334. Odysseus, 7

(Rose)

We're building an empire. Well, not really, but it's how we feel about the thrill we share.

We have power over this land now, a growing control and influence, increasing how comfortable our livelihood becomes over time.

It's as if the small country we owned was in full prosperity and growth.

More food, more and more comfortable lifestyle, and spreading ease and comfort all around our house and domain.

It grows as we craft it, as we dust the pathways, build the shelters, bridges and food preserves. It grows like mould over bread.

This land is our bread.

And there is no competition.

As she said, as I felt once, it's as if the world was ours.

There is no threat, no pressure, from above or beyond us. Only hunger and cold within us.

Nothing else but our metabolic needs to define the limits of our liberty now.

Happiness is always hard to define. And to explain in a thrilling manner as well.

Life without struggles feels unnatural.

What happens after the ''And they lived happily ever after?'' I've always wondered.

Rarely the tales we've read Bleue and I cared to give details of what the happiness should be, for they cared about the trials prior.

The adventure, the uncertainty, the wonders, the adversity, in all its forms and manners. They make the journey and the story. The reward, the thousand years of happiness between the two times of war, nobody cares about it.

Now that I fell into such a time, it somehow feels more like a new world than anything I've faced before.

I'm exaggerating this, but that's the idea of how odd it feels.

Where is the tale going when it's no longer about surviving, but only living? And happily furthermore.

It almost is a taboo from what I've read as a child and young adult.

B - What is it Rose?

I was spacing out, lost in thoughts. Bleue softly brought me back. She's radiant. As colourful as the sky.

R - I was wondering about what's going to happen next, since we've kind off... Won.

Bleue looks again with an absent-minded attitude toward the sea and the horizon. Surely just as I was a moment before.

B - Enjoy happiness whilst you have it blooming. It doesn't have to be much more than that.

We hear Ana caw. We see her flying far above us. We wave back at her greeting. She caws happily back, before resuming her flight toward something we don't know. She's doing very well too.

R - What should we do once we've rebuilt this city? Start an empire?

Bleue laughs with an exaggerated manly voice. It really was fun for her.

B - After we have a child, maybe travel a little with him or her, to teach him about the world. In a few years. I also want to spread this kind of sap that makes trees able to fly. I know eating it makes us awfully sick, but I'd like to try to fly someday as well, one way or another.

R - Flying hm?

I plucked one of the small bluish feathers growing in what is now a fur along her shoulders. She squeaked as it hurts her, and pinched me in discontent.

We look at the small feather. There is a tiny drop of blood at its end. I plucked part of the root along I guess.

R - Well, you're already turning into a bird anyway, for some reason.

B - I have a hypothesis about it, but there's no reason to hurry into checking it. If I'm right, maybe I will have wings growing too over time.

R - Wings... That would be too surreal.

She laughs and hugs my head against her chest, cuddling me.

B - I didn't have Pflanzenteufel to make me fly through magic alone unfortunately.

R - You mean Blume? It's true we flew on a few different occasion. I remember when she made me able to control my own weight through physical effort. Flying a little, just floating, by tensing up your body, it was amazing. Flying really was amazing...

The other times we flew weren't that happy. This one especially was.

B - I want to try that too. But without relying on a reckless pact with a being-like-her.

R - Just because she was a demon doesn't mean it was reckless... Does it? Okay, maybe a little. But those were different times. The world was much darker to my eyes back then than it is right now.

B - You travelled a lot. You went through a lot... For me, for us.

R - It was worth it...

I have a mischievous smile, as I could add a tease to that statement. Like a ''probably'', or something of the like. She's waiting for the tease to come, waiting, waiting...

R - Don't you think?

B - Ah, eh... Yes!

Got you. I'm holding her against me as we sit there.

It is a nice day in this life.

There's more pure pleasure than thrills of triumph now.

I miss a few things from that life on the road, that feels like it was ages ago already.

But the light of reassuring habits in a place you know and love washes away these spices.

The ability to enjoy pleasure makes us grow soft.

Maybe it's a bad thing, but it's certainly a nice one as well. So we enjoy it.

For every sense we have, there's an art form and a pleasure to be found.

Not to be found, to build, to craft, to bloom, to turn magnificent.

We're in that phase currently. No longer worried about living, we focus on creating more. Creating our forms of art to enjoy, to please all senses. All to enjoy being alive.

In this world of ours.

~

We lived happily there.

A heavy bouquet of happiness was with us there.

We lived happily, and it was not the end of anything.

Only a transition from a previous chapter and the next, in usual tales.

What would come next, would be for another day.

~