Hye ompf, vaht ep!

Rialyne wasn't a conceited person. But that didn't mean she didn't care about her looks or her academics. She worked hard to maintain a healthy weight and top grades. Unfortunately, she was blessed with big bones and an average appearance. Her genetics weren't a big issue for her until after the fire.

The flames had erupted at night, so all three sleeping persons silently suffocated in the smoke before the firefighters arrived due to a neighbor's call. By that time, all three had suffered severe burns wounds, but Rialyne was luckily, or perhaps unluckily, saved from death because she was located further away from the start of the fire. Additionally, her face wasn't scarred by burns due to the facial night mask she had been wearing.

But again, what seemed to be a blessing was a curse in disguise. In order to hide her hideous scars, she wore long sleeves, pants, and layers. This wasn't an issue in winter, but it would still be summer when she started school again.

During gym class, she refused to wear shorts and a t-shirt, but she still had to participate. So she sweltered under her clothes and ended up passing out in a heatstroke. The panicked adults stripped away the extra fabric before carrying her to the nurse's office.

Of course, in the process, her scars were revealed, and everyone recoiled at the repulsive sight. When she woke up, the insults began. And from there on she could no longer hide the existence of her scars.

Because the fire was kept hush-hush, jealous classmates initially didn't understand why she had received free tuition along with free room. After the gym class incident, the truth was dug up. She received some temporary sympathy, but it all soon faded into general disgust.

As a high-end private school, everybody was most concerned with looks, status, and smarts. Rialyne only fulfilled one half of those, but mediocracy made one relatively safe in this competitive school. But that didn't mean that those without any of the three would live peacefully since that meant they didn't belong or deserve to be here.

Rialyne mostly retained her smarts, but due to her lengthy recovery process, she was behind from the rest of those her age. This caused her to fall into that sparse bottom of the school ladder, making her a target for others to vent frustrations. The strong picked on the weak. Maybe not every single classmate was especially cruel to her, but no one wanted to be seen with her either.

Her old friends gradually distanced themselves, and Rialyne sunk into despair. She was underage and couldn't work. So along with poor genetics, the lack of funds resulted in an unhealthy diet which made her gain weight very quickly, and the scars horribly stretched out over the excess in gnarly mounds.

Meanwhile, she faced loneliness at "home" as well as at school. Her relatives adopted her legally out of social pressure, but she never really saw them since she lived at school. They also weren't willing to support her much financially. Most of the money she received was used toward school supplies, clothing, and other devices and items.

If Rialyne knew that they would stop giving money when she was of age to work, which was only a couple months after the gym incident, then she would've saved some of the money for food and other daily necessities rather than new materials, apparel, and electronics in order to keep up the old image.

In the end, all efforts were naught. She couldn't make enough money to sustain daily living as well as studies and exercise. She lost her in-shape body, her top scores, and eventually all of her confidence.

Disfigured, and destitute, the initial trauma stacked on with the daily abuse and bleak circumstances permanently scarred her mind, heart, and soul too.

She was ugly. No one would ever love her.

She was a toy. No one would save her.

She was nothing. No one cared about her.

She was truly alone.

This world had forsaken her.

So she forsook the world.

Lying in the ashes of the now fully demolished school, in her own spilled blood and torn flesh, Rialyne laughed. She just laughed. What a pitiful existence it had been. What a true pity…

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"Hye ompf, vaht ep!"

"…"

Rialyne's consciousness stirred at the increasingly louder sound.

"Hey you, wake up I just said!"

Her eyes fluttered open at the auditory disturbance. Or wait, did she have eyes?! Wait, did she even have ears?!

Her so-called eyes flashed open in shock and took in the sight before her.

A fist-sized, shining chartreuse cell stared angrily at her. Or at least, the scrunches on the surface of the cell made it look like it was upset.

"You're finally awake huh! Spending all this time growing while your soul was dormant and I was sentient, tsk tsk… So inconsiderate! But alas, I am enslaved to serve you for eternity. GAH! Who imposed such a punishment on me!"

The cell shook furiously in what she perceived to be a display of rage against his condemner and situation.

Her mouth gaped open at the bizarre sight of the single cell amidst a background of rows and rows of smaller sized cells.

Wait, she had no mouth.

Rialyne squirmed in distress and found herself bouncing around in the air, or no, it was liquid?! Was she drowning?! She was so confused!

The chartreuse cell sighed. "Calm down contractee. Or your actions will have an averse affect on the tree."

The WHAT?!! Rialyne screamed in her head. A tree? What did she have anything to do with a tree? No wait, this…

She suddenly realized that walls of cells filled her every view along with tubes of freely moving cells and water molecules.

This.

She was inside a frigging tree.