Aiko the Woman, Mega the Healing Plant (SFW Version)
As Aiko and Mega exited north out of the Green Wizard forests and jungle they entered a strange land full of music, revelry, and beautiful people who seemed to feel that nudity was a more natural state to be in. This was the Yellow Wizard Riviera.
Aiko was a young woman now, and yes she had begun to feel some strange new feelings, but she didn’t like them. It distracted her from her work and the plants. As she traversed this place full of sweaty muscled bodies, winking eyes, and licked lips the feelings seemed to grow stronger. She resolved to travel as fast as she could.
She asked Mega about her feelings, but Mega told her that this was one thing about human society she couldn’t comprehend. One night they stopped at a tavern on the road. The scene was festive, but Aiko just needed a meal. At this point, she had learned to make Mega very small so as not to attract extra attention while traveling.
A shirtless young man wearing nothing but leather briefs and a red headband sat down next to them and introduced himself as Draco. He was glistening from sweat earned on the dancefloor which accentuated his finely toned physique.
“Bite me,” he said.
Aiko was confused.
“With your plant,” he gestured to Mega. “I’ll give you a gold coin.”
Aiko was hesitant, but they didn’t have much in the way of money to support their journey.
“Why?” asked Aiko.
Then a scene ensued which some may consider NSFW. (Ping PonyboyX on discord or @0xPonyboy on X for the missing scene) Summary - Mega discovers and removes a tumor from Draco.
Draco was still unconscious so Aiko decided they’d stay there in his room for the night and watch over him. In the morning Draco was still asleep and Aiko was afraid that maybe they’d killed him. But as they began to sneak out of the room, he woke. His months-long headache was gone. He thanked them and promised to take it easy with the weird experimental potions floating around the Riviera party scene.
Aiko and Mega used Draco’s gold to purchase passage on a ship which took them across the water to Alessar’s Keep.
This was the first time they experienced the hustle and bustle of a big city. Aiko felt overwhelmed and Mega felt suffocated being surrounded by buildings and concrete without any soil she could bury herself into.
“You look lost,” said a voice. Aiko looked around but didn’t see anybody talking to her.
“Down here,” the voice said. Aiko looked down and saw a white cat.
“You can talk?” she asked. Aiko had spoken with a lot of plants, but she’d never been able to speak with an animal.
“You’re a wizard right?”
Aiko nodded, “Something like that.”
“Wizards can understand me. I used to have a wizard master, but he died trying to swim to the lair of the great Salt Kelpie in the bay. I told him not to-” The cat couldn’t finish its sentence because it began hacking like it was about to spit up a hairball but the only thing that came out was some foul-smelling liquid.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. Ever since he died I’ve been riddled with parasites. All the other wizards here are too busy to bother with me and nobody else can understand what the heck I’m even saying. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any magic potions that might be able to help me?”
“No, but I think I have something better that can help,” Aiko held out Mega.
The cat skittered around in a circle. “Wha-what?? That thing? Uh uh, ain’t no way I’m letting you feed me to your plant lady.”
Aiko chuckled.
“She’s nice. Her name’s Mega. She can eat whatever makes people sick. I promise she won’t hurt you.”
It took some convincing, but finally, the cat, whose name turned out to be Oscar, agreed to let Mega help on the condition that she didn’t damage his fur.
Since Oscar was having an intestinal issue, Mega decided she didn’t need to break his fur or his skin. She planned to enter his digestive tract through a hole that was already available. For Oscar’s posterity, we won’t say which one.
Mega ate all of the worms plaguing Oscar and cleaned out the lining of his entire intestinal tract, leaving her nectar in its place.
“Wow, I feel like a million bucks!” purred Oscar. “Say, I notice you're missing a familiar. I may be a bit of a wise-ass, but when I purr it makes people feel pretty good. Can I come with?”
Aiko found Oscar’s attitude cute and enthusiastically agreed. Now she had a magical plant, and a magical pet. The final ingredient to becoming a real wizard was a rune, which Mega assured her she could find at the Secret Tower.
