Sunflower - Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Let go.

You must let go of these things.

This additional burden is a thing that one must not carry for too long.

After all, it must be so very heavy.

Today, the sun is bright. Today, the wind is slow and gentle. Today, the water of the brook is tepid and clear.

Only my friend, Burch, is a heavy, slow, unpleasant thing today.

I spread my leaves and petals, gazing towards the sky, basking in the daylight glow of the good world.

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 216/240

EXP (Burch): 26/160

Her steps are heavy. Her breath is heavy. Her labourous trampling across the grasslands, soft and pleasant, is heavy.

She seems to have become most unhappy since the hunt of the young thing.

- I do not quite understand why.

Is it perhaps because we did not eat it? Is that why she is sad? My friend was not sad when she hunted and ate the small rabbits.

A waste of nutrients?

There is no need to be upset.

We did partake of the flesh of the child. But the grasses will. The worms will. The mushrooms and the soil will.

Others will reap the fruits of our efforts. Others will grow fat and pleasant and we will know this, so we too, have a reward to gain.

- The knowledge of having done a good thing.

I calmly shake my leaves, mimicking the rustle of the forest in a soft breeze.

It does little to calm her.

____________________________________________________________

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 240/240

EXP (Burch): 50/160

[LEVEL UP!]

Congratulations! You are now level {7}!

HP: 17/17 ↗

SOUL: 13/13 ↗

- [Stats] -

• STR: 02 
• DEX: 02
• WIS: 09 ↗↗
• INT: 08 ↗↗
• LUK: 08 
• LOV: 06

NEW - [Heavy Pollen]{Active}

Spell Cost: {6} SOUL

Disperses a wave of loose, flowery, sticky pollen out in all directions up to a distance of your LOV in meters.

When successful:

• 70% for target to gain status: [SLEEP]
• 15% for target to gain status: [LETHARGY]
• 15% for target to gain status: [DELIRIUM]

Does not affect targets with a high NATURE-RESISTANCE.

 The heavy perfumes of a flower’s pollen, meant to attract pollinating insects, are made up out of a complex web of phytochemicals. Inhalation of these substances can lead to shifts in physical and mental states.

I am a powerful sunflower.

Perhaps the most powerful sunflower?

Wow.

I never knew that a sunflower could be this strong.

Burch spares only a glance towards my word-wood. Even it seems to bring her little joy today.

- What a sad face.

My sad friend, who ranges from both hideous to beautiful, and I continue our journey towards the west.

I can’t help but feel that the sun is a little closer today than it was yesterday.

____________________________________________________________

We have wandered for a day and then another day.

Burch hungers.

I can tell, because her blood lacks the minerals and nutrients that I crave. Instead, I find most of them in the soil, when she sets me down for the night and lays herself down on the grass.

She hasn’t made a fire since that night.

It bothers me, somewhat.

I enjoyed having a fire.

Fire is like a sun at night. It is warm. It is good.

We rest, sitting beneath a tree.

She has grown weak on her legs, which I find most bothersome and now she sits on the grass and leans against its trunk.

I am off to her side. My kind friend, who sits in the shade, has set me into the sun.

That was very good of her.

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 04/310

The air is pleasant.

The grasses roll all around us, as the wind pushes over the somewhat hilly meadow. Flowers and tall fronds blow in the breeze.

Something chirps above our heads.

Nervously, I calmly turn towards the tree that my friend rests beneath and stare at the bird who sits on the thick branch.

It chirps and scoots and chirps some more.

- It would be most pleasant, if it were not a horrible monstrosity.

I do not care for birds.

(Sunflower) has used: [Heavy Pollen]

SOUL: 7/13

My head, my petals emit a cloud that disperses all around myself in a hurry, like the explosion of fungal spores, when a dry mushroom comes in contact with water and fresh air.

Status: [SLEEP] has been applied to (Lark)

Yellow pollen floats all around the air, falling back down to the grasses like sun-kissed snow, covering the greenery in a floral perfume.

The bird falls from the branch, landing on the ground before my friend, who I have hunted for.

You are welcome.

I look at Burch, who does not respond to my outgoing initiative to aid our journey.

Status: [SLEEP] has been applied to (Burch)

- How troublesome.

Oh well.

My friend sleeps, the bird at her side. My roots crawl through the dirt, towards the small thing that lays on the grasses, down where it does not belong.

The grass is a most unusual place for a bird to be.

They press towards the creature, to drain it dry before it wakes, so that it does not fly away before Burch can see it. Before she can eat it.

What a good friend I am.

My roots press through the bird's soft eyes, easily entering into its body.

(Sunflower) has used: [Bloodmeal]

It dies.

____________________________________________________________

What is this?

My friend walks, the grasslands having come to an end and we find a path.

However, it is a most unusual path.

Unlike the ways we have gone in weeks prior to this one, this path is not made of trodden dirt, flattened by many feet, hooves and claws.

This path is large and wide and made of stones.

How odd.

Burch stands on the grass and stares at the path, her eyes following it both ways. It is obvious to me that we should head towards the western direction and the path seems to go this way.

How fortunate.

Burch turns towards the setting sun and we walk.

However, I notice that, while we do follow the direction of the path, she does not step onto the stones, opting to instead continue to walk on the grasslands on the side of it.

I suppose that it does not matter either way. But I do find it somewhat strange.

Oh well.

[Sunflower]

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 06/310

What is life, if not strange?

____________________________________________________________

Look at the stars, Burch.

Are they not bright?

Do they not shine with an otherworldy beauty?

- Amazing.

The two of us sit by the path and gaze towards the spectral luminescence that covers the world, smothering it to silence.

I do not care for the night.

The night is when the sun is not here. The night is when the air grows cold.

However, I find a strange fascination with the sight of the sky at night. There are so many stars, each glowing with a pinprick radiance that is, in and of itself, similar to that of the sun.

It is just much less.

I suppose it is like my metaphor from a few days ago, with the wolves of different litters.

Perhaps stars are just of a different litter than the sun?

Perhaps they are of the same breed, but of different place and mother?

- How interesting.

I wonder, as my vision wanders over my friend, who has fallen into deep silence ever since that night.

Perhaps I was mistaken?

Perhaps she is not the same as the others of her kind? Perhaps that is why we hide? Perhaps that is why we venture in secret, running from the things that might pursue us. Perhaps that is why we eat of flesh and silence the screams of children?

Ah.

What a fool I have been.

It is no wonder that we are out here, that we do what we do. My mistake has been this entire time to assume that my friend was of the normal, natural order of the world. I had falsely assumed that she was a sunflower, a bird, a mushroom and many other such things.

However, I have been blinded by the light of the sun, its obscuring shine hiding the truth from my eyes.

I see now that my friend Burch is not a critter or a creature or a flower.

- She is a monster.

How interesting.

I had never known that one could have a monster for a friend.

My monster-friend feels me watching and turns her head towards me.

In the interest of seeing the smile return to her face, I shake and bounce with my head.

- This is a most unusual thing for a sunflower to be doing.

She laughs.

The night is a little brighter than it was before.