In a spherical room, there were four bunnies in weird crystal seats. Above them were two odd rocks that vanished after some ramblings. When the rocks vanished the surrounding holographic images moved again. Their field of vision continued to circle a glass tree and the huge lake around it. A narrating voice described in a sort of documentary manner the history of the current land. The watchful bunnies were silent for most of it. Well, if we did not take the munching and slurping sounds into account. They couldn’t be heard because they were overlapped by sound effects and background music in the movie.

The castle I made for myself became more handsome. It was handsome. A handsome work of art! Fit for my rocky-self. This was important because this tree, every little piece of it, was connected to me. I used the sugar in the water as the construction blocks. The handsome transparent and sparkling crystals made it look…

“Handsome!” Nick exclaimed. Cinna held the bunny while whispering something to his ear.

“Okay… Normal change it back to what it was!” Dude’s flustered voice resounded across the room as a beep of approval from the other rock served as an acknowledgment. After the pause, the movie continued as ‘Normal’ re-played.

…Majestic.

It didn’t take much time before I realized that I needed more help. Just Normal wasn’t enough to keep all of the structures in order. So why not give sentience to another thing? I mean there were many creatures that were living off from my energy… Maybe I can control them somehow…

The idea worked. I could sense the living parts of me outside of my sandy perimeter. Even in the whole lake, I could count them. Well, there weren’t that many, to begin with. They were very small and it seems that most of those micro-things died or entered some sort of slumber. But with that, the atmosphere and temperature outside varied. The change in the air became more useful to make green energy and the warm outside adjusted as if to process everything in a more efficient manner.

I should try making the environment more stable was my first thought upon discovering this. The experiment took some time. But I found it! The way to create ‘life’ out of this so-called green energy… Which is actually life but needs something extra to become alive. However, since it is such a hard to define concept let’s leave green energy being something like life.

With the increase in green energy production and a confidential operation codenamed Moon, I devised it. A successful method, one that will deliver my ‘rock-plant chimera of a self’ to create… Fruits!

The epitome of energy condensation. A new root for tomorrow and a big fruit for the future. Like a branch touching the moon for the first time… A combination of Sugar, life, and light. The so-called soul, matter and energy. I became happy and made Normal threw a beeping party for a whole day. Yeah, it drove me crazy. The moon is the muse of my inspiration to make this masterpiece.

Right now I needed something to help me learn about this place. I could feel other things with something like energy resonance. Like feeling what is alive from that which isn’t. But I couldn’t control them nor see through them. I needed a helping hand, something better than… Normal.

As the sounds of life pulsed in the crystal clear fruit, it gave an elegant impression. My two circle-shaped googles —which I don’t know where they came from,— helped my rocky vision to adjust to this. When the process was completed, a little creature emerged from the snowy ball at the end of my cherished branch. It had little eyes that looked at me, mottled with black and crystal white. It had two golden horns that resembled a DNA chain. Fluffy vines slithered down looking like white hair. Spherical scales in the form of little moons glowed with a soft white light. My sweet creation came to life!

It was the sort of creation that anyone would like, even kids. Like a small cute dragon, it deserved a cool name. I called it ‘polar berry’ or ‘Artace Polaris’ based on some knowledge I had, maybe previous memories? Who cares, it was neat. The creature was female and it liked Artace as if nodding when I voiced it.

My little berry-moth grew, my crystal-moon daughter... She is unique, sweet, pure and obedient. The type of personality that allowed her to fly while taking my rocky self with her to watch the glowing moon and the skies. A bodyguard, a scout, and a guide. Like a girlfriend with a car that took you anywhere and liked to cuddle. With her, I could finally make a bigger exploration and create a real map!

Alas, my expectations were crushed, the lake and the surroundings were too big. It seems that a field depression allowed the water to accumulate after the impact. An error in my analysis made Artace shove towards the water in a forced dive. It was the type of stupidity that gets inside your head when you are over-excited at countless possibilities. I panicked because she couldn’t swim and I couldn’t make her hover as that field - or whatever it was that helped me levitate- didn’t work on her.

In my flustered mind an anxious thought appeared, the drowning Astarte was saved by a huge crystal that emerged from the ground. A new sampling or seedling? I thought. Yet it wasn’t, I could feel it pulsating with the same life sounds like me. Yes, it wasn’t another creature like me, it was me. But it wasn’t a root or a branch. Ok, maybe it was a root, but it wasn’t the absorptive type of root. Instead, it released green energy! It was such a dire event! Am I having a bleeding wound or something? Did I just scrape my knee while trying to catch my snow-white?

