[???; Wedi Forest Clearing]

{Day 11}

Wilson, you’ve failed me. I cannot stave off the loneliness I feel any longer, especially now that I can recall what it’s like to have actual conversations with people. There’s a painful feeling in my metaphorical heart, one that can only be mended should I find some way to communicate. Whoever my mysterious benefactor is, they said my potential is immeasurable, so I hope I can gain some sort of mobile form soon, even if it is just a projection.

On the bright side of things, I found that my vision range increases alongside my strength. I can see nearly 50 feet before it fades out now, but the discovery that I can see from as many perspectives in that range as I want gives me a sense of sensory overload. At least I’m slowly adjusting to it, since I now know I will only be able to see more with time.

{Day 12}

I’ve been getting much better at ‘hibernating’ or whatever it’s called when I turn off all my senses and perception. It certainly helps, but I can’t help but worry that I’ll become over-reliant on the ability, and start to lose my sense of time in the darkness. I still want to rejoin civilization, and having a decade pass when I mean for it to be a day would be… problematic for any relationships I may form, especially given the mortality of humans. I’ve heard that dragons can have similar issues due to their millenia-long lifespans.

A rabbit enters the clearing, likely looking for food. Seeing its cuteness, I can’t help but want it as a companion to keep me company. But there’s a really serious issue with that plan. After all, I currently have no way to communicate with it due to a lack of movable body parts, since y’know, I’m a tree. Then, the rabbit approaches me. And proceeds to bite me.

[Health: 82%]

OW, you little jerk. Screw you, I don’t need your company! I reflexively maneuver one of my roots to skewer the offender, and then pierce it right through the heart. As it dies, I absorb its delicious lifeblood, and once again have a euphoric feeling, albeit weaker than what happened with the man. Speaking of, what happened to the body? Where it was before, there is now a pile of dust, which then gets blown away by a convenient breeze, revealing nothing underneath, not even bones.

Somehow, I know that I did this to him, due to me draining all his energy for my growth. Already, the rabbit is a dried husk, and it probably won’t be long until it turns to dust, too. While I may have been okay with the man’s death, the fact that nothing remains of him is unsettling, to say the least. To distract myself from what I just saw, I bring up my status page to see the changes brought about by my latest “hunt.”

[Status]

[Name : ???]

[Age : 12 days]

[Species : ??? Tree]

[Gender : N/A]

[Size : 1’ (trunk), 3’5” (roots)]

[Health : 88%, Mana : 53%, Stamina : 100%; Condition : Healthy]

[Abilities: Life Absorption, Root Manipulation]

[Further information is unavailable at this time]

So, that rabbit pushed me up to the 1’ mark. Wait, is that a new category I see? Will I unlock even more at some point? I’m guessing that my abilities assist me in doing what their name implies. I try to get an explanation, but all I get is the following message.

[Further information is unavailable at this time]

While frustrating at the moment, It at least tells me that there will be an explanation available at some point, even if I have no idea when. Looking back at my status, I notice my significantly lowered mana. I thought moving my roots would consume stamina, but apparently it consumes mana instead. I guess the reasoning is that they shouldn’t be able to move at all, so it looks like my roots are being manipulated (ha-ha) by the use of mana.

Wait, was that a bad pun I just made? Man, I must be even lonelier than I thought to have devolved enough to find them funny. I always hated when my father did this, and now I find myself doing it, too. Hopefully I don’t start taking on even more of his awful sense of humor. I shudder at the mere thought of his jokes.

Wait, my father? I return to my memoryscape (for lack of a better term), and find that yes, pieces of memory related to my family have appeared. I see the shape of a house, likely where we lived together. There are three people standing in front of it, two female and one male, with one of the females being significantly smaller than the other two, and she has the same face I saw on my last visit here. While they share the same brown hair as the girl, two adults’ faces are blurred out, so I can’t see if they share any other similarities.

The sense of longing returns, much stronger than before. This is my family, and I miss them terribly. Why did these memories have to be the first to return, to torture me with apparations of what I’ve lost? If I had eyes, I’d be bawling them out by this point. I decide to return to reality before I have a full mental breakdown, one I may never escape from.

Back in reality, I see that the rabbit has dissolved, with the only remaining evidence of its existence being the small amount of dust attached to the root I used to kill it. As unsettling as the implications of doing this may be, I resolve myself to gain the power I need to see my family again, regardless of what I have to do in the process. Well, maybe there are still some things I’m unwilling to do, but it sounds cooler that way. After our reunion, I’ll then have to prepare for whatever could tear us apart. Watching the sun set, I plan out my next course of action. I will not, nay, cannot allow myself to falter in order to accomplish my goal. If I have to drastically change the world to do so, so be it.