheer height of his position. He was nowhere near reaching the bottom. He'd have minutes at the rate he was going.

The entire island below was pockmarked in giant deep blue pools of water. Lakes in their own right. The island he'd found himself on-

He screamed as something squeezed his torso. Sharp talons curled around him and his stomach dropped as the raptor lurched upward. His ribs creaked and he gasped, pouring mana into his armor. He realized the flames licking at his armor and winced at the heat seeping through his shield.

He was a constant stream of cursing and shouting. The raptor was frustrated, looking from Jayke and up into the trees when his beak did nothing to penetrate his armor. Jayke, meanwhile, was running out of mana. A headache settled in. His [Reinforced] armor wouldn't last for that much longer. As the armor wore off, his ability to move came back. He violently ripped feathers from its plumage. He'd ripped a handful out-

A sharp shriek pierced the sky and his captor's head exploded in a smattering of gore as something struck it. Then his perspective lurched as he was subject to gravity again. He collided with the first leaf painfully. Falling through rough branches and logs he hit the second one. His armor wore off. Then he hit the third leaf. In a free fall consisting of twisting body parts, scrapes, and bruises, he managed to hit four more leaves. Each huge leaf that he slid off of bled his momentum until he landed hard on his back, groaning.

He winced, immobile, and gasping. He immediately reached into his pocket and popped a heal berry. He wasted no time hesitating on the value of the berry. He was under a small canopy. Covered in thick small offshoot branches, he was safe from the exposure of the larger branches. No raptors would get to him. But suddenly, his surroundings were much closer. They were frantic, quick, shooting thoughts.

He wanted to keep an eye out for those four-armed creatures, but he was hyperventilating. Panic suffused his body and he couldn't move. Fear. Incredulity. Alarm. Disbelief. It was the first time in a long time that the familiar emotions gripped him.

Breathing hard, chest heaving. He just sat there. Running through what amounted to less than five minutes. A series of events that were as unthinkable as they were true. His chest rose and fell as he came to terms with what just happened. Rising and falling faster then slower.

He sat there and mastered himself before standing up, placing a shaky hand on a nearby branch. A combination of all his pain threatened his consciousness. The main culprit though was his mana fatigue. He'd drained himself dry, having pushed everything into that [Reinforced] armor the entire flight.

"Well, that was exhilarating." He attempted to inject some humor, wincing. "Not how I expected my first time skydiving."

He realized his other fist hadn't unclenched and he stared at the bright red feathers in it. He hesitated, unsure if they alone were enough of a trophy to prove anything. But then, just as he made to put them in his pocket, they glowed like firelight embers. The pulse of light was as soft as it was intense and then he was staring at something else.

Reward: Item: [Fire Feather] (Scarce)

A red feather of an Elemental Raptor imbued with the element of fire. The single most potent feather of an Elemental Raptor lucky enough to capture its magic in its entirety as it passed from life. It offers enhanced flames and the protection thereof.

Jayke blinked as his handful of feathers became a single bright scarlet one. Immediately, warmth suffused his body radiating from his hand, and whatever chills he had from the errant breeze disappeared. While it didn't have any actual effect on his healing, the warmth was nice against his aching bones. His headache eased minutely as some of his pains were washed away.

"Enhanced flame and protection from fire." He read, staring up through the branches. He spotted more raptors swirling above. "Also, Elemental Raptors. Fitting." He winced as his movement triggered a sharp pain through his mental space.

He limped into his [Safehaven] as its door appeared nestled between two branches.

Once there, he rested until his body felt better. The singular heal berry was enough to repair his ailments fully. He was running out of them, which was a nod to his carelessness. Searching his backpack, which he'd stored here before embarking into the dungeon motivated by the hunch he'd need to stay lightweight, he rummaged through until he found some thin string.

He'd picked up on some bushcraft from Yurn. Mostly, he'd scavenged for suitable building material anytime shelter was necessary. Tensile plants were among those he learned to recognize.

He tied the feather tightly and put it around his neck. Pushing the warm feather into his shirt, he enjoyed the radiant heat and relaxed in his chair. That was, after all, the advantage of having a portable home. He wasn't shy to abuse the fact he could essentially glamp anywhere.

