Dark.

He was floating, surrounded by nothing but darkness. He had no idea for how long exactly, but it definitely felt like a long time.

There was something cold on his forehead. He wasn't sure what that was, but it had been put there not long ago. He doesn't like it. He's already feeling so cold, his sensations are numbed, but he knows he's shivering. Why is it so cold? What happened to him? Why is it hurting so much?

He doesn't want to wake up, he doesn't have the strength to do it. But eventually, the questions in his mind took the best of him and he forced his eyes to open. It wasn't an easy task, but eventually, he was conscious once again and his sensations returned. He grimaced when the light reached his eyes, closing them.

Slowly, he opened his eyes again, it took a few moments for his vision to focus. Beside him was Jamileh, sitting on a little stool beside his hammock, her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow. With her back resting on the wall, she slept peacefully.

He remembered the cold feeling on his head earlier, bringing his hand to his forehead, immediately noticing a cold and wet rag, as well as the absence of his headgear. Okay, now he was confused. He took the wet rag off and brought his hand up his head, feeling his hair completely exposed. Looking down, he saw that his usual attire was replaced by the lightest piece of clothing he owned.

Turning towards the young girl, he clumsily reached out and squeezed her hand, softly calling her name. The girl's eyes slowly cracked open and she turned to face him, her earth brown eyes meeting his dull blue. In that moment, the sadness in her disappeared, joy and relief made her eyes shine again and a bright smile formed on her face.

"C-chief! How... are you feeling?"

Either Jamileh was carefully balanced on the verge of tears or his illness was making him imagine things. His throat was still hurting, so he didn't try to speak, instead he offered her a nod and a soft smile.

Jamileh didn't speak. Instead she wrapped Tethu in a delicate but firm embrace. After a moment, the boy hugged her back.

A tear fell from her eye, making a wet path as it scrolled down her cheek. Soon, the young girl started smiling again. "I'll tell brother and the others."

She left hurriedly, almost forgetting to close the door on her way out.

The seedling sighed as he rested his head back on the hammock. He looked around, judging by the soft sunlight that entered the room, it should be early morning.

He still wasn't sure what had happened, all he remembered was the festival and the incident at the spring, everything after that was a blur. And the headache wasn't making things any easier.

How did he get so sick in the first place?

'Was I really in such a bad shape?... Maybe I should take better care of myself...'

"Yes. Yes, you definitely should."

Tethu almost fell out of his hammock in fear before turning towards the familiar voice. A single jade green eye gave him a concerned, yet firm glare, like he was trying to look angry, but couldn't hide his true emotions. The other eye was hidden away by white hair much like his. His figure was transparent and a soft aura emanated from him, but he knew the young man that was in front of him was a powerful spirit.

"O-Oh... Hey bro..." His voice was hoarse, but it would have to do.

"Don't 'hey bro' me," the spirit floated closer, crossing his arms and glaring down at him. "Do you have any idea of the situation you are in? If your friends weren't here to help you..."

That was it, that was the demanding tone of his brother that still sent shivers down his spine. The only time Nour ever uses that tone is when Tethu acted carelessly or pulled another crazy stunt. Even after the death of his mortal body, he still never seemed to miss the opportunity to scold his younger brother.

Seriously, what's with him and ghosts? He had always seen shadows and voices no one else could see since childhood, but ever since the adventure against the chaos, he and others had seen and talked to many spirits and ghosts just became something normal.

"Your lungs are not in the best shape. This could have been a small cold, but then you kept pushing yourself and look at what happened."

"Sorry..." He muttered, averting his gaze to the floor.

"Do you have any idea how worried everyone is about you right now? Not only in here, but in the spiritual plane too. Everything was fine and then we hear that you were ill and almost drowned together with one of the residents, everything was in such a ruckus the higher spirits had to personally come there to calm everyone down."

"I... I said I'm sorry..."

"Sorry isn't going to fix everything, Tethu." Nour answered. "Esna almost died a second time when she heard the news, she was so worried..."

At the mention of his beloved friend, he became quiet, heart filled with guilt.

"Why did you let it get this bad? Why didn't you rest when you weren't feeling well?" He had to fight to keep his voice from cracking. "This has to be the most careless-"

"I did it for them!"

Nour flinched away from Tethu, who grasped his throat in pain.

"T-They needed me... I... I can't just take a surprise vacation whenever... you of all people should know that..." Speaking was difficult especially after shouting like that, but he ignored the discomfort. "The festival needed to be organized, there were pests in the gardens, Hosni wanted help gathering ingredients, Evia needed me to deliver nectar, Saeed needed materials, Miura wanted a sparring partner, Sol and Um were fighting, Roto's pet got stuck on Pami's shop... and then... Sakina..."

His throat was burning by the the time he was finished, he lowered his gaze and turned his head away. Nour gazed sadly at his brother.

"If you..." He coughed a few times. "If you came here just to scold me then go away..."

"Brother...?"

Silence.

"... Tethu, look at me please."

Nour's tone became softer, but Tethu still found it hard to look at him in the eye.

"I... I'm sorry for the things I said, I didn't mean to upset you." Nour spoke quietly. "I know you were working to keep the oasis going and everyone happy, but you can't forget about yourself either."

He floated closer to the young chief, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. "I just... want you to live a long and healthy life, I want to see you running around and playing with your friends, laughing and living your life at its finest... not to be stuck in a bed because you overworked yourself. You got sick because your body was too exhausted to fight the illness properly." Nour explained, his voice was soft and he carefully chose his words as not to upset his brother any further.

Tethu nodded. He was going to answer when they heard what sounded like a small stampede coming from outside.

