I didn't really have any good reasons to be outside that day.
In fairness, I never found myself needing one!
People always complained about stress keeping them inside or giving them the need to go outside, Cille and Numa, my besties and roommates at university, are perfect examples of both sides to that coin.
Me though? I was happy getting out whenever I could! Just so long as it was warm enough for me to wear my shorts, and dry enough not to need a coat, I'd usually be heading out as soon as I had some free time!
Or even if I really didn't...
Over two metres tall, about eighty percent legs, and with one large eye taking up most of my smallish face I was obviously a magical being from any angle.
The eye had a tendency to catch people off guard. A single enormous eyeball can be kinda hard to meet in conversation, but I tried my best to keep it from being too much if a staring orb!
Without an iris or a pupil, my eye is simply a large orb of swirling shades of honey gold, with a liberal application of mascara to make the already impressive lashes pop out and make me a little more expressive.
Add to that, the little smile under the eye, and usually, it didn't take that long to get used to me.
Luckily for me, I was born in a time when thirty percent of the population being magically descended was just an accepted fact that made life a little more interesting!
The walk today took me up into the hills that made a pretty, shaded backdrop to the university town, and had become one of my favourite places to ramble about, partially thanks to how uneven the ground was.
There wasn't really a set trail, and with ledges, ridges, drop offs and boulders covering the thing like some god of the mountains had sneezed on it while it was being made, most just avoided it.
I, however, being as tall as a Christmas tree and elegant as a mountain goat, found it fun!
The challenge, the freedom, the relaxation of knowing the only people I might meet will be looking for privacy too? Perfect!
Maybe the isolation and lack of traffic there was how nobody had discovered the vine creature before?
I was on my way down, heading pretty much straight for the city without a trail in sight when I heard a couple of sounds nearby.
I couldn't quite pick them out at first... Humming? But it was too deep and low...
I found myself turning on the spot, looking around for the source until a little sticky something poked my leg!
I turned quickly, looking down, wondering why a fox or raccoon had just booped me with it's nose when...
Instead, there was a... Vine? I guessed it was a vine at first since it was all slender and smooth and coming from the ground, but then I watched as a glob of something slimy and pink ran down over its top and dripped from it's tip...
Not to mention, the thing was the most sweet, inoffensive shade of baby doll pink itself.
All I could manage was to open my mouth a couple of times before the creature poked me again, and this time, pointed also to the large fallen tree i'd just vaulted over.
"Oh... You... Want me to sit?" I asked it, and though it didn't answer directly, it didn't seem unsatisfied by the guess.
I... Took a seat against the log.
That log would quickly become one of my favourite rest stops...
As I nestled myself back in against it, figuring that this was likely just a little magical creature, feeding off the ambient magical energy around me while I rested in a place that he would make sure was dry, out of the wind, and absent of mosquitos.
There were a couple of these around. They had plenty of names, but I just called the "Tired Boys", since my hobby is climbing mountains, not giving things interesting and well thought out names.
This Tired Boy though...
