It is cold.

It is as cold as it was back in the desert, at night.

- Perhaps it is even colder than that?

Hmm.

Burch shivers as we walk, the light of the midday sun doing little to warm us, despite us being closer to it than ever before.

We are very high up.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 256/1250 EXP (Burch): 397/650 + [Personal Journey]

If I turn my head to look behind us, I can see very far into the distance.

I can see over the top of the swamp and all the way to the first sands of the desert.

How strange it is, that the desert, such a warm place, is within my sight. Yet here, where we are, it is cold.

The world sure is a confusing place.

Burch stops, holding herself down against a rock as she peers out forward, having spotted something.

- An animal.

We stare at the grazing thing for a time. It has four legs and a strong, muscular body that is covered in stubble and fur. Two curved horns adorn its head. It grazes on the thin grasses of the bottom of the mountain.

It is a ram.

I have no strong opinions about rams.

They eat grass and exist.

They do me no favors, but also no harm.

A ram is just another entity which exists alongside of myself in this most magnificent world of ours. This is fine with me. The world is big enough for us all.

A twig cracks as Burch shifts.

The ram lifts its head, looking our way and the three of us stare at another for a time, the creature continuing to chew its mouthful of grass.

Hello, ram.

I suspect that my friend was hoping to hunt you for your hide.

She has cold feet, you know?

The ram lowers its head and charges our way. Burch yelps and scrambles, running down the hill and diving behind some rocks.

(Burch) has activated: [The thing in the woods]

She blends into the backdrop, her skin taking on the color of the stones.

The hooves of the ram thud out as its charge ends on top of the big rock that we’re leaning against. It stands right above us, looking around to see if it has scared us off.

- Something climbs around to our left.

A lone hobgoblin makes its way up the mountain, trying to find a new way, now that the main path has been destroyed.

The ram bleats and charges towards it, striking the bewildered hobgoblin, who hadn’t finished climbing up yet, with its thick skull. Their heads crack against each other and the hobgoblin is sent flying, losing its grip and plummeting into the depths below.

The ram stares for a while and then continues grazing right where it stands, as if nothing had happened at all.

Burch slides around the big rock and we return to our journey.

Apparently she has decided against hunting it.

It’s only fair.

It did keep us safe, after all.

And if we’re lucky, it will continue to do so for a time longer still.

As we wander, I notice that Burch opts not to take a higher path, but to rather walk the lower ways, which are always in the light of day. She has stopped climbing the mountain.

This terrain is too cold for her feet.

We stop and she wraps some of her fabric around them, to keep them warm, while we walk over the stones of the mountain.

But despite us walking the lower road, I notice that I am higher up than usual.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 258/1250 EXP (Burch): 399/650 + [Personal Journey]

I look down at my friend and I realize that she has grown.

I look down at myself and I realize that I have grown.

The creature that had found me as a scrawny, misshapen entity known as Burch, has begun to mature and the same can be said of myself. The journey that we undertake has been short in the grand scheme of life, but so deeply eventful.

We have seen the meadows and the fields, we have smelled of flowers and ran from a bee and we have walked on the shores, we have fought for our lives and fought for the sake of it, we have received so many of life’s gifts and not all of them were pleasant to experience.

But, the two of us are lucky, because we are here to experience these things nonetheless.

- Things that are both most terrible, as well as things that are most awe-inspiring.

Tragic are the quiet dead and those who will never know what it feels like to spend your days growing and becoming something that is beautiful in its natural state.

I speak not of a subjective beauty, held by very judgmental creatures, such as myself.

No, rather I, as a sunflower, speak of the beauty of a thing that has become what nature had intended for it to be. An egg becomes the bird. A seed became a sunflower. A Burch becomes a friend.

Not all of us are lucky enough to reach this state of full development.

- A small bird flies by and it latches onto my face.

It pecks into my head and takes a few of my seeds and then flies away, before Burch has any chance to react.

- [Sunflower] -

HP: 17/19

- This time, I felt no fear. It is not like when I was birthed. I am now a thing that is only now ready for the journey that I have already undertaken. The irony, I suppose, is that I would have never begun to undertake it together with Burch, had I been ready for it back then.

My seeds are ready to spread and to grow in meadows and valleys far from where I now find myself. And they, too, will have a chance to grow and to prosper and to become strong, life-loving things. But they will never know the joy of having a Burch.

This alone is life’s unique gift to me, to only myself.

