It is a ‘house’.

I know this, because she whispered the name of the construction to me as we approached it.

Now, my fox-friend digs and rummages through the guts of the house. If I have understood correctly, this thing is a nest of sorts, created by her ilk.

That would explain the gray-place, which was the remnants of many houses, burnt to ashes. It would explain the cart-cave, in which the old, gray, male lived inside of - before we ate him. It was also a house.

- This house, nobody seems to live inside of, however.

It is empty.

She fusses and stresses as she roots around with curious eyes, her paws digging into everything that is soft and movable, as she searches for mice to eat.

I assume she is, at least. After all, is that not what foxes do?

There are no mice here, however.

- Thankfully.

The bones of the inside of the house are made out of wood.

I do not like being in here. The sun can not find me in this place. It is like being in a cave, but stranger.

Why is it square?

I do not understand.

Looking around, I examine the place that we are inside of. It is unusual. It looks nothing like the nest of a bird or the cave of a not-bird or the burrow of a rabbit. Those are all predictable in their disuniformity. In those places, there are round things and tufts of fluff and sharp things and odd corners and so on.

The house is just… plain and square.

I do not think that I care much for it.

Do all foxes live this way?

How strange.

“Hey, there’s something here,” says my friend and I look her way, but only because the sun isn’t here to stare at instead.

- She is the next best thing, I suppose.

I watch as she rips off the unusually square and slender piece of wood from the ground, pulling it free and reaching down into the hole.

Another rabbit?

- No.

She pulls out a thing from beneath the boards. Another square thing.

How boring.

She holds it in both of her stumps and then, grimly, tears it open with just her bare claws, as if it were nothing at all.

Wow.

I did not know that my fox-friend had such killer-instincts. What a beast.

She tilts her head, looking at the sleek, white insides of the square-thing. There are smears all over it. On the surface of each flat piece, it appears as if a family of mice had a get-together, their dirty, soil-stained feet leaving marks on them, on both sides.

“It’s a book.”

A ‘book’?

Hmm. Indifferent, I turn towards the entrance. I would prefer the sun to whatever this is.

However -

Looking over behind myself one last time, I watch as she flips through its insides.

My friend seems happy.

I suppose that that is good enough for me.

A ‘rucksack’.

I am inside of a rucksack.

This is most unusual for a sunflower.

“This is going to be a lifesaver,” she says, wiping her forehead.

She says as much, but I do not know for whom? We are both still alive, friend. There is no danger that I can see.

We have left the house, inside of which she had found the book and this new thing, the rucksack.

It is soft. She has filled it with damp, rich soil and then has placed me inside of it. My roots are now contained inside of the odd womb. I suppose it is better than her carrying me with her upper-legs.

My stem, my leaves, my petals, my head, they rise out of the rucksack and I too rise, moving higher and higher towards the sun.

Amazing.

I turn downward to look at my industrious fox-friend. She seems to have slipped the other side of the pouch around her upper-legs and rises to her feet, hoisting me up into the air.

She turns her gaze behind herself, wobbling a little as she adjusts her stance and we look at each other for a time.

Perhaps she is measuring if I am experiencing discomfort?

- How kind.

I turn away, facing myself back towards the sun, which is now a full fox-friend’s height closer to myself.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP EXP: 156/160

What a blessing.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP EXP: 160/160

I wonder, as she stops, looking up towards my new word-wood.

LEVEL UP!

Congratulations! You are now level {6}!

- [Sunflower] - 🌻 Health-Points: 15/15↗ Soul-Points: 11/11↗ Level: 6 ↗ Experience: 0/240 Class: You are a sunflower. Sub-class: None Race: You are a sunflower. Obols: 000 - [Stats] - STR: 02 DEX: 02 WIS: 07 INT: 06 LUK: 08 ↗ LOV: 06 ↗ NEW - [Photosynthebiosis]{Toggle} - While active: Applies the effect of [Bask] to your symbiotic partner at a rate of {Bask Speed} Connect your roots to a living body to undergo a symbiosis with any connected, living, non-fungal organism. Allows you to passively exchange nourishing and healing sugars, produced through photosynthesis, for minerals and hydration from your partner’s body.

