“The Scout” by Aelius

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog. I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

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and Today’s story is

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“The Scout” by Aelius,

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who can be found at FurAffinity under the same username,

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showing both stories and artwork in his gallery.

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He has also been published twice,

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in Inhuman Acts and

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ROAR 8 by FurPlanet.

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“The Scout”

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by Aelius “This is my element.

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I know this place as well as it knows me.”

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Deep within the still-uncharted regions of the eastern Spirit Wilds,

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patches of radiant sunlight shone through a thick canopy of leaves

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and danced across white fur

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as a figure moved through the foliage.

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She softly hummed to herself as she walked,

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enjoying the presence of raw nature surrounding her

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and instilling warm memories of her kithood.

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She was raised in the wilds,

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and the fact she now lived on a sprawling metropolitan island a thousand miles away

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never lessened her love for the sylvan environment.

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A pair of long lop ears swayed behind her

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as if they were her own hair,

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and her broad footpaws hardly left any tracks as she walked along the mossy ground.

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A rabbit doe of toned,

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short stature, Orchid brushed a hand across a fern’s leaves as she passed by.

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Her garments were minimal,

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though a distinctive dark blue-and-cyan sash had been wrapped over one shoulder and across her halter,

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displaying the flowing patterns of her clan.

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Glancing up, bright indigo eyes that inspired her name

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took in the scenery of lush green all around her.

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Ribbons of sunlight cascaded down

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to illuminate a vibrant forest floor.

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A flash of color

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from flowers or an occasional insect

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decorated the landscape,

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all while tiny glows drifted about.

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Orchid smiled, recognizing the glowing sprites.

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They’ve finally been found in this sector.

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The rabbit kneeled next to a broad tree trunk

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and removed her datapad from its holster on her bicep.

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The screen flashed on

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and she activated its scanner,

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holding it up to photograph the environment.

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“First sprite sighting in three weeks,” she said to herself.

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“I was starting to get worried.”

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The screen switched through different scanning modes as she prepared her next entry for the day’s expedition log.

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The presence of sprites

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was like a good omen,

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even to the normally unsuperstitious research councils back in New Atlantis.

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The fact the sprites were populating this region

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meant it was safe for the rest of the research teams to come in

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and survey the area.

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With that realization, Orchid sighed, knowing that another slice of paradise would no longer be her own little secret for long.

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Then again, she could hardly bear the thought of staying in one place.

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Her heart longed to explore,

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and every opportunity to scout the land was another gift to satisfy her wanderlust

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and learn more about these ever-changing Spirit Wilds.

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Scanning complete,

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she lowered the datapad and logged her coordinates,

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then glanced over to the tree trunk next to her.

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She noticed faint glows under the cracks in the bark

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and looked around to find yellow vines extending up a portion of the tree.

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Orchid turned to a nearby ground plant

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and held a broad leaf close.

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Barely visible within its cells and veins,

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she noticed the unmistakable silvery lines

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of internal circuits.

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She grinned. No wonder the university was interested in this region.

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The Fusion of nature and technology had been one of the most exciting discoveries of the era.

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Remnants of the Old World,

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a world once destroyed in a cataclysm yet still present in its ruins,

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had inspired the progress of New World civilization

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for as long as its history had been recorded.

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Scarce memories of the past survived as ancient technologies were

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rediscovered, researched,

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and refined to build the New World.

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The world Orchid knew.

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She found it ironic, however,

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that the intricacies of this sort of nature-technology Fusion

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remained a mystery

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even in the hundreds of years since its first discovery.

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Among the various city-states dotting the continent,

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New Atlantis itself

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was the first to coordinate efforts to go out into the ever-shifting wilderness

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to find more evidence of this Fusion

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in the hope of unlocking its secrets.

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New Atlantean engineers

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had spent years studying rare Old World artifacts,

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yet the evidence of Fusion still existing in the wilds

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remained far more advanced even after centuries of neglect.

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Hence the research corps,

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and scouts like Orchid herself.

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She knew the answer was hidden in these wilds,

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where there still existed evidence

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that the cataclysm that destroyed the Old World

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did not destroy all of it.

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The power flowing through the landscape was evident,

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and she was among the gifted few able to tap into it.

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The research corps,

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determined to sound legitimate,

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insisted that this type of power

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and the research involving it was to be called

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“hyperscience,” though Orchid and her fellow field researchers still called it what they believed it truly was:

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Spirit Magic. How else could they explain their ability to reach out with their own presence and feel,

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intimately, the world around them?

