EPISODE XX

Falling From the Tree

Coleus stood in front of a truly massive skyscraper. It was largely made of a cyan-blue metal with truly tremendous windows. The structure went so high that Coleus couldn’t count the number of floors, though she knew there were hundreds.

And she needed to go to one of the floors near the top.

She took in a deep breath and let it out. Don’t worry. It’s just the government’s headquarters for all of Yeshalo, and you were invited. Don’t. Worry. It’ll be like climbing a tree!

She clutched the strap of the large handbag she currently wore—she’d made it herself, out of leaves, naturally—and entered the building. It was… extremely boring inside. The tiles were white and polished to a sheen, the walls were gray and bare, and the only “decorations” were government emblems or signs with instructions on where to go. There was no receptionist, but there was a security camera.

Coleus walked up to one of the signs and followed the somewhat convoluted set of instructions to find out what she needed to do. Which was simple: ride the elevator to the floor. The elevator was actually easy to find, though the doors weren’t visible from the entryway.

Coleus stepped inside and pressed the button for her floor. She noticed that there was elevator music playing. It was… surprisingly catchy and full of upbeat tones. As the elevator went up one floor at a time, she was surprised to find that her foot was tapping in time with a bob of her head. Slowly, but surely, she started to slowly shake her hips side to side, her smile widening. The beat was slow, but smooth, and it felt like a river to her.

Oh, why not. She threw all caution to the wind and put her whole body into it. She slowly twirled around, one hand above her head and the other near her waist, and when the song changed slightly, she entered a series of motions where she shifted her hips and hands to opposite sides, making waving motions with her hands. It was just so smooth.

She threw out one hand, she threw out the other, she slowly twirled around on one foot, and even hopped along the railings of the elevator before entering the first spinning motion again.

The elevator stopped. It wasn’t her floor. She kept dancing, even as a businessman in a black and very boring suit came in. He gave her a long, concerned look. She looked him right in the eyes and said nothing, her smile unfaltering.

His eyes didn’t leave hers as he pressed the button for his floor. Coleus performed a smooth shimmying motion along the opposite wall, kicking up one of her feet and grabbing it with her hand, holding the pose and slowly wiggling her body like water.

The man couldn’t stop staring, entranced. But his floor arrived, and he quickly left.

Hope that brightened his day, poor guy looked so bored. She continued her dance, this time leaning back on the elevator supports with her shoulders and slowly shifting her legs back and forth in front of each other, moving back into a spin.

The next person to come onto the elevator was a cat. He was a white cat with a golden tie on his neck. He took one look at Coleus and smiled. He pressed the button for his floor—there was a lower series of buttons for cats to press. As soon as the elevator started moving, he started tapping his paws. Soon, the two of them were dancing in unison on opposite sides of the elevator. Their body types were entirely different so they were doing completely different dances, but it was to the same, endless song. Coleus didn’t even care it had repeated three times at this point, it was still just what she needed right then.

The cat’s motions were a little faster, most likely due to his lighter frame, but they were also more coordinated. Coleus was a pretty good dancer, but she was almost entirely self-taught, this cat clearly had some training of some sort given how deliberate and careful his actions were.

The elevator doors opened. The cat quickly stopped dancing and coughed awkwardly as a human woman walked into the elevator. Coleus, naturally, did not stop dancing. She didn’t hold it against the cat—he probably had appearances to maintain, she did not.

The woman looked at her oddly, but she was only on the ride for a few floors. She got off, moving rather quickly—obviously stressed. Coleus hoped the weird dancing plant girl had brightened her day.

Now, though, Coleus gave the cat a playful expression. He nodded and almost immediately was dancing again, this time bouncing around her, never touching her, but jumping and bobbing between her legs and arms in perfect timing. He was really good.

However, it all had to come to an end. The elevator finally stopped at Coleus’ floor.

“This is my stop,” Coleus said, slowly easing out of her dance and moving toward the door. “It was great dancing with you, hope you have a greet day, full of greetings like this one!”

“Your attitude is most refreshing, Miss Coleus,” he said. “I look forward to meeting you again. Oh, my apologies, greeting you again; very few here play the pun-tastic game, I’m a-furred.”

Coleus put her hands to her cheeks, her eyes lighting up as she let out a little squeal. “Ohtank you! You’ve just made my day!”

“And you mine!” he said with a wink as the elevator doors closed.

Only then did Coleus recognize him.

That was President Antonio Castillero.

She stared at the elevator door for a moment and then proceeded to laugh. Giggling to herself, she made her way to the meeting room she had an appointment in. Inside was a human woman with a floppy hat. She was surrounded by stacks of paper taller than her desk and looked more than a little frazzled.

“Hello!” Coleus said. “I’m Coleus, but you probably already knew that.”

