The Heat-Seeking Ice Hunter seed that Lotus had thrown was an expensive thing, both for its rarity and for how dangerous it was in such a cold place. She wouldn’t have used it, but none of the other plants she had could both survive the cold and support Oak and Dima's oppressive combined weight. As the blue-white plant grew it coiled through the water like a snake; trying to reach the source of heat so close to its grasp. All the while it grew steadily thicker as it absorbed Lotus's spell and any trace of heat it could gather. On land it wasn’t much better, as Lotus avoided the plant that was trying to grasp her, made more difficult by the need to focus on her magic. She yelled out to Dawn, telling her to use her voice.
Dawn focused her energy and waited until the plant had pulled their companions from the water, preserving their heat for its own and unwilling to grant it to the water. When they were clear, she repeatedly yelled "slice" with her ability, and caused the plant to fall to pieces with clean cuts. Dawn then fell back into dizziness, all focus leaving her vision from the will drain of the skill and the impact of the cold. Lotus hurried to treat her new patients. Luckily, they Dima had consumed the cold protection potion, and didn’t seem to have breathed in any water. When he recovered from the shock of the sudden dousing he would probably wake up.
Oak on the other hand, seemed to be in a much worse condition, with her wooden body seeming to have absorbed the water and start to crystallise. Lotus left Dawn to take care of Dima, while she went to work. She immediately brought the heavy tree-spirit close to the fire and laid her on some of the pelts that Dawn had prepared. Her armour was frozen in place and had to be levered off with a dagger. The worst injury was a kind of frost burn around her body, especially where the plant had gasped her. Lotus wasn’t entirely sure about how to go about treating her, and immediately gave up on herbal remedies. Instead she used more of her druid power.
Mend plant and heal tree didn’t seem to have any effect aside from draining her limited supply of Mana Points. The improved version, restore nature, also did nothing, but drained even more of her power. From that, she realised that, despite how she looked, Oak wasn’t a plant, as far as her magic was concerned. That considerably lowered the number of spells she could use. In the end she tried to modify the heal animal spell, leaving out the words she guessed mean animal, until it had some small effect. When she could see it working, repeated it until Oak was fully healed, all the while consuming plants that boosted her MP recovery rate. It was crude and inefficient, but it eventually got the job done.
When oak had recovered, and was resting, Lotus noticed that an extra person had been pulled out of the ice. She was above average looking, and a little older then herself. There was something familiar about her that she couldn’t put her figure on. Lotus would have been more worried about her, since she had been in the ice, yet she was standing up and stretching like she had just woken up from a nap. Furthermore, her clothes dried in an instant, with colour rapidly returned to her skin. With a still sleepy face, the woman spoke with a yawn.
“Morning.”
Lotus resisted the urge to correct her, and point out that it was well into the afternoon and bordering on night, but instead returned the greeting.
“Good morning to you, as well.” On hearing a reply, the woman seemed to wake up more and look at Lotus clearly, as if she had been speaking out of reflex and hadn't expected a response. Her green eyes locked onto her own, and Lotus was reminded of the dreams she had had ever since she started first became a druid. Her dreams were when she felt like she was talking to the 13th world, an all-encompassing energy and soothed her and held her in an embrace.
“Eh? W-who might you be?” the woman somewhat timidly asked, “Did you, by any chance, save me from the ice?” Her timid attitude was far contrasted with her appearance. Her face looked like it was wild and carefree, like a fay creature out for mischief, but when she spoke, that image broke.
Lotus introduced herself and confirmed that she pulled her from the ice, throwing the slices of vine into the fire as she spoke. The woman introduced herself to Lotus as a demon organ merchant. Her trade was how she was able to survive under the ice, as she often used the best parts of the occupation on herself rather than selling them. Demons were often similar to humans in appearance and anatomy. As such, a demon organ merchant would preserve the fresh organs of a demon and transplant them into customers. Class-wise it seemed that to become one, levels had to be taken as both an apothecary and a demonologist.
A lot of Lucy’s internal organs had been replaced with demonic parts, and as such, being under the ice like that only put her to sleep, without any harm aside from inconvenience. Unfortunately, the reason she was in the ice in the first place, was because she had been robbed and had run out onto the ice to avoid the bandits. She wanted to repay Lotus for helping her, but didn’t have anything much on her to do that. As Lucy had once been an apothecary, she knew all too well how much the seed that had saved her had been worth.
One thing that she did have, however, was a small opal-like seed, that had colours like a tiny milky-way, like a night sky far, from city lights. Its colours and lights seemed to move and had no fixed position. It was solid in hand, but they moved like it was filled with a liquid or a gas. Lucy explained that it was a type of demon seed called a devouring shield seed. Demon seeds were, as the name suggested, seeds that came from demonic plants. They had both demon properties and plant properties, making them useful for a number of classes. Unfortunately, true demonic plants were rare and, if they lived long enough, they could become intelligent beings. The devouring shield seed could be implanted under the skin of a section of a body, and grow a light-weight but durable armour, that would regenerate if damaged.
It was worth far more than the Heat-Seeking Ice Hunter seed Lotus had used. As such, wanting to maintain a long lasting relationship, Lotus accepted the seed only in exchange for some healing poultices and leopard horns. She still profited heavily from the trade, but both sides could at least feel like they gained something.
After talking for a short while longer, Lucy said her farewell and promised to meet again after she got her trade back up and running. She made her way down the mountain alone, but seemingly in high spirits. To Lotus, she felt kind of like the big sister she never had, and it was comforting to know someone like that. With Lucy gone, Lotus checked on everyone’s condition. Dima was still out cold, though healing well, and Oak seemed to be pretending to sleep. It didn’t bother Lotus that she was faking; she just thought it was another one of her quirks, one likely related to her obsession with her husband.
Dawn, on the other hand, seemed to have acclimatised to the cold, albeit with the help of the fire, and was able to walk away from the camp without getting dizzy. Since the couple were going to be out until at least the next day, Lotus decided to take Dawn and hunt for dinner. With some luck, they came across some more leopards. Taking them down easily, they dismantled them and returned to camp.
