Sunflower - Chapter 13 (Patreon)

My friend is a most curious creature.

I can not say what it is exactly, that she is.

- A bird, a bee, a sunflower or whatever else, have you.

But I feel as if we have grown to know each other, despite not knowing each other. I am a sunflower, she is Burch.

Is that not enough?

A day has passed in full and we do not continue our journey, rather, we sit and hide on the outskirts and curiously gaze towards the many, the collective, as if we were hunters on the prowl.

But we do not hunt. We hide. We skulk. We observe.

Are you afraid of your ilk, Burch?

Or is there something else at play here?

- I can not say.

It is perhaps simply, not for a sunflower to ever really know.

But there are things that I have come to know, as we sit in the trees and we watch.

I have come to know that I do not care for heights.

Burch has climbed up a tree and I am on her back.

Has any sunflower ever gone up this high before?

I never knew that it was possible to go this high up in the world and the tree does not seem to mind our disturbance much.

That being said, the amount of sunlight that we can gather here is sub-optimal.

- But my friend refuses to return to the ground. She clambers to the tree, as I clamber to her and the two of us, unable to see the sun, watch the creatures of the houses, of the ‘village’ instead.

Most curious.

There are similarities between them. The females are akin to her and the males are akin to the gray-forager, who we ate on the other side of the world. But their skin is not as sun-kissed, their hair is not of the woody tone that Burch’s carries, their eyes, what little we have seen of them, are not of the same shade as hers.

They are the same, but they are not. Like wolves of different litters, there is a fundamental similarity, but there is a distinct separation of features.

Is that why we hide?

Are you curious as to if we will be accepted by the others?

- Fear is a most interesting thing to feel.

I wonder what it is like?

It must be very exciting for her.

I turn my head towards the sky, trying to get even a tiny glimmer of sunlight.

___________________________________________________________

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 190/240

EXP (Burch): 90/90

[LEVEL UP!]

Congratulations, Burch! You are now level {4}!

HP: 23/23 ↗

SOUL: 21/21 ↗

- [Stats] -

• STR: 05 ↗
• DEX: 10 ↗
• WIS: 05
• INT: 05 
• LUK: 09 
• LOV: 03

+1 Ability points [3]

You do not have a class. Upon choosing a class, you will be able to select +1 additional ability.

Ah, the word-wood has found us again. Burch is excited. I find this most bothersome, as she bounces on her feet, which disturbs my calm, quiet rest on her back. My leaves shake. My petals shake. My stem shakes.

And then, she stops bouncing, content with whatever it is that she has achieved.

I do not quite understand it. But I suppose that if she is happy, then I am able to sustain a little bouncing.

After all, what else are friends for?

“When I get to level five, I can get a class,” she explains, looking over her shoulder towards me, as if I would know what that means.

I do not.

I am a sunflower.

But, again, if she is happy, then I suppose I will be too.

After all, the sun is bright today. The wind is calm. The air is clean. The soil is nourishing.

I spread my leaves and petals and lift my head.

It is good.

___________________________________________________________

We camp in secret. It is night.

Burch has made a choice.

“I want to go into the village tomorrow,” she says, practicing her ‘magic’.

We do not have a fire, as it would reveal our hiding spot to the creatures of the village. It is a nest found between many trees. Many rocks surround us.

She lifts her hands, the book in her lap.

(Burch) uses: [Minor Pulse]

My leaves shake as a small tremor moves through the ground around ourselves. The trees surrounding us rattle, losing a few of their leaves.

I find it bothersome that she does this so often.

But she seems to have grown an excitement for it, for the magic.

Given what I have seen of her kind, I have a notion that she is still young, she is still filled with excitement and the curiosity of youth.

- As am I.

I am a most excitable sunflower, after all.

I have been on adventures and suffered greatly at the beak of the bird. I have sat in a cave and rejected a suitor bee. I have drank of the red-water and nourished myself of the fruit-mash.

Youthful vigor fills my roots.

My seeds are young and my petals are bright. The season of life has just begun and there is so much more of it left to live, there is so much more left to see.

- A disturbance.

The mycelium warns me that someone treads along the rocky field, even this late at night and I calmly lift my gaze in curiosity.

A predator?

No.

It is one of her ilk.

Burch turns to face the disturbance in the darkness, clutching the long stinger, her fish-catcher from the wet-forest.

“Akt’chala?” asks a voice. I do not know what it says.

A face leans around a big rock, staring towards us. It is young. Female. One of the villagers. The two of them stare at each other for a strange moment.

Fear.

The strange girl screams, apparently not happy with having seen Burch in the darkness.

I do not quite understand. I find Burch pleasant to look at, despite how ugly I have found her to be in the past.

But that was before I knew that she wasn’t what she was back then.

My friend, in what is perhaps mindless panic, lunges and grabs the child, covering her mouth to silence her. “Wait! It’s okay!” grunts Burch. “Shh! We’re friendly!”

(Burch) has grappled (???)

[Applied status: Grappled]

[Applied status: Silenced]

A struggle ensues as my friendly friend calmly fights the fearful child, who she has pounced upon in the dark of night.

- I wonder if she has thought this through?

Perhaps not.

Burch is struck over the head and the child escapes, screaming again.

(???) has struck (Burch) for 2 DMG

(???) is no longer [Grappled][Silenced]

My friend lifts her hands.

(Burch) uses: [Minor Pulse]

The ground shakes and there is a crack, wet.

The child has fallen, striking its head on one of the many rocks.

- Quiet takes the night once more and I watch as Burch lays there on her belly, staring at the unmoving silhouette, strewn over the stones at an odd angle.

Red trickles to the soil.

It remains quiet.

Then, voices ring out from afar, from the village.

How unfortunate.

Burch jumps to her feet and grabs me and the two of us run off into the night.

This is fantastic.

I never knew that children could die like this.

- Amazing.

Perhaps it should have been obvious to me, after Burch ate the young rabbits?

Should we eat the child too?

No. It seems that this is not that case, as we run away from the body, as we run away from the village.

Oh well.

I suppose that I don’t mind either way, really.

I am a sunflower.

There will be other bodies to eat.

___________________________________________________________

Life sure is a complicated thing.

The sun has come to greet us anew and Burch and I have run through the night, we have run through the darkness and over the fields and across the meadows on which many night-animals grazed.

Now, as far as her legs could carry us, we have arrived in a new place and Burch sits by the waters of the brook.

I like brooks.

They are like creeks.

How nostalgic.

My friend removes her bark and then jumps into the waters, but this time, she does not play and find joy in the bath. She simply grooms and washes herself, before returning to me and to the sun.

In silence, we sit there, beneath the warm rays of the good thing in the sky. Water drips from her body, soaking the soil in which my roots nest and the two of us watch, as the glow of the sun floats on towards the west, towards paradise.

What a good day.

Burch cries, shaking, feeling something terrible that only the living can feel.

- Amazing.