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Curious Findings (17) : Maybe it’s got something to do with the weather, or the construction, or all the other general oddities that seem to occur in Destiny City, but for the first time in nearly fifty years, the historic tree in one of Downtown Destiny City’s parks has woken up. While the tree was known for being alive and growing despite a lengthy hibernation, this is the first year that it’s sprouted leaves–but that’s not all! The unique tree has now also started growing strange pods. Because of the trees legacy–and not at all because of the oddity–the area has been taped off, but that really hasn’t been enough to stop anyone curious enough to investigate. The tree itself is several feet wide and stands roughly fifty feet tall; it’s branches spread significantly and seem like they can hold a lot of weight–which is good, because the pods growing on it have a hard brown shell and can grow up to the size of a soccer ball. Sometimes, the larger ones seem to tremble and shake in place. Maybe it's an animal trying to nibble? Maybe it’s just the wind? Maybe it’s something else. The pods can be pulled from the tree or collected from the ground; the shells are incredibly difficult to crack open, and some of them leak a strange, acidic sap that is strong enough to cause skin agitation–and in some cases there are even reports that it’s burned through wood or fabric. Sometimes, the healthier looking pods that aren’t leaking anything even seem to shake on their own, which is a mystery in itself. Another mystery is why Almadel seems so keen to trade for them…
What was Lourdes doing? She was no athlete, that much was clear by the state of her uniform. Pristine, glittering, and perfect. Not a single rumple, rip, or tear, not a single pleat or pearl out of alignment. Lourdes was, in every sense of the phrase, not built for physicality. Not in body and not in dress. Hell, her planet was the planet of love. Of luxury. Her wonder had been a respite for the weary, not some sweaty gross obstacle course. And yet, there was was, standing at the base of a tree, looking up into its branches at the pods that had yet to be nibbled by creatures and insects because that was what the mysterious merchant was requesting for... whatever reason.
And Lourdes would for sure be revistiting if she even trusted that man... creature... being... later. BEcause she knew that she didn't, but she also wasn't sure what that meant for her possible trade. Other knights had been talking about the wonders that they had traded various trinkets for. Things that he couldn't possibly have. Things that they didn't even know were important until they saw them and then... it was like a switch had been flipped and suddenly they needed it.
It got Lourdes curious. What might he have for Lourdes, of anything?
Doubt lingered in her mind even as Lourdes looked up and up and up into the branches, seeking out an untouched pod. One after another, she flipped the pods on the ground over, only to find that they either rattled as they shifted or were pockmarked by other insects. Which was… not ideal. Not ideal because it meant…
Lourdes lifted her eyes up to the branches and groaned. Yeah… not ideal…
At least, she tried to encourage herself, there were plenty of low hanging branches upon which she could latch as she made her ascension. And even though she tried to avoid just such adventures, she was also very aware of how limiting her uniform was, and always had tools in subspace to help her. Scissors to cut a slit up the thigh of her skirt, allowing her to hike up her legs. Flats in the same color as her heels so that she could walk easier. Magic seemed to keep her blessedly free from blisters and aching feet, but it didn’t make her any better at running or working in those shoes. And though she knew that it had to be done, and though she knew that upon her next power up, her uniform would return to pristine perfection, Lourdes still lamented the ruination of her beautiful Venusian dress as she cut into it. Her heart always sank a little whenever she had to do it.
But now, she was ready, and she had to remember that. This was for a reason, not simple mutilation. That reminder did a little to ease the ache in her heart and the feeling that she had somehow betrayed herself.
The bark cut into her hands even through her gloves first thing as she gripped the lowest branch, and she was reminded that her hands were more used to grasping softer things. Even as she worked on renovating her house, the softness of her palms remained. The bite made her draw her hands away for a moment. She braced and tried again, doing her best to ignore the sting in her hands as she hoisted herself up onto the first branch.
Thank god for magical strengths, because Lourdes was not sure she’d be able to do this if she wasn’t assisted.
Once firmly straddling the branch, Lourdes took stock of the boughs around her. None of them had seed pods, or at least none that were uneaten. This low and this clear from the gentle shielding of leaves, the seed pods were easy pickings for insects and small animals. And so, up she went again, hissing this time as the sting turned to a burn while bark bit into already tender flesh. Once she was seated again, she gazed for a moment at her poor, swollen, abused hands. She’d need a manicure after this… No. She deserved a manicure after this. A manicure and a coffee. A manicure and lunch. Yeah. A whole afternoon of pampering.
She reached up again, climbing still another level higher and into the halo of dappled green that protected the higher seed pods. Some of them bounced against the side of her face, smearing sticky sap against her skin. Which was, she supposed, the exact last straw, because she jerked violently to the side, making a disgusted sound, and nearly lost her grip on the branch. She was saved only because she dug her nails into the bark, shredding them in the process, and tightened her legs around the branch she was straddling. She even pitched forward, wrapping her arms around it was well, koala-hugging the branch in the most undignified way. She glanced down to make sure no one could see her…
And as though to prove a point, Lourdes snatched the offending pod from the branch and tossed it into subspace with a petulant little humph. As though she could teach the pod a lesson by doing so.
Lourdes allowed herself a moment to feel smug and triumphant, wiggling in celebration from her perch in her best facsimile of a dance, before she realized a fairly horrible truth.
She needed to get down.
Who would have thought that that part of the adventure would be harder than getting up into the tree in the first place?
She leaned forward again, returning to her koala-hug and took a deep breath, steeling herself to swing her leg over the branch and search blindly for the branch below her.
Which was exactly as scary as Lourdes thought it would be. Scary because not only did she have to trust without being able to see that she was properly footed on the branch, but also because for several terrifying seconds, she was suspended only between aching hands and the soles of her feet. She was hanging, practically freely, in mid air. It made her breath stutter in her lung and shut her eyes. If she panicked now, it was all over. She’d fall.
That was not an option.
She was not going to the hospital as a grown woman who fell out of a tree searching for a seed pod for a mysterious alien shopkeeper.
She was not going to be doing that.
Instead, she took a deep breath and released her hands and swooped down as fast as possible, grabbing onto the branch beneath her as she crouched, and then settled into another straddle. She was almost down. Just one more level to descend and then she never had to get back into another tree ever again. The same process one more time, and then she could just drop onto solid earth.
It wasn’t less terrifying this time, and made even worse by the prospect of being nearly done. It made Lourdes want to hurry. Made her shiver with anticipation of being finally done with this whole stupid adventure.
She was crouched and gripping the branch when something flew by her face with a cosmically loud BUZZ. She may have screamed, Lourdes wasn’t sure. What she was sure about was that she released her grip on the brush in favor of flapping her hands in front of her face, which was… not the best plan. With her concentration broken and her footing already tenuous at best, Lourdes pitched to the side and was suddenly… falling.
Not.
Ideal.
The ground met her without cushion and for a moment she lay in the grass, staring up at the tree above her. Staring at the beetle that had flown by her burrow into a seedpod and vanish.
Whatever she got from this stupid merchant had better be worth it.
