Chapter 2 – Rise

A/N: Hey everyone, glad to be back. Sorry this took a while, but college has been a pain. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Wendy groaned. Her chest and limbs ached. For a moment, she thought she was in death's embrace, but then she felt a familiar pair of leafy hands poking her cheek.

"Flower friend?"

Shame.

She cracked an eye open to see the bumbling root leaning over her head, a starry sky right behind him.

"Flower friend! You're awake!" he cheered, looking very relieved.

Feeling like her head was filled with molasses, she blinked the grogginess away and realized she was laying on her bedroll. Her face scrunched up at the sickeningly sweet smell that immediately invaded her nose. "Gross,"

Wormwood laughed as he applied more honey to her injured arm. "No, silly! Sweet sticky stuff is good for hurty!" he already put some on her cheeks and leg where she was also scratched up. She barely resisted reminding him sternly of their agreement of keeping distance, far too winded for that.

Wendy tried to stand up only for her limps to give a painful throb. That hound did a number on her and she was certain she wouldn't be able to go around for some time.

Wormwood ate the remaining honey off his hands and beamed at her. "Flower friend is so brave!"

"Bravery is the mask of fools," she grunted. Not only did she lose her axe and the trap, which was the reason for going to those fields to begin with, but the other survivors might have gotten their hands on them by now. Today had been such a waste. Her free hand reached to her pocket for Abigail's flower only to find it missing. Her eyes widened in alarm. "Where is the flower?!"

He looked taken aback by her urgency before taking it out. "Here," he set the flower in her hand and her fingers curled up around it instinctively. She closed her eyes at the familiar comfort, yet her heart twanged at the thought of today's events. Everything is easier when you're around, Abby…

"Hey, um, flower friend?"

She sighed and glanced at him. "What?"

Wormwood tilted his head curiously at her. "I like plant friends too, but why tiny flower so special to you?"

She tensed a little despite expecting the question. Looking up at the dark sky, she answered. "It belonged to my sister, Abigail,"

Wormwood nearly jumped in excitement at the new name. "There's another friend?! Where?" he said, looking ready to dart off with a torch into the darkness to fetch them if he had to.

"She's dead,"

His excitement plummeted and head leaf drooped at the news. "Dead?…that's…so sad,"

"She's not gone. She is merely asleep," she insisted sharply, holding the flower out.

He clearly didn't understand her, but then she couldn't get him to when her sister had been gone for days, having been harmed while protecting her from some bats. Wendy had been all alone to fend for herself that night.

She stared at the edge of the forest, still as a scarecrow.

"I could hear voices at edges of this world, constantly whispering, beckoning. I picked up many dark secrets from them," she explained, her gaze fixated on the darkness ahead and the ocean beyond it. "There is a way for the dead to be resurrected in this world. I have yet to witness it though," she said, painfully reminded of staring down at a pulsing pink mass on the ground with a burning in her heart and her sister's whispers of comfort.

"However, Abigail hadn't met her end here, but I still wish to find a way to bend the rules and allow her back to life. I just…don't know how yet,"

Despite death claiming her sister, there was still a chance for them to be reunited here, together and alive. All her previous efforts had been futile though and Abigail was still out of her reach.

"That's…well…look!" he hurried over to the fire pit and brought back a morsel on the stick. "Cooked digger meat. For you!" he held out the mole meat to her.

"I'm not hungry,"

"But flower friend needs food!"

"Just leave me alone…I want to sleep," she rolled over with a light, pained grunt, staring at the plain tree bark glumly.

"Okay…" he mumbled and she heard him shuffle back to tend to the fire. She brought the delicate flower closer to her face and hoped sleep would take her away again.

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Wormwood tossed more twigs into the fire, watching the embers drift around. At the corner of his eye, he could see the human shifting around on the bedroll. He wanted to trust his friend, he really did, but a lot of what she was saying didn't sound quite right. The skeletons he came across didn't come back to life, no matter how much he wished they did. It all felt like a child's imagination, a really sad one's.

Her story did feel a bit familiar though. It wasn't the darkness or the ocean that she made him think of but the moon hanging high above instead. He gazed up and placed a hand over his green core. He could sense life shifting all around them in the clearing, from the trees to the very grass and flowers. The glowing shape in the sky was no different. Something up there was alive and brimming with power, something that had been watching him since he first woke up. He didn't know what it was or what it wanted, but he could feel it staring back constantly. It never spoke back though.

