The weather is cold.
It's as cold as a desert night here.
-Maybe it's colder than that?
Um.
Birch shivered as we walked, the midday sun bringing no warmth to us even though we were closer to it than ever.
We are at a very high place.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 256/1250 EXP (Birch): 397/650 +[Personal journey]
If I look behind us, I can see quite far away.
I could see the top of the swamp all the way to the first grain of desert sand.
It's strange that the desert, such a warm place, is right in front of me. But here, where we are, it's cold.
The world is indeed a confusing place.
Birch stopped, leaned on a rock, stared ahead, and noticed something.
-animal.
We stared at the grazer for a while. It has four legs and strong muscles, and its body is covered in stubble and fur. Two curved horns adorn its head. It feeds on the thin grass at the foot of the mountain.
It is a ram.
I don’t have a particular opinion about the Rams.
They eat grass to survive.
They did me no good, but they didn't do me any harm either.
A ram is just another entity that exists beside me in this most magnificent of our worlds. I have no opinion. The world is big enough for all of us.
As Birch moved, a branch split.
The ram raised his head and looked in our direction, and the three of us stared at each other for a moment while the ram continued to chew the grass in his mouth.
Hello,
am.
I suspect my friend is trying to capture you.
She got cold feet, you know?
The ram lowered his head and charged towards us. Birch screamed as he scrambled down the hillside and hid behind rocks.
(Bu
ch) started: [thing in the woods]
She blends into the background, her skin taking on the color of stone.
The ram's hooves thundered out and hit the large rock we were leaning against. It was standing above us, looking around to see if it had scared us away.
-Something is crawling to our left.
A lone goblin climbed up the mountain, trying to find a new path because the main road had been destroyed.
The ram bleated and charged at it, smacking the bewildered monster with its thick skull as it had not yet finished crawling. Their heads hit each other, and the goblin flew up, lost control, and fell into the abyss.
The ram stared for a while, then continued grazing as if nothing had happened.
Birch slid around the boulder and we continued our journey.
Apparently she decided not to hunt it.
That's only fair.
After all it keeps us safe.
If we're lucky, it will last a while.
As we wandered, I noticed that Birch had chosen not to take a higher path, but a lower one, one that was always in the sun. She has stopped climbing.
The terrain was too cold for her feet.
We stopped and she wrapped them in her cloth to keep them warm while we walked on the stones of the mountain.
But even though we were taking the lower path, I noticed that I was taller than usual.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 258/1250 EXP (Birch): 399/650 +[Personal journey]
I looked down at my friend and realized she had grown up.
I looked down at myself and realized I had grown up.
The scrawny, misshapen creature who found me, called Birch, had begun to mature, as had I. In the grand scheme of life, the journey we take is short, but profound.
We have seen meadows and fields, we have smelled flowers, we have run by bees, we have walked on the shores, we have fought for life, fought for life, we have received many gifts of life, but not all of them are Delightful.
But, we two are lucky because we are here to experience these things.
-The scariest things, and the most awesome things.
Sadly for the quiet dead, they will never know what it is like to take the time to grow and become beautiful in their natural state.
I’m not talking about subjective beauty, not the beauty that a judgmental person like me possesses.
No, instead, as a sunflower, I'm talking about the beauty of a thing that has become what nature intended it to be. The eggs grow into birds. A seed grows into a sunflower. The birches became friends.
Not all of us are lucky enough to reach this fully developed state.
A bird flew by and landed on my face.
It pecked my head, took some of my seed, and flew away before Birch could do anything.
-[sunflower]-
HP:17/19
-This time, I didn't feel scared. It's not like when I was born. I am now just a thing ready to embark on the journey I have embarked on. I think, ironically, if I had been ready, I wouldn't have started doing this movie with Burch.
My seeds are ready to spread and grow in meadows and valleys far from where I am now. They will also have the opportunity to grow, prosper, and become strong, life-loving people. But they will never know the joy of having Birch.
