Wilona threw on her gloves and failed to spin the pruning shears she held in her other hand. She picked it back up and straightened herself without losing enthusiasm, "So! We're about to harvest magical plants! Don't you think that's cool Fuzz? I think it's cool. Personally."

  "I've been cultivating them so to say that I'm not interested in them would be a lie," Fuzz nodded in agreement to Wilona's question even if her answer was indirect. That's just how it goes for her, really. "Alchemical plants of this caliber have never reached the palm of my hands in the past nor did I have a book about potions so I'm excited to start my attempts on potion making."

  "Uhuh, me too honestly." Most of what Fuzz said went over Wilona's head as she covered her eyes to block the glare that came from the Argent Purgeflame. "Holy shit, these things really are bright huh? It's only what? 5 o'clock? The villagers should be sleeping by now, I should be sleeping by now actually."

  Before them, a field of silver leaves that spanned at least 20 meters sat in place, reflecting the light that came from the early morning sun in short yet powerful bursts. If anyone looked at this thing during noon, they would have gone blind instantly. The plant covered the ground in a wide sheet of silver and practically made it impossible to spot the earth.

  "I don't have any problems with it," Fuzz said with a slightly proud tone. She quickly composed herself, "I can't believe there would be a day where I would appreciate seeing things through gases in the wind but here I am."

  "You know, I wish I had that." Wilona looked at the myceloid, she caught on to Fuzz's brag just now but she felt that the mushroom was just bantering with her. "Maybe I can try practicing with it?"

  Didn't she already have a magic vision? That should be similar right?

  "I believe it's best we start harvesting this as soon as possible," Fuzz bent down and snipped at the stem of the plant, she made sure to only cut the top, leaving behind the white stalks that the leaves grew on. "Wasting darkness will only make it harder for you to take these later on."

  "You know," Wilona began while taking some of the leaves herself. Despite their looks, the plants were weirdly soft, she honestly expected them to feel like steel or even like, rough or something but this is just a recolored plant. "I never thought I'd ever hear someone say that, 'losing darkness' I mean."

  "It makes sense no?" Fuzz tilted her head, seemingly confused about what Wilona meant by this. "Harvesting Argent Purgeflames during the day is a death sentence for your eyes."

  "Yeah, I get it." Wilona replied, she rubbed the surface of a lone leaf with her thumb. "I don't want to go blind either." With the two of them working together, harvesting the entire field didn't take that long. "You know, I'm thinking maybe we should cover this place, or at least put a roof over it. These guys don't need the sun right?"

  "The sun is required for them to be potent, unfortunately." Fuzz shook her head in clear denial, Wilona's heart dropped when she saw the mushroom doing this. "Don't look so disappointed, and we've also put walls around the field remember? The only risk we have from being blinded is when we're harvesting it."

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Wilona looked away from the tall wooden walls Mossheart set up, "You know, you're being really generous when you say 'we' like, you can't go blind and stuff."

  "I was saying I sympathized with you," Fuzz shook her head, "though I suppose it is also quite insensitive. I know that being around such dangerous plants must make you feel anxious, but rest assured that you can cure blindness using magic should the situation go that far."

  "Yeah, no, that's not scary at all." Wilona shuddered.

  "Then I suppose you simply have to conquer your fears." Fuzz sounded like she was smiling. Wilona squinted her eyes and looked at the empty surface the mushroom called her face, "What?"

  "Nothing."

  "You staring intensely is not 'nothing'." Fuzz quickly argued.

  Wilona grinned and carried the harvested plants out of the garden, she ignored Fuzz and soon enough, the myceloid followed after her. "Okay, so, what kind of other plants do we need to harvest?"

  "Aurelian Crownblooms is our next goal, after we drop these off at Mossheart's burrow—" and yeah, the ent made it at some point, Wilona really wasn't sure when though. Probably somewhere between visits to the town and Rottie, or when she talked to the Castorimorphians about what she was planning. "—we will go on to harvest the Crownblooms, the flower will do great if we want to brew a powerful purification potion."

  "And that's without using the Amplefeca method right?" Wilona turned to Fuzz. Alchemists normally stacked brewing methods, doing them one after the next to make their potions more potent.

  They even use separate brewing methods whenever they make a single potion, going back and forth between the known methodologies. It wasn't needed of course, but professionals often did it to ensure the quality of their work.

  "No, but adding Amplefeca into the mix will only ensure that our work is high quality so we are going to do it." Fuzz looked at her, "You don't mind the tediousness of the process no?"

  "Nope," Wilona nodded, why would she? "I have nothing better to do anyways, so might as well. But like, I can always trust you to make potions for me in a pinch right?"

  "Of course, that's exactly why I am here for no?" Fuzz tilted her head, "To aid you."

  "Thanks," Wilona smiled. Finally, someone who's putting in their weight during group projects. Where was Fuzz back when she still went to school?

  They got to Mossheart's burrow and honestly? Calling it that is just plain wrong. Mossheart lived in a cave of roots and twisting vines.

  The entrance to the burrow stretched across the earth, the cold air rushing out of it made it seem alive and Wilona genuinely thought it was breathing at first. The entrance had circular lips of bark infested with moss, one part thankfully had a set of stairs that a human can use, allowing her and Fuzz to go down and enter.

  The tunnel beyond was wide, like, super wide. Like, 50 of her could walk here side by side, and then another 20 would be on their shoulders and they still wouldn't be able to fill in the place—okay, maybe she's overexaggerating. Like, Mossheart is 10 feet tall and she's half that height. A little over half. Still, it was big!

  Roots curved along the walls of the cave, twisting upward until they reached the ceiling where a bunch of vines grew downward. They looked like veins, if veins were exposed or something like that. Pretty gnarly really. Pun intended.

  On the floor beneath them were small groups of the magical stones Garry loved to gift to her, the Alligator Gar must have helped Mossheart out because there's at least a thousand of these stones here, covering the earth and illuminating the path.

  "Holy shit, Mossheart made this?" Wilona stared at the burrow before her, slack-jawed. She closed her mouth, "What the fuck? When did she have time to make this? When you told me that she made a burrow I thought it was like, a gerbil's or something!"

  "It is impressive isn't it?" Fuzz stared at her and if she had a face, she would look both smug and smiling at the same time.

  "Impressive? This is fucking amazing!" Wilona exclaimed.

  "I'm sure Mossheart appreciates your honesty." Fuzz nods, she looks around, "At first I thought that the ent must have been playing around when she started digging but then I realized that she was making a home. I helped out at first, but when it became clear that mycelium is unneeded in this place, I decided to leave Mossheart to her work so everything you're seeing right now is made by her, and her alone."

  "That's so fucking metal." Wilona muttered, "She's an architect?"

  "That wouldn't be the lesson I wanted you to learn from what I said but I suppose it is good enough." Fuzz shook her head in amusement, "It is quite impressive what an ent could do in such a short period of time, no wonder they are considered dangerous despite their pacifist nature. It really puts into perspective just what they can do when they wish to fight."

  "I don't get it." Wilona tilted her head.

  "Nevermind." Fuzz sighed, she didn't really expect Wilona to realize that all the roots and plant life surrounding them were made by Mossheart. "I was merely talking out loud."

  "Eh, fair enough." Wilona shrugged. It's not like Mossheart will ever turn on them so Wilona didn't feel the need to worry about how deadly the ent can get.