With graduation having come and gone, Jove was having trouble adjusting to his change in circumstances. Often he'd end up wandering around wondering exactly what he was supposed to do now that he was 'grown up'. He should probably get a job, so he can earn money and find a house like Ren and... something. But even that felt a little unreal to the pup.

Often when he got lost in his own head, he found himself in the library researching calming topics. "Physiology for the Practical Phantom" was an old favourite, and lately he had been learning about cooking. Specifically, baking sugary goods. He hadn't had a chance to try it out yet, but his time would come! Maybe he could always try cooking with Matty, who seemed to have a decent grasp on the topic, or at least the oven dragons, or maybe he could find Alessa for help...

But perhaps the most common research topic for little Jove was the growth of mushrooms. He loved learning about them. What environment they grew in, how they tasted, even the minute details of their life cycle. And it was during one of those study sessions in the library that he found the slip of paper.

It was a small piece of parchment, with a broken up string of numbers on it, and a note in perfect cursive. "sup growth sk."

What the Jack?

Jove looked at the numbers again, closely. They didn't mean anything to him offhand but...

He partially closed his book, and examined the spine, where the library system numbers had been printed. Sure enough, it was the exact same pattern as the first set of numbers. The second... a volume maybe? A page number? Jove grabbed the little piece of parchment, and leaving all his books on the table, he began wandering down the library aisles. Slowly he wound his way through the stacks and bookshelves until he found a small, dusty section on geography.

The numbers of the spine began to line up, one by one, and then he had found it. "Geographical Wonders of the Halloween World". It was old, dusty, and when the pup began flipping through it, the smell of bug-eaten paper wafted up. The brittle pages were fading, clearly the book had seen better days... Back in... the day?

Sure enough, the second number on his scrap of parchment corresponded to a page. There were faded ink drawings of giant fruits and trees, and although the print was hand-written it was clear enough. The section was describing a great old grove that had been around for centuries. It was entirely dead, but there was enough evidence to indicate it had hosted a myriad of species and unnaturally sized plant life. What had caused the grove's death was a mystery.

If it had been dead so long ago, what was the purpose of that scrap of parchment? Maybe the writer had simply been working on a research project, or a paper on farming. Jove was sure it was the sort of topic that would interest many people, aside from his own sort of mushroom harvests, Levi had come from a candycorn farm, and he was sure he had smelled earth and greenery on Ren before. What if they had the ability to make their plants grow so big?

Jove turned the page. There were more drawings, some of semi-familiar fruits that were larger than what one would expect to find in nature, and some sketches of ancient, desiccated seeds that had not survived the test of time. One even had a rather detailed account of a thorny bush that had grown to encompass an entire nest of birds, producing enough berries to feed them while acting as a natural and unnavigable cage surrounding them. Sup growth sk. indeed...

The pup carried the book back to his table, dropping it unceremoniously upon his existing pile to look through at his own leisure. He must have gone through the entire chapter, reading fading words and examining fading diagrams. There were leaves the size of a person's head in that forest, or at least, there had been, now there were only fossilized remains and a maze of half-petrified trees to tell the tale of what had once lived on that site. It was as though everything had up and died one day, ages before even the recorders had found the grove's resting place.

Why had it all died so suddenly? What could have made it die?

Jove frowned, and flipped back to the start of the chapter. It was just an introduction... And then in the margin, a little pencil note in a different handwriting style.

"sunken cave. portal."

Jove let out an audible sigh. He knew what this meant. He knew it would only lead to pain and suffering and possibly fiery chains of death that his brother would drag around everywhere even when EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN in his bedroom with his mushrooms. He didn't want to go back there.

But at the same time... He did.