The trio, Frank, Pineapple, and Amethyst, crest the bushes at the river bank and step into the forest, beautifully lit by the day’s early rays, shimmering past branches and leaves.

  The light makes the morning dew on the leaves of flowers and plants glisten, the forest slowly waking up to a new day.

  Flowers, some tiny and others as tall as Amethyst, are starting to crack open their blooms with the growing light as they journey through the underbrush.

  As they slowly walk with Amethyst’s pace, Franks asks her a question.

  “Amethyst, are there more like you back home, back on Midnight Iris?”

  “Yes... my brothers and sisters.”

  “Are they… aware like you?” He asks carefully.

  “I don't think so...”

  Figures, she’s definitely no child, yet her communication skills don’t seem to match her age.

  I wonder how long she’s been like this, it cannot have been that long ago.

  “Do you know how you became sapient?”

  “No…”

  I barely understand all that happened back then myself...

  “I see,” Frank ponders for a moment.

  “Well, Amethyst, what do you like? What do you do for fun?”

  Amethyst looks at him confused.

  “It may be a strange question… you seem like you’re still in pain and maybe not very experienced with conversation… but can you humor me just this once?”

  “Why?”

  “That’s just normal human customs, when you meet a new person you want to get along with, you’ll ask them questions to get to know them, like what they like and don’t like.”

  Frank explains with a warm smile.

  “So what do you like Amethyst? There must be something.”

  “I like…”

  Amethyst thinks and glances up at the cloudless teal sky.

  “Flying.”

  “Ah I see, I wish I could fly too, it must feel awesome, the freedom, the wind on your face...”

  Frank is about to gush more about the awesomeness of being able to fly, but restraints himself, as he notices Amethyst’s longing gaze upward.

  “What else?”

  “My blades.” Amethyst drops her gaze from the sky and looks at her hands, turning and observing the state of her blades: the purple translucent crystal-like dagger hands and her long elbow blades.

  They are a little unkempt, however, with dirt, mud, and grass sticking even to their hard and smooth surface, regardless, they remained ever-sharp.

  “Your offense and your defense, I understand, they always have your back, ever dependable.

  Anything else?”

  “I...

  like...

  Grent...”

  Amethyst stops walking.

  “Grent? Who’s Grent?” Confusion takes over Frank’s tone of voice.

  “No, no I…

  I don’t like Grent!”

  She almost collapses to the ground, her legs buckling under her as she leans forward.

  “Not him! Shut up!

  NO!

  I… I…!”

  Amethyst holds her head with the sides of her blades, her shaking intensifying.

  Her closed eyes and contorted face tell of the struggle inside.

  “Are you alright Amethyst? Try to stay calm.”

  What can I do? How do I help her?

  Frank knows better than to lay a hand on her, even if to try and calm her, what could he possibly do to help?

  “I...

  like...

  I...

  I...

  love...

  Mother.”

  Amethyst opens her eyes again after her stammering.

  “I... I... am fine-” Amethyst says frantic and panting through her open mouth, she lets go of her head and straightens her posture.

  “I think... L-let’s keep going,” Her echo-like voice buzzes weakly.

  “O-okay,” Frank says bewildered, unsure of how to react to what he just witnessed, deciding it’s better to not question it.

  They continue on through the forest, various birds of different sizes fly in the sky, letting out strange cries, the main ambient noise as the conversation has ceased.

  Treading forward, they come across a thick area of vegetation, like a jungle, Frank takes the lead in showing them through it.

  The lush area is full of fruit trees and berry bushes of strange colors and shades, but green is the commanding palette even here.

  Vines grasp onto Amethyst’s legs as she drags them close to the ground, further hindering her already sluggish pace.

  “Are you doing alright?” Frank asks as she looks backward to the left-behind Amethyst.

  Amethyst heavily leans forward and cuts the vines and vegetation tangled to her legs.

  “Y-yeah...”

