75. Discovery (Patreon)

Aloe felt exhausted, that was what using up twice one’s maximum vitality did to a girl. But this wasn’t her first time, far from it, so instead of passing out, she was just a bit tired. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have time to rest.

“Fikali!” The scribe shouted at the blitzing dweller. “I know you are excited but come right here! I gave you ‘speed’ for something!”

“WROO!” Fikali roared with the full force of the Ydazi war machine. But she was a good girl and promptly came back to her.

Albeit with a bit of sand following her.

A bit too much sand.

“Bah!” Aloe coughed and dusted the sand away, her whole body covered in a thin layer of dust. “Thanks for that.”

“Hro.”

“I... I don’t know if you are sorry or smug about it.”

“Hro!”

“Smug it is.” The woman sighed and took a gulp out of her waterskin. “Now wait a moment, I also have to infuse myself.”

Last time she rode out of Sadina, she burned her hands off from the abrasion of the reins; and whilst that was because she was in a bad state of mind, Aloe didn’t want to repeat that. First, she donned her farming gloves, which she barely used for actual farming, but they were perfect for this scenario.

Gloves weren’t enough, though. Riding a dweller took a toll on the whole body, her calves always killed her every time the journey ended, so the next step was to infuse herself with ‘toughness’.

Unlike with Fikali’s infusion, she had way more control over her own vitality. And besides, she was more used to ‘toughness’ than ‘speed’, meaning she was way faster with the change of flow.

When it first took minutes to turn her skin into something as tough as bark, now it only took seconds.

“Done!” Aloe stretched her arms, already feeling the increased rigidity of her skin. The scribe strode over the dweller and lowered her bottom on the saddle, intertwining her protected hands with the reins. Once she was readied, she shouted. “Go!”

And all hell broke loose.

The sudden acceleration took a toll on her body. In the first instants, her lower body moved at a greater pace than her upper body. The motion disoriented her, but it soon became clear that if she hadn’t had ‘toughness’ active, the whiplash may have been fatal.

Once the dread of the unnervingly trivial possible death faded, Aloe was faced with the strong winds. Their speed was monumental. I doubt anyone has moved this fast before! She thought as it was quite literally impossible to talk. It was difficult to even keep her eyes open as they instantly dried. Well, any non-imperial. I guess. Considering how much Naila mastered ‘speed’, Aloe was scared of how older sultanzade could move.

Is Rani even faster? The thought alone made her skip a heartbeat. She swayed her head, dispelling the idea. It’s not the time to think about that.

Fikali kept moving at vertiginous speeds, and as Aloe held to the reins for her dear life, she didn’t have much time to think. She opened her eyes from time to time to see where they were, but the wind didn’t allow her for much. And turning her head around was out of the question as she had trouble even staying mounted. At least the reins won’t sear my skin this time around. Not only did the gloves protect her hands, but ‘toughness’ helped her too. And it wasn’t limited to her hands, she appreciated more the protection that the infusion brought to her buttocks. The ride was far from without its bumps after all.

The trek seemed eternal as she had her eyes closed, but then out of nowhere, the dweller’s speed decreased.

“Is something wrong, Fikali?” Aloe opened her eyes and looked at the dweller. The monster was panting. “Stop, stop!” The woman ordered, pulling on the reins with all the force she could muster.

Fikali reduced her speed significantly and gradually came to a halt. Aloe dismounted her and walked in front of the dweller, putting a hand on her face.

“What happened?” She asked with worry in her voice.

“Huo...” Fikali grunted, but her voice was weak, almost like a whimper.

“Are you hurt? Feeling unwell?” This was the first time she was dealing with infusing a moving living being, so she couldn’t be sure if she had done something wrong. And that worried her.

“Hro...” The dweller denied with a sway of her head.

“How about a bit of water?” Aloe offered and Fikali responded with a weak nod.

The human took a waterskin out of the saddle and gestured the dweller to open her mouth. Fikali opened her mouth and Aloe slowly trickled the contents of the waterskin inside, fearing the old dweller may choke on it. The monster greedily took the water, her throat making power sounds. In no time, the water on the waterskin was gone.

“Better?” Aloe asked.

