Today had started out as a normal day for Bipin and Jade; up with the sun to meditate and stretch, followed by a healthy breaking of their fast and finally to Bipin’s grove. Here, Bipin raised his saplings, nurturing them to grow healthy and strong. While Bipin did enjoy cultivating and growing all sorts of plants, his favorites were trees. He liked to collect various clippings and seeds from different trees, then trying his hoof at growing them. He had a natural gift for growing and so was disappointed in receiving a different gift and not botanic. Jade was able to talk some sense into him, that while he couldn’t utilize the gifts of a botniac, he was still able to grow and raise plants. Fungal nouls were just another variety of gardener, though he didn’t have much interest in fungi.
So as they started their day like normal, it was upon arrival to the grove that something was amiss. It took short detective work to find that one of his prized saplings was not faring well. The leaves had dull coloring and began to curl and the whole plant seemed to droop with illness. The soil was not lacking in nutrition and contained the proper water content. He couldn’t see any signs of pests, so what could it be? He could feel Jade watching him from her usual perch and he turned to the green scuttle.
“Jade, what am I to do? My poor sapling…. It’s sick!”
“Please calm down, beloved. I’m sure someone would be able to assess the sapling and figure it out.”
“What are you suggesting?” Bipin asked, eyeing the scuttle.
“Well, I was suggesting that maybe you find a botanic. While you have your natural abilities, they do have magical ones geared more towards plants. Oh don’t look at me like that, being sore is not zen. You may need to meditate on that again today. Grandfather gives us what we can use.” Jade wasn’t normally chatty but with Bipin, she sometimes had to be. She was older and more versed in aiming for enlightenment, she acted as a sort of teacher to Bipin in that regard.
He sighed and gathered himself together. “Very well. Did you have anyone in mind?”
Jade smiled with her usual sleepy look, “I did hear of a noul who specializes in helping others with their problems. Turns out she’s a botanic adept. Maybe we shall go find her.” With that Jade slipped to the ground and began to slither off back into the forest.
Bipin followed after her as they moved through the forest. They paused a few times, asking other residents for guidance on how to find this adept botanic who helped others. The directions lead them to the outskirts of Homewood and the ruins, to what looked like two large twin trees who’d grown up twisting about each other. Bipin was certainly intrigues by the pair, their base formed a natural den for someone to live in and the area was thriving with greenery. That’s when Bipin caught sighs of a grey foal playing with a dark cockatrice.
“Hello!” Jade called, “Hello young noul. We’re looking for the adept botanic, Specterdust. Are they at home?”
The grey foal paused and then turned around. Bipin came up short and even Jade’s eyes opened all the way. The foal was actually a tiny doe with green adept markings over her face and head. She simply tilted her head at them and blinked a moment.
“I’m Specterdust,” she said in a small but confident voice. “Can I help you?”
Jade blinked her eyes a couple times and then looked at Bipin who’s mouth hung open rather unbecomingly. She whipped her tail at his foreleg and he promptly shut it. He remained quiet and Jade sighed, her usual sleepy face returning and she gazed upon the doe.
“Good morning. I’m Jade and this strange fellow is Bipin. We’re here seeking your help. Could you come with us?”
Specterdust tilted her head at Jade and then looked up at Bipin, he towered over her and she’d not seen such a tall noul since Tempest. Although all nouls were tall to her. There was something familiar about the striped buck that Specterdust couldn’t quite put her hoof on and it was going to annoy her til she figured it out. But not right now, these two needed her help and she was a superhero after all.
“Specterdust at your service!” She finally announced, “Please lead the way!”
Bipin remained very quiet on the way back to his grove and he kept eyeing the small doe. This was the noul that helped others with their problems? She was so tiny, he couldn’t image her doing much with bigger issues. But Jade would scold him for judging another based on appearances, or at all for that matter. She was a botanic though and she can help with this particular problem and that’s all that matter. So as they arrived back at the grove with Specterdust and the dark cockatrice, Bipin sighed in relief. Finally, his poor sapling will be saved!
He completely missed Jade explaining the problem and gesturing to the plant but what Specterdust said got his attention immediately.
“I can’t help you.”
Jade was even stunned as she froze mid gesture. Bipin’s ears had whipped forwards and he stared at the grey doe.
“B-but but you’re a botanic! An adept botanic!” Bipin suddenly shouted. He’d never shouted in the whole of his short life but shouted he did. His mother would be so proud.
Specterdust didn’t seemed phased in the least and she simply turned her grey head and looked straight at Bipin. Her ears were large, like she just didn’t grow into them and never would but she looked so dang adorable staring at him that his mouth froze open once more. What is happening he though as his brain seemed to short out.
She suddenly grinned and then laughed. “I know right? I don’t get it either and honestly, one would think Grandfather never makes mistakes. But here I am, a botanic who can’t even stand plants.” Her laugh continued as if she found all this hilarious. Bipin did not. The Grandfather tree blessed this tiny noul with the botanic gift and she didn’t even like plants?! Yet he loved plants and it didn’t bless him with botanic. This couldn’t be happening! He stamped his hoof which got Jade’s attention.