  “Alright.”

  Frank picks up a low-hanging Applenut, as he is easily able to keep ahead of Amethyst’s slow laboring pace.

  “Why do you care?”

  Amethyst suddenly asks from right behind him.

  Startled, Frank drops the second Applenut, managing to catch it mid-air, shoving it into his pocket, too. “O-Of course I care.”

  “But I’m injured and sick.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Frank turns around.

  “That just means I got to take even better care of you.”

  “...”

  Silent, Amethyst looks away and continues onward, past Frank who follows her walk with curious eyes.

  Meanwhile, Pineapple races around the jungle, nimbly running under vines, jumping over roots, dashing back and forth happily.

  Enjoying its time in this environment brimming with stimuli.

  Frank collects two more fruits and easily catches back up to Amethyst who is slicing more plants restricting her.

  It takes them a short while to get through the harsher terrain back to the sparser forest.

  Unexpectedly, Amethyst takes the initiative to converse.

  “Frank…

  What... do you like?”

  “Well, I like photographing, taking pictures to immortalize meaningful and unique events and creatures in them.

  I like animals too, big surprise, that’s... part of the reason why I work here. It's not the worst job, I get to combine two things I love.

  Photographing and getting to see and interact with so many new and interesting creatures.

  Before… I have to say goodbye to them...

  But I’ve never met anyone like you before in all my time here,”

  He smiles at Amethyst, who vaguely looks his way, her eyes focused somewhere else.

  “Not to say you are an animal or anything,” Frank quickly adds.

  Amethyst does not seem to understand or care about this comparison.

  “I like camping, nature, and the outdoors too, all of my hobbies really come together out in nature, I suppose.

  The green of trees, grass, and nature is just so refreshing.”

  Amethyst focuses a piercing gaze on Frank.

  “I hate green.”

  “W-what? Why?”

  “Blood… is green.” She doesn’t elaborate further and looks away, focusing her attention back on her own walking.

  “Oh… I see. I’m sorry about that.”

  Frank now understands the origin of the faintly green stains dried on Amethyst’s hair, chest, and hips.

  “What about you Pineapple? What do you like? You want to come live with me in my house?” Frank asks from their Solarophone companion.

  The yellow cat walking before them does not acknowledge this question.

  “Well, that’s fine,” With a loud whisper, he says to Amethyst:

  “Just between you and me, Pineapple is way too full of himself anyway, he can just stay in the forest for all I care.”

  The Solarophone’s proud saunter is interrupted as it turns back to stare at Frank with its dark cat eyes.

  Its cone starts building up swirling light, accompanied by a whirring sound.

  “Wait, wait! I’m just kidding, just a joke-”

  Zwap.

  The photographer gets caught in the flash, the light being bright even through his closed eyelids.

  Amethyst reacted in time and looked the other way entirely.

  Frank continues teasing Pineapple:

  “So it's a yes then, you-!” Light starts swirling again in Pineapple’s head cone.

  “-lovely and fuzzy, dependable and cute cat...”

  Pineapple winds down the charge, turns around, and continues marching forward head and tails held high.

  Frank steals a glance at Amethyst’s expression, a slight smile visible on her otherwise troubled face.

  They arrive at the edge of a meadow, green grass, and small flowers in any color imaginable sway in the faint wind.

  On the lively plain, insects buzz around from flower to flower, and a small mammal bolts from the far left edge of the meadow back into the forest as it sees them arrive, disappearing into the forest.

  “My house is just across here, how are you holding up?”

  “…” Amethyst just stares at the sea of flowers.

  “Do you like flowers?” Frank asks her.

  “I… think so?”

  “What is your favorite color?”

  “Orange… I think.” Amethyst answers unsure.

  “Can you tell me why that is?”

  “I like melting steel, it turns into bright orange.”

  He chuckles, “That’s true, alright, hold on a moment.”