The trio didn’t spend any more time in Alessar’s Keep than they needed to. They were close to the Secret Tower and excited to see what secrets it had in store. They continued north. Progress was steady, slowed only when they encountered people in need of assistance. Sometimes they were too afraid to accept Mega’s help, but when they did, they always felt better. However, Mega didn’t always feel the same.
Aiko noticed that sometimes after her “surgeries” Mega seemed to be in a mad mood, quiet, or have low energy. Mega told her that when she entered a good person she felt energized, but sometimes she entered bad people and ate bad stuff that was the result of that person’s bad choices or manifestations of their guilt or anger. Those were the times that drained Mega.
They decided to be more judicious in who they offered their services to. After all, if the person didn’t change their behavior they’d up right back in the same condition sooner or later. Aiko would make the hard decisions on who she’d let Mega operate on.
A few weeks after passing through a city called BlackSand (where they had the good luck to witness some exciting pony races), they saw it looming in the distance. The Secret Tower. After all these years, they’d arrived.
Entered by: 0x9A86…1586
Aiko of the Tower
The Secret Tower hadn’t seemed that far away, but as Aiko trudged onwards it seemed like each day's trek only brought the visage just a tiny bit larger. As they made their way into the mountains the path became, steep, treacherous, and cold. Mega wrapped her vines around Aiko and Oscar’s waists while constantly making anchors in the rock to prevent either of them from tumbling off the perilous precipices.
Aiko wasn’t sure what ached the worst, her legs, her lungs, or her ears from Oscar’s constant complaints that “He did NOT sign up for this.”
Maybe there was a reason none of the other wizards wanted him as their familiar. But still, when Mega made them a cocoon at night and Oscar curled up in her lap and fell into his purring, she did feel better.
They trekked through the Starbridge for what seemed like an eternity and many times the secret tower got lost in the clouds. But then, the cold began to fade away. Patches of green began to sprout forth along the path, and Aiko knew that they were truly close.
In front, of her lay a great staircase. She looked up. While the Secret Tower had seemed large, but manageable from a distance, it now appeared to be a staircase to infinity. Aiko sighed and started climbing. Oscar was too afraid of slipping off the steps, so he rode on her shoulder. Aiko’s legs were tired. She had been walking for so long. But as always, Mega was there to help. She sent her vines up the staircase anchoring them into any small nook she could find and then pulled them shorter to help guide Aiko up the never-ending staircase.
They entered the clouds which caused Oscar to dig his claws into Setsuko’s clothing and mutter, “This can’t be right. Who built this thing anyway? Not very customer friendly.”
The strange thing was, even though the air seemed like it should have been getting thinner, Setsuko began to find it even easier to breathe. It was as if she was nearing close to an immense source of magic and energy. And she was. She felt reinvigorated and pressed onward, quickening her pace with excitement.
The clouds parted and she could see some form of the top. More vegetation began to poke forth from the cracked rock face.
“Ha-lleee-lujah!” crowed Oscar.
With one last tired yet triumphant step Aiko crested the grounds of the Secret Tower. It was a beautiful sight to behold, both due to the aesthetics of its nature as well as the arduous journey required to arrive there. She hugged Oscar with one arm and Mega with the other.
“We did it!”
The fauna surrounding the tower was well-kept, a perfect mix of wild growth and orderly curation. Small animals such as rabbits, hummingbirds, and badgers frolicked in this idyllic otherworldly scene. The tower itself radiated mystic and mysterious energy and its walls glowed with geometric patternry and of course, the runes.
It was at this point a curmudgeonly fellow shuffled out of the tower and regarded Aiko with a “Hmph”.
“Oh… hello!” said Aiko, a bit startled. “Do you live here?”
“No, I just hike through the mountains and up and down an innumerable staircase every day to get my steps in.”
“Wow!” replied Aiko, “Impressive!”
Plants didn’t use sarcasm. Aiko was still confused by it.
The groundskeeper sighed, “Yes I live here. I can see you’re a wizard without a rune. If you’re looking for the decahedron it’s at the top. But if you’re not meant to have a rune, the tower won’t give you a rune. Don’t get your hopes up. And don’t touch anything you’re not meant to touch.”
