My friend is staring at me.
In a way, I'm used to her doing this. On the other hand, I find it annoying. After all, I taught her not to stare at me, but to stare at the sun.
-Maybe she was confused today? Maybe she thought I was the sun?
How to be likeable.
Let's take a break. After reaching the far shore to the west of the great water we walked all day and then stopped.
Now, another new morning has arrived, but my friend seems a little strange today.
I did the unthinkable and turned from the sunlight to look at her.
She sat there cross-legged, staring blankly.
What's up, friend?
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 132/240
Is there something on me?
I wish I hadn't. It would be so embarrassing if I had a caterpillar on me.
My friend Birch spoke.
-Then, after a moment of silence, she closed it again.
I didn't take it seriously, turned my back to the sun, and spread out the leaves.
It felt weird when she was talking to me.
But it's also weird that she doesn't talk to me.
Life is a weird thing.
The world here, west of the Great Waters, is strange, too.
We left the coastline and wandered through a lush grassland. But now we were standing in front of something that felt most foreign to me.
The air was numbingly damp. The leaves, the trees, they're growing tighter and denser, the leaves of the plants are getting thicker and heavier, the trees are getting skinnier, the crowns are very high, there are no low branches.
--original.
This thing before us is no ordinary forest. It was much wetter and full of strange, densely packed plants that were completely unfamiliar to me.
Very magical.
I never knew there were so many different kinds of plants.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 135/240 EXP(Birch): 13/55
Birch adjusted her rucksack and wiped the dew from her forehead as the two of us trudged through the slender openings between the dense overgrowth of the damp forest.
Slow progress.
Overgrown plants got in the way and there was almost no sunlight.
This is the most frustrating.
The trees here, across the river, are the same as the trees here on our side. They like to steal sunlight and keep it from reaching the brown, mulched soil.
We see a slender, beautiful snake, covered in colors from sky blue to emerald green, climbing up from a smooth tree.
My friend kept her distance, which was the wise thing she did.
At the same time, she swept through the air, swatting away a swarm of insects. This forest is rich in life, more abundant than anywhere I have ever seen before. The soil is as alive as me or her. Each clump contains an abundance of insects, mycelium, worms, roots, creatures and critters.
Moist forests are alive.
——Dazzling.
We continue our journey.
I wonder if heaven is close at hand?
I wonder, if the trees there were in heaven, would they also be willing to share the sunshine with other people?
That's great.
now it is night.
We were in a place made of stone. They were large and square, and looked as if they were the same structures of her kind, but had been built in a forgotten era.
-Wet forests have reclaimed much of their land.
Birch sat by the stove, which was difficult to light because everything was damp here, and stared at her earth-covered book. Unlike the forest on our side, the moist forest seemed more alive at night than during the day as the sounds of strange animals were heard all around us.
How curious.
As for the book, it draws her in every time we take a break.
During the day, we traveled together and she was nourished by my generosity. In turn, she carried me on her back and the two of us formed a powerful symbiotic relationship.
We are two parasites feeding off each other.
-Maybe this is true friendship?
She looked up from her book and stared at me from the strange square rock she was sitting on.
"This is a book about magic," she said, looking down at the object in her hands.
"magic"?
What a strange term.
I look at the world around us. I gazed at the dark night shadows of the wet forest, I gazed at the huge overgrown stones around us, I gazed at my friend who came with me from the steppes of the Eastern world, I gazed at the blazing fire of fire, its flames swirling like dancing bees around a spicy flower.
-Isn't this all magic?
How could that book be more interesting than all this?
I just don't understand.
But maybe I just shouldn't do it?
After all, I am just a sunflower.
magic.
What is magic?
My roots dug into my friend's back, making her twitch uncomfortably as I penetrated her flesh.
-Is this magic?
Birch packed his backpack and brought me into this world, and we were heading toward heaven.
But heaven seems far away.
After all, I couldn't see the sun here, trapped under the canopy of many wet trees.
The taste of her blood was lighter today.
Her body is nourished only by my sugar, and while that may be enough for an elegant creature like me, a body as big and gnarly as my friend's seems to need more than just sugar to keep itself alive. .
How exhausting.
I guess that makes sense. I also need minerals. But I get it from the soil. My friend never puts down roots in soil, so it makes sense that she doesn't have minerals.
Is "eating" magic?
Give yourself the life force of others. What an amazing concept.
I was thinking about the man I had a drink with many days ago. Gray old man. I absorbed many of his minerals which sustained me and I believe some of them are still in my roots and stems. They still support me at this moment.
The water from the cave, and the drops, remain in my reserve. I am sure.
The scorching sun burned on the dry grassland and left traces on my leaves, which have always been with me.
In a sense, everything we experience in our lives will be with us tomorrow.
I realized how strong my friend Birch was.
She didn't just take me to heaven.
She has these things in her, too, because they're in me and they're in her.
Wow.
Very magical.
This, this must be magic.
We cleared the damp forest and came to the resting place.
Steep rocks line the edge of the slope, and at its base is water.
Quick water.
a river.
It is wide and large, and the color of the water is far from the luxurious azure of the big water. The river is brackish, turbid, and the fast currents stir up all kinds of silt and mud.
--beauty.
“I wish we had a boat,” my friend murmured, her first words of the day.
This is a good sentence. Well done, Burch.
A boat is most useful. This mighty river can carry us, even if we carry all the extra weight ourselves.
But we don't have a boat.
This is most unfortunate.
Slowly, carefully, she walked down the slope, closer to the water.
We got there and stared at the scene before us.
The river meanders endlessly as far as the eye can see.
Shadows disturb the water and can be seen even in the dark.
--Life.
The river, like the fertile soil of a moist forest, fills it. It's rich, just like us.
Here, by the river, where there are no leaves, the sun can reach me again.
ah.
I miss you.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 143/240 EXP(Birch): 21/55
My friend looked around until she found a large, long, soft and strong piece of wood.
Along with a stone she had made earlier today and some fire, she ground it into a thorn, similar to the ones that pierced her chest and belly when we crossed the river, but much longer. many.
I had no idea bees could grow so big.
Oh no.
A terrible thought came to my mind.
Maybe I was wrong from the beginning?
-Maybe she's really a really big bee hoping to pollinate me?
I cover my face. Please don't pollinate me, friend. It would be uncomfortable for us to continue traveling together.
My friend walked to the water's edge and waited, stinger raised, until a shadow approached the water's edge.
She threw it in and pulled it out a few minutes later.
Attached to the end of the stinger is a big, fat, flopping fish.
Wow.
How did she do it?
That must be magic.
The rest of the day we sat around the fire and she ate lots of fish until she couldn't eat anymore and her belly was swollen from devouring the nutritious meat.
Today is a great day for sunflowers and I guess I am a birch too.
I wonder if we will still be like this tomorrow?
Wow.
