Chapter 2308 Plant House

--- Kat ---

"So how do you know this is the correct way?" asked Kat after a few minutes of walking, and that IS what they were doing. Walking, at close to mortal speed. Appoline was leading the way and deliberately keeping them this pace. Kat assumed there was a reason for it, but depending on the answer to her first question she’d ask it as a follow up question.

Appoline looked visibly thoughtful for a few seconds before answering, "Because it FEELS like the correct way? I couldn’t really put my finger on any single thing... but with all the greenhouses I’ve been around I can just sort of tell that this is the right way? Though I also think we’re heading to the door instead of wherever the owner lives. So maybe that isn’t the way we need to go?"

"Why would we not want to go to the door?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "I’m not saying it is or it isn’t the right way. I looked around, worked out where the door was... somehow and then decided that was the correct direction, but now that you’ve asked I’m not certain it’s the correct direction. If that makes sense?"

Kat sighed, "Alright fair enough. What about the walking thing?"

Appoline paused for a half step to whip her hand through the air. As she did so, she disturbed the plants nearby, sending them rustling in the wind. "Because while the plants here are somewhat isolated, they aren’t being kept from the wind. Moving too fast would disturb some of the delicate plants and the whole ’don’t piss off the owner’ thing is still in effect."

Kat nodded that was quite a reasonable position to take, especially when they were looking to make requests. "How did you know that it was safe to demonstrate on those plants before if you were so worried?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "I recognised most of them and the ones I didn’t lacked the feel of something sensitive. You can sort of tell that sort of thing once you spend enough time with the plants. Also, while everything here is technically magical, most of it isn’t strong. Which is good and bad from the fragility perspective."

"How so?" asked Kat as they rounded the corner and she caught a glimpse of the door in the distance. Nobody was hanging around it... so that was... bad? Maybe? Kat wasn’t quite sure yet what she was expecting when they actually got their meeting.

Appoline tapped her face. "So... magic tends to make plants MORE of something, and the problem is, fragile and finicky plants get more fragile and finicky with more magic, unlike monsters and people that just get stronger. There is also the fact that they’re in greenhouses.

"It’s kind of annoying, but just a fact of life that greenhouse plants are even worse about it. Probably because the wild versions have a number of active stressors out in the wild to harden them up over time and remove the fragility aspect... but plenty of those die or get eaten or still destroyed. So... greenhouses.

"But they don’t have a high enough magical concentration or a perfect enough environment unless you’re willing to spend WAY more than the plant is worth to support it. So it grows up potent, but fragile. The stuff I just waved at? Mostly normal plants. If they lose an extra leaf the plant won’t suddenly combust in response. Which yes, is a thing that can happen."

"Wild," mumbled Kat. "I guess it makes sense from that perspective... but still crazy to think about. What’s the weirdest response a plant has ever had to that sort of thing?"

Appoline tapped her chin. "Hmmm... there is a particularly precious plum bush, yes I know plums normally grow on trees, this one in a bush. My family watches over it and cares for it as best we can. One time, we harvested the plums an hour later then we normally was. Now, keep in mind we can only harvest fruit from this thing once every five years. So we were an hour off a five year deadline, and that’s because we wrote down the time we finished harvesting, not started unlike other times. It’s also not quite five years, it’s like, five years a bunch of extra days and some hours offset."

Appoline shook her head. "Regardless, with that slight hiccup in schedule? It curled up in on itself, literally curled up, and made a wall of leaves to prevent us tending it for like a month afterwards, and everyone was freaking out. Because it clearly wasn’t dead but we had no idea how to stop it ’pouting’ essentially."

Appoline finished her story as they pushed the door open... only to have a second set of doors like this was an airlock or something. Pushing through the second set of doors saw them out into open air, with most of their sight being taken up by other nearby greenhouses. It seemed like there was four of them, and they were at the bottom left one, or at least, that’s how Kat looked at it from her perspective. Gravity was pulling her ’backwards’ thus she considered this the ’bottom’ for the moment.

As Kat carried her gaze around, she noticed a large tree, or perhaps a small building that was also a tree? It sat between the two greenhouse on their side of the paths. Kat pointed it out. "Is that where we need to go?"

"I’d guess so?" Appoline said after a few seconds and soon they were off. As they got closer, Kat’s estimation of it being a house set in a tree proved to be less then accurate. It seemed more like there had been a house there at some point and then a bunch of trees grew around that house making a new one. It wasn’t entirely clear if the original structure remained under everything else, but Kat was inclined to guess no.

When they made their way up to the door, Appoline knocked loudly and then stepped back. Before they could even think of waiting it swung open... nobody was behind it. Glancing around, at the doorway Kat shrugged at Appoline who nodded and they started to move.

Appoline stopped again once she was inside the front door. The view beyond it looked similar to the outside. Even though it was meant to be indoors there was a lot of grass and vines. When Appoline paused at the threshold, one of the vines started to move. It beckoned them and then started to retract deeper into the house.

It lead them right down the hall to... the sound of running water? Kat didn’t know what to think when a bunch of vines parted further to show a woman... bathing? In a spring? Bathing wasn’t quite the right word, and maybe bathing wasn’t either. Her upper body was bereft of clothing, while her lower body was taken up by a giant flower petal that was red in colour. Her hair matched the flower petals, and her skin was a dark green. The water around her seemed to be flowing into her through the gaps in the petals and some of it was released, but she was maybe drinking?

"Ah visitors! And p-polite ones! Yes how nice," said the woman as they stepped into the room. She stuttered at the ’p’ not like she was struggling to say the word, but more like she was a broken computer program, her face even seemed to snap from one mouth movement to the next, but it was subtle... and deeply odd.

The air was also thick with... something. The entire place had an earthy scent but here it was something else. Probably the scent of the woman in the pond? Kat couldn’t say she loved the smell, but it wasn’t awful. Lily however seemed to not like how overpowering it was and leant further into Kat as they stepped into room. It was hard to tell if Appoline could smell it at all, she wasn’t reacting in a noticeable way but it was rather potent so surely she could even with her weaker nose?

"Oh, names, r-right, of course! Names are meant to be important but I don’t really have one. Call me Lily then! That’s a name I think? Wait, no not that one. That ones t-taken? Taken by who? Oh hmm... Amaranth then? Yes I like that one," said Amaranth. Apparently?

Kat really wasn’t sure what to think of that sort of introduction but might as well be polite. "Hello, I’m Kat, my girlfriend happens to be named Lily and she’s here in my hands, and the elf is Appoline, it’s nice to meet you," said Kat slowly and carefully.

"Ah yes! That’s why the name was taken! N-nice to know," Amaranth was still doing that weird glitchy thing with her mouth. "So, you were polite, you didn’t disturb the plants, and you even knocked! Oh, and you didn’t go steeling things! That’s super nice. So... what are you all doing here? Did you have q-questions? Trade? I can do the trades. I think?"