Last spark from the ashes

Blaze grunts, and it's a second before she looks at Loki, blinking her optics. "Me? Yeah. Thought I remembered something. It's too bad, anyway. I don't think kids back home get a lot of natural space to roam wild in. Would've been nice if they didn't have to be so careful here-"

She snorts, catching sight of the crumpled stump through the trees ahead. "But nowhere's that safe, huh? And mushrooms aren't the worst thing I've seen in these woods."

The closer they get, the more obvious it is how little of the blighted tree remains. The husk now is smaller than the creature that clung to it before, hollowed out and collapsed in on itself. The ground around it is damp, soft with mold, and nothing stirs as they approach.