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Isi waited outside in the dim morning fog of the bitter February cold. He had on a heavy coat of brown with a fur collar and boots, perfect enough to keep him warm enough while he was outside. The weather man had said that it was going to warm up later on in the day, but Isikoro seriously doubted it as he gazed up at the thick blanket of fog that blanketed the valley. He glanced down the long winding cobblestone road that led up to the plantation hope, his knuckles tightening and loosening around the grips of his crutches. Aphi had already left the abode, his car leaving an empty spot in the garage, and Isi's electric scooter remained propped in the corner with his blue helmet.

What he needed to get couldn't be transported on a scooter.

He checked his pocket, making sure that he had his saved up allowance from gardening. It was there, and Isi felt a little bit more relieved.

Earlier that morning, he had called Alex from the Lab. He knew that Alex and Aphi were good friends and that Alex had shown up at their house a couple times. He wouldn't say that he, personally, knew Alex on good terms, but it was good enough for him to gather up the nerve to call her on her phone for a favor.

He needed a big vehicle.

Isi watched as the large vehicle crawled up the gravel stone driveway and he slowly hobbled forward to greet the car as it came to a stop and the door was pushed open. Alex was inside, her black hair pulled up into an energetic splay of ponytail and a big smile was plastered onto her face, just the kind of person that Isi needed to help him with his errand. Pinching his freckled cheeks up underneath his eyes as a smile, Isi unhitched his arms from his forearm crutches and carefully maneuvered them into the back behind the seats.

"Hot cocoa?" Isi voiced in surprise, looking over his shoulder as he finished stashing his crutches away at the cup holders in between the front seats. It was confirmed, there were two plastic lidded cups of hot cocoa. He couldn't figure out why, but Isi felt a little bit of pity in those cups of cocoa, like the way someone would buy a drink for the poor sap in the corner who was crying into the bar...or was it guiltiness? He couldn't figure out which. As he pulled himself to the co-pilot seat and put on his seat belt, Isi bleated in feigned gratitude, still unsure on his feelings of the unexpected cocoa, "No, no, not late at all. Uh...You didn't have to do that, that was kind of you...You're already taking me to the Garden Outlet, you didn't have to do that. Erm...Thank you, though. It'll help against the cold. You're quite prepared, I see."

"Oh, no, you're fine," Isi said as he watched the scenery in the windows rush by at increasing speeds. The dulled vanilla white of his home receded into the mist in the rear view mirror and Isi turned his attention to the good person at hand. Not wanting to seem rude to the person who accepted his offer to drive him into town, Isi reached for the hot cocoa. Carefully, he tested it with his fingers before he let his grip tighten around the mug and he brought it to his mouth where he could take a little sip. It wasn't as hot as it might have been a while ago, but Isi could drink the liquid without it scalding his lips, which made him content. Honestly, he didn't mind hot cocoa. The truth was that he had a sweet tooth that he tried to hide most of the time. "I like hot cocoa, thanks."

Glancing at his driver from the corner of his eye as he gingerly nursed the hot drink, Isi replied to Alex, "Well, we're going to drive to the Garden Outlet, buy every dying plant they have, and 35 pounds of garden soil." It was an obscure plan, sure, but Isi had his reason. That very reason was weighing heavily on his shoulders as he announced his unorthodox plan. In fact, that reason was probably tucked underneath the house again, curled up somewhere in the dark, with a jar wrapped tightly in his arms, and a flickering fading rune. Isi felt the edges of his mouth drop as his thoughts traced themselves over his frei's predicament and he let the hot cocoa drop from his mouth to rest gently in his lap. "Then we'll bring it back, and set it up in the side yard."

Wynn cupped the coco in his hands, glancing down at it as little puffs of steam were belched from the little sipping hole as the truck jostled him and his drink in the seat. The drink was nice. Not to sweet nor too bitter, and it had cooled down enough to be enjoyed without worrying about the safety of his tongue. It relaxed him, actually, and he began noticing his effects as soon as they had made it off the dirt road and onto the paved.

"Yeah...Dying plants," Isi muttered in reply, thinking about a particular dying being. His frown deepened and his thick brows sagged heavily over his grey eyes. His eyes, that were usually stormy and brimming with energy, were dull.

The truck rumbled on. He remained silent for a few more moments, his gaze sinking on the mug in his hands. Well, he thought to himself, there was no way he'd be able to do this all by himself. He had already asked Chrys for means of transportation without lead or head as to why they were doing all this. It made sense to tell her...But Isi was hesitant. Perhaps it was because of his intolerance of pity, brought on by his condition. Perhaps it was his refusal to accept help when he was determined to do it on his own. Perhaps he was...just scared.

