I moved back, maintaining a distance between me and the bed. I didn’t expect her to wake up so soon. Vines from outside the house crept towards the door, ready to defend me at any time, not that it would help. My plants were powerful, not me. I wouldn’t be able to react in time if she tried to kill me. “Hello?” I asked tentatively.

She looked around quickly, her hair flinging all the way around her head and hit her in the face. All she could see was the bare wooden room. I didn’t have time to add extra furniture.

She scrambled for the sword at her waist, got up, and pointed it at me. “Who are you!”

“I’m Jin,” I made up a name on the spot.

“Did you- did you save me?” she asked.

“Yes?” I replied, not knowing what to do.

She returned her sword to its sheath. She bowed and declared “Thanks to you, Benefactor Jin, I have gained another chance at life! I, Xing Chen Wei, am eternally grateful!”

“Um, ok.” My eloquence knew no bounds.

We stood awkwardly for a couple more seconds. “So… where are we?” she asked.

Out of her sight, my vines retreated back to their original positions. “We’re in my garden. My garden and my home. Come,” I said and walked out. She followed behind me.

She gasped. She saw a field of Day Night Flowers with many of my other plants sprinkled in between. I actually don’t know why she gasped. I had hidden everything that I thought was special. Even the huge Twentytacle Traps were curled so that they looked like regular vines.

“Are we still in the White Dragon Forest?” she asked.

White Dragon Forest? I guess that’s what the other humans call this forest. “We haven’t moved very far from the place I saved you.” I walked to the edge of the garden and pointed down. “The centipede had almost eaten you over there.”

“We need to get out of he-!” she froze. “You have a garden here?”

I was starting to think the centipede had laid eggs in her skull. I waved at the giant garden, with (wood)tiled paths, a picnic table, and a house. “I don’t know, do I?”

She bowed again, somehow even lower than the first time. “I’m sorry, senior! I didn’t realize!”

At this point, I was just wondering how many eggs were laid in her skull. “Senior? How old are you?” I asked.

“I’m nineteen years old!” she said enthusiastically.

“How long is a year?” I asked, just to make sure.

“A year? A year is three hundred sixty five days!” she said.

I pointed at my face. “Look at this thing,” I said, but she couldn’t see my face. She was still bowing, her eyes pointed at the ground. “Please. Raise your head.”

She raised her head. “Ok. Now look at this thing. Does it look like it’s older than you?”

She swallowed uncomfortably. “No, senior, your face looks very young and handsome.”

I decided to ignore the flattery. “So why do you call me senior? I’m seventeen!”

“Senior, you can’t be serious-”

“I’m seventeen!”

It looked like her jaw was going to drop all the way on the bottom of the forest, to pay a visit to the centipede and dinosaur hoard. “It can’t be! Oh, is the senior living with you?”

“No, I’m here alone,” I said.

“Then how are you still alive! How about all the monsters?” she exclaimed.

I led her to the picnic table, which was a circular disk of wood propped up by vines. The table had a chair in front of it and a ring of trees surrounding it. All of the trees were modified versions of fruit trees from Earth.

I took a seed from my pocket and tossed it to the ground. It grew into a chair identical to the one already there. “Xing Chen Wei’s” eyes widened. “Wh-. Wh-what was that?”

I pointed at the chair, “Please just sit down.” She did, and I sat down as well.

A branch from one of the trees around me stretched out towards me. I plucked off an orange the size of a volleyball. There was already a knife and mug on the table. I took the knife and cut the orange in half. I squeezed the juice into the mug and pushed it over to her side of the table.

I picked a couple calorie berries off a bush next to me and gave her five. “Nice to meet you. But first, let’s properly introduce ourselves. Then we can have a conversation.”