Deep breath in.

Slow breath out. 

Enoki was feeling very tired. Ze wasn’t sure how real this place was. How much magic had been used in the attempt to do all of this. But there was one thing ze was sure of. That ze could try to do this. If the holy tree Father became was any indication, all the sap would be just as flammable. So maybe proper magic wouldn’t really be needed. It’d be better if the forest didn’t burn down with hir friends still in it. So maybe something smaller.

Deep breath in. Hold it a moment. This was a dream. Enoki knew there was some sparks inside from the phoenix. So surely...  

Slow breath out.

Ze leaned in close to the root and breathed on it as the tiniest spark came out. There. That was all Enoki needed. The spark fluttered onto the root ze held, finding a bit of sap in the damage and gently embedding itself in the black substance. For an instant nothing seemed to happen. Enoki leaned a bit closer, lightly blowing on it. 

Brute force wasn’t needed now. Just gentle encouragement. 

As the flame started to get stronger, Enoki could feel the tug of the other fire, still burning at the other end. Ze looked up in the distance, seeing the golden light gain a slight blue tinge. The fire of the other end almost seemed to flicker in time with the tiny one in front of Enoki’s hands. 

“Father Heaven. He-  he’s calling. He can’t hear.” Enoki saw the dripping black goo pour down the front of hir outfit as Tear shook hir from behind. “Make it bigger!”

“Ok! Geeze.” Enoki wiped some of the goop off and rubbed it on the root. “No getting mad later.”

One more big breath, going as deep as ze could before blowing on the flame again. This time a larger flame came out. Ze focused hir thoughts on the reunion. On it being blessed. On the two getting what they needed from this connection. Even if it was just ending things.

It was enough. A small tiny flame like when ze made creme brulee came out. The sap boiled and burned before catching everything else on the ground on fire. 

Blue flame followed every root, every stream of sap, every chunk of wood. Rapidly traveling down the forest and into the distant golden light. Screams were suddenly heard, but not of pain. Screams of joy. Of Fear. Of excitement. Enoki spun around, looking as the inky black world was suddenly given form and depth from the flickering lights and the shadows it made. Twisted forms of hated enemies, lost loved ones, and even destroyed dreams could be seen lining the earth and sky. Some of these forms crumbled into dust and turned into rolling storm clouds. 

If it wasn’t for the fact the flame was now climbing over Enoki, ze’d be watching with morbid curiosity and horror. Instead the flames crawled over hir body and clothes. At first ze wasn’t scared but ze could feel it trying to force its way into hir mouth and eyes. The flame was burning away what felt like reality itself. Or maybe it was how mere mortals could see reality. 

Snippets of atoms. Micro explosions. Worlds that were so twisted and strange that no human could ever dream it. 

“HELP!”

Just another afternoon of helping you fix the mess. En’mat’s voice felt like it was in Enoki’s ear, blowing the flames away. 

Daikon’s hand could be felt over Enoki’s eyes. My stretched chaos. It’s real but not. Just find the door out.

How?

By being you of course. We’re outside waiting.

Enoki barely took a deep breath. As ze did, a thought came through. 

Ze was swallowed. Ze was inside the tree in reality. The flames must be covering hir body. Ze was probably almost drowning in the sap from before. All ze needed to do was focus on hir real body. Enoki started running forward, keeping hir eyes closed. Now ze could feel heat. Ankle deep goop around hir. As soon as ze felt the hot air around hir, ze focused on making hir legs into springs and forced hir way up, turning into a thin paper like the first morning here. 

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to catch a thermal draft and start being forced up and out of the hole Enoki was in. The heat disappeared and ze dared to open hir eyes again. One eye almost didn’t want to open. It took a moment for hir to realize that some of the sap had coated it. 

As ze looked down, ze was a good 30 ft above the majority of the forest. High enough to see all the trees had caught the blaze. The spiders and elves had gotten just as covered as Enoki. Many had those same roots from the dream half covering them. The roots, however, came from something specific. Ze looked around again, seeing the flame heading into the city. Going straight for the holy tree and following the deep underground roots. 

Enoki was right. It was a Pando.

Well. Maybe not a Pando. Enoki was pretty sure that was a specific tree. But it was like that. Something that covered acres and acres of land and looked like it was many trees. But they all grew up from the ground from thousands of stems. When those roots took Tears, Father Heaven must have been trying to get his daughter. Keep her close and connected. 

But she was so angry she never realized. She poisoned the connection so his words couldn’t reach her. 

And then more roots or stems must have grabbed other elves. Father Heaven was isolated save for his original roots to Tear. And she just kept grabbing elves and other life first. 

Or it could have been some other weird thing. Enoki wasn’t sure. In any case, ze needed to find hir friends and help them. Ze blew into hir thumb to inflate again as ze let hirself fall to the ground below. 

Now to make wings and—

Hir arms weren’t becoming wings.

“Of course. I don’t suppose a deux ex machina wants to just show up now?!”

As soon as the words were spoken, there was a small silver glint below. Before Enoki could ponder what it could be, it exploded into a giant silver balloon. Enoki landed on it face first, just in time to realize there was some embroidery on it. As ze bounced back up, screaming in fear at the chance of harm happening finally, ze could see the words.

Deus ex brutus McStabby

Still screaming and flailing, hoping something would keep hir from falling to semi death, Enoki couldn’t help but be glad on some level that McStabby did have a sense of humor. Even if it was violent. As ze started to fall again, there was a feeling of something sticky hitting hir back and yanking hir in a different direction. 

Ze spun a bit, getting wound up in the glistening white webbing as an elf on one of the giant jumping spiders let out a low rumbling note. Galaxy hands Enoki had become far too familiar with in the last few days grabbed hold and properly set hir on the back of the spider moments before it landed on the ground. 

“Are you alright?”

“That depends on several things.” Enoki coughed, some of the black sap falling to the ground as ze did. “Like when is lunch?”

“You already ate a tree.”

“And it ate me back. Also, where’s En’mat? And Daikon?” Ze looked around at the forest, before frowning a bit. The leaves looked wrong on all the trees. Not wrong like before where ze swore some of them looked like bloody handprints or flaps of flayed skin. 

They looked like copper leaves. The flower buds were threatening to bloom, already dripping a cloudy, milk-like sap onto the ground.

“Hopefully not roasted. A holy flame came out of the mouth of the first sin before changing all the trees. The gods did great work this day.”

“The gods did nothing. Tear was in pain and… fuck it. Where were they?” Enoki turned to McStabby. “Well I left you with Daikon. Get over here and help me find him again.”

Holding out hir hand, the giant balloon deflated and turned into a puddle of goo, rapidly moving towards hir ride and seeming to be bringing along a gooey Bob as well. Once in their places, McStabby made a tired looking arrow shape in hir hand. 

“You and me both, buddy. Hey, go that way.” 

The words were barely uttered as the Spider started skittering over to the river of sap coming from the still open tree’s mouth. As they moved along, Enoki could see the sections where there was still black sap trying to make rootlike tendrils slap any nearby life and bodies. ome roots started to grab at fallen elves and steeds,but  a blue flame traveled up from the ground, turning it white. Some warriors and beasts were half covered in roots, much like in the dream memory Tear had shared. The only thing saving them was the roots retreating, but they still left gaping wounds in the process.

Enoki’s heart started to beat faster. Were Daikon and En’mat going to be ok? Were they alive? They seemed so connected in the dream. What if…

Before the thought finished, they stopped in front of a bright red hand sticking out of a fully formed tree that seemed to be pushing back the flame. The bark was slowly starting to enclose it.