Chapter 15

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Citrus, that was the first thing Ryder smelled as he came to his senses, a strong yet delicate citrus scent.

As he opened his eyes the familiar grassy plains of the great hollow stretched out before him. It was this dream again, though it felt a bit different, more... vibrant, more vivid.

In his right hand was an object, a light blue fruit shaped like an odd mixture of an apple and lemon, it had an ever so slight glow to it as well.

He could tell it held some sort of strange power, but not exactly what it was.

The sound of rustling grass attracted his attention, causing him to look to the left where he saw the child picking up more of the fruit, fallen from the branches on high.

Vincent was happily carrying the fruit in a near comically large pile for his size, somehow not dropping a single one as he walked to the hollow.

He only stops for a moment upon seeing Ryder awake, smiles at him, then keeps moving into the tree with the fruit.

Curious Ryder follows him inside, seeing the inside of the hollow for the first time.

Despite the darkness inside of it the tree felt comforting, yet also felt mythic at the same time, as Ryder gazes up into the darkness above with no end in sight he finds himself questioning its existence once more.

How did it even grow this large, why did it exist? Who created it?

Why, why the hell did it feel so important?!

What was this place and why did he keep dreaming about it?!

With a slight tug on his arm Ryder looked down to see Vincent standing next to him, pointing at the fruit in his hand with a slight pleading look.

Ryder looks around, noticing the fruit the kid was carrying earlier is gone now, much to his confusion. Cautiously he holds out the fruit while asking "Is this what you want?"

Excitedly the child nods and takes it carefully, holding it as if it'd break if he dropped it.

Quickly he darts off to a darker area of the tree, and starts digging with his hands, easily startling the champion who's just watching in surprise.

"What are you doing? Don't you need that to eat?" Ryder can't hide the confusion and concern in his voice as he walks over and inspects what the child is doing.

After shaking his head no in response, Vincent carefully takes the loose dirt and gingerly covers the fruit with it, patting it down to make sure it's secure.

Happily he looks back up to Ryder and places a figure to his lips before taking his hand and guiding him back to the entrance, where they stand, just gazing into the dark of the hollow.

Ryder looks down at Vincent for a moment, wanting to say something, but stopping as the child looks excitedly into the dark... waiting for something to happen.

Soon enough Ryder does feel something, the ground seems to shake the smallest bit, only moving enough to be noticeable... then the energy begins to swell in the area.

It feels like when he entered the False Zone and met Omen for the first time, no, it was greater than that.

This was an energy spike that he couldn't calculate... it felt threatening, dangerous, destructive... and then it calmed.

The violent nature vanished without a trace, the energy now turning into a slow, rhythmic pulsing as Vincent happily pointed at something in the dark.

There was a light blue glow in the darkness, several blue spots, was it where he'd buried the fruit? It looked like stars.

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