“You’re a little early!” the woman said. “Come, sit down.”

Coleus sat down and opened up her handbag. “Looks like you have your work cut out for you…”

“Oh, this is a slow day, the papers usually fill the room,” the woman chuckled. “So, you have the… documents?”

Coleus nodded, pulling out a full ream of paper and laying it down. “Finally got all the forms filled out and everything. Wasn’t easy, let me tell you.”

“I imagine not, the Strider was clearly not designed for examinations… Yeshalo thanks you for doing your due diligence and taking care of everything!”

“Couldn’t have done it without my friends. And a lot of help from your people, too.” Coleus let out a sigh of relief. “Things have been rough, but at least we could get all the legal nonsense sorted out.”

“This will be in processing a while, let me warn you,” the woman said. “Registrations of this magnitude are going to clog the system.”

“I still have the provisional agreements in effect, it’ll be fine,” Coleus said. “I also have… the designs you requested.” She pulled out another stack of paper, this one filled with images of the plant-based technology she had been making. “I’m not sure how much it’ll be of help to you without a dryad working things, but I have no secrets.”

“This is great! Thank you for being so thorough and expedient.”

“It’s been months, it didn’t feel expedient.”

“You, clearly, have not worked at the speed of government before.” The woman chuckled. “Anyway, this will all get properly filed away. I trust you have copies for your records?”

Coleus nodded. “Yep!”

“In that case, just one more thing. Since you’re so rarely here—this is your first visit at all if I understand properly—is there anything we can do for you?”

“Actually, do you know how I could quickly procure an official armored vehicle?” Coleus said. “Some friends of mine are starting a local business, and they need to transport some ‘magic’ things.”

“Oh?”

Coleus pulled out a single sheet of paper. “All the descriptions are right here, but it’s kind of important that this be done faster than everything else. There are dangerous things prowling around, and, well… they kind of want to do something about it.”

“Hmm…” the woman picked up the piece of paper. “You know, you’ve done so much and worked so tirelessly for us, I think I can pass this on up and get it accepted easily. It’s a tad unusual, but it’s not a huge favor. Expect a call from me telling you about the result at the end of the day.”

