Cody continued to chase him back down the hall, and Jasper felt like he was in a helpless game of laser tag. The first floor of this building didn’t have many classrooms, but it had this weird block-loop pattern to it that you could run through and around endlessly. They were technically in the side building for archaeology, one of the least-attended majors in the college. Few students walked through here.

Today was no different. Jasper only passed two students walking around. He looped around the long way to prolong their game of tag, turning multiple corners to make the path longer and sometimes repetitive. He saw sunlight beaming through the entrance doors and thought maybe he could run outside and loop the building to rejoin the others, but suddenly he felt the ground shaking.

Jasper stopped.

Clink-clink-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-clink, chhhhhh.

Chains? Color drained from Jasper’s face. It was the faintest sound, but his heart rate skyrocketed. That sound was… no, he had to be imagining it. It wouldn’t make sense. It wouldn’t be here.

“Um, Jasper?”

Jasper glanced back, losing strength in his knees. Cody was standing right behind him, looking concerned.

“Did you feel an earthquake just now?” Jasper asked.

“Slight tremor.” Cody said. “Might be a bigger one later, but it happens.”

Jasper let out some air. “It’s… not something I’m used to.”

“Is that all that’s bothering you?” Cody asked.

Jasper looked at him. Yes, several things were wrong. His life, his family being chased, the variant he constantly pushed to the back of his mind, always thinking he’ll have to leave everything behind again, Cody’s red eyes, but also Cody’s smile, and generally being alive while holding in so many truths as secrets to not bother anyone.

“No.” Jasper said. “Let’s go back, I’m sure Aren’s ready for their cake.” They started walking.

A slight uneasiness trickled upward from the ground and into Jasper. He couldn’t move on from the metal clinks he thought he heard. The probability of… Jasper shook his head. It wouldn’t be that variant. He hated that he always worried about his parents because of that thing. He hated that every time he heard those chains, soon it would come time to move. He didn’t want to leave this place, these people…

Cody nearly ran into him, and he realized he’d stopped in the middle of the hallway.

“Sorry.” He went to take another step, but Cody’s hand was grabbing his shoulder.

“Jasper, you’re shaking.”

Jasper looked down at his hands. Oh, he was. Would you look at that? Oh, wait, he was looking. He couldn’t manage after all.

His head harbored a dreading, familiar dull ache as his heart continued speeding up. He couldn’t be here. He wanted to be anywhere but around people. The air was being sucked out of the building while colliding walls onto him all at once, as every bit of visual information entering his eyes felt… separate, somehow.

Jasper’s knees finally collapsed inward, and all he could feel were arms catching him… holding him… still somehow separate from his body. Tiny vibrations scattered through an un-processable sight turning black, disappearing, then bright, then…

Earthy.

All rationality had left Jasper’s brain, as if he no longer had nor needed a brain to begin with. The air was grand and in more places than before, as if matter itself were just a form of air. He was… loose. He was floating through the ground itself, completely detached from reality. He had passed out and was likely dreaming, but these thoughts didn’t seem all that important.

Jasper was yanked somewhere, far but not that far. It was as if he dove in and emerged from the ground as pale greens and browns streaked all around him like columns of moss. A damp, earthy cavern converging to the heart of…

“Do not fear me, Jasper.” A tender, infinite voice came from across him, as a branched-out figure shifted. “I am the Mother, and you are in my mycelium.”

A woman, but more plant… more fungi… more beyond Jasper’s known comprehension of the world he lived in. It was incredibly sudden, but Jasper felt the need to stay calm, else he’d awaken early.

She appeared assembled with everything around her. She was rooted to the ground, the ceiling, the walls roaming the Earth. She was everywhere, and she was right here. Beautiful, artistic, a body appearing to be striped vertically in styles of wavy seaweed, cherry brown stalks, mossy colored patterns and glowing spore fixtures.

Her eyes were opals, housing every color in the spectrum and perhaps a few more Jasper wasn’t accustomed to seeing…

How did he get here? How was he able to move? He had no idea how to speak.

“I will send you back once I give you something.” The Mother said, holding out an arm of bramble.

Jasper approached her, unsure of what to do next while trusting her all the same. But why? Who was she?

And it appeared she could read his mind.

“I am the beginning. The oldest, and the mother of all flora and fungi. The sprites of the world forest are all descendants of mine. My mycelium connects everything.”

Jasper went to reach for her flowered arm, feeling… no, he wasn’t physically here? He knew that, sort of, but how was he connecting with her?

“What I am giving you is information.” Mother said. “You must keep track of your dreamland, Jasper. It is the only way I can reach you.”

But… what for?

“There is a book you must find, that will save both of us.”

Jasper was receiving more than just words from her… an image… a cover? Poison Ivy decorated its green bindings, and on it read ‘Mythical Vanities and Variants, H.E. Grotto et al’ alongside a picture of a gnarly flower baring sharp teeth and ancient garments.

This book was near him. Unreachable to Mother, but… he could get it! Part of his university, locked away and protected… but by who?

“I do not know.” Mother answered him. “But outside the building, you will find one of my children. Ask them for help.”

Jasper filtered through the information again and again, not wanting to forget it when he woke up. This dream was far too different, far too realistic… but why did he get to come here? Had anyone else failed this mission, perhaps meeting their end? Even if Jasper wanted to help this ‘Mother,’ should he?

He definitely should. She was… ancient? Important? The very thing that kept the nature of this planet… together. But where was Jasper in all of this?

“I feel you being pulled back. All will be as it should. Aresnevash.” Peace. Jasper hadn’t learned that word in the ancient language yet, but he felt the very core of it, spoken from the Mother’s essence.

As his dream faded he skittered between realms and distances, and all he held onto was that single word. It resonated like a bell sounding waves through every piece of him.

Aresnevash.

Jasper’s eyes opened gently, and the white light buzzing all around didn’t bother him. A soft, sinking feeling eased through his body from the back upward, and—

A piece of cake was being shoved in his face?