The Tree of Everything

I sat up.

Lush, green grass. A field that stretched out as far as the eye could see. No flowers, no insects. The sun shone brightly, enveloping me with its loving warmth. The smallest of breezes gently caressed me. Was this the Nowhere? With a name like that, I had expected grimness, coldness and wetness.

My hand bumped against something. I glanced down. It was the backpack I’d carried throughout my travels. Next to it was the undeciphered scroll.

“I was not expecting that,” said a voice behind me.

I turned around. Alice was already on her feet, gazing off into the distance, like an 18th century land spotter.

“There's something faint up in the distance over there. Do you think it’s the tree?” she asked. “If not, should we split up? I’ll go that way, you go that way.”

I picked up my things and stood up with a groan. “Nobody’s going any which way but the right way. And anyways, we’re not in a rush, are we? It’s like the king said: this place exists outside of time and space.”

“Are you saying we’re frozen in time?”

“In a way.”

“Okay… But how do we know which direction to head in? I don’t want to go one way and then realise we should have gone the other. Judging by the distance, I’d say it’ll take us hours to get to that figure,” Alice pointed out.

I fished inside my backpack. Ah, here. I produced a small orb. It was the magical compass, and it was pointing directly towards the shape Alice had pointed to, far, far into the distance. “I suppose it really is the tree,” I smiled.

“What’s that ball you’re holding?” Alice asked.

“It’s a magical compass that was given to me by a wizard on a mountain,” I explained, without a hint of humour.

Alice looked at me like I was crazy. “We have a lot to talk about.”

With that, we set off north.

We walked for about an hour, during which Alice and I spoke about all sorts of things. Though, curiously, we never mentioned the fantasy world. I explained to her what Earth was like nowadays and she told me of how things were back in her day. We enthusiastically recounted our miseries and dissatisfactions with life on Earth.

“I’m almost glad I came to this fantasy world. I just wish it had been under different circumstances,” I admitted. “I always thought the reason behind something happening was more important than the actual thing that happened, but I wish I could have been in your situation instead.”

Alice shrugged. “Honestly, with everything you’ve said, it makes even less sense to me why I was brought here. I wonder if my body teleported from Earth, or if I just appeared,” she mused.

The tree was now close enough that I could begin to comprehend its immense size. I had imagined something with the proportions of a skyscraper, but this was beyond my wildest expectations. It had the diameter of the Roman Colosseum and stretched out into the sky. It had no branches to speak of, but it did possess a humongous number of leaves at the very top.

“It’s huge,” Alice said in amazement.

“It’ll probably take us two more hours to get there,” I groaned.

“Are you tired?” Alice asked.

I paused. Surprisingly, I wasn’t. Hell, I wasn’t even sweating. “No,” I replied.

“Outside of time and space, remember? Race you there!” Alice yelled, as she ran off.

“Is she serious?” I picked up the pace and eventually found myself in full sprint.

***

We ran all the way to the towering Tree of Everything, never tiring. Alice, being much faster than I, had already arrived a few minutes before me. She was running her hands along the trunk.

I slowed to a stop and observed the tree in awe. There were strange runes carved into the entire tree, from top to bottom.

Alice loudly sighed. “Kugo,” she said. “I know we’re outside of time and space, but I’m not going to read this entire thing.”

“I agree. But I don’t think we’ll have to.”

“Hm?”

“Think about it. This is the Tree of Everything. The king told me I could read about my past life and my connection to both him and Allister. In all likelihood, the runes of this tree describe all of the fantasy world’s history,” I reasoned.

“That’s certainly impressive, but how does it help us?” Alice asked.

“I’m going to make a bold assumption but stay with me,” I hesitantly warned. “If I had to guess, I’d say this tree used to be tiny. However, as history advanced, the tree grew. In all likelihood, the most recent events are at the top and the oldest, most fundamental ones are at the bottom,” I said.

Alice nodded. “Makes sense to me. But how do we find what applies to us? According to your logic, we’d probably have to climb near the top. I don’t know about you, but no way in hell am I doing that,” she said. “Anyways, it’s not like we could climb it if we tried.”

I rubbed my chin, as I inspected the runes. I could already make out that things were written from left to right, wrapping around the trunk. “The ones at from the bottom to eye level are the largest... First, let me decipher this language. Then, we’ll figure out what to do.”

“How long do you think it’ll take you?” Alice asked, nervously.

“Beats me,” I shrugged. I untied the scroll from my backpack and unrolled it. Then, I took out one of the notebooks and pens that I’d bought earlier on my travels. I’d originally intended to use it either as a diary or to catalogue evidence and deductions for cases but using it to decipher the secrets of the universe was as good a use as any.

Alright, let’s get to work.

***

Alice spent the next few hours running around. She worked out and did somersaults, as I worked. Occasionally, she’d come up to ask if I was finished, like a bored child on a road trip. She cartwheeled up to me. “Are you done yet?” she asked.

I was sat cross-legged on the grass, studying the runes and writing things down. “If you ask me that again, I’m turning this car around,” I joked with a straight face.

Alice got the underlying message and did a few backwards handsprings to get away from me.

I thought I could write down an alphabet, like with Latin languages, but these runes function more like hieroglyphs or even Chinese… Either way, I’m almost done. Next, I’ll have to actually write down what the tree says…

***

Hours upon hours had passed. Alice had long stopped jumping around. She lay on the grass with her eyes closed and her hands behind her head. “I wish I could get tired, so I could go to sleep,” she lazily remarked. “The worst part is, you’re too focused to speak.”

I ignored her. I was in paradise. Not only did I have a complicated, highly consequential puzzle to work on, but I had always dreamed of being able to stay intensely focused on a task indefinitely. I fervently scribbled things down.

I slammed my pen down and leapt up. “I’m finished!” I exclaimed in pure elation.

Alice jumped in fright. “You decoded the language?”

“And I wrote the story! The scroll wasn’t a key, so much as an excerpt from the tree. Putting the two together, I was able to decipher the runes! I’ve written it! I finally know what’s going on!” I cried, overjoyed.

Alice scrambled to her feet. “Well, go on then, let’s hear it!” she urged.

I unrolled the entire scroll onto the grass, with a dramatic flair. “It starts here,” I said, pointing to the section of scroll at my feet. Then, I held up my notebook.

“Here’s what it says…”