I have been to the wide grasslands and I have been upon the vast shore. I have been to the deep forest, as I have been inside of the dark cave.

Now, I am upon the great-water. This is a place that I will one day be able to say, that I also have been.

This is not something that many sunflowers can boast of.

- Though, I do not like to boast.

The boat sways, rocking slowly as we float adrift, carried by the gentle current and the nudges of the western-bound winds.

To our left, there is water. To our right, there is water. Below us is water and, above our heads, presumably, is water.

- Or at least there will be, when it starts to rain.

But for now, it is sunny, warm, and dry, at least as far as the sky is concerned.

Everything else is water.

Such is life.

Everything is water. I am water, my roots and petals and stem are flush full of it. She, my wolf-friend, is water, her flesh and blood are thick with it.

Water truly is amazing.

Wow.

We float for what is the second day.

Water sure is something.

This is incredible.

My friend does not move, apart from the heaving of her chest. Though it is impossible to say if this heaving is from her whistling breathing, or from my roots, which burrow and nest inside of her core.

- She is warm.

My wolf-friend is a good friend.

Her flesh keeps my roots warm during the cold nights on the water and in turn, I sustain her with my precious sugars.

True friendship.

What a blessing. What a thing for a sunflower to experience.

While I do appreciate that she is quiet again, I do miss the sensation of her walking. I do miss the one odd sentence that she speaks to me a day. I have become accustomed to seeing and hearing new things.

But here, everything is blue.

I look around myself.

Everything is quiet.

At least the sun is out in force. So I am at peace.

It is calm.

It is good.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 24/240 EXP (Burch): 35/35

LEVEL UP!

Congratulations, Burch! You are now level {3}!

- [Burch] - Health-Points: 21/21↗ Soul-Points: 19/19↗ Level: 3 ↗ Experience: 0/55 Class: None Sub-class: None Race: Human Obols: 000 - [Stats] - STR: 04 DEX: 09 ↗ WIS: 05 INT: 05 LUK: 09 ↗ LOV: 03 +1 Ability Point You do not have a class. Upon choosing a class, you will be able to select +1 additional ability.

Oh.

How unusual.

I did not know that my friend had a word-wood of her own. It appears to be the same as mine, apart from some odd scratchings here and there. Words.

I suppose that this would make her happy to see. She always enjoys seeing mine.

- Perhaps I should wake her from her rest?

I think she would like to look at it and then we could stare at the sun together again. That would be most pleasant.

The word-wood vanishes, leaving me alone once more.

Oh well. A missed opportunity.

I will just have to wait until next time then.

Sliding my roots deeper through her body, I touch the back of her eyes. Turning both of our heads up towards the sun. We bask in its radiance. Though, she is still asleep. I open her eyelids for her.

Imagine… being able to see the sun, even while at rest. What must it be like for her?

- A life beyond compare.

I am a good friend.

The sun has come once again.

And with it, has come a new day. A day just like yesterday, which was a day just like the day before.

Each of these days had brought with them pure sunshine and warmth.

They had brought with them peace.

We are at peace.

Here on the water, there are no clawing things. There are no birds that want my seeds, there are no creatures, who want her flesh. The two of us simply float in silence, basking in the light of the most generous sun.

Perhaps this already is paradise?

- No.

I would very much like to feel soil again, fresh soil. I would like to be carried again, so that I might see new things and feel new things and hear new things.

New things are good.

The great-water is impressive beyond imagination. I never knew that there could be so much water.

But I do not belong here and neither does my friend. The water is no place for a sunflower or for a wolf to be.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 32/240 EXP (Burch): 08/55

But…

I recall that she quite enjoyed playing in the creek, all of those days ago. Perhaps she can not be a wolf then? It would seem unusual for a wolf to spend so much time in the water, for no purpose other than to wash and to play, or?

- Perhaps I was mistaken once again?

But then, I once more do not know what it is that she is.

Maybe it does not matter?

I am a sunflower and she is my friend. Perhaps that is all that there is of substance.