He turned his attention to the human again, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. When she shivered from a cool breeze, he tiptoed over with the grass blanket he slept on and laid it over her.

"Night, night, flower friend," he said gently and left her side.

When the first slivers of morning peered over the ocean, their fire was nothing but ashes and embers. Wormwood rose up from the green grass and yawned, stretching stiffly. Wendy had looked a bit surprised by the blanket she got while asleep but said nothing of it.

Since he was staying over in the girl's camp, Wormwood offered the idea of bringing some supplies that could be of help from his.

"Sure," she shrugged. The fact that she couldn't walk around seemed to dampen her mood further.

"Okay, I will go now," he said, forcing a smile before heading out. He had gotten used to her bossing him around and muttering gloomy things he couldn't understand all the time. This change worried him deeply. He thought she would be better by tomorrow, but that didn't happen.

His camp was luckily not far. It was inside a cave in the pine forest where he kept his belongings. As he rummaged around, the little human stayed on his mind. Maybe a nice gift would help her feel better? Presents from his plant friends always made him happy after all, but he doubted food would be the thing to cheer her up the same way it was for him.

The problem was that he had nothing else nice to give her. He looked around the cave where buckets of rot and manure were lined up. There was no way she would appreciate any of that. He wasn't even sure what she would actually like. She didn't show much interest…in anything really except that tiny flower.

Gathering as many supplies as he could in his backpack, he hurried back since he didn't want to leave Wendy alone for too long in the state she was in.

"Hey,"

Wormwood turned to a nearby bush that spoke and hurried over to it. "Hello, what is it, bush friend? Wait, why you sound gruffer than normal?"

"I'm not a bush," Wormwood shrieked when the "bush" stood up to reveal a human in a beefalo suit beneath it. He had a single tooth poking out of his bottom lip.

"A shaggy man," Wormwood said in awe.

"Hey, kid. I see you got a lot of stuff in there. Would you be willing to trade some of that for somethin' better?" he said, pulling out a huge sack from nearby shrubs.

Something better? Wormwood blinked at the offer and his eyes lit up. "Really?"

The man nodded and opened his sack to show off his collection. "Yup, I sneak around the land and scavenge any trinkets and jun- I mean valuables I find!" his hand disappeared inside the sack. "Like this fine thin' right here. It shows you where to go if you ever get lost," he said, holding up a dented compass.

Beyond enthralled now, Wormwood quickly whipped out a gold nugget. "Is this good?"

Wormwood was soon walking back with his bag twice its usual size. He didn't know what half of these did, but he was sure one of them would please his friend. The human in the beefalo fur said so!

In his absence, he found her somehow having got a hold of some dried grass and seemed to be working on what he assumed to be a rabbit trap, but it looked like a tangled mess than anything, not that she seemed to mind. "Flower friend, I'm back!" he waved breathlessly, slowly coming up in front of her.

"Did you get what you were looking for?"

"Even better!" he dropped the backpack and poured its contents on the ground; shells, statues of little people, toys, and much else.

Wendy stared. "What…is this?"

"Shaggy human gave me for my things,"

"You traded the supplies for these?"

Nodding, he picked up the compass and held it out to her. "See? Helpful, spinny thing!"

Wendy massaged her temples. "I hope the beast comes early this winter and saves us the trouble,"

Her eyes then found something among the old trinkets. She picked it up and examined it with surprise. "A book? I didn't think there could be any around here,"

Sure they were good fuel for fire, but he didn't expect her to be so interested in that out of everything he brought.

The cover was brown with golden accents and she scanned it curiously. "Tales from the Shroud. It's a novel," she said and confusion colored her face. "1967. That's…interesting,"

"Huh?"

"It's a story, root,"

"Really?!" Wormwood gasped in delight. "Can you tell? Please!"

Wendy frowned thoughtfully as she eyed the book and actually seemed to be considering it. "Well, it has been ages since I've read anything-"

"Yes!" he dropped down on his belly in front of her. Sighing, Wendy opened the book and flipped through the pages. What started as a few pages went on for an hour as they remained there under the orange birtchnut tree with leaves fluttering around and her soft voice reading through each line. He tried listening attentively even with his spinning from all the funny words and names of things he never saw in his life like "train" and "cinema", but seeing her eyes narrow with intrigue and overall looking a bit less miserable made it all worth it to Wormwood.