With that, he disappeared back inside the tower.
Aiko looked up at the top of the tower and could see a violet-blueish shimmering between the tops of two tall Doric columns.
“Wow, a Rune! I wonder what mine could be.” She thought to herself as they entered the tower.
“Remember what he said, don’t touch anything. I don’t want you to get turned to goo or cursed for all eternity,” cautioned Oscar.
“I’m so happy that I was able to make this journey with you,” said Mega.
Aiko smiled. She had come into this world simply as a fey girl with a love for the magic contained within the kingdoms of plants. Through her love of plants, she had been rewarded with the gift of magic herself. And now, her journey had taken her to the very source of magic itself. This day felt right.
She ascended to the top of the tower and bore witness to the decahedron, a vortex of magic displaying itself as a many-sided die, each engraved with a powerful rune. The tower recognized Aiko’s presence and white rays of light began to shine upwards from the center of the tower as well as the two columns on its sides. The center beacon shone up through the decahedron which now spun as it pulsated power and possibility.
Aiko placed Oscar down and stepped into the shaft of light in the center of the tower. The decahedron began to spin as she felt it reading and aligning with her soul, searching for the last puzzle piece to complete her transformation as a magician.
Then it stopped. One rune lit up on the decahedron and when Aiko closed her eyes this was the only rune she could see. The rune of Lime. It was a rune of stability and creation.
Aiko knew her purpose now. Vines, like lime, were a material that held things together. Whereas Lime held the cities of men together, vines and roots held the kingdom of plants together. Aiko’s purpose was to lend her strength to the foundation of the kingdom and world of plants - to ensure that they would survive and thrive forever, no matter the incursion.
To do this she also had to show people that plants were their friends. The basis for any strong foundation is harmony and cooperation, not conflict. She would cultivate unity between humans and plants by continuing the explore and develop Mega’s healing potential. She would demonstrate this blessing to humans, one at a time if she needed. This was her mission.
Along with purpose, the rune of Lime also bestowed on her the power to stabilize magic and give her magic more stability. She could give Mega’s tendrils even more strength and precision. She could plant gardens that would grow for a hundred years. She could restore nutrients to the soil that had been depleted.
This chapter of her life was complete. The next was now beginning. She had what she came for. There was no need to linger at the tower any longer.
She descended through a different staircase than she had used to reach the top. But, something caught her interest. It was a thick book on a pedestal. She could see it illuminated in the distance, though a black void shrouded the way. It appeared as if there was no way to get there, but when Aiko stepped into the void she could walk as normal. She told her companions to wait on the landing of the staircase and she approached the book.
It was a leather tome inlaid with gold. The front cover read, “The Book of Lore.” She remembered the caretaker's warning not to touch anything, but she felt like the tower wouldn’t have shown her this book if it didn’t want her to touch it. She opened the book and let the pages fall. There were thousands of stories within and many pages yet to be written.
Then she gasped. She had found her own story. Her entire life was there, summarized, some moments described in precise detail, including this moment. Words continued to fill an empty page detailing exactly what was and is happening right now. Who was writing these words? Were they manifesting as a reflection of her thoughts or was there some invisible hand at play? Aiko closed the book.
She understood what she saw, but she couldn’t make sense of it. She shook her head. It didn’t matter. Perhaps the future was predetermined, or perhaps not. What mattered was that she knew her purpose and that there were things in the world that filled her with joy. She would focus on that. Every decision she’d make would be made in alignment with her purpose and that would mean every decision she’d make was the one she wanted to make.
She turned and saw her two best friends waiting for her on the other edge of the dark void. As long as she had them everything would be ok. She returned to the stairway landing and felt at peace again. The passage to the dark void with its mysterious book was no longer open. The stairway landing was framed by solid stone walls.
She had made the journey that few wizards made in their lives. The pilgrimage to the Sacred Tower. She had found what she was missing. In days future other wizards would learn of her journey, her feats, and her incredible flesh eating plant and would come to refer to her as Hedge Wizard Aiko of the Tower. But for now, it was really time to go.
Entered by: 0x9A86…1586