This is a unique gift that life has given me, only for myself.
I would like to know.
What unique gift does life give to the birds? For the ram? For that big fish? What can they experience that others of their kind cannot? Even for those of us who are the same, things are very, very different. In this different state, in the unique challenges we all face, this is where opportunities for growth are found.
It is this growth that leads us to true natural beauty.
- Or not.
After all, I am just a sunflower.
You'd better not listen to me.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
+ 1 Health-Poi
t
Experience value: 259/1250 EXP (Birch): 401/650 +【Personal journey】
ah.
Birch grew up quickly.
Worm Cave.
Birds fly.
Frog jump.
Birch wandered.
That's the way it is.
But sometimes, earthworms crawl out of the soil and dance in the rain.
Sometimes the bird will land on a branch and sit in the sun.
Often, a frog might just sit there and sing its swamp song hoarsely for a while.
And Birch, regardless of the danger behind us, would sit back and stare at the world around us. She experienced the most horrific circumstances and became a part of this world.
We sat and stared at the sun and found a very warm rock to sit on. Moments like this provide us with a kind of mental peace that can’t be found while traveling.
-These moments allow us to think clearly about our actions.
Birch stared at the sun. It flew toward the west. The West is the direction we will always pursue. After all, isn’t this where heaven is?
Birch turned away from the sun, away from the west, and instead turned his head to the side.
She looked south.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 260/1250 EXP (Birch): 403/650 +[Personal journey]
Then she looked toward the east, where our journey began. There, below us, the horde of monsters still lingered in our direction. Their silhouettes covered the ground like a swarm of ants.
Then she looked to the north, which we could not see because of the high mountains that we were not close to climbing.
Birch stood up and turned south.
——Incredible.
We wandered down that road, breaking away from our usual path. We stopped walking toward heaven and instead wandered at the foot of the mountain, heading in a direction we had never gone before.
Two days passed.
Level!
Congratulations Birch! You are now level {08}!
-[Bu
ch] -
Health-Poi
ts: 34/34↗ Soul-Poi
ts: 28/28↗
Level: 08 years ↗ Experience: 0/850
Class: Druid Subclass: None
Race: Human Opel: 000
-[statistics]-
STR: 09 Agility: 14
Wisconsin: 07 INT: 07
Lu: 10 Value list: 09 ↗↗
new
-[Growth]{Activity}-
Cost: {08} Soul
Allows you to nourish any seeds and plants and help them grow.
Aligned with the life cycles of plants and fungi, druids are able to channel magic from around the world into their networks of roots and mycelium to promote and encourage healthy growth.
After turning south, we reached the foot of the mountain and sat on a distant meadow covered with trees bearing juicy, thick fruits. The scenery here is a bit like a peninsula, standing high on the cliff. The ocean is below us.
Birch stuffed himself with sweet fruit, and we, like the previous days, just stared at the mountain we had left behind, day after day.
We watched and studied as thousands of lights rose from the first facet, passed along the lower portion, and then descended westward out of sight.
The third day passed, and there was no more light on the mountain.
I began to realize a truth that Birch himself had managed to understand before me.
The monsters never specifically targeted Birch or us. why?
They just wanted to go west for their own personal reasons, just like the rest of us.
So they keep following us, not on purpose, but because we are too stubborn and too stupid to change our ways.
My best friend Birch is very smart.
Life may throw a situation at you, and you may think of it as a profound, unfair cruelty, or that the universe is out to get you.
But maybe, you just need to walk in the other direction for a while? Maybe, you just need to stop where you're going and make a turn?
-Sometimes, it's that simple.
I spread the petals, their color is darker than before, I spread the leaves, they are not as lush and green as before, I bathe in the love of the sun.
It's as good as usual.
It turns out that no matter where you are, west or east; the sun is still the sun.
——Warm or warm.
I am a sunflower.
Birch is Birch.
This simple fact itself is the beauty of nature.
Just strive to be who you want to be.
--beauty.
That's all. nothing less
