《Methodical Mind》


 The Awakening

    She woke to the feeling of something tiny and wet landing on the small of her back. Grimacing she turned over in what would prove to be a feeble attempt at escaping whatever was trying to disrupt her sleep. Anotheroneof themlanded on herleftthigh, quickly followed by one on herright cheekbone slowly tracing it¡äs curvature.


    Shivering at the uncomfortable sensationbrought on by the small beads of watershe opened her only to immediatelyclose them again as light began it¡¯s assault on her sensitiveeyes, instinctively using one arm to rub at them and the other to support herself as she began to attempt sitting up. She froze halfway at the feeling of something tickling the palm of her hand. Rapidly blinking away the sleep from her eyes she curiously looked down at the hand that was splayed out on the... grass?


    Fascinated she stared for several minutes at the contrasting colours of her her light brown skin and the dark purple grass, no longer taking any notice of the increasingly frequent raindrops that were beginning to chill her body. She knew that something was very wrong with what what she was seeing but she quite put her finger on what, precisely, was wrong. So how was she so certain that something was?Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    She continued contemplatingthis conundrum until it suddenly it struck her. Grass is green. The sentence continued echoing in her mind even as she became certain that grass could also be yellow and brown and many colours in between the three. Paying no notice to her body now shivering in an effort to maintain heat she slowly became certain that grass was notsupposed to bepurple. The grass wasmost certainlythe thing that was wrong, satisfied with her conclusion she nodded, removing her hand from the the grass and sat up fully. Not paying attention tothe signals of relief her body sent her after having endured a strenuous position for far longer than it was comfortable with. So it was that she sat, exposed, wet and cold in a grassy meadow, watching the rain pouring down around her that she came to the most significant conclusion she ever would in her life.It wasn¡ät just the grass.


    Everything was wrong.

 Beneath the Branches

    She was brought of her daze by an increasingly loud clacking noise. Somehow she managed to turn her attention away her very distracting surroundings to focus on the noise. Slowly her mind became clearer. The noise came from the way her teeth were here hitting each other. Why were they doing that? This seemed like it was something she should be able to grasp, but she wasn¡¯t. It was as though something was disconnected in her head, and this along with the way her surroundings seemed so¡­ wrong was causing a growing sense of alarm.


    Disturbed she fully turned her thoughts towards what was the cause of the noise, her teeth. But something about that seemed wrong, because well, her teeth were only making thenoise because her jaw was moving. Why was her jaw moving by the way? Lightly patting her jaw as the rain bore down on her she frowned, it wasn¡¯t only her jaw that was moving at it¡¯s own behest. Her arm were moving in a way that made themvery difficult to maneuver. In fact now that she thought about ither entire body was¡­ shivering? Yes, that sounded right. Shivering was what her body was doing and it was doing that because it was cold. Too cold. Something snapped into place.


    She needed to move, and she needed to do it now or she was going to reach the early stages of hypothermia and hypothermia was something that she had to avoid. She needed shelter from the rain, that she was certain of. There was a knowing in her now that hadn¡¯t been there before. She knew she needed shelter from the rain and she knew what shelter was.


    Turning back to her surroundings she made her decision. A large old tree with purple leaves and fat roots with large grooves in between them that she could easily fit into. Though reaching it was going to be harder than she had thought. She had lost sensation in her hands and feet now,and as she made her first shaky attempt to stand she slipped. The ground surroundingher was slopingdownwards with her at the center,and as time went on the earth had become over saturatedwith the rain.Leaving her sitting in a particularly muddy puddle.Her second and third attempts met the same fate, with her falling over as soon as she tried supporting the majority of her weight on her legs. The conditions put together with an increasing incapability to make her body do what she wished made itnext toimpossible.


    Eventually she went for the second best alternative and began a slowcrawl towards the tree. It wasn¡¯t very far but when she finally but her hand on the gnarled bark of a root her she was exhausted. The exercise had begun returning the blood flow to her extremities which were now experiencing a very odd prickling sensation. Shewasutterly covered in mud from having fallen down severalmoretimes as her trembling arms lost the ability to support her.From the occasional twinges of pain from her palms and kneesshe suspected that beneath her covering of mud were many smallcuts from the grassshe had grabbed onto in order to avoid sliding back into the slight hollow she had awakened in.


