Dio - Strolling (1)

"Really delicious... fantastic," said Brela for the fourth time as she pushed the last bit of bread into her mouth.

Her black hair gleamed under the midday Sun, as if it too reflected her delight. Her large green eyes sparkled with a brightness that seemed to overflow, as if something inside her had woken up, warm and radiant.

"Thank you," Dio said quietly.

Brela narrowed her eyes at him.

"That’s it? Not even a ‘Yes, I did a great job, didn’t I?’"

Dio gave a half-shrug.

Brela sighed, long and theatrical. "Goofball! Even Des loved it! I mean, he loves most things, but anyway... You know, it really is a shame he didn’t want to come along."

Her gaze drifted back toward the fields of corn, parce, and sweet potatoes they had just left behind.

"He enjoys his work out there," Dio said, thinking aloud. "He’s hard to pull away once he starts."

"Yeah, I know. Like most of them," Brela replied.

She looked toward the Sun, then back to Dio. Her voice softened.

"Still, I’m glad you’re with me. It’s been so long since I didn’t have to walk into the forest alone."

For a moment, something shifted in her expression. The light dimmed. Not quite sadness, rather a flicker of something deeper that made Dio freeze.

"How long?" Dio asked, careful not to sound too curious.

Brela took a breath and looked ahead.

"It’s hard to say. Back then, there weren’t days. Time simply blurred. I didn’t always know if I was here, or meditating, or something in between. Maybe a hundred days. Maybe a thousand."

"A thousand days... that’s nearly forever."

"Not if they’ve already passed," she said, and her smile returned, softer this time. "I’m glad they’re behind me. It feels like life is finally starting to reach the others too."

She turned toward the forest and stared into the space between the trees. When she looked back at Dio, her grin had returned.

"Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We’re here now! And the trees are right in front of us. The underbrush. All of it. Strange mysteries. Buried things. Forgotten ruins hidden under moss. Are you ready, goofball?"

"Always," said Dio, smiling. "Though I imagine you know your way around by now. Not many mysteries left for you, right?"

Brela considered that, then gave another light shrug.

"I haven’t been this far out since you all arrived. I’m sure a lot has changed."

She ran a hand through her braided hair, brushing away a strand with more energy than necessary.

Dio paused. His gaze moved from her face to the forest ahead. The trees stood tall, dressed in rich green and weird purples. Light spilled between the branches. It felt more like stepping into a holy building than a forest. He hesitated. "What do you mean, things have changed?"

"When new people show up, the world changes too," she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "Not near the village. Further out. New animals. New plants. Sometimes a whole new grove. That’s why I love going out after a group arrives. It’s like the Dream reshapes itself around us."

She bounced forward, light on her feet, her laughter trailing behind.

Dio blinked. First the bread, and now this. Shifting landscapes. New things forming around people. This Dream... it is less stable than I thought. More alive. More unsettling. More mysterious.

Soon they reached the edge of the forest. The first bushes gave off a clean, fresh scent. They sprouted sparsely among trunks of white and dark brown. Above, branches stretched wide, forming a canopy of gleaming colors that shimmered where the sunlight touched them.

Mushrooms grew everywhere—red and green, faintly glowing and jagged, sprouting from the earth in strange clusters. They dotted the ground like paint spilled by an unseen hand.

The forest floor was uneven. Thick roots bulged up from beneath the soil, twisting and curling like veins in the skin of something vast and alive. Every part of it pulsed with fresh energy. The air around them was surprisingly cool. Dio’s linen clothing barely kept him warm.

Brela moved ahead with ease, her steps light. She never stumbled, not even once. Dio followed more carefully. The roots were everywhere—some twisted, some sharp, some deceptively smooth.

"Have you ever fallen?" he asked after a while.

"Here? No. Why?"

"The roots."

"Oh... yeah, I used to. Long ago. But I’ve been here so often, my feet remember the path. I don’t even have to think about it anymore."

She twirled slightly, stepping through a thick patch of roots as if dancing.

Dio frowned. "You said things change further out. Yet here, every root is just how you remember it. Isn’t that weird? How far do we have to go before it starts changing?"

"I’ve never thought about that," she said, slowing a little. "Eventually, I notice I have to watch my step again. It just happens. Some places don’t have roots at all, so sometimes I can’t even tell."

She was right. The roots began to disappear at one point. In their place came soft grasses. Their purple blades swept in the light breeze around them. Above, the canopy finally opened and the Sunlight burst through. The ground changed even more and flowers now grew everywhere—stems and leaves, blossoms curling in unfamiliar shapes. Some looked like clover, dandelions, orchids. Others were stranger, their long petals rippling like cloth in the breeze.

