Cultivating Plants

“What do you mean you are going back?” Mirah jumped out of her seat and placed her hands on the table with a loud thud.

“Exactly what I said.” Aloe calmly responded as she drank from her teacup.

“I... why?” The housewife fell on her chair defeated.

The two women were the only ones in the house. Aya and Jafar were long gone, one to the school and the other to work. Aloe was fine with that; she didn’t have the strength nor the mood to see little Aya. Her face was not one she wanted to show to the kid.

“I can’t stay on Sadina... at least not for now. I just want to be away. As far as possible.” The girl’s voice was completely monotone, and her visage was devoid of emotion.

“Oh, Aloe...” But her mask didn’t fool Mirah. “If that’s what you want... then I can’t do anything.” The housewife added with a wry smile. “Just be careful.”

“I will.” She truthfully responded as she left the cup on the table. It still wasn’t finished.

Time slowed to a crawl as they stood there. None of them uttered a word, the only noise in the room coming from the occasional sip.

“When are you going to leave then?” Mirah nervously asked as she tried to break the glass. Even if Aloe thrived in isolation and silence, the housewife was far more social.

“Today.”

“Today?” Her eyes shot wide open, almost jumping from her chair again. “You must think it twice! The day’s almost over!”

“It’s not even noon, Mirah.” Aloe sighed. She was just so... tired. “I’m going to run some errands, mainly restocking food reserves, and I’ll make my way to the greenhouse.”

“But you’ll arrive too late!” The mother’s hands trembled. Her worry warmed Aloe’s heart, truly. “You’ll be riding well into the night! What happens if a monster finds you?”

Her worries were not unfounded. Whilst most people in the cities feared the assassins and sang to their children horror stories about the drug-crazed killers to keep them in check, more rural people fear something more real and common.

The creatures of the night.

Aloe hadn’t seen any monsters herself personally, but everyone knew that the predators left their hiding spots at night, being able to hunt freely as the sun’s blessing ran dry.

The girl stood up and put a hand on the housewife’s and smiled at her.

“My dweller is fast.” She added as a matter of fact. “Don’t worry, I will make it in time before anything happens.”

“I... okay.” Mirah sighed. “I’ll trust you, Aloe.”

“Thanks.” Not even she knew if that word was truly meant, but she told it, nonetheless.

---

“That’s not how any of this works.” The old man sighed behind the counter.

“I mean, why not?” Aloe leaned her body forward, hands on the counter.

“I can’t just give you two of every seed!” Umar protested.

“You can though. You just don’t want to do it.”

“Bah!” The apothecary grunted. “Even if I did, why do you even need only two seeds of everything?”

“Gardening.” Aloe deadpanned.

“With two seeds?” He frowned.

“It’s special gardening.” She snickered.

Umar sighed. “Any seed works?”

Aloe fist-bumped in victory. “Yes! Any seed I don’t already have works.”

“Wait here...” Umar disappeared in the back store, an arm behind his back as he walked.

The girl patiently waited at the main store even as the apothecary took a lot of time.

“Here, two of each medicinal seed I have.” Umar pushed forward a small jar, the size of a hand, on the counter.

Aloe peered inside the container. It was half empty.

“That’s all?” Aloe frowned.

“What are you, a tax collector?” The old man grunted. “This is an apothecary, not a bazaar. I only have useful plants around. And there aren’t many of those around.”

“Okay, okay!” Aloe raised her hands defensively. “Anyways,” and instantly dropped them, “how much do I owe you?”

“For this? Nothing.”

“Really?” Aloe’s eyes glimmered at the idea of free seeds, especially judging how tight she would be after restocking her pantry. Is this the heavens paying me back for giving that glassworker the slug for free?

“Yes. But get out of my sight fast before I change my mind.” The old man shooed her.

“Thanks!” It came out rather merrily, somewhat truthful, but Aloe was grateful to him.

She didn’t linger a second more on the apothecary though.

---

Carrying sacks upon sacks of food around was difficult, especially for a woman of her size and build. But Aloe made it work. She mostly bought dried meat and some other special foods. Nothing remarkably heavy.