    So there she sat, in the groove between two fat roots and very grateful ofthe sizable branches and purple leaves above her that kept her safe from the majorityof therain. For a moment she closed her eyes and just breathed, listening to the dull roar of rain striking leaves . When she opened her eyes again she had come to a conclusion. She now had something she hadn¡¯t had when she woke and it was helping her begin to piece together what was going on. There was an increasingawareness of the factthat she knew things, many things. With that also came the knowledge that there was supposed to be memories connected to that knowledge. She had memories now but they began from the moment she woke,and she was supposed to have had ones from before because-


    he opened her eyes and stared down at her hands. She was supposed to have memories from before, because she was an adult human, and her knowledge told her thatgrownhumans didn¡ät just come into existence, something existed before that. There was also the way her knowledge was telling her that in order to know things you had to learn them and you were supposed to be able to recall doing so. But whenever she tried to remember things the way she remembered crawling through the mud there was a disconnect. Nothing happened and thiswas beginningto alarm her as she tried and failed again and again.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    She didn¡¯t notice how her breathing grew more and more shallow and her pulse began to elevate, but she did notice the growing cold sensation in her chest and the way her scalp began prickling in a very similar way as her hands and feet had. Scared by the growing sense of dangerand the way her body was reacting she turned to her scattered knowledge, hoping for direction on what to domake it go away just likewiththe cold. Something was different this time though as her mind wasgrowingsluggish and she kept getting distracted by the way she seemed to be unable to get enough air. Eventually her mindsupplied her with the required actions for this situation. As she placed two fingertips against her jugular and covered an ear with the otherhandshe thought of how utterly ridiculous this was. She began counting the beats of her heart and focused on breathing slowly.What purpose did fear without reason serve?


    She didn¡¯t know what she had lost with her memories but she knew there wasn¡¯t anything she could do about it right now was there? So why was she so worked up aboutit? And honestly, she thought as she watched the purple forest before her, she had far worsethings to fear.


    Eventually the panic that had gripped her subsided andshe began tofeel very tired andshe laid herself down on her side. She just needed to close her eyes for a few seconds, and that was fine wasn¡¯t it?


    Eventually darkness began to fall and with it came a chill. Unbeknownst to her the old tree shewasslumbering beneathwas about to experienceone ofthe coldest nightsit ever would. Had she been awake she would have undoubtedly had another panic attack as the temperature began reaching unbearable levels, but she wasn¡¯t awake. The rain had stopped long ago but the mud covering her was still wet and grew colder along with everything else, her breath turned a milky white and still she didn¡¯t wake. She would have been frozen solid at dawn, and that would have been the end of her story.


    But it wasn¡¯t, because just as her story was about to end someone, or rather something passed throughthe verymeadowthat was supposed to be her end.


    He was tall, far taller than most humans could ever hope to be. He halted his journey and scented the air, searchingforwhatever had caught disturbed his forest. As he turned his gaze towards the old tree a grin split his face, displaying sharp teeth that more closely resembled fangs than anything else. Walking towards her the moonlight caught on golden symbols that seemed to cover his upper body. Finally he was able to truly view the younghuman that rested under one of his trees. It had been a very long time since he had last come across one of her kind. But, he thought as he watched the shaking little thing, it wasn¡¯t going to live for much longer.


    Now he found himself with achoice, he could either let nature take it¡¯s course, or he could, as he was ever so fond of doing, intervene. He usually favored the ever beautiful but cruel laws of nature above all...The knowledgethough,of how much chaosshe and those who followedherwould cause. He smirkedat the thought, humanity had always been the bringers of change after all. And if the first human in millennia belonged to him well, the outrage this would cause would most certainly make things more interesting. He made his decision, and the woman on the forest floor squirmed a bit as the image of a golden tree began etching itself into her back. When dawn broke the little human would have no knowledge this encounter. Nor would she be aware of how badly frostbite had ravaged her body. As the being watchedlife return to once dead flesh and colour return to the humans skinhe shook his head, humans always so careless.But wasn¡ät that what made them so much fun? Satisfied with his work he turned away from the oblivious human. Whistling he continued his journeythrough the forest of Yenar, the moonlight catching on the golden tree covering his back as he walked away.

