The Index
Chapter 5: In Which Seed Meets His Shadow



Seed could feel his body changing, the knots of his muscles become the grain or green wood. He didn’t care. All he could think as he listened to his own voice writing his faults into the clear night air, pounding him with all the things he had always worried were true, was
Please…Payton, Twin Gods, Anyone… Help me. He opened his eyes into the darkness.

A poppy fell very slowly from the heaven, light as a feather. The wind caught it and cradled it in its arm. Even in the dark night, it was blindingly red – the sweet red of a rising sun, or clouds at sunset. It was the red of a tongue, or lips ready to kiss. The petals were soft and thin, lit by a light from within so each thing vein glowed. Seed didn’t know how to interpret it – poppies had always been flowers of hope to him, hope and first love, new life, sweet kisses. But poppies, as he always said, were funeral flowers – the death of hope, the end of life – for funerals and ghosts. Poppies were the flowers of dreams, the younger brother of death. As it fell, teetering this way and that, he couldn’t decide what it meant that it was.

As it reached the ground, it exploded into a bomb of poppy stalks, into a circle of red light that banished all the shadows and made the forest lit by day once more. Standing there were two great deer, one delicate and red, one masculine and gold, but somehow also exactly one deer larger than either.

“You have called,” said The Red. “We have answered,” said The Gold.

“What is this?” “what?” “what?” The trees chorused in surprise. “He has already surrendered!” “Surrendered!” “Surrendered!”

“We will decide that.” The two gods said in unison – the image of them blurred for a moment, and the Red became the Gold and the Gold became the Red, masculine and feminine trading roles, or places, or just masks.

“Thank you…” Seed whispered. His voice was hoarse, and thin as a butterfly’s wavering wing.

“If you must… We propose a challenge.” “We propose!” “A Challenge!”

The Gods smirked at one another, as if sharing a thought. “Do you accept their challenge, little one?” They looked down at Seed. He shook his head.

“I don’t care! I just want to be safe, it’s all I want, I’ll do whatever it takes, just…please....” He trailed off, the panic leaving him breathless. He gulped for air and nodded.

“Very well,” said the Gold. “The testing grounds, between all worlds…” The Red one said, smiling faintly. The world faded to black.

It was the void again, black and cool and endless. Seed stood there, no longer quite deer and not yet quite tree, the scales of his fur replaced with bright green leaves, his mask replaced with bark, his eyes wide and uncertain.

There were no longer names in the void, but trees. A forest of trees, set against a field of black. All of them were the sort of tree he had once been – small and thin, pushing out against ground occupied by the roots of flowers, with clouds of purple blooms on the branches.

“Well, then, little ‘deer’…You are somewhere out here… Can you find yourself in all these trees? Or not?” “Can you?” “Can you?” “You can not," the Trees sneered.

“Somewhere in this void is you – all you have to do is recognize it, and you will return to the forest. But make the wrong choice…and you will truly lose to them.” The Twin Gods explained.

“…Ok.” It had been a long time, and he had never seen himself as a tree. The answer was very simple – and maybe the Seed of the day before last would have found it immediately… But now he wandered out among the trees, lost in the forest between forests.

The Twin Gods glanced at each other.

“This may take longer than expected…” The Gold one said.

“Perhaps you can speed things along.” The Red one looked out at you, across the worlds, and met you in the eyes. “Will you help your brother deer?”

(( You heard, right? We have officially caught up to the story: as of right now, the story up to this point is happening to the In-Forest version of Seed. It's canon now. So he's going away until this is over...

and he needs your help getting back. Your responses (in-character, for preference) will reach him, and if there are enough, guide him back to the forest safely. If there aren't, he'll probably still make it back...but his emotional and physical health cannot be garunteed.

So, how do you respond and call him back? Well, to find himself, he first has to know himself -- and with the mind-beating he's been given, he's not exactly sure anymore. So here's the question, to be answered in a comment here: Who is Seed (the character, not me, the player) to your deer? It can be a positive answer, a negative one, short and descriptive, long and emotional, whatever, though the best ones may make it into the ending. And if your deer isn't up to answering that, but you still want to help, just have them mark off a tree to make his search easier.

Saturday, I'll post the end of the story, as decided by all of you. We'll see what becomes of him then...
Edit: Well, as of this typing, it's near enough to Saturday that the final chapter is written. Thank you all very much -- hope you like the ending your deer, your posts, and Seed have earned!))