It was odd and something seemed to be missing as if the whole root didn’t listen to myself. It gave me a weird sensation of losing the key of the matter and biting my branches as ‘green bucks’ disappeared like rain over a spraying hose. Adjusting myself I organized the events and deduced how this might have happened. With time I knew the root-thing reacted to my thoughts since I felt drained of energy when it appeared. It wasn’t a child, a branch or a root… It was more like a dynamic extension? But why would it throw energy towards the outside… I mean that’s so stupid… My green energy is being consumed!!!

Time passed again and I became more anxious. I decided to plug the tube… It stopped the green energy flowing through it and thus prevented its release towards the air. Despite that, the pressure of the green energy was increasing, it could be described as a gas or fluid that vibrated with a musical tinge to it. I know it came from me, but I couldn’t control its flow towards the hole in the hose. I was releasing my ammo nonstop with a hose glued to the weapon’s ‘treegger’.

Having a pet or a girlfriend seems not so cost-efficient as I thought. I should’ve planned this better before creating Artace but I rushed it in my excitement and alas became tree-rupt. I created a beautiful fruit but accompanied it with a woodcutter. Without a real solution to the event, Artace grew bigger and carried me and Normal towards headquarters. The more energy I gave her, the more abilities she gained. Interesting, she seemed to have something like one of those games classes. At least she ate the green energy as if there was no tomorrow. She would even get angry if I didn’t give her enough. No trouble, I just sent her to unplug that wound whenever she was hungry. It gave me time, but even her appetite wasn’t as insatiable as it appeared to be, and the pressure of the weird extension continued to rise.

Can’t I just try and make the energy flow backward? No, it won’t work. Then how about redirecting? Seems plausible but… How? If I added energy to it the pressure would increase and I would lose all that energy after an explosion. It will even leave a bigger hole there. I can’t let even a drop of it to disappear so this was a big ‘no-way’. Call me greedy but survival may require all possible means, even if they lead to a time-bomb or a final countdown.

Thank the rocks! Craziness arrived with a clockwork styled idea. Redirecting the whole thing with another hose and some cogs made of sugar. Call it a complete sugar-wood machinery… Sugarpentery?

The solution to my situation was quickly answered when experimenting with a smaller model near my headquarters. The second ‘green energy-releasing hose’ - which was a mini size version-, didn’t lose that much green energy and it could serve for experimentation. I created it long ago and this time I decided to make a connection towards it. The bridge which was a tube made from vines in my cusp created an arc-like those of Romans. Yeah, I was making a structure akin to a Roman aqueduct. This might be a cool idea to describe it, just that it worked more like a distillation machine.

When the sprout and the bridge touched, a reaction occurred… A circuit! The beeps from the tree traveled from the roots towards the bigger bridge. A symphony was created with incredible harmonics. This made my connection between each tube stronger! I could sense a bigger area!

For some reason, this green energy called life dispersed in the air. So I decided the simplest approach. Compress it and redirect it towards my tree counterpart to reabsorb it or recycle it. That’s where the cogs would be useful. Creating a double leafed sprout with two wheels. One that compresses the life and the other that sends it towards the cusp. This was necessary because the small scale model was different from the bigger ideal. The design’s second wheel needed to have other cogs added for it to serve as an amplifier to the music of ‘life’ which the green energy seemed to vibrate with.

The results following that were incredible. My roots created sprouts, yet they couldn’t appear too far away from me. There was a point where they became too small to even be seen or felt. It was because the threads connecting the circuit became thinner and thinner until they couldn’t vibrate in the ‘beeps of life’. In summary, these sprouts had a maximum distance based on my control or vision. A domain, the farther from the source the harder to control. At the perimeter, they just turned to dust and released the invested green energy.

With the circuit created everything seemed to work, and the water helped to transport the green energy to me. The green energy had some affinity towards the lake’s water, and thus the wheels and tubes were designed to move water like a water pump and water compressor.

More ‘fruits’ were created after Artace. Still, she was the first and got a lot of energy from me. Something I couldn’t repeat with the newbies as it wasn’t necessary. She was on another level and was like a big sister to the others, eventually becoming the queen.

Does that make me the king? No, I am like a father. She belongs to fruits, while I belong to trees. I need to search for a tree because even Artace won’t be able to handle that much green energy. Sadly, a tree creature like myself or a life-filled rock might not exist in this world. If Artace feels lonely I can make her a king at least. If I couldn't get a partner, I will help my child find hers.

The pump design changed when the lake’s water started to be used. Since water levels were lowering I needed to make some changes. The new designs used air currents. Windmills moved and pumped the water out. The windmill's energy was redirected to move the wheels and thus complete the circuit. However, some of the old ones remained to take the energy that came from the rain. It also added pumping power to adjust the water level in the soil.