Then, under a tall tree—its trunk a weave of many thin stems twisted together—Dio spotted something familiar. At its base, nestled in a shallow dip in the earth, were wide, bell-shaped blossoms. The kind Wes and Reab used to store water.

Dio stopped and lowered himself to the ground. He reached out and brushed one with his fingertips. It was firm, sturdy, yet almost unnaturally smooth. Some of the blooms were purple, others a deep blue, the same shade as the afternoon sky. The blossoms in front of him reached almost to his knee.

Awestruck, Dio stared. He couldn’t believe something so large, so sturdy, so vivid could be a flower.

Yet there it was, right in front of him.

Brela had paused. She was watching him from a few steps ahead.

Does this place really exist? The thought hit him suddenly, sharp and uninvited.

Dio chuckled under his breath. Brela gave him a puzzled look, yet he shook the thought away.

It feels real, doesn’t it? It seems real, so... is that not enough?

"Noblecups," Brela said casually, twirling one of her braids around her finger. "I always found them kind of funny."

"What? Yeah... incredible," Dio murmured, still half caught in his thoughts. "They’re almost bizarre, but in a beautiful way."

"That’s one way to put it," Brela smiled. "They’ve been here since I arrived. One of the first wonders I discovered. Of course, others already knew about them, though to me it felt marvelous. Like something fresh and bright in the middle of all this strangeness."

"I get that," Dio replied. "Wes and Reab use them to carry water." He said it even though he was almost certain she already knew.

"Yeah, they’re really useful," she confirmed with a nod.

"Pretty lucky they grow so close by."

"Yup. And they’re sturdy too. They almost never break, and they grow back fast," she added with genuine enthusiasm.

"How long does that take?"

Brela tilted her head. "No idea. I never paid close attention. I don’t come out here that often. I’d guess... maybe fourteen days? Maybe twenty? Some animals eat them, yet there always seem to be just as many each time I visit."

Dio stood up and looked around, scanning the area. Aside from buzzing red insects, he didn’t see any other creatures nearby. Brela grinned and gave an exaggerated wave toward a cyan-colored thicket a few steps away.

"Maybe we’ll get lucky and spot something," she said, trying to sound mysterious.

She failed miserably.

Dio had to suppress a laugh, but he followed her anyway. They crouched down behind the thick bush, its waxy leaves brushing against his arms. He tried to settle in quietly, though the sharp scent of the plant pricked at his nose—spicy, slightly bitter.

Pepper... and chili, he thought, with something else I can’t place.

He could not hold back a smile. Because he could name those smells. Because he remembered them.

Every time it happened, it was a small miracle: to remember something from before was unbelievably satisfying. Not a vague emotion, not a feeling, but something real, something tangible. A detail that had followed him here. Something he could call by name.

He felt himself drifting again, slipping into thought, when Brela suddenly tugged at his sleeve.

"There, look! Do you see them?" she whispered, barely breathing.

At first, Dio only heard it—the soft rustling in the branches above the noblecups. Then, slowly, from the thick crown of leaves, a few strange creatures emerged. They moved lazily, almost comically slow, easing themselves down from the upper branches.

Their bodies were covered in brownish fur, dappled with white spots like scattered stars. The creatures were small, no bigger than Dio’s leg, tough their limbs were oddly long, especially the arms, which had three joints and ended in sickle-shaped claws. With these, the animals gripped the branches overhead, hooking into bark and hanging with deliberate calm. Their heads were round and smooth, with tiny black noses and shiny button-like eyes that blinked sleepily. Their legs, short and stubby, dangled uselessly in the air, while little tails, furred and twitching, quivered as they approached the noblecups.

"Lazapes," Brela whispered, eyes wide with delight.

"Amazing," Dio breathed. "What luck, that they’re all coming down now."

Brela giggled and blushed faintly.

"I put some berries in one of the cups," she confessed, tapping the pouch at her vine-like belt. "To lure them."

Dio burst out laughing, so loud and sudden that several of the lazapes twitched in alarm. A few blinked toward him, then began slowly retreating into the canopy, vanishing between leaves and branches.

"Dio, oh come on," Brela hissed in exaggerated scolding, but the corners of her mouth betrayed her, still curled in a smile that hadn’t gone anywhere.

"Sorry," he muttered with mock innocence, waving a hand half-heartedly. "They look so strange. Like little... I dunno."

"They’re not strange," Brela said, her voice quieter now. "I recognized them the moment I saw them. Somehow. I think I must have known them before." She lowered her eyes for a second, then met his again. "They’re so slow, so deliberate. They bring quiet with them, and I sometimes need that. Though they startle easy."

She rose carefully, still watching the treetops, then began moving away in a low, crouched walk, every step gentle and patient. Dio followed suit, and the forest closed softly around them once more.