But the many waterskins she carried just in case did weigh her down.

“You here already?” A voice commented derogatorily at her side. “You were here like what, yesterday?”

Aloe, very slowly, turned her face to see the stable master that had sold her Fikali heaving up a haybale into a pen. What was his name again? She thought as no name came to her mind as she looked at his face. Bah, doesn’t matter.

“Yes, ‘I here already’.” She added with the same punchable tone. “And it was two days ago.”

“Doesn’t matter.” The stable master shrugged as he continued heaving up and down some haybales, putting them on different pens. “So, I guess you are here to take Fikali with you.”

“You would be right to assume that, yes.”

He sighed. “Follow me then.”

It still wasn’t noon, but the sun washed the stables without mercy. If it wasn’t because the man was carrying two sets of haybales on his shoulders, Aloe would have not been able to keep up with him as she carried a load of her own.

The stable master grunted as he threw one bale into an empty pen and continued walking, only to throw the other one to the next pen. Such finesse, Aloe rolled her eyes at the man’s brutish display.

“Well, here we are.” He picked a keychain from his belt and swiftly opened the pen in front of him. “Come out, girl!”

Inside the pen, there was a monster.

“Wroooo!” A cute monster.

Still very massive.

Fikali bellyflopped her way out of the pen. Desert dwellers were curious creatures, whilst they couldn’t move that well on solid ground, they became avatars of wind and speed as soon as their fins touched sand.

“Hrooo!” The dweller grunted again as soon as she saw Aloe and put move spring into her bellyflops, they were still awfully slow even if she was rushing at her.

“Come here, girl!” Aloe greeted Fikali with open arms.

The short yet massive monster stopped right before the girl and rubbed her snoot along her chest. The dweller had more presence of mind than most humans as she noticed the cargo on Aloe’s back and stopped herself from tackling her.

“You really missed me, huh?” Aloe found herself smiling and giggling as Fikali rubbed the side of her face against her own. “It’s only been two days, Fikali.”

“Huoo!” The dweller added, not stopping her playful assault.

She must have been bored and sad. She cannot swim freely like on the oasis.

“Here,” Aloe pushed Fikali back and put her hand on her backpack, “I have a surprise for you.”

“Hro?” Fikali tilted her head in confusion and inquiry.

The girl smiled at her as she fidgeted the contents in her backpack. She took out her closed hand and put it before the dweller.

“Pistachios!” And then opened it, revealing the nuts inside.

“Wrooooooo!” Fikali powerfully bellyflopped once on the spot before throwing herself at the handful of pistachios.

“Ah, you are tickling me~” Aloe flinched a little as she felt Fikali’s wet tongue glide over her skin.

“She likes pistachios, huh.” The stable master added neutrally as he looked at them.

“You didn’t know?” The girl frowned at his comment.

“We don’t exactly run a charity here.” He shrugged. “We feed hay to every single animal in the stables. Maybe some noble leaving their mount here is gracious enough with their pay and we may feed that one watermelon, but that’s all.”

“I am rethinking on leaving Fikali here coming forward.”

“And where would you leave her then?” The odious man added with a knowing grin.

Aloe clicked her tongue. He was unfortunately right, there was no other place to house Fikali in the city. And it wasn’t like she could bring her home; this wasn’t a stray cat but a two-hundred-something-kilo beast. She didn’t have the space nor the means to feed her. And that would mean she would need to stroll Fikali for a while if she moved it to her house or every time she wanted to leave the city. Bellyflopping didn’t look that comfortable and it wouldn’t be a short trek, but a few kilometers.

“Are you going to help me load my cargo onto her or not?” Aloe grumpily asked as the man had spoiled the mood.

“Yes, yes...” The stable master sighed. “Come’re girl, we gotta saddle you.”

“Huoooo...” Fikali unenthusiastically responded once she finished the pistachios, not a spec left on Aloe’s hand. Though she obeyed, nonetheless.

Fikali was a good girl.