Shiv poured the red liquid on his neat rows of plants as he conversed with the newly returned Uriel. "Where've you been, Graydog?"
"A little bit of everywhere," Uriel yawned, "Where have you been?"
"In a happy place, thanks to your absence." He jumped back when a particularly big bug fell off a newly drenched plant and convulsed for several seconds on the ground. "Well, as happy a place as you can get on this horrible planet."
Uriel waved his paw and one of the little plants flung droplets of the red liquid at Shiv, "Respect your elders."
"No, not the pants! They're the only ones I've got." Shiv yelped and scowled at the wolf before continuing his work.
***
"What do you mean the only seasons are hot, hotter, and hottest?" Shiv asked with horror.
"Right now, it is hot. In a couple moons it will be hot still, and then it will get hotter. Hotter is when the forest gets super lush, because there are constant downpours and the air stays humid. The plants eat it up."
"The rain… isn't cold." Shiv realized with a sinking feeling.
***
For the next two months, Uriel followed Shiv around as he went about his daily work.
Shiv expanded his farm, using his earth powers to increase the circumference of his walls and move trees away from his clearing. The tree moving was incredibly difficult and took a ton of concentration. By the time he finished, he would almost always be in the fetal position, gasping from the hunger pangs.
He went into town every other day to sell the medicinal plants he would gather, and to talk with the farmers. His network was slowly growing as he came to know several of Fran's healer friends who were also looking to buy the plants he could find. He was also meeting farmers from adjoining towns, who offered him advice as well as the ability to buy seeds and plants that he hadn't been able to find in the woods.
All the while, he was avoiding animals and giant bugs as best he could, though he had several close brushes with death.
On top of all this, he was expanding his bed-branch into a certified comfortable tree house, with a closet for his wardrobe that he was slowly building up again, plus a bed and a table that he would sit at when he couldn't sleep because of the nightmares.
***
Today had been slightly different than the rest of the time he'd spent on the planet. Shiv was almost shaking with excitement as he gathered the tools and got ready for the harvest tomorrow. 'Everything I've worked for on this planet is culminating into me picking those ugly fruits and veggies tomorrow. I hate this place.' He never thought he'd get so excited about picking anything, and yet here he was. Tomorrow, he was going to level up. But before that he had to make a purchase of special seeds that he had arranged to happen at a specific time.
That night, he tried to prepare himself as much as he could for the nightmares, then he laid down and closed his eyes.
He opened them to find himself in a familiar place. The dark void and small specks of light were an eerie reminder of how he first came to be in this world. The suited man was there just as before, but this time he was holding a teacup.
"What's the problem my little hero? You don't seem to be making much progress on the task I gave you." The man said and then took a sip out of his cup, "This tea is good."
A little disoriented from the abrupt switch, Shiv pinched himself (he felt it) and responded. "You told me to destroy the world and gave me zero incentive. That's super unreasonable, don't you think?"
The man in the suit examined his fingernails, "I suppose I will just choose someone else to send back to your planet, if you aren't going to fulfill the mission."
"Hey, hey, hey. What was that? I get to go home?"
The man looked at his watch, "Not if you don't destroy the world like I asked. It is about time for me to go get more tea."
"Why didn't you start with that last time!" Shiv yelled.
"You decided you would rather blab through all the time that we had."
"I was a bit distraught. I had just been killed. You ever had that happen to you?" Shiv rejoined.
The man's face darkened, "Watch who you are talking to. I have gone through the pain of death more times than your small brain could ever hope to count."
"Why don't you do me a favor and go through it again?" Shiv was only feeling the weight of the goal set before him. 'Can I really destroy the entire world just to get home?'
"Having a conversation with you is far worse than death could be, my hero." The man added that last part sarcastically.
"Then why are you sticking around so long, you tea-drinking, suit-wearing… wha?" Shiv began to reply, but found himself lying in his bed, staring at the sun high in the sky. "Coward." He muttered and began to close his eyes tiredly, but jolted up out of bed when he realized how late in the day it was. "I'm late!" He ran to his closet and threw some clothes on, scrambled down his tree, and ran past Uriel, who was grooming himself. He didn't stop till he had reached the town, where he bought a packet of extremely valuable seeds (to Shiv, at least) from a farmer who was clearly unhappy about being kept waiting for so long.
With that done, he wandered slowly home, his thoughts on the terrifying task set before him. "Destroy the world? That's insane. Nobody could do that." He muttered as he came close to his farm.
He stopped. "What is that smell? Is that… smoke?" His eyes widened at the realization, and he took off running.
He climbed the tree that would allow him entrance to his farm, and saw with horror that there were several small patches of fire in his corn field. And setting the fires was a blonde little girl with flaming hands skipping merrily through the field, humming a tune.