 Through the Forest

    The chattering of a forest critter brought her out of her sleep. She didn¡¯t move for quite some time, keeping her eyes closed and allowing herself to bask in thewarm warm sunlight caressing her bareskin. Eventually realitybegan to intrudeand with a deep sigh she opened her eyes and sat up.


    The world that greeted her was still the one that had so confused her the day before, still just as distressingly purple. She knew that she needed to figureout what she was going to do now that she no longer had any imperativesto guide her actions. She contemplated this while taking inventory of her body¡¯s current state. The mud layer that she managed to acquire yesterday was now dry with a great deal of cracking running throughout it, and she realized, it had also turned her hair into a mess. Large sections of her hair had fused with the mud that covered her chest, while the rest was stuck in mud caked clumps that pulled on her scalp in an increasingly uncomfortable way.


    Paying attention to the mess brought on an itching sensation, frowning she began to break offthe dried earthwith her hands, squinting as her actions tore up a small cloud of dust. She was almost mudfree when she reached her hair and discovered that this part of her wasn¡¯t going to be freed quite as easily. Shemanaged to break up the majority of the large clumps amidstacoughing fit and tearing eyes but found herself defeated when it came to getting the finer earth out of her hair. Searching her mind for a solution to this new dilemma she found the answer. Water, water could get the mud out her hair andnow that she thought about it furtherwater was something she wanted for other reasons as well.She could now identifyan uncomfortable sensation as being thirsty, and water would solve that problem as well. Pleased with with hernew goalshe stood up taking several steps, determined to find water. Then shecame to a halt,becausehow exactly was she supposed tofind water?


    Herscatteredknowledge eventually gave her a satisfactoryanswer after having studied her surroundings for several minutes. She couldn¡¯t find any water within her sight, but farawayin the distance she could see a large mountainrange with snow tipped peaks. While the snow itself was made of water she was struck with the knowledge that even if she was somehow able to climb a mountain she would probably collapse and die of thirst before she even reached the foot of a mountain if she had read the distance correctly. Especially if she took into account her difficulties the day before.


    But that didn¡¯t mean the mountains weren¡¯t useful to her, the snowmelt¡äs runoff would flow downhill into small streams and as the streams met they would become larger rivers that would continue colliding and expanding until they eventually ran out into a body of water. Putting this into practice she knew it was highly likely that many riversand small streamsflowed through theforest on their way to wherever they were going. As long as she moved in a direction parallel to themountain rangeshe was highly likely to eventually come across water. Now she only needed to to ascertain that she was going to be able to move in as straight a line as possible. The best way she had at her disposal was establishing the cardinal directions using the sun.


    The sun was not an option. It only took a few seconds of staring up into the sky while having what seemed to be her entire being tremor as a sensation of dread came over her to decide differently. Insteaddecidingto navigate using the mountains as a fixed point. The information in her mindutterly incapable of providingher withan answer of how to deal with two suns and whatever else was in the sky. Most of all some part of her refusing to even contemplate how to possibly go about it.In fact she was refusing to spend any more time thinking about the sky as it just caused discomfort. Mind made up she turned her attention back to the mountains, she now had to make the decision to go either left or right, on a whim she decided to go right, because well, it sounded right,and for the first time in her short memory she left the meadow.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    She had walked for a whilenow in the very much still purple forest and was beginning to come to some very distressing conclusions. It all boiled down to the fact that her body was off, not entirely wrong the same way the purpleness of everythingaround herwas but still at least partially wrong. This had begun making itself clear with the way she continuously stumbledher way through the wilderness. In the beginning she kept misjudging the length of her limbs and continuously stepped on twigs and rocks along with managing to trip overany exposedroots in the vicinity. In the end she had been forced to acknowledge the fact that her body was slightly taller than her mind was used to. Soon she had subconsciously begun compensating for this as she got more and more accustomed to it. But she found that she couldn¡¯t compensate for the way that her feet were far to soft for the rugged terrain. She had discovered this when her aching feet had demanded that she stop to investigate the pain. Beneath all the dirt the skin covering the underside of her feet had been smooth, there were no difference in the skinon her feet that made contact with groundand the skin of her palms. As a result of this walking for any significantamount oftime hurt, something that wasn¡¯t helped by her penchant for stepping on sharp objects. Unable to do anything tochange her situation she had felt forced to keepon walking, which brought her to her new issue. Her bodywas capable of dealing with less strain than she had expected, far less than her knowledge had expected of it,and she was forced to take the first of many breaks when her legs began to tremble.


