Entering the next place, there stands a giant, maybe 400ft tall, tree in the middle. We decide to stay on the path this time around. The path goes to the trunk of the tree and then ends. Approaching the end, the tree shakes vigorously. Then we hear a voice, “There you two are! Took you long enough.”
I look over at Natsuki in confusion and surprise. "Who said that?" I asked, starting to freak out.
Natsuki was terrified and clueless, "Not me..."
We both look up at the tree to distinguish that it has a face and is the one speaking to us. A tree? TALKING?
“I am the Baga Tree, and my Skull Kid told me all about your arrival in MY forest,” the Baga Tree announced, nefariously.
“What do you want from us?” Natsuki inquired.
“What do YOU want from ME?” the Baga Tree intimidated.
“We would just like—” She tries to finish, but gets cut off.
“An exit out, you ask? Well, I’m not just going to give you an escape out of here; you’re going to have to earn it,” the Baga tree finishes. He summons his small army of powerful Skull Kids upon us.
“Wh—” Natsuki pulls out a long knife out of her left pant leg.
“You have a sword?!” I exclaim.
“No, it’s just a large knife, stupid,” she barked getting ready to brawl. I pull out the only so-called weapon I have— My matches.
“You weak humans have no chance of succeeding!” the Baga Tree menaces. I strike a match and sneak my way up to the tree, who was too intrigued with watching Natsuki fight the Baga’s Skull Kids. Swiftly but careful enough to not put out the fire, I touched it to the lower section of the tree. “Gah!” he yelped.
“Good idea, Yuudai!” Natsuki hollered to me as the fire grew greater. I got jealous of her outstanding fighting ability… just a little. I lit another part of the Baga Tree, which caused him to halt the spawning of his army. The smell of the burning tree bark clogged up my nose; I could hardly breathe.
“Great! This is going to be a lot easier now,” she applauded. I stood back and watched Natsuki finish her battle while the tree took his angry last minutes.
“You two took me by surprise,” the Baga tree coughed, “You are victorious.” He shrunk down into a normal sized tree and lost all his features. The trail lengthened around our enemy and revealed 2 paths. One was brighter than the sun, and the other one was darker than night. Like any ‘normal’ person would, we stepped into the brighter path.
We walked out of the trunk tunnel and into the fresh air. “We made it!” I shout with glee.
“Finally!” she joined in on the excitement. The fun only lasted for a few short minutes though. Wait… Haven’t we been here before? It seems we arrived at the beginning of the forest where we first entered. The sign was still there but this time reading, ‘NO ESCAPE’
“WE TOOK THE WRONG PATH!” I scream. I look around and see no sight of the rest of the world. Maybe we are stuck here for good.
“Calm down!” she commands as I regain my heartbeat, “I believe we should try to go through the forest again— unless you want to die here.” I take her hand surprising her, and I pull her back into the forest with me.
