I am not my past.

The actions of days now gone are inconsequential to the actions, which I might yet take in the future. The sunflower, who I have once been, does not need to define the sunflower who I will be in the days to come.

- Most poetic.

This rule is true for a sunflower. But how does it apply to a Burch?

I am afraid that I can not say.

However, I find myself most curiously… overwhelmed.

This is very unusual for a sunflower.

Burch has run straight towards the city, straight through the giant rocks, which surround its perimeter, like walls of a house and now, we stand amidst its population that pays us surprisingly little mind.

Wow. There are hundreds of them. Perhaps even thousands.

- The latter is more likely.

Night begins to fall over the world as Burch wanders through the buzzing labyrinth for a time and the many others who wander the paths and ways begin to dwindle, as they duck away, one by one, into different houses.

I never knew that a colony of creatures could get this large.

Amazing.

Houses surround us by the hundreds, tightly packed together, like rocks in a pile. Glows of all color come from their openings, bathing the road and ourselves in their warm, inviting hues, as we walk.

Burch speaks to nobody and nobody speaks to us.

She does not play the part of a scavenger or a frightened rabbit as she usually would.

We simply parade on through, as if we belonged here and, oddly enough, nobody seems to take offense at us doing so.

I understand nothing of what the creatures here speak of, their tongues making noises that are indecipherable to myself. I assume the same can be said of Burch, as she looks around with doe-like, lost eyes that would be most unfortunate in any other environment.

- The confusion that they clearly signal might identify one as prey.

We wander through the city as the night comes to consume it.

It is cold.

Burch does not notice the tall female of her ilk, who is following us.

Oh well.

It is a new day.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 182/310 EXP (Burch): 31/240

I find the city most fascinating.

Nobody pays me much mind, which I am grateful for.

- I am a bashful sunflower, after all.

Burch too, is still mostly ignored. Except for the creature who has now approached her. It is the tall creature that had followed us in secret last night. Her skin is of a similar shade to Burch’s, her hair of a similar tone, her eyes of a similar hue and her words are of a similar tongue.

“- That’s a long way from here,” says the creature, following Burch’s short reply to her last question of our origin.

Burch nods proudly, but says little more. Good. She has learned. Silence is a powerful tool.

“Are you hungry?” asks the stranger.

She is several heads taller than Burch, having reached her peak of adulthood and wears fabric around her hair. “Come!” she says. “It is rare to have anyone to speak with. You will eat with us tonight, girl.”

Burch looks at the stranger and I feel the muscles of her throat moving, as she almost decides to speak. But her lips fall back shut in order to silence the growling of her greedy stomach.

Burch shakes her head and then walks away, having decided to leave. She has learned well to be cautious. My friend is very smart, especially for a wasp.

- But I do not exactly understand what it is that we are looking for here, in the city?

“There are others too,” says the voice from behind us.

Burch stops in her tracks and turns her head around after all.

The creature speaks. “If you got separated, there’s a chance that someone might know something.”

Burch stares at the creature of many promises for a moment and I feel as we start moving into the other direction, back towards her.

- ‘Separated’?

Interesting.

I did not know that Burch was a member of a community.

I had always assumed that my friend, like myself, was simply a solitary individual.

Is that why we seek paradise? To find those who were lost along the way?

Ah.

I wonder, when we get there, will the bee who had courted me be there too? And what of the bird, who ate my seeds?

- Perhaps not it.

But maybe my stolen seeds are in paradise?

What a nice thought, a place where everything warm resides, from the light of the suns of every day now gone past, to the glow of every presence, which has ever graced us in kind, brief passing.

What a world. I hope we leave here and get there soon. I would very much like to see it for myself.

Burch walks after the tall creature of many promises, foolishly trusting in her words, offer of community and friendly demeanor.

The male who the creature of many promises has brought us to, easily twice her size, grabs Burch around her shoulders and begins to rip at her exterior and hair.

My friend immediately sinks her sharp teeth into his large, muscular arm.

(Burch) has bit (???) for {03} damage ! Applied status: [Bleeding {1}] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 23/23 : 11/21 Sunflower : 17/17 : 13/13 (???) : 60/64* : 22/22

He howls, wrenching himself free, fresh, red blood dripping over the floors. The male's fist, almost the size of her head, strikes Burch in the face, sending her and myself flying.

