‘It’s warm,’ Arloum thought. ‘Is it morning already? 'T should be near noon.’

Thinking so, he focused on his inner-body, drawing in the sunlight’s energy.

‘Though not as good as with life energy, the scraps from sunlight are ‘nough for daily needs.’

He clicked his tongue, and as the warmth grew colder, he realized that yet another day was about to pass.

‘It’s already been a month,’ he stretched his branches, when he felt droplets of water wetting his leaves.

He shivered. ‘Is it raining?’

Swaying his leaves for a while, he brushed it aside. Just like before, the youth visited daily, providing him corpses—then came a rainy day and he disappeared for a week.

‘Don’t tell me… the brat’s gone and vanished again?!’ he howled, twirling his stem in ways more than one, but his limited vision gave him no

[Absorption T1 (85%)]

‘One month is not enough. My roots are still stuck underground!’

Thankfully, his worries were in vain. When he was drenched in rainwater, a nimble figure landed on the boulder and sat next to him, opening a wooden umbrella to shield them both.

“Hey, lil’ plant, guess what?” The youth smirked.

Arloum felt a headache.

‘In the past month, this brat’s been as gloomy as a crow. Now, he’s all teeth… I didn’t know humanoids were so fickle, tch.’

He huffed, scrutinizing the youth. As usual, he was wearing a longsleeved shirt paired with dark-green pants. On his hand was Arloum’s meal; a dead snake.

Arloum almost drooled. ‘Spare me the words and hand me the snake!’

The youth, unaware of the rude plant’s thoughts, started speaking.

“The prince of Yuriel came by, can you believe it?!” he giggled, sharing a long winded tale about the “pristigous” and “honorable” prince of the Yuriel Kingdom.

‘Brat,’ Arloum pressed his leaves against his stem. ‘Tell me ‘nother story, maybe a fairytale. Anything but this!’

After even the cicadas fell asleep, the youth said something useful.

“It was a month ago, the prince enrolled the elves from our village into the academy of Yuriel!” The youth chuckled, covering his grin with his hand.

“I just learned it now! That old man chief, hiding it from us… One day,” the youth sighed happily, “we might be his bodyguards in the future. How cool is that?”

Looking at Arloum, the youth saw the latter’s leaves flick from one side to the other. It reminded him of a kid pouting.

‘What’s great with being a bodyguard?’ Arloum scoffed.

‘Stab the prince, wear the crown, and conquer the world! Brat, you’re too mild.’

The youth shook his head, placing the dead snake beside Arloum.

“Y’ know, should I give you a name? I’m Horlum, by the way.”

Arloum was about to reach out for the snake, when he heard utter nonsense. ‘I don’t need another name, brat!’

Horlum tilted his head, fisting his palm. “Ah! I remember that druids can talk to spirit plants. Will you tell me your name, when I become a druid?”

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Arloum snorted, waving his leaves in dismissal. Instead of listening to the lunatic, he found it better to focus on absorbing the life energy. Only, he was forced to keep listening moments later.

‘Dream on. I won’t be your slave worker,’ he sneered in his mind, trying to avert his focus from the foul feeling.

Unaware, Horlum giggled, flashing a toothy grin. “For now, I’ll call you little plant! When I become a druid, I’ll go to you first, okay?”

‘Don’t, you’ll waste your time,’ Arloum rolled his eyes, though on the surface, he ignored the youth’s ramblings. Horlum didn’t mind.

“Anyway, little plant. I can’t visit you for a year,” Horlum said, freezing Arloum on the spot.

“When I return, I hope you’ve grown big and strong! You can do it, little plant!”

Arloum's branches snapped, twisting his body toward Horlum and ignoring the half-finished dead snake.

‘@#*! What do you mean ‘grow big and strong? When you return, I’ll be dead! Who’s to feed me?!’

Horlum smiled, poking Arloum’s leaves with a finger. “I’ll tell Zhen to visit you everyday and give you looots of food. He’s too lazy!” He huffed.

“He could use the exercise. All he does is read books about that arcane thing. It’s sooo boring!”

Hearing that, Arloum resumed “ignoring” Horlum. ‘Food problem solved… hopefully. Anyway, arcane? Tch, a waste of time!’

