Chapter 1: A Vine-Wrapped Goal

Joining Find the Markers once again, you knew your goal for the time you were here: successfully finding and collecting Foliage Marker. Was it a difficult goal to reach? Yes. Did you care? Not nearly enough to stop you!

    Immediately sprinting to the Abandoned City once you were sure the server lag was gone, you were filled to the brim with excitement and determination. Overflowing, even.

     Although Foliage was ranked at the difficulty of Extreme, you were certain that you'd achieve your top objective. You felt confident in you and your abilities, climbing the invisible trusses that scaled the side of the Abandoned Clocktower.

    Once the loading screen subsided, you were met with the mystical sight of the Washable Kingdom. You closed your eyes, not only embracing the aura of the past, but also preparing yourself for what to come.

    Now that you had your mind in place (and also the server lag nowhere to be seen), it was time for the first part of the job — the orbs.

    So, you may or may not got a small hint from another player. Is that technically cheating? Maybe. But you decided to ignore that for now.

    You had previously recited the order of which orbs to press to the point where they were engraved into your brain. You headed to the orb in the Periwinkle Field, which was at the south edge of the map. Once you turned it on, it shone a lovely ultraviolet.

    Next, you headed over to the Swamp. After looking around for a while, you noticed a small platform at the bottom of the pond closest to the map's east edge. You jumped down, hitting the platform to find out it was underneath the map. The Swamp orb was there on the platform; you clicked it, and it glowed a fiery orange.

    To get to the next orb, you jumped off of the platform, and were instantly teleported to the Kingdom's spawn point. Your next orb to visit was in the Fantasy Forest. You looked up at the waterfall, and noticed an unlit orb on the right side of it. You rushed to the left side to start your climb, saying hi to Bluegrass Marker even if he wasn't one for conversation.

    It took a while of well-timed jumps, before making it to the top of the waterfall. "Hi, Waterfall Marker!" you greeted. "Don't worry, I won't be here long."

    Waterfall nodded, then returned to his tranquil listening state.

    You carefully jumped to the right side of the waterfall, making it to the orb. It was being splashed with water, but you turned it on anyway, feeling gratified to see the sphere emit a tranquil cyan.

    Jumping off of the ledge the orb was on (and somehow not snapping both your ankles) you knew that the next area to stop by was the outside of Castle Keep. The orb didn't take long to find — being mostly exposed to the players — and when you pressed it, it radiated a determined vermillion.

    After the exterior of Castle Keep, your next stop was the Market. Heading down the stairs, you noticed the orb next to Merchant Marker's stall. As you went to turn it on, the shopkeeper took notice of your presence.

    "Ah, hello, Y/N," he said. "Fiddling with that orb there?"

    You nodded, and he continued. "I'm not quite sure what it's for, but it's sure to be something holding a certain amount of power. Be wary, all right?"

    "I will, don't worry," you assured. You turned on the orb, it now glowing a bright yellow. You left after that, now only having two more places to visit. Your next goal was to enter the inside of Castle Keep.

    Taking a shortcut via jumping off of the map to get to the spawn point, you entered Castle Keep and went up the stairs. You went up the trellis in the tower to the north of the staircase, finding the orb. Switching it on, it emitted a neutral white.

    Now that all the other orbs were lit, the final one for you to activate was inside Dragon Hill. Going to the Swamp and bouncing on a lilypad to get a headstart, you started to climb up Dragon Hill. Although there were a couple of close calls, you avoided the puddles and streams of magma, and made it to the top of the mountain. You made a perfectly-timed jump to the cutout to the ledge where the final orb stood, and turned it on. It gleamed a deep blue once powered.

    Now that all the orbs were activated, you heard a door opening somewhere close by. You made your way back to the top of Dragon Hill (via dying and climbing back up). Once you entered, you were cautious to not disturb Dragon Marker as you tried to get to the green gateway inside the mountain.

    When you were there, you went inside... and were greeted with a truly amazing sight.

