One may think that Aloe was embarrassed by her nakedness, but she had long outlasted that type of shame. For better or worse, her life had forced her to throw away her clothes more than she would have liked. No, what made her blush – her cheeks heated up, but she doubted the color of bark could change – was the fact that she had been called out.

"I… have had no need for clothes for a long time. All that I had… was reduced to rags. But it's not like I need clothes with my current appearance, right?" She tried justifying herself, but she felt increasingly ashamed with every word.

"I…" Xochipilli blushed intensely, practically matching the colorfulness of the Blossomflame. "If you say so…"

Dunes! I can't do this! She wanted to crawl into a hole again and become one with the earth, especially as Xochipilli inspected her, trying to justify Aloe's poor excuses to himself. Whilst there was no lasciviousness in the child's gaze and there was nothing indecorous he could find as her bark was more armor than skin, the situation was too… aggressive for her.

Clothes! Aloe focused on her body, feeling the seeds and plants residing in it, and she made them grow. She thought of the Cottonpull, it was the only plant that would provide any real coverage. The Aloe Veritas already did something like that, but her skirt didn't cover much, and if she made the leaves any bigger, it would limit her movement.

She had so much vitality that it only took her a handful of seconds to grow a Cottonpull from a seed to a fully-fledged plant, but she manipulated its growth with the experience she had obtained with the Heartgrowth and made herself clothes of cotton.

Antigravity cotton.

"I should have thought this through," she mused under her breath as her head was now covered by a layer of cotton, doing exactly the opposite thing clothes should do.

She cut the cotton and let it fly free, but the spontaneous growth of the Cottonpull wasn't without its merits. Now she had the Cottonpull's sack to cover herself with, and even if she was way larger than before, the sack became a passable-enough one-piece dress after she made a hole for her head.

The sack had an ugly brown color, it was a bit hairy, and it had no holes for arms… it also only reached her knees, but it was better than walking around naked.

"Better?" Aloe asked Xochipilli.

"I-I believe so," the child nodded enthusiastically. "But how have you done so, Lady Aloe?"

"Xochipilli…" She reminded him.

"Aloe?" He corrected.

The cultivator hummed satisfied with the answer. "Well, it's quite a complex subject and a secret." The boy deflated upon hearing the evasiveness in her response. "But if you behave well, I will tell you one day, okay?"

"Yes!" Xochipilli's eyes brightened. "I will be the bestest follower ever!"

Aloe giggled at his enthusiasm. "Bestest is not a word, it's simply best."

"Best follower ever!" He corrected himself again and threw his hands into the air.

What a lovely kid, Aloe kept to herself with a smile on her face.

"We should get going then, but before that…" She knelt and removed the boots from the man. "Xochipilli, come here. Unless you are against using the clothes of the dead?"

The boy shook his head in negation and walked to her.

"Will the boots fit me?"

"Don't worry, I've thought about it." Aloe gave him a comforting smile. She wanted to make Xochipilli welcome, a kid of his age shouldn't have suffered as much as he had suffered.

Aloe led a hand to her chest, and she parted the bark from her fingers. There another of her evolutions rested.

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The Slowtide.

After many experiments and no longer fearing the effects of the evolved lichen, Aloe had found a very useful way to use it. Xochipilli's eyes widened in surprise as her arm, her whole arm, went inside of her chest. By any means, there wasn't enough space for her arm to fit on her torso, but she wasn't putting it inside of her chest, but another place altogether.

Whilst not infinite, the Slowtide on her body provided her with a pocket several times her volume, enough to store a handful of things.

Once she felt fluffiness on her hand, Aloe pulled out her arm and a few balls of cotton came out.

"Let's pad the boots, shall we?" She said with a smile and Xochipilli nodded slowly, still dumbfounded by her trick.

As she put pieces of cotton in Xochipilli's boots to fill the emptiness – and it was very empty as he was a small kid – of the footwear, the boy finally snapped out of his confusion.

"How did you do that?"

"Woman's secret," Aloe responded with a smile.

