The gentle afternoon sun blanketed me with warmth and comfort. Birds sang their songs high in the oak tree I laid under. A pleasant gust rustled the branches. What a beautiful day. I yawned, pulling my hands behind my head. Perfect for a quick snooze. Even the grass I sat upon was akin to the comfiest bed. I shut my eyes and let the peace overcome me.

That is, until a stream of water landed right in my face. I shot up and coughed. Some of the water got in my mouth. That wonderful peace shattered instantly.

“I found our loaf.” An elderly masculine voice yelled. I rubbed my eyes and shook the water out of my hair while Gramps yelled for Gran.

“What was that for?” I groaned.

“What, did I interrupt your beauty sleep? I understand, not enough hours in the night, so you have to steal some in the day. Problem is, it still ain't working.”

“Shut up gramps. You’re no gem either.”

“Kid, you got a face for radio.”

“Yeah, and I heard about your last trip to the proctologist, old man. He stuck his finger in your mouth by accident.”

“Why you little.” Gramps spoke through gritted teeth. Gran walked up behind gramps and gave him a light smack on the arm.

“Don’t you go bad-mouthing my handsome young man.” Gran knelt down next to me and hugged my head. She recoiled.

“Why is he wet?” Gran asked.

“What? I had to water the trees. He best be glad it wasn’t the other kind of watering.” Gran got up and gave him another playful smack for that comment. “You’re awful, you know that.”

“Just the worst.” He acknowledged with a wide grin on his face.

Gran went inside and grabbed a towel. She brought it out and handed it to me.

“Now that you're refreshed, we can get started on the gardenias today. She has been looking forward to planting them all winter.” Gran nodded along with his words.

He walked over to the shed and grabbed his hunting rifle. “But first we need to find some fertilizer.”

“What?” I was bewildered.

We shifted over to the raised beds suddenly. Gramps buried a few small squirrels in the dirt.

“And now for the seeds, go grab the packets from the shed.” I found the packets; they were covered in pictures of blue gardenias. Hmm. Neat.

I walked back over to gran and handed her the seeds. She went to plant them and I turned around, looking for the watering hose. A darkness spread over the lawn while I searched. More than just a cloud passing over the sun. It was more like something large was blocking the light. I turned to find what was casting the shadow. Behind my sweet grandmother was a giant ball of writhing flesh. It inched closer and closer to her. She never moved, completely oblivious to the horrifying danger she found herself in. I screamed and shouted, but she could not hear me.

The hose I sought just before found me. It wrapped up around my body, slithering around my limbs. I tried to struggle, but it was futile. Eventually, the hose completely bounded me. I fell to the ground with muffled shouts.

 

I woke up heaving. My eyes shot open. My limbs were tied down completely and something was in my mouth. I couldn’t move at all. Sweat was pouring out of me. I struggled and squirmed.

“Liam chill! Chill out!” Tutor’s voice spoke in my head.

“MMPFHF!” I couldn’t speak.

“It's okay. You’re okay. Calm down.”

I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. Which wasn’t working very well. It's hard to breathe right when you have something stuffed in your mouth. I wanted to shift into log form. It always calmed me down. Yeah, let's try that.

I felt my skin harden as the tree bark grew on my body. But that was it. The vines wrapped around my body wouldn’t let me contort fully. But I figured I might as well stay in the form.

But instead of the peaceful thoughts and emotions, a discomfort grew inside me; a frustration that went down to my very core. I can’t quite describe the feeling. Like I was currently.... wrong. Every part of my being was just incorrect. I squirmed and wiggled, but nothing made the feeling go away. Only when I turned off the form did the irritation fade.

Oddly enough, that irritation had managed to distract me a little. My breathing slowed down some.

I sighed through whatever was in my mouth. My sense of taste activated now that I was calming down. Earthy and planty? How did I end up like this? Right. Really pretty but really scary lady with plant powers.

I shifted in the vines again but stopped when I remembered they tightened when I did it last time. But there was no change. The vines keeping me tied were snug, but they no longer hurt or blocked my airway. Getting out of them wasn’t going to be easy. But before that.

Where am I?

My eyes wandered around the room. I didn’t seem to be in a dungeon or anything. The room was pretty bland. Wooden walls that switched between man made cuts interlaced with tree trunks. No windows. At least not in front of me. Some natural light was coming into the room from behind me. They situated me in the middle of the room, tied to a small tree and facing the door. The door looked like the entrance to Winnie the Pooh’s house. Just planks of wood nailed together and some basic metal hinges.

Honestly, the whole room felt reminiscent of ole Winnie’s place. Missing the Mr. Sanderz plaque at the top of the door but pretty close. Is the room built inside a tree? That would be dope. I shook my head. Better things to worry about. I thought about the green lady and what happened.

What did I do to piss her off so much? And Len. Why did he let me get carried off?

The last interaction with him played back in my mind.

“Breakout.”

I’m at least 82% sure that’s what he was saying. But “big trout” was a contender. I always sucked at reading lips. But Len’s distaste for fish made me think otherwise.

I felt a bug crawl on the side of my mouth. I squirmed even more trying to get it off. No success. It meandered around on my face for a solid minute. Every bone in my body screamed.

“Hey, have you thought about using them pearly whites on the vines?” Tutor asked.

