PART II - LOTUS BLOOM

Walking away into the darkness, her Darkvision activating, Callie turned to look back at the medical tent, mind still swirling from everything that had happened during the evening. What she saw suddenly stopped her cold. The entire tent, which when she entered had been entwined in a decent growth of vines, was now completely entombed. Only the entrances remained uncovered.

The vines didn’t just cover the tent though. They were so thick and heavy that it almost seemed an armored shell of nature had wrapped around the structure. Slowly, Callie approached, placing her hands on one of the trunks, which almost seemed to hum with life. Tiny tendrils reached for her hand, starting to encircle her fingers, and quickly she pulled back, remembering Eirlys and her image of people-eating plants.

About to enter the tent to warn Tasi, something caught Callie’s eye. She saw a small flower starting to bloom from the vine. Switching her Darkvision off, she relied on the small amount of ambient light leaking from the tent to see. The flower was nearly all black, but possessing streaks of luminescent purples and blues that seemed to ripple through its petals. Callie almost reached out to touch it, but another Sylvan image of the flower suddenly chomping down on her finger made Callie hesitate, and she pulled her hand back, content just to get a closer look at it.

WILDERNESS SURVIVAL: FLORA - BLACK LOTUS

A rare and elusive flower that only blooms on nights with no moons in the sky. It is highly sought by alchemists for its use in Rejuvenation potions. The flower's petals and stem must be harvested carefully with a silver blade. If the petals or stem are damaged or the flower is harvested with a non-silver blade, its magical properties will likely be lost.

Callie jumped, startled, as the information about the flower popped into her head, but remembered Tasi’s comment about being able to recognize wild plants due to her perk. She giggled and was about to go try the perk again by staring at another plant of some kind, when her brain finally caught up with the moment. With a gasp, Callie ran back into the tent.

“Master Healer Tasi!” Callie whispered loudly. “Where are you?”

The sounds of shuffling preceded Tasi emerging from Juniper’s dimmed alcove. “Recruit?”

“Come out here!”

Tasi followed the gesturing Gnome out into the night. Pointing, Callie set Tasi’s attention toward the vine-covered tent.

“My word! What is that?”

The Healer began to reach out to touch one of the vines, but Callie pulled her hand away. “Careful, they are grabby. But that’s not important. Look!”

It took a moment to see what the little Ranger was excitedly pointing at, but Tasi’s eyes finally went wide in disbelief at seeing the flower. “Is that …?”

“My perk activated and said it’s Black Lotus. That’s useful, right?”

Ignoring Callie, Tasi turned and looked up into the trees. She clapped her hands a few times, calling out, “I need a Sprite!”

There was an immediate sound of fluttering, and one of the tiny Sprites descended from the tree, yawning and stretching wide, obviously just awakened. “Hello,” she said, groggily.

“You must fetch Trainer Cheena. Tell her to bring her herbalism kit. She should be in her cabin, but if not, enlist more Sprites and find her. And do it quickly, we have very little time!”

“Goodbye!” the Sprite called out with a sharp nod, waving her hand, before she flew off at speed into the night.

Tasi started to pace, mumbling to herself, a worried look in her eyes. Snapping her gaze to Callie, she whispered, “Are there more? Go! Look! Don’t touch them.” She gestured eagerly towards the right side of the tent, and took off towards the left.

Callie began looking over the tent wall to the right of the entrance, quickly spotting another bloom, followed soon by a third, and then many more, most only beginning to open. Trying to be both fast and thorough, she walked down the full right side of the tent, finding many dozens of additional Black Lotus flowers in various early stages of bloom. Callie met Tasi again at the rear.

“I found several,” the Fairy said excitedly.

“Me, too!”

“A few I saw were wilting, so we haven’t much time,” Tasi said, concerned. “We’ll lose a few, but with this many and if they keep coming through the night …” Tasi trailed off and ran back towards the front entrance, Callie sprinting to keep up. “Stay here!” the Healer said, pointing to the ground. “Watch for Cheena.” Mumbling a few more things to herself, she rushed into the tent, the sound of something being knocked over and cursing following soon after.

Callie wasn’t sure who Cheena was, or rather, she didn’t know what she looked like, knowing only that she was one of Xin’s trainers and they hadn’t been introduced at the dinner. She peered into the darkness, watching for the sign of anyone coming her way.

The spotted white leopard made almost no sound as it sprinted towards the medical tent, the Sprite relaying such a sense of urgency, that Cheena almost left without her requested herbing kit or even putting on something to wear. She bounded over a hedge, barely dodged a surprised patrol Dwarf, before leaping onto a tree limb and springing off into the night. What could the emergency be?

Callie never saw the great cat racing towards her until it was too late. It silently burst into the small patch of light from the dark shadows, and the Ranger fell back, startled, her Instinctive Dodge activating and turning a hard fall into a roll before returning her upright. As she watched, the sleek, white and black cat form morphed into that of an Elf wearing a nightgown.

“What’s the emergency!”

Another crash sounded from inside the tent as Tasi apparently knocked something else over, and Cheena started to rush inside, not even noticing the cocoon of vines surrounding the medical tent. Callie grabbed her hand, though, stopping her.

