Chapter 64 - Sixty Three - Wanting to Be Stronger (2/2)

At the end of the week, Ren Zexian descended from Autumn's room, leaving the woman to rest after the long time it had taken to awaken her roots.  Fortunately, although she had been in deep meditation, he, with the aid of Dexter kept her fed and watered so she remained strong throughout.  He yawned, for it was a mentally draining task to assist someone for so long and absorbed the glorious sunshine for a moment before seeking his boy.  He had missed him, sorely.

He found Nathan lifting pots from the corner of the house and placing them on a trolley that Shaun had created for him after he had long recovered from battle.  ”Hey, Nathan,” he called out when he approached.

The smile he received was worth the pain of being away from his side, he felt, but he did not wish to be away from Nathan for so long next time.  Since this had been their first separation since confirming their relationship, Ren Zexian felt that he had never experienced anything more difficult.  And they had only been apart by a few metres, what would a longer distance do?

He glanced at the pots of earth.  These six contained ivy shoots and another three contained the thicker vines that grew along and within the surrounding hedges.  ”What are you doing?” He asked, softly.

”Ah, they want to grow elsewhere,” he explained, gently arranging the leaves on one of the ivy shoots.

”Where would they like to grow?” Ren Zexian asked.  Nathan's symbiotic relationship never ceased to amaze him.  Others might mistaken his ability as a result of a mutation in his plant root, however, Ren Zexian believed the explanation lie with his third root.  It was a body root and just like the one that Autumn had come to awaken, this root would only affect Nathan personally.  At least, that is how it should be.  However Nathan's root could be called Blessed for a reason, his root literally Blessed his other roots, improving the nature of them.  Thus he could not only manipulate plants, it was more as if they were an extension of himself.  Not adversely, or he would suffer quite painfully when they died naturally due to age or illness, but enough that he knew what they needed and in turn they seemed to know what he needed and acted automatically in his best interests.

His mind could interpret that the plants wanted to move to new locations, when in actual fact, he was instinctively expanding his sphere of influence, planting the mutated ivy and vines where they could help protect him more.  In this case, the walls and hedges outside of his garden.  It was likely that the mutant rose bush, that had sprayed its thorns to down many of the rodents would have its seeds taken to grow offspring next year, while the dandelion could spread its own vicious seeds itself.

Ren Zexian nodded, understanding completely his meaning and walked the very nervous boy out of the shelter of his garden.  In truth, Nathan had not left the grounds in more than a year and that was for a doctor's appointment as his regular doctor had retired and this one would not make house calls.  It had been very stressful and his parents had sought to arrange a new doctor for him.  That particular thing had never happened in the end as the apocalypse had come, his parents were away...

The ivy wrapped around his wrist in reassurance and he took his first step out into the base.  Looking around, he first saw the wall stretching from his garden to cover the road and join with the wall that formed the outer rim of the grounds opposite.  This gave him some comfort and he felt more secure upon seeing it.  It felt as if his home, his garden had just increased in size and he could ignore the fact that he'd actually just left it.  He approached the intersection where the new wall merged with the old and he began to dig a hole.

”Which one wishes to be placed here?” Ren Zexian asked and Nathan pointed to one of the pots of ivy, which the Cultivator placed in his arms.  Nathan beamed lovingly and proceeded to plant the offshoot.

They then moved into the garden of the next house and Nathan, nervously glanced about before feeling disappointed that the garden was a bit plain.  This house had been due for renovation, the garden probably would have been landscaped afterwards, but now it was a mess of loosely cut grass and weeds.  The mutant grass was still amongst this lot, Nathan naturally detected and avoided it, but he did not disdain it.  It just didn't need anything from him, it was already satisfied with a zombie vole that had strayed its way.

He noticed the long and wide muddy patch that took up half of the large front garden on the one side of the straight and imposing drive and asked Ren Zexian; ”Is that where the rest of the wheat will be planted?”

”Yes, I believe that is the plan,” came the reply.

”Good,” Nathan nodded with approval.  ”The plants will like it there.”  Soon after, close to the field and a couple of other places upon the wall were the new locations for the vine and ivy offshoots.