She swiftly plucked and placed ten fluffy cotton fruits from the plant into her space. Those should be more than enough. A few illusory butterflies had started to pop out for the night, so she dashed back to her cave to embrace her new hobby. Sleep.
When she woke up the next day, she sat by the pool in Sher and got out a big cotton boll. It was rounded and as big as a tangerine, about a third her height. She pulled out the white fluffy fibers and easily discarded the cotton seeds inside. But as with everything in life, expectations never tended to match reality.
When she tried to pull out a handful of the cotton, her long sharp nails made quick work of the soft fibers, tearing through like a knife when she pulled. She briefly wondered why she couldn't tear through the stem of sugarcane just as easily.
She sighed and glanced at the hanging vines from the corner of her eye. They looked quite easy-going and unperturbed. Their branches and leaves seemed to have grown a tad bigger too.
"A little bit of a hand, Sherlock?"
Silence. Was this a malfunction due to being cut off from the hive-mind? The white vines trembled before returning to stillness.
She rolled her eyes and worked more gently on the cotton this time, keeping her curved nails as far away from the fibers as possible. At the end of the day, she was able to lay out a bunch of straight untangled fibers. They were about two inches long, perfect to wrap and tuck around her chest in the semblance of a bra.
"Finally! Small wins people," she celebrated. Since it was already evening, she put everything away. She stretched and stood up, her clear webbed wings popping out of her back. She put on some flowers and went to buzz around her garden, getting more acquainted with what was where and harvesting more food.
She then got back to the hollow, ate some fruits and vegetables, washed up and went to sleep. She had never had such a pleasant and relaxed routine before, and she didn't plan on ever giving it up.
It was only by the afternoon of the third day that she was somewhat satisfied with the results of her hard work. Though her appearance was largely wanting.
She was a cotton mummy from head to toe when she stepped out onto the hollow's entrance. She had completed a full outfit; a set of underwear, socks, dress, sweater, jacket and even had a cotton hat on her head that covered everything but her eyes.
She also took out all the cotton left, and tucked and wrapped it all around herself. Flying in the air, she looked like a round white cloud. Her wings attached even further away from her back to accommodate the masterpiece.
She took off but because of all the cotton around her, it took too long to arrive at the edge of the island. And she'd been teleporting too. She was hot and sweaty when she arrived at the hollow of a different white-leafed tree.
She gently removed all her cotton clothes and ate. Then suddenly realized that there was no water in that tree to wash up with, and Arim's water was either too salty or too cold to use. She made a mental note to store some fresh water in her space when she got back.
Early the next day, she put all the cotton back on and flew towards the ledge. There, she noticed that the coniferous forest below had thoroughly transformed. She looked around at the now exuberant forest and noticed one leafless tree, standing tall in its naked splendour. It was very distinct in sea of dark-green.
She only glanced at it for a moment before focusing her gaze on the mountain before her. She looked towards the dark cave shrouded in mist and considered just turning around, and going back to Sher's hollow. Nevertheless, she steeled her resolve, turned invisible and flew towards it.
The cotton clothing did it's one job well and she safely landed outside the cave. She peeped inside.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" she asked in a subdued voice and strained her ears for a while. Nothing.
"Hello?" she shouted louder. She was half-hopeful and half-terrified that bats would come swooping out. Hopeful because then she would know for sure whether animal life existed on this planet. Terrified because she would definitely be bat chum if they do. Those things didn't use their eyesight to hunt their prey, right? Her invisibility was useless, plus with all the cotton on her, she was probably a very large target right now.
There was only a wind howl from deep within the cave in response. Then silence. The cavern's mouth was expansive and not just because of her stature. She could roughly gauge the difference by now. It was about seven meters high and wide, and if she wasn't invisible, she would've looked like a white dust bunny hovering in the air.
The floor and walls of the cavern were damp from the melting ice and it was very dark. It was definitely creepy but she was small and invisible, so she decided to take her chances. She cautiously floated in.
A few pink and white glowing butterflies flew out of her body, chasing away the darkness. They flew ahead and spread out, lighting up a long descending path in front of her.
She flew for a long time and got deeper inside the mountain. She even felt like she had now gone underground but had yet to find anything. She was just about to turn around and head back up when she heard the sound of dripping water.
Suddenly motivated, she teleported and flew faster, bumping into a hard rock right in the middle of her way. All the cotton she was wrapped in absorbed most of the shock but she was still quite startled. She flew backwards to take a proper look at what she had smacked into.
Her jaw dropped.
The tunnel had opened up into a wide enclosed chamber. Icicles and cone-shaped rocks jutted out of the roof of the chamber, melting and continuously dripping water into the small lake below.
The illusory butterflies fluttered about the cave, reflected in the water and softly illuminating parts of a gigantic statue. It stood at about six meters high and sat on a rock rising above the lake.