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As Orchid caressed the circuit-inlaid leaf,

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a tiny sprite lazily drifted past.

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Even this close up,

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it still looked like nothing more than a glowing orb,

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but its presence was real.

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Orchid carefully reached up, but it flitted away.

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Orchid stood and holstered her datapad,

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continuing on as more glowing sprites floated around her.

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Such curious little creatures,

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yet seen as so important to determine the safety of a region,

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and only gifted scouts such as she could interact with them.

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She followed the sprite

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that had flitted away and saw it settling on another leaf nearby.

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She carefully approached and kneeled.

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She then closed her eyes

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and stilled her breathing.

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Reaching out with her mind, she shifted her focus from what she felt with her fur and whiskers

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to what was within.

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With a paw on the ground,

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just barely sensing the flow of Fused circuitry beneath her, Orchid reached out with what she only knew as her very presence.

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All around her, the vibrant life of the forest

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spoke in an ancient language

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she had heard throughout her life as a scout.

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It was an endless poem

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continually recited by her predecessors from the Old World,

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left behind after the cataclysm

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and still speaking,

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hidden within the wilds of the New World she had grown up in.

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With the faintest of whispers,

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she found the little sprite in front of her

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among the presence of so many others and spoke,

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“Where do you come from, little one?”

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Sprites were believed to be just barely sentient,

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capable of interacting with simple ideas to those capable of sensing them.

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Orchid, with her attuned mind,

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could sense the stories it wished to tell.

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The rabbit opened her eyes

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and held out her other paw.

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The sprite drifted closer

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and settled in the middle of her fuzzy palm.

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As it did, Orchid smiled as she detected the slightest hint of what could best be described as a primitive form of thought

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from the little creature.

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Scattered traces of memory

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flickered into Orchid’s mind.

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She caught sight of various places across the landscape,

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most of them she had never seen in the wilds yet,

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but certainly inspired her to explore further.

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The idea of discovering new lands excited her,

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and before long it seemed that the little sprite picked up on that.

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Orchid let her own thoughts free,

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letting her presence “speak” to the sprite with her own memories of growing up in the wilds,

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exploring new paths

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and discovering wondrous environments.

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It floated up, hovering above her palm.

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Orchid giggled and slowly turned her hand about.

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In the rabbit’s presence,

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it danced across and among her fingers.

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“See?” said Orchid. “I’m not so scary now, am I?”

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She took out her datapad again and scanned the sprite,

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getting another reading for her logbook.

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The sprite flitted upward further,

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then darted away to hover near a large,

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bright red flower.

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It flew back to her,

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and then returned to the flower and circled about.

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“You want me to follow?”

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The rabbit stood,

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holstering her datapad,

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and trotted over.

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The sprite darted off again toward a grouping of ferns farther off.

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Orchid deliberately ignored the fact she was already on the edge of the approved expedition area

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and followed, eager to learn more about this region no matter the risks.

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She was a scout. This was the element she was born into!

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She grinned and picked up speed.

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The sprite continued on,

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bidding her further as the rabbit ran faster,

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going from a sprint

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to a series of bounding hops to keep her speed across the uneven terrain.

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Orchid deftly leaped over low shrubs,

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stretched vines, and dips in the ground,

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keeping up with the sprite as it went deeper into the woodlands.

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The rabbit flashed across columns of sunlight,

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which were becoming sparser as the canopy thickened above

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and the area became darker in shadow.

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Even so, Orchid continued on.

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Through her presence,

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she still knew her place in this environment.

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She could feel the forest around her,

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every living thing giving off a presence of its own,

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and knew she belonged among them

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as one born of the forest.

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She skidded to a halt before a broad cliff,

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seeing the sprite flitting across and down to a lower bank.

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Further below, a river flowed between the cliffs.

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Orchid looked around

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but saw no fallen trees or vines to help her across.

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She then looked at the sprite waiting on the other side,

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just few levels lower.

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Glancing down, she judged the distance as best she could,

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and then nodded. She could make it.

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The rabbit backed away,

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counting her steps,

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then sprinted forward and leaped.

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Her powerful rabbit legs launched her across the gap

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and she soared through the air.

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The other side approaching in her

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sight, Orchid readied herself and,

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upon landing, curled and tumbled forward across the mossy ground with her momentum. Orchid rolled to a stop

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and staggered back to her feet.