Without excessive water, I could grow smaller sprouts and connect them to vines. This increased my area of control. The fruit helpers constructed a lot of the structures and I gave them life energy as payment. I had a whole web of vines that connected all the valley to me. Some helpers could be mind-controlled and used by me to ‘see’ or move virtually without needing my rock body.

“So basically you made a sugar tree with big balls like Christmas?” Nick asked as the movie was paused again.

"Pffft!" Jasper left a weird sound as he choked with his beverage.

“Well… Yes…” Dude’s voice came from the background with a bit of embarrassment.

“Will you give us gifts like Santa Claus?” The little bunny stared with sparkling eyes.

“Actually… This place might appear like Christmas to you, still, Santa Clause does-“ Dude’s voice sounded again answering the bunny.

“Exist!” Cinna interrupted Dude with a serious tone.

“I think…” Sweet added to the conversation but Cinna moved her eyes locking onto his. It made him stop what he was going to say.

“Santa Claus is a woman Nick. I saw her with my eyes!” Jasper didn’t let Cinna shut him and looked seriously at Nick.

“Eh, a fat woman?” Nick asked.

“No, she-” Jasper was going to say something when he found Cinna sliding her hand over her neck. It was an odd signal, but it made Jasper stop.

“Don’t care too much what they say, Nick. Remember only good kids will receive good things from Santa. The others will receive black coal!” Cinna patted the bunny while glaring at Jasper. She turned and then murmured something towards the air. Some rock might have heard whatever it was that she said.

“… Okay, can we continue the-“ Dude’s voice sounded again.

“Make it smaller please, I don’t care about history and biography of some-“ Jasper interrupted.

“Shut it weird bunny. You don't want to pay attention to the movie? Listen to the story and I’ll give you the things you need. But give me trouble and I'll send you to that constellation in the corner...” Dude’s voice scoffed with anger.

The bunnies smirked when Jasper was ‘silenced’ by the rock. Even Cinna seemed to be happy at Jasper’s situation. Jasper grumpily ate his snacks and watched the movie continue.

A merchant came today. It was from one of those races different from mine. Maybe one of those things that evolved from a different rock or a fragment of what I once was? Who knows?

The name of the merchant was Weres. He was from a race called werewolves. Some town called Hollow kingdom. Maybe it should be called howling kingdom as the guy howled for no reason at all towards Artace.

The werewolf wasn’t scary, he looked like a Chihuahua. It was funny for it to be called werewolf. However, the ideals of his home-town were astonishing. They traded stuff or searched for things. This was what I needed, something to establish culture, economy… A society! After such a long time of staying in the tree’s domain, I didn’t know what laid outside, it was a mind opener.

“How much time did you spend?” Jasper asked.

“Enough for other races to have their culture and cities…” Dude answered through the surroundings. “I developed my domain so that I could see everything in it, but there were things I didn’t have even with all that time…” Jasper’s question interrupted for a bit but the movie continued after Dude’s explanation.

Artace couldn’t go too far away from me. She depended on my domain to live or to have energy. Although she could probably fly to that town if it wasn’t too far, I needed to evaluate how much time and distance she could support outside of my domain.

The merchant called Weres arrived at our place with the utmost care. In spite of that, he was sensed when he entered my domain. Nothing he could do about it. With that I gave an order for all my helpers to hide. The poor dog though this was some free estate. It saw the tree and sneaked towards the sprouts slowly, maybe it felt the tree was too big for it.

In the end, the little dog was captured by Artace and brought to my chamber. Seriously little dog, you won't be able to eacape my branch throw. You will follow your destiny and bring it back to me. No one can escape the power I have towards living creatures. Any creatire will like to be near me... That's what I thought until I saw the damn dog marking its territory... I quickly called Artace and taught is a lesson... So not take a piss in private property, not everything is free lands.

After some ‘persuasion’, I got the guy to spill about this new town. It was at an appropriate distance to allow communities to grow, neither far nor near to my domain. It was good since it wouldn’t delve into resource warfare. They needed something to create a party and for some reason, the leaves and threads were the things he wanted to exchange. The item that picked my interest was something called ‘candies’.

“So you are saying this rich sugar liquid is made in a place called Caramel Falls. Then you use the special environment in your land to solidify them and create candies. You send them to Piñata Desert for the wrappings and then use them to trade or throw parties?”

