Xochipilli woke up as the sunlight filtering through the windows hit him right on the face. The young boy grunted and covered his eyes with his arm as he struggled against the sheets. It took him a solid minute before he managed to get out of bed.
"You are finally awake, huh?" The goddess inquired over from the sofa, her voice but the sweetest of harmonies. She was reading the newspaper they had brought yesterday, but she lowered it to look at him.
Even though she had removed her dress and was covered with a blanket, she looked as gorgeous as always. There was something in those shining emerald eyes that bewitched him, but now with the newspaper in hand, she gained an intellectual and mature touch that was hard to describe. Only the word sublime came to his mind.
"I left some water on the table if you want," she explained before going back to the newspaper.
The boy nodded and drowsily walked to the table and drank a whole glass in one gulp. He was still a bit thirsty, so he grabbed the jug next to the glass and refilled it. Even though he had been severely dehydrated, Xochipilli failed to feel any hunger.
"Why am I not hungry?" He voiced out.
"That's the undergrowth," Aloe responded.
"Undergrowth? Like the fallen leaves on the forest?"
"Not quite," she left the newspaper aside and stood up.
In doing so, the blanket fell on the ground and revealed her nakedness. Actually, she was still wearing her undergarments, which made it quite more… something. What that something was, Xochipilli couldn't describe for a lack of words but not imagination.
The boy looked aside out of shame; he felt his face burning at the sight.
"It's the effect of the Radiating Undergrowth, one of my plants. Well, plant is a misnomer as it's a fungus," Aloe continued explaining disregarding Xochipilli's internal conundrum. "Child, look."
"C-could you please dress yourself?" Xochipilli begged her as he kept looking to the ground.
"It will be hard with the Radiating Undergrowth now, so first look."
He had been taught that spying on women was bad, that there was virtue in secrecy and obfuscation, but as the goddess ordered him, Xochipilli couldn't refuse.
And as he looked up, he beheld another of her divine miracles.
On Aloe's hand, a new sun was born.
It wasn't spherical like the star in the heavens, but more shaped like a mushroom. Still, the light and the heat were very much real and like the sun's. He couldn't even worry about his one-sided shame with this sight, not that he was able to see much now with all the light blinding him.
"This is the Radiating Undergrowth," the goddess explained. Even through the searing white light, he could still see her green glow. "It produces a lot of light and heat, which can be very useful in dark places or heating in cold ones, but it has an even better function."
Aloe cut her hand.
It happened so fast that Xochipilli almost didn't process it. One moment the goddess' hand was attached to her body, and the next it wasn't. Even in such a visceral scene as yellow-green blood poured off her arm, Aloe didn't show the slightest hint of pain. With her other hand, she pulled the Radiating Undergrowth out of the severed one, then threw the glowing mushroom into the air. Then she pressed the severed and decimated hand from the vicious uprooting into her stump.
By the time the fungus started falling, her hand had healed back to its previous self. She hadn't even used the fire from that red flower on her hips that had healed his leg two days ago. The arm had simply… woven back into place.
"When uprooted, the mushroom no longer emits heat and light so it can be eaten." Aloe swayed the mushroom around, acting casually as if she hadn't amputated herself an instant ago. But sure enough, the mushroom hastily lost all its glint and potency and now looked like a normal white mushroom. "The good thing about the Radiating Undergrowth is that even a single mushroom provides enough satiation to keep going for a week."
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"I see…" Xochipilli was at a complete loss of words.
She had acted with such nonchalance that he couldn't help thinking that he was in the wrong. After all, why would a goddess care about such trivialities as a cut extremity? The wound was no longer there, what told him there had been one in the first place? His faulty memory? His eyes? He had only seen a blur and interpreted it to the best of his abilities…
"Then I will no longer be able to eat for the week?" He tried speaking as casually as her.
"Oh, you definitely can. But the undergrowth will remain in your stomach," Xochipilli jerked back at that response. "Fret not, child, that presents no problems. You can think of it as… reserves. You will have a few days' worth of food inside yourself if you decide to keep eating, but I would recommend not delaying the digestion of the undergrowth for too long as I've only tried it myself in periods of a few months."
"I think I can manage that," Xochipilli nodded.
Aloe closed onto him and furled his hair. He enjoyed her caresses. Not only her hand was warm, the perfect degree of warmness, but the texture of her touches also changed with time. The first ones he had gotten when she had bark-like skin were itchy – the good kind of itchy though – but now with her almost-fleshy skin, they felt… motherly.
