Episode: 6.16

--- Prosperity ---

---(Present Day)---

She opened her eyes and woke up laying a field of roses, surrounded by her dreams, much like she had the first time she dived into her wonderland. Only this time, the world was a little more filled out than a field of roses and a moonlit sky.

The entrance to her dream was still a field of roses, yes, but around that field was now a forest surrounding on all sides the glowing butterflies looking more like will-o’-wisps looking to lead travelers to their destiny.

From where she stood, she could make out a number of woodland creatures, mostly foxes and racoons, hiding just out of sight and watching with curious but shy gazes.

“So, what kind of flowers should I grow today?” She asked her Dreams, knowing what kind of things each one would suggest.

“Some more sunflowers or rosemary, might be nice.” Wormy suggested with a look towards a section of flowers at the forest edge. A section where a number of large bumbling bees could be seen playing amoungst the flowers before drifting off towards the entrance to their hive deeper into the forest.

“We could have the apple trees enter an early bloom?” Fox eyes suggested, just a touch of hunger to her voice as she licked her lips.

Ness merely shrugged, the urbanite having little appreciation for flowers outside of Rosette, who herself wasn’t giving much in the way of suggestions, too shy from the attention on her.

“Those all sound like lovely ideas.” She agreed, pulling at the power all around her to begin shifting the landscape of her dreams, causing new flowers to bloom all around the garden, even if none of them intruded upon the hilltop of roses.

She always tried to put a little more effort into Rosette’s Garden since the change in scenery cost her little to no resources compared to the additions her other dreams might request for their parts of her wonderland.

But regardless of cost or value, the feat was enough to have Rosette look around with nothing but excitement in her eyes for the essentially superficial changes to her domain. And as Ness carried her around the garden flowers both new and old, the little flower’s joy seemed almost infectious to those who could see her.

(Always found it kind of cute that my youngest Dream prefers the oldest part of my wonderland…)

Shaking her head with a soft smile, she turned leaving Rosette to her garden and trusting Ness to catch up when he was done helping his crush.

“Alright, Fox, where exactly do you want this hot spring of yours?” She asked making her way to the foundation of all of Fox’s power, her instincts demanding she keep her wonderland organized, no matter how varied the landscape became.

The little fox dream shifted so that she was sitting on Prosperity’s shoulder as if it was the most regal of thrones. “Close to my shrine, please and thank you, darling.”

She nodded before adjusting her path through the forest.

It was always a strange experience moving through the rougher terrains, or rather it felt strange because she knew it was strange from an outside perspective.

For her it didn’t matter if she’d never actually left the more urban areas, her body would always move instinctively to adjust to whatever terrain she was walking on, as if she’d lived in those areas all her life.

In the forest her feet would avoid roots and loose stones, while her hands would automatically reach out to brush aside any foliage in her path without damaging it or her in any way, all instincts that she just knew she’d lack if she attempted them in the waking world.

(More proof we should never wake up.)

She shook the childish thought from her mind, as she finally made it to a small forest clearing. All around the clearing there were a number of small wooden shrines each housing its own little cushion for whichever weaker dream creatures wished to take a moment’s rest. In the center of the clearing was a shrine much larger than the rest, where a series of stone steps led up to a large cushioned throne surrounded by numerous bottles of apple cider.

“Now where exactly do you want the hot spring?” She asked her fox dream once more.

“Behind my shrine, that way the steam can spread through the whole area without messing with any of my established décor.” Fox eyes reasoned.

She snorted. “Going for the mysterious and enchanting look?” She asked her second most self-absorbed dream.

Before the fox cold answer, she heard Wormy mumble, “She already has both.” just a little too loudly if the way Fox eyes preened was any indication.

(And he wonders why she loves him?)

She shook her head, before making her way out to the space behind Fox eyes’s shrine, a space full of too many trees for any kind of construction to take place.

Not letting that little detail deter her, she moved just passed the first lining of trees before pushing with her powers, twisting space in such a way that even more space appeared in her wonderland, and pushing all of the nearby trees back and leaving a brand new clearing for whatever she felt like adding, namely Fox’s hot spring.

