The first thing Ren noticed when he woke up was the silence.
It wasn't that it was too quiet, or stifling. It still felt the same. But this time, it had a quality that made goosebumps appear on his arms.
As if someone had visited while they were asleep, and they hadn't even known.
He sat up slowly, looking around him. Lilith's eyes blinked open as she was woken up by his movement.
And that was when he noticed the vines.
His vines had somehow grown past just the hammocks. It had spread all over the walls where it anchored the hammocks over the water, and had reached every corner of the courtyard.
The green strands that had formed their resting spots now looked like wild growths that were trying to consume everything.
The vines had even bloomed with pale white, ghostly flowers that hadn't been there before.
"What the hell…" Elias muttered, sitting up. He ran a hand through his hair, eyes flicking across the vines.
