August twisted his wrist in her grip, trying and failing again to break her hold.

“I wasn’t trying to start an argument with you earlier; I wanted to see if you would tell me something like that if I asked,” Kalter said, watching him. “I think I was surprised that you actually did, but I didn’t expect it to piss you off so much.”

The shifts in the render and his vision felt like they were getting mixed up, the pulls on his attention causing his eyes to drift towards the associated motion, and he kept finding himself startled out of some lapse in attention—almost like he was coming awake, over and again. The sound of her voice was organised by some other stream of consciousness, the only constant, but it left him feeling like he was being strangled by her presence, pushing in on him from every side.

“You were right; I didn’t answer the question you asked, even after you were honest with me,” Kalter said, “The truth is, I did think about killing you when I first woke up here—and once again after that, but I wasn’t lying to you; I don’t have any intention of hurting you now.”

“You’re too close,” August managed, trying to ignore it all. “I can’t think like this.”

“But you heard what I said?” Kalter said.

“Yes,” August said, his voice shaky. “Please let go of me.”

Kalter let go of his wrist, and he turned completely to face her before stumbling backwards away from her. The thorns clawed at the exposed skin of his neck, arms, and legs—a line of fire traced across his cheek and above his eyebrow, but it was worthy trade to regain some control over himself through distance.

Kalter remained where she was, standing between the two trees, the only real way out, and for the first time, he noticed Ladybug standing on the branch directly above her, a chain spike sitting ready in the bottom-front hole of her outer shell, pointed directly down at Kalter’s skull.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Kalter said, glancing away. “If you were.”

“I wasn’t,” August breathed, “That was just too much like—being swallowed.”

“Swallowed?” Kalter murmured.

August shook his head in a jerky motion, unable and entirely unwilling to explain it, and as the seconds passed by, the feeling of the thorns against his skin transitioned from a comforting distraction to a dominating irritant. He carefully took a step out of the mess and forced himself to turn his back on her again, the thorns clinging to him, not quite ready to let him go.

“I have enough mana now,” August said, brushing a hand down his arm in an attempt to wipe away the countless itching lines. “Let’s just—get this over with.”

He used [Analysis].

Rubus Regalis

A perennial flowering plant whose fruit is nourishing but sweet.

Nourishing but sweet, which was almost the same as the Sadapples, and while neither of them actually stated they didn’t cause any detrimental effects—nourishing was a pretty positive term overall.

“The description is almost the same as the Sadapples—nourishing but sweet,” August said, forcing himself to say it out loud. “That’s enough for me to believe they’re edible.”

August carefully picked one of them off the stem and lifted it to his mouth. He bit down on the pink flesh of it, pausing as the juice found his tongue—very sweet, but it tasted nothing like any fruit he could remember.

He carefully knelt down, crawling forward and pushing some of the thorny stems out of the way until he could get his hand around the base of the bush. The dirt was soft enough to dig out with his hand, but he could see the white-highlighted roots just beneath the surface, causing him to widen his efforts to unearth it all.

Kalter’s render took a step forward into the space he’d just vacated, almost standing over him, and pressed the berry she’d taken into her mouth with a single finger, lips closing around the digit—August wilted under the proximity and shook his head around in an attempt to focus himself on the digging.

“You should let me do that,” Kalter said, foot barely an inch away from the outside of his thigh. “It will take you too long to dig it out.”

It felt safer to remain extended and hidden beneath the thorny foliage than to stand up next to her again in such confinement. He curled his fingers around the thickest part of the bush and gave it a shake, but it barely moved, which crushed his enthusiasm to continue hiding. He pushed back up to his knees and tried to crawl back out, but the thorns caught on his pants—he brushed them off, earning another series of scratches across his hand and wrist before he managed to get back out again.

“The roots are about an inch below the soil,” August said, shuffling around her in an attempt not to make contact. “They spread out in every direction for about—this much?”

Kalter knelt down in front of him and glanced up at his hands for a moment to note the distance before turning and crawling forward to take his previous spot. August stepped forward, lifting the lowest offshoot up and away from her back to stop it from catching against her clothing in the same way it had to him.

Kalter shifted forward, her leafy pants pulling down on her hips from her contact with the ground. He watched as she wiggled further in, the motion making the situation progressively worse with every shift—for once, he didn’t feel bad about watching her body, the steadily rising pain across his skin a visceral reminder that she hadn’t let go of his arm until he’d practically begged her.

The bush shifted forward, giving him an almost clear view through to where her six arms were alternating between scooping dirt out and angling the entire bush away. The long thin string of roots pulled upwards, only taut for a moment until each one was dug free, and then within a minute, Kalter was back on her knees, the entire bush laying on its side.

“Will this fit in your inventory?” Kalter asked.

He watched as she removed the last of the snagged roots and stood back up, her bottom pair of hands reaching down to pull her pants back up properly. Perhaps foolishly, he kept his eyes on her hips as she worked to drag her pants back up, and when he finally caught himself, he found Kalter watching him.

“I think so,” August said belatedly, finally looking away. “Can you move?”