Not long after describing his friend, Horlum hopped off of the boulder and disappeared. The night quickly passed, and as the sun dawned, Arloum resumed absorbing the sunlight’s energy.

‘Come to think of it, what’s the energy of the sun?’ he paused. His dark energy was dense and dark, while life energy was split into two.

‘Arcane energy is fierce and hot, similar to fire, but sunlight is… just warm. It perfectly substitutes for my dark energy, but at the same time isn’t enough to replicate it. I haven’t seen anyone use sun energy either,’ he mused.

Unknowingly, hours passed in meditation. Unbothered, he was about to fill up his energy when the warm feeling slowly disappeared, and the air felt damp.

‘Tch, is it going to rain?’ he sighed, opening his eyes to see that everything around him had turned dark.

‘When’s that Zhen going to visit? Dusk is approaching!’ Arloum slapped his leaves on the boulder’s surface, when someone’s humming entered his ears.

‘Is that him?’ he wondered.

The voice was soothing and lively, as though warding off the gloomy clouds and letting sunshine pass through.

‘He’s got a good voice… he’s an elf, alright. Horlum didn’t lie,’ he nodded, feeling somewhat… proud?

He tilted his stem and leaves, when a figure entered his vision. The figure was a male elf who was a bit shorter than Horlum.

‘Now that’s an elf. Is Horlum adopted? Or a half?’ Arloum brushed the thought aside.

Unlike Horlum, Zhen had long, platinum hair, emerald green eyes, and milky-white skin. Above all, Zhen’s ears were a little pointy, unlike Horlum’s round ears.

“Are you the little plant Horlum was talking about?” The boy, Zhen, tilted his head.

Arloum twisted his leaves, savoring the elf’s sing-song voice.

“So you are! Horlum said you were smart… Are you a spirit plant?” Zhen asked, taking off his backpack.

Then, he started unzipping the bag.

‘How many times will I tell these brats, I’m better than those dumb… plants…’ Arloum stared at the ground.

After unzipping his bag, Zhen dumped everything inside it. There, half a dozen mice fell out, as well as a dead hare and three snakes, one of which was missing its lower half.

As dead animals poured out, the stench of blood filled the air, blood splattering all over. Even Arloum was splashed with blood, let alone the boulder and Zhen himself.

On the other hand, Arloum’s gaze wasn’t on the “filth.” Rather, he was locked in at the dead corpses.

‘Oh… oh… oh!’ Arloum shivered. ‘You’re no elf! You’re an angel!’

----------------------------------------

Horlum looked out the classroom window in a daze. His desk was stuffed with notebooks, all filled with his neat handwriting.

“Horlum, are you staying here?” A deep but gentle voice called out to him, and he turned to see his teacher.

A tall elf with ankle-length platinum hair, pale skin, and blindfolded eyes. He couldn’t help rubbing the corner of his eyes absent-mindedly.

‘Will I go blind soon?’ he mindlessly thought.

After all, elves were cursed with blindness.

“Horlum?” the teacher called out again.

“Ah,” Horlum jolted, looking at his teacher next to the door. “Ah, yes teach. I’ll be staying for a while, will that be okay?”

“Of course,” the blindfolded elf smiled.

“Please close the door and clean the room before leaving, Holrum,” the blindfolded elf nodded, leaving the room.

But then, he suddenly paused just as he was about to exit the door. “Horlum,” he called out.

Horlum blinked, looking at his teacher’s back. “Teach?”

“Half elves won’t go blind, don’t worry about it. Have fun studying,” he waved, walking out.

Inside the classroom, Horlum scratched the side of his face, his cheeks flushed a slight red.

“Haaa, did I look too much?”

He giggled, looking down at his notebook.

Seeing the densely packed pages, he sighed, reaching for his sketchbook.

‘I wonder how the little plant is doing… Zhen better feed it daily like I do!’ snickering, he flipped the pages filled with sketches of Arloum.

Reaching the last, empty page, he grabbed his pencil and started drawing.

Unbeknownst to him, outside, the blindfolded elf was staring at him through the walls. When Horlum finished sketching, the blindfolded elf squinted, a thin smile spread across his face.

“Half-elf… pfft,” he turned around to leave, touching his blindfold with a smile.

"It’s been too quiet lately," he hummed, moving his hand to caress his smooth lips.