if you ever get back to it: the puzzle mechanics of the root are melding colors and carrying them with you. You can put them back in pedestals if you need to.
The short version to just advance is pick up the first yellow orb, go east, get blue orb, go around back through west to find the red orb. Go back around, leave the yellow orb, and presto, with blue+red you have purple and can get to the boss. (Theres a ton of extra stuff to do in the cave but that's the base route).
The game clocks at 2-3 horus if you don't run into too much trouble We've never been any good at the "short" part ¯\_(ツ)_/¯