Changed Apearance
. . . .
Though the place felt wrong in every direction, I forced the unease down and kept running toward the inn. The deeper I went, the more the forest seemed to stretch without end. Every step felt heavier, as if the ground didn't want me to reach the other side—but I didn't stop.
When I finally broke through the tree line, breath burning in my lungs, I froze.
The inn was still there… but it wasn't the same.
Thick vines climbed the walls like veins. Roots had torn through the frozen ground, splitting it open. Strange plants—plants I didn't recognize—sprawled over the courtyard, swallowing everything they touched.
It looked like nature had devoured the place whole.
The growth was too much, too wild. This wasn't weeks of change. This wasn't months. This was years.
My mind refused to process it. I'd noticed the odd density in the forest earlier, but panic pushed it aside. Now, standing in front of this overgrown ruin, there was no ignoring it.
I tried turning on my OmniOne. Dead. Either broken in the landslide, or something far worse.
How much time passed?
With that question twisting in my chest, I stepped into the inn.
The door groaned in protest. A stale, earthy breath drifted out to meet me. Inside, the wild growth had overtaken everything. Roots clawed through the floorboards. Vines wrapped themselves around the walls like constricting snakes. Moss dripped from the sagging ceiling. Pale shafts of light slipped through broken windows, illuminating clouds of floating spores.
It didn't feel like a home anymore.
It felt like a grave.
No human had lived here for a long, long time. And with that realization, the last thread of hope—hope of finding the giant, of finding Yash—snapped inside me. I sank to my knees.
But when I closed my eyes, I saw him—Yash, smiling at me, calling out.
"What happened, big bro? Already giving up? Get up. Get up and find me."
His voice wasn't real, but the feeling was. It pulled me back from the edge. I steadied my breath. There had to be something here. Some clue about the couple. Something that might lead me toward answers.
The couple had lived here for more than a decade. They wouldn't abandon the inn without a reason.
So why did they leave?
Where have they gone?
I pushed myself to my feet and searched room by room, stepping over collapsed furniture and thick, curling vines. Each room felt colder than the last.
When I reached the dining hall, the memories hit—how warm everything had been when Yash and I first arrived, how gently the old couple had welcomed us.
Then I saw it.
A shape slumped beside the table.
I walked closer, breath thinning. It wasn't one shape. It was two.
Two skeletons, half–buried in small plants that had grown through and around their bones.
The old couple hadn't gone anywhere.
They had died right here.
The shock hollowed me out. I just stood there, unable to think, unable to decide what came next. Then something flickered in the corner of my eye.
A faint reflection.
The bottom of an old glass jug, barely visible through the moss.
I turned my head—and came face-to-face with myself.
Except… it wasn't quite me.
My reflection looked pale, drained of color. Dust clung to my hair and face. Dried blood streaked across my cheek. My jawline looked sharper. My eyes… empty, searching for something that wasn't there.
And my balance—off since I woke up—felt even stranger now.
I looked down at myself, and the breath caught in my throat. My clothes fit differently. My limbs felt longer.
My height had changed.
Before coming here, I was 171 centimeters. Now… I looked closer to 180.
My heartbeat stumbled. Shock, fear, disbelief tangled together until I couldn't tell them apart.
People don't just grow like this. Not in hours. Not naturally.
And then the truth crept in like a cold draft.
The giant.
He wasn't normal. Nothing about him was normal. His aura had been heavy, ancient, bending the air around him. If anything in this world could change a person's body… it would be him.
Maybe he caused this.
Or maybe he understood what was happening.
Either way, he was the only lead I had—to Yash, to answers, to everything.
Resolve slowly pushed its way back into my chest, warming the cold places.
With the couple gone, with Yash missing, I couldn't stay here—not in this silent grave of a place.
I stepped out of the dining room, out of the ruin, back into the freezing air.
Wherever that giant was, I would find him. No matter how far I had to go.
A.N. - The title means 'The change in one's appearance.'
If you are liking my story, pls show your support in the comment section and by power stones.