"Who's There?"

"I am Grooooot!" whines the teenage tree, dragging his feet through the orange forest. Everything is orange in the Soul Stone.

"I know!" huffs Peter, yanking his mask off to glare at the grumpy sapling, "Complaining about it won't help."

Groot grumbles and stomps ahead, slapping branches out of his way.

Peter shakes his head, picking up the pace to keep up with his partner. Earlier that day, Black Panther had paired Groot and Spider-Man and assigned them to patrol a section of the unexplored regions of the Stone. The teenagers had grabbed some supplies and headed out to their assigned region to the North(?) and had made some good distance. Groot had also whined and moaned the entire way.

"Keep an eye out", Peter says, "There's probably some clues around that'll tell us where this forest came from."

Two hours into their journey they'd discovered a forest. The strange thing about that, is it means someone is out here.

The way objects work in the Stone, for a structure to exist someone has to think it into existence. Things like buildings, bikes, and even trees have to be thought into existence here. No one knows how that works, it just does.

Except the food. And bunk beds. Those are the only things not orange.

No one knows where those come from.

So, here they are, wandering through a weird forest trying to figure out who thought it up. A lot of people were sent inside the Soul Stone when Thanos snapped. A considerably small number of those people ended up where Peter and Groot have been staying for the past two years.

russstle...

The boys freeze.

Looks like they found who they were looking for.

Peter whips around to search the bushes.

Wait, bushes? Peter's mind backtracks. They'd just walked past that area. Those bushes hadn't been there before.

Had they?

russsle...

Peter whips around again, shoving his mask back on.

"I am Groot..."

"You can say that again."

Spider-Man forces himself out of the defensive crouch he'd fallen into and creeps closer to the bushes, peering closer at the tangerine foliage. "Is anyone there?" he tentatively asks.

No answer.

Spider-Man frowns in thought. "Maybe they don't speak English?"

He glances at Groot, who just shrugs. Spider-Man turns back around to face the bushes, signalling Groot to follow him, and ventures into the brush.

Spider-Man freezes at the slightest of sounds, attempting to pinpoint where their quarry has disappeared to.

They're around here somewhere, Peter muses.

After ten minutes of starting and stopping, Groot is more than a little frustrated with the cautious arachnid. "I am Groot..." He grumbles, marching past a frozen Spidey.

Said spider's head snaps up just as Groot shoves a particularly thick bush out of his way.

"Wait!"

"I aaAMM grooOOOT!"

Too late.

"Told you to wait", snickers Spidey.

"I am Groooot!" The irate tree flails his free limbs, his right leg caught in a noose that has him dangling from a low-hanging branch.

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses." Spidey leaps onto the branch the rope trap is tied to and begins work on the knotts. "These", he grunts, "are really tight."

With a final tug Groot crashes on the ground. Snickering at the teenage tree, Peter takes a look at the area from the branches. That's when he notices he's not the only one enjoying the view.

In the next tree over there was a little girl sitting on a branch and giggling at Groot as he untangled his limbs. She wore a reddish brown tunic and her maroon hair done up in braided buns.

Still giggling, the little girl glances up. Spotting Spider-Man, she froze.

Spider-Man raised his gloved hand and stumbled out a greeting, "H-hi, my name is-"

The girl dropped to the ground and scampered off through the bushes, leaving a startled and disgruntled teenage tree to stare after her.

"Wait!" Spidey calls after her, dropping to the ground in a crouch. "Hey, wait! We're not going to hurt you!"

Groot barely has enough time to stand up before Spidey is dragging him through the thickening forest.

"Come on Groot, after that green Leia!"

The boys chase after the little girl through the thickening foliage. Ducking under branches and leaping over bushes. Also tripping over random boulders.

"Come on, Groot." Spider-Man pulls fallen tree back up, "This is no time to be laying down."

He dodges Groot's swat and continues the chase. Spider-Man knows they're on the right track by the occasional giggle.

At least someone is having fun, Spider-Man grumbles to himself after getting slapped in the face by a branch.

The boys leap over a boulder and squeeze between two tall trees. Spider-Man gets ahead of Groot and hops over a particularly high bush, only to freeze at the edge of a cliff.

Groot notices his friend's halt, but is unable to slow his momentum. Flailing their arms they attempt to keep their balance, but its no use. They topple over the edge.

Their fall is cushioned by carrot colored mud. They slip and slide down the incline, landing with a SMACK in a giant mud puddle.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Spidey rips his mask off to glare up the source of hysterical laughter coming from the treeline.

(AN)

Happy late April?