A rose is the king of all flowers and has existed long before the Draoidh. Beware of any plant beast that bears the marking of a rose—it is not something mortals can contend against.

~Blodeuwedd, Goddess of Flowers and Wisdom

Crow jumped into the boat, and Nin shoved them off into the water before hopping in. The Puca King sent vine whips at them filled with sharp thorns. Each thorn was wickedly curved, and a blackish-green substance oozed from them.

Thankfully, it was too far away to hit them, but the beach had a new deep furrow slapped into it. They paddled with all their might to get out into the middle of the river and head downstream. Lily was flying ahead of them, trying to guide them in the lightless night sky.

At this rate, they wouldn’t escape far enough downriver before that thing was in range to attack them.

“Paddle as fast as you can. I’ll try to slow it down,” Crow said and summoned his bow from the Vortex Pin. Nin just grunted in agreement as her little body pulled the paddle through water as if she was cutting through the air. The boat shot forward, but the Puca King’s reach was tremendous.

Arrows rained down on the giant beast, some slicing through vines, others knocking off rose petals, but primarily they were deflected. It used the leafy twigs on this body to create shields that stopped arrows from hitting anything vital. After he emptied almost an entire quiver, Crow smirked as he drew a bone arrow. It was a shot in the dark, both literally and figuratively. However, he remembered the last lesson his father taught him well. Most Rootless could sense things related to wood, which was why arrows were useless against them—unless… the arrow wasn’t made of wood.

Crow wasn’t cocky, but he put his bow away after launching the last arrow and picked up the paddle. It wouldn’t kill the thing, but it was enough. He was sure of it.

Boom!

The Puca King stumbled and fell to its knees. The shrub-like humanoid-shaped disintegrated as it turned into a thrashing plant. Vines assailed everything around it, even killing dozens of Puca. Crow looked back, not expecting it to react the way it did. It had reverted to its plant shape, but embedded deep in a rose, he saw the fletchings of his bone arrow sticking out. Losing an eye had to sting, even if he had dozens of them.

The smaller Puca all fled or dropped to the ground and pretended to be plants once more. Not one of them approached their king. More importantly, all of them had lost interest in Crow and his allies.

While he had been confident, Crow still breathed a sigh of relief when the boat reached a bend in the river. It meant they were safe. Unless that king could swim and be willing to chase them downriver, it had no other way to follow them.

Lily waved at him while she flew off downriver. At this point, they didn’t need to say much to understand each other. He knew she was going to find another resting point. After some time, Crow saw Nin nodding off—a side effect of using all that Dragon Fire.

“Sleep, just lay down on the bottom and retie yourself. I’ll take the first watch. We’ll just take it slow.”

Nin nodded and did as told, not bothering to argue since it was the best they could do for now. And activating his Three-Headed Crow ability came naturally now. As long as he didn’t push his vision out too far, he’d be able to at least see what was coming. The night vision wasn’t the best, but it was good enough for his Sage’s Mind to manipulate it into giving him a better viewpoint of everything.

No matter how much he wanted to fight it, the river was a veritable beast. If they’d been in an ordinary craft, this journey would have ended at the first set of rapids. Crow’s body wasn’t as tough as Nin’s, so he was also getting bruised and battered. While the boat wasn’t getting destroyed, it didn’t mean the passengers weren’t getting knocked around.

In front of Nin, he’d never admit it, but during the day, he found the ride exciting. Life and death were a weird balance, and it almost felt like facing death made him feel alive. He didn’t think of himself as masochistic, but the thrill of living surged through him. But even that had a limit before he just felt exhausted. When this trial was all over, he would find an inn and sleep for a month.

Lily flew back an hour later and then mimed two curves of the river and a place on the left bank. Her fingers pinched together as if to say it was minimal, but that was fine by Crow. As long as he could stop the boat for a time to rest.

Two hours later, with the moon directly overhead, Lily flicked his ear to break him out of his zombie-like state. Her tiny hand pointed, and looking over, he spotted a small island—more like a gravel bar, but enough to beach the boat. Crow nodded. It was a suitable spot and roughly in the middle of the river, so nothing could sneak up on them. They wouldn’t be able to get out of the boat, but he had ways to make that more comfortable.