“Great! Thanks!”

~~~

“…Can I take off the blindfold yet?” Amaris asked.

“Nope,” her Dad said.

“You are never going to guess,” her Mom added, chuckling to herself.

“Let me see… it’s not hot enough to be going to a water park… the Cat-ival is right out…” Amaris felt Pitch slither up her head, shifting her blindfold. “Hey! No, Pitch, I want to be blind right now!”

Pitch gave a hiss of indeterminate meaning.

“Anyway, at the risk of sounding cliché…. Are we almost there?”

“Actually, yes!” her Dad said.

“Ah, so it’s in the city then! Hmm… what could be in the city… going to Auntie Nin’sa or Grandpa’s wouldn’t require a blindfold… and…”

“We’re here!”

Amaris felt the car quickly stop, lurching her forward. She gently moved her hand to the side, checking that Vayvaresi was there—finding her soft tail. The kitsune’s tail twitched slightly, and there was a soft yawn, but otherwise no response. Deciding to let her sleep, Amaris unbuckled and opened the door—all while still blindfolded, finding that it didn’t make it much more difficult to get around. In the car. Once she was out she just stood there awkwardly.

There was silence.

“…Amaris?” her Dad asked.

“Shush, Dmitri! I wanted to see how long she would just stand there!” her Mom huffed.

“Ah…”

“So I can take off my blindfold?” Amaris asked.

“Absolutely!”

Amaris did so. They were standing in front of a run-down lot that nonetheless had a rather large building in it. The building clearly had not seen use in a long time, but it was sturdy, and was made largely of stone rather than the usual wood. As a consequence of both this and its lack of ornamentation, it looked somewhat authoritarian, but definitely secure.

Parked in front of it was an armored truck, with Jenny sitting on top of it, talking to Irene and Coleus.

Amaris took a bit to process all this.

“You didn’t…”

Her Dad grinned. “I totally did.”

“There’s no way! This… this is such a huge lot!” Amaris said, shaking her arms. “How’d you get this? Didn’t it cost a lot?”

“Actually, I didn’t spend a dime!” her Dad said with a big grin. “All I had to do was call in some favors, turns out one of my old graduate students had inherited some land she didn’t have time to deal with due to her job, and this was one of the many properties on the list. Just had to ask. She was a little confused about why I’d want something like it, but when I explained what it was for, she just gave it to me. I really was expecting to pay!”

“Well, we will, for renovations,” Amaris’ Mom added.

“Ah, but that won’t be a big problem anymore! …Though yes it will require some funds.”

Amaris looked at the lot and grinned. “So. It has a basement.”

“Yes.”

“No secret mysterious doors that aren’t on the floor plan?”

“None at all.”

Amaris blinked, processing. Then she threw herself around her parents, hugging them. “This is the best present ever!”

“You’re the little girl with dreams,” her Mom said, running her hands through her daughter’s hair. “We often feel like we can’t do much to help you, you know. That this weird world of yours is beyond us. But we can give you this. A place to do your work.”

“And you even got an armored truck to transport all the dangerous things! Like… how!?”

“I’m actually not sure,” her Mom said. “That’s Coleus’ doing.”

Amaris nodded. “Thank you both so much! I just… mmm, I’m already thinking of all the plans, all the stuff we could do… turn it into a proper actual legitimate business. Something something… Weird Happenings Incorporated or something.” She beamed. “You know, sometimes this curse really doesn’t seem so much like a curse.”

“Until the next monster attack,” her Mom said.

“Yes, until the next monster attack.”

The three of them finally left the car and came to Coleus, Irene, and Jenny.

“Welcome to the future site of all the weird things in Yeshalo!” Jenny declared, jumping off the armored truck. “Including Irene!”

Irene turned to Coleus. “Should I be insulted?”

Coleus shrugged. “Pro-bubble-y.”

“Hmm.” Irene put her hands on her hips and put on a clearly fake offended expression. “Watch yourself Jenny or I’ll lock you in here with everything else.”

“Oh no, Irene’s gonna trap me.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “How scary.”

“So, I know we talked about this before, but…” Amaris coughed. “You all decided to surprise me with this so I don’t know what the actual plan is. Obviously, store all the weird things we find here rather than the school, touch this place up, make things secure, and I guess transport things in an armored truck? That solves the biggest issue.”

Coleus nodded. “Yes. In order to secure this truck I did have to state what the purpose was with the government—turns out I’m actually good at paperwork, probably because I can speak to the trees in the paper.”

“You can?”

“…No. I’m joking. Paper is dead.”

“Just checking.”

Coleus chuckled. “I am an enigma wrapped in a-nom-ally.” She took a fruit out and bit into it. “Nom.” She looked at Amaris expectantly.

“…I get it,” Amaris deadpanned.

“Mission ‘expand humor’ has resulted in failure,” Coleus said with a shrug. “Anyway, ahem, the purpose I stated is to ostensibly open an official business that manages the weird and unusual. People could pay us to deal with things.”

“And it would maybe give people someone to go to…” Amaris said, tapping her chin. “But I’m just a kid, people won’t trust me.”

“That’s where I come in!” Irene said. “No longer am I the nervous wreck who works at the supermarket, I’m the nervous wreck who takes requests and watches the monsters! I’ll be moving in here. And. Sleeping on top of all the monsters…” Irene took a deep breath. “No pressure…”

Orville appeared. “I will assist with watching the place.”

“Guards, faces, employees…” Amaris stroked her chin. “Clearly some details need to be ironed out, but I’m impressed! You guys probably shouldn’t have done this without consulting me, though.”

“It was originally your idea,” her Mom said. “We just thought it would be good fun!”

“And it was!” Jenny said. “Look at you, being all unsuspecting and shocked! Hah, it’s great!”

Amaris chuckled. “Oh, all right, yeah, it is, and I bet my curse couldn’t have let it be done normally anyway. This way I guess the weirdness is the surprise rather than ‘hey there’s a shadowy monstrosity living in the basement.’ “ Amaris paused. “We have checked, right?”

“Orville and I have been all over the joint,” Jenny said, smirking.

Coleus clearly had an idea for a pun, opened her mouth, and then quickly shut it, blushing slightly—though dryad faces became more blue than red when this happened.

“Can it hold everything we currently have?” Amaris asked.

“Ab-soul-lutely!” Coleus answered. “The building before us comes pre-in-souled with a basement filled with locks, bars, and anything else you might need!”

“…Why does it have all that?”

“It was a frontier town prison,” Amaris’ Dad explained. “It was abandoned when Nuk got large enough to incorporate the town.”

“Ah. I sure hope it isn’t haunted.”

“I haven’t seen anything,” Jenny said.

“And I scoped everything I could, I’ve seen nothing unusual recently,” Orville said.

“Recently?” Amaris asked.

“Some of the inmates this place used to have were clearly insane. One guy thought he was a duck.”

“A… duck. Sure.”

“Is Orville being a… quack right now?” Coleus asked, prompting a few groans. “Oh, by the way, we can’t keep the armored truck. Once the other paperwork goes through the Retrograde will be allowed on Yeshalo roads, license plate and all.”

“That. Is going to be such a cool company vehicle,” Amaris said.

“…They won’t give me a driver’s license,” Jenny grumbled. “They need ‘proof’ of my age, or something.”

“I have one!” Coleus said.

“Yes, ha ha, brag why don’t you.”

“I do like bagging.”

Amaris rolled her eyes. “Anyway, we should probably check inside…”

The group of six moved to the main doors, which were glass but on thick, metal frames. Amaris’ Dad took out a key and opened the door, revealing the interior.

An interior full of dust with a ceiling that was missing tiles in a few places. Random pieces of paper and junk were strewn across the ground and Amaris could hear mice scurrying around. At least there was a reception desk. She could imagine this place eventually becoming a business.

Eventually.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Amaris said.

“At least it can hold the weird stuff now,” Coleus said. “Which is good, we don’t have this armored truck for fore four forever.”

“....Coleus I don’t think that pun works.”

“I mean… yeah…” Coleus sagged… but quickly brightened up. “But at least you get what I bean!”

“Someone needs to stop you,” Jenny said. “Someone really needs to stop you.”

“Nothing can stop the plant girl!” She rubbed her hands together. “In fact, I’m going to leafen things up around here!” She held out a hand, prompting the dry grass outside to burst up in verdant health and sprout a few flowers. “I’ve learned a lot from cleaning up the Strider, I think I can a-leaf-iate your renovation bug-dget.”

Orville must have made a comment because Coleus suddenly glared at a random spot in space. “I know using the same puns over and over again isn’t the grape-est, but I like it. …Okay, yes, if I could do a series of thematically related ones that would be nice but… actually… hmm, perhaps I could take notes…”

“…Orville, did you just doom us?” Jenny asked. “…Are we about to find out if one of my many punches can actually touch you? We might be, depending on how this goes.”

Amaris chuckled. Oh, how she loved moments like this. This was not at all what she thought she would enjoy most about an ‘interesting’ life back when she asked for it, back then she wanted adventures and bizarre things. Now, the best part was her extremely weird friends.

