What was supposed to be her perfect night got ruined.

  Wilona eyed the now-glowing ball of moss as she cut the stem of a plant she knew had bubbly sap. Not even the thought of a hot bubble bath made her feel happy right now. Whatever that seed did to the moss ball was pretty concerning. She wasn't going to lie to herself and pretend everything was fine when there was a chance some wild-ass plant would sprout in the middle of the night.

  "Like, swamp debris is full of fertilizer, right?" Wilona asked out loud.

  "Yes, it is." Fuzz sighed. She had answered this exact same question several times now. They were just worded differently from one another. "And I am telling you that it is fine. You shouldn't worry about it."

  "Okay, but I will put a pile of branches on top of it. You're not gonna stop me, right?"

  "I was the one who recommended it to you, Wilona," Fuzz replied in exaggeration. "And no, I will not stop you from piling up a bunch of wood on top of the moss ball."

  "Okay, good!" Wilona squeezed the stem into the boiling water of the pot and closed it just as it began to bubble. When the mixture calmed down, she did it again, pouring the other half before repeating the process. "Let that thing depressurize! Don't touch it! It's very important!"

  "Of course, very important," replied Fuzz in a drawl.

  While her bath bomb was cooking up, Wilona started to forage for branches under the cover of darkness. She used her light orb spell to see through the night and slowly began to gather sticks, which she tossed on top of the glowing moss ball. A large pile, one she would have definitely mistaken for a bonfire, soon formed on top of the ball. It was glowing slightly now, and the green light only filtered through the gaps.

  "Okay! That's done!" Wilona clapped her hands to rid them of dust. "Now I'm going to continue making my bath bomb."

  After adding more firewood and increasing the heat cooking the pot’s contents, Wilona proceeded to let some of the air out by briefly removing the lid. She then closed it once more and began working on the "flavor" of her bath bomb. She'd never seen a bath bomb made of poison before, but that was because the humans back on her world were chumps. They didn’t have a ring of resistance like she did!

  And besides, toxic therapy was an actual thing in some places. She'd seen videos of it and was genuinely interested in how it would feel. According to the people who tried it, the therapy felt "prickly," like their skin was being melted alive—but not really.

  That sounded like a sulfur bath to Wilona, but what did she know?

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Anyway, more of the purple root was used to create the bath bomb. She squeezed the crimson liquid into the open pot and stirred it with a purified stick. The mixture inside started to smell sweet and also turned purple. Neat.

  After putting the lid on again, Wilona let the bath bomb cook while working on her dinner. She had gotten pretty hungry throughout the day and, to her own shock, had eaten a lot. Like, a lot—a lot. A lot. Too much, actually.

  Only two bits of fillet were left now, and Wilona decided to make another fire pit so she could fry them in her spare pan. The sauce was rather simple—actually, no, she just added a spicy mix into the fish's existing stew and cooked it until it lost most of its moisture. What was left was this goopy liquid full of flavor. A sauce, essentially.

  Wilona killed the fire until only bits of ember were left and let the dish sit. Dinner was now finished. All that was left was to prepare the bath by heating it up with boiling water, throwing a bath bomb into it, and she would have a perfect night!

  Truth be told, she hadn’t expected something like this after waking up in a swamp, but hey, the world could sometimes be pretty random. And when the surprise was good, you might as well join the party and have fun.

  An unexpected development beats the shock of suddenly dying one day, that’s for sure.

  Wilona did the last bits of preparation she needed to finish the bath bomb—i.e., she took it out of the fire and let it cool. Once she was able to remove it, she took the goop out of the pot and molded it with her hands while it was still soft. It hurt less than Wilona expected. Then again, she’d used glue guns in the past, so eh.

  After shaping her bath bomb into a cube, she grabbed the pot and used it to scoop up water for her bathtub. A small grin spread across her face when she saw bubbles rise from the sides and bottom of the pot—the bath bomb worked!

  She must have boiled at least two pots before being satisfied with the tub’s heat.

  Wilona rubbed her hands together in excitement. "Now for the last bits of preparation."

  Running back to her house, she took out a spare change of clothes as well as her towel and placed them on a rack next to the bathtub. Then she ran down to the river and grabbed the two water canteens she had left there. These, she had managed to empty over the course of her time living in the swamp. Wilona hadn’t thought they would have any use at first, but then she realized—hey, couldn’t she just make some kind of neurotoxin drink out of these?

  So she did. She cut some poisonous roots, threw them into her refilled water canteens, and left them to cool in the nearby stream.

  Wilona grabbed the containers by their exposed heads, ensuring swamp water didn’t seep into her drink.

  "Okay, Fuzz!" Wilona raised her drinks in the air. "If you want me to pour you some, just say so!"

  "I don’t need it," replied the myceloid. "But thank you for the offer."

  "Suit yourself!" Wilona grinned. "More for me, then!"

  Humming, Wilona tossed the bath bomb into her tub and walked away. Bubbles spurted from the water's surface before long, and a sweet scent lingered in the air. The smell made Wilona’s stomach growl as she poured her dinner into a bowl. She licked her lips.

  "You don’t mind if I strip, right?" she asked, despite already removing her bra. Wilona kicked it away. "Like, we’re both girls here," she added once she was completely bare, "so you don’t mind, right?"

  "No, no, I don’t," Fuzz said after a pause.

  "Yep, good." Wilona let out an ethereal sigh as her lower body dipped into the bubble bath. She hissed. "Oh, that definitely hurts—Jesus." Once she got used to the biting toxin in the water, it became a prickly massage. "This? This is heaven. Love saunas. They’re amazing."

  "Were you a noble before this?" Fuzz suddenly asked.

  "Girl, I was middle class," Wilona laughed. "Noble my ass!"

  "You talk and act like one. It’s just an observation."

  "Yeah, yeah." Wilona uncorked her drink and took a sip. The biting sting of the liquid reminded her of soda. It wasn’t bad—kinda sweet, actually. "Noble, wobble, grobble—it’s like a click thing, I think."

  Wilona rested her cheek on the back of her hand. "I wonder how my friends are doing? Like, they should be making posts about my death right now or whatever. But still, did they care? Like, cry maybe?"

  "They probably did."

  "Eh, I hope so." Wilona leaned back, resting her spine against the fungal walls of her tub. "Because this is heaven. Ugh, God. They’re definitely gonna get jealous of this shit if they knew."

  Wilona took another sip of her drink, then she ate. It was good—adding salt changed a lot in terms of taste. Somehow, she didn’t feel as fulfilled as she wanted to.

  Solemnly, she looked at the sky. The trail of smoke coming from the fire pit where she was making pottery obscured it a bit, but the stars were still visible.

  "I hope everyone is doing okay."