Once Amanda began her ascent through the centre of the tree, the noises of the forest floor soon fell away. Now, Amanda was not only in complete darkness but she was also in complete silence as well. For a while, Amanda even entertained thoughts that she had fallen into some kind of void; that she wasn't climbing inside the trunk of a giant Tanglewood tree at all but had actually fallen into a vast pit of nothingness. Then she remembered her other senses. She could feel the smooth grain of the wood beneath her hands as she ran them along the wall of tree to her right to steady herself in the dark. She could smell the sweet aroma of the tree's sap which flowed all around her. She could - No. She didn't dare taste anything in here. Some plants were poisonous to humans.

Just thinking about eating made Amanda realize how hungry she was. It was surely long past her dinner time now, and she had hiked a long way without sustenance of any kind. Woa! Actually, thinking about food was a bad idea, because Amanda was now beginning to feel faint from lack of nourishment. She had climbed a great distance up into the tree, and she did not want to think about the consequences of losing her balance and falling off the precipice to her left, plummetting, undoubtedly to her death, onto the forest floor below.

With nothing else on which to focus in the silent darkness, Amanda began to count the steps in an effort to take her mind off her hunger. She lost track somewhere around 300, however, and was so tired and hungry and uncomfortable at that point that she was close to sitting down right where she was and crying.

"One more step," Amanda coaxed herself. "And one step more. Left foot. Right foot." Her words echoed within the walls of the tree.

When Amanda felt certain that she could go no further; when she knew that her very next step would be her last and that her feet would crumble beneath her; a knew sensation invaded her senses. Amanda leaned against the wall of the tree and inhaled deeply. Did she smell cinnamon? And nutmeg? And cloves? Amanda climbed on a few more steps, pulling herself up with hands and feet now. The multitude of smells quickly increased as Amanda ascended further. Garlic, onion, curry, cocoa and a whole slew of spices which Amanda could not name. Soon she was smelling honey and berries and the wonderfully distinct aroma of freshly baked bread. Either someone was preparing a grand feast up above her, or she was experiencing a wild, complex and extremely realistic olfactory hallucination!

Amanda pressed on, practically dragging herself up the stairs now. The excruciatingly delicious food smells grew increasingly stronger until the dark tree-trunk staircase opened out into a large, round, warmly-lit room - with a massive feast spread out across most of the floor. The one small sign propped up against a large cauldron of wonderfully aromatic soup read simply: