(Burch) used: [Ambient Energy Wave] SOUL: 18/23 (Burch) has healed herself for {9} HP

Burch winces, the glow of her magic, painted by the light of the moon, leaves her hands and envelops her bloodied feet.

My friend recoils and I watch in curious delight as her body regenerates the lost beddings of her toenails. Then, a moment later, the nails themselves regrow too. My roots, pressed in through her flank, feel the most curious inner happenings of her body, as it heals and regenerates at a pace, which is most unnatural.

- What a curious thing it is, magic.

She sits there for a while and then, finally opens her eyes once again.

Hello, Burch.

I have missed you.

Are you ready to continue on with our adventure?

I am. I feel as if it were time for us to do so.

Wiping her face clean, Burch then flops over, falling down at my stem.

- She is asleep.

The wind envelops us, as we sit atop our perch.

Very well.

I suppose it is only fair that I let you rest.

But tomorrow, we will leave, yes?

I desperately long to see more of the world.

Letting my friend sleep, I cover her core extremities with my roots to hold her warmth inside of her body.

(Sunflower) has used: [Floral Resonance]

Since she is resting, I decide to lure in some spiders as nourishment for her.

They are not Burch’s favorite, but she will need the energy. It has been many days now since she has eaten. In the worst case, I will eat them for her, and press the nutrients into her gut.

- An interesting idea.

The best of both worlds, perhaps?

I listen to the disturbances in the soil, as ten thousand skittering feet make their way towards our hill.

Burch burps, holding her stomach as we walk. My crude friend holds her hand in front of her mouth and recoils from what comes back to her senses.

- She does not know about the spiders. I do not think that I will tell her.

“That scorpion really must have messed with me,” says Burch, walking and blinking deeply with her eyes a few times. We stroll on in silence, heading closer towards paradise by the step. She looks over her shoulder. “Thanks for always saving me,” she says.

Of course, Burch.

After all, is this not what friendship is?

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 102/450 EXP (Burch): 204/240

My friend, after her long rest, seems far more stable on her legs now. It is amazing what a few simple things will do for one’s energy.

Sleep, deep.

Food, nourishing.

Water, pure.

Sunlight, bright.

These are the only things that a body needs to sustain itself for as long as it can.

And as for the spirit, well…

- The two of us wander towards the west, towards the place where the sun sets itself down to fall with all of the rest of the things that are good and warm and of value.

The things that the spirit craves are just as simple.

(Burch) used: [Ambient Energy Wave] SOUL: 18/23 (Burch) has damaged (Hobgoblin Pursuer) for {09} DMG with her [Ambient Energy Wave] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 23/23 : 18/23 Sunflower : 19/19 : 15/15 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 02/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 11/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 11/11 : 06/06

The ugly hobgoblin wobbles on its legs, trying to keep its balance, while also flailing and attempting to wipe away the burns of my friend's magic.

Another two make their way from our sides and Burch drops to the ground, sinking her fingers into the soil.

(Sunflower) used: [Sunkiss] SOUL: 12/15

A strange pulse of energy radiates out of us and now that I have time to consider it, I realize it is of the same sort and make as Burch’s own magic. It strikes the goblins and they falter in their stability. The one that Burch had hurt just before, falls over, dead.

(Sunflower) has damaged (Hobgoblin Pursuer) for {5} DMG with its [Sunkiss] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 23/23 : 18/23 Sunflower : 19/19 : 12/15 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 00/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 06/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 06/11 : 06/06

Burch lifts her hand.

(Burch) used: [Minor Pulse] SOUL: 17/23

Another one of them falls over, knocked off of its feet and Burch takes her chance. She lowers her head, bars her arms and then rushes the last one, still left standing. In an odd moment of renewed clarity, I see that her strike is similar to the charge of the bramble-deer, which had once perused us, many weeks ago.

I realize that my friend has been learning, not only from me. But also from the world that we have experienced.

The hobgoblin flails, trying to claw through her new, thicker bark.

She lifts her hand to its snarling face, like she had done with the large male, back in the city.

(Burch) used: [Ambient Energy Wave] SOUL: 12/23 (Burch) has damaged (Hobgoblin Pursuer) for {9} DMG with her [Ambient Energy Wave] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 23/23 : 12/23 Sunflower : 19/19 : 12/15 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 00/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 00/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 06/11 : 06/06

The last of the creatures rushes back towards us, its blade held high into the air.

(Sunflower) has used: [Heavy Pollen] SOUL: 06/15 Applied status: [Disoriented]

Yellow dust flies out around us, falling through the air as if motes of chrysanthemum snow, blown by a washing springtide.

Through the poison mist, my friend glides, holding a knife in her hands and stinging the last goblin in its belly, as she has learned from the scorpion.

(Burch) has stabbed (Hobgoblin pursuer) for {03} DMG! Applied status: [Bleeding 1] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 23/23 : 12/23 Sunflower : 19/19 : 06/15 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 00/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 00/11 : 06/06 (Hobgoblin Pursuer) : 02/11* : 06/06

It falls over, unable to fight any longer.

Magnificent.

The struggle for life. The clawing and the biting and the gnashing of teeth, I find it most magnificent.

Burch takes off her rucksack and sets me down onto the dying hobgoblin’s chest, allowing me to nourish myself with what remains of its life.

[Bloodmeal]

Thirst: Quenched Minerals: Replenished +08 EXP

EXP: 110/450

The sun graces us with its holy presence. The winds, calm and serene, wick away the sweat of our troubles. The grasses, soft, offer a resting place to the hobgoblins, who have endured and worked and struggled too, for many hard, long years.

- Absolutely magnificent.

It gurgles as it dies.

- [ The fight is over ] -

(Hobgoblin pursuer)(Hobgoblin pursuer)(Hobgoblin pursuer)

have died.

+ 36 EXP EXP: 146/450 EXP (Burch): 240/240

LEVEL UP!

Congratulations! You are now level {06}!

- [Burch] - Health-Points: 30/30↗↗↗ Soul-Points: 24/24↗ Level: 6 ↗ Experience: 0/310 Class: Druid Sub-class: None Race: Human Obols: 000 - [Stats] - STR: 09 ↗ DEX: 13 WIS: 09 INT: 09 LUK: 09 LOV: 08 ↗↗ NEW - [Solitary Predation]{Passive} - Against targets that are physically larger than yourself, all MELEE and NATURE damage is raised by 33%. Animals vary in their make-up and behavior, as do people. However, being able to observe these creatures from an outside, objective perspectives, druids are able to pick up on certain mannerisms and implicit connections with natural, ambient magics and can use these themselves.

My friend, the apex-predator of the savannas, screams as she crushes the skull of a dead hobgoblin beneath her foot several times, as she has learned to do from the freed captives, back in the city.

While I do not care for the noise and for her unneeded aggression on such a calm, blissful day like today, I decide that it is best to let her live her life as she sees fit.

- After all, I am a sunflower.

And Burch is Burch.

These are two different things, so it is, of course, expected that we are of two different mindsets.

Perhaps that is the point, however? That is how symbiosis works, after all. Two very different entities come together and benefit from their exchange of resources, gathered by each only through use of their unique individuality.

A Burch and a sunflower can go far further than two Burches or two sunflowers ever could, or one sunflower or one Burch by themselves.

Perhaps this is the lesson that I myself have learned?

The rolling savannah, after weeks of walking, comes to an end.

And before us is something new, something amazing.

- Sand.

I never knew that there could be so much sand in one place.

It goes on and on and on, for as far as the eye can see and I assume that it then goes on even further still, just beyond that distant horizon.

I quiver.

Amazing.

Enthralling.

What else does the world have to show me?

What other secrets and grand spectacles lie in wait?

The great-sands lie before us and I can’t help but think that, for a place to be so dry, so arid, that the nest of a thousand long since set suns, can not be far from here.

- After all, why else would it be so hot and dry?

Paradise is closer than ever before.

It has to be.

Burch steps into the great sands, her bare feet slipping and sinking beneath their soft, silty mass.

Our journey continues towards the west, towards paradise.

We are close.