As they exited the grove, Alabaster had to slow down slightly because of the underbrush. After being whipped a few times, Austin used his arms to protect his face but nothing protected him from being slashed all over his body.
After a while, Alabaster put down the bloodied and bruised Austin. Gil stepped out of the underbrush to join them. He looked Austin over, picking up a shirt to inspect his ribs, prodding his legs to make sure no bones were broken, grabbed him by the chin and smeared an ointment on the few scratches he had on his face. "Are you ok? Is anything hurt or broken?" Gil asked.
Austin just sat still with a vacant stare, not responding. "What were you bloody thinking? You could have gotten killed!" Shouted Gil. Austin snapped out of his shock and started to cry hysterically. This threw Gil off and the grizzled hunter didn't know what to do.
"Okay, stop crying. You're all right. There's no reason to cry. How about if I tell you more about Alabaster, '' Austin's hysterical crying lessened enough for him to nod. "Okay. Let's start walking and I can tell you how Moon Wolves evolve."
When Gil was able to get Austin to start walking, his crying died down into muffled sobs. The child wiped his eyes and nose with his sleeve as his puffy eyes looked up to Gil and waited for him to tell him how a Moon Wolf could evolve.
When Gil saw that Austin had mostly gained control of his emotions, he was able to collect himself. "Well, you know how I told you Moon Wolves are only class 1 to class 3 kindred?" Austin nodded that he knew he remembered.
"A Moon Wolf's class can be seen from the moons that it has. When they have one or two of the basic gray physical moons they are class 1. If they have 3 great moons or two non basic moons they are class 2. If they have a rare and powerful attribute to their moon, they can be class 2 even if the other one is still gray. For them to be class 3 they need three moons with attributes of six physical moons. Or any combination of replacing 1 attribute moon with 2 physical moons."
"Not much is known about how to get a Moon Wolf to evolve, but they do have to be class 3. There have been several examples of different types of Moon Wolf evolution. I have personally seen a Star Wolf. A Star Wolf has a bright star above its head. They are usually associated with the elements of fire and light. It's thought that having fire and light attribute moons, and consuming different types of fire and light related components will help evolve a Moon Wolf into a Star Wolf."
" The other Moon Wolf evolutions that I've heard of are Nebula Wolves and Comet Wolves. I wasn't able to learn any of the specifics of these types of evolutions, but they must be really strong. While the Star Wolf evolution is the most common, it is not weak."
After the explanation the boy stared at Alabaster and fantasized about how the wolf would evolve. He wondered how the wolf would change. Would it grow bigger or smaller? Would the color of its fur change? What kind of abilities would it get?
The thoughts kept tumbling around his head. Gil was happy to walk in silence for a while.
As the group passed a large tree that had its roots twisted all around the base coming up out of the ground before going back in and tying themselves in knots, Austin suddenly stopped and looked into a hole made by the twisting roots.
The entrance to the hole was so small, Austin would have to squeeze his way in. He poked his head in and looked around. The hole opened up into a small cavern. A steep slope went down about 10 ft and the cavern went back for another 15. The irregular roots formed walls that were about 10 ft apart from each other. At the back of the caverns near the tree's taproot that dug deep into the ground grew an orchid.
Before anything else could happen. Austin felt something grab the back of his shirt and yank him away from the hole." Have you already forgotten? You can't just go wherever you want without looking around first, " Gil said.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Austin fell on his butt in the dirt. He was upset and embarrassed but he knew Gil was right. He sat there and sulked. " Why did you stop? What's in that hole?" Gil questioned as Alabaster started to prowl around the tree sniffing at all of the nooks in the roots staring at the canopy, listening for anything abnormal.
Austin stood up and dusted himself off. " There is an orchid at the back of the cavern. Can't you feel it?" Alabaster was finishing up his patrol and Gil knew the surrounding area was safe." I don't feel anything different," Gil said as he stood at the opening of the hole. Gil stepped back so Alabaster could sniff in the hole.
Alabaster retreated from the hole to let Gil back near it. Gil peered in the best he could but the hole was small and no matter how he angled himself, he couldn't let much light in.
" All right. Alabaster , dig up these roots so we can get in that hole safely." Austin got worried and screamed "No! Orchids are delicate. You could destroy it by tearing up the roots. Let me go in and get it. I'm small enough to fit. This is one of my strengths, getting into places you and Alabaster can't fit."
