But the stranger was already gone vanished into the trees without a sound, without a trace, leaving nothing behind but a journal and the weight of a thousand new questions pressing down on all of us.

"But we need complete data, Luna Angie," Dr. Liana pressed, her voice carrying the weight of scientific urgency. "Without proper documentation genetic markers, growth patterns, viability rates we're working blind. One wrong assumption about how to cultivate it, and we lose everything."

I held my ground, my hand still pressed protectively against my stomach. "And if we damage it during testing? If the extraction process kills the seeds before we understand how to propagate...