A few days passed since we went on our little adventure into the Wolves Den and it was once again a weekend. In these past few days, there were frequent reports about animals like Scooter who were undergoing 'mutations'. Simir to what many humans had undergone during the st two weeks a substantial number of animals were starting to change. There were worries regarding livestock and how it would affect the food supply. While some CEOs were stepping in to say their piece about safety and whatever the company's public retions department told them to, the public was drawn to authority to answer questions.

  As such yesterday there was an announcement of a message from the president to address the magical changes happening around the world. The message was likely meant to calm the public while they tried to figure out how to tackle the various issues cropping up everywhere. There wasn't just the issue with the food supply as the new super-powered criminals started running rampant. Some cities had set up strict curfews to curb the situation. To little success, criminals having superpowers was more than just a difficult thing to deal with. There were numerous escapes as prisons lost control when just a handful of inmates developed abilities. Some groups were taking advantage of the current situation doing whatever they could before governments stepped in. After all, there weren't any regutions on superpowers and magic.

  Online there were whispers that the speech was going to be a decration of a state of emergency.

  It was still retively early in the morning for the Dewitt family given the time difference from the east coast. It was almost 9 o'clock here and close to noon over there. Everyone was home today because it was Saturday. But even Ronald's company was considering a pause on activity with many of the employees trying to get used to the new 'additions' that came with their newfound abilities.

  The family sat in the living room watching the news. Like many others, they were curious how the government was going to tackle the magical situation that was spanning the globe. Sitting on the L-shaped couch, Mom took one arm while I took the other. Dad sat next to Mom while Danny sat in the corner.

  Watching the TV, on-screen were a pair of newscasters who had undergone some changes. One was a young man with neatly groomed brown hair. He looked almost completely normal if you didn't notice that his eyes had changed. Instead, the lens of his eye, including the pupil and the color of his eye had become a green segmented section that looked like compound eyes commonly found in insects (the sclera of his eye still looked normal). On his right was a slightly older woman with equally well-kept brunette hair and while she tried to hide them using her long hair it was easy to see her ears sticking out from the sides, looking somewhat like an elf's ears. As she moved while the two talked few might have noticed not only were her ears long so were her earlobes.

  After some preamble from the newscasters, it cut to a reporter on the scene she seemed retively normal without additional features. The only thing notable about her was her dark reddish hair. “We’re waiting for the president’s response.” She said as the camera was once again cut away, this time to the scene of a podium. After a few moments, the Secret Service escorted the president into the room. Most probably would never have been able to recognize the man as he was looking more lizard-like than usual. His hands were covered in a scaly green skin and while his suit was obscuring the rest of his body, out from his colr more scales were growing from his neck and chin in a straight line towards his nose.

  Upon seeing this, “See! I told you! The Lizards really do run the government!” Dad sat up giving a facetious response to the family, getting a few chuckles in the process.

  It was exactly noon in DC as the president stood at the podium beginning his address; “My Fellow Americans-“Just as he had begun speaking a rumbling occurred outside. The camera started to shake and an audible rumbling could be heard on the equipment. “Earthquake!” One of the audience members shouted out as the Secret Service quickly ushered the president away from the scene.

  “So much for a presidential address,” Danny scoffed before the scene cut away again.

  Cutting back to the newscasters for a brief moment before cutting away again. “Cut back to me! Cut back to me NOW!” It was the reporter at the scene from a few moments ago looking a little more fiery than before (Her hair had turned a brighter color, and the ends were burning). “Are we live?” She asked as the fmes at the tips of her hair began to extinguish (the brighter color remained). Her demeanor took a 180 as she began to address the public. “Hello, this is Sandra- Are you getting this!?" She shouted at the cameraman before grabbing hold of the camera and pulling it towards the towering object “It's Growing!” She said in stunned stupefaction as what looked like a massive object had sprouted in Washington DC. "It seems to be in the direction of Nationals Park!” She said as the object rapidly grew taking out a few city blocks and the baseball stadium in the process.