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The dirt and moss

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had sullied her white fur, but she did not mind.

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After growing up in the forests,

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she was well used to it and barely even noticed any more.

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The sprite drifted away and she continued to follow,

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noticing more leaves and tree trunks bearing circuit-laden signs of Fusion.

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On her datapad, she tracked faint evidence of purified, crystalline silicates in the biomass present in the soil

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—fragments of circuitry left behind as plants wilted and died

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through countless seasons without being disturbed.

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Though the area was barren of more sprites,

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she still felt safe enough to continue,

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sensing no danger amidst the thick foliage.

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After minutes of quiet walking through gradually-thickening undergrowth,

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Orchid saw the sprite change direction

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to hover next to a thick tree trunk.

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As Orchid approached,

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it floated down to where the tree’s roots stretched over a sinkhole.

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The sprite floated under the roots

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and Orchid peered in to find a gradual decline.

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It was shaped like this for a reason.

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She glanced down

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and felt the presence of more circuitry beneath her footpaws.

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The rabbit ducked under the roots

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and slid in, finding the sprite hovering near a mass of vines and overgrown wood from decades,

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probably centuries’ worth of being undisturbed by civilization.

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Yet somehow, there remained tiny flickers of light from Fused circuitry still present

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even near the surface of the wood and vines. Orchid approached

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and held out her datapad, simultaneously scanning the mass

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while using its flashlight to study the surface with her own eyes.

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She had never seen

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Fused circuitry so dense before.

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She activated her datapad’s navigation app

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and saw that she had gone far beyond the edges of where scouts were cleared to search in this region.

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Not that it mattered much to her;

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the research teams were long used to her tendency to wander further than anybody else,

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though this time she pondered the possibility that she was actively being drawn somewhere,

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rather than stumbling upon new regions out of curiosity

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like so many instances before.

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She then switched to the readouts from the scanner

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and noticed that somehow,

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the circuits were not just active,

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they were broadcasting.

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The rabbit smiled in wonder

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and pulled a rod from her backstrap.

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It extended to a length just taller than her own height,

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suitable as both a walking stick and a weapon,

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should the need arise.

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At its end, a flattened metal spear-like tip shifted its three blades into a key-like shape

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that was designed specifically to interact with lost technology found in the wild,

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should a scout be lucky enough to stumble upon any.

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Touching the blades to a dense bundle of circuits embedded in the roots,

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Orchid checked her datapad as it synced with the spear.

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The readings showed an audible signal

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buried in what was otherwise static.

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She played them through the datapad’s speaker.

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A strange, droning noise emanated from it.

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It seemed fairly monotone in pitch,

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but her sensitive ears caught an occasional series of broken,

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melodic tones singing out from it.

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They chimed in at set intervals

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—the same tones every five seconds or so.

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Orchid’s whiskers twitched as she pondered what the tones meant.

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There was no telling how long this signal had been going out.

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Were they from the Old World?

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Orchid’s eyes lit up at the thought

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she might have stumbled upon a new relic for the research teams to study.

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Love of the forest aside,

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this was the sort of discovery she lived for!

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A potential new link

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that could not only grant a clearer understanding of how nature/technology Fusion worked,

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but also what might’ve caused the cataclysm that destroyed the Old World.

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It compelled her to continue on,

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regardless how far she was “supposed” to explore.

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She glanced up to the sprite,

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but it was already lazily drifting away.

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Orchid climbed out of the sinkhole

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and looked beyond the massive tree

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to the rest of the dense forest ahead,

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down a massive steep slope.

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The canopy thickened further on,

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shrouding the rest of the forest in shadow,

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but Orchid clearly saw distant flashes of faint light

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emanating from the unique circuitry present in the foliage.

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She had to see more.

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Orchid continued on with a spring in her step,

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excited at the chance to explore.

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Her mind raced with questions

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and pondered at what might be waiting further on,

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having been abandoned for countless ages.

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She headed for the slope

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and let herself skid down across the mossy ground,

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fast enough to make her lop ears flop behind her

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before she held her tech spear out behind her and jabbed down with the blunt end,

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slowing her descent

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until she reached the base.

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She kicked the dirt from her bare footpaws and continued on.

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Further on, a placid river stretched across

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to separate her from the rest of the flickering forest ahead.

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Orchid approached the riverbank and kneeled,

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dipping her tech spear’s blades into the water.