"Kid, you already almost died. I'm not about to let that happen again." " This is different. It's much safer here. Alabaster hasn't found anything around and you'll be right here with me. We won't be split up. It won't take much time. I just need to dig the flower bulb out from where it's growing and place it in a container to move it. My mother talked about how to take care of orchids but always said they were too much trouble."
Gil looked at Alabaster and made a circular motion with his hand. Alabaster began to patrol around the area again. "Tell me about this feeling you had near the hole."
Austin thought for a moment, "It's hard to explain. It's kind of like standing in the rain, but not wet, just sort of cold. And it didn't stop at my skin, it was like it went all the way through my body. It felt good, like I had more energy, or was really clean, kind of both." After a few minutes Alabaster came back to stand with the two near the hole.
Gil said silently for a moment. "Ok, everything seems as safe as it can get. Alabaster hasn't sensed any monsters. Get in and get out. No fooling around or wasting time." Gil leaned in close to Austin, "This is the most important part. At the first sign of anything being less than perfectly safe, you get out of there. Don't try to finish what you are doing, don't try to protect that plant. You just get out as fast as possible. If something moves, you leave. If you hear a noise, you leave. If you think you hear a noise, you leave. If I accidentally sneeze…" "I leave. I get it. Don't worry Gil, I'll be safe"
Gil watched as Austin climbed in the hole and slid down the slope. As he hit the ground, Austin fell to his hands and knees. Gil tensed up at the noise it made. Alabaster looked around nervously on guard, quietly whining to himself because he had nowhere to place his anxiety.
Austin looked around the small burrow before slowly standing up and dusting off his hands. He looked back and up at Gil and gave him a thumbs up before creeping towards the orchid.
As Austin got closer to the orchid, the refreshing feeling became stronger. When he was close enough to touch it, the sensation became distracting and uncomfortable. It felt like his very essence was being roughly cleaned. Austin grit his teeth and focused on the task at hand. The long green stalk of the orchid grew out of a dense clump of tree roots at the base of the giant tree. The stem split into a large six sided star that had hundreds of cup shaped pea sized petals. The petals were a wide variety of blues and purples. They were all white rimmed and had a single white spiral that ran from the rim, around the petal, down to the base of the small stamen. The soul cleansing sensation came directly out of these petals.
Austin took a deep breath to steady his voice. "I'm at the flower, everything is safe and normal," he lied. "I'm going to start digging it up."
He looked around and saw a large turtle shell. The scutes were mostly gray and speckled, like pieces of granite. The center of each scute was raised up and topped white, like miniature mountains all over the shell. Austin flipped the shell over and the underside of the shell was gone, it now resembled a bowl.
After pulling a child sized hand spade out of his bag, Austin put some dirt in the shell and peeled strips of the tree and its roots and mixed it in. After he had a base for the orchid, Austin traced the stem of the plant down to its roots. In a crevice of large brown tree roots was a mass of small white orchid roots.
With gentle motions, Austin worked his hands spade around the roots, loosening them up. After a couple minutes and a few minor mishaps where Austin damaged the roots a little bit, he finally freed the root ball. It consisted of mostly twisted up roots with dirt, bark, moss, and other detritus filling the gaps.
As he held the whole plant in his hands, the soul cleansing became violent pulses that pushed through his body. Austin could tell that some of the roots were dead, and he had seen his mother trim that type before replanting, but it was something he had never done. He was nervous that he would hurt the orchid, on top of that, it had already been a long time since he entered the hole. He put the roots in the turtle shell and filled the rest with whatever dirt and debris that was close to hands.
Once it was replanted, the violent pulses subsided back into the refreshing sensation he had originally felt. Austin let out a relieved sigh. "I got it," he called to Gil, "I'm coming out."
All the tension Gil was feeling started to subside as he saw Austin starting to climb up and out of the hole.
Austin balanced the turtle shell in one hand as he slowly climbed up with the other. He got near the top and started to push the orchid with the turtle shell out so Gil could grab it. Gil saw the big smile on Austin's face as he was reaching out to relieve him of the burden in his hands. As Gil got close Austin suddenly lurched forward violently and the look of joy turned into one of terror.