Feeling satisfied with the distraction she had, he excused himself to go take care of his garden.

"I just realized I'm a little out of practice. I used to read a lot back home," she said after a while, closing the book and adding almost hesitantly. "I…liked surprising the adults with the things I knew about,"

For a moment, she almost sounded like a child for the first time.

"Have you noticed something odd? The book you gave me is from the year 1967, but where I'm from it was 1914,"

Wormwood crossed his arms, his mind working out the math. He gasped when it struck him. "Wait, flower friend that old?!"

Something akin to amusement briefly flickered in her eyes. "Not exactly. Time has no meaning or hold over this place. It tends to bring all sorts of people," she said and reached for the water skin left beside her only to realize it was empty. He hurried over.

"No worry! I will fill again!"

"There is a lake not far in the south," she pointed to a path through the trees and bushes.

"Right!" Wormwood took the skin and followed her instructions only to stop halfway there when he noticed something; a spider nest, tall and lumpy. It was too close to where the camp was and he knew spiders tended to wander far from their homes. Wendy was stuck there and can't move around easily. If he left her alone with this thing around….

Hurrying back after getting the water, he grabbed the spear next to the fire pit and examined it warily.

"What are you doing?"

He nearly landed into the empty fire pit at the question. "I'm…going on hunt!" he said, taking on a confident post with his spear buried in the grass.

Wendy raised a brow. "You never struck me as a fighter,"

She couldn't be any more right. In fact, he avoided fighting at all costs, but if it was for the sake of keeping his friend safe then so be it!

"I will make flower friend proud!" Heading back to the nest once more, he approached the webbed ground carefully with his spear, wincing when the silky lump twitched with life.

He might as well try to reason first. "Hello, crawly ones? Could you go somewhere else, please? This is our home and my poor friend needs rest," he tried hopefully and waited, but no reply came. Pouting, he realized a little force was needed after all and put on his most menacing face.

All it took of him was a few steps into their webbed ground for the spiders to come out, hissing and clicking their fangs. Wormwood smacked the first that came at him away and buried the end of his spear into the head of another with a grimace.

The smell of spilled blood caused a dozen more spiders, dark and golden, to pour out of the silky cocoon in terrifying numbers. Panicking, Wormwood backed away when it became clear there was no way he could take on all of these on his own. They pounced one after the other with him barely being able to knock them back. A spider warrior slammed into him and buried its fangs in his shoulder. He cried out and smacked it away only for more to come. No, no, no!

White and red wisps suddenly flared around them as a shapeless, misty figure rose among the monster army. One by one they collapsed as it seemed to suck the very life out of all of them.

"Come here,"

His head whirled around amongst the chaos to see Wendy standing with a hand against a tree for support and the other holding the flower. A blue line seemed to tether the tiny object with the pale being. Terrified out of his mind, he scrambled over to her and watched from afar as the being flew to the remaining ones by the nest and consumed them along with their nest in a shower of searing, red light.

"W-what is that?!"

"It's my sister, Abigail," Wendy shrugged as if it should be no surprise. "I told you she haunts me,"

There was nothing for him to say to that. Soon, all that was left of the nest was a pile of silk and monster corpses.

"Well done, Abigail," Wendy said.

The ghost finally turned to them and Wormwood cried out when she launched herself at him, expecting to meet the same fate as those monsters only to feel no pain at all. The pale being was hovering over him with wide, curious eyes as if she was unsure of what to make of him. A tiny spectral flower adorned her head.

"Please, no," he whimpered, shielding himself.

"It's okay. He's…he's with me," Wendy said awkwardly.

The ghost tilted her head at him before whispering something he couldn't understand, but he did recognize the voice he heard; dainty and faint, sounding like it was coming from underwater. He hesitantly tried touching the ethereal string connected to her only to withdraw his hand when an icy feeling bit into his leafy hand, similar to how when he held the flower. Wendy seemed to catch that and her eyes narrowed in thought.

"Um, so, can she be friend now?" he asked, pointing at the ghost.

Wendy gave a defeated sigh while Abigail twirled around them.

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A/N: Thanks for reading. To clear up any confusion, I'm using the reworked Wendy instead of the classic one so she still carries the physical flower when Abigail is around.