“What?” she asked, worried.

“Come see!” Callie said, as she led Cheena to the tent wall and pointed at one of the Black Lotus flowers.

The gasp of shock, followed quickly by a tiny dance and clap of glee, betrayed how excited Cheena suddenly became seeing the midnight flower. Tearing her eyes from it, she began to look at the other vines, seeing dozens more of the flowers beginning to open wide to the dark skies.

“The whole tent is covered with them,” Callie said quickly, “but a few are wilting, so I take it we don’t have much time?”

“We don’t, no! They will all die at daybreak. We need more help.” Quickly she called out, “Sprite! Two of you!”

Immediately, the sounds of fluttering wings could be heard as two yawning Sprites descended from the trees above. “Hello,” they said in unison.

“I am in need of your aid. Fetch Trainer Maugra, Enchanter Fizzlebek, and his wife, Pama. They should all be in their homes. Tell them we have a Black Lotus bloom and send them here. If Pama isn’t there, she’s likely in the kitchens. They’ll know what to bring. And hurry please, my darlings, hurry!”

The Sprites shot off even faster than the first one had, their “Goodbye” fading away as little streaks of light briefly appeared in the air behind them.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What do I need to do to help?” Callie asked.

“Let me think, let me think,” Cheena said to herself as she paced. “Where’s Tasi?”

“Um, she ran into the tent, I think to get some things.”

“Tasi? Where are you?” the Shaman called through the door. “We’ll need you.”

“Coming!” a voice called back, more sounds of shuffling and moving objects leaking from inside. A moment later, Tasi emerged from the tent, her arms loaded to overflowing with several dozen small baskets. “Sorry. A little help please.”

Quickly, both Calllie and Cheena helped with the load, setting them on the ground.

“I should have summoned Maugra, too,” Tasi said apologetically to Cheena. “And probably…”

“I just sent more Sprites with all haste to fetch her, as well as Pama and her husband.”

“Good. Good. How should we do this?” Tasi asked. “There are so many!”

“What needs to happen?” Callie asked, still a little confused how Fizzlebek and Pama fit into the moment.

“Maugra and I have the skills to do the cuttings,” Cheena said, pacing impatiently a bit, “and the Gnomes can use a Preservation spell on them, which will give us a few days at least to get the potions made. Oh, I hope we have enough of the other ingredients. We may need to send someone into Meadowglade to get anything we’re low on.”

Callie thought for a moment, looking over the tent. “How about this, you two do the cuttings, while Tasi and I bring the baskets out here for Fizzlebek and Pama and keep you supplied with empty ones. That way you won’t waste time running around and we won’t get in each other's way. We’ll get a lot more done by dawn.”

Cheena was rubbing her hands together in nervousness, looking from the flowers and then out into the darkness, obviously worried about how long things were taking, even though only a few minutes had passed. “I think that will work. We will need to dim all these lights, though. We can’t let anything but the barest of light touch the cut flowers until Preservation is applied. At least everyone else has Darkvision, and I think there will be enough starlight for me to work with my Nightvision trait.”

“Cheena, we have time. We’ll get as many as we are able,” Tasi said, trying to calm the Shaman. “They should bloom until dawn.”

“I know, but the two Gnomes will be so slow to arrive, and we can’t start without them.”

“Do you need me to get you a sedative?” Tasi teased. “Please, breathe normally.”

“I’ve just never seen a Lotus bloom this large. We have so much to do. We’ll need more baskets, I think,” Cheena said with panicked worry in her voice and completely ignoring Tasi’s advice to breathe.

“I believe I can find some more,” Tasi said, still trying to calm the Shaman. “I’ll go fetch what I can.”

As Tasi dashed off, Cheena continued to pace, rubbing her hands nervously. Callie wasn’t sure what to do, but finally decided that maybe she could get the trainer talking and take her mind off things for a moment. “So, you know plants?” Callie said, realizing immediately how stupid that question sounded.

For the first time, Cheena seemed to really notice Callie was there, and her anxiety seemed to wane slightly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even say hello. You are the one with missing memories, yes? The Ranger?”

Callie nodded, then decided to plant a seed of the cover story that had been decided earlier that evening. “Yes. And apparently, it’s permanent. Tasi was giving me an exam, and when I left I saw the flowers”

“You found them? Thank you!” Cheena started to kneel, closing in to hug Callie, when she finally registered all the vines entombing the tent. “Oh my, what is happening?”

“Juniper was given her Symbiote tonight and is sleeping it off inside,” Callie said casually. “This must be related to her in some way.”

“Juniper? The Dryad? Why was she given a Symbiote.”

“She’s a Sylvan, and requested one so she could train to defend her lands,” Callie said, carefully using the cover story agreed on the evening before.

“A Dryad with Sylvan powers? What a potent combination that will be,” Cheena said, gasping slightly in disbelief. Then she gestured towards the vine-covered tent. “As this shows, I suppose. How wondrous!”