Her wounds have healed after days of mending. Her muscles twitch, the fibers of her sinew protesting, as my roots slide along their mass, just beneath her skin, which has grown closed and red from the nurturing kisses of the sun above us.

In order to preserve the wholeness of her body, in order to let her skin grow shut, I had to find other ways to enter into her flesh. My roots crawled through her nose, through her mouth.

- And other such things.

It was most unpleasant.

But what are friends for?

I think that I will let her wake soon.

Since she is not a wolf, I assume she will not howl anymore.

I hope so.

- That was very loud and rude of her to have done.

It is time.

The sun shines brightly on this day after the day before.

Her skin is closed. Her meat is closed. The venom of the large stingers has been degraded and processed by my mushroom friends, who have found comfortable nesting positions in the crannies and crevices inside of her warm body.

Slithering, my roots slowly pop and pull free, as I work my way out of her flesh. Her body is now able to sustain itself and my part of the bargain has been upheld.

The whistling of her airways comes to a stop, as the tunnel of my roots, which was lodged inside of her throat, unwinds and pulls itself back out. Roots slide down her face, as the growth, which was touching the back of her eyes, pulls out of her nose. Roots slide down her legs, as the roots that were dug into her navel remove themselves, sinking back into the soil inside of the boat, which is full of old dirt, rich with rotting, coagulated blood.

Good morning, friend.

The sun is shining.

The water is blue.

It will be a beautiful day today.

Let us see it together, yes?

Burch's eyes shoot open and she sits upright in an instant, rising to greet the day with a hacking series of coughs and splutters. The boat wobbles.

Slow.

- You must be slow.

Her hands feverishly run over herself, as she hacks out mouthfuls of goo and slime. Her body fully purges itself free from the rot, from the soil, from the unlucky segments of fungus that had failed to latch on properly to her cavities and hollow spaces.

It is a most unfortunate sight.

I turn back towards the sun, to allow my friend some semblance of dignity.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 38/240

After all, I am, if nothing else, deeply understanding of the sanctity of personal boundaries.

Letting a root of mine hang over the water, I shake off a clump of indistinguishable bio-matter, that I had accidentally pulled out of her body.

The sun is shining brighter than ever before. Perhaps it too, is happy about my friend being here to witness it once again?

I spread out my leaves and stare at its wholesome shine, listening to the disgusting bodily sounds that Burch makes for a time, as the deep-purge continues. It sounds very wet.

Nature sure is beautiful.

My roots, needing something new to sustain themselves from, move through the fertilized soil.

I am a healthy sunflower, in both body and spirit.

I feel that this is undeniable.

Another day has come to pass.

My friend seems to have recovered from her long sleep. Her body is healed and now, though she complains of aches and pains. Her spirit is in the process of healing too.

- See? There is nothing that a little sunshine can’t fix.

She sits there and stares at the square on her lap, at the book, covered in loose soil, which had been in her rucksack, together with myself for a time, before we got to the boat.

I do not know why she finds it so fascinating, the book. To me, it just looks like any other part of the world.

But perhaps I am talking down the grandeur of the odd thing?

This just seems to be my nature. I am a very judgmental creature, I have come to learn.

I turn towards the sun and my friend sits across from me, as we float together in a vessel that is most unclean, but it is rich in tiny organisms. They flourish in the filth and the wet. They flourish on my stem, on my roots, on my leaves and my petals and they flourish on her skin and feet and face.

“Hey…” says a voice from next to me.

Ah.

I missed the sound of it, if that does not sound odd of me to think.

I turn my head, looking towards my friend, who has removed her eyes from the book, to look my way. “…Thanks,” is all that she says, before turning her gaze back down again.

Indifferently, I turn back towards the sun.

“I’m Burch,” is the last thing that she says, before retreating to our comfortingly familiar quiet.

- A name?

How quaint.

Hello, Burch.

I do not have a name. That would be most unusual.

I am a sunflower, after all.

My friend Burch and myself, float towards the distant horizon, carried by a soft wind, as we move closer towards paradise, wherever it may lie.

Two days later, we arrive on the distant shore on the west side of the great-water and it is good.