As They Bloom

BONUS - The Lovers (xYone) [NSFW]

A/N: Think of this chapter as getting a special bonus ending for taking the romance route. It doesn't change the overall story, but it's fun all the same! Chronologically, I picture this chapter happening in the week after the celebrations have ended.

The garden is quiet without the villagers, though not unpleasantly so.

Now that you've had a few days to rest, you feel refreshed. The aching in your arms and legs is gone. The weariness long melted away. You lay back against the trunk of the Mother Tree, comfortably nestled among her roots. It's a good day, perfect really, to do nothing.

After a wonderfully decadent breakfast of sweet, ripe fruit, you take to wandering the garden. Lillia's gone into the forest for the day, collecting seeds of some kind. And Yone... well, you're not quite sure. He left early in the morning and has yet to return. You don't fret too much about his disappearance – he's always been a little restless.

Though you're enjoying your time alone in the garden, you can't help but wonder about him and where he's gone off to. It would have been nice to have his company, especially seeing as you're not expecting Lillia to come back until late.

You walk out the garden and down to the creek. The sun pierces through the tightly knit canopy of branches and leaves above, dappling the pebbly riverbank below. Silvery fish dart through the water, the light catching on their shimmery scales.

You peer down the creek, watching it flow by. Flower petals float atop it, before you lose sight of them around the bend. With a little curiosity and nothing else to occupy your time, you decide to follow them.

The creek grows wide, so wide you struggle to see across to the other side. The silvery fish are bigger here, as long as you are tall. The creek-turned-river slows, the water draining into a large lake. You run alongside it, dodging willow branches as you chase the petals. They float lazily nearby, until they eventually get sucked down a little stream.

You run after them for a very long time, until they finally drop off and over a steep edge, taking the stream along with them. You perch at the top, your breath leaving your lungs at the beautiful sight before you.

The stream cascades into a waterfall, pouring down into a hidden rock pool. On all sides bar one, it is surrounded by tall, steep, stony walls. Vines as thick as your wrist billow softly in the wind, grazing the ground far below you. The water in the pool is crystal clear; you can see schools of brightly coloured fish within. You notice strange plants nestled in the cracks and crevices, the bell-shaped bulbs hanging down like lanterns.

A grin spreads over your face as you take it all in. You've found a secret little slice of heaven! Excited, you abseil down the wall, a vine wrapped around your waist for safety; it's fibrous, thick, and rough like sandstone beneath your hands.

Your feet hit the ground; the stone smooth beneath your boots. You look around you with awe. Every colourful fish and flower; the crisp scent of earth and moss; the gentle misting from the waterfall, it's all somehow even more beautiful here than above.

You sit by the rock pool, pulling off your socks and boots. Then your robe and trousers. Until you stand by the pool in your underclothes. Everything else is then tucked away under a shrub where they won't get wet.

The water is sublime, warm and lovely like a cup of tea. It's deeper around the middle, so deep your toes cannot touch the floor. The rest of the pool only comes up to your mid-chest. You swim from one end of the pool to the other slowly. Something catches your attention while you do so, glimmering from behind the waterfall. You swim through, curious about what awaits you on the other side.

The same strange plants that grow down the cliff are within, but these ones... are glowing. Glowing in every conceivable colour; as bright as any candle. You swim deeper within and find something lovelier still. A large flat stone just above the surface of the water. It is covered in moss. You swim up to it and place your hands atop it. It's as soft as a featherbed.