~~~

“Okay, so, everything’s actually going swell,” Coleus said, making a hand motion trying to imitate a swelling process. She was sitting on a rock next to the center of the Strider’s Glen, the pure waters sparkling just behind her as she addressed the other dryads. “The paperwork is going through and virtually without a hitch, the Strider’s getting fully adapted into Yeshalo, and all the engigreening is automating most of the things now.” Coleus folded her arms. “Told you I could do it. You all said it couldn’t be done, but now look at it! Leafy conveyor belts, purged evil, and infrastructure all tied to this Glen! I’ve gotten us e-seed-blished, tied deep to the land, protected, and stable.”

The dryad closest to her actually bothered to respond back. “You have done all those things, certainly.”

Coleus glared at the bark-covered face. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ worthy of the word association.”

“You have attached yourself far too closely to the ways of the outside world at the worst possible time for yourself. You have been of the age to put down roots for weeks. Soon, you will not be able to.”

Coleus’s throat suddenly felt really tight. “I… I still have time…”

“Even by the standards of the outside mortals you hold so dear, you do not. We have been exceedingly patient with you, far beyond what would normally have been allotted, due to your actions to return this Glen to the network. However—” Coleus was easily aware that the dryad was specifically avoiding using the word “but” there. “—you are reaching the end of your self-imposed obligations, and the Glen’s patience is running thin. It is time for you to return and join.”

“I… I know,” Coleus said, looking down at her hands. “I just… I don’t know, okay? I… want to live out as long as I can.”

“This is why young dryads are kept near the Glens. The world is a pervasive toxin, Coleus.”

“They’re not bad!”

“If you do not put down roots your lifespan will be reduced to one, maybe two centuries. How is that different from a disease?”

Coleus looked to the ground.

“You are seriously considering it. Throwing away the eternal life of the Glen for a handful of years, a blink of an eye.”

“I… I am, but… that would be kind of silly, wouldn’t it?” Coleus shook her head. “It’s not like I stop being me when I put down roots, I just get… slower, right?”

“Yes.”

“…I wish I had seen someone else go through this already, I…” Coleus sighed. “The others out here still need me, I… I can’t put down roots yet…”

“…Then it is clear you do not yet understand the gravity of the situation, and need a wake-up call.”

Coleus blinked. “What?”

Suddenly, she was pushed out of the Glen by an invisible force, tossed to the tunnel that led up to the rest of the Strider. “Ow…”

The voice of the dryad came from inside the glen. “You are not permitted to return or access the power of the Glen until you are willing to put down your roots. We do this for your own good, you are in danger of throwing your life away. We hope you can understand that.”

“I… I had hoped you’d understand me!” Coleus shouted back. “But I… I guess knot!” She grew a vine out of the ground and tied it into a knot in some vague gesture of defiance.

It was a lot harder to grow the plant than it usually was.

She only had her internal power. Not the Glen’s. Despite being the one who had saved it, she was now severed.

