[DRUIDS] Prompt 2

As if on cue, a haedian stepped out of the shadowy forest around them. The haedian gave Alowyn a concerned look before addressing the garden. 

“Thank you for your help,” The haedian said softly. 

Herja and Garmr acknowledged the thanks but remained quiet waiting to hear what was next. 

“I’m hesitant to ask this,” The haedian paused with a look to Alowyn. 

“Don’t stop on… my account,” Alowyn coughed. 

Herja jumped in, “Do you know what’s happening to her?”

Garmr looked at Alowyn with a squint, and he still wasn’t sure what everyone else saw; Alwoyn looked normal. 

The haedian cringed, “That’s why I hesitate to ask for your help. If your friend is speaking and sharing her strength with the plants like I suspect, then she might be infected too.”

Herja looked at Alowyn and demanded, “Take your power back, if the plants are going to die, let them.”

“I can keep them alive while we find a cure,” Alowyn wheezed. 

“Don’t be stupid,” Garmr hissed, “You can’t save everything.”

Herja was surprised by Garmr’s involvement but agreed with him nonetheless. The haedian reluctantly agreed with Garmr’s sentiment. Alowyn looked at everyone around her. The two vayrons were growing more agitated and angry the longer she went without answering them, while their haedian guest gently urged her to let the plants go. 

“Fine,” Alowyn whispered. 

She released her magic with a painful wince, but almost instantly she felt marginally better. Herja and the haedian relaxed and Garmr grunted with a shake of his head. The group of topsiders turned to the haedian expecting to hear more information about what was happening. 

“So?” Herja pressed, “What’s going on with the plants?”

The haedian sighed, “There’s a sickness that has been running rampant. We believe it comes from the topside, so we were hoping reoseans of the top would know a cure.”

Garmr growled, feeling accused, “What does that mean?”

Garmr took a step toward the haedian. The neutral-coloured tyrian swallowed nervously and took several steps away from the threatening vayron. Herja rolled her eyes, but Alowyn managed to speak up first. 

“Garmr, please.” Alowyn said quietly, still regaining her energy, “It’s natural the foreign bodies would come down here with us. The plants here have no defenses for the disease up top.”

Her attempt to explain what might have been happening didn’t work for Garmr because he didn’t understand what it meant. His posture remained agitated, but Alowyn insisted the haedian explain more, ignoring Garmr. Herja agreed, insisting she could control him. 

The haedian continued nervously, “There’s not much else to say. If you could investigate to see if the illness is familiar that would be helpful. Especially if you know a way to fix it.”

Garmr growled once more, sending the haedian scurrying off shouting he would come back later. 

“That wasn’t necessary,” Alowyn chided, feeling better. 

“He was insulting us,” Garmr spat.

“No,” Alowyn shook her head, “he wasn’t.”

Garmr grumbled to himself and stepped off to the side. 

“How should we investigate this?” Herja asked, bringing the topic back onto the task at hand. 

“We can start by seeing what’s on these plants,” Alowyn said with a sad sigh as she gestured to the plants she tried to save. 

The three companions each took a plant and carefully pulled them out of the earth. The plants were turned around so the topsiders could see every angle of the leaves and flowers. On the plant Garmr was investigating, there wasn’t anything that he thought looked like an illness. However, on Herja’s plant, there were brown and black spots starting to form on the tips of the leaves. The leaves also have little black veins reaching out of the spots as if it was trying to spread. The same problem was happening on the plant Alowyn was looking over. 

“There’s nothing on this one,” Garmr grunted. 

Without looking, Alowyn said, “Check the roots.”

Sure enough, Garmr moved the plant around to get a better look at the roots and they were black. The unnerving colour looked like it was trying to spread up the stem of this particular plant. Garmr grimaced and with a flare of magic burnt to plant to ash. 

“Wh-why did you do that?” Alowyn asked, shocked. 

“Knee-jerk reaction,” Garmr said with a shrug. 

Alowyn was about to say more when Herja interrupted, “Do you recognize the disease?”

“No,” Alowyn sighed, “I haven’t studied long enough like Aroa or Griffith.”

Herja and Garmr didn’t know the reoseans she was talking about but they looked down at the plants trying to see if they remembered seeing anything like it. 

“We could just burn it all,” Herja said, letting her magic flare awake at her shoulders. 

“Wait, wait,” Alowyn insisted, “Let me try something.”

“What?” Garmr asked. 

Alowyn didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and reached for the plants in the area. She could communicate with the plants, it wasn’t a conversation of words, but somehow communicating could work. The plants in the immediate area, as expected, were from the Beneath and couldn't give her the answer she was looking for. Alowyn pushed the limits of her magic trying to grab for a surface plant that might have deep roots. 

With a frustrated exhale Alowyn said, “We’re too far down.”

“What were you trying?” Herja asked. 

“I was trying to connect with a surface plant to ask if they knew what this was,” Alowyn explained. 

Garmr could only glare at the empyrian when she replied to Herja’s question, but let his go unanswered. The group fell into another round of silence while everyone thought about a possible solution. They couldn’t think of anything besides just burning the sickness away. 

“That’s too destructive,” Alowyn urged. 

“Do you have any other ideas?” Garmr hissed. 

Alowyn was silent and that was all Herja and Garmr needed to know. They had their solution. The pair of vayrons was about to go full-out burning anything and everything, but Alowyn managed to get them to wait for their haedian friend to return so they could talk to him about the idea. Alowyn hoped the haedian would refuse, but she knew between the three of them they couldn’t think of anything else to do. 

[1039]