    A dungeon-like area met your glance. The walls were covered with natural stone, but there were three green-hued gateways to the north, east, and west. In the center of that, a small dirt circle lined with virescent bricks. You approached the circle, reaching into your pockets to find a small seed packet inside. You weren't sure how it got there, but knowing this world, it's a key item to the Marker you were trying to get.

    You planted the seed from the packet into the soil, and it grew into a small sprout almost immediately. You heard a ticking sound from your pocket. Upon checking your pocket, a small timer was in there, counting down the seconds. A gut feeling told you to get going before the timer ran out.

    You sped towards the northern entrance, immediately realizing it was a type of obby. Vines were latched to the walls at different heights and lengths, some crossing over one another. You could barely make out a path within the mess of greenery, but you ended up finding a way to the other side.

    After a lot of careful jumps, you made it to the opposite wall, which had an alcove with a small pond. A bucket magically appeared in your hands, which had you confused for a short amount of time. You brushed it off, filled the bucket with water from the pond, and attempted to get back to the center circle with a bucket in your hands. You shouldn't question anything that happens in this world.

    Eventually, on your first try (somehow), you made it back. You poured the water onto the tiny sprout, and it practically doubled in size. The timer in your pocket seemed to reset its countdown once the plant was watered, so it was time to move onto another obby.

    This time, you went to the gateway right of the center. The obby inside of this one seemed to resemble the Swamp, as there were a couple of lily pads spread out on a large body of water. There were three in front of you, a small island to the left, and five more after that.

    You jumped onto the first lily pad, getting a boost immediately after touching it. You used this to your advantage, and landed on the third lily pad, skipping the second. After that, you landed onto the island to observe what you were going to do next, biting your tongue.

    Three of the five lily pads ahead were actively moving left and right, so it would require a lot of timing to complete. Luckily, you had enough skill to keep your momentum after you bounced on the first non-moving lily pad, and after a short while of more jump boosts, you made it to the end.

    Like the first obby, there was a small pond of water, and the same bucket was summoned into your hands. You filled it up for the second time, and tried to follow the lily pads back to the midpoint. Unfortunately, you didn't have the luck you had with the Vine Obby, as it took you three tries to reach the entrance. You did have enough time to water the plant again, and it could almost reach the top. You noticed there was a bright hole at the top of the cave's ceiling. The surface. You were almost there.

    Before you could escape, though, you had one more obby to complete. You sprinted to the obstacle course to the left of the centerpiece, and noticed the resemblance to the Fantasy Forest.

    Between you and the next platform, there was too much of a space to jump without a sort of boost. There was a cyan mushroom beside the large gap, and you pressed it to see if anything would happen. To your surprise, something did happen — the mushroom turned a bright white, four semi-opaque square-shaped platforms appeared between the gaps.

    "Yessss!" you quietly cheered to yourself. You jumped onto the first one closest to you, skipped the second and moved on to the third, then finally landed onto the fourth.

    Another gap was between you and the rest of the land, so you tried the mushroom thing again. The nearest mushroom was ironically in an area where you couldn't reach, so you used your great aim to throw a rock you found nearby at it. First try, you hit it, and a path appeared in front of you.

    You chuckled victoriously, and followed the path to the next platform. On the wall, the number 213 was written in black. There was a mushroom near you that had 1 inscribed over it, and the same thing was done for the mushrooms labelled 2 and 3.

    Figuring out the code in no time at all, you pressed the mushroom tagged 2, then the one with the written 1, and lastly the one labelled 3.

    As you pressed the last mushroom, an arched gateway was seen. It opened once you completed the code, and the watering hole was there. For the third time, you filled up your magically-appearing bucket with water, and went back to the center circle with ease.

    You watered the plant yet again, and when it grew, it reached the hole in the ceiling. The bucket casually evaporated from your hands, and the timer was no longer there in your pocket. You started to climb the plant — of which you now knew was a beanstalk.

    Once you reached the top, there was a nice current of wind flowing through your hair. You were at the top of Dragon Hill.

    And at the top with you was the elusive Foliage Marker.

Word Count: 1776