Desert Lily

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Lilium

After Kai placed some blue paste on me and put out the fire that I had barely noticed, we were asleep for a little while. It didn’t take long before the loud pitter-patter startled me awake as I quietly looked around while wiping the sleep from my eyes. As I stretched out my aching back, the vines over the entrance parted open as a leaf-covered Kai clambered in with something on his back. I watched as he carefully eased the large green creature off his back and onto the cave floor by the entrance before he pulled his hood back and looked at me.

“Oh, good morning my love. Did I wake you?” He asked while undoing his leaf-type poncho as I watched on carefully. Beneath his poncho, he had wrapped these giant leaves around his large torso before he also undid the tie on those to reveal his matching white shirt from the beginning. When he noticed me watching, he brought the giant leaves toward me before sitting down next to me. “This equipment I have on is made out of these leaves here. It blocks out the rain from getting on you when you’re out and about.” He explained while holding them up as I nodded for him to continue. “I woke up early enough to go find these before the storm got worse so that you’d have a set as well. They’re really light and comfortable even when they get wet.” He rambled on as I just stared at this beautiful man talking about the different types of plants.

“Darling?” I called as he stopped midsentence before looking at me curiously. “I think your beast may go bad if you don’t do something about it.” I pointed out as he turned back to the beast at the entrance before nodding. “Though, I would love to learn about the different types of plants here in case something were to happen to us especially you. If something were to happen to you, I’m not too sure I’d know what to do.” I explained as he looked at me for a second before scratching his chin and nodding.

“You’re right but there’s a lot of different types of plant life here that can treat you for anything. I think it’d be best if we started off with the basics but only after we skin and eat this morning’s breakfast.” He smiled as I lit up at his words. “You wouldn’t mind helping me skin this, would you?” He asked as I happily nodded before he picked me up out of the even bigger leaves I slept on. Quickly wrapping my arm around his neck, he carefully placed me down in front of the fire before pulling over his new kill. “This is a darelmite. They only eat the plant life here so they’re safe to eat.” He explained as I looked down at the weird-looking beast. From its name, I thought it would be a mite but it looked more like a mixture between a piranha and a rabbit with its two sets of long ears. It even had gills behind its mouth that was full of teeth.

“Are you sure this thing only eats plant life with these type of teeth?” I asked warily while quietly examining it as I noticed the large handprint around its neck before looking back at Kai. “How did you kill it?” I stared at him for a second before picking up one of his hands and staring at it.

“I didn’t have any weapons so I killed it with my bare hands. Yeah, it’s known to eat plant life and some small creatures but that’s on a rare occasion. The teeth are just for show.” He nonchalantly explained as I patted his hand before looking back at the darelmite. “I’ll show you how to cut it. Whatever we don’t eat, we can use it for something else.” He added as I nodded before he got to work.

“Darling, what were you like when you were little?" I asked as he slowly showed me how to gut this weird beast with a piece of rock before looking up at me.

"I was a bad child who stayed in trouble. My mom always got onto me while my old man would give me this look." He quietly laughed while gently nuzzling the side of my face. "When I was smaller than that, I used to eat a lot of grass that my parents were convinced I was a Soit. It's a creature that stays down here that eats plenty of plant life and has plenty of horns. Some of the farmers take care of them." He explained as I could imagine a small chubby baby Kaisen fisting grass into his mouth. If we had a baby, what would they look like? I asked myself as I could feel my cheeks heat up with the thought. "What were you like when you were little?" He asked, pulling me from my thoughts as I looked over at him.