Tears in her eyes, she ran out into the Strider proper.

“You know how much time you have left!” a voice called out. “It is not long! Do not throw your life away!”

~~~

“So…” Jenny said, standing in the mysterious school basement with a clipboard in her gloved hands. “We’ve already moved the reality shards… the englassed skeleton… a flying eyeball corpse… those colored crystals… the ray guns… the records… uh… well the check here says we got the memory orb.” She looked up from her clipboard. “Should I trust that?”

“Yes,” Orville said, looking a little exasperated.

“Then I will!” Jenny put the clipboard away. “All that’s left to grab is the actual dangerous stuff.”

“Those reality shards aren’t dangerous?” Irene asked.

“Oh, well, they are if you look at them but if we just leave them in a box nothing happens. All this to say… it’s time to open the door.”

Irene shivered, glancing at the door. “Isn’t that where the impossibly rolling rock monster is?”

“Yep! It’s very quiet. But we know it’s in there, whenever I check on it, it gets real violent. Apparently doesn’t need to eat to survive, unlike our friend the crocogator.”

“That poor reptile…” Irene said.

“It was a brutal monster. Though, yeah, I probably should have thought about it starving to death… anyway!” She coughed. “I am going to duel a rock monster in closed quarters. Goal: imprison. Likely result: I accidentally kill it. But we’re gonna try!”

Irene glanced at the large metal crate on wheels they were planning to stuff the monster into. It had come with the armored truck and was for transporting both valuable and dangerous cargo from the truck to whatever its destination was. They had already carried all the inert or mostly-inert stuff, so this would be the first test to see if it would hold from something trying to break out.

“I hope the government hasn’t cheaped out on this box…” Irene said.

“It is designed to keep things out,” Orville said.

“Yes, but… in?”

“We’re about to find out.”

Irene wheeled the cart and popped the front open toward the door the monster hid behind. “R-ready.”

“You don’t sound ready,” Jenny said.

“J-j-just do your thing, I’ll close the door.”

“If you say so.” Jenny coughed. Then she unlocked the door and threw it open. “Hey! Bozo with the impossible face, yeah, I’m talking to you!”

The orange eyes of the creature appeared to hover in midair, quickly swiveling to stare right at Jenny.

Jenny held her arms out wide. “Come and get me!”

The spherical stone portion of the monster appeared, revealing its impossibly deep mouth with all those lines upon lines of teeth. It charged right at her.

“That’s it… good boy…” Jenny tried to jump away at the last second.

Tried.

She failed. The beast’s teeth caught her boot and dragged her with it, crashing into the armored box at high speed.

Irene slammed the door shut without thinking. Less than a second later she let out a scream. “Jenny!”

“I’m fine!” Jenny called from inside the box amidst the sound of bones being ground up and flesh being torn. “Just a little—” her words were cut off for a moment as a sound not unlike that of a cracking walnut rang from inside the box. “—annoyed! Just load the crate and drive, we’ll deal wi—THAT TICKLES—this at the new place!”

“You sure!?”

“Positive! Box’s holding, isn’t it?”

Irene examined the box. Despite the activity going on in it, the armored metal had only slightly deformed, and only in one place—the back where the monster had hit it after the charge. The only other visible change was that since the monster was so heavy and jostling around in its futile attempts to eat Jenny the box was sliding left to right. All Irene had to do to stop this was grab the handles. It was surprisingly easy, though still annoying, like pushing a shopping cart full of jugs of water.

Now she just had to get it up the stairs.

Previously they had just pulled the box up one stair at a time, but that had been with both Jenny and Irene and the load had never been as heavy as this.

“I d-don’t think I have the strength to get it up the stairs!” Irene called.

Jenny made no response.

“Jenny?”

“What?”

“You didn’t say anything?”

“Well I didn’t have ears a second a—” There was another crunch.

Irene sighed. She was going to have to figure something out here…

…a few minutes later she had a heavy duty rope tied to the box that led all the way up the stairs. She had hoped to find some kind of motor or something in the nearby lab supplies, but nothing was strong enough for her purposes. What she had found was a ratchet. It would only turn one way, so if she could get the box up one stair, it wouldn’t fall down to the previous one. It would be slow work, but it would work, right?

Then she realized as she daintily pulled just one set of wheels on top of the next stair with considerable struggle that the motion of the monster inside would roll it off before she could get to the ratchet to turn it.

Irene banged her head into a wall. How was she going to deal with this?

“Need a hand?”

Irene looked up to see Nina Petronova standing a few stairs above her. “Nina?”

“You look like you need a hand.”

“How did you…?”

“A ghost told me,” she said with a wink.

“A g-gh—oh wait you mean Orville.”

“Guilty as charged,” Orville said, tipping a hat.

“Are we not even on the truck yet?” Jenny called from within the box. “Look, I could do this all day, but it is bo—”

“Sure you’re not busy?” Irene asked.

“Me? Busy?” Nina snorted. “Is that why the others aren’t here?”

“Everyone’s at work or school or… I actually don’t know where Coleus is but she’s usually doing important things…” A loud growl came from within the box, making Irene jump. “It can growl!? I… I didn’t know it could…”

“I think it doesn’t like me!” Jenny said with a laugh that was cut brutally short.

