A Long Winter's Night

Winter was a cold time of year, but the cold never bothered Amaranthe too much anyway. When Ama was younger, she probably felt some cold, but she couldn’t say for sure. She vaguely recalled instances of getting too cold and making herself sick, but she couldn’t remember the exact details anymore. Even though Amaranthe was now regularly taking “the cure” which changed her eyes, it did not change her memory. Black static and fuzzy flashes were still all that remained. When she was “corrupted,” she stopped being able to feel cold. Granted, she really didn’t have a good sense of feeling hot either. Everything just felt the same. The only benefit really to not having any sense of temperature was that she somehow never got sick. No matter how cold or how warm her body was, nothing seemed to make her sick. Temperature didn’t seem to matter.

This year though, she noticed that she was beginning to feel a small semblance sense of cold; why she couldn’t say (though if she had to guess it had something to do with “the cure”). It wasn’t pleasant or unpleasant. It just was. It didn’t bother her or stop her from doing what she did so it didn’t seem like a big deal. Ama still had yet to get sick which was good. Being sick was annoying and exhausting enough without having to deal with people (ew) since she moved into the city proper.

Her fruits basket, however, were a different story. They all seemed to feel the cold. Except for Pumpkin. Actually, Pumpkin became the fruit favorite since he was constantly on fire and therefore warm. Watching them all spend time together was... cute? Was that the right word? Because they were cuddling(?) and seemed happy(?). None of them seemed to be getting sick that she could tell, but she made a note to check on them at least every other day. With all the fruit she had (unintentionally) adopted, she needed to keep track of that.

With Pumpkin in the fireplace, Ama chose to sit in one of the chairs near said fireplace. It wasn’t that comfortable yet, but that’s why Ama forced herself to sit there. New furniture always took time to get comfortable.

While sitting there, Ama looked out the window into the dark night to see small snowflakes falling down through the sky. It was weird to say the least. Snow wasn’t really a thing in the Lumina Basin. The overhead foliage kept too much snow from falling, but it did help make the bioluminescent spores and plants look vibrant. Yet another thing to get used to.

Ama released a simple sigh and returned to what she was actually planning on doing. She opened her cultivation notebook to a blank page and began scribbling notes. Almost all of her fertilizer experiments seemed to be working well, but there was one thing she thought she should definitely try. Apparently the ruler here (Iowa or something) made some sort of weird black stew, like the living stew she tried to use as fertilizer but failed since it was, you know, alive. Maybe the less alive version would be more fruitful in her endeavors. Or maybe it would help cultivate shrooms that could help prevent getting sick. Only time would tell.