Do not murder…

You would think that somewhere here in this garden you could find a dried-up stick?! But there’s nothing and it’s adding to my frustration. I had to go back to the main building and ask Marxist for something I could use.

I thought I had something. I had thought that I could get whatever the sunflower is spraying out to ignite. If I had enough of them, maybe a dust explosion or something. But it’s not working. I’m standing here with this metal pointer-looking rod that Marxist gave me. I’m holding a little burning rag on the end of it, in front of the Sunflower, and tossing little dirt balls at it.

“Pfft…” And nothing. Maybe a little smoke from the pollen or whatever it is spitting out.

I take my frustration out on one of the sunflowers and harvest it with my sword. I do notice that they don’t turn towards me as I get close but turn away.

Holding the sunflower in both hands with it facing me, I speak to all the seeds in its face. “Bless. Life and health. I Bless you and command you to grow and prosper.”

Holding it above my head, I throw and smash it to the ground at my feet. “Bless. Life and health. I Bless you and command you to grow and prosper.”

I’m no Druid, but I watch it sprout and start to grow. Good! At least that’s working the way I thought it might.

Looking up, the soldier is just staring at me with a perplexed look on his face. I’ve also attracted the interest of some Pixies and Fairies who have stopped to watch me.

Harvesting another sunflower, this time I scrape the seeds off. Kneeling, I make a mudball with the seeds. “Bless. Life and health. I Bless you and command you to grow and prosper.” Then I throw the mudball straight up in the air, in a high arc, and watch it splatter on the ground.

Inspecting where the seeds impacted, they grow. It makes me smile even though I do not know what I would do with a field of sunflowers yet.

If this was high school, I could be throwing seeds into someone's lawn instead of throwing toilet paper all over their trees. There’s even a biblical reference. Matthew 13: 24-30. Not exactly the same, but something to consider.

“What are you doing?” Libelle has positioned herself two feet in front of my face like a Karen. “Ava is going to make us clean that up!”

Her dragonfly wings and likely some crazy high dexterity are keeping her perfectly aligned in front of me. Wherever I look, she stares me down, waiting for an answer.

Moving, turning my head, or looking away does nothing as I try to look and see around her, at how the seeds are growing.

Finally, she has agitated me enough that I lose focus on trying to look at the sunflower seeds and focus on that little angry face, scolding me like I’m a child.

That little angry face and her tiny hands curling into fists and then resting on her hips break me out of the mood that I have been in. Reminding me of an angry Tinkerbell in a Peter Pan movie.

With a smile, I ask her softly, “Why do Pixies swarm?”

That question blindsided her. Her expression visibly changes to that of a surprised child with her hand in the cookie jar.

Wicked, wicked thoughts. No, I don’t like what I see of myself. Maybe it’s like fasting? When putting your body under stress, it brings the problems and issues to the surface. Physical, mental, emotional, it reveals what’s in there, inside yourself. The trick is, that you need to recognize the issues for what they are, then deal with them to fix and correct them.

Thinking of the fantasy books that I have read. “Would you protect your home? Your Land?

“No!”

Turning to look at the soldier, standing there like nothing just happened. “I know that voice…” I tell him. He broke character just enough to reveal himself. “… Jack.” Saying nothing, he looks at me and stays in character. If I didn’t know the voice, I would still believe he was who he was pretending to be.

Keeping the soldier in my sight. Libelle still hovering, but backing away. I ask, “Who? Who decides?” Looking back at Libelle now about six feet away.

“Alright! You’re full of surprises Doug.” Jack answers as Libelle turns and flees.

I turn and head back to the main building, looking for Marxist. I don’t find him. But waiting at the reception desk, he walks by after a few minutes.

“Yes?” He asks. I know he’s rolling his eyes at me even if he isn’t actually doing it.

“I wanted to learn about some plants. Is there a catalog or something I could look at or buy?”