    This slow advancement continued as the daylight began to disappear. During her journey her original objective of getting the dried mud out of her hair had been overtaken completely by the increasing need to quench her thirst. Her mouth was now dry and she had a growing headache from what her tired mind managed to identify as dehydration. As the time between her breaks grew shorter and the light dimmer she had begun losing hope about finding any water before nightfall, for without daylight she had no way of knowing which direction she was heading in and would be forced to stop.


    Just as she was preparing herself togiveup for the day she heard the sound of moving water. Without even knowing what her newway of moving wascalledshe began running, uncaring of what her aching and and bloody feet stepped on. She didn¡¯t cometo a stop until reachingthe riversidewhere she sank to her knees. Heart beating rapidly in her chest and breathing heavily she found herself with the overwhelming urge to laugh as cold river water rushed by her. Managingto remember her reason for being there sheleaned down to have her fill of the water.It tasted oddly metallic butshecouldn¡¯t find it in herself to care as it dousedher thirst. Eventually she was too full to drink any moreand on a whiminsteadbegan wading out into the knee high water,careful not to slip on the slimy river rocks beneath her feet.


    The chill of the water soothed her aching feet and she found herself sittingdown in the midst of the rushing river water to begin scrubbing awayatthe dried mudthat had plagued her ever since she woke. Water seemed to work wonders and soon not only her skin but also her hair was completely mud free. She marveled for a while at the way that her hair looked without the mud in it but soon got up and out of the river when she found that her teeth began chattering slightly, something that her short memory told her was a very bad thing indeed.


    Back on the riverbank she watched as the two suns slowly set, one after the other. She was struck by the thought that she had no idea what she was going to happen in her future, everything seemed so uncertain and fleeting in her mind. She soon abandoned these thoughts though as a yawn overtook her. She was tired and such worries could wait until another day. After spying a particularly soft looking patch of purple grass beneath a tree she bedded down.


    The woman slept away the night, still unaware of the golden tree etched into her back. She didn¡¯t know of the way it had continuously affected her journey during the day. Several times it changed her path so she wouldn¡¯t encounter the denizens of the forest and once even particularly insidious plant that lured amongst the undergrowth. Somewhere else in the purple forest a being with antlers grinned up at the night sky.

 Along the River

    She woke to the sound of river water rushing by. Her first movements were difficult with her aching muscles but eventually she found herself sitting up with her back against the trunk of the tree she had spent the night beneath. She felt quite content to remain there for a while watching the river rush by her. It had gone unnoticed yesterday but like most things she had seen since her awakening the river had a rather distinct purplish tinge, but in this case it seemed things weren¡¯t quite so straightforward. Intrigued she got up to investigate and soon reached her conclusion.