I wonder.

What unique gifts does life have for the bird? For the ram? For the very-big-fish? What do they get to experience that none other of their kind might ever know? Even for those of us who are the same, things are very, very different. And in that state of difference, in that unique challenge that all of us face, that is where the opportunity to grow is found.

That growth is what leads us to our final states of true, natural beauty.

- Or not.

I’m just a sunflower, after all.

It would be best to not listen to me.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

+1 Health-Point EXP: 259/1250 EXP (Burch): 401/650 + [Personal Journey]

Ah.

Burch will outgrow me soon.

Worms burrow.

Birds fly.

Frogs hop.

Burches wander.

It is simply the way of things.

But sometimes, the worm rises from the soil to dance in the rain.

Sometimes, the bird lands on a branch to sit in the sunlight.

Often, a frog might simply stay there and croak its swamp-song for a time.

And Burch, despite the dangers on our heels, will sit and stare at the world around us. It is a world that she has, through her most terrifying circumstances, become a part of.

We sit and we stare at the sun together, having found a very warm rock to sit on top of. Such moments offer us a mental peace that is not able to be found during the journey.

- And these moments allow us to consider our actions with clarity.

Burch stares towards the sun. It flies on its way towards the west. The west is the direction we have been pursuing forever. After all, is this not where paradise lies?

Burch turns away from the sun, from the west and instead turns her head to the side.

She looks to the south.

- [Sunflower] -

You bask in the light of the sun

+ 1 EXP

EXP: 360/1250 EXP (Burch): 403/650 + [Personal Journey]

Then she looks towards the east, from which we have come over our journey. There, below us, the hobgoblin horde still wanders in our direction. Their silhouettes cover the ground like a swarm of ants.

Then, she looks towards the north, which is obscured to us because of the rise of the tall mountain, that we have come nowhere close to scaling.

Burch rises to her feet and then, she turns towards the south.

- Unthinkable.

We wander that way, breaking free from our usual path. We stop walking towards paradise and we turn to wander down the side of the mountain and head into a direction that we have never gone before.

Two days have passed.

LEVEL UP!

Congratulations Burch! You are now level {08}!

- [Burch] - Health-Points: 34/34↗ Soul-Points: 28/28↗ Level: 08↗ Experience: 0/850 Class: Druid Sub-class: None Race: Human Obols: 000 - [Stats] - STR: 09 DEX: 14 WIS: 07 INT: 07 LUK: 10 LOV: 09 ↗↗ NEW - [Growth]{Active} - Cost: {08} SOUL Allows you to nourish any seeds and plants to help them grow. Druids, being in tune with the life-cycles of plants and fungi, are able to channel the ambient magics of the world into their root and mycelial networks, in order to foster and encourage healthy growth.

After turning south, we have reached the bottom of the mountain and we sit on a distant meadow, rich in trees that bear juicy, thick fruits. The landscape is a peninsula of sorts, high atop a rise of cliffs. The ocean is below us.

Burch stuffs herself full of sweet fruits and we, as we have done for the days before, simply stare at the mountain that we have left behind, day in, day out.

We watch and study as the thousands of lights of the hobgoblin swarm rise over the first face, cross along the lower section, and then descend down towards the west, vanishing out of our sight.

By the time the third day passes, not a single light shines on the mountain anymore.

I come to realize a truth that Burch herself had managed to understand before me.

The hobgoblins were never after Burch or us, specifically. Why would they be?

They, for their own, personal reasons, have also simply wanted to head west, just like us.

And so, they were always on our trail, not out of intent, but simply because we were too stubborn and foolish to change our ways.

My very best friend, Burch, is very wise.

Life may thrust a circumstance upon you and you might think that this is a deep, unfair cruelty, or that the universe is simply out to get you.

But maybe, you just need to walk towards a different direction for a time? Maybe, you just need to stop going where you're heading and make a turn?

- Sometimes, it is just that easy.

I spread my petals, which are of a darker color than they once might have been and spread my leaves, which aren’t as thick and verdant, as they once might have been and I bask in the love of the sun.

It is as good as always.

It turns out that it doesn’t matter where you are, the west, the east; the sun is still the sun.

- Warmth is still warmth.

I am a sunflower.

Burch is Burch.

That simple fact itself is where the beauty of the natural world lies.

Simply strive to be exactly what you are meant to be.

- Beautiful.

Nothing more. Nothing less.