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The readings sent to her datapad

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indicated the water was safe…

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and more sterile that what a typical river would be in the middle of a forest untouched by civilization.

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Curious... Orchid retracted her spear and stowed it back on its strap,

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then slid a paw into the water.

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It felt cool, as expected,

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and was clear enough to prove the readings correct.

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She crouched and launched herself into the water.

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The rabbit smoothly glided beneath the glassy surface

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and shoved ahead,

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noticing more flickers at the bank on the other side.

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Even below her as she swam,

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glows pulsed amidst the submerged rocks.

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Orchid wondered if they might be pulsing in a sort of pattern,

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but it was none she could make out as she swam.

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She broke the surface on the other side

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and climbed out, pausing to vigorously shake the water from her fur.

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She walked on, brushing her lop ears to dry them

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as she took in the sights of the deeper forest.

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In the shade of the thick canopy,

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Fused circuitry was

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much more noticeable as it, too, pulsed

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with faint glows.

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After what felt like well over a mile,

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the darkening forest seemed to gradually shift

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in some subtle way she could not quite identify,

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even with her attuned senses.

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Distant chirps, squawks, and buzzing echoed all around,

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but she did not recognize any of them.

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Even the scents that filled her nose

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were like none she was familiar with.

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This was definitely different than the forests back home,

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yet in spite of its seemingly foreboding appearance,

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it did not appear unwelcoming.

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Glancing down as she continued walking,

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she noticed faint glows dimly lighting up under her footpaws with every step on the masses of exotic plant matter covering the ground.

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The glows lit up the circuitry lines

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just underneath the matter’s dermal cells,

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even as the plant matter decayed over time.

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She pulled out her tech spear,

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extended it to its full three-foot length,

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and strode ahead

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reaching out with her presence once more.

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She froze. Something big was near.

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Orchid’s whiskers twitched again as she sniffed the air.

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Here, she could see the glows were indeed pulsing in a pattern,

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and it seemed as if the glows were spreading outward with each flicker,

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like something was sending them out.

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She held out her datapad

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and played the signal again as she walked,

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catching the pitched, melodic tones again

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amidst the static.

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As she walked, Orchid passed what appeared to be swollen globes covered in dapples.

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She paused, intrigued,

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and kept her distance while expanding her presence once more.

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The entire area remained as it had been before,

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but there was a strange

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emptiness in and around the pods.

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One of them suddenly moved

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and opened from the bottom,

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spilling out a mass of bones covered in slime.

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Orchid recognized them

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as belonging to some sort of feral ungulate, perhaps a deer.

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She had seen plenty of carnivorous plants in her lifetime in the forests,

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but never anything big enough to consume a creature larger than a frog.

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The plant lazily shifted,

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unfurling the membranes that had made up its ingestion sack

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and reversing them to open up

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and give off the appearance

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of an enormous, oily flower.

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Orchid’s ears splayed as she took note of the strange plant’s appearance

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and unique sweet scent

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in hopes of avoiding more.

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Then she noticed strange patterns on the slime-covered bones of the plant’s victim.

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Circuitry lines. “Fused...

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wildlife?” she muttered.

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New Atlantean engineers had long since perfected bionic implants,

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but this was a level of infusion none in her society had ever been capable of.

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She couldn’t help but grin

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at the fact her advanced civilization

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was still far behind this ancient society that lived countless centuries ago.

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Her sensitive ears

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caught another sound further on.

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As the broken signal continued to repeat from her datapad’s speaker,

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Orchid realized it matched the sound

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deeper within the forest.

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She trotted ahead,

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suddenly intrigued,

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and adjusted the timing on the datapad

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and let the two signals sync while she ran.

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As the sounds mixed,

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they combined into an odd warbling before blending into a melodic ringing

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that only her sensitive rabbit ears could detect.

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Orchid immediately recognized a primitive form of tone code.

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Her eyes widened

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as the tones continued to play at intervals

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and she pieced together what she had been taught about the codes.

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It was a distress call.

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She slowed her pace

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and her smile faded

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at the realization that she may now have a clue

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to why some of the older previous expeditions disappeared so long ago before the sprites arrived.

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She then suddenly realized just how far she had gone beyond the edge of the expedition area. She kneeled

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and put her paws to the ground.

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Closing her eyes,

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she stretched out with her presence to feel beyond her own senses.

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Her whiskers twitched again.

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The forest only answered back with indifference.

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It was far beyond recognition,

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as if from an entirely different planet.

