"I don't think we should go inside." Dev thought about putting his hand on Bit's shoulder to prevent her from getting closer to the red jungle, but... No. That would be too familiar.
"Hm?" She turned to look at him. "Why's that? Do you have a [Skill] that's providing you information?"
"No. I." Dev lowered his hand. "I don't know a lot about jungles, but I do know enough. We don't want to try cutting through it without experience." Or machetes, and they didn't have machetes. Also, something told Dev that the red plants wouldn't just sit by and let themselves be cut up.
"We have to go!" The tiny person- no, the Fraerling on Bit's shoulder excitedly waved her hands in the air. "It's right there! We should've gone inside last night instead of camping here!"
"Uh, huh." Bit turned her head towards Pinky. "And exactly what kind of 'Foolish' thought is that? Hmmm? A good one or a bad one?"
Pinky had the graciousness to look ashamed. "I mean... it's both?" She ducked her head for a moment before looking up and hopping up and down. "But this whole exposition was that sort of foolishness! And look where it's gotten me so far!"
Dev crossed his arms. "Weren't you playing dead in the talons of an invisible bird when Bit saved you?"
"Ah, heh heh heh..." Pinky rubbed the back of her head while she chuckled. "I mean, yeah, if you want to get all technical about it. But! Things turned out well for me, right?"
"Uh-hun." Dev stared at her. Why was he traveling with the two of them again?
Sure, there had been perks. Safety. Companionship. An endless supply of milk...
But, he was fine on his own, and Bit and Pinky had recently been doing... okay. The little girl was surprisingly competent when it came to... making Frankenstein-esqe horrors.
She still claimed to be a superhero from a different Earth.
Pinky thought she was in denial about what [Classes] she'd picked up.
Dev wasn't going to weigh in on it one way or another. That was a can of worms that could be left closed. It would just be too... awkward to take a side.
The fact remained that Bit was pretty competent, despite not knowing the first thing about wilderness survival. She could barely tie a knot! A basic knot. Hers were needlessly complex, and weren't useful for camping at all.
Pinky... would've died a dozen times already. She had the survival instincts of a depressed lemming. (Not that lemmings were suicidal. That documentary footage had been faked by Disney. Still, it had formed a cultural zeitgeist, which had stuck with Dev for a long time. 'White Wilderness'. An ironic title for the film considering where they currently were.)
Dev scanned the horizon.
On one side, there was a nearly flat, white plain. There were plants and animals there, but they were almost all invisible during the day.
On the other, there was a red wall of plants. It was a very stark line. A nearly perfect wall of foliage. Something like that shouldn't appear in nature, but this was a magical world and nature had done what it did best.
It had adapted.
"Look." Dev held his hands up with his palms facing his female traveling companions. "Bushwhacking through an untamed jungle is dangerous enough on Earth. Here? Without tools, or a map, or guides? We don't even know WHAT the danger is that will kill us. A snake we can't see? A flower that drips acid? A vampiric tree that controls the blood in your veins and sucks it out from afar? You respect nature, or you die."
Pinky rolled her eyes.
Bit shrugged. "We'll be fine. Besides," She tilted her head and bumped Pinky with it. "This is important to Pinky."
Dev resisted the urge to palm his face. "Can we at least walk along the edge for a while and observe it? We might be able to find a river. That would make moving along much, much, MUCH easier!"
"What? You want to scout a new and unexplored Death Zone before entering it?" Pinky shook her head. "Who's being the [Fool] now, huh?"
Dev and Bit stared at the shamelessly brazen Fraerling.
"Anyways," Dev shook his head. "We can't just go walking in there. I can't even see where one plant ends and another starts! It's all one big mass of red."
"I know, isn't it great?" They continued to ignore Pinky.
"Relax, Dev." Bit smiled at him. "That's what we have minions for!" She patted her domesticated Bloodrage Badger on its shoulder. She had to stand on her tiptoes to do it. "Badgy here will make a path for us. Won't you Badgy?"
'Badgy' growled, and then started lumbering forward. He turned invisible as he walked. Like nearly every native of the White Zone, the bear-sized badger could disappear into thin air. Bit had said that it was a light-bending effect instead of a chameleonic pigment shifting.
