By now, I was getting fairly used to arriving somewhere inexplicable. Many of the spirits in my care had damaged psyches that made their memories pretty harrowing to explore. One moment, we'd be taking in one of my mind-offices; the next, we'd be in a dark, gruesome torture chamber, or falling down a never-ending abyss; or trapped in a dilapidated old house, stalked by a ravenous fiend with thick fur, fangs, and tentacles. In that regard, considering my track record, this latest inexplicable somewhere was actually pretty nice.

It was the middle of the afternoon. The skies were unreally blue, filled with clouds stolen from landscape painters' dreams.

We were in a forest, temperate and old. I smelled earth and poignant flowers. The sunlight filtering through the trees had just begun to grow long, and flickered as the breeze played games with the leaves. The patches of grass growing on the ground were almost like roads, and were held in at the sides by the thick roots that had tilled the soil. Something not unlike birds twittered nearby, out of sight.

It was hard not to think we'd been plopped into the middle of a storybook. I don't mean that in a judgmental way; it should have been a welcome reprieve from being chased by the anti-virus software, and it certainly would have been, were it not for a certain, small detail that wasn't quite right: my companions and I were no longer human.

The one that I thought was probably Ileene rose to its feet first.

"What… what's going on?" Her voice confirmed she was who I thought she was.

"Where—"

—But then she looked down at herself. Waving her arms, she staggered back. The motion caused her body to make a sound reminiscent of a Maikokan maraca.

For whatever reason, the four of us had been turned into… plant… people… things. There were slight variations to our appearances, but they were all riffing on the same underlying theme.

We looked like wooden dolls; puppets, the kind woodland fairies might make. Our short arms and legs were perfectly concealed by the many reddish-orange leaves that coated us from the neck down, more like clothes than fur. Our heads were made of deep brown wood, smoothed and rounded into ovoid forms. Short, round spouts carved into the bottom of our faces were all we had in the way of mouths, while our eyes were expressive spots that glowed like embers in our heads. Despite the fact that my mouth-spout was completely immobile, I seemed to have no trouble talking.

Also, I still had my bowtie on. Go figure.

I quickly helped Suisei and Mr. Himichi to their feet.

A sprig of bright green leaves grew from my head, matched by a rosette of the same around my neck. Unlike me, Mr. Himichi was bald, but with a leafy beard. The short stem atop Suisei's head ended in a pair of seed leaves, also known as cotyledons.

Ileene was the most colorful among us, by far. Her leaf-clothes were augmented with a layer of flower petals that drooped around her arms and hands like a robe several times her size. Two living leis sprouted from the top-back of her head, forming queues, one made from pink flowers, the other, yellow.

If I compared myself to the surrounding trees and factored in the sheer size of our leaves—for reference, one of my head-leaves was as large as my woody hand—I imagined our forms couldn't be that big. If I had to guess, they were at least as small as the hummingbird-people, if not smaller.

"This is… most curious," Suisei said, amusedly bemused by our appearances.

Mr. Himichi ran his stubby-fingered hand through his beard. "Why have we been turned into tchotchkes? Genneth, did you do this?" His eyes narrowed at me. The actual shape of our eyes changed to approximate furrowed brows or wide-eyed discontent, as if to make up for the fact that we didn't have eyebrows.

I held up my arms and rustled my leaves, crossing my arms in the negative. I could hear the little whatchamacallits rattling around inside me as I shook my head side to side.

"No, this is…" I looked around. "…whatever this is, I'm not responsible; I swear."

Ileene narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion. But then, a moment later, she got distracted by our surroundings and looked up at the canopy. The trees' branches came together like vaults on a cathedral's ceiling. Then, sighing, she crossed her arms, fluttering their drooping, flower petal sleeves.

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"Okay, back up. You went inside a machine to get to the maze, and now, inside the maze, there's a forest."

"Yes," I nodded.

"How does that make any sense?"

"This isn't like the portholes," I said.

Suisei nodded. "I agree."

"Do you think we might be somewhere else in the Vyx's fleet?" I asked.

Mr. Himichi stepped away as he looked around. "I don't see any of the silver machinery. Though…" He scratched his leaf-beard. "…perhaps they're just well-hidden."

"Well," I said, retracting my arms beneath my autumnal coat, "wherever we are, the anti-virus units don't seem to have followed us."

I looked around, just to be sure.

"Genneth, try returning to your body," Suisei said.

I nodded. "Good idea."

I closed my eyes and tried, grunting with effort.

"Nope," I said. "Still nothing going."

Suisei's "brow" fell. "I was afraid of this."