A strange thing.

But the word-wood is not what I wonder about.

- What I wonder about is why do the not-birds pursue us?

From my high vantage point, up on her back, I can see no such creatures around us right now. But the remnants of the fungus, present in the soil inside of her rucksack, tells me with its whispers that they have not been here yet.

But that just means that they will be soon.

Do they just hunt? Is this just for food and territory? Or are they after my friend in particular?

I can not say.

I am just a sunflower, sitting higher up than ever before.

- A luxury beyond compare.

Something interrupts my thoughts. My fox-friend wants my attention. She speaks to me. It is most unusual for this to happen thrice in one day.

“Can you use that?” she asks, pointing at the word-wood. “Please?”

How troublesome.

My sugars are precious and rare. They sustain me.

I turn back towards the sun, gazing at it for a time in idle self-fulfillment.

However, I do enjoy having a friend and she is showing me the world and all of its wonders.

Perhaps now is the time when my calculation from days prior, the price for the long term reward of friendship, has come to its natural conclusion?

My friend was good to me. Now it is my turn to be good to her.

- Reciprocity.

A most unusual trait for a sunflower to have.

(Sunflower) activated: [Photosynthebiosis]

My friend jumps like a surprised mouse, squeaking like one too, as my roots break through the soft barrier that is the interior of the rucksack. They dig through to her, pressing through the skin of her back, pressing into her flesh like worms entering into the rain-soaked soil.

Her body tastes sweetly of red, like the soft kiss of the light of the sun.

- How pleasant.

I spread my leaves and look towards the sky, glowing so brightly above our heads.

She wastes water again and makes more sad-mouse noises.

Be careful what you wish for, friend.

One day, you might just get it.

Sounding discomforted, she continues walking, having gotten what she wanted.

I am a good friend.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 01/240 EXP (Burch): 22/35

A great water sits before us.

Cascading off of its beautiful, marine surface is the crimson light of the day’s dying aura.

How amazing.

Wow.

I had never known that there could be so much water in one place.

We bend down, as she disturbs it with her hand, taking a drink of the great wet. As she drinks, so do my roots, which partake of her slowly rethinning blood.

- We must be very good friends.

The water is sweet. I can tell without tasting it directly myself.

But what will we do now?

She sits down, resting and I wobble as the rucksack wobbles. The two of us stare out towards the sunset, which happens across the water, towards the west.

We are going westward, as before.

Is that our goal? The west? But why would we go there? The sun comes to us from the east, friend. Perhaps she is confused?

I ponder, as we watch the last of the day come to a close.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 06/240 EXP (Burch): 27/35

Something breaks our clear line of sight towards the most incredible sunset that I have yet to witness.

- A flock of birds, flying over us from behind, flying over the water, flying towards the west.

Oh no.

Nervously, I look down at my friend as I come to a realization.

Perhaps I was mistaken?

Her kind makes odd nests. She makes squeaking, squawking noises. She likes a sunflower. She is heading towards the west.

Perhaps I really was wrong all along? Perhaps she isn’t a fox? Perhaps she is a bird?

I lift my leaves, covering my head, so that she does not see my precious seeds. They are not ready yet and will not be ready for a time still. I can not afford to let them be stolen too.

However, she does not seem interested in them and just continues to stare across the water.

I suppose that if she wanted them, she would have taken them by now?

- In that case, perhaps she is a bird that does not like seeds?

How unusual.

I lower my guard and turn towards the west again myself, as both of us stare across the great water, which stretches on towards the very distant horizon.

Looking at the sun, I wonder what is on the other side of the water?

Wait…

Are we chasing the sun?

We are heading west, which is where the sun goes.

- Is that our goal? Is that what we have been doing this entire time? Do we wander to find out where the sun goes, when the day comes to an end?

Wow.

Life is amazing. I wonder what that place looks like? The place where all of the suns of days prior have gone to and now sit in idle waiting.

- Paradise.

So that is our goal. I understand now.

We are going to find paradise.