The forest was gloomy; a thick mist blanketed the undergrowth in a dense fog that made it impossible to see what lay further ahead. The map given to the little robot by Thanatos was vague, very little detail was given, and the world around him seemed so much more different than depicted on the map. It would be a considerable challenge for Diggix to navigate the wilds independently without getting lost.
Many have ventured into the forest and never returned, the DG units they’ve sent in to retrieve any artifacts or survey the immediate surroundings around the Citadel never made their way back, and thus Thanatos never sent any of them into the forest unless he wanted to get rid of them. It seemed that was the strategy Thanatos used when he sent Diggix into the woods on his own. He would easily get lost and be forced to remain in the forest, where he would eventually be overwhelmed by the elements and permanently shut down and cease to exist.
Diggix looked around, hoping to see some kind of opening in the forest, there were many possible routes he could take, but none seemed clear enough to make the journey easier. Moreover, it was still early in the morning, making the undergrowth extraordinarily dark, and the fog around him would still increase as the morning grew in maturity.
Switching on his optical torches, it lit up everything before him; the mist seemed a bit more manageable for the little robot. Finally, he saw a clear path heading into the forest straight ahead; looking around again, he could not see any other way. Then, without hesitation, he moved. Though his reluctance began to increase when he reached the tree line, the noises in the forest seemed to grow louder, and at every turn, the sounds of scurrying creatures flared up around him, giving the impression that he was being followed.
If Diggix had a throat, he would have swallowed hard. Instead, he suppressed his caution, Diggix called up some functions that gave him the courage to push forward, and proceeded to enter the forest without fear. Everything around him seemed to grow darker and the sounds louder; he focused his audio receptors on his immediate surroundings and his torches he set brighter. Above him, he could not see the sky; the trees blanketed the forest canopy in a perfect cloud of darkness. Though strangely enough, many other plants were growing beneath the trees that seemed like they would have died on any different planet due to the lack of sunlight.
Diggix wished he could remember what Thanatos sent him in the forest to do before he lost his memory; it would have made things easier. He looked at the map, trying to figure out exactly where he was, though it proved to be an impossible task. He looked at the map again and noticed where the entrance to the Citadel was, and finally, he could see where he was.
Looking up into the forest proved it to be a difficult task to track through the trees. However, taking a closer look at his environment revealed many things he thought he had seen before but could not recall the memory archives to place where exactly. Close by grew a plant ten times larger than Diggix; under it grew fungus that seemed to omit strange plumes of a liquid substance that spread around the area. It kept on releasing every few minutes. Strange little moving lights would home into this substance omitted into the air and collect it, then they would fly off into the forest.
A more considerable light flew in and caught many of the substance and flew off; Diggix was intrigued; he followed the light into the forest in hopes to see where it would take him. But, with the undergrow growing thicker, it took more effort on Diggix’s body to keep up with the moving light. Eventually, the light led him into a thinner section of the forest, and the sky above was more visible.
Following the light deeper and deeper, they finally stopped in an opening where the strange little light hovered; it was looking for a spot to land. Moments later, it found its place and descended. At first, it seemed like the creature was burrowing, but soon it was revealed that it was digging a hole to deposit the strange substance in. Diggix moved closer to inspect the sight.
Slowly the creature covered the hole again and seemed to wait; something unique happened next. As they were waiting, a tiny tree and many smaller plants sprouted from the ground; Diggix was amazed by this fantastic sight. Though it did not last, as the tree was growing, it withered and died, the light of the tiny creature dimmed, and it flew off again. Diggix decided to see if the small light would return, so he waited there until it came back.
While waiting, Diggix inspected the ground where the little creature was trying to grow a tree but couldn’t see anything. So he began to dig and what he found explained why nothing would grow there. A few inches down, a large flat rock was neatly buried under the ground; it stopped the roots from digging deeper and growing larger, and strange energy resonated from it. So Diggix discided to remove the stone.
Once the rock was removed from the ground, he noticed that it had a partial engraving on it, such as those displayed in the Citadel; not knowing how to read the stone, he took out the device Thanatos gave him and shrunk the rock placing it in a different storage space on the other side of his head. With the stone gone, Diggix decided to fill the ground once gain and hid away behind a fallen tree a few paces away.
The little light returned and landed precisely on the same spot not too long after his work. This time though, it was no digging; it remained there for a long while and flew up into the air, the creature seemed to be looking for something, but soon enough, it landed on the same spot.
The little creature began digging once more and deposited the content he was holding; satisfied with the work, the creature flew back waiting. This time it took a bit longer, but the tree started growing eventually. Moreover, to the creature's surprise, the tree grew more prominent than before, making the beast very active.
Diggix celebrated with the creature within his circuitry, but the celebration did not last too long. The little creature landed on a leaf of one of its creations, and moments later, the beast itself withered and died, disappearing into the air like a puff of smoke.
Diggix looked up to see many of these lights enter this part of the forest, and doing the same as the last one did, they too planted the substance, and out came new trees. Their lights also faded after a while. It was clear to the little robot that the creature’s sole purpose in life was to collect the substance from the fungus and plant it in areas of the forest that needed trees and plants. After their purpose had been fulfilled, they would wither and die.
Though Diggix did not possess a function to replicate the heart, he still felt good currents flowing through his systems. Diggix decided he would believe the little creature’s essence entered the trees and made them strong; this thought was even more enforced with what had happened next.
The new trees reach a height twice as tall as Diggix or as tall as Thanatos; by that height, they slowed down. It almost seemed that the creatures dying were the cause of them slowing down in growth. However, when the growth was complete and the creature withered, the trees uprooted themselves, and like snakes, the roots slithered on the forest floor, moving the tree away from where it once stood.
The tree of the creature he had been observing had also stopped growing; Diggix kept a close eye on the tree, awaiting its transition to follow it and see where it was going.
Diggix did not have to wait long, as sure as the others, this tree too uprooted and left; the little robot kept his distance behind the tree but managed to follow it into the thicker parts of the jungle. Diggix realized that the permanent trees in the section he was leaving looked different from the rest of the trees within the denser forest. Instead of leaves, they had pins, and their trunks grew straight up to a pinnacle where straight branches went out from the sides. But, on the other hand, the trees in the deep forest grew wild, their barks did not grow too far up, and they had impressive crowns of leaves that had twigs and branches, and some even grew on the floor.
Moments had passed while following the tree; it seemed like it was not looking for anywhere specific. It gently moved around other trees and slithered over anything beneath it; it did not stop to rest. Instead, it moved further and deeper into the forest. Finally, the tree found what it was looking for. There was a break in the forest's canopy with a fragile strand of light illuminating an area not too far ahead. The tree seemed to move faster now that it had found what it was looking for.
Diggix approached the tree; it was now where it wanted to be. Slowly the tree dug its snake-like routes deep into the ground and rested; the tree had found its new resting place. The little robot placed his hand on the tree's trunk to feel any thermal activity; none of his sensors were strong enough to detect.
Behind diggix, further back, almost in the section of forest where he came from, Diggix heard something strange scream. With curiosity taking over his programming, he bade the three farewell and traveled back to the birthplace of all trees.
