The Heroes of Aeseganora: Part 1

The Keystone of Sea Otters

Shellington was beaming. Literally beaming. And who could blame him? He'd just landed into a part of Aeseganora, a world which neither of the Octonauts had known existed until a little while ago.

There were trees and plants everywhere he looked when he landed on his feet; so many that he felt as if he had just entered a giant greenhouse. Despite the Jupiter-sized sun burning a lava-red colour, the air was moderately chilly, causing the sea otter to slightly shiver.

For all the beauty of the greenery around him, Shellington actually felt nervous, so he decided to have take a walk around and have a little read of his Guidebook to try and distract himself.

He flipped to a page which had the heading:

Kingdoms in Aeseganora

After briefly scrutinising the two descriptive paragraphs on two of the kingdoms in the universe (as well as the analytical drawings of the portals to said kingdoms), he absent-mindedly read a section aloud on one kingdom; the one he had happened to land himself into:

The Stawalan Forest

...It is important to note that although the trees and plants of the Stawalan Forest certainly seem inanimate, they, alongside all of the greenery, are sentient, meaning that they are capable of communication. Some leaves and petals can change colours and sing, for example, and vines are capable of grasping hold of anything and anyone they take a dislike to, therefore, it is strongly advised that you make yourself known to the greenery immediately upon arrival to the Forest.

It is also recommended that, where possible, you stay clear of any plant that has thorns or prickles; attack and violence is the only language that these plants speak and understand, consequently, they may actively reach out and try to inflict physical injury upon you.

You must also assume that everything you see is poisonous, and DO NOT eat any of the vegetation, under ANY circumstances.

Shellington winced at the thought of being dragged into the looming trees by some vines that decided he wasn't welcome in the Stawalan Forest. He also didn't fancy being attacked by anything with thorns and prickles.

OK, this place just got a lot more frightening, he thought to himself, landing his eyes upon a thin trail of dirt, which cut through the bushes and ferns.

Perhaps I should stick to this trail, he thought. At least that will reduce the chances of stepping on anything.

And so he set off slowly, watching every step he took.

****************

The trail was so thin that there were some moments where it disappeared completely, and as Shellington continued walking, he felt the atmosphere of the forest beginning to change. He remembered that life back under the ocean on board the Octopod becoming bigger the deeper the ship went (the memory of that time a colossal squid tried to squish the Octopod to pieces suddenly came to mind); and he came to realise that The Stawalan Forest was the same, because the further he walked into the forest, the taller the trees began to grow.

At first, they had been as tall as regular trees on Earth before becoming as tall as ten school buses stacked on top of each other, before becoming too tall to see the top of...

"This is weird," he whispered without even knowing why he was whispering. Perhaps the presence of such large and seemingly ancient trees demanded him to lower his voice; if that was the case, he wouldn't want them to notice him, would he? So it kind of made sense to keep quiet.

He stopped walking and looked up at the leaves and the sky, light green on normal green, the light like stained glass in the air.

Suddenly, he felt bright, glowing eyes fall upon him, and the chilling feeling of being watched began to crawl up his neck, as he built up the courage to turn around and see who or what was there.