“Alright, now how to do this?” She murmured to herself setting Wormy down so that her hands would be free for this more complex bit of dream weaving.

To start she mixed a bit of [Passion] and [Serenity] to form her starting base of [Relaxation], from there she proceeded to weave and layer the three emotions together to form something a little more meta-physical.

As she did this the butterflies around her began to twist and weave through the air before landing on the site she’d designated, causing the earth to slowly shift and spin, the space in the center sinking as the edges began to rise, and steaming water flowed from unseen source.

“And done.” She nodded, letting her newly crafted dream settle properly into her wonderland as the world around her buffered out the few details she missed.

Fox eyes stood on her shoulders with just a spark of excitement in her eyes. “May I?”

She held up a finger to hold the little fox back. “Just let me check the effects real quick.”

With a thought she pushed out with her Awareness, reaching for the hot spring and all the dreams that made it and were seeking to connect to it. As her awareness brushed over the springs, the effects that the newly crafted dream would have on her and her wonderland became a little more apparent.

(Generates [Relaxation] when my other dreams use it, which is good since I can always use more resources… Uh, slightly reduces tension when exposed to warm water… and what else… Ah! Increases resistance to hot water, nice!)

“Wormy.”

“What ‘ve you got, mum?” Wormy asked holding a small board with three of his little left legs, and a marker to write with two of his right.

“This good, mum?” Wormy showed her the board.

Foxy Springs:

-Generates [Relaxation] when used by a Dream-creature.

-Slightly reduces physical tension when exposed to warm water.

-Slightly increases tolerance to higher water temperatures.

“Very good.” She nodded to her most diligent little Dream.

Wormy nodded back with pride before crawling to and up a nearby tree, where with a bit of Wormy insect magic, he stuck the board to the tree so that she wouldn’t have to reach out to her construct every time she wanted to remember what exactly it did.

“Now?” Fox eyes asked (not begged) her little paws dancing on Prosperity’s shoulder as the dream’s regality began to give way to her excitement.

“Now you can go.” She agreed with a wave towards the springs.

The little fox yipped in excitement before leaping off of her shoulder and spinning through the air in a burst of light.

As the light gave way an anthropomorphic fox-human stood in front of them, in a purple and white kimono dress with the emblem of a sleeping fox curled around a butterfly embroidered onto the back.

Fox eyes stretched her arms above her head, four fingered hands splayed out, before twisting about as she readjusted to her more complex dream form. “Mm, ye~s, I’ve missed this.”

“Sorry, I can’t let you walk around full sized in the ‘real’ world.”

One of Fox’s orange and white ears twitched before she turned back to Prosperity, her face as sympathetic as she could manage with a fox face, “Oh, darling, you know it’s no problem. There’s simply no need to waste the resources when they’re better spent growing the wonderland.”

“Still I know you and Ness prefer your full forms rather than the chibi ones.” Even if she knew they didn’t really care, she still hated putting them through any form of dysphoria.

Fox eyes rolled her eyes before walking over to prosperity with a hand on her hip. “Darling, when are you going to learn that I am fabulous regardless of the form I take?”

“Careful, your starting to sound like Sporis.”

Fox eyes scoffed. “Please, that… fungus doesn’t have half of my class.”

She couldn’t help but smirk. “Pretty sure he’d say the same about you.”

“And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Fox eyes shot back with an affronted look.

“Sure.” She nodded more amused by Fox’s lack thereof, than anything else.

Fox eyes glared at her for a moment, before turning to a nearing Wormy and picking him up.

“And as for you…” Fox eyes leaned into the little insect and whispered just low enough that she only heard due to her powers. “Be sure to visit as soon as you’re done with, mum.”

With that Fox eyes kissed Wormy before handing him over to Prosperity, and turning to her new hot spring, her tail swishing through the air as she sauntered her way towards the water.

She had to keep from chuckling at Wormy’s audible ‘gulp’.

“You’re a lucky little worm.” She told him, scratching behind Wormy’s antenna as she turned towards their next destination, the little dream’s nervous laugh bringing a smile to her face.