I pursed my lips in thought. The plantlife on the tree was bad tasting and unpleasant, but did that mean the other colors were? They each had to be made of different things, different substances, to give each their color, their thickness, their height. Like grapes, I heard, tasted different depending on their color. The green tended to be more tart than red or indigo, and that was what made difference regarding wine. I had tasted the stuff on one occasion, but hadn't much liked it. I voiced my idea to Silas, who tilted his head in thought.
"Hm, maybe... Do you think it's poison, though...? Who knows what could be in this stuff..."
"Well, it's trial and error, I suppose... Humans discovered what was poison and what was safe through trying it. Before they knew how to figure it out without harm. Besides, we don't have their systems. We'd be fine no matter what we ate." I couldn't go under the lattice, so I jumped over it, feeling my wins involuntarily flutter out to break my fall. "It's heavy..."
"Heavy?" Silas stared at the sea of color in front of us, then nodded. "It's knocked the vines to the ground. What are these plants made of, anyway...?"
"Maybe they... adapted." I offered, stepping in a bare patch and crouching down. "They have to be safe, though... What would be in the ground that would make the plants bad?" I reached down, feeling that each little glowing leaf was attached to a stalk. Most grew in flower-petal formations at the top of the thin stalks, which did't seem to be able to hold the leaves up well unless they were leaning against one another for support. I raised my face to the wind, catching a strange scent on the air. "Hey... Do you smell that...?" I glanced back at Silas, who I could see was flaring his nostrils to catch what I had.
"Yeah... I think it's coming from there." He pointed ahead, to a shed that was standing alone, across from a very large building that I assumed humans made wine in after the grapes came to maturity. I went forward without realizing it at first, feeling myself gliding until I realized I was simply running, actually running to see what was there, and barely acknowledging Silas when he spoke again: "Hey! Wait, wait up!"
Just a few paces from the shed I stopped, panted, and looked around. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure... what got into me." Giving an apologetic shrug to Silas, I looked up and down the shed. It was covered in vines, but these vines didn't look dead. They actually looked... black. And hanging off were flowers. "What...?"
They were huge, as large as my hand, which was certainly saying something. Their petals were thick and shiny, even in the eerie glow all around us, and their stamens seeped thick, red liquid that gave off a powerful scent, what Silas and I had smelled a moment ago. The petals were deep red, spiderwebbed with a faintly shimmering white.
I looked at Silas in awe.