The truth was, even if she revealed she had been using the Slowtide, this effect couldn't be recreated. The evolved lichen consumed anything inside of it given enough time, especially organic items like cotton. The only reason hers hadn't done so was because it was technically herself. The Slowtide was growing on her Heartgrowth, which was simultaneously herself, so she could control the Slowtide to keep it from digesting any contents inside of it.

Instead of a constantly growing calamity, Aloe had transformed the Slowtide into the best portable device in existence. A pocket that was several times bigger on the inside than the outside, plus negating any weight of the stored items. That was probably the biggest boon, even if she wasn't taking advantage of that property much right now.

And even if she was… tons of weight wouldn't faze her.

Or so she thought.

Xochipilli was a good kid and didn't press after receiving such an unsatisfactory answer. After Aloe filled the contents of the boots with cotton, she dusted her hands and stood up.

"How does it feel?" She asked him.

The child took some shy steps before skipping around and checking the fit. "They hold!"

"That's great to hear," Aloe smiled at Xochipilli. "Then we should get going, let's hope the city is not that far so we can make it before nightfall."

As it was past noon, Aloe guided herself with the sun, simply walking to the west until they found Selen. She hadn't deviated much when she had gone inside the chasm, and cities didn't vanish overnight – or over decades, in her case – so going west should be more than enough for directions.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to make it before nightfall. When she had originally fallen into the chasm after being attacked, she had been walking for a few hours with haste on, but now she walked across a thick forest at a normal pace to allow Xochipilli to keep up.

She could have carried him and made the journey in a matter of minutes but… she doubted the kid would survive it. Especially considering how exhausted he had to be after reaching this deep into the forest.

Better to play it safe even if they had to camp for the night.

"Is it cozy?" She asked Xochipilli.

Whilst she didn't need to sleep, the child very much needed to, especially as he was already exhausted. She had given him the Cottonpull's sack she had been using as clothes – if it could even be called that – to use as a mantle then had made him a makeshift litter with lots of Cottonpull cotton balls. To keep them in place she had needed to wrap Xochipilli and the balls inside the sack like a durum.

"Yes!" Apparently, the child enjoyed being a human durum.

Aloe stoked the fire with a stick. Making a campfire had been incredibly easy, as simple as invoking fire with the Blossomflame. Now she needed not to hurt herself or have enemies to summon the fire as she herself was the plant. Technically speaking, she hadn't even needed to make a campfire with dry leaves and a circle of pebbles, she could have just kept the Blossomflame going all night as she had enough vitality regeneration even without recovery on to permanently keep it on.

But no one could deny the coziness of a campfire.

It was dark, but the joy of the wind caressing the canopies of the trees and the hints of starlight coming through the foliage made her infinitely happy. This wasn't the darkness of the chasm or her mind, but that of the outdoors.

And it was beautiful.

She heard a rustle.

Alerted she was not, for it came beside her.

"You can't sleep, Xochipilli?" Her tired emerald eyes met with the youthful red ones.

"No…" He responded sheepishly.

"Do you want me to make you sleep?"

"Will you sing me a lullaby?"

Aloe blushed at those words. "I'm afraid I don't know one, and if I did… my voice is not the better."

"Nonesense!" The child pouted.

"It's nonsense," Aloe corrected him. "But I have something better than a song."

"Something better?" Xochipilli tilted his head from inside his durum.

"Yes," the vegetable woman nodded. "Magic."

"Can I see it?" His red eyes shone with the campfire's light, but also with the wonder of childhood.

Aloe blew from her nose in amusement and nodded. She moved her head near his and blew some air, accompanied by orange spores. Xochipilli didn't have time to react as the Dream Spore spores sent him instantly to sleep. If a cultivator couldn't fight them, a child would be defenseless against them.

She brushed the child's hair with her wooden hand. Darkness still plagued her thoughts, but seeing a visage so peaceful and devoid of worry warmed her vegetable heart. She may be numb to human pleasures now, but that image of coziness still comforted her. This kid had suffered too much already for his age, she wouldn't allow him to suffer anymore.

Not like her.

Not again.