Lykos was sitting down on a rooftop, in the heat of the hot sun, writing. Lately the mud whale had been so hot and slow that nobody had the might to do anything. The crops were slowly craving more water and the elders and the foreigners had been cooped up in the council building.
Lykos had been liking to spend her time on the dry, muddy roofs of the mud whale thinking since that's mostly what the weather allowed you to. Sometimes Lykos found the will inside of her to pick up her long lost writing skills. It was a consequence from Chakuro's presense.
Since everything that had happened since the foreigners arrived Lykos had found herself looking at the no-longer-so-endless plains of sand for longer periods of time than she wanted. She thought about her people in the mother country and about how they must be suffering from the loss of Skyros. If they were even suffering at all. She thought about Faláina and its inhabitants that had shown her generosity. Sometimes Lykos felt like her time without feelings hadn't happened at all and that they were all just memories from an earlier life.
While tracing gentle symbols in the sand with her knees pulled up to her chest Lykos felt a gentle pat on her shoulder. She turned around to face a standing and familiar friend. Chakuro greeted her with an excited smile and shining eyes. He seemed elated.
Lykos brushed the dust of her knees and erased her clumpy writing in the thin sand calmly. "Come, I have something to show you!" Chakuro joyfully told her before he lended out a hand to help her up.
Lykos took it and followed him off the roof, slightly curious about what had made him so gleeful on a hot day.
They swindled down empty paths and a tight alleyway before ending up at a small withering patch of green land by the edge of the mud whale and the crop fields. Lykos had never been here before. "Where are we?" Lykos managed to ask before Chakuro pulled her over to a pile of newly overturned earth, closer to the edge of the mud whale.
Lykos shaded her eyes with her hand and realized that there were two tall windling plant stalks that sprouted out of the earth. They were much taller than Lykos and pretty sturdy. At the end of each stalk was a big, rich and yellow flower that was gracefully facing the sun. It had a big black core with small soon-to-be seeds slightly sticking out. It's short petals started at a firery orange at the roots before converting into a charming yellow.
"Lykos, they've actually bloomed! Aren't they magnificent!" Chakuro chirped happily as Lykos admired the vibrant flowers. "What are they?" She asked without looking away from the plant. Lykos had never seen one before.
"They were attached to an old document that I found last year about crops. I'm guessing that this was a crop that was difficult to grow and eventually it got extinct. It likes sunlight so I'm guessing that's why it's growing now." Chakuro informed while throwing away a pest that he found into a sand dune outside the Mud Whale.
Lykos turned to him once she was done regarding the plant. "Does it have a name?" She questioned slightly facinated while she looked at him digging out small weeds sprouts.
"Funny that you should say that." Chakuro answered slightly snickering before pulling himself together. "Actually it does! It's called Helianthus Annuus!" Lykos frowned at the name. It sounded like a rhyming joke.
"You should re-name it." Chakuro remarked as he saw her expression. "That one it has now is kinda unapproriate and way too long. We can't go around calling it that."
Lykos smiled grateful that he offered her, as she sat down next to him in the grass and started to help him. After a while of weeding Lykos got a fine idea even though it was a bit unoriginal. "I've got a thought." Chakuro looked up at her as Lykos mentioned her idea. "Go on." He coaxed slowly.
"Does sunflower sound good?" Lykos questioned. Chakuro stiffened in awe. "It actually sounds really good." She was right. It was a good idea.
Chakuro took up a coal pencil and a small worn, white bamboo board from his big pockets. He clottered something down on it and then shoved it bottom first in the earth so that half of it stood out. It worked as a small sign Lykos saw as she read what he had written at the top of it.
'Lykos's Sun's flower' It said in clear black lettering.