anxiety node

6x0 rapidograph pen

Definitely not portrayed in this scene where Andrew and Lily find a dormant node, but these plant-like stalks are nasty threats to the forest. When shaddow (symbol for bipolar and anxiety disorder) gets in an excited state without sunlight (in other words, without representing mania, it spins and grinds it's metallic fibers in a disk vortex, and when in the infected woods surrounded by copes, this excited shaddow pulls them apart into small entities and builds up a stalk with a sinister-mouthed pod at the end out of their dried flesh, called an anxiety node.

Once the node is grown, the pod drops open and a luminescent gas rises out, which corrodes the membrane that keeps light out of the Infected Woods and marks the border between there and the Active Forest. This makes it very possible for shaddow and decay to metamorphisize and if an Anxiety node is created too close to the border, shaddow and decay may find it easier to find their way into the Active Forest. Along with this, each node can release enough corrosive gas to uncover entire areas of the infected woods, causing enough damage to be a concern to the elementals. This is even a concern if areas away from the border are exposed, because shaddow and decay can metamorphisize and draw in flying creatures such as hope and levian wraiths to be consumed, and trapped when the membrane keeping out the light is eventually mended.

In this scene, we see two of the main characters noticing the husk of a dead anxiety node which once cleared the whole area of darkness. When Andrew (the human with long hair) and Lily (the anthropomorphic fox, a symbol of love and maturity as well as the ideal girl for Andrew) touch it, pure silence is heard, just like what would happen if a cope was touched. But they drop their curiosity and have fun climbing the dead stalk, sitting in it's "mouth" at the top. This is one of the first times in the novel that Lily and Andrew connect and break the ice, and Lily reveals herself as encouraging for Andrew to come out of his shell