Dev had wanted to argue that such a thing was impossible, but... magic. Finding the impossible was one of the great things about this world.
As far as he was concerned the badger was invincible. Then again, the red jungle looked like an immovable object...
The only indication that Badgy had reached the jungle was red plant at the edge being torn away. Then another, and another. Dev could almost see the badger from the outline its attacks made... In fact...
He sat down and pulled out his sketch pad. This was too nice of an image to pass up.
First, he drew the plants with an invisible force cutting them in half. It wasn't a big drawing, and very rough, but he wanted to get the basic part down while it was still fresh in his memory.
Badgy roared.
A wooden spear had shot up from the ground. No, not a spear, a root. It pierced the badger's chest, and white ichor dripped down its length - seemingly appearing out of thin air!
[Quick Sketch]!
Dev's hand blurred over the page as he captured the moment in time. Then, Badgy retaliated. Its jaws closed around the root - making an indentation that showed what was going on, then it viciously tore it away.
Unlike other plants, the root spewed blood as it was severed.
It wasn't a 'normal' amount of blood either. Instead, it looked like it was pressurized and splashed the underside of Badgy's mouth.
It made the Bloodrage Badger angrier, and also more visible. Dev could more easily see it. It looked like part of a hollow shell was moving on its own!
[Quick Sketch]!
He had to draw it! Especially where the red and white ichors met on Badgy's chest. Dev had always sketched with a pencil, so his pictures were black and white. It was visually lacking the vibrancy, but the gray and white sketch still looked stunning - if he did say so himself.
He wasn't that high of level in [Drawer], but the few [Skills] he had really helped his artistic abilities.
The Badger, in turn, switched its attention to the root. The red liquid quit flowing. In fact, it looked like it retracted...
Badgy, tore the rest of the root in half, and then started digging more of it up. Other roots jabbed up from the ground to spear it, but the giant beast didn't pay them any more attention than what was needed to casually shatter them.
He was making a path, but only incidentally. His rampage was carving a tunnel through the underbrush, but his true goal was the branch. This caused him to go in a straight line, but not the straight line Dev had expected. Instead, Badgy was moving at a non-perpendicular angle as he pursued his latest nemesis.
Part of that annoyed Dev. It wasn't like he had a particular goal inside of the Red Jungle, but an angled path would be slower.
Eh, he shrugged his shoulders. A path was a path, and exploration was exploration. This was more violent than he'd expected, but short of learning how to brachiate, there wasn't a better way to move around the jungle.
Dev continued to sketch, but he felt that the first few pictures were the best. The most iconic. That was fine, good even, he only had a single use of [Quick Sketch] left for the day. The tunnel wasn't changing much, he could draw it at a more leisurely pace.
Some of the red liquid rose into the air, and started moving towards them.
Dev glanced at Pinky and Bit. They didn't seem surprised or worried. Pinky was too focused on the carnage to notice, but Bit was looking at the remains. That probably meant it was fine.
Sure enough, one of her helper monkeys turned visible as it carried the liquid - no, the... jelly? in its hands.
It dropped it to the ground and the little girl bent over and began to cut into it with a scalpel that extended out of her wrist and into her hand.
That would never stop being freaky.
"Interesting." Bit hummed as she sliced the jelly open.
"What is?" Dev asked as he continued to draw the jungle-tunnel.
"This slime is alive." She wiped her scalpel and it withdrew back into her wrist. "Or, y'know, it WAS alive. This part is dead, and the main body is going to join it soon enough." She shook her head. "Badgy still has anger issues, y'know? Still, I guess his ability to track is useful."
"Yeah. If he could only do it without flying into a berserker rage." Dev added dryly.
Did he really need to stick around?
Pinky was a danger to herself and others, but mainly herself. Bit, on the other hand, had made herself some powerful protectors. She'd probably be fine on her own.
A Scout is loyal.
No, he couldn't just abandon them. Besides, for all her Levels - or superpowers, depending on who you believed - Bit was still a little girl. He couldn't just leave her lost and alone in the wilderness.