    The only reason the river looked purple was due to the plants covering the riverbed the water itself was clear, clear and right. Now that she thought about it though, looking at the waterlogged riverbank the earth itself was also the right brownish color. So why was everything else purple? No, even that thought it was wrong, casting a glance up at the sky still caused her a bit of anxiety but it ascertained that there was at least one thing that wasn¡ät purple. It was a blue, something would have made it rather comforting if it weren¡ät for the other... things. Inspired by this new discovery she turned her gaze to her surroundings hoping to find something other than the earth which was more than partially right. Eventually she found herself eyeing the mountain range she had used to navigate yesterday, they were tipped with white snow, something she hadn¡¯t taken notice of yesterday but certainly should have. Looking at them now though she was growing increasingly annoyed with herself. Because among all of the white were tiny splotches of green, the color that she now realized she had been missing all along.


    Feeling unexpectedly angry she turned back towards the purple foliage surrounding her. She now knew what she had found so wrong ever since her awakening. Almost everything around her that was purple was supposed to be green, and the rest of it? Well she found that it took quite a lot of restraint to not start throwing mud at the grayish purple tree trunks.


    She didn¡¯t want to be here, in this place, where every plant around her was purple. Especially not now that she knew for certain that it wasn¡¯t supposed to be. Her eyes once again fixated on the green splotches far in the distance. There were places where everything were the colours the were meant to be. Which meant she could leave all of the purple behind, something she was very inclined to do. But where should she go? She found herself sitting on the riverbank dangling her feet in the cold water. She didn¡¯t want to leave the river, she was growing rather fond of it actually and it would be a good idea to stay near for when the thirst set in again. It was uncertain how long it would take for her to find another river so that left her with two directions, upriver and downriver. She already knew that the mountains had things that were green and white and well¡­ not purple things. Which made it a very attractive option, something her knowledge quickly put a stop to, going to the mountains meant going up and if there was something yesterdays ordeal had taught her was it was that going up was far more difficult than going down. Furthermore the mountains had snow, something her knowledge told her was very cold. She didn¡¯t yet have very long memory but what little she did have featured cold as being as something she very much wanted to avoid. The cool river water suddenly didn¡¯t feel as good against her skin so she pushed herself up onto her feet with a decision made, she was going to follow the rivers path downwards to an unknown but hopefully not purple place.


    She found that her limbs were a bit more coordinated than yesterday, she wasn¡¯t stubbing her toes on as many roots as yesterday. Though that may have more to do with the fact that there were less trees along the waterlogged riverbank. Walking in on the slightly muddy earth was also easier on her feet but required a bit more concentration to make sure she didn¡¯t slip but she found that it was most definitely worth it even if it was a bit cold. The old cuts on her feet stung a bit, though that wasn¡¯t what was worrying her right now though. She had been walking for quite some time now, interspersed with several breaks of course. During this time she had become aware of an odd gnawing sensation in the pit of her stomach and she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what to do about it or even if she could do something about it. But she was busy with with her current task of going somewhere not purple so she wound up ignoring it and eventually it went away, only to come back later in the day even worse. She figured out during her breaks that drinking a lot of water lessened the gnawing a bit, but only up to a certain point and it left her stomach feeling rather bloated so she soon stopped trying.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Eventually her mind provided her with a word for the ache, hunger. She was hungry and in order to get rid of the hunger she needed to eat. But when it came to what she was supposed to eat she came up with a blank so she kept on walking alongside the river. She knew she couldn¡¯t eat just anything, something her knowledge assured her would be a very bad idea, even if she found that the grass growing along the riverbank was beginning to look quite tempting. The one thing she was growing somewhat certain she could eat were the silver fishes that sometimes broke the river¡äs surface with their giant leaps through the air. She had been startled the first few times but now found them quite entertaining. She had attempted to step into water in the hope of grabbing one but as soon as her foot broke the water¡¯s surface it instantly darted away. Her hopes dashed gave up on catching a fish and continued her journey.


    The suns had made a bit over half their journey across the sky when she stopped by a particularly steep drop in the river for another one of her breaks. She had come across several of these shin high waterfalls today and hadn¡¯t payed particular attention to them. She was laying down on a particularly soft patch of grass drinking in the warm sunlight when she saw it for the first time.


