I can’t believe I found this tree amongst all the other practically identical trees, but I did. I don’t even know how much I’ve been walking but I’m pretty certain it’s more than I’ve walked in my entire life. I can’t even feel my feet anymore.

I stand at the base contemplating how to climb up the sheer expense of bark, actually I’m not sure if you can even call it bark. It’s not quite the right color, nothing is here of course. There are tree trunks that are green, like they’re trying to be freaking limes, and then there are those that are sort of brown but a few shades too light to be normal. There’s even a few yellow ones, and white trees too, and I know I saw a turquoise tree glowing last night.

Our particular tree’s a dark red, I guess you’d call it rouge, but I digress. It’s not quite bark because the texture is wrong. It still resembles bark but feels kind of like suede, and the tree itself exudes heat. I place my hand on the tree, feeling the soft, barely there ridges and the slow steady rhythm that one typically associates with a heartbeat.

I think I’ve said this before, that I’m not the most athletic even at my best. I’m the kind of kid that faked ill during gym to get out of it. Now the ground might be soft, but I don’t fancy falling on it again. I run my hand over one of the veins and it moves slightly. I yelp, yanking my hand back.

“Okay, Ray, it’s okay. You’re smart. You can figure this out.”

I gently place my hand back on the vein and watch as the smaller strands that connect it to the tree detach and slowly make their way over to my hand. They wrap around my wrist and I have a moment of panic where I yank my hand back and watch as they stretch with me. You know that moment of panic when you try on a dress that’s three sizes too small, and of course when you go to take it off you’re stuck, and so you freak out and start trying to do everything you can to get the dress off? You know you’re not dying and it’s not that it hurts, but at the same time you picture your life stuck in that dress, and you just panic. Well, that’s how it feels.

I yank and tug and the veins just wrap tighter around me. I kick out and I’m released so suddenly that I fall backwards. Okay, panicky moment done. I can work with this, probably.

So, I stand closer to the vein, putting my foot up and watch as the veins wrap around my ankle so that I’m awkwardly standing on one foot, the veins supporting the weight of the other. I place my other hand on the vein and count the seconds it takes the strands to cocoon me. Eight seconds total. I slowly pull my other hand away, counting how long it takes them to loosen again, they move with me, kind of like when gum is stretched too thin and won’t snap back. I wonder if it’ll support my weight. No time like the present to find out. And I’m still close enough to the ground that a fall won’t hurt too badly.

I reach as high as I can and count to eight. Then when my hand is secured, I jump up to reach higher. Surprisingly the veins that were still wrapped around my wrist don’t detach at first, they stretch and as if it senses part of itself the other veins are already detached and reaching for me. It takes three seconds, and I’m up an inch higher. I step up with my foot, letting the tree take my weight and surprisingly it works. It’s almost like climbing a ladder, but easier because my entire weight is supported, all I have to do is reach and step up. I slowly start moving up the tree. After the second or so step the strands wrap around my torso, and it get’s easier to move, I barely have to reach up before I’m propelled by the strands below and above. I’m so brilliant.

As long as I avoid looking down it’s actually not so bad. If they could invent this back home then I’d probably get so fat. It’s seriously better than an escalator. I start to get into the rhythm of it and it’s almost like swimming, or I guess more like wading in the kiddy pool. At first I hold my breath with each step up the tree, but the easier it gets, and the more it seems like nothing will go wrong, my thoughts start to focus on other things. Like the hope that Aether is up there waiting on me, because there’s no way I’m going back out to find him, but I need him to figure out how to get us the heck out of this place, and there’s also the fact that I can’t wait to strangle him as payback for leaving me.

I swear to all the existent and nonexistent Gods in the universe that I will strangle that balloon brain as soon as I can.

I’m so engrossed in my thoughts that I’ve made it a third of the way without realizing it. Who knew plotting Aether’s death could lead to such productivity. I’m just about to reach up, thinking of another way for Aether to die that involves a shoe, butter, and a bobby pin when I hear a yell that sounds familiar.

“I’m coming for you Raylen!” Mouth gaped open, at a dead stop on the tree I watch as Aether flies past me at a speed that could rival a car.

I make the mistake of looking down to see Aether hitting the bottom, all words are caught in my throat. I’m so relieved that I feel tears prick my eyes, and yet anger causes bile to rise up in the back of my throat. THAT BASTARD!!!!!!

“Sabyne hurry! We have to— ” Aether cuts off as he sees me, and then he's flying up the tree, so fast I’m surprised I don’t get whiplash from watching.

“Raylen! Oh thank goodness!” Aether says as he stops beside me and tries to awkwardly hug me while hanging by one arm. My first reaction is to grab at his neck.

“YOU F-ING MUSHROOM BRAIN, I’M GOING TO TEAR OUT YOUR INTESTINES AND FEED THEM TO YOU ONE PIECE AT A TIME, AND THEN I’M GOING TO RIP YOUR HEART OUT AND STOMP ON IT, AND THEN FEED IT TO PIGS, OR THE EQUIVALENT IN THIS FREAKSHOW PLANET— ”

“Aether don’t be so hasty, oh you found her” A voice from above cuts me off. My hands are still wrapped around Aether’s neck, and the jerk is smiling like a kid on Christmas even as his face is turning red, he does realize that I’m strangling him? Right?

I look up to see a creature straight out of the imagination of R.L. Stine hanging by a tree vein and peering down at me.

Everything shines red, funny I always thought it was supposed to be black.