  "Did anyone have 'Big Tree' on their bingo cards?" James asked while everyone watched the tree grow. After a few slow minutes, the tree's growth started to slow down, and the shaking started to slow before it came to a stop. While not quite a Yggdrasill it had quickly grown to a size where it dwarfed the nearby cityscape. While it appeared wider than it was tall there was a decent distance from the capitol building to the site of the tree's devastation. From the video quality, I could make out lots of yellow, orange, and some white leaves donning the canopy.

  “Should we be happy it's not Zombies?” Danny asked, only to get a sigh from his mother and an exhale from his father.

  After a few moments of silence, Dad looked at me and asked, "James, what do you think?" while holding a moderately serious expression.

  “Really? Uhh-" Instead of answering right away I thought that I should add some much-needed levity to the situation. "Give me a minute," I said before I went to my room, after a little borrowing I returned to the living room before taking a rge dry-erase board out of an item satchel. With the board set up in the living room, I started by drawing a door. While I was grabbing it I was thinking about what the tree might be.

  "So, Option 1: This is what happens when a dungeon goes uncleared for a period of time." I drew the funny-looking tree bursting out of the open door and a clock.

  "How would that happen?" Mom asked.

  "No one reported it, so it was just left alone. But that seems wrong to me…" I started to trail off in thought at the end.

  "Why?" Danny asked

  "Because the timespan for it seems too short. It's been what, like a couple weeks since everything started happening? Instead, Option 1.5: They did know about it." I said drawing another little picture of stick figures going inside a door. "And the people sent inside died- and this is what happens when a dungeon kills enough people?" I said drawing another picture of the tree growing.

  "And you say that because-"

  "It's a common trope." I had to rely on something even if it was as flimsy as paper.

  Flipping the board over I started on the next theory, "Option 2: Dungeons grow through corruption, and it just so happened to spawn in one of the most corrupt pces in the world." I said while drawing a picture of a greedy fat cat with bags of money. Then added a door with some squiggly lines.

  "What do you mean by corruption?" Dad asked.

  "Malevolent or malicious intent." It's the best way I could describe it. (What does corruption even mean?) With everything happening so far the conversion of emotions into energy doesn't seem farfetched.

  For the third option, instead of writing down or drawing anything I just said, "Option 3: It’s a special dungeon”.

  Once I was done Danny started spouting, "Ok, I get the first two but what the heck do you mean by special"!?

  "Special, different, extraordinary. It’s not like other dungeons".

  "Why do you even think it’s a dungeon"?

  "It's certainly not a fuckin housepnt... Though it could also be a mutation..." I said as I started drawing on the free half of the board. I drew a stick figure horse then added a little horn, "Like Scooter, there could also be pnts that are mutating." Then I drew a simple potted pnt next to it. Danny sat back in his seat seeing me add his idea to the board. "But I still don't think this is the same," I added a question mark next to my doodle of a potted pnt.

  "Why not?" he asked returning from his smug position.

  Then Mom chimed in, "I've been talking with my friends and some of their birds (chickens) were going through mutations, but the changes are never too drastic. Beaks growing teeth or different plumage".

  "Now that you mention it, some of the cows have been a little different tely and I did see something online a while ago about rge fish," Dad added.

  "Square cube w." I said getting a bunch of 'Huh?' and 'What?' "It's a math principle, as something grows in size its volume increases faster than its surface area. It's the reason why animals like whales can only exist within water, it takes the pressure of gravity off their bodies".

  "Are we even dealing with standard physics anymore?" Danny finally made a proper point and I had to give it to him. Writing "special physics?" on the board.

  "I have no idea, but if it's not affected by physics: doesn't that make it special?" I know I heard him mutter something under his breath as I gave a wide smile.

  END

  Spoilerkidmonkey94

  Californian redwood: Average mature trees are from 200 to 240 feet high with diameters of 10 to 15 feet at 4 feet 8 inches above the ground. Exceptional individuals sometimes reach a height of 350 feet, a diameter of over 20 feet, and an age of approximately 2000 years.

  [colpse][colpse]