As they ventured deeper, the forest shed all pretense of the natural world, transforming into a labyrinth of impossible geometry and shifting shadows. Massive, twisted roots coiled across the path like sleeping leviathans, their surfaces slick with a bioluminescent nectar that dripped upward, defying gravity to vanish into the shimmering haze above. The trees here didn’t stand still; when Serena looked away, the heavy timber seemed to stretch and lean, subtly rearranging the trails until the way back was nothing more than a memory of green. Flowers with petals like translucent glass bloomed in the hollows, exhaling puffs of crystalline spores that caused the very air to shimmer with a faint, metallic tang. Every snap of a twig echoed with a strange delay, as if the forest was recording the