"Hey! Stop! Kid!" He hollered. He quickly climbed down the tree inside the walls and sprinted to the child, who couldn't have been older than seven, grabbed her, and carried her to the spring. He threw her in it so her hands would stop burning, and ran back to the corn and stomped out the fires.
With that done, he looked up at Uriel, who was laying down in the tree where the entrance was. "She has better control of her powers than you!" The wolf laughed.
"Why didn't you-- gah!" Shiv ran his hands through his hair and breathed out slowly. Then, he approached the girl, who was smacking the water with a burnt wooden sword.
"Hi! Who are you?" She asked cheerfully.
He sat down on the ground next to the stream and sighed. "I guess I'm the dude who's going to destroy the world."
"You want to destroy the world? Me too!" She ran toward the nearest row of plants, which just so happened to be a tomato crop, and started wacking them with her sword. "Destroy! Destroy! Die, evil plants!"
"Hey! We destroy everything BUT the plants." He jumped up and got in between her and his precious plants.
She looked up at him with her head tilted to the side. "Oh. Really?"
"Yeah, really. Where're you from, kid?"
"You're suPOSed to ask what my name is first." She turned away from him and crossed her arms.
"I…" He sighed and shook his head. "Whatever, kid. Just don't kill my harvest." He began gathering his harvest tools.
"Ask what my name is!" She pointed her sword at him, but he didn't notice, so she ran up to him and wacked him on the back with a two-handed downstrike.
Uriel watched in amusement, "You have met your match, boy."
"I've met 'my' match?" Shiv sputtered up at him. "She's more like a flamethrower than a match, and she's definitely not mine."
"My name is Blaze!" She announced with much grandiosity. "And I want to know what a flamethrower is."
Shiv whipped around to look at her and immediately had to accept defeat. The puppy dog look she was giving him was enough to melt him, and it did. "Blaze, I already know you're going to be a chore." He rubbed his forehead. "A flamethrower is a machine from another planet that shoots flames." He turned back to his task. "What are you doing here?"
"The tea man told me to destroy things!" She started pulling the sword back to wack a tree, then hesitated. "Are trees plants?"
Shiv glanced at it. "That one isn't. Go ahead and give it a big ol' smack."
And she did.
He quickly figured out how to tune her endless chattering out as he finally went about harvesting his crops. As he did so, he felt like he was absorbing some of the energy from them, and he became more and more excited.
"Hey, Mister. What's your name? I'm hungry." Blaze came up and tugged on his shirt.
Shiv took a deep breath to calm down his excitement, and almost felt physical pain as he tore himself away from his task to look at her. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"I'm hungry, daddy!"
"What!?" He tripped backward and fell on his rear.
"I'm. Hungry!" She carefully pronounced both words to make sure he understood as she looked down at him with huge eyes.
"No, what did you call me?" He got up and brushed himself off.
"You didn't tell me your name, and you're old, so I called you daddy."
"My name is Shiv. Call me Shiv."
"OK, daddy!"
"What do you mean 'OK'? You didn't even say my name." Shiv said in exasperation as she skipped away with a tuneless hum emanating from her mouth. "Weren't you just hungry or something?" He called after her, though she did not hear.
He shook his head and turned back to his task, doing his best to put the rambunctious child from his mind. 'I hope her parents come and get her soon.' And with that, he worked without ceasing till he had completely finished the harvest.
"Woah! I feel powerful. Come down here, Grayface, I'm going to beat you up!" He called up to Uriel with a wild laugh.
"Remember that boar that put you on your pork? Why don't you try taking that guy on before you start mouthing off to people out of your league." Uriel scoffed.
"Good idea. Where's he at?" Shiv asked.
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Uriel said mysteriously, "I guess it is more like, that would be cheating. What good is being able to beat someone up if you can't find them?"
"What good is keeping a big-nosed ugly quadruped around if he won't help you with the very thing he was designed to do?" Shiv said.
"Good enough to keep him around. Though you couldn't get rid of me if you tried. I have my goals after all."
"Please, great grayface, make your new goal 'locating one-eyed boars'." Shiv jokingly got down on his knees and looked up at the wolf with his hands folded.
Uriel looked down his long nose at Shiv, "How much am I getting paid?"
"I'll make a little doggy house underneath my own."
"Oh! I want a house!" Blaze wandered over to join the conversation. "But… then I'd have to destroy it." She realized. "Would my house be a plant?" She asked hopefully.
"Your house? Where are your parents?!" Shiv asked incredulously.
She laughed. "Silly, you're my only parent." She looked up at Uriel. "And you're my brother!"
Uriel walked over to Blaze and rubbed up against her, looking to Shiv, "I want to live with my sister, daddy." He said mockingly.
"When did you even get down here? Gah. You're both fired. Go away, both of you. I'm going to go kill something with my newly unlocked invincibility."