Chapter 37

Haledon neared the overgrown edge of the Astralaceae, where thick roots met the grey flesh of the Megacolides. Examining the point where the Earth Druid ship had bitten down over the Astralaceae pod, he noticed that the skin had created a hard seal with the bramble hull. Intrigued, he poked at it, finding the hardened leather surface resistant to his pushing.

With a glance up from the mounds of roots and vines that crawled from the Astralaceae, he recalled Sparrow's defiance of Mesa when the Mecharrion first attacked. When he had been far away in the Gravodonata before, the brambles had looked small, but now up close, they stretched sixty feet up the face of the living ship.

"Here, use the roots for stability," Witch-Hazel instructed as their hand reached out and gripped the first root.

Haledon observed Witch-Hazel as they began to climb along the surface of the Megacolides. The arbornaut made it seem effortless and was halfway up the wall when a strange sensation overwhelmed Haledon's body. Instead of following along the roots, he felt the urge to jump and did so as an anxious Mek-Tek gripped Haledon's helmet.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Mek-Tek yelped in a panic.

Floating from the hull of the Astralaceaes, Haledon drifted along the surface of the Megacolides. He passed Witch-Hazel, giving a slight nod before twisting his head back in the direction he drifted. The stars hovered around him, and a momentary peace overtook him.

As Haledon neared the top of the ship's face, he reached a hand back. Muttering, he cast out a tethering vine to the roots beneath. The cord snapped taut, swinging him towards the ship's flesh, where his boots landed atop the leathery surface with a dull thud.

"Sorry," Haledon apologized as he looked at Mek-Tek. "I felt an urge."

"Yeah, well," Mek-Tek responded as he signed with his hands and, reaching down, connected a vine from Haledon to his waist. "Momentum and gravity, or lack thereof, can be problematic. And we're a long way from a gravity skimmer—"

"Not really, probably just under that first layer of scales." Witch-Hazel interrupted as they arrived, pulling themselves into a standing position.

"I don't want to drift through space, thanks!" Mek-Tek shot back sharply before inhaling from his straw and concealing himself within clouds.

"What about you?" Haledon asked Witch-Hazel.

"Been there, done that, got the Sprouts Badge—" They replied, smiling before continuing to march forward.

Reaching the edge of the Megacolides' exterior armour, Witch-Hazel reached out to touch the nearest scale. As Haledon drew near, he examined the armour's outer bark. It was dark and scarred with thick ridges. Admiring the texture, it began to set in how large the individual scales were. Haledon quickly estimated that the plates were as thick as he was tall and stretched a hundred steps in width.

"This is what killed the Mecharrion Scout?" He asked in awe, curiously touching the plate.

"Yeah," Witch-Hazel replied and looked at Haledon. "I'm not going to lie—when Sparrow pitched this idea for a ship's defence, I thought she had lost her mind."

"You and Sparrow designed the Megacolides?"

"Me? No." Witch-Hazel laughed, releasing their hand from the armour and bowing their head as they began to walk through the narrow passage under the slanted scale. "That was all Sparrow and Tallgrass. I just invited myself for the drinks."

Haledon continued to examine the bark defence as he instinctively ducked his head and followed Witch-Hazel. Entering the darkness, Haledon whispered to himself, transforming his open palm into a faintly glowing beacon.

"Is it going to be low clearance the whole way?" Mek-Tek asked as his slight figure leaned to the side to get a better view.

"Yeah," Witch-Hazel replied. "Walking on top of the scales exposes us to Megacolides' senses. Here, we're subdermal—beneath the keratin layer and external sensory glands."

"Okay," Mek-Tek replied as he detached the vines from his waist and jumped from Haledon's shoulder. Landing on the leathery surface, Mek-Tek quickly made his way onto the base of a nearby plate emerging from its scale follicle. "I'm actually going to stretch my legs for a while."

"Upset about the flight?" Witch-Hazel asked.

"No—" Mek-Tek replied curtly, inhaling and exhaling his cloud.

The group walked to the dim light of Haledon's armour in silence. Observing his surroundings, the Druid looked forward towards the approaching darkness and the nothing beyond. Adjusting his gaze, he glanced behind them to the deep well of black that followed. The only break in the barken and leather cavern's inky abyss came from the occasional gap in the scales where one ended, and another began. There, rare dots of starlight shone between the narrow spaces, reminding Haledon of where he was.

"You know a lot about the Megacolides," Haledon asked in an attempt to break the silence. "More than just being there for the drinks."