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“Which plant are you interested in?” He asks.

“I’m not sure.”

“Are you looking for Flowers? Trees or shrubs? Grasses? Vegetables? Is there something you want to do with them or use them for? He asks.

Thinking for a moment. “Predatory plants,” I answer.

Looking at me for a few seconds, “Plants for insect control? Plants to help control small animals like mice?” He questions.

“Is there anything for home defense? Protection from thieves, assassins, and the like?” I smile over at the soldier who is remaining in character.

With a hand to his temple, like he has a migraine headache, he massages the side of his head. “Give me a minute.” He replies, hand signing with a finger to wait.

Walking to a cabinet behind him, he pulls out a finely detailed thin wooden hat box. Opening it, he pulls out a circlet that looks sort of like a tiara without any stones. Bringing it back over to me, “I’ll let you use this, but you stand right here and don’t leave from the counter.” I acknowledge yes with a head nod.

Putting it on himself, he swipes his hands around like he’s using a touch screen in the air. Handing it to me, he points out which way to put it on. “Just look at the different pictures. It should tell you what you need to know.”

Taking the circlet, I put it on like a hat and I feel my mind break like glass.

Amber Lotus Flower

Archespore

Arrowplant

Avacato

Baba Serpent

Big Deku Baba

Bio Deku Baba

Blackthorn

Blight Tree

Bouncing Fungus

Bounsweet

Breloom

Bulbasaur

Cactaron

Cactaur

Cactuar

Crawling Creeper

Crystalk

Cursed Tree

Deathbloom

Deathvine

Deku Baba

Devilroot

Diababa

Domovoi

Doppelganger Plant

Dynaphyte

Fire Baba

Fire Vine

Flysore

Forest Avenger

Gargantuan Awakened

Giant Flytrap

Giant Peahat

Goomba

Great Malboro

Grey Fungus

Grookey

Hokbok

Huge Awakened

Isles Wood Woad

Ivysaur

Kelpie

Large Awakened

Leever

Leshen

Like Like

Living Root

Lullabile

Magno Root

Malboro

Man-Eating Plant

Mandragoran

Mandragoran Apostle

Manhandla

Medium Awakened

Mr. Stake

Mushroom Man

Nepenthereal

Nepenthergast

Peahat

Peahat Larva

Pipilium

Plant Centaur

Quadro Baba

Rillaboom

Rooter

Rooter Amalgamation

Rooter Mote

Rooter Vinecaller

Rott Grass

Rotting Root Lord

Seahat

Shroomish

Singing Holly

Small Awakened

Snapdragon

Snerzus

Spoilspore

Sporepion Adult

Sporepion Pack Leader

Sporepion Spore Sack

Sporepion Sprout

Steenee

Thornling

Thwackey

Ticktox

Tiny Awakened

Topiary Sentinel

Treekin

Tsareena

Venusaur

Vinegrown Seedling

Vinegrown Shambler

Vineling

Wither Tree

Witherweed

Zingibber

I take the circlet off my head to stop all the information flow and hand it back to Marxist. I have no idea how long I’ve been standing here.

“That was quick. Find what you're looking for?” Marxist asks.

“Yes, Thank you.”

Heading back into the garden, I find the Sunflowers seeds I blessed, now full grown.

“How long was I out?” I ask Jack who is still pretending to be a soldier.

“You were never out.” Jack tells me. “That’s considered a little bit rude. You should have at least pretended to use it and not handed it back to him right away.”

I nod my head a little in agreement, not letting on what actually happened.

I’m watching for Libelle. The Pixies are flying about but not really coming near me like they normally do.

“Libelle?” “Libelle... Sorry.” I stand there and wait.

I see her hovering. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be far from here.

“Still Friends?” I ask.

She gives me a little smile with the tilt of her head, but doesn’t answer.

“I’m looking for some seeds. I’m not sure how to get them or where to buy them. Could you point me in the right direction?” I’m thinking she would know and be someone I could get the seeds from.

