LIGHTNOVELONLINE Book 2: 34. Breath
Every good morning should start with a visit to the latrine rather than long sessions of brainstorming, or that was how Aloe thought.
“Ugh, I feel my mind clearer!” Aloe groaned as she stretched her arms.
The sun caressed her skin, it was still somewhat early and it didn’t scrape with much strength. Her whole body bathed in the welcoming sunlight as Aloe had to remove her nightgown lest she wanted to make a mess in the latrine. But after she finished stretching, she donned the piece of clothing back, the concept of embarrassment returning to her mind.
“I know I’ve just had a bath yesterday, but I kinda feel like having one right now. I just feel a bit dirty.” Aloe pondered as she strolled back to her house.
She picked up some clothes for when she got out and gave the oasis a quick go.
“This feels nice.” The girl commented inside of the water as she scrubbed her dark skin. It was a bit cold, but it was a good coldness. “It’s just so good to be able to wash myself at any time with water without having to pay. I don’t like our... my sand bath.”
There, of course, existed the possibility to go to the option to go to the public baths, the ones that required no entry price. But no matter how many times she got naked in the isolation of the oasis, Aloe was not comfortable being naked around others. Even if everyone else was too.
Her last slip did sour the mood a bit, so she kept herself quiet for the rest of the bath, but she did enjoy it. She just couldn't trust her mind. It was hard. It truly was. Every single instance, every single minimal thought, any detour would lead her back.
Back to what she had lost.
Aloe dived into the oasis.
She knew her actions were as physical as metaphorical, her head hidden away from the light, regardless of its tangible or metaphysical illumination.
Being surrounded by water calmed her. The cold water grazing her scalp, her short hairs flowing like leaves on the wind. Soothing, natural, comfortable.
But she was not a creature of the water.
Her breath was slowly running out, and she knew that even if she managed to create a ‘water breathing’ internal infusion, it wouldn’t end up being enough. At some point, she would need to breathe again.
The water around her wasn’t just the chill liquid.
It was so much more.
As she resurfaced, all the worries disappeared from her system, washed away by the water.
Aloe walked on the floor of the oasis, dirt against her feet. Water flowed down her body, the sun already starting to dry her. Her hair was the source of most of the water, and it caressed her shoulders. That was new, her hair had never been able to reach that far.
She stepped out of the water, her body finally fully out on the dry land. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held her breath for a while, as if she was back on the water again, only to release it slowly a few seconds later.
Only after she got all the air out of her lungs did she open her eyes.
Her expression remained emotionless for a second then Aloe smiled.
“Feew~ That felt great!” The dark-skinned girl stretched her arms, more water splashing around with her gesture. “The last bath was a bit sad and it had left me a bit down all this time. I needed to right the wrongs and make this one count.”
Words died from there out and Aloe went to get her towel. There wasn’t much of a breeze at this hour, but the wind was as dry as always, so even as she dried herself, she only needed to focus on her hair. Aloe donned her favorite sandals, a summer dress, and her straw hat before departing from the oasis.
Fikali, ever the lazy peon, still slept under the shade of a palm tree even though the sun had come out a while ago. Aloe did her best to stay quiet as she returned to the house. And just as she thought so, her stomach grumbled.
“Oof.” She whispered. “Why do I even think...?” Her words died out as her body protested.
The cries for sustenance in her stomach weren’t enough to wake up the dweller, but it did wake up Aloe’s appetite.
Carefully and silently, Aloe went to the other side of the oasis and grabbed a handful of dates. She rinsed them in the oasis before finally coming home.
The seeds, especially the Blossomflame one, still waited for her on top of the desk as she had left them. But as her stomach continued to protest, she made her way to the kitchenette to grab a bowl for the dates.
Aloe removed the dates from the branch and placed them in the bowl, then she directed herself to the desk where she sat down.
“Alright, I’ve been thinking about this in the latrine,” Aloe mumbled to herself as she put a date in her mouth, “but the Blossomflame infusion shouldn’t be that expensive. I doubt it’s going to be bigger than the Flourishing Spring, so it should cost less than half my deposit.”
Reticently, the girl extended her hand to pick up the warm seed. And after having yet another date, with the other hand she reached for her satchels to have some pills at hand.
“Huh.” Aloe was left flabbergasted as she didn’t find any satchels. “I don’t have my garb on, duh.”
She had forgotten about her discarded clothes after bathing, and she had left them on the oasis.
With a groan, Aloe made her way out and walked where she had left her garb. Instead of taking it back home, she just knelt and searched inside her satchels as that garb needed a good washing and it was better if she didn’t infest the house with her sweat.
“Huh.” She mumbled like before, but even though her hands weren’t empty like previously, the results weren’t to her liking. Aloe looked at the Cure Grass pellets in her hand. “Just three? Have I already used all of those up?”
She had only ‘baked’ pills a single time, but – in that batch – she had made so many that she doubted she would need any more soon. That was before she had obtained the Flourishing Springs and spent most of her pills on evolving and infusing them. And the six she used on the Blossomflame also made a dent in her reserves.
“Yet another item to my ever-growing list of tasks.” The girl sighed in exhaustion. “At least it isn’t that time-consuming to make them. They should last me for another month. Hopefully.”
Aloe made her way back home and downed a handful of dates before doing anything else.
“Alright, here we go. Don’t take more than three pills please.” She whispered the last part to the Blossomflame seed in a prayer.”
She left the three remaining pills on the desk, if anything happened, she would have them at hand.
Infusing evolved seeds was always curious. Whilst she couldn’t evolve infused seeds because they were unable to take more vitality into them, evolved seeds lost most of their vitality after evolving so they could be infused. Where that vitality went was beyond Aloe’s understanding. Her best theory was that the energy was used to modify the seeds.
If infusing common seeds was like swimming in water, infusing evolved seeds was like swimming in sand. More difficult and tiring – and rather foolhardy – but not impossible. There was a pushback that didn’t exist in common seeds, but it wasn’t big enough to prevent her from infusing them, it just added a bit of a challenge to an otherwise mundane activity.
The main reason why she had feared infusing the Blossomflame seed was because it possessed more vitality than any seed she had seen before. She hadn’t inspected the amount of vitality a grown tree had, but she could surely say the Blossomflame seed was around those levels.
Still, there was no difference between infusing a seed or a grown tree as what only mattered was the grown state.
Aloe took a deep breath and shoved her vital energy into the warm seed.
The resistance was present, but it was as minimal as passing through a string bead curtain. Soon enough it became apparent that Aloe’s fears were unfounded as the seed drank her vitality far less egregiously than it had when evolving.
Her intent was null, mostly because she had forgotten, but for the infusion she wanted to apply she didn’t need one. Instants later the Blossomflame seed stopped drinking from her vitality reserves and with a quick check of its inner vitality, it became clear that it was now infused with the ‘accelerated growth’ infusion. The most basic of all, but also the most useful.
Aloe sighed in relief as she almost didn’t notice the strain in her reserves.
“Ten-ish percent. That’s good.” She had honestly thought she would have needed to put those three seeds to use. For once in her life, she couldn’t be happier to be wrong about something. “This means it won’t be big, maybe a bit bigger than a normal flower, but not by much.”
Her heart threatened to pour out of her chest despite her calm tone.
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