"It's, uh…" I spent a moment figuring out how to put my feelings into words. "…it's like there's something pushing back."

"How is that possible?" Suisei asked.

"Could the spaceship you linked with be doing it?" Mr. Himichi said.

"No." I shook my head. "This feels different. Honestly," I looked up at the sunlight dappled trees, "I'm having a hard time sensing the ship-wyrm's mind. It's like it's… far away."

"Uh, guys…?" Ileene interrupted us. She'd joined Mr. Himichi in looking around. "Where's the portal?"

I won't lie, that got me nervous. Hopping in place, I started darting around, searching for any sign of the portal. We spent a good ten minutes looking for it without finding anything.

"This might be bad…" I said.

Ileene crossed her arms again. "Might be?"

"I mean… as long as we find some portal, I think we should be alright."

Mr. Himichi's beard went stiff. "Wait!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"Listen."

The sound was distant. It was rhythmic, like clockwork.

"Hep-ho! Hoop-ho! Hep-ho! Hoop-ho!"

It was getting closer.

"Hep-ho! Hoop-ho! Hep-ho! Hoop-ho!"

Ileene gave me an urgent stare. "Dr. Howle?"

I looked around. "Hide behind the trees, maybe?"

Their trunks were wide enough for us to disappear behind them without a trace.

"Can't you use your powers?" Ileene asked.

I honestly hadn't checked, but just as I was about to do so, I stopped myself.

"What if it reveals our location to the anti-viruses?"

"Genneth," Mr. Himichi hissed, "hurry up!"

I had to look around for a moment to find them. Suisei and the old mangaka had already taken refuge behind one of the trees.

Ileene hustled out of the way and hid behind another trunk, her joints, leaves, and petals rustling as she moved. I followed right behind, hopping up the short terraces formed by the nearby roots.

But it was too late. A bunch of nebbish voices exclaimed, in unison: "Wah!"

Startled, I slipped and fell onto the dirt, and was quickly surrounded by rustling rouges and rattling greens. They trembled as I got up and dusted myself off.

I found myself face to face—to face to face to face—with a group of five plant-dolls-things much like ourselves. One had a hood of autumn leaves draped over its noggin. Another had big, expressive eyes, with lonely blades of grass speckling the roof of its head. One even had a mustache of cypress needles, shaped in a handlebar of the highest pedigree.

They stood around me in a pentagonal formation, their limbs hidden beneath their leaf-robes.

"Who you?"

"Who you?"

"Who you?"

"Who you?"

"Who you?"

They rattled off the question one at a time.

"Guys," I said, looking over to the trees, "I think they're friendly."

My companions cautiously crept into view.

The five travelers spread out and made a larger pentagon around Mr. Himichi, Suisei, and Ileene, and then pelted them with more Who you?s.

I had a feeling we weren't dealing with the brightest bulbs in the shed.

"Who are you?" I asked, rather pointedly

They looked at one another briefly, and then marched over and stood in a line, side-by-side and answered my question in a broken chord:

"Krumm—"

"—holz."

"Krumm—"

"—holz."

"Krumm—"

The response looped back around to the first krummholz, who said "krumm", which was then followed up by "holz" and then they continued, alternating back and forth, one krummholz after another until the krummholz at the end of the line finally got to end on "holz".

So, yeah, definitely not the brightest bulbs in the shop.

Ileene and the others noticed it, too.

Mr. Himichi stepped forward. "Where are you going?"

"Night's Glade," the lead krummholz said.

"Go to Night's Glade," said the one beside him.

"Treefather!" said the third.

At the word "Treefather", all of them quivered with excitement, shivering their leaves.

"Treefather! Treefather!"

"I think this 'Treefather' might be important," Ileene said.

"Talk speak," the fourth said.

"Prune," said the fifth. "Leaves, twigs, prune."

I looked the leader in the eyes. "You," I pointed at him, "take us to… Treefather?"

They looked at one another again and then, nodding, erupted in more approbation: "Treefather! Treefather!"

"I'll take that as a yes," I muttered. "Alright, lead the way."

None of the krummholz moved. After a minute, I started to get worried.

"Perhaps you are in the way?" Mr. Himichi suggested.

Then I stepped to the side, and that did the trick. The five krummholz turned about face, standing single-file, facing dead ahead, and then set off in a march. The music of their bodies grounded their walk in a catchy rhythm. They chanted as they marched.

"Hep-ho! Hoop-ho! Hep-ho! Hoop-ho!"

When the krummholz procession passed us by, the krummholz in back spun its head all the way around.

"Come to Treefather!" it said. "Come!"

I looked at Mr. Himichi.

He shrugged. "They seem harmless enough."

We followed them.

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