“Huo.” Fikali’s voice was still weak, but it no longer dragged on like a whimper.

“How about a rest? Should we take fifteen?” Fikali didn’t answer verbally, instead choosing to close her eyes and lay the underside of her head on the sand. “Rest well.”

Has ‘speed’ been too much for her? A wrong reaction because of foreign vitality? Maybe she was just dehydrated? Aloe kept asking herself questions, wondering what the cause of Fikali’s malady was, but unfortunately, the dweller couldn’t answer her. Nor the answers would come to her.

Aloe stood up and walked away from Fikali, taking this rest to stretch her legs.

“Hmm...” She grunted in ponderation. “It’s all sand, but this spot looks familiar. I guess we are halfway done, and the sun...” She looked up to the sky, the star barely risen on the horizon. “We have been moving for only an hour or so... This is a really good pace. But I worry about Fikali. If this always is going to happen, then it doesn't matter if I can make it to the oasis in two hours or three. Last thing I want is driving her to...”

Aloe refrained from speaking any further. There had been too much death in her life recently to speak about it. She gritted her teeth and rubbed her eyes.

“Something entered my eyes, dunes...” Or more exactly, something got out.

Once she had calmed down, Aloe took a sip from her waterskin and walked back to Fikali.

“How are you doing, girl?”

“Wroo!” She responded excitedly.

“Woah!” The human was taken aback by the monster's enthusiasm. “That rest did wonders on you, huh? Let’s get going then.”

Aloe hopped on Fikali and they rode into the desert, though this time Aloe made sure Fikali took some rest. This made the journey significantly longer, but when they arrived at the oasis, that didn’t really matter.

“Yup,” Aloe said with her eyes fixated on the sky. “That’s about four hours of travel. I think we have hit the sweet spot of traveling, Fikali. We can make the round trip in a single day and have time to spare!”

“Hroo!” The dweller responded with enthusiasm, even if Aloe doubted she understood what she had meant by that.

“Anyhow, we cannot forget to take rests.” She talked whilst removing the meager luggage mounted on the saddle. “‘Speed’ is taxing on the body, not only does it tire you, but it also seems to dehydrate you. Though I blame that on the desert. We’ll have to run tests someday, don’t you think.”

“Wroo!” Fikali nodded in agreement.

“For now, you are free. Drink, eat grass, sleep...”

“Wroooo!” The dweller's cries of enthusiasm echoed through the oasis valley, her snoot pointing to the heavens.

“...I don’t care what you do, but we go back in two days.”

“Wro.” Then she responded with less energy.

“I’m sorry we can only be three days out, but that’s how life it is. I’ll try to make it better for you in Sadina, but I don’t promise anything.”

Fikali answered with one of her iconic grunts and beelined for the oasis. Dwellers may survive days without water, but she looked like she hadn’t had a drop for weeks.

“Now,” Aloe sighed once she was alone. “What should I do now?”

Her first instinct was to carry all the luggage back to the shack and change into comfier clothes. Her garb was quite comfortable for being an attire meant for desert traveling, but an open dress suited her far better.

“Ah~” Aloe groaned in pleasure as the dry air grazed her exposed skin. She stretched her arms in delight. “I really want to check on the greenhouse to see if the plants have grown, but dunes, I need to sit down for a minute. I guess I’ll prepare, the veritas leaves for the moment.”

There was no reason to use Aloe Veritas leaves on grown plants, well, not until recently. Seeing the current infusion on plants was useful, but with her new increased understanding of external vitality flows thanks to Fikali’s infusion, she doubted it was as useful as it once had been. She just wanted to check if her ‘speed’ infusion had worked on Fikali rather than checking the plants’ status.

“Hmm?” Aloe raised her eyebrow as she fidgeted the leaves in the jar. “Why is this leaf used?”

She reused her leaves from the ink extraction, so a drop might have fallen somewhere in the process. She sighed as she put the big leaf on the desk to read it, annoyed at having one leave wasted.

The text on the natural parchment, however, wasn’t anything she had expected.

Name: Rani-al-Sadina

Species: Sultanzade

Description: An evolved member of the human species, a species known for their ingenuity, high adaptive capabilities, Nurture affinity, and societal structure.