“Breath, dear,” Jade cooed at him, “We’ll find someone who can help your sapling. I promise but you need to breath, center yourself. Getting mad right now won’t help.”
Specterdust’s laughing had finally died as she assessed the situation unfolding before her. She didn’t realize her ineptitude with her gift would cause an issue. But thinking on it, if someone needed help with their plants and came to her because of her gift, she could see where that would be a problem. But Specterdust couldn’t help who she was. She only ever wanted to help others, save the day, be something more than what she was. Having grown up ridiculously small and sheltered by her parents was hard. While her sister was smaller than normal, she still grew up to be big enough not to turn heads. Just petite. Specter grew up with parents who were told that she might not live long. Not all twins were born with the size issues like Specter and Moon were but neither were they premature or sickly.
“My apologies,” Specterdust finally said, “I acted unprofessionally. But I’m afraid that while I am an adept botanic, I’ve only excelled in two abilities. Mostly used to protect myself or others in dangerous situations. Never for plants. I’m seeing that it was a bit short sighted of me to not have excelled in plant based magics, but I can’t change that now.”
Bipin had managed to get his emotions under control and just in time. As the grey doe spoke, he listened with a bit more clear headedness. So when this doe helped others, it was more for dire situations. He wished that they had known that sooner but they were here now. He looked mournfully towards his sapling and Specterdust followed his gaze. She frowned as she took in the sickly plant before looking back to Bipin.
“I don’t understand,” he said, his gaze still on the plant. “Why did Grandfather bless you with botanic and not me? I don’t get it. All I care about are these plants and I can’t help them magically.”
Specterdust looked mildly surprised by what the large buck said. She thought if he was an apprentice, that he had botanic based on this impressive garden here. She didn’t think him to have anything else. “What did Grandfather give you?” she finally inquired.
Bipin tore his gaze from the sapling and looked at Specterdust. “Fungal.”
Her head tilted and she smiled at him. He scowled at her thinking she was going to make fun of him. “Oh don’t even,” she said to his expression before looking away. “You’re not the first fungal to get mad that I was blessed with botanic and not them.”
Bipin blinked in surprise and stared at her. “What do you mean?”
She smirked and looked back at Bipin. “Oh, one of my friends is a fungal adept and when she met me she hated that I was gifted with botanic and not her. She was raised by a botanic adept and she is an amazing gardener. She felt confident the tree would gift her with botanic like her mother before her. It didn’t. Fungal was what she got. I met her shortly after I got my gift, she was still struggling with her’s.” Specterdust smiled wistfully. She remembered that time fondly but then her mind remembered the others there too. Her gaze zeroed back in on Bipin and it roved over him a moment.
“Are you related to Dryxel?”
Bipin blinked in surprise at the sudden question, “Oh uh yes. Um, Dryxel is my father.”
Specterdust’s ears had rotated forwards and her expression turned a bit smug, “So that’s why you looked familiar. Dang, that was really bothering me. You look so much like him, just more stripy. So that means….you must be Tempest’s son too?”
“You know both my parents?” Bipin asked with surprise. His mother was so flighty, he didn’t think she made many friends and his father was always busy.
“I met Dryxel first and only once. Met him and my fungal friend at the same time in fact. Tempest answered my ‘ad’ about wanting to go on an adventure in the barrens but needing someone familiar with the place to go with me. We’ve been friends since then, she did mention not being gone long since she had littles. I’m guess that was you and your siblings.” She laughed. “What a small world we traverse.”
“Yes, indeed.” He replied but then glanced at his sapling once more. “I should probably go find another botanic to help me out.”
Specterdust followed his gaze, “Yeah….probably best. I’m sorry I wasn’t of much help. Anyway, I shall be off…. Kevin!”
The dark cockatrice was busy investigating what Jade was that he was oblivious to the nouls. Jade had been watching the nouls interact, feeling a smug need to match make them. It was too cute, but she was well aware of the dark lumbering male cockatrice invading her personal space. She chose to ignore it and soon the grey doe caught him out. Jade’s tongue flicked out at Kevin as she looked at him, giving him a look to say ‘I knew you were there’. Then watched him race off after his noul. Jade’s gaze returned to Bipin and she was pleasantly surprised to see him watching the doe walk away. She slithered closer to her noul and watched with him for a moment. “Like what you see?” she hissed gleefully.
Bipin blinked and looked at the scuttle scale, “N-no no...no. Uh...what do you mean?”
Jade smirked at him, “It’s ok to to like what you see. You’re old enough now to show an interest in does or bucks or whatever. Maybe we’ll see her and her odd bird again some day.”
They did manage to find a botanic who helped Bipin and his sapling later that day. But Bipin couldn’t get Specterdust off his mind and he couldn’t understand why.
WC: 2,080