Nina chuckled. “Ah, this is entirely insane and I never in a million years thought I would be doing something like this. So. Ahem. You go manage that bizarre haphazard ratchet setup you have up there, I will push this thing up one stair at a time.”

“You… sure?”

Nina flexed an arm. “These are gaming muscles, Irene!”

Irene gave Nina a blank stare.

Nina deflated. “Look, you can see the muscles, I work out, I know how to lift things that are really heavy, okay?”

“Okay…”

The process was slow and clunky, but with two people working it was possible to slowly drag the heavy box up one stair at a time and keep it from falling back down. They, eventually, got it to the ground floor. Over the course of around half an hour. Despite being in a part of the school that was rarely traversed, a small crowd of mostly kids had started to develop, just to stare at the strange rope device and then wonder at the sounds of tearing flesh and bone happening from inside the box.

Irene rubbed her arm nervously. “They’re staring, Nina…”

Nina pushed the box up the last stair, rolling it into the hall. “Who cares, they’re just kids.”

“Just kids?” what was clearly an adult cat said, jumping over and flicking his tail to the left. “You are causing quite a commotion here with this… thing of yours. I’ve never seen the two of you around. What are you doing?”

“We have authorization!” Irene stammered, pulling out the important papers that came with the armored truck. “See? Authorization!”

“I… wh…”

“if you have questions you can talk to C-c-coleus!” Irene stammered.

“Coleus?! The witch of the strider!?”

“H-hey, that’s rude, she’s not a witch…”

The cat heard the sound of Jenny being torn in half again from inside the box. His indignation and annoyance turned rather quickly to fear and terror. Opting not to continue the conversation any further he simply bolted away.

“What’s his deal?” One of the kids asked.

“Adult brain,” Nina said. “Horrible travesty, has no cure.”

“Huh?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Don’t think too hard about it.”

The kids followed them as they rolled the crate all the way to the armored truck and loaded it. They stared as Irene got into the driver’s seat and drove off.

They could still hear the muffled sounds of carnage in the box behind them.

“…This is a very weird day,” Nina said.

“This is my life.” Irene said, voice somewhat hollow.

“You don’t seem well suited to it, I have to say.”

“N-not really…” Irene chuckled nervously. “But this is the price we pay for hanging around Amaris… I don’t intend to stop doing th-that.”

“Good woman,” Nina said, putting her hands behind her head. “I hope you get used to it.”

“Oh I-I’m already u-used to it, the f-fear doesn’t go away though. I am driving a massive armored vehicle through traffic while a monster dismembers an immortal child in the back and if I make a mistake that monster could get out and do real damage with the same exact sounds and hahaHA.” Irene gripped the wheel tighter. “Just finish the drive, Irene, you can do this.”

It turned out, she could. The drive was uneventful. They made it to the ex-prison and unloaded the box with ease.

The “Headquarters,” as they’d started calling it, no longer looked run-down, though it looked more like a garden at this point. The walls were reinforced with vines and trees grown into bizarre shapes. The floors inside were made of some kind of self-sustaining self-healing moss that was simply pleasant to walk on. There were lots of decorative flowers and the like all over, and the places where the lights had been broken were replaced with dangling glowing fruit. If it wasn’t for the clearly artificial walls and ceiling that poked through in places and the sharp right angles, one might have been convinced this was a natural place.

Nina whistled as they rolled the box through. “That Coleus really knows her stuff.”

“And none of this is even her plant machines, you should see those in the Strider,” Irene said. “It’s like… a green factory.”

“I’ll make it a trip. Think Amaris can make the checkpoint go faster?”

“She does know General Mason, but it’d probably take a while to get approved…”

It was much easier to get the box down to Headquarters’ basement, as going down stairs was a simple matter. They wheeled it toward one of the larger cells with reinforced bars. All the other cells were empty—the rest of the items they’d moved had just been placed in locked boxes.

“Okay, this is going to be tricky…” Nina said, frowning. “Gotta get the monster in there and lock the cell…”

“Oh, w-we already planned this,” Irene said, opening the cell and positioning the end of the box that opened into it. “We just…” she unlatched the box. The rock creature rolled out into the cell, absolutely covered in blood, chunks of meat, and bone shards. It seemed rather confused by its new surroundings at first, and this was more than enough time for Irene to pull the box back and slam the cell shut.

The monster figured out where it was and it turned around, ramming into the bars. They didn’t budge. It couldn’t get enough of a running start to have much momentum. It was stuck.

Jenny, meanwhile, reformed from a piece of her spine in the corner of the cell, wearing only her default outfit. “About time!”

“How are we going to get you out of there?” Irene asked as the monster ran over Jenny, flattening her against the ground.

Jenny grinned. “Watch.” She managed to maneuver herself toward the bars of the cell. The rock creature rammed into her, pressing her through the bars with a disgusting squelch. She reformed on the other side amidst a pile of parts of her that had been severed. “Tah-dah!”

Nina puked.

“Oh, right, that was probably really disgusting and disturbing.”

“Y-yes…” Irene said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up, you two can go… try to forget the horrors you’ve just seen!” Jenny gave them a thumbs up. “Thanks, Nina!”

“D-don’t mention it…”