"I may have picked up some things while Sparrow and Tallgrass hibernated." Witch-Hazel looked back with a smirk.

"Hibernated?"

"The Succession?" Witch-Hazel asked in reply.

"I've heard that used a couple of different ways."

"Everything is succession." Witch-Hazel quoted sarcastically. "It is and will be. Life begets death, which transforms again into life. Paraphrased, Sparrow." 

They laughed for a moment to themself before continuing. "A fancy way to say that being connected to Nature—when you die—you're born again. But they don't tell you that it can be today, tomorrow, or a thousand years...whenever Nature determines it best."

"So you've known Sparrow and Tallgrass a long time?" Haledon asked.

"My whole life—" Witch-Hazel started but stopped, quickly interrupting themself. "Well, I've known Tallgrass for as long as I can remember. Sparrow came soon after."

"How did you meet Sparrow?"

"Ouff—wow, hmm—" Witch-Hazel grumbled to themself. "How do I explain that first encounter with Sparrow? It wasn’t some big, special thing…it barely even had to do with me."

Witch-Hazel stopped and thought for a moment, looking back to Haledon. Their bark face had become entirely frosted since they began their walk, with pieces of ice flaking away as it strained to flex and bend to match Witch-Hazel's words.

"Tallgrass and I had just completed a series of Druidic trials and stepped through the Ceem'effjay'bewhy Tree."

"Ceem'effjay'bewhy Tree?" Haledon asked.

"It's a massive old-growth tree that brings you to the Druids. So we stepped through, not knowing what to expect. Shortly after that, Sparrow and Sage appeared, and that’s how I met her."

"Who's Sage?"

"He was Sparrow's Primeval when she was a Seral in her first season," Witch-Hazel replied calmly. "Pretty nice guy for the little we saw of him."

"I never imagined Sparrow with a Primeval."

"Most people don't. They see Sparrow how she is now, after the Great Greening, most never knowing her before all that."

"What was she like?" Haledon asked. "Young Sparrow."

"Oh, exactly like the Sparrow you know now. Just less sure of the outcomes." Witch-Hazel laughed. "There was this one time that she was so convinced she could grow lily pads across one of the Earth's oceans and walk to another landmass by herself that she did it just to prove Tallgrass and me wrong. And the funny thing was that we never said she couldn’t!"

"Did she do it?" Haledon asked, a smile stretching across his face.

"She sure did! Well, almost at least. The strategy worked, but she passed out from exhaustion halfway there. We found her a little after, creating lily pads nowhere near where she thought she was."

"Sounds a bit like a messy thicket." Haledon laughed.

"So bad, but the three of us did a lot of good together back then." Witch-Hazel became quiet for a moment.

"And you still are." Haledon finally spoke up. "Where is Tallgrass now?"

"Back on Earth. Sparrow and I came here to strengthen your Astras and head back. All the while, Tallgrass is overseeing the growth of Earth's star system."

"Maybe..." Mek-Tek spoke up, drawing Haledon's attention.

He watched the Druid run on all four limbs before jumping and clearing the ten-foot gap between scales in a graceful, low-gravity drift.

"What do you mean, maybe?" Haledon asked, looking between the scales at the gently rounded hull that curved out of view.

"Meaning that, according to Birchbark, we overshot." Mek-Tek's visor became clouded.

"What do you mean, overshot?" Haledon continued, turning to Witch-Hazel.

"He's saying," Witch-Hazel sighed. "We left Earth some ten-thousand years after the Astras did and arrived sixty-thousand years later than expected."

"What? How did that happen?"

"Well, we still have a lot to learn about the Megacolides, apparently—" Witch-Hazel remarked with a shrug, becoming quiet.

Haledon's mind raced as the trio continued their walk in silence. He thought about the Earth Druids and how it must have felt to be so far from home in many ways. He quickly wondered if any other Earth Druids knew about the overshoot. Mek-Tek and Witch-Hazel had only just found out, which he could only assume meant that most Druids didn’t know. As he opened his mouth to ask, he was cut off.

"That’s an understatement." Mek-Tek broke the silence first. "Travelling through space at enormous speeds does generate some level of temporal distortion, but apparently, the method of sun diving is beyond our comprehension."

"But you bred the Megacolides," Haledon asked. "How did you not know—"

"We were the best and brightest of our age, but not enough to understand everything we created." Mek-Tek interrupted. "But I bet you that there are cosmic species now that are more advanced than our Megacolides—that is, unless the Druids lost the war with the Mecharrion while we were gone, and we're all that remains."