With a barely audible fluttering, a large owl, similar in size to Bratig’s owl form at the Druid reveal, landed on the ground, quickly morphing into a very grumpy-looking Goblin, who was also in her nightgown. Maugra, leaning on her staff, walked absently past Callie towards the tent, handing off a leather satchel to her with an implied ‘Here, hold this!’ command to it. Gently, the elder Shaman ran her hand along the thick vines, ignoring the little tendrils reaching out for her, and then stopping just before touching one of the Lotus flowers. She turned and started to sign.

“Tasi summoned me, and I fetched you as soon as I saw it was this large,” Cheena said, filling Maugra in on what was happening. “I’ve also summoned Pama and Fizzlebek. Tasi is fetching more baskets inside.”

Maugra looked at Callie, scowled and signed again.

“Yes, this is the one with no memories. She’s also the one that found the Lotus bloom.”

“Hi, I’m Callie,” Callie started to say, but Maugra didn’t seem to care. She gestured towards the vines, before signing even more aggressively towards Cheena.

“According to the recruit, Juniper received a Symbiote tonight and she’s resting inside. She’s apparently a Sylvan, and I suspect this wild growth has something to do with that. Honestly, I don’t care, as long as we harvest all the flowers we can.”

Maugra rolled her eyes in disbelief, shaking her head, before turning and walking towards the side of the tent, out of view and into the darkness.

“I heard you talking. Was that Maugra?” Tasi asked, emerging from the tent with another armload of randomly-sized baskets. “This is everything I could find. It will be a mess in the morning, so hopefully we won't get any wounded.”

Callie and Cheena helped unload Tasi, laying the new batch of baskets out in loose piles. The Healer took a deep breath, slightly winded from racing around collecting things.

“This is really a big deal, isn’t it?” Callie said.

“It is,” Tasi said. ”Stamina and Mana potions are quite easy to make. Rejuvenation potions, which restore both, are quite difficult to produce, in part because they need this rare, delicate flower.”

“Why not just drink one of each?” Callie asked.

“You do not know?” Cheena responded, dumbfounded by Callie’s question.

“She has missing memories,” Tasi said before Callie could respond. “Based on my examination, the condition is permanent. Callie, when you drink a potion, you must wait at least five minutes, preferably ten, before you are able to drink another, or you could get violently sick, or strange side-effects could occur. So a potion that can do two things at once is very valuable. Rejuvenation potions are also critical in treating someone who has mana exhaustion, often reversing any damage if taken soon enough.”

“Good to know,” Callie responded, a newfound respect for potion rules. She suspected she reached full mana exhaustion during training, like Tazrok apparently had the day before in the shower. Reynard had warned everyone to make sure not to overdo it, with detailed descriptions of the brain-melting injuries that could occur, serving as a gruesome warning, and forced the potion on her as a precaution when she had pushed herself. The awful taste of the purple potion was enough to make her never want to reach that point again.

Maugra emerged from the darkness along the right side of the tent, having circled it, her face scowling. She gestured wildly at the trees in the area, many of which had dim white lights attached to them providing a small amount of illumination for those without enhanced vision. Angrily, she signed to Cheena, quite animated.

“Yes, we’ll get it done momentarily.” Cheena said.

Somehow even grumpier than previous, Maugra let loose with another round of hand motions.

Cheena nodded, answering quickly. “We’re going to set Fizzlebek and Pama out here to do their spellcasting, while Tasi and this recruit bring us empty baskets and take the ones with flowers back. That way, everyone will be able to see in the dark and we can concentrate on cutting.”

Maugra grunted in acknowledgement, and then gave a snarl as if waiting for Cheena to do something. With a look of embarrassment, the apprentice trainer clapped several times, waking at least six more Sprites. She quickly ordered them to remove all the lights in the area and put them somewhere they couldn’t be seen. With a flurry of goodbyes, the tiny Fae shot off in all directions, and one-by-one all the dim lights were pulled down and flown off somewhere out of sight.

While Cheena continued dancing in nervousness, impatiently waiting for Fizzlebek and Pama, Callie set about organizing the empty baskets so they would be easy to retrieve. She stacked them like nesting dolls, making sure none would stick together when picked up. Meanwhile, Tasi excused herself so she could look for even more baskets, disappearing into several tents in the area, and returning with her findings. Maugra, on the other hand, simply sat down on the ground, resting her staff across her lap, and watched everyone else, seeming to enjoy the chaotic spectacle.

“Yes of course,” Cheena replied as Maugra eventually signed to her. Quickly turning to Tasi, Cheena interpreted. “She will need something to stand on as she moves along. I’m not even sure how we’re going to do the top of the tent, though, that roof likely won’t even hold Maugra.”

Once again, Cheena interpreted for Maugra, “We need to get all the Sprites to run patrol and make sure no one with any light comes here.”

Tasi nodded, jogging into her tent, while Cheena clapped the Sprites into action, ordering them to only permit people through that had no light of any kind. With a chorus of goodbyes, the little winged Fae shot off into the night. Inside the tent, each of the illuminating light globes were one-by-one deactivated or hidden away, followed by Tasi emerging with a step stool, which she set it next to the door, pointing Maugra to it. It was now a pitch black waiting game for Pama and Fizzlebek.