"Here they come... I have to go now. Take care little brother."

Tethu waved goodbye as Nour faded away from his sight. Moments later, the door burst open. Lili, Sol and Miura dashed inside the house, Shakuro, Jamileh and Isaac tagging behind them. He was immediately bombarded with questions, but they were all speaking at once so he couldn't understand a thing they said.

"Hey, hey! What did I tell you guys literally ten seconds ago? Give him space and don't get too close!" Isaac pretty much pushed them out of the way.

"S-sorry... it's just... I couldn't help myself." Lili spoke so quietly it was barely above a whisper.

"I know, but try to remember that, okay?"

He turned to Tethu, his gaze shifting to a more concerned one. "How are you feeling?"

The seedling in question nodded and offered a little smile. Isaac walked closer to him and felt his forehead, grimacing a little when he did so.

"Your fever is still high..." He took his hand away. "Do you feel any pain?"

Tethu nodded, gesturing to his chest, throat and head.

"I see... Well, this is normal for your conditi-"

"Can't you speak? like at all?" Sol interrupted, his eyes showing concern. He put his hand on his throat again, a pained expression on his face as he shook his head. The argument with Nour had busted his throat.

"O-Oh..." Sol's ears lowered, Shakuro patted his back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, you're gonna be up and running again in no time." Miura said while patting his back.

"I'm sure he will," Isaac said, sitting down on the stool next to the hammock. "But-"

"Oh, look the boss is awake!"

"Wait, seriously? I almost thought he was going to kick the bucket."

Isaac groaned at being interrupted again, he wasted no time in sending the two newcomers, a Serkha and a Lagora, a quick, annoyed glance. Tethu sent the Lagora, who turned out to be Aslar, an exasperated glare, which the clumsy warrior responded with an apologetic and awkward laugh.

"As I was saying," Isaac spoke louder. "Yes, he is going to recover soon. However, you are in absolutely no shape to work for the time being, so I suggest you to remain here."

Tethu nodded in understanding, remembering his older brother's words. That surprised the intellectual seedling as he expected the young chief to argue that he could still go out, but he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he smiled and said. "It's settled then, we'll let you rest and come here every now and then to check on you. Remember to drink a lot of water and-"

"Wait!"

"What is it?!" Zak flinched by the dark tone Isaac used. The others sent him looks like he had just insulted the great Gods, it should have been common knowledge that Isaac has a short fuse when it comes to being cut off, and angry nerds are a hazard.

"I-I mean... Sorry... I-" He stuttered, growing even more nervous when the seedling's expression became even more exasperated, the looks shifted from shock to 'just say it already before he snaps!'

"Who's gonna take care of the Oasis?" The Serkha blurted out, sighing in relief when Isaac's murderous glare softened. Inconciously, they all glanced towards Tethu. This question was the enigma that they still had to find the answer. While they had spent a while by themselves, Tethu never left for more than a couple of days at the time. But this is definitely going to last for more than a day or two, as much as they wanted to believe the opposite, this was not something they could just wait out.

"We actually came here in behalf of everyone." Aslar said. "Since the festival was yesterday, most of the shops are out of stock and since we depend on the bloom booths for food and other supplies, we wanted to ask what we're going to do..."

There was a short pause before Shakuro responded "... We will organise everything together with everyone, this is not the first time we take care of ourselves, this is nothing we can't do."

This seemed to have lifted everyone's spirits.

"He's right, we can't just stand in here now, right? Miura said.

"Yeah! I mean, it's just deliver some stuff, clear the roads and help people if they need it, how hard can it be?" Sol laughed.

"Sure," Levi said, smiling. "we should be done by afternoon."

They glanced towards Tethu and their smiles immediately faded away, they were met by the most disappointed, unimpressed and offended glare they had ever seen, it was very intimidating to be honest, which was really impressive for someone with Tethu's size.

"Uh... okay boys, I think we should get going now, we got work to do, afterall." Lili said, successfully breaking the tension between them.

"Okay, we gotta go! See ya Chief, we're gonna check on you later. Call if you need help, alright?" Shakuro waved goodbye as he and Isaac urged the others out of the room. Tethu sighed, clearly still bothered by their last comment, but still waved and muttered a hoarse "bye" in response.

He knew he shouldn't have been angry at that, they're helping him so much afterall, but in his defense they had just brushed off the very job that drove him ill and forced to bed rest for the foreseeable future, he felt like he had the right to be at least a bit annoyed. A part of him actually hoped they'd struggle a bit here and there, the other part felt guilty for it. Okay that internal conflict was not helping with his headache. Groaning, he laid back down on the hammock and rested his head on the soft pillows.

It was the first vacation time he'd had since forever, he would not waste it worrying about things he couldn't control. He fell asleep surprisingly quickly after that.

forgive me for the long wait, health issues and coronavirus halted most of my writing.

I hope to get back on track for this project and more! Expect more updates soon!

I honestly had fun writing the characters interactions with each other, Ever Oasis has so many characters and possibilities it's a shame it didn't get the attention it deserved. Since there's not a lot of character building in the game I had to add a few of my headcanons in to just spice things up a notch.

Tethu had always been able to see "apparitions" since he was young(er), but after the adventure to fight the Chaos, he had gained the ability to see and hear spirits much easier. (I already had this one before seeing the ending but now it doubles as a means to get Nour and Esna back you're welcome)

Despite their size and fragility, seedlings can be pretty violent when they want to be.

The entire Oasis shares two (2) brain cells and Isaac and Shakuro are hoarding them.

Tethu is kind but the living definition of petty, but also feels guilty of being petty to his friends.

That's all you really need to know about it lol

Bye!