Sunflower - Chapter 7 (Patreon)

I am at peace.

My friend is at peace.

We are at peace.

Water drips, dropping noisily to the ground as it slides along the face of the collection of big rocks that we hide inside of. A shelter.

After much drinking and much walking, we escaped the fires of the dryland. Now that we have left them behind us, the rains have come.

- An irony, I suppose.

I do not have particularly strong feelings about the rain.

My friend pulls in her legs, leaning against the rock wall, huddling together as she stares out into the world that is being quenched with soft water.

I have realized, after much contemplation, that they are legs, not stumps.

What a fool I have been.

Of course they are legs, the things attached to her body. Birds have legs. Frogs have legs. My friend too, has legs.

But does that not mean that she can not be a snake?

After all, snakes do not have legs.

So what are you? Once again, I do not know.

The rain hides the sun from me, which I do not like. But the rain also makes the soil flush and rich with water. It nourishes the world. It nourishes me.

My roots, dug into the sediment of the cave, stretch out into the dirt of the birchwood-forest, soaking up a bounty of water.

The sky shines alight for just a moment, as if the sun were peaking through the darkness above our heads. A roaring crack comes after it. Thunder.

Wow.

I watch as the glow dies down. I listen, as the rolling roar travels across the world.

What an amazing life.

Sunflowers usually never see storms.

We don’t have eyes, after all.

- A conundrum.

I turn my head, leaning down closer towards my not-a-snake-friend to get a better look at her face.

How do I see, if I do not have eyes?

I do not know. This is a question not meant for sunflowers to answer.

She turns her eyes, looking my way, not lifting her face from the nuzzle of her wrapped appendages, which are wound around herself.

“Hey…” she says. She turns her head, looking back out into the rain-washed world. “I’m glad you’re here.”

An oddity.

I lift myself back up right.

I suppose that I am glad as well.

I watch the rain. A snail crawls along the rock to my left.

Wow.

It’s beautiful.

Something cracks. The snail vanishes beneath a rock and I watch as my desperate friend eats it.

What an amazing world.

____________________________________________________________

The rain continues, we are in our shelter, but there is a problem.

She is quiet, pressing herself back against the rocks and I do not move as well. Not out of fear, but because there is no sun-glow to orientate myself towards.

I find this most unfortunate.

Something scurries atop the rocks, sniffing and crawling around in the darkness.

It sounds like a not-bird, just above our heads.

I think it can smell your eyes, friend.

Just like the birds can smell my seeds.

Quietly, she looks my way with eyes that I find most troublesome. They seem to be asking something of me.

I understand what they want, but it would be a waste of energy, honestly.

I look back towards the ceiling.

Perhaps that is what friendships are, however. An inefficient expenditure of energy now, for the sake of long-term benefits. Perhaps friendship is like using a corpse as fertilizer? You will not eat it now, but because of it, you will eat richly of the fat fruit in a season to come.

- Very well.

But only because we are friends.

(Sunflower) has started channeling: [Hard Water]

Channeling Time: {6} Seconds

SOUL: 06/09

Something snarls above our heads. A long nose and crooked face peak out from above us, looking at the word-wood. The not-bird, the ugly thing that it is, growls as it sees my undefinable friend of indiscernible attractiveness.

I suppose it really does want to eat her eyes.

My roots gorge themselves on the water present in the rocky outcrop, filling themselves until they are about to burst.

It is a rather unpleasant sensation.

I am not a waterflower.

I am a sunflower.

(Sunflower) uses: [Hard Water]

The ground around us shakes, the rocks above our heads shaking dangerously loose. Many of them fall and with them, so does the not-bird, landing on its back, gripping onto the stone that has fallen onto its chest.

What a strange creature.

I look at it.

It does remind me of my friend. But its eyes are ugly. It has bird eyes.

It does not have good eyes, like she has.

And, unfortunately for it, it has a rock on top of itself.

- My friend does not.

I turn back towards the sky, wondering if the sun will ever come back?

I do miss it.

As I stare in melancholy towards the gray above our heads, there is a series of cracking and squishing sounds that are too wet, even for this weather and then, the not-bird is quiet.

The soil drinks deeply of its blood and I suppose that I secretly have a little, mischievous sip as well.

After all, what is life good for, if not for living a little?

It will be our secret.

[Bloodmeal]{Passive}

Thirst: Quenched

Minerals: Replenished

+8 EXP

EXP: 142/160

I am an adventurous sunflower.

___________________________________________________________

Positive.

I am positive.

Facing towards the east, I sit in anticipation, hoping that today will bring with it a new sun.

We have left our shelter and wandered through the rains and the world, searching for whatever it is that we seek.

I am uncertain, as to what that might be, exactly.

My friend isn’t much of a talker and neither am I.

Fire crackles, not far away and she eats and gorges herself on the bountiful gift of a hunt.

A rabbit.

A small rabbit.

We were walking along the fields and she saw a rabbit. But it was fast. It ran to its hole, before we could catch it. So, like a fox, she feverishly dug into the ground.

The big rabbit was gone. But in the hole, she found small rabbits, unable to escape.

Fire crackles and she eats.

Good hunting, friend. I suppose I should have known. With you having legs and with how red you always are and with your tendency to hide and to run and now seeing you hunt rabbits in their burrow, it appears obvious to me.

- You are a fox.

Of course.

Forgive me, friend. I did not know that you were a fox. I am an ignorant sunflower, who has assumed many things about you, so far.

Oh well. It doesn’t matter.

Listening to my fox-friend finish her meal, I stare towards the east.

Soon.

In anticipation of the moment soon to come, I spread out my leaves and unfold my petals and stand proud and tall.

I would like to look presentable for the sun, after all.

Something stirs next to me. I fear that it is a rabbit that she missed, coming to gnaw on my flush stem and my strong roots. But I see that it is just her.

My fox-friend stares up towards me and then sits down next to me, facing the east with crossed legs.

The two of us stay there, the fire crackling next to us, full of small bones, as the sun rises in the east, bringing with it a breathtaking beauty that is not of this world or of any other.

Wow.

Glowing rays of red cascade over the distant horizon, heralding the dawn of a new, full day of sunshine and life.

I hope that today we get to see a big pile of dirt again, or maybe a strange rock? That would be exciting.

Perhaps, if I am truly lucky, we can see something that I have never seen before.

But I suppose that in that case, I am always lucky. Every day, I see something new.

What a life.

My fox-friend gets comfortable next to me and the two of us bathe in the shine of a brand new day, come free of any old troubles and fears of the one before it.

It is good.

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 143/160