With an eyebrow arched, I remained seated, eyeing the darting movement behind the trees.
_Her head's already popped out of the undergrowth at least three times now..._
_Is she looking for a special plant?_
_Does one even exist around here that could soothe burns?_
_That would be awfully convenient, but I won't complain._
At that thought, a rustle came from my side; it was Rena pushing herself through a bush akin to a dense nest of leaves.
One arm was gingerly pushing through, and the other was raised into the air, grasping... _roots?_
_It's hardly what I expected for a 'soothing' plant, but it's intriguing regardless._
She broke through and ungraciously stumbled on the air; I had to hide my laugh with the stealth of a cough, turning away in the process to avoid meeting her eye.
_Maturity... Maturity Syrin, you are... the adult here apparently. Ughh._
A faint sigh sounded off to the side, grabbing my attention; her steps were now pattering across the dry dirt ground towards me.
Glancing up at her, I raised an eyebrow inquisitively, and for a moment, she just stood there awkwardly, mouth ever so slightly parted once, twice, three times, until she finally spoke again.
_She's quite strange._
"Do... have you seen any fruits anywhere?"
_Fruits? Why would she need fruit? Wait, is she making a sweet broth or something?_
_Was she just hungry this whole time? I'd really rather just get going._
_It's not really much of a surprise, but, looking at the girl, she doesn't exactly strike me as a conversationalist or really someone who talks much at all, well... except to herself it seems._
_Huh, or am I talking about myself?_
I quickly shook my head at the thought, only to notice Rena's immediate downtrodden expression.
"Ah- yes, actually there were some that fell through with me; they should be just beyond the rock and fire, in the shallow grass."
Immediately, her face brightened. She nodded and faintly smiled with her eyes alone. It wasn't much of an expression, but for her, who I'd noticed barely makes faces at all, a little says a lot.
_Except there were a few outliers actually, but they were quite drastic situations for her..._
_Hmm, she's really putting a lot of energy into it, though. If this makes it easier to walk, then we have the time to pace ourselves here._
_But why is she so fervent about it? Hm, desperate might be more accurate._
_Is she... she trying to prove herself to me?_
I sighed.
_So I fell, Rena jumped to save me, and now that we're both down here, I'm certainly her only option now._
_Though, in any case, if I abandoned her, she would have likely died; now it's just more obviously so._
_At the same time, she doesn't even know my motives; in fact, I made myself look inconsiderate of her situation before._
Noticing Rena round the fire, I folded my arms, interested in what she was about to do with what she had collected; namely, a purple-bronze fruit, and the greyish-brown roots of those bushes to the side...
She stopped near me and looked exceptionally focused while insincerely pushing her finger into the fruit.
"Looks... tasty..."
I couldn't help but remark, although I wasn't sure if she even heard me as her expression didn't so much as change in the slightest.
"I wouldn't eat it."
She spoke rather suddenly and quickly; I don't think she even heard herself—she was too busy furiously pushing the roots into the hole she had made, but maybe that's just to my untrained eye... Though I'm struggling to believe that.
It was all rather funny; she had become a different person. It reminds me a bit of the guy who put that fruit in my mouth before... Hopefully she doesn't do the same.
I backed my head away slightly; _I'd rather not eat dirty, wet twigs, even if they're a little sweet--or, well, just put them in my mouth rather._
"The process is less about the ingredients and more about what they represent."
_Hm?_
_Oh, she'd been eyeing my expression._
Not long had passed since she last spoke, and she quickly followed it up with some kind of explanation that didn't really enlighten me all that much.
_Like, what does that even mean? I'm fairly certain my stomach doesn't care for what foods 'represent'; isn't that a purely conscious thing to do anyway? Only something that can think would attach such meaning, surely..._
I continued to watch closely, now more interested than before.
She cupped the slightly mangled fruit in her hands and I still couldn't help but feel sceptical; it was lucky she wasn't looking at my face, the expression was... less than trusting.
"Where... did you learn this?"
I couldn't help but ask.
"Library."
_Ah yes, 'Library', I see._
My eye twitched at the response. _A book then..._
"But what was the book on?"
I asked more directly this time; she seemed to be on autopilot—even her eyes were closed.
"Botany."
_Botany?_
The image of a book I had stolen flashed in my mind, as well as the, probably, botanical rooms I had seen while at the outpost...
_I'm becoming more convinced that it's an important practice, though I couldn't discredit runes yet; they seem everywhere, just less obviously_ so.
Suddenly, a light grey glow enveloped the fruit, drawing me away from my thoughts.
It was like a transient film of water barely touching the threshold of evaporation, and there was a strange volatility to the coat of mist that decorated the outside.
_It's almost what you'd imagine a transparent planet to look like—except with a mutilated fruit at its centre._
Using my mana sense, I looked over this new and intriguing magic before me.
The strange field seemed to bend and smooth over the usually crisp and broadly stroked lines of mana in the air.
_I'm starting to see a pattern..._
_Although my sense is still at a low level, so I have to take it with a grain of salt._
In my normal vision, only the curvature of the light, like heat hugging the ground, made it noticeable at first.
I was as intrigued as ever and intently scrutinised the process as Rena began releasing her magic.
It was an icy white-blue, and the space quickly filled with an erratic energy; it was like a swarm of luminescent fruitflies had descended in the ingredients floating within.
"Aosori ~atek."
She mumbled words I couldn't understand, and the magic changed.
Those million streaks of light reoriented and dove into the fruit, burrowing into its surface like ravenous insects, and from each opening, drops of fluid extracted themselves from inside its colourless flesh.
"Uralsa."
The liquid was pulled through the space and it split into two component parts, one of which fell all the way through and into the outside layer of the haze; the other remained trapped and diluted into the surrounding grey field, now a thin gold ichorous fluid.
It was hard to make out the fruit now, and I could see that Rena was sweating from concentration.
_She did mention before that she was poor with control... This looks like quite fine control to me._
In only a matter of moments, the roots and the dried fruit decayed into a colourless powder, leaving behind what actually did look like a planet this time, or at least a cold, lifeless one.
She let go of her breath, and the outside layer fell away, discarded.
"Alumna."
She spoke again, and the powder began to mix with the remaining fluid.
They pushed against each other and amalgamated into a viscous, dark-green substance.
Rena then walked over to a large leaf on the ground, tilted her hands as if pouring liquid from a pot, and the creamy substance dropped onto the leaf.
-
_That's botanical magic? I could only imagine how complex this field is if this was only to heal some wounds at best..._
"What... does it do?"
I asked, curiosity colouring my eyes.
"Ah, um- it soothes and helps with healing, I think."
_She thinks?_