"Hey—" Witch-Hazel cut in.

"What?" Mek-Tek chirped back. "How else would you explain sixty-thousand years passing and the Astras having no additional Druidic contact? Earth would have assumed we failed and sent someone else at some point. Nature fills niches unless—"

"Hey, enough, Mek-Tek." Witch-Hazel snapped. "There were reasons, obviously. The Sol system probably reached the height of utopian bliss without us and simply forgot to check in."

"Yeah, sure," Mek-Tek said as he began to run and lifted off into his jump. "Just saying its statistically—ouff—"

Mek-Tek grunted, coughing loudly as he impacted the ledge, failing his jump and tumbling off the scale.

"Vastum!" Mek-Tek cried out as he impacted the smooth leather surface, bounced, and slowly flipped toward one of the narrow openings.

Instinctually, both Haledon and Witch-Hazel reached their hands out. Thick vines lashed forward, grabbing hold of Mek-Tek before pulling him back and carefully placing him onto one of the scales.

"You all right?" Haledon asked quickly.

Racing back towards Haledon, he made his way up the Druid's leg and perched on his shoulder.

"Yes," Mek-Tek squeaked before clearing his throat. "I think I have stretched my legs enough." 

With a deep inhale, the globe became clouded once more. "March."

The two Druids waited momentarily, observing each other and their friend, before continuing their walk. Silence again fell over the group as they marched forward.

"I'm sure he's fine," Haledon told Witch-Hazel, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, he is. Mek-Tek signed up for this, knowing space was part of the deal." Witch-Hazel laughed in reply.

"No," Haledon corrected himself. "Tallgrass. I can tell you're anxious over your friend."

"Yeah," They replied, looking forward. "I know. Tallgrass is pretty resourceful—he has been ever since I met him. He's probably off saving worlds—it's kinda his niche."

"So why choose Sparrow over Tallgrass?"

"So many questions. Like a thirsty willow stretching its roots."

"Well, she's not going to tell me." Haledon laughed.

"Yeah, that's true." Witch-Hazel chuckled in reply. "Okay. Tallgrass asked me to watch after Sparrow."

"He wanted you to protect Sparrow?"

"No, not protect. Sparrow doesn't need protection; she needs someone to remind her of things..."

"Like?"

"Like, sometimes, our only option is to kill the Mecharrion—" Witch-Hazel suddenly cut off. "Any idea how close we are to the end?"

The abruptness of Witch-Hazel caught Haledon off guard, confusing him. He took a moment and thought about the pathway he had been shown in the Central Nervous System. Closing his eyes, he imagined that he had been walking within the Megacolides, twisting through the passages leading deeper into the ship.

"We're close," Haledon replied, imagining they were halfway there. "Witch-Hazel, why haven't we seen any dragonflies or starfish?" He followed up.

"Too close to the spine." They replied, pointing in the direction that Mek-Tek had fallen prior. "Down that way, you'll see more nodes for Cosmofauna."

"Oh, okay," Haledon replied, disappointed that he couldn’t see the crafts closer. He felt his mind wandering, thinking of how the sizeable Gravodonatas could fit beneath the massive scales.

Haledon and Witch-Hazel walked the rest of the trip quietly, their silence only occasionally interrupted by the coughs of Mek-Tek, as he exhaled into his bubble. Reaching the edge of one scale, Haledon stopped as a memory triggered in his mind. He suddenly felt that he had been walking long enough and was where he needed to be.

"Witch-Hazel, I think this may be the spot," Haledon said and looked around. "I feel like we've walked far enough."

"You sure? There's still a bit to the end of the Megacolides."

"Yeah, this place feels right."

"Good enough for me," Witch-Hazel said with a smile, placing a hand on the scale above their head.

A thick burl quickly formed, and as Witch-Hazel withdrew their arm, a dense vine cord had become attached to their hand. Reaching over, they grafted it to their waist and began slowly walking down the curvature of the ship.

"I'll start down," Witch-Hazel ordered as they marched off. "You tether on and follow."

Haledon immediately walked over and gripped the cord. He looked to Mek-Tek, who tightened the roots that bound them together.

"After you," Mek-Tek motioned with a free hand as he gripped Haledon's helmet with the other.

"All right." Haledon exhaled, tightening his grip on the roots before beginning his walk.