I choose the second one.
Minor Vine Tendril.
The moment I decide, I feel it—
a ripple, deep within.
Like something buried has just woken.
⊹ Ability Acquired: Minor Vine Tendril ⊹
You may now extend a single vine no longer than 30 centimeters.
Uses Vital Sap to maintain.
Touch-based perception: Active
Growth channel unlocked.
"Let the world feel you back."
The warmth inside me flares.
It's subtle, like the first ember of a fire in the cold. But it spreads—downward, outward, inward.
Hmm—ember?
Fire?
Fire is… warmth.
Fire is… friend?
I don't know why the thought feels right, but it does.
Like an old memory flickering in the fog—unreachable, and yet true.
My roots shudder with anticipation.
Then—
I grow.
It's not fast.
Not like falling.
Not like spinning through wind.
This is something earned.
Something mine.
A delicate thread unfurls from the base of my tiny body—flexing, stretching, reaching.
I feel it moving, even though I have no eyes to see it.
It's thin. Weak. But… alive.
And mine.
I touch this "soil" again—but this time, not with my root self.
This is something new.
The vine brushes something hard—a pebble.
Then something soft—a thread of moss.
The sensations rush in all at once.
The world has texture.
Cool. Damp. Rough. Smooth. Gritty.
There are a thousand kinds of touch.
A thousand whispers I never knew I was missing.
I curl the vine around a leaf vein. Its pulse is faint, but it's there.
It doesn't fear me.
It just is.
And for the first time since I awoke in that drifting terror…
So am I.
⊹ Root-Soul Interface Update ⊹
Vital Sap Regenerating…
+0.2 Photosynthesis per hour
Vine Anchor: Stable
Touch Range: Expanded
⊹ Soil Affinity Assessment Complete ⊹
Soil Type: Moss-rich Loam
Affinity Rating: Mildly Compatible
Growth Efficiency Bonus: +2% Photosynthesis in current zone
A noise stirs somewhere in the dark—a distant scrape, like claws on bark.
My new vine twitches.
I retreat just slightly—
not in fear,
but in awareness.
Something is out there.
Many things.
But for the first time…
I do not feel completely helpless.
I reach out a second time.
And this time, it is not fear that guides me—
but curiosity.