Saliva?!
Angor sensed something sweet in his own mouth. Then he recalled drinking drops of water that landed on his lips… It actually tasted good and refreshing.
But it was still something’s spit!
Angor felt nauseated and quickly sat up. He vomited toward his side. Strangely though, even though he wanted to throw up badly, nothing came out.
He began to think about what happened earlier. That dying pain was terrible. And what was that wall?! Thank goodness some vines dragged him away. Another second and he might have died for sure. Also, Angor believed he saw the flower floating in front of him before he fainted.
Was he saved by the flower?
If so, was he being impolite by vomiting in front of it? In his dream, he asked for “water” and the “water drops” came to him.
Someone—wait, something, the “flower”, wanted to save him. He was not supposed to vomit like that in front of someone—wait, something, that just helped him.
With that in mind, Angor swallowed back his terrible feeling and thanked the flower in a small voice.
There was no response but Angor was sure the flower with a mouth—Angor decided to call it the “mouth flower” for now—revealed a joyful emotion when he woke up.
Angor heard rustle noises around him. He turned around and saw a number of “mouth flowers” surrounding him in the middle.
They bounced around him. When they bounced up, Angor could see their roots coming out of the dirt. Those roots looked like the vines that pulled him away from the wall.
So the mouth flowers did save him? Angor suddenly remembered being “stopped” by the flowers when he was flying towards the wall. Now he thought about it, were the mouth flowers trying to warn him to keep away from the wall?
And what was the deal with the wall anyway?
The mouth flowers could not speak, but Angor felt their emotions. They seemed to be celebrating something.
Are they happy because I’m awake?
Or is it because they could finally cook me up?
Angor believed the first idea. At least the mouth flowers were friendly to him. If they wanted to do him harm, they had plenty of chances when he was out cold.
Looking at the strange yet joyful mouth flowers, something inside Angor told him that they looked cute, in a way. He reached out a hand and tried to touch the petals of one of the flowers.
He moved carefully, fearing that this might be dangerous.
The result was satisfactory enough. It seemed the mouth flower did not mind being touched. It even rubbed against Angor’s palm like a small chick, making his palm itchy.
As he fiddled around the mouth flower’s petals, Angor asked himself.
Are they monsters?
Didn’t Sunders say that all monsters in the Nightmare Realm are aggressive to outsiders?
Then why didn’t I meet with any attacks?
Well maybe except that wall. Is that wall a monster?
Angor stroke the flowers around him and failed to notice that the most bright mouth flower in the air began to reveal a displeased emotion.
As the emotion spread around, all the other mouth flowers around him quickly disappeared. They either bounced away or dived into the earth.
At this point, Angor also felt the negative emotion coming from the starry-petaled flower.
But why? Was it trying to kill him now? Angor stared at the flower with a worried look.
He still did not know why these mouth flowers saved him in the first place, or why they acted friendly. Angor did not think he was anyone special, like those extremely lucky main characters in the novels he read before, who attracted all sorts of treasures, pets, and beautiful women towards them like a magnet. This was why he was worried.
This black mouth flower must be their leader since it could scare away all the other flowers just because it was displeased.
Angor stared at the unhappy mouth flower and did not know what to do. Out of instinct, he tried to comfort it by stroking it.
When he touched the petals of the flower, its mouth quickly curled into a big smile. All the negative emotions were gone. It looked a whole lot more “sunny” now.
Angor gazed at the “mouth flower king” which rubbed against his palm like all the other flowers. It was unhappy because it was jealous?
Angor believed he was right.
He was still cautious, although the happy flower made him relax a lot.
“Who are you?” Angor asked in a small voice.
The mouth flower king appeared to be more intelligent than the other ones. It actually replied.
“I, am, flower.”
An overjoyed emotion came out.
“Why did you save me?”
“Die, don’t.”
The emotion became nervous.
They saved me because they didn’t want me to die?
The mouth flower was intelligent but it was not enough to interpret Angor’s question correctly. It only gave vague answers.
Angor thought he might need to ask something more direct.
“Do you like me?” Angor felt a bit embarrassed at his question. Was he being a narcissist?
Although the mouth flower had no idea about those human emotions, it still swayed its petals quickly.
“Like.” Joyful emotion.
The surety of the answer comforted Angor further. The mouth flowers were not hostile to him after all.
“Why do you like me?” Angor asked another embarrassing question.
This time, the mouth flower stopped for quite a while.
“Smell. Majesty… the smell.”
The emotion carried some respect as well as admiration.
Majesty smell? Don’t tell me I’m actually one of those overpowered novel heroes?
Angor looked at the flower agape. Maybe he had a talent that was really strong?
However, the next answer caused Angor to doubt his ears. The mouth flower spoke without being asked this time.
“Like! Queen’s smell!”
Angor froze.
Que—queen?!
Whatever did that mean?
“Who’s the queen?” He asked.
The mouth flower swayed around, dropping saliva here and there and caused the whole place to smell sweet.
“The queen, is majesty.” Respect.
“What’s the name of the queen?” asked Angor. He really wanted to know why he smelled like a queen.
“The queen is majesty?” A questioning and puzzling emotion.
Angor asked several times without getting any clear answer. The flower felt like a child at the age of one or two, so he could not really expect much.
Angor tried one last time, “Where is the queen?”
“The place, of majesty,” Another respectful emotion.
Oh well, this is no use. Angor gave up.
He did not really have the time to stay with the mouth flower either. He did not know how long he slept. The mouth flower probably did not know the concept of time.
The most important task was to find Sunders. That was the only way for him to get back to the wizarding world.
Speaking of the wizarding world, Angor remembered one half of the Twisting Protozoa given by Sunders before they came here. This thing was a “passport” for him to escape. He quickly searched himself and found the corpse of the worm in his inner pocket.
Angor put away the worm carefully and decided to move on.