75 Exposed

I quickly made my way to the same secluded spot in the winter garden that I found this morning. Having made it to the spot, I took a careful look around with my eyes and my senses to make sure that I was truly alone and out of sight. As soon as I confirmed I was alone in the garden, I stripped off the cloak that was weighing me down and let it fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. It felt so wonderful to shed that burden from my boughs and have the sun shining on what little skin was exposed while wearing Leafia's dress. I was far from used to wearing real clothes, but in this energy wasteland, I could not afford to use the energy that would be required to grow my own clothes. I needed to save what I could. This garden greatly slowed down my loss of power, but on its own, it was not enough for me to regain the energy I used during our time out.

I cautiously started to spread my energy into the surroundings. I was planning on releasing my consciousness and resing for a while, but there was something I wanted to do first. After a few minutes, I was sure that there was no one even near the garden. It seemed that the gardener was working on the far side of the house today, which should be my biggest worry. I took off the dress, flinging it into a pile with the cloak, and let my mind go. I did keep my self aware of the plants leading to the garden so that I would know if anyone approached.

There was one big problem with wearing clothes. They covered my skin keeping me from the sunlight I longed for. Being able to truly soak in the sun was a glorious thing. I had not been able to do it since I entered this kingdom. A plant was really not supposed to be kept under covers. And no matter how human I might look, I was a plant through and through.

It had been over an hour that I was reveling in being naked. My skin had turned a much healthier shade of green and I was starting to feel like myself again. I was not refilling my reserves quickly, but I was at least moving in that direction. I should probably get heading inside soon, but part of me really did not want to. I laid there for some time trying to muster up the desire to move, but it was not coming.

This was as perfect of a space as I could ask for in a city. The people coming and going through the front gate did not venture near this place and the people who maintained it did not overly manicure it, leaving much more of nature to it than the other green places I had found in the capital.

As I was thinking of all those mortals rushing to and fro in such a hurry, the click of shoes on stone in the garden woke me from my slumber. I instantly realized my mistake: because of all the noise of the city I did not bother 'listening' with the plants and only 'felt' through those poking up between the paving stones and the gravel path leading to the garden. It could not have been an accident that no plants were disturbed. Whoever was coming had intentionally snuck up on me. My heart raced. How did Maximus find me here? I started to stretch out my power into the plants, ready to spring into action.

As my power reached the plants around me, my mind took in the surroundings. I realized that my first train of thought was off base. It was not Maximus. But it was still frustrating that someone would bother to step over all the cracks in the flagstone path. I let go of the plants and I hastily reached for the dress to try throwing it over my head. I wanted to change the shade of my skin back to 'normal,' but I was not able to do that right now as the blush nearly seared my skin.

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"So this is where you have been hiding," Lillian said while rounding the final corner between us. I had just managed to orient the dress in a way that I would be able to pull it over my head. "I can see why you might like this spot. You can feel alone heeeeee..." I could tell that it was already too late to cover myself but I could not help but turn around confirm. As I did so a few of my hairs flew in front of my face. There was a noticeable green tint that had not been there earlier. I really had rested here too long.

If Lillian's eyes had not been opening wider while I looked at her, I might have thought that she completely froze in the middle of her words. Her face started to drain of color, but then she managed to blink a few times. The shade of her skin then quickly reversed its course and started to become bright red.

I hastily pulled the dress over my head. It was too late to fix the issue, but I knew that continuing to stand there naked was only going to make the problem worse, especially when dealing with humans.

"Sorry you had to see me like that. I did not hear you coming." I had no idea if apologizing would help but I felt like I was grasping at the last few leaves that were struggling to hold on in a fall storm.

"Um… What were you doing?..." She asked hesitantly, turning an even brighter crimson as if even asking the question was to much.

"I was resting in the sun. I really miss the way it feels," I said slightly sheepishly. It was true, but I didn't think that was what she meant.

"But your clothes?-- Nevermind that… Your skin… your hair… why are they green?"

At this point it seemed like honesty was better than trying to keep with the cover story. I took a moment trying to straighten out my dress and smooth out the wrinkles. It seemed that one of the things I had not learned in my countless millennia was how to care for 'my' clothes. Not sure I could call them mine. I pulled my thoughts back in. No amount of allowing my thoughts to wander was going to get me out of this one. And as much as I wanted it to, smoothing my dress was not working any better for my anxiety than it was for my dress. I gave in to the inevitable. Suppressing a sigh and trying to sound as if nothing was out of place, I replied,"That is fairly normal for my kind."