I shrugged and bit down on the vine. It squished in my jaws. I clamped down harder, but it stayed strong.

Can I cut it? My teeth were somewhat akin to mini-saw blades. I shifted my head back and forth. The vibration and movement tickled my skull, but I could handle it. Man this is weird. I stopped for a second and bit down on them again. No change. This was going to be a minute. Eventually, I found a groove, and a song popped into my head; I bobbed with the rhythm of a song.

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me, no more.

After a couple of verses, I’d succeeded in cutting through about halfway. I took one massive chomp, and the vine broke free from my mouth. I took a deep breath of non-botanic fresh air.

“Awesome.” I motioned my jaw around, attempting to alleviate some of the soreness. "I hope I never have anything shoved in my mouth like that again."

I heard Tutor start giggling in the back of my head.

“You're awful, you know that."

"Just the worst." Tutor said. The words hung in my head for a moment, and I'm not entirely sure why. Like I heard those words recently. Ehh, probably nothing.

"Welp, step one is complete.”

A breeze lulled into the room. I shivered a little. The vines wrapped around me did little in the way of keeping me warm.

“Looks like the window is open. Solves the getting-out-of-the-room problem.”

“Yep. But you should focus on the getting-out-of-the-vines problem first.” Tutor said.

“Yeah, I know. Hey, did you see where we are by chance?” I asked her. I knew she was watching me from somewhere. I think. I know it's been over half a year since I’ve been on Kniyas, yet I was still only 99% sure she wasn't some schizo delusion.

“Nope. Even if I could, I’m not at liberty to say.”

“You’re certainly not at liberty to be helpful, are you?”

She made that melem noise you make when you stick your tongue out at someone.

“Whatever.” Before I said anything else, I heard some movement on the other side of the door. Somebody walked up, and I heard something smack metal and some muted voices.

“Get up. Sarge’d have yer hide if she caught you napping.” A male voice said in a strange accent.

The other person snorted loudly and replied with a quick, “Sorry.” I think it was a woman’s voice.

The first person sighed, “It's ok. I know you were tasked with station guarding in the last raid. Can’t blame you too much for catching some extra rest. How’s yer brother? Burns healing?”

“Kind of. He was fighting in the Holdsburn squad and was right next to the boss when the explosion went off. The ward he used wasn’t aligned properly for that level of heat. He’ll live, but he’s got some nasty scars on his arms now.” The woman replied.

“Aye, doubt many could handle that heat. Ainsworth. Scary fuckin man. But it's only been two days since the raid. I’m sure he will make a recovery. You don’t get a spot in Holdsburn’s squad without being made of thicker stuff. Make sure you don’t sleep again. Not sure who is making the rounds next.”

“I’m shocked I even managed to sleep. That feral’s stomach makes some unholy sounds. I ran in the first time it roared. I thought a monster got loose in there. Nope, just that kid’s gut. They are as disgusting as Lirae says.”

The man chuckled. “Aye.” I heard footsteps move away.

Shit. I got lucky right then. That door blocks hardly any sound, and I was speaking with Tutor at our normal level. Loud. Thank God I didn’t wake her. And did he say it’s been two days? Was I out that long? Damn, maybe an aftereffect of the gardenias. Some thing else she said bothered me. There’s that feral word again.

I shifted a little in my spot.

I need to focus on getting out of here. Silently. And finding Len. Quickly. Whatever, baby steps. First the vines. Maybe I can break out of them.

Ursa form’s added girth and strength might do the trick. Lord only knows how many vines I’ve snapped with its strength by now. I activated the form. I could feel my body getting larger and hairier. My mass pushed on the vines in all directions. I flexed my muscles as hard as I could. But the vines held. Truthfully, I don’t think they seemed even slightly strained by my attempt.

After a couple of minutes of trying, I reverted back to base form. My skin and muscles were hurting.

Okay, different form then. Tigris. No, I doubt a ball of darkness would help here and it's weaker than Ursa. Apis. The tail might be able to grab something like my dagger, but I’m sure the room is empty. Including my sword.

The mimic’s anger flared up when I realized they had stolen something from me. My face started to snarl, but I forced the feeling down after shaking my head for a moment. Focus! Next form. Gremlin. A smile grew on my face. Yeah, that might work.

I shifted into my little green form. My limbs shortened along with the rest of my body. The vines still felt cramped, but not nearly as much. I fidgeted around until I finally got an arm out.

I pushed up a little on the vines and freed the other arm. These vines didn’t tighten as I feared they would. Must have been little Miss Poison Ivy who made that happen. It wasn’t long before I got my whole body out of the stupid things.

No less than 47 cracks went off as I stretched. “Ooh.” The relief was so great that I couldn’t help but moan for a second. I covered my mouth and stopped dead in my tracks. Slowly, very slowly, I turned to the door. After a minute of holding my breath, I concluded she must not have heard me. I tiptoed to the door, pressing my ear to it. I heard the soft, gentle breathing of someone asleep. I sighed in relief before moving back to the vines.

There was a slight bounce in the floor as I moved about. Must not be on the ground floor. The wind blew into the room again. There was one surefire way to find out.

I walked up to the window. There wasn’t any glass. Maybe they don’t have any on Kniyas.

My eyes widened, while my jaw dropped to the ground.