    A fish made a large jump over the waterfall and continued it¡¯s swim towards the mountains. The idea came to her after seeing a fifth fish do the exact same thing. All fish going upriver were forced to jump up the drop, they simply had no choice if they wanted to continue towards the mountains. Wading out into the river above the place where the water dropped she tested her theory and was soon proven correct. The fish below the small waterfall didn¡¯t know she was there and had no way of escaping her while they were in the air as she found out when one particularly strong jumper almost smacked her in the face. She felt a smile break out on her face as she sat down waiting for her oblivious prey.


    Seven narrow misses later and she was no longer quite as optimistic, they were just so slippery! Even worse, she only knew the general area of where they were going to be. She was almost about give up when attempt number eight, a particularly large fish jumped straight towards her. It was a bit of a fumble but she eventually managed to trap the wildly squirming body by squashing it against her own with her arms. Ignoring the way the sharp spines along it¡äs back dug into her flesh she began stumbling her way towards the bank, her numb lower body complicated things but she managed to keep a hold on her precious cargo despite a few near misses.


    Soon she was back on her sunny patch watching the fish gasping and tumbling around on the grass. She knew she was supposed to eat it but she had no memory of eating before and was a bit uncertain about how to go about doing so. Fortunately her knowledge provided her with an answer once again. It was very clear on that it needed to be dead before she ate it and the easiest way for her to kill it right now was¡­ She eyed the fish rather guiltily now, it didn¡ät seem like a very comfortable way to die. But her mind was made up, she was going to make the hunger go away and in order for to happen the fish needed to be dead. After looking to her surroundings for the tool required she needed she found herself sitting on her knees next to a now exhausted fish with a large rock in her right hand.


    The sound a fish¡¯s head made when it was crushed by a rock she very firmly decided was disgusting though it was outdone by the way it looked afterwards. She may have used a bit more force than was necessary but she had wanted to be certain it was going to die on the first attempt, which to be fair it most certainly had. She knew that there was supposed to be several more steps after killing it and before eating it but she couldn¡¯t really figure out what those were so she wound up eating it as is. Biting off the scaly bits and tearing away the fins and guts that she was pretty sure she wasn¡¯t supposed to eat. Altogether she found that she didn¡¯t enjoy it particularly much as she kept getting tiny bones lodged in her throat which sent her into coughing fits, but at least the taste was fine even if the texture was a bit unpleasant. The one thing that made the whole thing worth it though was that she wasn¡¯t hungry anymore. But, she thought as she wrinkled her nose, she could definitely do without the smell.


    She decided to take a quick dip in the river in order to wash off the guts and liquids covering her front. Her first attempt at eating something had taken more time than expected and the day was about to turn to dusk. She wound up laying down next to another tree and entertained herself by watching the small sun chase the larger across the horizon until she fell asleep.


    The next morning she would take no notice of the way the remains of yesterday¡¯s meal had disappeared in the night. Still completely unaware of the golden tree across her back which kept her from being noticed by the many dangers that roamed the forest.

 The Discovery of Green

    Several days had passed since she had first caught a fish in the river, something which was no longer possible for her as the river had grown several times in width and depth during her journey and no longer had the steep drops she¡¯d needed. Instead she had been forced to turn her attention to the forest surrounding her as she continued her journey.


    Figuring out what she could eat had not been an easy endeavor, her knowledge was very clear that she couldn¡¯t eat something if it wasn¡¯t something she already knew was edible, which to be honest wasn¡¯t very much. Even if she discounted all the¡­ purple. What she actually managed to identify tended to be plants that distinctly lacked anything she could actually eat. She had looked longingly at several odd looking fruit trees and berry bushes she had passed when walking on the riverbank but the moment her resolve had begun breaking down her upper back grew hot and her chest cold as her breathing quickened as her scalp grew tingly as she fought the increasing urge to run. The only that made the awful feelings go away was to physically walk away from the formerly tempting food.