A Scout is a friend to animals and loves nature.
Dev really should get them to be less... destructive with their exploring.
That would require confrontation, and Dev hated confrontation. Besides, the jungle would undoubtedly grow back quickly. It wasn't the explorers with their machetes that had depleted the Amazon, that was due to the actions of corporations and their targeted slash and burn campaigns.
He let out a sigh.
It still would be better to do things more subtly, but he'd also probably not have gone into the jungle if he was by himself. There would be a lot to see and a lot to learn from it.
"Y'know, this gelatinous stuff is pretty interesting." Riley mused to herself. "I'm not entirely sure if it's part of that plant, a parasite, or a symbiote." It certainly seemed to be giving those roots the mobility they needed to try and stab Badgy.
"We should go in there after him." Pinky jumped up and down on her shoulder.
"Really?" Riley looked at her incredulously. "You see what's going on there, right? There are definitely more roots underground that are just waiting to attack."
"Pft." Pinky made a dismissive gesture. "They don't look so tough. I'm sure I could avoid them with ease."
"Uh-huh."
"Besides, we're so close!"
"I've been meaning to ask about that, Pinky." Riley sat down. She was confident that the White Lands didn't have any Red Roots - at least not right now. Badgy's incursion might spark a counter-attack. "What exactly are you looking for?"
"Well..."
Riley arched an eyebrow. "Well... what?"
"Well..." Pinky hummed. "I'll know it when I see it!"
Riley put her forehead in her hand. "You'll know it when you see it."
"Yeah!" Pinky hopped up and down. "The color red is very important to my class, on like, y'know, a deep level or something. And the Dyed Lands have a Red area, so obviously there must be something in there that can help me get rid... uh... I mean, can help me level!"
"Sure, Pinky. Sure." Riley sighed, then smiled. This was fine. She was encountering lots of interesting things. Her Shard was sending her all sorts of ideas, so it had to be excited. Surgery had been behaving itself ever since Kevin had talked to it, but the rate of inspiration had slowed down some after that.
Now?
Now it was back to the level that she'd had when she'd first become Bonesaw.
Riley didn't know what she thought about that. Sure, on a conscious level she knew the two things weren't related. The Shards wanted data, and this world seemed full of stuff that they'd never seen before.
Possibly.
The Shards were old. Like, really, REALLY old. They'd encountered more things (and destroyed them) than Riley could fathom. Could this world really be THAT new?
Or was Surgery just excited for her to be working with new materials?
It was hard to say.
Just then, Badgy got to the... root, of the problem. Riley looked down at the white tablet she'd made. Hooking it up to the connection she had with her monkeys had been tricky. Her suit wasn't exactly designed with that in mind, but the information was there, and she had monkey brains to process it.
The former monkey, now tablet, could bend light just like the others.
Getting it to show a picture had been difficult, and the picture quality was honestly, pretty bad. It was still good enough to show Badgy roaring as it fought a red tree the size of... well, a redwood.
Huh. That was an amusing coincidence she supposed.
Badgy had looked better, but he had also looked worse. He would continue to fight, despite the red venoms that the plants were doubtlessly using. Riley understood its color-based immunity response, and had improved upon it. So the only real danger to him was the physical trauma he was enduring.
And, well, Badgy was a pretty solid Brute in his own right.
Beating up a tree shouldn't be too hard, right?
...
Half an hour later, a gore covered Badgy came trudging out of the jungle.
Riley stood up, put her fists on her hips, and glared at him. "And?"
"Mraw?"
"The tree."
"Mrawww."
Riley pointed at the tunnel he'd made through the foliage. "Go and grab the remains that you didn't smash, and drag them back here!"
"Mraw."
She narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot. "Do it."
"Mraw." Badgy turned around and re-entered the surprisingly docile mass of plants.
Riley shook her head. It was hard to build good help without access to higher levels of technology. Her Mets would never argue with her! "I guess you can make a pet by re-animating a Bloodrage Badger, but you can't take the Bloodrage Badger out of the pet."
"I think that's the smartest thing you've ever said." Pinky said from the ground where she was building a... snowman? Jellyman? Something vaguely humanoid from the red slime.