He didn't know what to feel about that. He didn't want them to feel motherly. Mother? He remembered. Where are you? He couldn't remember when was the last time she had seen her. Was it back in the village? In that dark cellar? Or perhaps the train?
"Are you alright?" Aloe asked him as she locked him into an embrace, driving him close to her dark skin. Her warm and soft skin.
She was still naked.
"C-could you dress up n-now?" Xochipilli flailed around as he tried to separate himself from her.
"I guess I should, I wouldn't like you becoming a tomato," she added with a giggle and walked toward the wardrobe, first storing the mushroom inside the small pink opening in her chest. Xochipilli turned his back to not face whilst she dressed, but as soon as he heard the rustle of the clothing, Aloe talked. "Okay, you can turn back?"
"Already?" He didn't turn already expecting her teasing.
"What can I say? A woman has her tricks," the boy only knew that she was speaking the truth because she embraced him from behind and felt the dress' fabric on his skin. "Now it's your turn to dress. How is it that you are so embarrassed of seeing me naked, but not when you are the one undressed?"
"Because that's how it is," Xochipilli stated as a matter of fact. Boys walked naked. Girls didn't. It was common knowledge.
"I see," Aloe hummed in thought before releasing him from her clutches.
Whilst not as fast as Aloe, the boy managed to wear his clothes in a couple of minutes.
"What are we going to do today, then?" He asked after putting his jacket in place.
"I've been thinking about the thing you said about pills whilst reading the newspaper," the goddess commented as she graciously strode to the sofa. Even if the dress and all the added paraphernalia covered her whole body, her curves were still quite obvious. "Here, for example, it says 'Ninety-nine drupnars for a charm pill! Increase your beauty with just a pill a month!', see?"
She shoved the newspaper in his face, but he was only able to comprehend the drawings and the number 99 with a quick look.
"I don't know how to read, Aloe…" Once more he failed his goddess.
"Oh, sorry. I completely forgot about that, Xochipilli. Lighten up, it's not your fault," she rustled his hair until his expression recovered. "That's better!" She puffed her chest, a gesture that was magnified by the contours of the frilled dress. "Now, there's a location on the advertisement, so I planned to visit the place and find that pill you said that awakened your vitality sense. Though first, we should stop at the bank, I have many old coins, and unlike drupnarea, electrum and silver won't hold much value for collectors. They were too common."
Xochipilli nodded. He didn't fully comprehend what she was talking about, but she knew the importance of currency in these lands. And he couldn't deny that being able to not only have a share of the power of the cultivators but also of the goddess enticed him.
They left the loft – as the slaver had called it once – and he followed Aloe through the bright streets of the city. Like yesterday, she garnered a lot of attention, but unlike yesterday, the dress seemed to amplify manyfold her attractiveness.
Ladies, gentlemen, and children all looked at her goddess, but none dared to approach her. As soon as they arrived at the finer parts of the city, they found the boy selling newspapers from yesterday.
"Get your news! Fresh news from the fjords! Get your…" The voice died in his throat as Aloe approached him. His eyes darted everywhere, and his expression heated up. "U-uhm… no takesies backsies?"
Aloe giggled in response. "Fret not, child, no one is going to take your hard-earned money. I just wanted to ask for directions. Will that be all right?"
"I… yes, of course!" The boy with the beret nodded vigorously.
"I would like to know where this place is," she pointed to the advertisement she had shown him before, "and the nearest bank."
The newspaper boy gave her directions in quick succession, but Aloe seemed to catch them all. Comprehending the language was one thing, being fluent enough to engage in a high-speed conversation was another. Although Xochipilli didn't like how close the boy was getting to as he pointed around.
"I could guide you if the directions prove to be too hard!" He offered at the end, his eyes glinting as he recognized the greatness of the goddess.
"There will be no need for that, thank you very much." Then she took out a small iron coin, a drupnar they were called. "I would like today's newspaper."
"At once!" The boy took the drupnar from her hand and handed her the newspaper. "Thank you for your patronage!"
"What a lovely child," Aloe mused as they walked to their new destination.
Those last words didn't sit well with Xochipilli, surely the boy planned something nefarious and was undeserving of such praise. He couldn't allow her goddess to be tainted by such nefarious individuals.