Treading through the Evergreen was surprisingly more difficult than the desert. Yes, there weren't as many ups and downs as there were no dunes complicating the passage, nor did the ground actively drain your strength as the sand sucked you in, nor was there a violent sun thrashing at your back all the time… but at the same time, humidity, overgrown undergrowth, and lack of visibility were problems of their own.

  Of course, none of these affected Aloe, but the same couldn't be said for Xochipilli.

  The first time she had done her journey to Karaim's greenhouse she had already been basically an adult, and even if her baggage and provisions had weighed her down, Xochipilli was still a child. Children may boast of being energetic, but there was a difference between a sprint and a marathon, and adults excelled at the latter.

  Every time they stopped for a break, she ordered him to switch to recovery, otherwise he would be panting for breath.

  Yes, she could have carried him all the way there and arrived in a matter of minutes even without going at breakneck speeds, but there was a virtue to taking one's time on the journey. Saving the villagers one day earlier or later made no difference, and she had already checked that they weren't abused. Well, that was the wrong word. Cotton picker slaves were certainly abused as they were overworked, but they weren't overworked to death or tortured.

  And she needed these moments of accompanied silence. Of her and Xochipilli calmly treading through the thick woods and training a bit each time they stopped for a break.

  "You are progressing fast," Aloe told him after they were over with a training session.

  She handed the boy a glass of water, which she didn't even need to create her own Flourishing Spring as from time to time they would find wild ones. How many water-producing plants do you even need to increase the local humidity to these levels? Her dress stuck to her skin and that was even without her being able to sweat, it was purely the humidity of the Evergreen at work.

  "You are a good teacher," Xochipilli accepted the glass and took a lengthy sip.

  "You always say that, but I highly doubt it."

  "If I always say it, it must be because it's true," he added with a smile.

  "You certainly have a silver tongue, child." Aloe ruffled his disciple's hair. "But you are keener at the vital arts than me when I was a novice like you. So trust me here, you are competent."

  This time he didn't retort and returned to his glass as his face gained a bit of color.

  Whilst it still took him minutes to switch stances, his switching time was growing smaller by the day. He would still need months to drive those times down to seconds, but he was doing quite well as he had to practice eight stances unlike Aloe's three that she had starting out.

  As for Evolution, she allowed him to keep evolving Flourishing Springs as his maximum vitality kept increasing, but she still didn't like how his vitality seemed to go into the negative each time he evolved something. It felt… wrong. Unnatural.

  But she couldn't say that to his face, not when the child had no idea what he was doing. Dark thoughts and paranoia whispered in her mind about how he could be an assassin infiltrate out to get her, but he was veritably green with the vital arts, so it wasn't possible. And she even doubted that someone who had been exposed for this long to her glamour could be able to betray her.

  Her mind wandered back to those moments in Sadina centuries ago. It was now obvious in hindsight why she couldn't bring herself to disagree with Rani. The emir wasn't fully conscious of her charm stance most of the time, but she wielded it nonetheless, and Aloe was its prisoner. Her mind lied to herself about how she needed Rani instead of sacrificing herself to protect…

  Who was I protecting? Aloe's breath trembled and she grabbed her head as she was unable to put a face and a name together. Oh, no… She didn't allow Xochipilli to see her motions, keeping him moving before her, but it was hard to keep herself silent. Who was she? Who I sacrificed myself for? So hard… it was so hard to keep herself steady. A steady breath so Xochipilli didn't hear her. A steady pulse so the light of the Radiating Undergrowth didn't flicker around. A steady body – for her legs faltered – so Xochipilli didn't suspect a thing.

  She was on the verge of tears before a hint of memories, a kernel of the past, came back to her.

  "Lulu," she whispered under her breath. My little, loyal maid. Oh, how could have I abandoned you? What did they do with you at the palace once I left? Did they rape you like the nefarious women they were and let you starve on the streets? Did Rani uphold the spirit of our agreement and allow you to keep working until you were old enough to sustain yourself in another line of work? Oh, Lulu. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

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  Aloe took a deep breath, fresh and humid air filling her vegetable lungs. Her body was very malleable even without dexterity active, which made it possible for her chest to inflate like the bags of the Cottonpull. She only realized that after she heard her lingerie protesting, the fabric of her bra almost snapping underneath her dress as she pushed it too much to its limits.

  Each action has become now but a caricature of its previous self. She chastised herself. If I don't control myself, I'm bound to cause destruction. You've seen it already, Aloe. A single moan is all it takes to cause uproar. You are no longer like… them. It was hard to keep her hands from trembling, but she pressed forward through the Evergreen, nonetheless.