Dev was sketching it.
Riley thought about saying something, but Pinky was probably being the 'good' kind of foolish, instead of the 'bad' kind. Oh well, Badgy returned with the real prize soon enough. The creature walked backwards while tugging the stump of a large tree it had managed to rip out of the ground. It left a trail of slime behind it.
Riley ► Monkey-bot A engage override.
Monkey-bot A ► Ook.
"Malleable." She whispered to herself and activated her armor. It flowed out from under her dress and around her arms. At the same time, the Monkey-bot's limbs trembled.
Riley ► Go ahead and get close to it Monkey-bot A.
Monkey-bot A ► Ook.
Badgy had trudged to the side and laid down. She'd have to give him a once over to make sure that everything was still working. He seemed injured, but Badgy was tough. He'd heal most of the wounds he'd gotten just fine on his own. The spearing roots might've been able to pierce his hide, but they hadn't penetrated too deep. For now, she'd focus on the tree.
Or, rather, the red slime that she hypothesized was behind the un-plant-like attacks.
Monkey-bot A bent down, and Riley started manipulating her arms and examining the goo. Her eyes were good enough to do so from a distance. She'd rather be up close and personal, but this world had surprised her in the past.
"The whole jungle is a single organism." Bit announced as she stood up. The little girl wiped her hands in mid-air. It looked silly, except for the albino monkey who was duplicating the motions and trying to clean the gunk off after its... autopsy of the tree.
Dev shrugged his shoulders until... Did she just say the entire jungle was one organism?
"I think I've heard of places like that back on Earth." He flipped his sketch book closed.
"Yeah." Bit cracked her neck and hopped up and down. "I'm not really a plant-person, but I wouldn't be surprised. Well, a little since your Earth doesn't have..."
Plant-based supervillains?
That was what Dev guessed she was about to say before falling silent.
"It's, uhm, Pan-something. Pan...da?" Bit looked at him with an odd expression. "No. Uh. Oh!" He smiled as it came to him. "It's Pando! It's a bunch of trees that are all genetically identical. They're interconnected by a massive root system. It's, like, the largest organism on Earth." Dev frowned. "Maybe. I think I heard that once, but I might be remembering things wrong."
"Hmmm..." Bit hummed. "Well, that's quite interesting, but I think this jungle is different." She pointed at the tree. "The tree and the slime inside of it are both the same organism, and different. They have aspects of both a symbiote and a parasite."
"Wait." Dev frowned. "That can't be right. Isn't the difference between a parasite and a symbiote only one thing? A parasite gains at the host's expense, while a symbiote and a host have a mutually beneficial relationship." He paused and considered the implementations. "And how can something be either a parasite or a symbiote when you said they're part of the same organism?"
"Because." Bit smiled. Oh no, he was about to get a lecture. Actually, that was a good thing. He didn't want to hear about organs or nerves or anything else in regard to Bit's 'specialty', but plants? Animals? Those were a vital part of exploring. "They are two organisms that were once separate, but are now one!"
The little girl stood there, with her hands on her hips and her chest and chin jutting out. She looked proud, and pleased with herself. But, why had she stopped? Was she waiting for something?
"..."
"..."
He and Pinky just sat there waiting on her.
Bit finally rolled her eyes and mumbled something about her brother before speaking more clearly. "The plants and slime are different species. I don't have the equipment to do a genetic comparison, but I'd bet that they have different DNA, even if it is red."
Pinky raised her hand. "What's DNA?"
"Deoxyribonucleic acid." Bit replied without missing a beat. "But that's not important right now. I think that in the past, there was a power struggle in the Red Lands that the red slime ultimately won." She shrugged. "I don't know about the animals that may or may not live there, but it looks like the slime infected every plant and spread like a virus."
"So, it's a parasite?" Dev asked.
"It probably was at first, and still is in the sense that it's consuming nutrients from the plants." Bit glanced at the tree trunk. "That's still a one-sided exchange, so it's technically parasitical. But," She gestured towards the carnage the badger had wrought. "It's clearly providing the plants with an offensive component that isn't commonly found in nature."