He reflected on everything he'd just learned. The Feel of Magic referred to this process of self-introspection as meditation. It was more specific and structured than the name implied. Briefly, it is a technique of moving about one's thoughts to ease the mental space and regenerate the internal mana reserve. Before magic was even on his radar, Jayke had already been doing this. It was the reason he'd experienced mana fatigue so little over his month journey.

It was a habit of his and he employed it now.

He focused on the warmth on his chest. The [Fire Feather] had appeared in the same way that the System rewarded someone Items. Usually, rewards came as a result of Quests. But this one came right after an encounter, an entirely implausible one Jayke still couldn't believe actually happened, but an encounter nonetheless.

He repeated the line from memory, "The rewards within which are attainable only by those determined to brave exceptional danger." It was an exact quote. "I can't argue that it wasn't... exceptionally dangerous."

Did that mean rewards just appeared after anything notably dangerous? He resolved to one day look into this neutral force called the System. For a force as powerful and absolute as natural law, Jayke judged it as omnipotent in a way that no other force was. For some, that might've been a crushing realization. Jayke met that with only curiosity, he had accepted the System as the norm, but that didn't mean he stopped wondering at its function.

"How is it even possible for something to transmute the feathers in my hand into something new?" Jayke asked his ceiling. "Moreover, how does it know? There must be an entire discipline dedicated to just that question. A field of study solely for the research of the System."

No sooner than he said it, he realized he had read about those who sought the truth of the System. [Wisemen] and [Philosophers]. Idly, he wondered what kind of Skills were granted to those who questioned the very thing granting them.

He'd meant to spend no more than an hour before he started moving again but the comfort of his [Safehaven] had tempted him and he had succumbed. He allowed himself the extra rest though. The headache which pounded his temples was one of the worst cases of mana fatigue he'd ever had. He'd done a great job of pushing his limit prior, being able to ignore the pains to some degree, but at the point at which he was nearing, it was impossible.

The moment his speculations came to an end and no other thoughts vied for his mental space, he passed out soundly.

Jayke climbed the branches with ease. They were in enough number for footholds to be numerous so despite the general danger of maneuvering at this height he didn't feel too threatened. Reaching up, he pulled himself up and sat next to the fruit.

The section of branch which he'd unceremoniously fallen into was, in fact, an intersection of two gigantic trees. And by gigantic, Jayke meant humongous. The scale at which these organisms achieved made redwoods look like nothing. Each rivaled a mountain in their own right, soaring just as tall as any. A base jumper would've had a blast at its peak, the fall would've taken Jayke long minutes. There wasn't any other way he could stress the immensity of the tree he was inhabiting.

In between their overlapping branches, Jayke was at least safe from a lethal fall. Above and below was nothing but wood and leaf. Branches shot in every direction and the largest of them were at least a story above or below from the nearest one of similar thickness. They acted as bridges that Jayke likened to a shopping center's overhead walkways.

He'd been traversing the entire thing before he came across the fruit.

It was scaled up. It was also the size of a fitness ball. 'Plucking' it from its branch he rolled it into his [Safehaven] next to three similar ones. Idly, he wondered if this was how hoarders felt. But surely, such large fruits would have some value.

He wiped the sweat from his brow as he noticed the creatures moving again. Unlike Jayke, the four-armed creatures moved like water across the branches. He'd spotted them a number of times, their outlines were clear to him now. It would've been a problem if he didn't have their data. They were impossible to track here with the naked eye since their brown fur matched the tree bark.

He had been following them. It wasn't an awe-inspiring plan, but Jayke preferred a more functional plan of action. These creatures had clearly been wary of the Elemental Raptors, they knew their dangers. He also assumed they lived here too considering their fur and arms. And, regrettably, Jayke realized he was, in terms of the food pyramid, on the same level as these creatures.

He'd already learned a plethora of useful knowledge from them. Some of it wasn't really applicable given his [Safehaven] and supplies, but he copied them to pad his resources.