~~~

“So, apparently they managed to move everything without a hitch,” Amaris said as she climbed up the stairs to her room with Vayvaresi on her shoulder.

“Do you believe them?”

“I believe them that everything’s moved. I don’t believe it happened without a hitch.” Amaris chuckled. “Also they could have forgotten the memory orb thing.”

“No matter how many times you assure me that I’ve seen it, I still feel greatly unnerved.”

“You and me both…”

Amaris pushed the door to her room open… to find Coleus sitting on her bed, bawling her eyes out.

“…I shall leave you two alone,” Vayvaresi said, hopping down and heading for the ground floor.

Amaris slowly entered her room, closing the door behind her. She sat down on the bed next to Coleus, trying to figure out what to do. She didn’t know why Coleus was crying, but she had a few guesses, none of which seemed to be all that helpful at the moment. Clearly Coleus was here because she wanted to find Amaris, but to what end? She was so deep in her tears she hadn’t even seen Amaris come in…

In the end, Amaris awkwardly put a hand on Coleus’ shoulder.

Before she could do anything, Amaris was pulled into a hug with enough force to make it hard to breathe.

“I don’t want to lose this!” Coleus all but screamed. “I… I won’t be able to hug people, Amaris. I’ll be a tree. A still, motionless, uncaring, stupid, barking tree.” Coleus stopped gripping so tightly and just flopped over Amaris, continuing her bawl on her shoulder.

A million different thoughts ran through Amaris’ head, none of them helping her with how to deal with the situation. She wanted to help Coleus, wanted to offer some reassurance, but just didn’t know how. From watching others the response appeared to be “there there, it’ll be fine” but Amaris had no guarantees that it would be fine. She would not give false hope if she could help it.

But she didn’t reject Coleus. She held her. It was all she knew to do for sure.

Eventually, Coleus cried herself out. There was a point where the bawling and the haggard heaves just left a person exhausted. Dryads never cried so much their eyes dried up, but the energy was still sapped from them. Coleus flopped backward onto the bed. “…Amaris…”

“I’m here,” Amaris said.

“You know I’m old enough to put down roots.”

Amaris nodded. “You’ve been holding off because you have so much work to do.”

“That’s a lie.” Coleus said, dully. “I had work to do, yes, but I was lying to myself. I’ve put it off because of you. Jenny. Irene. Once I put down roots… I’ll be stuck. I’ll stay there. I won’t be able to… do things, anymore.” She slowly sat up and pulled her legs to her chest. “No more hugs… no more dances…”

Amaris nodded. “I… have always thought the way your people grew up was… restricting. But we don’t really have a choice.”

“I do, though.”

“Eh?”

“I could become a free leaf. Sever myself from the Glen. Lose my connection.” She stared down at her hands. “Cut my lifespan dramatically.”

Amaris stared at her. “What…?”

“It’s considered heretical,” Coleus said, twiddling with her thumbs. “Incorrect. That free leaves are failures of dryads. That the Glens failed to raise them, that the world corrupted them.” She idly examined the back of her hand. “So much of our culture is set up to prevent dryads from ‘throwing their lives away.’ I think I’m beginning to see how. Only one dryad child is raised at a time, the Glens are intended to be entirely secluded from society… they hated your connection to me because they literally saw you as a threat to my life. They have hated every moment in the Strider not just because they can’t hide… but because, to them, a dryad life is about to be lost.” She shook her head. “I… I don’t know, I’m just stammering, I don’t even…”

“How long do you have to make this decision?” Amaris asked.

“Not much longer. A few weeks at most,” Coleus said. “I’ve been cut off from the Glen by the others in order to make sure I understand the urgency. I feel so… empty, right now.”

Pitch slithered over to Coleus face and started licking the tears.