“Yeah, although our town has the special energy to make these candies. But to make the best parties we need a new resource. That’s when I saw this place. The threads with glowing lights, the weird leaves and vine clothes on your people... Like that purple scarf on her…”

“I have a name little wolf…”

“Ugh, excuse me… Madam Artace but could you lessen your threads a bit… My back itches and I can’t scratch it…”

“Release him Artace…”

“Thanks… (Howl)… This is better.”

“So for the party, you need glowing lights and some clothes?”

“Yeah, we can make some cool costumes after you make some clothes for us. Our town has a special magic, the Owner is a Witch and she has a philosophical stone that can make witchcraft in her domain. It is a special type of transformation magic. She can imbue it on the costumes and make our people

“I don’t understand… Why would you do all this to throw a party?”

“Our Owner’s rock needs energy that comes from people wanting to scare each other. The owner can transform some of us and give us confidence and pride in what we do. It was the owner's idea to give people that visit our town a thrilling experience with many fun things added. But we can’t scare anyone… So our town can only use trade to subside.”

“Wait so to make the candies you need to scare people to recharge the stone?”

“Exactly, the candies are transformations of the caramel we import from Caramel Town. Piñata Desert uses them and even Caramel Falls want some of those candies.”

“You guys are very business-like then…”

“Not really, the owner is in a dire situation because the rock is hanging on a thin line. The magic inside of it is almost empty and the recharging isn’t enough. We need something to change it."

"I see, then let us help each other out!"

"Deal."

Weres came and went during those years. The design for machines to create trading merchandise was something beneficial to both communities. I sent Artace to learn and interact while spying their conditions. Much to my surprise, everything became a nice agreement. I used the machines and created pointy towers that spiraled the threads to create clothes.

It was done with the same concept as the redirecting of green energy. Just that these threads weren’t infused with it. So they weren’t alive. It was made from a special protection agent for the tree. Remember the wound? Well if a hole opens in my bark I can close it using a liquefied caramel. An idea I got from Weres. It worked to make caramel threads that then were used to make clothes.

Still, it wasn’t the same caramel as the one in candies. It was more complex like hair, it might explain Artace being so fluffy and moon-like that Weres and all the fruits wanted to talk to her. Well, the little wolf learned a savage lesson but for some reason, it still waved its tail when she was near.

With commerce and trading routes established I finally understood a bit more of these lands and which type of meteorite or rock might have fallen to those places… Those weird fragments must mean something.

“Wait how did you make the costumes?” Asked sweet after munching some popcorn.

“Normal, show them sequence number 32.” Dude didn’t answer Sweet but just made normal changes the scene.

Weres needed clothes and I had to design new helpers. Most of my helpers till now were builders. They cut through the sprouts or used the leaves. They were cutting ants and workers. Artace was the flying one.

I needed to make something useful for logistics and production. Thus I designed fruits with 6 or 8 arms that could cut, sewn and weave. I can even make them create the wounding agent, like some sort of lesser sticky glue that helps to stitch clothes?

I mean I did that scarf using different ‘technology’, but it would be impossible to satisfy a town. The big needles served as a reservoir for the strands as they spiraled. Like the tube from a kite, it helped to store thread in a way my cutters and workers could adjust the length. Then the weavers and designers could fulfill the next step in production.

The weaver ants and spiders were incredibly efficient. They could even repair damaged stuff. This also solved many problems, like creating hanging webs that served as beds in the trees. Even the web could do something like 3D print stuff. We could make cushions, tables out of my bark… So many things.

Weres was impressed but he couldn’t carry all that. I needed a transport system. So I designed flying ants to help move things to the bigger cargo, The juggernauts. These melon pill bugs have a huge stomach that can be used to transport all of that stuff. Their speed is amazing and they can blast through the hardest terrain. They also look cute and fluffy. They were my perfect transport to deliver the clothes to Weres’ home.

The whole woodland was growing. It even allowed me to create a marvel! Ice cream! The combination of the-

“Ok, Normal stop the sequence.” Dude’s voice paused the movie. Before one of the bunnies had time to ask why he did that he continued. “Bunnies, I will skip the troublesome part as I can see some of you didn’t understand this…”

Sweet and Jasper turned around and saw Cinna and Nick cuddling with their shoulders in a profound sleep. Nick was drooling with popcorn pieces in his mouth.

“They fell asleep!” Sweet shouted when seeing both bunnies dreaming faces.

“Oh, tell me what’s obvious…” Jasper scoffed.

“Ok, don’t fight between yourselves heroes. I think it’s better if we just jump directly to the problem I am facing. Please wake them up and let me show you what I had planned this meeting to be like…” Dude prevented a child fight and added to normal. “Normal play simulation 01 – The moment the heroes arrive.”