So, now we’re down two updates. I’ll catch up. Sorry.

This is a serial, first part HERE

Chapter 27: Grown Over Memory

“You really must stop crumpling like this Doctor. My heart can’t take it”

It was all well and good her being worried (not that she had a heart), but Doctor Bones was more concerned about the risks of his episodes for his own sake rather than the frazzled nerves of a lonely plant. More importantly Dr. Bones checked that his bones were all in place and his being wasn’t tainted by fire concepts. Had he possessed breath, he’d have sighed in relief.

-How long ago did that appear?- Dr. Bones said, pointing at the fiery feather down between him and Miss Fern.

“It just suddenly appeared before you woke! I was afraid it would set me on fire and I’d burn alive.”

-Oh, you needn’t have feared that-

“Oh, well I would have been happy had I known that befor…”

-Instead it would likely have burned your memory and mind both, leaving you a vegetable-

Miss Fern fell down the stairs in shock, due to the nature of the stairs, she kept rolling until Dr. Bones managed to catch her.

“Oh my. Thank you. That was horri…”

-Yes, you almost rolled right into the memory shard- he affirmed.

A low whimper escaped Miss Fern’s lips.

-Well, seeing as how we’ve both avoided a terrible fate, I’ll see about getting the water working again!-

Before Miss Fern could even react to this, Doctor Bones had grabbed the feather down and dropped in into the water. Well, perhaps flung is more fitting. The feather did not float gently down, but rather flew as if it had been a dart thrown. It vanished as it hit the water, and a golden glow spread out from the point of contact.

It was remembering a distant time when it still worked, when it would cleanse and transport those that came within. Doctor Bones then grabbed Miss Fern and jumped off the bridge. There was a moment of disorientation where Miss Fern could not tell if they were rising or falling and then they too hit the water. Not before Miss Fern cried out in surprise and dismay though.

The water flowed through them, purging them of possible contaminants. It was less like the feeling of a bath and more like someone taking a big watery blade to you and scraping you clean. Following that there was a moment of twisting, a pop and they who were once one place, appeared in another.

It was white of course. White is after all among the best for making clear stains and other kinds of filth. The floor was like smooth carapace, and there were small gutters all over it that ran into larger gutters at the sides. Silvery grates over holes appeared now and then in these gutters. The walls all had containers built into them. Once they were cupboards and glassy tanks, but now, all were empty or broken. Medical plants that been left behind and escaped destruction had survived to form strange hedges along the walls. Indeed apart from the walls, the ceiling was actually a vibrant medical jungle, and even the lights fixtures had become living beings feeding on the plant energies.

They had become plants themselves.

There was more a sense of abandonment than ruin in the air, and more of ruin than destruction. The room they were in was a round chamber with a door that had been slowly displaced by plant-life. Clearly just a space for receiving people teleported from the place they had come from.

-I cannot recall this place- Doctor Bones muttered.

“I imagine it looked quite different before, but I feel quite at home here, It’d be even better if the light was red” Miss Fern predictably commented.

Doctor Bones took a few clippings of the plants, rubbing them through his hands and the like.

-Come, we’ll move further on.-

With a bit of a shove, the door creaked open to a hall that was overgrown. Doctor Bones glanced left and right and nodded.

-This is more regular, what I’d expect in an abandoned lab. It’ll be somewhat safe here-

“I can hear the chatter of insects and small animals. I can sense life. This is so different to where I was”

-Well, seeing as how one being hasn’t eaten all the others that’s to be expected-

Doctor Bones said this while examining the walls next to the room they came from. Miss Fern didn’t want to think about how much had been the curse stirred in her, and how much had been her, so she actually went silent, and instead took in the sight of the life growing around them.

-Aha, found it! I figured there’s be a map here-

Brushing away some leafy growths, Doctor Bones revealed a metal plate. The plate was however blank.

“Ah, what an informative map doctor! With this, we’ll find our way around for sure!”

-Enough cheek out of you. The enchantment’s faded from it, shouldn’t be too hard to revive it though.-

Doctor Bones pulled out what looked suspiciously like a fork with a fat crystal for a handle. He jabbed it into the map and a crackling sound came on. Then the metal twisted, revealing a picture engraved on it. Tapping the fork like a musical instrument, Doctor Bones slowly cycled through each picture and memorized it.

“Invigoratork is a handy tool, isn’t it doctor?” Miss Fern said, after checking the knowledge implanted in her.

-Only really works for little things like this though, no good for things like that ball of water-

“So, where are we headed Doctor?”

-The most obvious place, the library-