The grinding crunch of the boat sliding on the gravel bar woke Nin up. She was still half-asleep but realized what Crow intended. He placed bedding on the bottom of the boat, and Nin moved to accommodate. Once set, they both laid back down, and she cuddled up next to him. Lily settled down on Crow’s chest and also fell asleep.

It was probably dangerous for all of them to sleep, but none of them had the energy to care.

***

An unknown amount of time later, Crow’s eyes cracked up because of the sun bearing down on him. The heat was brutal, and he saw that neither Nin nor Lily was in the boat with him. Sitting up, he saw them on the other side of the gravel bar, where the water was calm and shallow. Nin had several fish in her hands, and she was fire roasting them with her breath before devouring them.

“Glutton,” Crow chuckled.

Startled, Nin looked over with a fish in her mouth, the tail still flapping despite its charred look. She blinked at him, and her face turned beet red. Lily saw what was happening and started laughing so hard she practically fell from the sky.

“Why be embarrassed?” He asked with a smile. “You are a dragon. You don’t have to hide your nature from me. However, if we are at a restaurant in the future, please try to restrain yourself a little.”

Nin just nodded her head and was strangely obedient. Thinking about it, she probably felt guilty about last night. Crow didn’t think she had anything to feel guilty about because she did most of the paddling during the day, and her strength kept them from getting out of control. During the fight, she burned dozens of the Puca to death. In his eyes, she’d done more than enough.

“Hungry?” Nin waved a fish at him, and Crow nodded to her. Spewing Dragon Fire, she charred it and then tossed it to him. Like her, he devoured it without using table manners. An action that finally got a smile out of her. But even if he wasn’t trying to do just that, he was ravenous enough to not care who watched.

“I’m going to cultivate for a while. Since we slept this late, we’ll just do what we did yesterday. Lily, find us a good place to stop later.”

The Fae nodded and flew off.

“What do you want me to do?” Nin asked.

“Eat. Build up as much energy reserves as you can. Eat every fish in this place if you have to.”

Nin gave him a big smile and a thumbs up.

Crow spent a few hours absorbing mana into his body. During his recent adventures, he also noticed that his Heart Chakra was approaching saturation. It felt as if it wanted to open, and the only event he could think of was the Hag Stone. While he hadn’t paid it much attention when adding water to his Soulscape, he noticed that it somehow merged with his Fireheart Oak. There appeared to be the beginnings of a rune on the trunk of the tree related to it.

Based on Song Lin’s notes, he knew they related this chakra to empathy, compassion, and trust. It had a significant component based on love, namely inner and outer love. Which was essentially a sense of dedication and commitment to those he loved, including himself. The major impediment to opening the chakra was fear of abandonment and rejection. This fear was intense because of his parents, but his grandmother… ripped that fear apart. Her sacrifice changed his life, and he no longer felt like the abandoned kid he once was.

Now he had Song Xue, Lin’er, Mara, Nin, and Lily, and he had a brother—maybe two, if he counted Acco. People supported him and did so because they wanted to. There were no more roadblocks, but Crow was also unwilling to attempt opening that chakra during this time. He also knew this was one of the most critical chakras as it connected the human chakras and the immortal ones.

Song Xue remained stuck at the fourth chakra because she hadn’t gained her Shield. It was a turning point for eastern body cultivation as it brought them onto the path of becoming an immortal.

No matter, he pushed the thoughts aside, as this wasn’t the time or place. The issue was that he wasn’t sure how to stop the chakra from accumulating Qi. Now that he was cultivating his mind with his Druid cultivation method and his body with Martial cultivation, his chakras accumulated power without his control. Stopping that accumulation was like literally trying to stop himself from breathing.

Feeling his body mostly recovered and his Source and chakras brimming with energy, he opened his eyes. It was time to continue downriver. Even if he wasn’t ready, that uneasiness was back again. Because of their long journey yesterday, they gained some reprieve, but it was time to move.