(???) has hit (Burch) for {06} damage ! Applied status: [Disoriented] NAME HP SOUL Burch : 13/19* : 21/21 Sunflower : 17/17 : 13/13 (???) : 60/64 : 22/22

Ah.

If this is what flight is, then I will leave it for the birds. I do not care for it.

- It is very disorientating.

We land by the wall, where several other young females of Burch’s community, given their familiar appearance, are restrained by metal binds. The large male approaches us, fussing in a language that I do not understand. He shakes out his hurt arm, rubbing the red spot that her teeth had left in it.

It all sounds very stressful. Crying fills the room. I do not care for crying.

It is a waste of water, which is also very stressful.

Burch tries to rise to her feet, lifting her hand to use some of her magic, but she seems to be a little disorientated.

The male approaches us. The creature of many promises, having lured my friend here, standing in the back of the room, watching this unfold. He grabs Burch by the throat, constricting her airway with one hand, like she herself had done to the old, gray male, on our side of the world.

- Please do not kill my friend.

I would find that somewhat bothersome.

(Sunflower) used: [Heavy Pollen]

Yellow dust flies around the room and everyone simply stops.

Applied Status: [Sleep] to (???)(???)(???)(???)(???)(???)(???)

Applied Status: [Lethargy] to (???)(???)(???)

The giant, violent aggressor falls to the ground, as does the creature of many promises, as do most of those bound to the walls around us.

How stressful. Why must life always be like this?

Burch, unaffected by my magic because of her resistances, gasps for air, grasping for her own bruising throat with her hands, as if it were not working properly. She fights with herself and then manages to relearn the art of breathing.

It seems that this was a trap.

- But not a lie.

After all, the creature of many promises had told us that some of Burch’s ilk would indeed be here and, loe, here they are.

Burch cries for a time and I rub her beating heart with my roots, in the hope that it will dispel her sadness, which I do not quite understand. After all, this is what was promised, no?

Besides, if she cries too much, her blood will become thick and I will not be able drink of it.

My friend bends down, ripping the sleeping male's large mouth open and presses her hand against it, as if suffocating him.

(Burch) used: [Minor Pulse]

A ripple shoots through his body from the top-down. His legs flop. Blood leaks out of his mouth. I hear something cracking.

(Burch) used: [Minor Pulse]

His body shakes a second time and Burch pulls her hand away.

All of his teeth are shattered and broken in a dozen places, his mouth pools with blood. I suppose that I would like to drink it. But it would seem rude of me.

After all, this is my friend’s hunt and kill, not mine.

I will leave the spoils of her victory to her and wait until we get some new sunshine.

- Hopefully soon.

Possessed by her animal spirit, my wasp friend, Burch, presses her fingers against his eyes and digs through them with her dirty, forest-grime caked nails, until there is nothing left but a strange, red heap inside of his sockets.

Grim.

I never knew my friend had such very violent tendencies. I suppose it is only natural for a wasp though. They really are cruel, little things, no?

- She takes a knife from the room and begins to cut the soft tendons behind his knees and inside of his elbows.

Although, perhaps this is her way of letting off some stress? After all, it has been a long journey, has it not? I understand needing an outlet for one's frustrations. Perhaps we would be better off sitting in the sun for a few hours, no?

She then gets up and walks over to the creature of many promises, who is slumped over and leaned back against the wall in sleep.

My friend cuts her bark open with a knife, similar to how her own has been damaged, and then sets me down onto the floor. She gently pulls me out of her rucksack, with a soft, loving touch and then plants me down onto the exposed collarbone of the creature of many promises.

Why, thank you.

I am so lucky to have such a generous friend.

(Sunflower) used: [Bloodmeal]

My roots dig their way down towards her heart and I slowly begin to drink deeply of its rich, dark nectar.

Burch, meanwhile, returns to the others, the captives of her ilk, undoing their binds and simply letting them lay there limply, naked, asleep against the walls. Their fate is their own problem now.

By the time the last one falls to the ground, the short-lasting sleeping spell begins to wane. The creature of many promises, who I drink from, begins to wake.