"At least on Earth." Dev added.
"Yes, at least on Earth." Bit agreed. "There might be other examples of carnivorous plants on this world..."
"Both of you should face your reality head-on." Pinky commented from the side. "There is no such place as 'Earth'."
They ignored her.
"...The ones we've personally encountered so far haven't displayed anything like that. Animals have been active, and plants have been passive. The slime," She glanced at the... sculpture Pinky had made. "Is non-compressible. So it acts like both a blood-equivalent in that it transfers nutrients, but it can also contract specific parts, which makes it act like a gigantic muscle. Sort of like an elephant's trunk, or any tongue."
"Oh." Dev blinked. "I understand, I think. That analogy helps me." He'd found it was beneficial to let people know when they'd properly explained things to him. Otherwise, they didn't seem to be able to tell.
"Thank you!" Bit beamed at him. "It's nice to have my work be recognized and appreciated!"
She must be like him. Explaining things must let her interact with others easier. Or, he supposed, she was saying that for his benefit. It was hard to tell for sure.
"So..." Dev looked between Pinky and the Red Jungle. "Do you still want to try hacking your way in?"
"Yes!" The Fraerling shouted.
"No." Bit shook her head.
"What?" Pinky seemed upset.
Bit knelt down and spoke with a calm voice. "Look, Badgy could do it, but he'd be overwhelmed eventually. We also would have to camp there, and the roots would always be under our feet. I would need to make an... anti-red poison or virus to clear the way." Pinky gasped. "And that would defeat the point, wouldn't it?"
"Awwwww..." The tiny humanoid half-heartedly kicked the mound of red slime she'd made. It jiggled. "I guess... but I'm SO CLOSE!"
Nobody spoke.
It was awkward.
Dev needed to do something. He didn't want to talk, but remaining silent seemed worse.
"Uhm." Two other pairs of eyes focused on him, and he immediately regretted his decision. Still, it was better to say what needed to be said. A Scout is courageous. "I know that you want to go inside right now, Pinky, but this is still..." Shoot. What was the expression in English? "Not a spring?"
"Spring?" "Spring?"
Shoot. That was the wrong word. "I mean, it's not a sprint."
"Oh."
"That makes more sense."
"You don't go into a new area without watching first." Dev explained. "We know the White Lands pretty well. Well enough that we can avoid most of the more dangerous animals." Or have Bit handle them, but 'A Scout is a friend to animals and loves nature.' He wanted to explore and discover new things, and not have to fight them by intruding on their natural habitat. "So, why don't we watch the Red Lands for a while? We can move along the border and take in more of it." And get away from the 'tunnel' that was probably attracting who knew what. "If we find a river, then we can follow it inside."
Normally, one would want to stay close to a water supply. Bit's Milk Box had solved most of their hydration needs, so it hadn't been as vital. Since other animals also were drawn to water, Dev had guided them away from the river that he'd first met them at.
"A river? That sounds good." Pinky nodded.
"Yeah, I can have my monkey-bots gather materials and scout from here. There's no need to rush." Bit added.
Dev wanted to make a comment on Pinky's 180 degree reversal... but, A Scout is disciplined.
...and helps to protect public property.
Pinky couldn't stand it.
The Red Lands were RIGHT THERE!
...And she couldn't go inside. Not yet.
She knew that a lone Fraerling entering that jungle would be a [Foolish] action. No, not even that. Even her [Class] thought that wandering in by herself wasn't [Foolish], but suicidal.
But, would that be so bad?
It couldn't, right? If it was then...
No. No, she already knew the answer to that. She was the only person that still remembered Lars, because she was the only person that had known what Lars had been going through.
What she had gone through.
What she was still going through - because of her [Class].
The [Class] that was the only thing she had left of him. The [Class] she couldn't give up, but quite literally couldn't live with.
If she walked out... she'd be in the Red. It wouldn't be so bad. It was what she wanted...
No!
Pinky slapped herself. Her old skill still existed despite creating [Foolish Thoughts]. She wouldn't let it win!
Besides, she looked at where Bit was sleeping, how could she leave a hole in someone else's life? The way mom, dad, Lars and his parents had left in hers?