Libelle gives another smile with a nod of her head.

“I’m looking for Shrieker, Violet Fungus, Fire vine, Shambling Mound, Treant.”

Libelle is rolling in the air with laughter now. “Treant! He wants Treant seeds!” And she gone.

Flying off with laughter to tell the other Pixies, “He wants Treant seeds! He wants Treant seeds!”.

Looking back at soldier Jack, he’s not saying anything to me.

I feel Libelle land on my head. It feels like she is sitting there with a handful of my hair in each of her hands to hold herself steady. “I like you!” She cries out with laughter. “You make me laugh! Treant seeds!”

I smile and play it off so I don’t feel so stupid. Solder Jack is still watching me. I know he knows something more was going on with that circlet than what he saw. And I know something happened to me when I put it on.

After a few more minutes of laughter, she calms down enough to tell me where I can buy seeds. “If you really want a garden, the farmers market will have seeds.”

“No seeds for sale here?”

“No! No Treant seeds here!” Laughing “I could find you some Fire vine seeds if you’re looking to kill yourself, they need blood. No Shriekers, too noisy. Ava’s got lots of hungry plants sealed off in the back.”

“Okay, I’ll take a little of everything that’s hungry.”

Still laughing. “No! You don’t want these! You want to grow food to eat! You don’t want to be food!”

“Are they for sale?” I ask and she stops laughing.

“They are.” She replied softly. “But you can’t keep any of them without the approval of the Council.”

“And if I leave immediately?”

She struggles internally with getting me the seeds before she grudgingly leaves to get them.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea or not.” Soldier Jack breaks his silence. “You’ve been doing some reckless things. I’m concerned.”

“No Jack, I don’t think I’ve been making good life choices.”

“Doug, if you want, we can go hunting or delving for a while. I’ll take you places where you will grow strong. If you really want to kill them, I will show you how.”

While considering his offer, Libelle returns with about a dozen or so other Pixies. Each with a few packs of seeds in their hands. “This is what we have.” She tells me. “If you plant these, especially if you do it the way you just did here, make sure you leave the area.”

One of the Pixies is holding a larger sack open as the Pixies each throw their packages of seeds into the bag. “And Doug, You didn’t get them from here.”

She gives me the seeds and doesn’t accept anything from either of us.

Heading out, I didn’t see Marxist as we left.

Outside on the road, we increase our pace to a quick jog. As we leave Greens Brook, I notice that Jack has shed his soldier disguise and is running beside me.

“I’ll take you up on the first part of your offer and pass on the second part. I don’t want to become a murderer.”

“What do you think the difference is Doug?”

I don’t have an answer for him. I continue to think about it while we run.

“I think there would be times where killing would be justified.”

Jack closes the gap between us and gives me a perplexed look, waiting for me to continue.

“If you were doing or did something and if by accident, someone dies, that would not be murder. That’s not saying the death wouldn’t be your fault or you wouldn’t be responsible for it happening. Just that it wouldn’t be murder.”

Jack gives me side looks as we run.

“If you were trying to protect yourself. Or someone else, like your wife or children from being hurt. That would not be murder. As long as that’s what it took to protect them without being overzealous yourself.” I clarify my thoughts.

“Maybe if someone was breaking into my house.” We continue to run. “That would still be protecting myself or my family. But if they were just stealing, if they were hungry and just wanted food.” My thoughts trail off.

“If I wanted to kill someone, wanted them dead. With malice, an evil intent, I killed them. If I planned or caused something to happen, to try and kill them. That would be murder.”

He shakes his head at me and asks, “What about soldiers? Are they murderers?”

“You ask some hard questions, Jack. I don’t know.”

“What if your King decrees. Commands you to kill his enemies where they sleep. Those who voice their opinions and ask for justice?”

I don’t know if he is confessing or asking for permission.

We continue to run.