Elliot and his friends, Lexi, Ryder, and Kendra, arrived at the tree line of the forest. Elliot gazed into the tree line, noting that he couldn't see too far into it. He desperately didn't want to go in there; not only had he given his friends a complete lie about why they were there, but he was just now recalling the moments just before he had been transported to this realm. He remembered being chased, how he had ripped his clothes on branches and while falling off the cliff, and his stress when waking up in this world.
Right as Elliot was about to back off and attempt to give another lie, using it to avoid the forest until he had gained further confidence, Ryder stepped into the tree line.
"What are you clowns waiting for?" He enthusiastically questioned, "Let's go, I want to see what Elliot has for us!"
God dammit. Elliot lampooned again
Kendra followed Ryder, then Lexi grabbed Elliot's hand and pulled him into the tree line. They waited for Elliot to lead them to the surprise they had for him, not knowing it was completely fake. Elliot started walking in a random direction. He figured that if he had to be in the forest because of a lie, he might as well build upon it to learn more about the world.
Elliot led the group for about two and a half hours until they sat down for a break. It was starting to get darker outside, which correlated with it already being dark in the forest. Elliot lay down to catch his breath and rest his legs when Lexi suddenly stood up and started staring at something in awe.
"Is this what you wanted to show us, Elliot?" Lexi asked, not moving her gaze from what she was seeing.
Elliot sat up to turn and see where Lexi and the other two were looking. Elliot immediately jumped up with Lexi in the same awe that she had. There was a glowing tree in a clearing that they were about 200 feet from. Elliot found himself walking over to the tree in pure curiosity.
"Uh huh...," Elliot started, deciding to use this as what he wanted to show them, "Sorry for the long walk." He turned back to the crew who hadn't yet followed him.
Elliot then realized why they hadn't followed him to the tree. This place was dangerous, creatures made the forest their home, and there were also groups of people called the
"Prophet Houses", which inhabited the forest. With this knowledge, which had been given to him by his sister when he had to tell her what happened to her Elliot, he made a quick decision. Elliot immediately jumped back to a position near the end of the clearing to look around. He didn't see anything, and the glowing tree combined with the not-yet fully dark sky.
"I think it's safe, guys!" He yelled to his friends, who were still about 150 feet out from the clearing.
They hesitantly started walking towards Elliot as Elliot went back to the tree excitedly. As they gathered around the tree, they all took in its beauty. Despite it looking bright white from afar, up close, it was incredibly colorful, with each leaf having a different color.
"Hey," Kendra started with a hesitant curiosity, "Do you think we could make tea from this?"
Everyone looked at Kendra. It was a shocking, almost insulting, thought. Why would she want to ruin such a gorgeous tree? But then Elliot thought about it, since it was, what he thought was, fall in this realm, there was a chance there could be usable leaves that wouldn't harm the tree. And it didn't seem like Elliot was the only one who had made this observation.
"I mean... if there are dry leaves, and we don't damage the tree... I don't see why not." Lexi responded.
"Great!" Kendra said with enthusiasm, then she looked at Ryder with pleading eyes, the most emotion Elliot had seen from her yet.
"Fine," Ryder said. He opened up his suit jacket and pulled out a pot and a kettle.
"THE FUCK?" Elliot shouted.
"Dude, chill. It's just a stow coat." Ryder replied calmly, while Lexi stared at Elliot with a confused expression on her face.
"What in the world is a stow coat?" Elliot kept shouting
"A coat... to stow large things... It's magic..." Lexi said to Elliot.
Oh yeah, this world has magic, totally forgot about the spray I used earlier. Elliot thought to himself, fixing his expression.
He calmed himself down as his friends began to find and collect dry leaves, separating them by their vibrant colors. Lexi chose the pink leaves, Ryder chose red, and Kendra chose blue. Elliot looked at the leaves of the tree; it had almost every color that he could think of off the top of his head.
Cyan... no, grey... nah, man, I don't know. Elliot pondered. But then he looked closer to the top of the tree, and he saw white leaves. Almost angelic in how they dance at the top above the other colors of the leaves.
"Hey, Ryder," Elliot grabbed Ryder's attention, "Watch my back, I'm going up to get the leaves at the top of the tree."
"Yeah, I got you," replied Ryder as he stood up to watch and make sure Elliot didn't fall.
Elliot nodded to Ryder, then began to climb up. With all the hiking Elliot had done in his old world, it wasn't tiring at all, but it was somewhat difficult as he hadn't climbed a tree since he was a child. But he soon reached the top, grabbed a handful of leaves, and climbed back down without hurting himself or the beautiful tree.
"Alright!" Kendra exclaimed with excitement as she began to make the tea. She collected surrounding wood from the other, normal trees to make a fire. After some effort and a lot of Elliot wondering why they don't use magic, the fire was properly lit, and the tea was being made. First Lexi's, then Kendra's, then Ryder's, and finally, Elliot's. They all took their drinks, raised them in the air as a toast to Elliot's safety, much to the dismay of the Elliot who wasn't really Elliot, and tried their drinks.
"Holy shit, this is amazing!" Ryder gleefully proclaimed.
He was right, it was really good, and before long everyone had finished. Elliot turned to the tree to climb it again, as he wanted more, but there wasn't a tree there.
"Huh? Guys, the tree is gone." Elliot said, much to the confusion of his party.
"Fuck you mean 'It's gone'?" Lexi said, not yet facing Elliot to see for herself.
"No, he's right..." Kendra mumbled. As she and Ryder had both turned towards Elliot as he had noticed their situation.
"Oh! It really is gone," Lexi said, finally having turned around to look, "But a tree doesn't just get up and leave."
"This one clearly did," Elliot said, finally adding to the conversation as his initial shock had subsided.
His friends didn't seem as concerned as he did, though, even after Elliot had calmed down. It was now completely dark, but a bright moon illuminated the sky enough to even see in the heavily wooded forest.
"Should we head back?" Elliot asked
Lexi nodded and so the decision was made to go back to the town. Luckily, they remembered their way back and got to the town in nearly half the time it took them to get out there.
After they got back to town, they all parted ways. Kendra and Ryder said goodbye and went home, Lexi walked up and kissed Elliot before running home.
Stunned, Elliot started walking home. Contemplating what had happened that day and how happy he felt. As he got to the door of the family home, he stood there. He still had to deal with his family, and while his parents didn't know that he wasn't their Elliot, his sister did. He didn't want to answer any more questions or have to deal with his parents if they knew.
He opened the door and was happy to see everything was normal, even his sister, who had seemingly come to terms relatively quickly. Seeing this, he went to bed, feeling an odd, but not painful, feeling in his stomach.