Right?
Right!
That was why she was here. She was risking her life. Some might call it seeking death, but it wasn't. It was more than that. It wasn't a rush of adrenaline. It wasn't the thrill she'd sought for all those years.
It... was a memory, and a Color.
Pinky pulled out a piece of Red from her pocket. Colors were important, but they could mean different things. Red was the color of blood. Of fire. Of the sunset.
It was life and death.
That might be why Red Classes were... different.
But, who said they had to be a bad thing?
Pinky would show them. She'd show them all!
...Somehow. She wasn't exactly clear on what she was doing, or how she was going to do it. She did know one thing though. Her answers lay in the Red Lands. The color she'd forced upon her [Class].
Just one more consolidation or evolution. Just one more, and she'd be better.
She knew it.
Riley dipped her hands in the clear water and brought them to her mouth before drinking deeply.
"Ah." She sighed in contentment as the cool liquid ran down her throat. "That hits the spot." Yeah. Nice and cold. She should go ahead and make that modification to the Milk Box to add a cooling option. She'd been putting it off because of the nightmare, but cold and warm milk would be really nice.
"So, the water's safe to drink?" Dev asked from the side.
"Nope." Riley shook her head. "It's full of little microbes. Nothing too dangerous, but they'd mess with your gut and give you the, uhm, diarrhea." She still felt naughty about saying some words. Not because they weren't what a 'Good Girl' would use, but... well... you know...
"We can boil it in that case."
"Uh-hm." She sent a command to her monkey-bots to start doing that, while she contemplated the river. It might've been the same one that they'd camped next to in the Chalklands. She didn't really have a map, but it was flowing in the right direction.
That was to say, from Red to White.
Dev came and stood beside her. "The river is a lot wider than I expected, but that's good." He gestured to the gap in the trees above it. "Jungles press right up against the bank, so we'd either need a shallow, fast river that we could wade through, or a wide, slow one like this. We'll need a boat, but we'll get sunlight. That will make it easier to navigate."
"Won't we be following the river?" She asked.
"Of course, but it's still a good idea to have a rough estimation of where we are. It will be especially important if we need to deviate from the river to find... whatever it is that Pinky is looking for." He shook his head.
"I dunno." Pinky was looking at the water. "Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That we need a boat?" Dev asked.
"Oh." Pinky paused. "That's actually a lot better than what I was thinking about. A boat would be great!" She looked up at him. "Can you make one?"
Dev grimaced. "I've helped build a canoe, but we had tools and materials like glue and nails to help us." He shook his head. "Even with the jungle right there, we couldn't get the wood we needed."
"Of course we can!" Pinky exclaimed. "We have a Bloodrage Badger! It can knock over some trees!"
"But it can't cut or shape them." Dev frowned. "Without a saw and a sander, we couldn't make anything water-tight. And we'd need to let them dry out, which takes a long time. I suppose we could construct a raft, but that's going to be hard to go up-stream with."
Riley shook her head and laughed. "You two are thinking about it too much! Or not enough." She pointed downstream. "Where there's water, there's animals that live in it. All I need to do is catch some, and then we can have them pull the raft!"
"Uh..." Dev was speechless.
"Oh! That IS a good plan, Bit!"
Riley started to pull out some of her poisons from her bag. She'd need a paralytic. One that would mix well with water, but also wouldn't spread too far. She didn't want to affect more animals that her targets. It would need to either dissipate quickly, or require a high dosage to work. That way the river would dilute it enough so that it wouldn't matter.
Her monkeys were already grabbing stones from the river for the fire pit. She'd have them scout and see what sort of aquatic animals were closest. If it was something like a crocodile or fish, they'd still need to build a raft. If it was something bigger, they might be able to ride on its back!
Bios:
Riley Grace Davis - Bonesaw. She IS a parahuman from Earth Bet - no matter what Pinky or Dev might think.
Pinky - OC. Not her real name. A Fraerling who's looking for something. Not sure what exactly to do now that she's close to finding it.
Dev - An Earther. A competent [Explorer] who likes to draw. Prefers solitude, but feels obligated to help.