    And so she had continued walking along the river despite her growing hunger pains while keeping her eyes peeled for anything her knowledge would consider edible. It was on her second day without eating that her eyes caught something. An odd feeling bubbled up inside of her as she found herself frozen, looking past the many purple tinged trunks and undergrowth to where she had seen it. She broke out into a run, not caring if she once again tore up the fragile soles of her feet which she had begun taking great care with. Because they honestly did not matter in this moment as she fell to her knees, probably tearing them up as well, reaching out to touch the soft green leaves with trembling fingers. She recognized it, even if she couldn¡¯t put a name to it at the moment. It was lying unnaturally on it¡¯s side it¡¯s still partially curled leaves slightly wilted and it¡¯s brown roots exposed to the air.


    She wound up sitting by the river for what remained of the day holding the fern, for that¡¯s what it was, while carefully studying it as the red sun chased the blue one towards the horizon. What had initially given her hope now only filled her with dread after further inspection. The plant had seemed perfect with its dark green leaves and lighter stem. The issue, she had found, was the roots. Even if you discounted the fact that the vast majority of the thin strands had been exposed to the air, with not even a speck of dirt on them and no ends torn from having been dug up you couldn¡¯t look past the ones that hadn¡¯t been exposed. In her haste to get a closer look at the fern she had picked it up without noting that it wasn¡¯t entirely free of the ground. She had been horrified at the thought that she had damaged something so precious when she had felt the slight tug only to have her thought processes come to a halt at the thin, damaged and very purple roots she had just pulled out of the ground.


    She kicked at the water surrounding her aching feet. It was stupid, but she felt betrayed by the plant, it was supposed to be free of all the wrongness that seemed to have infected everything else, for that was the way she viewed it, an infection. She unclenched the hand that had been gripping strangling the poor plant and took a closer look at it. It really was only a few of the roots an they were already all torn up so what was a little more damage? It took her a little while to untangle the delicate strands without breaking any of the brown and white ones but eventually she managed. Then she began to carefully pinch off any that had a purple hue to them until she was left with a plant that was the colours it was supposed to be. Now she just had to make sure it had everything it needed to thrive, something she apparently knew how to do. Placing the fern to the side she began pulling out a nearby tuft of grass on the riverbank.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    It took her some time until she had a deep enough hole to accommodate the roots, and when she was done her hands were aching. Despite this she continued by pulling out the surrounding grass tufts until she had a circle as wide as the length of both her arms cleared of all vegetation. She didn¡¯t want anything purple anywhere near the fern. Placing the the roots of the plant in the hole she began to carefully backfill around them, ignoring the twinges of pain whenever the new grass cuts on her hands made contact with brown dirt. She patted the small mound of earth surrounding the stem before she attempted to water it, something which took her walking the few steps between the river and the plant several times with her cupped hands trying and failing to contain the majority of the water each time. Eventually she deemed herself done and went to clean her new cuts, something her knowledge assured her was very important. She didn¡¯t particularly mind this as she had grown quite fond of swimming, so that was what she did for the rest of the day, ignoring the pangs of hunger until they faded away into nausea.


    The next morning she was finding it particularly hard to continue her journey . She knew she couldn¡¯t stay where where she was but she was reluctant to leave the one green thing she had found. She spent som time just watching it trying to imagine that the purple surrounding the circle of earth was as green as the purple as the fern it contained. Why was it that everything was that everything was purple? Well that wasn¡¯t exactly true she thought as she began to mentally count off the things that weren¡¯t purple. The sky, the mountains in the distance, the rocks, her and any animals she¡¯d managed to catch a glimpse of and the earth. In reality the only things that actually were purple were the plants and even that had its exceptions with the the mountain trees and the fern. Well partially the fern, the roots she pulled out of the ground had been purple after all. The ground.. the two words resounded in her thoughts as the realization dawned upon her. With a few quick steps she was at the fern and yanking it out of with no care for any damage she was causing it. Staring at the now partially purple roots a sense of betrayal filled her and she screamed as she threw the now tainted fern in the river. Her screaming gave way into wailing as her shoulders began shaking and she fell down to her knees on the riverbank. She found she didn¡¯t like crying very much though and gulped down air in order to scream instead that seemed so much more satis-


    ¡°Whatcha makin¡¯ such a ruckus for?¡±