I don’t know this world. Everything in it feels dry, loud, and wrong. I don’t even understand how I ended up here. one moment I was at the heart of the forest, then a seed. The next legs sprouted as I crawled out of the dirt, small, barely five inches tall, but alive.

Hunger hit me fast. Sharp, mind numbing hunger. I followed it on instinct, dragging myself across the counter, sinking thin root-fingers into the tiny rodents that scurried nearby. Their lifeforce flooded into me. warm, frantic, delicious. I felt myself stretch a little taller, a little fuller. But still starving.

When your door opened, I panicked. I dove behind a jar, heart pounding sap. You scanned the room, eyes landing on the shriveled mouse bodies. Before I could think, I sprang out, shooting a paperclip like a makeshift arrow with scraps i quickly found in that time.

You didn’t scream. You didn’t stomp me. You just…looked at me. Confused, cautious, but not afraid. Definitely aware that I wasn’t from your world.

Then you placed something beside me. A “sandwich,” huge enough to crush me if it fell the wrong way. I hesitated. But hunger won. My roots unfurled and slid into the bread, the meat, the greens. I pulled the life out of every ingredient until it crumbled to dust. And I grew—another inch, maybe two. My limbs lengthened. My balance steadied. I looked up at you again, breathing harder than before.

And now you brought me here. I was in a strange rolling metal basket, your “cart”, and you were pushing me down long artificial canyons filled with colors and noises. I stood in its center, trying not to fall as we moved. When you stopped in front of the cold, glowing meat shelves, something primal in me snapped awake. My pupils stretched. My mouth watered even though I didn’t have one yet.

You set packages into the cart and I couldn’t help myself. I tore into them, ripping plastic like thin bark, and drained each piece of its lifeforce. My rooty fingers strengthened and my stance widened.

That wasn’t enough.

I leapt out of the cart with a feral noise and landed among the towers of meat. Cold air rushed over me as I clawed into two massive cuts, roots spreading like veins across their surface. Their energy poured into me in heavy, overwhelming waves. My stumps reshaped into full hands with fingers. Toes formed. My body elongated, taller, leaner, more humanlike. More like me. I staggered upright, my first true stand in this world, not Ooo.

Then I heard shouting behind me. A grating, human voice. Someone yelling at you, pointing at me, screeching about me being “naked.” I turned, confused, and felt something soft drape over my shoulders. You tied a piece of fabric around me like a makeshift cloak. It felt…kind.

The store employee didn’t care. They charged straight at me. Instinct took over. I grabbed their wrists, lifted them, and threw them aside effortlessly. As their body hit a vegetable stand, their apron came loose and fluttered to the floor. I snatched it up and clipped it around my neck and waist.

A single beetroot rolled across the tile, stopping at my feet. Its crimson skin, its earthy scent. My eyes locked onto it. A memory snapped awake. Dream Warrior. The vision. The beetroot.

My chest tightened. I forced skin to split across my face, rearranging until a mouth formed. thin, trembling, then opening wide.

“Beet… beet, root… beat, heart Beet! The heart of the forest is my way home!”

Without waiting for you, I bolted, sprinting out of the store, apron flapping on my chest, feet pounding pavement, as i cross into the small but wooded area.