He climbed over to a particularly large leaf. It was heavy with water and one of the things those creatures had taught him. Water sources. He leaned in to find clear water pooling in the leafy basin. He drank greedily and reached into the bottom of the leaf. Pearls of light green juice shone under all the water. They were fist-sized orbs of delight. They were a natural sugar that Jayke guessed came from the very sap of the tree. He grabbed them all and put them in his [Safehaven].

He started following the pack again, picking up his pace to catch up.

They led him to another convergence of many branches. There were the areas in which the branches of the two trees were thickest. And the most numerous. It also happened to be home to the glistening flowers that dripped with glittering blue liquid. A number of other plantlife bloomed here, of the type you'd expect on a forest floor rather than a tree's canopy.

Jayke sighed. "Again?" Then he sat on a hidden perch and watched from above. He always chose his position carefully, ensuring his back was safe.

The glistening flowers were snow-white and bloomed wide enough that Jayke judged he might be able to fit inside it like a pearl were it still budding. He'd seen a handful of them and the pack of creatures he was following always made a very cautious approach. They had never fully neared one, but their eyes were hungry for the liquid that pooled into a small cavity in the branch. Whatever it was, it was a coveted resource or luxury. The pack was always careful when approaching, but always, they turned away angrily at the last moment and moved on. He never risked coming half as close as they did. He didn't sense the danger as they did, but he didn't doubt the locals.

Jayke was prepared to wait for another thirty minutes as they determined what to do before eventually leaving as they had done the previous four times. But then he blinked when the biggest of the creatures stepped forward cautiously and swung its head, calling over its pack.

He sat up and observed the liquid which fell from their hands thinly. It wasn't as viscous as its slow drip suggested. Then they were bringing the liquid to their mouths and licking their hands clean. Jayke wondered what it was beyond the fact that it appeared to be tasty.

One of the creatures brought two of its hands to its mouth only to find its entire head was gone.

Jayke froze.

Something roared behind a pair of branches that Jayke couldn't see passed. Then the entire pack was running, scrambling up the branches and away. Two more died and Jayke finally saw what was striking them. Long scythes. He saw legs round the corner. Hundreds of legs. The pack screamed, hooting, and yelling. Some of the smaller ones tried climbing up the chitinous carapace but it swiped its claws and they fell in two.

It was a giant in comparison to the four-limbed creatures. Jayke would need no convincing believing that thing hunted those Elemental Raptors. A jointed carapace was held upright by an abdomen under which hundreds of segmented legs moved. From its torso, long scything arms. Black glinting eyes swiveled on a tilted head.

It rushed forward and chased the pack. Hunting. Breaking the smaller branches which impeded it, slicing through the bigger ones and clean through its prey. It pierced their bodies and ate them by the halves. Then the hunt led further away.

A minute passed and he heard the distant screams of the pack dying.

Looking around warily, he started dashing for the flower. Running, he pulled his flask from his pants, and dumped its entirety, vaulting over branches as he made his way there. It took a long minute to empty his flask, but once he got to the flower most of it had already drained. He ignored the flashing screen which popped up and dunked his flask into the glittering blue liquid.

He looked around, on-guard. The shade around him seemed to darken, every branch looked as if they were hiding something. Jayke dunked another flask into the pool. He breathed calmly, willed the flasks to fill faster, and kept careful, urgent, watch.

The flower was even bigger up close. Its curved petals dripped the strange nectar-like liquid into the small pool. Jayke heard the distant screams of the pack dying again. His head shot around to the noise and he calmed down.

"Still far." He whispered. "I should have enough time to-"

Then there was a roar. He whipped his head back up. Fear gripped him as panic slowly started to take reign. He mastered himself and forced his body to relax. A long moment passed and he heard the segmented thudding of hundreds of feet on wood. He breathed heavily, focusing on his hands.

The first flask gurgled and he stoppered it. He put it in his pocket and whirled around expecting the giant thing to appear. It didn't. There was another scream as something died. It had been hunting a straggler. The second flask gurgled and he stoppered it and immediately began dashing for higher ground.

He scrambled up the branches frantically, adrenaline filling his veins. His muscles burned as he pushed them to their limits to both climb effectively and keep noise to the minimum. He dived behind the nearest branch he deemed high enough, far enough, and thick enough to hide him.

