61. Month (Patreon)

Days had run out.

In two days the month deadline she had set would be on her feet, and Aloe was already readying herself as she didn’t have much else to do. The irrigation system was set up for the potatoes, beans, medicinal plants, pistachios, and bananas.

The setup was quite chaotic as Aloe had partially redirected one of the two Flourishing Springs water to the bananas, as she couldn’t justify an entire plant for just two seeds, no matter how important or big those may grow.

The final organization of the nine Flourishing Springs was balanced, to not let any plant suffer from thirst, but also not be overhydrated.

At the greenhouse: one with the cannabis seeds and another with the cacti. None of those used pipes, the cannabis seeds were close by, and the cacti could survive easily, so she made it so the water went directly to the soil.

At the oasis: two for potatoes, two for beans, three for all the medicinal plants and partially the bananas, and the last one with the pistachios.

“I think that’s all down.” Aloe let out a sigh of relief as she sat down on her chair. She had been tying loose ends, quite literally at that, as she reinforced the leaf pipes so no stray breeze knocked them over whilst she was gone. “Fikali has been surprisingly helpful with them, she has not tried to toy with the crops since the first and last time she did so. Not even when I planted new ones. That’s... very comfortable. I would not have liked to make some scare-dwellers or something, if those things even exist.”

Her hands hurt from all the cutting and tying up she did. Aloe had not been unbeknownst to hard work before, the heavens know she had been exploited, but that had been mental work, not hard physical labor.

“Honestly, I don’t know which I hate the most.” She lay her neck on the chair’s back, her sight lost to the ceiling. “One is mind-numbing and the other is just... well, numbing.” Aloe groaned. “Pain is pain, physical or mental makes no difference. I hate working.”

It took two deep breaths before Aloe got bored of the silence, she loved her voice too much.

“There’s a key difference between working for someone and working for oneself, though.” She added. “One is fucking bullshit, the other one is somewhat rewarding. Within reason that is. The moment I get calloses I will send this oasis to the nine hells.”

With yet another groan, Aloe raised her head and looked at the desktop. Her most important possessions lay there. A coin purse filled with few drupnars (not many after her shopping spree for provisions and the purchase of Fikali), Karaim’s cultivation technique (a book that had become obsolete fast, and yet Aloe found herself reading time and time again), her straw hat (not really valuable besides protecting her head from oblivion, in which case, it was invaluable), the Aloe Veritas ink, and the Myriad glass shard.

The value of the two last items had yet to be proven, that was the whole reason why she wanted to bring them to Sadina after all.

“At least the journey back is going to be light and swift. No load, only rations.” Aloe said as she toyed with the localized rainbow. The effect was way fainter without the full plant. “And maybe it’s just me, but Fikali has been getting faster... Maybe it’s because she was tired for days after her first travel and now she has had her fair share of rest, she’s that old after all.”

It pained Aloe a bit to remember that Fikali didn’t have much life expectancy remaining. It was still around a couple of years ago, but in just a few weeks she had become quite attached to the dorky ball of fur and fat that was the desert dweller.

“I should rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Aloe stood up with a sigh, gently leaving the glass on the desk, and swiftly donned her nightgown.

That night she dreamt swimmingly at the prospect that she would have a softer bed the next night.

{*}

Daylight met Aloe like a sledgehammer as she had brought her Myriad glass to her nightstand for some heaven-forsaken reason.

“Dunes, that’s bright!” She had forgotten to close the windows yesterday and now her bedroom paid the price as it drowned in light. “There!” Aloe threw her blanket at the glass shard, instantly reducing the lighting of the room tenfold. “Note, never leave Myriad glass exposed. That’s damning deadly.”

With a mixture of a sigh and a groan, Aloe stood up from bed and did her morning routine.

Breakfast, latrine, and watering.

She gave the plants an extra oomph of water as they were going to rely on the irrigation system for, at the very least, three days. And no matter how much effort and time Aloe had dedicated to the project, she couldn’t trust it that much.

“It’s... rustic. Let’s just say that, to not say anything else.” Aloe commented as she finished with the crops. She still had to do all the plants in the greenhouse, but that required someone else’s help. “Hey, Fikali. Wake up. Today you have a lot of work to do.”

“Wroo?” Fikali inquired with a sleepy face.

“I don’t care how cute of a face you put on, come on, up!” Aloe gave the dweller a light kick.

Though considering the amount of fat Fikali had, Aloe doubted the dweller even felt the barest nudge.

“Hro...” With a tired grunt, Fikali woke up from her grass bed and bellyflopped her way to the sand.

Aloe, meanwhile, had to fill the amphora and carry it outside of the oasis first. Even if she always took the shortest stretch, the amphora was still around twenty liters in volume and half her weight in mass. It didn’t matter if it was a ten-meter hike, it left Aloe devastated.

After reaching the sands, the whole work was left on Fikali’s back – quite literally – and Aloe’s only task was to watch out so the amphora didn’t spill water or fall down and shatter.

In two hours, Aloe had completed her morning routine. She had had breakfast, went to the bathroom, watered all the plants on her property, and also took a short bath as she ended rather sweaty by the end. When she finished, the sun had just fully risen.

“A farmer’s day begins early and ends late.” Aloe quoted as she dried her body, even if she always went to sleep pretty early as she didn’t have anything else to do. “Alright Fikali, rest a bit because in about half an hour we are departing for Sadina.”

“Huo.” Aloe noticed the lack of interrogation in Fikali’s tone, so she supposed the dweller had understood her. It was hard communicating through grunts, but it mostly worked for them.

Aloe readied her possessions in a backpack. She didn’t need to carry much, her valuables, rations, water, and the desert garb she wore. She donned boots instead of her sandals for obvious reasons, but she carried them in her backpack, nonetheless. Overall, with all her trinkets added and herself, the load on Fikali’s back would be less than fifty kilos.

“She surely can make the journey back with a few stops. The luggage I carried before weighed a bit more than that.” Aloe let out a sigh. She didn’t know if it was out of relief or sadness, and she locked her house’s door. “How do I feel more nostalgic for this place when I haven’t even left than for the city I grew up in for almost two decades?”

Deprived of answers, Aloe just shrugged and made her way to Fikali, who was gorging herself in the oasis water.

“Ready?” Aloe asked the dweller.

Fikali hastily turned her head around, splashing violently around as put on a derpy expression. “Wro.” Aloe couldn’t help herself but frown.

“Come on, let’s get you saddled.” With great difficulty, Aloe held her groan.

At least the water doesn’t dirty. She thought. But even if it did, this garb is going to have a strenuous journey before it.

At first, it took Aloe a lot of time to take the saddle away from Fikali. The damned apparatus had too many belts and was tied up incredibly tight. But after some practice with the many escapades they did once in a while, Aloe obtained some insight and mastery on how to tie the saddle.

Now it didn’t take her more than five minutes to do so. The problem was rather the strength needed to tie them up. She didn’t have enough. But she had preemptively thought about that. As she asked Fikali for a rest, she changed her internal infusion to ‘strength’, making her saddling duties ten times easier.

Removing the infusion, though, was going to be interesting. She would need to do so whilst mounting the dweller, as the increased strength meant that her equilibrium and resistance to heat decreased.

“Oh, come on don’t put that face,” Aloe told to the dweller, whose face was all wrinkled. “You have spent more than a week without a saddle, having one for a day won’t kill you.”

“Hrooo...” Fikali added with an unapologetic visible trace of sadness as she bellyflopped her way out of the oasis.

They were ready. The luggage was prepared, the dweller was saddled, and the plants watered.

Aloe and Fikali departed to Sadina after being almost a month away.