  Frank steps into the meadow from the edge of the forest, gazing intently downward at the flowers, clearly searching around for something.

  Amethyst follows him with her hybrid eyes, curious as to what he is doing.

  He snaps an orange flower, resembling a pansy, from below the bloom, leaving a short stalk on it.

  A flower with three large heart-shaped petals, a colorful gradient starts from the edge of the petals changing from white to orange and to black right in the middle.

  “Alright, I’ll approach you now and stick this flower on your head.”

  Frank announces as he carefully holds the delicate flower between his thumb and index finger, walking back to Amethyst.

  “Why?”

  “It’s a good luck flower from me to you, it’ll look great on you, I’m sure.”

  Frank slowly approaches Amethyst, who is wearing a quizzical look.

  He stops right before her.

  “I’ll put it on now, okay?”

  “Okay,” Amethyst stares at the beautiful flower Frank collected for her, this dainty plant somehow awakens strange elation in her heart.

  As Frank gets on his toes and moves the flower towards her head, she follows it with her gaze, until it disappears from her field of view.

  Frank sets up the flower on her head, just below the antennae, taking care in placing it, to avoid it falling off immediately.

  As he finishes, Amethyst is still looking up and to the left, where the flower is situated on her head.

  “But I cannot see it.”

  Frank steps a little way away, puts his hands on his hips, and looks up at Amethyst with a big grin.

  “Well I can, it suits you great, you look very dashing!”

  “T-thank you,” Instinctively a slight blush blooms on her cheekbones, as a small smile sneaks on her lips.

  Frank cannot help but blush too.

  “MEAAAAOW!” A thundering meow blasts from behind Frank, from further down the meadow, blowing flowers around on the ground harshly with its air pressure.

  “Oh Pineapple, do you want a flower too? I’ll get you a nice yellow one.” Frank says turning around and starting to search for one.

  “Here’s a nice one.” He plucks a large daffodil-looking blossoming flower, walks up to the awaiting cat, and places it on its head.

  It purrs loudly and starts marching forward with high joyful steps, the sound waves it emits immediately drop the flower down from its head, but Pineapple does not notice.

  Frank looks back to Amethyst, she’s standing still, looking up and to the left with her eyes, toward the flower.

  “Shall we keep going Amethyst?” Frank asks as she returns to her.

  Startled from her intense focus, she stammers:

  “N-no...”

  “Why?” Surprised, Frank cannot help but respond with Amethyst’s signature line.

  “Can we... go around?” She’s still standing at the edge of the forest and the meadow.

  “I don’t want to destroy them...”

  “Oh, of course, Pineapple, let’s go around the edge!” He shouts at the cat, it just continues its happy rumbling march onward.

  “Oh well, I’m sure he heard, let’s just go around ourselves, it won’t add much extra length to the trip.”

  They set out walking together along the edge of the forest, they occasionally glance at the cat, which has given up its proud and sophisticated act and is chasing after butterflies instead amidst the flowers.

  Not many minutes later, the tree trunks start revealing a building behind them, little by little, first a sliver of a blue roof.

  “Over there, that’s my home. Others live inside the facility grounds, but I got special permission to live here myself”

  Through the trees, a two-storied log cabin emerges a small porch at the front with wooden beams holding up its roof.

  Its walls consist of logs laid on top of each other, reaching further than the length of the wall, these extra beams cross with the next wall, forming a firm bond.

  Its walls are unpainted, giving it an all-natural stripped and preserved wood look.

  “I built it myself, or well with some help from my pals and machinery, but it was worth it.

  It even has water and electricity, getting the permission to cable and pipe those off was almost harder than building the house itself, hah.”

  “I… like it.”

  Amethyst looks up at the cottage before looking at Frank.

  “Thanks, I knew you would,” Frank beams a smile at her.

  A yellow blur dashes past them both and takes the lead towards the cabin.

  “Ah, there you are Pineapple.”