I'm falling.
The air shrieks around me, dragging my senses in every direction I can't quite grasp. I spin—again and again—until I lose track of up, of down, of anything solid to cling to. I spin in a cyclone of panic, over and over, until up and down dissolve into a vertigo of terror. Panic surges: I want control. I crave safety. I hate being so helpless.
My body—or what I'd call my body—is a ragged weightless shell, battered by invisible gusts. I'm nothing but a mote of dust in a hurricane, stripped of shape, stripped of certainty. The pressure squeezes me from all sides, like the world itself is trying to crush something desperate inside me—a fear that claws at my core.
Make it stop!
Then—
Silence. Weightlessness.
Relief warps into confusion: I'm not landing. I'm drifting, as if caught in someone's half-remembered dream. A feather? What's a feather? The concept eludes me even as I imagine it.
Something stirs. A flicker of clarity uncoils within me—ancient, alien. It winds through my thoughts until a screen unfurls in the blackness of my mind.
How can I see it if I have no eyes? What even is a screen?
I… blink? No. Not blink—what's blink?
A tremor of confusion coils in me, startled and overwhelmed.
⊹ SYSTEM ROOT INTERFACE BOOTING… ⊹
Welcome, Seedling. You have awakened.
Your consciousness is now linked to the Root-Soul Framework.
Initialize? [Yes] / [No]
Auto-response detected… Initializing…
BEHOLD THE SYSTEM
🌱 Become The World Tree 🌱
Name: ???
Race: Plantae
Species: Seedling (Very Common)
Level: 0
Evolution Tier: 0 – Sproutbound
Status: Rootless Drift
Health: 1
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Stamina: 0
Photosynthesis: 5
Vital Sap: 5/5
Mana Conduction: Inactive
Soil Affinity: None
Sunlight Exposure: 0%
Evolution Progress: 0%
Next Evolution: ??? (Hidden until Triggered)
Titles: — None
Skills:
— Instinctive Rooting (Passive)
— Sapling Senses (Passive — Obstructed by Blindness)
⚠ WARNING: Environmental conditions critical.
— You are airborne. No soil contact detected.
— Vital Sap will begin draining in [2:59]
Seek ground.
Seek warmth.
Seek life.
May the World cradle you.
The glowing green words fold away like petals at dusk. The presence is gone.
What was that? Who was that?
My thoughts buzz like angry bees in a storm.
Bees? Storm?
I'm still spinning in this roaring void.
But I remember.
Soil. The system said… find soil.
And sap. It's draining—some vital essence slipping away.
I don't know what sap is, but I know I cannot lose it.
The wind surges again, a vicious lash of invisible claws ripping at me.
Fear grips me tighter than the gale ever could.
And then—
IMPACT.
A thunderous crack slams through me, bone-shaking.
Consciousness shatters.
Then: darkness.
But beneath the void, a new pulse: damp earth, cool and throbbing like a living heartbeat. I feel it shudder under my form. I've landed.
I'm swallowed by the earth's breath—silent, archaic, limitless. Roots coil beneath me, hungry, welcoming. Fear crashes through me, but beneath it… awe.
Dark shapes loom around me: gnarled trunks dripping rot, foliage like razor shadows. The air stinks of decay and whispered curses.
I've fallen into the heart of the world's nightmares: The Rotwood.
It watches. It waits. And I—rootless no more—have just taken my first trembling hold.