He peered over the branch, breathing heavily as his heart beat like a drum. He was covered in sweat, from the adrenaline and the exertion but still, he tried to keep himself quiet despite his body's need for the oxygen. His breath sounded loud in his ears and he suppressed it, keeping watch for that thing to return.

It was the riskiest thing he'd ever done. Period. One part of him wanted to smack himself across the head. He hadn't met too many of them, but this was one of those creatures he placed in a category that could stand against something from the apocalypse back home and succeed. In a way, that made the creature all the worse, because it was naturally occurring in this world, and not some twisted mistake. The other part of him wanted to reward himself for jumping so fast on the opportunity. He'd gotten a large amount of that blue liquid. There was something about the flower that tingled. It was obvious the moment he stepped up to it.

The third part balanced both. It wanted to know, exactly, what he'd just achieved.

He pulled up the screen that tried to appear earlier.

Plant: [Whitecrest Gatherblossom] (Rare)

A rare mutualistic flower that grows in size with age. The Whitecrest Gatherblossom attaches itself to larger plant life or even large enough fauna. Its roots pierce the host and gather impurities, absorbing their nutrients, until finally secreting the resulting pure liquid. This particular Whitecrest Gatherblossom has attached itself to a Mammoth Tree.

Note: Plants are a type of flora exceeding the regular expectations of their kind, exhibiting extraordinary features or characteristics unique to their circumstance. Plants are frequently associated with great resources and danger, oftentimes being the origin of powerful materials.

Jayke spared a moment to read the prompt in surprise. It was a similar notion to Creatures. Except for plant life. He nodded, not taking his eyes off the flower. He was astounded at the details of the prompt. Mammoth Tree? He stared around and realized what that meant. The flower was connected to only one thing, no matter how many branches there seemed to be.

The name was something Jayke found fitting - Mammoth Tree. But he didn't let himself become distracted. He was still focused on his surroundings. Jayke tensed as he heard something - felt movement.

Suddenly the entire area began rumbling with the thudding of hundreds of segmented feet. It came around the corner in a sinuous motion that convinced Jayke to its mobility. One scythe was held up to its mouth, upon which was one of the four-armed creatures impaled. It ripped bloodily into the body as its other scythe rubbed against the branches. It was sharpening itself Jayke realized.

Then, it leaned forward and dipped its mouth in the pool of the [Whitecrest Gatherblossom]. Jayke relaxed minutely, it hadn't noticed him. It chittered alienly and Jayke found it surprising that the first thing he came across that was System-recognized was a Plant and not-

Jayke blinked.

Creature: [Giant Tree Scyther] (Rare)

A chitinous predator whose torso rests upon an abdomen supported by hundreds of legs. Its jointed upper body is flexible enough to smoothly maneuver through many entangled spaces. Two antennae sitting upon its head track the fleeing movement of prey. Its arms are clean scythes and barbed at the ends to hook escaping game.

Jayke kept very still when he read the prompt.

The [Giant Tree Scyther] could've easily cleaved cleanly through him. Its scything arms were lethally sharp and stained with blood and gore. The mention of its antennae froze him, and he didn't dare move any more than he needed to. He didn't want anything to do with the giant bug. He was done tempting fate.

He watched it drink from the flower's pool. It chittered lowly in pleasure and Jayke suppressed a shudder. Freezing like a deer when its antennae flicked up and down randomly.

When it left, the pool was fully drained and nothing remained. It left in the direction directly opposite Jayke's hiding spot and he let out a sigh of relief.

A gentle breeze suffused the branches and the sunlight filtered softly through the area. He watched in quiet admiration as the [Whitecrest Gatherblossom] caught the sunlight on glinting petals. The flower seemed to twirl gently, or perhaps the wind caught it just right, but Jayke could've sworn a petal waved at him.

Before he left he waved back just in case the unthinkable was true. Then, far far away from the [Whitecrest Gatherblossom], from any convergence of Mammoth Tree branches, and anything significant enough to warrant any scrutiny or activity, he entered his [Safehaven].