This is a tree. Trees do not talk.

"She says hello..."

"I can't hear her. I can't hear anything except words, and I guess maybe tree words don't come through."

"...oh. She does not say words - it is the rustling of her branches, and the light through her leaves, that makes her feelings known."

Pause.

"She says she is sorry, that you cannot hear her. I am sorry, too."

"Sorry, tree." Pat pat. Could be nonsense but it would not be the weirdest thing that has happened to her today.

"When you were a Woman, did you travel very far?" he asks, apropos of nothing.

"Yes. Not always intentionally."

"Oh, that sounds very fun. I have only ever gone where I meant to go, even when I meant to go somewhere I did not know yet. Maybe I should go more places by accident? Only I don't know how I would."

"It wasn't fun."

"Oh. I am sorry, then. Maybe we will both be happier going where we mean to."

"Yeah. I could actually send you to a random place but I doubt you'd ever be able to come back so I'm not planning to."

"Oh, please do not. I would miss my Rose, and she would do so badly without me... and I am sure my asteroid would be destroyed by baobabs anyway, they are such a constant trouble."

"...baobabs."

"They are very large trees. But they start very small and difficult to notice, and they grow very quickly, and my poor asteroid took a very bad seeding of them some time ago, and so I must be careful to root them out when they try to grow, or else they would crush it entirely."

"Oh. I guess I'll keep a metaphorical eye out."

"Metaphorical?"

"I can't see, except, again, for words. I have a blindsense sort of thing instead."

"Oh... well, so many of the important things cannot be seen, anyway. Would you like to take a walk?" The pivot is as smooth as it is nonsensical. "There is an asteroid nearby which is cared for by a Mother, and she has given me chocolate, sometimes."

"I don't know how to get to another asteroid. None of them are near enough for me to sense."

"Oh! If you hold my hand, I can lead you. Or if you don't, I suppose - but it is nice to hold hands, is it not?"

"Sometimes, I suppose." She holds out her hand.

He, in turn, takes it. And then he walks forward, but rather than following the steep curvature of the asteroid, he... doesn't. Just keeps walking in a straight line.

...can Annie do that?

Yep! There's a moment when he's started going upwards and she hasn't, where their hands stretch apart a bit, but once she gets the hang of it they sync back up.

Kind of cool. There's nothing to trip on in midair.

Indeed there isn't! It doesn't really feel like walking on anything, let alone a cluttered surface; when she puts her foot down, it just stops where her next step should be.

The Prince looks up, though up is starting to seem like a less coherent concept. "The stars are beautiful. Would you like to hear about them?"