Starglow Basin but your arrogance disturbed [m]y solitude

Very little could distract Haruto from his studies. 

He lived in a new biome now, and explored with the ruthless curiosity of a student put on full scholarship. Here and there he tasted the earth, dug to find how deep moisture settled beneath the sand, felt the temperatures shift with the studious nature of one gathering data for a thesis. He needed to know these lands so that he could fully understand the plants within them.

He had tread in valleys lush with the scent of lilac, forsythia, wild rose, thyme. He had chewed juniper leaves simply so he might release their scent, rolled in springs of mint to crush their leaves and perfume the air. But nothing was so sweet as the scent of a woman in her prime.

Very little distracted him from his studies, but the man who revelled in his own senses knew when he might find something exquisite; and so he searched for the one who bloomed, finding her like a blossom with its petals opened, reaching desperately for the feathery touch of a bee’s wing.

He came toward her, driven to her scent, assessing if perhaps another man laid claim to her. Like a bird seeking to attract her fancy, he was clean and bright, thanks to his fastidious nature. He smelled of floral bouquets, and in his eyes danced a calm, but sincere list as he crooned a fanciful note to her, testing to see how receptive she might be to the presence of a total stranger.