  It must be noted that she didn't give Xochipilli enough credit. Because the boy was wielding haste as he walked, they marched at a solid pace even if he was still a child. Faster than an adult, but not by much. The advantage of Nurture had always come from its versatility, to use the right stance at the right moment, and the little disciple had understood that fast.

  I've still yet to see him use toughness, though, Aloe chuckled to herself. She found his lack of usage of the defense stance amusing because she had constantly abused it in her early days. This was, of course, because she had to deal with her menstrual pains, an agony the child was blessed without.

  They continued with their cycle of breaks, marching, and training sessions, or that was the case until she detected movement on the periphery. Xochipilli still happily pranced over the Evergreen as his senses were dulled by haste, though it wasn't like he could have sensed movement over a kilometer away from them anyway.

  Approaching. Aloe mused, internally reading for combat. I've detected some moving vitality signs already, whether animals or monsters I cannot say, but they kept themselves away from us. This one isn't.

  She kept herself one step behind Xochipilli at all times so not even a speed stance-wielding cultivator could put their hands on him, but she didn't alert him just yet. The intentions of their stalker were yet to be confirmed, and she didn't want to scare the child. If she could resolve the matter without him even becoming aware of it, the better.

  And as she was pondering that, the figure leaped out of the bushes.

  Xochipilli turned his head to face the origin of the noise, but by then she had sidestepped to his side to protect him. But the interloper had no eyes for the child, only her.

  At first, the silhouette looked rather feral as it stood on four legs, but it took but one moment for it to stand on two.

  There she was: a voluptuous figure with shapely breasts, wide hips, and long ivy hair. It almost looked like Aloe when she had gotten out of the chasm, but there were some differences. The vegetable-looking woman was different than the vegetable woman as she wasn't covered in bark armor, but that didn't mean she wasn't devoid of any. Her hands and feet were covered in what looked like wooden gauntlets and sabatons, but that wasn't her only 'clothing' as she portrayed leaves all across her dark green body, especially covering the sensitive bits. And if someone was yet able to think the figure before them was a human, her glowing eyes composed of only yellow sclera were more than negation enough. Those globes weren't without their animalistic violence.

  In fewer words, sensual yet feral beauty.

  "Is it you?" The woman asked with her arms pressed close to her body, as if scared to extend them. Aloe didn't need anyone to tell her that she was one of the dryads the old lady had talked about the other day.

  "Who are you?" Aloe asked commandingly. The master was having none of it, especially if someone, or something, was to threaten her disciple.

  "Yes, it's you!" The dryad jumped in place, her wooden gauntlets extending into claws not dissimilar to those of a dweller's. "I knew you were out there!"

  "I'll not ask again," the druid said with a scowl, keeping the child behind her. "Who are you?"

  "It's me!" The dryad smiled and pressed her claws on her chest. "I'm your daughter, mother!"

  "M-mother?" Aloe lost her composure, and she felt a growing instability inside of her. She thought herself a mother of plants… but not like these. Unbeknownst to her growing discomfort, the sentient plant nodded excitedly in response.

  "But where is our other mother, though?" The creature's head tilted to the side a bit too much to be natural, yet still preserving some air of innocence in the wrongness of the gesture.

  "O-other… mother?" The instability grew greater and she felt her vision spin around. "Ah…" Aloe moaned as her hands trembled and she dropped the pebble carrying the Radiating Undergrowth.

  Something clicked in her mind. She wasn't sure, but it didn't matter if it was true or not, the thought had already rotted inside of her mind like a festering fungus. She had felt it before when she entered the Evergreen and felt its vitality, but as she now looked at the dryad, the same familiar vitality assaulted her. A part of that vitality was hers, but the other was not… That one laughed at her.

  The vegetable woman's legs finally gave in, and she fell to the ground. Xochipilli cried in the background, but she could no longer pay attention to him. She was too submerged in her thoughts.

  She recognized that vitality and scared her.

  She had only brushed with it once, but its memory lingered on her very core until this very moment.

  "Ohheavensohheavensohheavens," the druid started hyperventilating as she barely held her body with her arms, her unfocused gaze locked with the ground. Something cracked. Something she had thought fixed. Something that should have healed with time. "I-it's… hers. I am a mother… and the child is mine and… Aaliyah's."

  It hadn't healed. She hadn't healed.

  Aloe Ayad puked in the middle of the forest, letting out centuries filled with anguish, feeling once more like a broken mess.