NOVPUB-----
After picking up Justicio and Silvia, Aquarina, Pyuku, and her parents, went on another adventure through the desert. The Dry Stepps were an immensely expansive area, a landscape of dry stone and mostly sand, but with several beautiful wonders that made the place incredibly unique compared to any other area of the world. As they flew through the skies, the gigantic black and dried mushrooms were one of such things, a rare sight as most people would assume mushrooms can only grow in very damp areas.
However, these hard, dry, and stone-like mushrooms not only have thrived in the desert, but grown to titanic sizes, becoming the home for a variety of animals and other plants of all shapes and sizes, becoming cradles of biodiversity. The great shade they provide also helps these animals cope with the immense heat of the day and is also why the Everstonian town was built beneath the shade of the biggest one they could find.
"Hey mom, do you know what those mushrooms are called? And how can they live in the desert anyways?" Aquarina's curiosity was piqued, as she remembered Sylphy would likely ask such a question.
She knew her girlfriend was someone fascinated by biology, animals, plants, and everything else about them and how they worked. It was her passion to investigate and analyze them and how their unique biology worked. She was even the one that was able to find out how Sphynxiette's tribe could be healed from their injuries.
"Hm? Oh! The giant mushrooms?" Nepheline wondered. "No idea, hahaha! Everyone just calls them giant mushrooms. But I know that they subsist by absorbing sunlight and synthetizing it into energy for them to continue growing. The taller they become and the bigger and wider their caps are, the more sunlight they absorb. I've also heard they absorb the nutrients of the sands."
"T-There are nutrients in the sand?" Silvia wondered. "No way! Should we eat sand next?"
"Hahaha, don't be dummy dear," Nepheline laughed at Silvia's words of disbelief. "We wouldn't be able to really… Um, well, digest it. We would poop it right off. But it's not the same for these mushrooms, they absorb the sand and make it part of their bodies too. Did you know that this area was once an ocean? The sand here has been made after the residues of countless animals that died. Bits of bones, dry skin, and so on, exist within the sands. The mushrooms eat them up."
"H-How were you able to figure out such a thing, auntie?" Justicio asked.
"I can just feel it, I am someone very connected with the Earth and the Ores underground, sand and all of that too," nodded Nepheline. "I can feel that mushrooms feeds on the Spiritual Energies to grow, mostly of the Earth Element."
"Ooh…" Aquarina nodded. "So that's why they look so dry and are like stone? You can even dig inside of them and find crystals, and they're completely fine."
"Yeah, you can dig the surrounding area, though there's some kind of "skeleton" inside of them, which is as hard as bones, it cannot be easily broken down or destroyed," explained Aquarina. "I believe that's where their energies and nutrients flow, the rest is actually an outer shell for protection."
"Interesting… they're more stone than a mushroom," Silvia said.
"Yeah, I never imagined they were like that inside, the more you know I guess…" Justicio nodded.
They were rapidly arriving towards the Oasis, seeing the pristine blue waters surrounded by a beautiful and green jungle, with colorful flowers and plants everywhere, it was a great contrast with the dry, near endless desert.
"So this is the Oasis…" Nepheline nodded. "It has been a while since we visited it…"
"Years," Shade said. "Yeah, I'm glad it is as beautiful as ever. One of the good things about being in the middle of this desolate and desertic land is that the war could never reach the confines of such a faraway place."
"It is truly like a little piece of paradise, let's go down," Nepheline agreed.
Leviathan rapidly spread out his wings, descending and landing on the soft sand, as the entire group stepped out of his large, long and scaled back, he had grown accustomed to carry others now that he evolved and became so big.
"Thank you Leviathan," Aquarina gently petted his head, caressing his horns, and then kissed his big snout, which Leviathan responded by licking her face.
"Rwaaarr~!"
"Uwaagh! H-Hey, don't lick me like that… Haha…"
Aquarina laughed, as she quickly took out a water attribute spirit stone, and feed it to him.
"Here's your snack!"
"Nam!"
Leviathan caught the crystal and started snacking on it, crunching sounds echoed as his sharp teeth triturated the stone in seconds, before swallowing it.
Spirits could eat most food, though many had their own special preferences which a master had to take into consideration.
However, there was also a universal rule of all Spirits, that they would never refuse a delicious Spirit Stone of their corresponding element.
It was an irresistible thing to them, and if they were fed too many, they would quickly grow addicted.
"Raarr! Raarrr!"
Leviathan started rubbing his huge face over Aquarina's head, asking for more snacks.
"Nope, that's all! No more for today or you get addicted! But we can eat meat later, alright?"
"Ggrrhh…"
Leviathan sighed, groaning a bit annoyedly, Aquarina still had to be strict with the young dragon spirit lest she risked him growing too spoiled.
To Silvia and Justicio, it was as if Aquarina treated her spirit like a son rather than a familiar though, she seemed to love him dearly.
POOF!
Leviathan turned smaller, sitting over Aquarina's head, the girl didn't mind, he does this all the time. sometimes Pyuku would do it as well.
"Alright let's go!"
Aquarina quickly led her friends into the jungles, as her parents followed her from behind, while also looking around with a bit of curiosity and wonder in their eyes.
"It sure is a nice place, we should've come to live in here instead!" Nepheline said.
"The jungle reminds me of the Amazonian Jungles, yes," Shade nodded. "Though, I don't think they would've ever let us live in here, it's a sacred place…"
"A-Ahaha, yeah, I shouldn't even consider it…" Nepheline sighed.
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