The days that followed settled back into a familiar rhythm only now having Sera becoming a part of it.
From the morning rounds where Sera trailed behind him to learning more about the plants, asking questions she didn't always expect answers to, pointing out the various intent she picked up from them that he hadn't picked up from their words, going so far as to explaining some of the worlds native plants causing them to have actual conversations about the differences between worlds, both getting lost in it and forgetting their own worries for a time.
Some of his midday work was taken over by her, from turning the soil under the medical grass's direction to checking walls and even harvesting what the fig tree and yam tree offered well he tended to his hybrid patch, finding nothing new just yet but holding out hope that something new would grow like how the scream flowers had.
There evenings became a kind of ritual between them now where they sat beneath the cloud tree, eating whatever meat could be salvaged from the previous night's attack well listening to the flowers sing their sad or hopeful songs.
It didn't last as long as he had hoped though, both having felt something shift one night.
Chris was the first to notice it due to his deep connection to his plants. The strangle vines, usually content to lounge across their hut and whisper about hunger or hurting foes, happy with the extra food given from the increased nightly attacks had become restless. Their stems coiling and uncoiling constantly as they slithered across the hut in clear agitation well their needle-flowers seemed to constantly tracking something he couldn't see. How the medical grass, aka the Critic had stopped its usual running commentary mid-sentence, its blades stiffening up and alert when he got close before continuing on in a forced manner as if nothing had happened, refusing to elaborate on what had happened. The rest had similar reactions, far milder but enough for him to pick up on and notice.
On the third day after Sera showed him the core and he had felt that horrid feeling when handling it he found that the little world tree's root didn't curl around his ankle when he woke like he had grown accustomed to. Instead, he saw its bush like form trembling.
"What's wrong, you need to tell me." Chis finally said, gently brushing some of its leaves. "I ignored it till now, figuring you guys would eventually open up and tell me but I can't ignore it anymore, talk to me little guy."
And talk it did, telling him how 'it' talked during the night, how once everyone had fallen asleep that 'it' would call out to something, that it was getting worse and last night it became a whole never level of wrong as something answered.
Chris felt his stomach tighten. "You're talking about the core?" He asked softly, the small world tree telling him yes, that it blocked itself from the sad girl so she couldn't feel it but they could, how it was getting louder and louder, that they try to close off to it but that it makes its voice go around them, the air, through the ground, into there roots where it digs down to something else before spreading out. How it wants to go home.
He gently gave it one last stroke before walking out and looking towards Sera's hut with a frown. The door was still closed. Now that he had properly thought about it, she had told him that she woke up feeling exhausted each day, only waking up properly as the day went on. He wasn't sure which but thought it was just fatigue catching up with her after all she had been through.
"To what?" he finally asked noticing the little tree's root shyly wrapping around his ankle. "What's it calling to? The dungeon?"
The little world tree was quiet for a long moment. When it answered, its voice had dropped to barely a whisper. Telling him how it was calling what used to be home, that something had changed it, something bad and how it had escaped but now it wanted to go back, how it missed its home and no longer cared if it was wrong or not, if it would end up being changed or not.
Chris rested his palm against the now trembling root, frowning as he found its bark colder than it should have been.
"And you all haven't managed to block it out at all? Nothing any of you have tried has worked? Why didn't any of you tell me…" It simply told him they tried everything they could, how they didn't want to bother him and hoped to manage on here own but it had become to much so it had mentioned and spoken to him now about it.
He stayed there until the trembling slowly stopped, talking softly about anything he could to try and distract it, from the weather, to the fig tree's first ripe fruit and even about the way the bamboo had started humming off key at night to whatever the flowers sang. The little world tree didn't say anything after that, none of the plants did but he could feel them ease ever so slightly.
Sera found him at the gate that evening, having noticed his absence before finding him seemingly watching the sun bleed across the Barrens, his gaze directed at the cliff's. She thought she saw something moving in the sun yet didn't make mention of It, feeling it was what he was looking at.
"The plants are acting strange, today." She finally said as she stood next to him. No greeting. No small talk. Just a question wrapped as an observation. Chris simply nodded slowly, not even turning to look at her. "You're only feeling it now?"
"I've only begun feeling something since this morning, are you saying it's been going on longer than that?" She leaned against the gate frame, arms crossed as her brow furrowed. "The strangle vines haven't been hungry like they were when I first got here but clearly agitated well the scream flowers have been pulsing near constantly. Even the shadow berries are coiled tightly around themselves." She paused. "And your little tree hasn't stopped shaking all day either. I had thought it was me or something I had done, but giving it more thought during your absence I realized it wasn't me. Care to shed some light on the matter?"
Chris seemed to think about it for a moment before turning to her and explaining what he had learnt that morning, watching her face shift from neutral to something harder. He then explained how he spent a portion of the day walking out into the barrens to see how close he could get to the dungeon, finding bodies of various mutts and other creatures that seemed to have died before reaching them, how some parts looked like a war had been raged.
"And you think it's because of the core? Because it's here now?" she questioned steadily. "It's getting worse the longer it's here?" He let out a small sigh. "I want to believe that but you missed the point, the core may be reaching out but something's answering it. We can blame the core all we want because of how it's causing problems for the plants but it's what's responding that has me worried. We will need to make a plan on what to do with that core far sooner than later…"
They stood in silence for a short while after that, each sinking into their own thoughts. The scream flowers along the wall began to pulse slightly faster, creating a very faint vibration that Chris could feel it in his teeth, the vibration wasn't so much a sound as it was a feeling. He eventually went and began his routine, hoping the routine would settle both him well allowing him to try and put the various plants at ease.