Of course the wagons just had to break down before they got to the portals. That was just the way life was going.
Still finding dust and hay shoved in her clothes, hair, and various other places, Ashiore attempted to brush them out, but eventually left the few stubborn pieces be. Why bother with those? It couldn't make her look any more bedraggled than she already was.
Instead, she turned her attention to more important things on the march to the meeting point. Like certainly not thinking about Naixi.
Or, well, trying her damnedest not to. Didn't seem to work, though. It was relief mingled with envy when she saw Kyupin and Vulcan together, Gwyn and that snake she had found. The wolf had offered comfort during the wagon ride, contact and a weight pressed against her side. Similar, but still not the same.
Well, either way. Naixi was gone now. With the Warden dead, it wasn't like she had anyone else to blame except herself for that. She could have sent Naixi out of the room when she saw how tough the battle was getting, knowing that the lion was rather hurt from something, with bloodied and matted fur around her throat. Could have actually healed her better then, when their group first found Naixi and the other animals. Could have tried to bring her back.
And instead, she did none of those things, and here she is now.
-----
In the dark of the prison cell, she hadn't noticed it. And then in the rush of activity everywhere else, she hadn't noticed it. But now that she was walking with nothing to do but think and mindlessly follow the herd, she had ample time to notice the way her fingernails have gone full white, the skin around them discolored and marbled.
Was this a sickness? Some kind of infection? They didn't feel wrong...
As she brought a hand closer to her face to examine it again, she frowned at the foul smell that seemed to grow stronger. Seemed like a disease. Didn't know where she'd picked that up from. But it wasn't like she could do anything about it right now.
She could do something about the smell, though.
-----
Way, way, way back, near when she first started the game, Ashiore had very little knowledge about flowers. Dongxue had very little knowledge about flowers, or plants in general, as a matter of fact. So you know, that might have limited her whole ability to do the whole plant magic thing and all.
So she found herself a seat in the Science and Engineering library, grabbed some encyclopedias and botany texts, and sat herself down with her laptop to take some notes.
It was interesting. Well, there were boring bits in the middle. A lot of them, actually. But plants were actually pretty damn cool. Maybe she should've given biology another chance. Now that there weren't any dead animals and dissecting requirements, this was all actually fascinating. There were pages and pages about parasitic plants, carnivorous plants, plant defense mechanisms, symbiotic relationships with insects and other animals...
One of her astronomy professors found her by chance, that day. That led to a good discussion about 'hey you're an astronomy student, what are you doing with all those plant books, are you cheating on me with the bio department?' and from then on it had descended into some talk about experiments involving plants on the ISS, terraforming, interdisciplinary overlap with psychology, and a tantalizing discussion about possible careers in bio and astronomy.
Her professor eventually left her, but not without a happy offer of meeting up for more discussion and some advice if she did want to eventually pursue a double major, and Dongxue was keen on returning to her research after that.
Somewhere along the way, she'd gotten caught up in the language of flowers. Didn't put much stock into it, but it was interesting seeing the different possible meanings of flowers. Like roses. Who knew that even the color of the rose mattered when talking about its meaning? Definitely not her. She thought that all roses were just 'true love' or some Disney thing like that.
But ever since then, she'd had a bit of fun with her flowers in Terrasphere. Sometimes she made them match the meanings of whatever she thought she was going to do. But after a while, it seemed to become subconscious. She started growing crown imperials after a victory, or tamarisks after doing some sneaky underhanded quests.
-----
Ashiore murmured a small incantation, letting some flowers grow on her hands, twining around her fingers. Yellow-orange zinnia. They didn't have that strong a fragrance, but it would hopefully disguise that awful stench until she could find someone who might be able to help her with it.
...Although, it didn't look like she disguised the smell well enough. A dark shadow descended down from the sky, swooping down over their marching group. The feathered creature eventually found a perch on her shoulders with a trilling call. Though Ashiore tried dislodging it with a shake, it remained stubbornly fixed on her.
"Hey! Get off!"
When she raised a hand to shove the- vulture? Was it a vulture? Who knew. Anyway, as she tried to push it away, it snapped for her extended fingers, apparently thinking that it would taste delicious. She pulled her hand away just in time, and its beak clicked shut around only empty air.
"No!"
The vulture hissed. She kept her hands firmly away from it, and waited for the thing to leave.
{ crown imperial: power }
{ tamarisk: crime }
{ mixed zinnia: thinking of an absent friend }