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Eerie, yet intriguing.

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Isolated and lonely,

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yet content. Twisted and foreign,

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yet familiar. A constant state of euphoria

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and frightful unease.

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A paradox given presence.

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Orchid was utterly fascinated

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in spite of her own caution.

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Orchid swallowed

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and stowed her datapad,

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wondering what went on here so long ago.

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The signal had been playing since the original expeditions disappeared.

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Surely whatever threatened them would be gone by now....

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Right? She heard a sound behind her and whipped about with her spear.

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Nothing seemed to move in her vision,

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but through her presence,

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she knew something was definitely there.

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It was everywhere.

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She carefully turned and continued onward,

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following a series of glows

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and tiny flashes

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along more Fused vines snaking around the forest floor and partway up some of the tree trunks.

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All the while, the original signal continued to play its haunting

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melodic tones throughout the vines and tree trunks.

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Orchid carefully followed the sound as her eyes adjusted to the forest’s darkness.

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The flickers around her were all she could see now,

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as if she were walking through a field of tiny stars.

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Or the inside of a massive machine.

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A flash up ahead drew her near.

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She noticed something sticking out from a nearby tree trunk.

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Her sensitive ears assured her

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this was where the signal was coming from.

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Spear out, she cautiously approached

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but caught that familiar sweet scent just a split second too late.

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A vine snapped closed around her ankle

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and yanked her. Orchid yelped

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and hit the ground hard, being pulled toward a huge open capsule-like flower.

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She slid across more vines that snapped

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as she brushed against them

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and one clasped around her wrist.

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It immediately pulled her back,

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halting the other and stretching her between two of the carnivorous plants.

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Orchid struggled to move

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and let her spear hit the ground, where it triggered a third trap vine

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that snapped around the spearhead

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and yanked it. Orchid held it firm with her one free paw,

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wincing in pain as the two other plants pulled her in a tug-of-war.

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Gasping for breath,

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the rabbit tried to work her fingers around the spear shaft

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to hit one of its switches

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as the vines pulled tighter.

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She felt bones popping.

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Her thumb reached a switch

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and ignited the spear’s plasma arc on its blades,

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slicing the vine and freeing it. Orchid whipped her spear around and slashed the vine grabbing her arm,

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sending her sliding back with the last vine at her ankle.

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She let out a pained yell

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and stabbed down on the vine to separate it.

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The remnant whipped back

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and slapped against the flower.

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Panting, Orchid gnawed off the vines around her wrist and staggered back up,

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using the spear for support.

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Orchid rubbed her leg

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and glanced about her,

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noticing more trap vines strewn about the ground and a number of capsule flowers along the tree trunks

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ready to pull in the next unsuspecting creature to wander by.

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Some of the capsules

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were already swollen from prior prey,

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glowing dimly from within.

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She could barely make out shadows inside them.

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Orchid ignited her spear’s plasma charge again

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and sliced every trap vine in her path

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as she limped on.

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Seeing just how dark the forest was around her,

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she began to realize just what she had gotten herself into.

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This was nothing like the Spirit Wilds back home.

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She had been raised in nature itself,

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yet this whole forest proved she still has so much more to learn.

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This place was as untamed as nature at its purest.

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It had grown beyond whatever Fusion did to it

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and became an entity itself.

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Even with the remnants of Fused tech still present,

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it was proof that coexistence is possible

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while at the same time heralding their unique dangers

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in this fragile balance.

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Out here, no one was unwelcome,

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yet Orchid reminded herself

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of the respect these elements deserved in order to maintain harmony.

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“I am a scout...” she muttered,

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turning back the way she came.

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“This is my element.

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I will survive this.”

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She approached the tree trunk she had been moving toward earlier

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and found an old-era communicator device embedded in it,

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which was the source of the signal.

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The tree bark had nearly enveloped it completely,

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hinting at just how long it had been here,

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but somehow it still played the distress signal,

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not just through its muffled speaker

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but also through the Fused circuits extending across the landscape.

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Orchid examined it in curiosity,

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wondering if its owner had come up with a way to connect it to the circuitry.

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A way to draw power, perhaps?

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This would no doubt allow it to broadcast its signal through the circuits

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for her to find back at the edge of the expedition area.

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Orchid blinked. She had definitely gone far enough now, and needed to get back.

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The strange, overwhelming presence she felt all around her was proof enough that being out here alone

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any longer would not be wise.

