Chapter 7

The first thing the two of them did once the rain had stopped was to go back to the trees the bear had occasionally been trying to remove the bark from before the storm had occurred. This time though, once the bear began scratching the bark, the entire massive tree tipped over and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Adair was completely surprised that after the bear had unsuccessfully spent such a long time on the tree, it had all of a sudden one just fell over. Strangely, the giant tree had managed to avoid harming any of the surrounding trees. It was almost as if the other trees had made room for it to fall over.

Even stranger was that the very next moment several branches started wrapping over each other in the sky. Every once in a while, some branches fell to the ground. The action of the trees going against each other reminded Adair of a pack of animals fighting over a meal, only that they were seemingly fighting over the slight gap of sun which had been left behind.

It made Adair realize that every one of the trees must be alive and perhaps even able to think. At the very least they appeared to possess some instinct which had led them to fight over the open spot. 'Could it be that the more sunlight they're exposed to, the faster they grow or develop? Maybe after they've absorbed enough sunlight they become like the dark blue tree?' Adair pondered.

She watched this unique fight for over an hour, until one tree arose victorious and stretched its branches to cover for the fallen tree. Adair then noticed that the branches were a dark shade of blue. Quite similar to but a bit lighter than the tree that she and the bear used to visit to make it open the milk bottles for her. 'Did it win because it was special or did it become blue because it won?' Adair was unsure which conclusion to make.

Meanwhile the bear had been busy moving the giant tree out of the way. While it had not been an easy task for the bear, it had progressed smoothly by pushing it bit by bit. Once the bear had managed to move the giant tree on to the clearing, the blue tree stretched out its vines which started to tunnel down from above and planted themselves into the open spot.

Adair had been unaware that trees could plant themselves just based on their branches. She started to consider whether she should perhaps throw out all of her prior knowledge about how things 'should' work. For all she knew, all laws of science could work differently on this planet.

This worried Adair because if all knowledge she had retained from her previous life suddenly turned out to be useless, then reincarnating with her memories intact would no longer be a boon but a detriment instead. This would be especially true if there were no schools on the planet.

'If only I still had the cranial implant with me, it would make everything so much easier,' she lamented. Alas, she had no idea what the technological level of the planet was, but from what she had seen it was very unlikely that there was something like it on this planet.

The nondescript grey building where she had been born had not had any technological advancements at all, although it did have something similar with all the circles this civilization, or at least her mother, had utilized. Still, it had been a far cry from the pyramid underneath the ground that had somehow possessed technology even more advanced than anything she had ever seen in the Galactic Empire.

'Even if there is something technological or magical, what use does it have to me? Right now I'm in the middle of a forest and there is nobody here but me and Mr. Bear…' Adair put those sad thoughts aside for now, because she noticed that the bear was cutting up the tree into logs.

She would have loved to help the bear, but as of right now, all she could do in her baby body was crawl. Adair looked around and saw the bag, which she had recently discovered had more items than just the milk bottles. She had postponed experimenting with it to keep it dry while it was still raining, but now seemed like the perfect time to change that.

Adair promptly crawled over to the bag and wished in her mind to grow up faster. What came out of the bag, though, was not what she had expected. Instead of some wondrous pill or medicine, two bottles of milk came out. 'Maybe the milk inside these bottles is somehow special?' she thought hopefully.

Since the bear was busy with his task Adair tried her luck with the blue tree in her vicinity. She held out the milk bottles, asking for them to be opened. Although the tree reacted, it merely made a rustling sound with its branches.

Adair was unable to interpret what it was trying to say, but a few possibilities flashed through her mind. First off was that the tree might not be able to move its body like the dark blue tree could. Her second assumption was that perhaps it either wanted or needed to be provided with water first. Lastly she remembered that the other blue tree was the one that the bear made a deal with. Why was she assuming that this tree would have the same agreement? This realization made her back off and go rest.

She then rested for a bit before crawling over to the bear to ask if it could open the bottles. When it did, Adair gulped the both bottles down, hoping she would start growing up faster. However, the only effect it seemed to have on her was that she felt completely full from drinking too much. Apart from that even taste had been the same as every other milk bottle she had consumed ever since she had entered the forest.

This disappointed Adair, but she realized that she had been too optimistic in regards to the items that the bag could provide. She had believed that since the forest was so magical, the same had to be true for the items in the bag, but unfortunately she appeared to have been mistaken.

She then went over to the bag to test its capabilities. At first, she wished for a cranial implant, but unsurprisingly nothing came out. Adair then asked for many random items, like a solar computer from the Galactic Empire, but nothing came out of the bag. When she changed her wish to something more normal like hair dye, nail clippers, soap, bottled water, etc. something actually came out of the bag every so often. For example she got a brick of soap, some liquid in glass containers that looked like they were carrying water, and various clay toys that looked like they were made in the time before people knew space existed.

The toys looked well crafted, yet they did not exclude any scientific feelings and had the appearance of something given to small children to entertain them. Adair considered the possibility that this era had a technology level that was so high that perhaps there was a hidden secret to the toys. To cure her curiosity, she started to play with the clay toys for a few hours. Adair had initially only planned to spend a couple of minutes with them, but for some reason she had found them far more entertaining than she would ever admit. Alas, there was nothing special about those toys.

From what she had seen so far, Adair assumed that the general technology level of this planet might be the same as on her planet around 2500 BGE (Before the Galactic Empire). In that case the black pyramid had to have been a relic of the past from a more advanced civilization

'Just what could have happened to an empire that must have had access to technology even more advanced than the Galactic Empire?' And again there was nobody who could answer her question. All baby Adair could do was make a mental note to ask her mom whenever it was she could meet her.

She looked over to see what Mr. Bear was trying to do and saw that he was in the midst of cutting the tree into more manageable logs by using his claws. Now that it was no longer rooted to the ground the resilience of the tree had apparently lessened. She wondered why he was doing it until she realized that he must be doing it in case the storm returned. The bear had served her as shelter against the rain, but in doing so it had endured the month long rain and it was only natural he did not want to do so again.

She then went over to the bag and wished for something that could help build a house. She received a clay box, lots of green hay, and a metal ax. The ax was a given, unfortunately it would be useless since she was too little to wield it and the bear's claws made it impossible for him, so she touched both it and the bag, making it disappear.

She remembered from a history class lesson that at one point people had used to use hay as an insulator in their houses. This only strengthened Adair's theory about the tech level being around 2500 BGE. Lastly, she tried to open the box but just like the bottles she was unable to for some reason. Trying to get the tree to help was just as futile as getting its help with the milk bottles.

However, this time Adair did not give up. She pushed the empty bottle of milk she drank earlier into the lake. Alas, when she came to retrieve it the liquid just spilled out of the bottle. This confused her, so she went over to the bear to try to get it to feed the tree the water so it would help them, and when he pushed the bottle into the lake and pulled it out, the water stayed in the bottle.

Adair then sighed in defeat and let the bear grab the water and give it to the tree. When it did so, the tree let down a branch and poured the water to its newly grown roots. The roots immediately started to grow bigger. Once they stopped growing, the tree brought down a branch and pulled open the box's lid.

Adair found some sort of metallic liquid inside, but was unsure what it was used for. Just when she was about to touch it the bear recognized the content and it quickly pushed the lid to the box shut with its paw.

Adair wondered why the bear would do such a thing, especially after the effort she had put into trying to open the box, but so far, Mr. Bear had only been helpful to her, so she trusted that it had closed the box for a good reason.