I don't know how long I've been awake.
Time doesn't feel real here.
Only pulses.
Moments.
Changes.
But something in me knows: the light is fading.
It's not sight. I still can't see.
It's more like… warmth.
That gentle warmth that trickled through me when I touched the soil?
It's withdrawing.
Slowly.
Steadily.
And my system stirs.
⊹ SYSTEM NOTICE ⊹
Sunlight Level: Declining
Estimated Duration of Light Remaining: 02:03:47
Photosynthesis Efficiency: Dropping
Environmental Shift Detected: Nightfall Approaching
Entering Dormant State: Permissive
Passive Regeneration Enabled
Dormant?
Does that mean… sleep?
The word feels familiar.
Soft and heavy. Like a blanket made of stillness.
I don't resist it.
Whatever this is—
it's not the cold oblivion I came from.
This is natural.
Slow.
Safe.
The warmth that once soaked my core thins to a thread.
But I still feel it.
And my root holds.
My vine curls gently against a stone.
I let myself drift.
I don't dream.
But something moves inside me.
A quiet recalibration, like cells realigning in the dark.
And then—
Light returns.
Not blazing.
Not sudden.
Just a shimmer across the edge of me.
Enough to pull me upward from the stillness.
I wake.
And the system greets me again.
⊹ SYSTEM UPDATE ⊹
Sunlight Detected
Dormant Phase Ended
Vital Sap Restored: +1
Photosynthesis Cycle: Complete
Passive EXP Accrued: +8 EXP
EXP?
That's new.
I don't know what it means exactly, but it tingles in the back of my thoughts like… like a number
waiting to become something more.
More of me.
There are 24 hours in a day. This… was just one cycle.
I pause.
Why do I know that?
I don't know what a "day" is.
I don't know why twenty-four feels right.
Or why I even know to wonder.
But I do.
And yet… I don't dig deeper.
Not yet.
Because something else has shifted.
I can feel it.
Not inside me—around me.
The soil stirs.
Not from movement. Not from threat.
From possibility.