I turn my head to look at her eyes, which slowly open wide. She opens her mouth to scream, but no words can come out.

Curiously, I watch as one of my roots crawls out of her throat from the inside. Her arms try to reach for it, to remove it, but she has lost too much blood already, she is weakened.

Shh~

Do not fret.

You have kept your promise to my friend and for that, I am grateful.

As a token of reciprocity, I will make you quiet, before my friend returns.

- She is very violent. She is a wasp, you know? Let me do this before she lays eggs inside of you. That would be grim. I do think that neither of us wish to see this come to pass.

My roots dig out of her throat, crawling up her face and in through just beneath her eyes, which roll down to try and follow them.

I bore into the soft mass inside of her skull.

She dies.

[Bloodmeal]

Thirst: Quenched Minerals: Replenished +32 EXP

EXP: 214/320

You are welcome.

I am an overly compassionate sunflower.

Burch, having harvested some metal objects from the male, which I can not discern, wipes her eyes and gently grabs me, lifting me back into the rucksack.

We leave, just as the sleeping spell fully leaves the others.

The eight, horrified creatures of her kind look at the gurgling, bubbling thing that tries to howl at their feet. But it can not do so, because of the blood stuck in its throat, together with its broken teeth. It can not see, it can not bite and, since Burch has cut his soft tendons with a knife, it can not fight or run. It simply lays there, gurgling and wailing.

- Like feverish beasts, the eight descend down upon him, clawing and biting and howling as they rip out his flesh and bite off his fingers and stomp down onto the backs of his elbows.

Ah.

Isn’t nature just beautiful? How do they instinctively know which parts to attack? It must be an animal drive.

Amazing.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 215/310 EXP (Burch): 32/240

Burch has washed herself in the waters of the city. A lot of red left her body and skin.

Nobody really seemed to mind her doing so. We are invisible here to everyone who does not look like she does. Her bark is torn and ruined from the violence and she holds it together with tied knots and with her shaking hands. Metal jangles in her rucksack, nesting on top of my roots and Burch stops before a house, staring into its large window. There on display are the most curious things.

- Creatures. They have the silhouettes of herself and of her ilk, but they appear to be made entirely out of wood.

Burch grabs the metal disks, which she had harvested from the large male and heads into this strange place.

I will never come to understand her kind.

My friend has replaced her bark with a fresh layer that she had exchanged her metal for and I find this new sight most unusual.

I have grown accustomed to Burch looking as she does and now, she looks different.

Hmm.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 216/310 EXP (Burch): 33/240

Well, no. I am being judgmental again.

My friend is as beautifully ugly in this bark as she was in her old bark. I assume that for a wasp, she is perfectly normal.

We sit on the grasses in a forgotten corner of the inner city and stare up towards the sky in shared silence, barring the thousands of voices all around us, ringing out like an excited swarm.

- Reptiles often shed their skins, do they not?

Does her kind shed their skins regularly? Their barks?

Apparently. But then, she can not be a wasp, or?

Wasps do not shed their skins.

Perhaps this is their initiation into adulthood? Like a snake, growing too big for its old skin, my friend has shed her old form and emerged with a new one.

Ah. Wow. Does this mean that she is growing? Amazing.

It seems that life is just going to keep getting better and better for us, forever. What a world. My dearest friend is a very interesting creature indeed.

Burch cries again, holding her legs in her tightly wrapped arms, huddling herself together into a tense coil, like a snake would.

Of course. It is all coming together now.

She is a snake.

What a fool I have been.

The sun shines brightly, coming to paint us with a most harmonious sunset, as it kisses us goodbye for another day.

- Yes. Truly.

Burch's body shakes as she trembles for reasons that I do not quite comprehend. Perhaps she does not like being an adult?

I suppose that I understand the sentiment.

Life is better than ever right now in the realm of our youthful days of vigor and spirit. It is all downhill from here. My seeds are not quite ready yet, so I suppose she is somewhat older than I am.

Or perhaps snakes simply age differently than sunflowers do?

Hmm.

No matter. At least the sun will be back tomorrow.

What a pleasant thought.

I am a sunflower.