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She took a quick photo of the embedded communicator,

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then turned back.

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Her curiosity would have to wait

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until a more readily-equipped expedition team could come.

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At the very least,

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she would bring back more than enough information to help guide them,

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as any viable scout would.

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Although... She took another look around,

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then down at the faint glow lighting up from the pressure of her weight under her footpaws.

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The way the circuitry lines flowed,

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it was as if they reconnected after breaking when leaves fell and landed on the ground.

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There could be layers and layers of them right where she stood.

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Orchid whipped her spear around

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and jabbed the blades into the ground.

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Circuit lines flared to life,

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branching outward all around her.

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The lines were so dense they looked like nerves.

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The glows spread outward,

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connecting trees,

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leaves, entire shrubs, and even tiny feral beasts skittering about.

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Glancing up, she even saw glows

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lighting up a spider web,

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along with its weaver and the prey trapped in it.

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“They did it...” Orchid muttered.

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“They actually figured out how to Fuse an entire ecosystem.”

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As an awed grin appeared on her face,

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she added, “Or the ecosystem Fused itself after being abandoned for ages.”

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She held up her datapad,

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expecting gobs of data to be scrolling down its display,

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but it seemed to have frozen amidst the rush of input.

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There was too much to record.

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Suddenly, the forest around her seemed to shift again,

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though she could not quite make out in what way.

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Then she remembered she possessed a skill the previous expeditions had not.

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Her generation was the first that could

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“talk” to the world around them.

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Orchid kneeled and steadied her breathing,

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reaching out with her presence once more.

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“I’m still here, and I know what you have become,”

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she said aloud. “I want to know everything.”

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A nearby carnivorous plant,

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this one open, shuddered.

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A small cluster of sprites emerged from within and floated over to her.

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Orchid cautiously lifted a paw

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and one drifted close.

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It rested on a fingertip

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and Orchid felt a flow of scattered memories.

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They were hazy, barely even comprehensible,

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but at the same time

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all the more intriguing

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in the shapes she could make out in her mind’s eye.

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It was a record, of sorts.

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She was not sure how far back it went,

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but she knew she could at least see civilization.

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Buildings, weathered through time.

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Vehicles not unlike those used in New Atlantis,

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yet foreign in design.

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And people. They were mere shadows in the sprite’s limited memory,

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but she knew they were people.

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Whether these were another distant civilization or a remnant of the Old World before the cataclysm,

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she could not tell, but there was no doubting that these sprites were not just the curious, floating orbs of light everybody thought they were.

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As Orchid tried to get a closer look,

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it was obvious they had a purpose.

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They were record-keepers.

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Remnants of a past struggling to reawaken after eons of slumber.

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Not just random phenomena that may or may not indicate a region is safe for exploration,

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but rather, a direct product of the Old World.

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Evidence that a region has been touched by Fusion.

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Orchid pondered the idea

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that the unique ability for scouts to expand their presence and “talk” to nature,

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including the sprites within it,

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might also have been some sort of technique survived from Old World

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that allowed these records to be read in a language only they knew.

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Could the prior expeditions’ lack of this ability be what caused...

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whatever resulted in that distress call? Orchid looked around

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as the glows gradually faded around her.

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She wondered if somewhere in this dense expanse of Fused nature,

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the other expedition crews still existed

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as a memory preserved in another group of sprites drifting about.

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Or did the prior crew

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now exist as a form of data

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coursing through the landscape?

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Is that even possible?

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Orchid stood and turned back toward the way she came,

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seeing a faint brightness beyond the circuit glows.

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The way back home.

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There was so much more she wanted to know,

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but by now her own expedition crews were probably wondering why she had not checked in.

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With a glance back at the living forest behind her,

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she smiled wearily.

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“There’s so much more I want to learn,” she said,

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to no one in particular if not the forest itself.

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“I will be back... and I’ll have others just as thirsty for knowledge.

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I’ll tell them we have an entire world ready to teach us.”

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As the sprites drifted all around her,

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Orchid returned the way she came,

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excited once more for the thrill of discovery

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and the chance to share it with her friends.

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There was nothing a scout loved more.

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This was “The Scout”

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by Aelius, read for you by Khaki,

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your faithful fireside companion.

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You can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,

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or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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And if you’re a writer,

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and you have a short story that might be a good fit for the show, I’m @khakidoggy on Twitter and Telegram, and I’d

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love to hear from you.

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Thank you for listening

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to The Voice of Dog.