Whatever the reason, Isi bit back against it. He needed help. He realized that now, hard and clear. He needed help not because of himself, but because of another. Eiry needed his help and Isi needed the help of others.

...And dammit, Isi was going to get help for Eiry whether it broke his legs or not.

"It's for Eiry," Isi blurted suddenly, "I don't know what else to do. He's been depressed for the past few weeks. He's not eating. I've tried everything, so has Aphi and Rivener. We don't know what to do for him anymore. So this is for him. This is my last effort. He's got to feed and get better, otherwise, he's going to die."

Isi hardly moved as Alex leaned over across the seats and encased him in a pair of warm arms. All he did was sigh, a helpless release of breath as he was pulled against her. He knew what she was trying to do, infuse some semblance of strength into him, but somehow, what little got through did only so much to warm his worry. The boy knew that there was a life on the line. Eiry was his responsibility. Already, Isi felt like an idiot for letting him get to the state he is in now, all pale and weak and terribly sad. So that's where Isi's new plan of action came in: copious amounts of food and earth.

Closing his eyes as Alex laid the kiss upon his temple, Isi quietly listened to her and her carefully chosen words. Stubborn, she said, in a way that didn't specify whether or not his stubbornness was a good or bad thing. True enough, he supposed, that he was. As she leaned away from him and began again, the boy reopened his eyes and met her gaze with a level one of his own. Soon enough, his eyes gathered a layer of moisture as she spoke and he found it increasingly difficult to speak, nonetheless keep the edges of his mouth from twitching. Her words struck him like needles, small pin pricks of truth that beckoned forth memories from the past year. Aphismet always looking after him, adopting him even...Rivener learning to accept him, love him...And Eiry, doing his own good in little unexpected actions. They have been together through so much as a family, only hard evidence towards Alex's claims.

He glanced to her, watching her with a sort of sheepish lilt to his thick brows. She spoke to him of hypothesizes about Eiry. He game a weak-willed shrug of his shoulders again. "It could be that. What Aphi, Rivener and I have found out so far is that he found himself. That is...He found the body I took his soul from. The will o' wisp body. And he's been carrying it around in its glass jar and ever since he's found it he's been like this. I'm not sure is teenage angst is part of it, but I'm positive its hellish amounts of depression. Not that I would know what it is." He crossed his arms over his chest and retook a grumpy slouching position as the car lurched forward. He let loose a small upward twitch of his lips as Alex continued, each of her words warmer and more uplifting than the last.

"Yeah..." Isi agreed softly, "I've gotten used to that bothersome minty ball of trouble and poetry...I'm not about to let him pull a disappearing act on me. No matter what."

Isi shifted in the seat again, adjusting his legs as the truck jumbled and purred along the road, pausing at length at a red light. He looked out the slightly smudged glass of the window, letting his eyes pass along the dust filled gutters of the road and the leaves that danced upon the curb. He was awed in a way, that Eiry would have such capacity for emotion in the way that a parent would stare awed at the growth of their child. It was an awe permeated with confusion, though. Isi was still quite new at life himself. He had a maturity of a thirty year old at times, but that didn't mean he had th experience. He lacked the experience that Eiry would need in such a state, which left him at a large disadvantage.

"I didn't think about him ever stumbling upon it actually," Isi admitted, referring to Eiry's previous body, "But I guess it...Well, whatever happened happened." He said that last phrase to himself as if trying to comfort himself. He listened to Alex for some time, letting her spin words that have been passed onto her tongue by her family. It was an interesting analogy, Isi thought. Interesting indeed. Considering that he was crippled with illness, one would think that he wouldn't be able to carry much, but circumstances in his life haven proven otherwise. The same went for Eiry, whose shorter life was already filled with fantastic and terrible events.

b]"But what does," Isi wondered aloud, "Being stronger lead to?" Surely tougher battles, bigger problems, the young Delaran thought.

At the announcement of the close proximity to their destination, Isikoro shifted again and downed the last of the hot coco, chugging it in an act of nervous frenzy. "Well," he said, swallowing a lump of drink and anxiety, towards Alex's inquiry for instructions, "I need at least six of the big gardening soil bags, and all the dead plants we can get. I'll pay for it all." He accented the last statement with an action, pulling out a wad of crumbled and worn looking money in a tight roll, held together by a rubber band.