Coleus chuckled softly. “Good snake… you’re a good snake.” She scratched him under his jaw. “…Amaris, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose you… but the dryads are right, it’d be like throwing my life away. I could live and do so much as a full dryad, with that much time, but…” She sighed. “I wasn’t even supposed to think of this as a choice, I was raised to think I would put down roots and that was just the way things were. And now I’m considering throwing it all away because… I don’t want to lose you.”

Amaris nodded. “Would you really lose us, though?”

“Eh…?” Coleus said.

“I mean, you’ll stay in the Strider, you’ll still be there. You might be… different, but you’ll still be the manager, right? You… might lose things like hugs and the like, but I can say I’ll still come around. Every day I can if I have to, no matter how much the other dryads might complain.”

“But I’ll think slower and…” Coleus paused. “And that doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

“Nope!” Amaris beamed. “You might change but you’re still Coleus. You should be able to stick with your friends and your family. And…” She put a hand on Coleus’ shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to be the reason you tore yourself from your family. As annoying as they are, they are your Glen. They really have only wanted the best for you all this time.”

“I… I know.” Coleus took in a deep breath. “I can… have both. I… okay.” She stood up. “…I have to go talk to them.”

“So soon?”

“I don’t have a ton of time, Amaris! And it might take a while to work out how this is going to go with them, and then making sure I tell everyone I know about what’s going to happen my goodness I only have a few weeks why couldn’t I have realized this sooner.” Coleus paused. “This is going to be hec-tick!”

“Ah, there’s the pun, I was getting worried,” Amaris said.

Coleus suddenly shot to her feet. “You better beet-leive it! I’m going to do both! Put down roots and stay connected to the outside world! I’m going to show them that it’s possible, that we don’t have to live like we have been! The Strider’s Glen is an opportunity!”

“Perhaps you should wait until you’re not so… tear-covered? And think about exactly what you’re gonna say a bit more?”

“Oh, yes, um… yeah that’s probably a good idea.”

“…I can help you figure out what to say.”

Coleus pulled Amaris into a much more cheerful hug than the last one. “Oh, Amaris, you’re the best! Just… oh wow I’m so tired right now…” She released Amaris from the hug and flopped back down onto the bed. “I am… so used to just drawing on the Glen’s energy… oh my…”

Amaris huffed. “Did they really have to cut you off like that?”

“Well, that was the only reason I’m here, and that ended up well, so… they are quite old and wise, they might know quite a bit more than us about how these things go.”

“Hmm. I somehow doubt this was part of their plan.”

Coleus shrugged. “Can I just… sleep here?”

“It’s the middle of the day, I’m not using the bed.”

“O… kay…”

~~~

“So, technically, you own the business,” Amaris told Irene as they worked on tidying up the exterior of “Headquarters.”

“E-excuse me?” Irene stammered.

“The entire thing’s being taken out in your name,” Amaris said.

“B-but I’m not in charge!”

“Well you’re the only adult who’s a full time employee. And you get to live here. So.” Amaris shrugged, picking up a crumpled up piece of paper and tossing it to Vayvaresi, who bapped it with her tail into the dumpster. “It just makes the paperwork easier.”

“I own a business for dealing with the strange and unusual…” Irene shook her head. “Where has my life gone?”

“Hey, you’re the one who chooses to hang around me.”

“See, I know I’m asking for this, but the exact things that happen are still surprising.”

They saw Coleus round the corner, tending to the plants that had been used to reinforce the exterior wall. It was obvious that the ease with which she could generate the walls of plants was entirely gone, but she was still able to shape the plants that existed, prune them, and grow new plants. It just took more time and was more heavily reliant on what was already there. However, she was humming a song to herself, a smile on her face. It wasn’t as big of a smile as usual, but it was a hopeful one.

They’d already decided that she would go back to her family tomorrow and talk to them, agreeing to put down roots, but making sure to work through their issues first. The plan was simple—go, talk to them, establish what was going to happen and when, and then spend the next week enjoying having legs with Amaris and the others as a sort of “growing up” party. Amaris had told her parents to hold off but she knew they were already planning what sorts of things to do in that party.

Amaris was fairly sure the dryads wouldn’t object to that. After all, Coleus didn’t need to be reconnected to the Glen in that time, only at the end. Still, despite being part of the plan’s making, she didn’t quite have Coleus’ optimism.

“You look troubled again,” Vayvaresi observed.

“I am a serial doubter,” Amaris said, picking up a plastic bag filled with a substance she didn’t even want to try and identify, throwing it in the dumpster. “I’m just thinking of all the ways this could go wrong.”

Vayvaresi nodded. “Dryads are an… inscrutable bunch. Despite their consistency across the world, they do not think as we do.” Vayvaresi glanced at Coleus doing her plant work. “Before I came here, I had never seen one of their children. I have seen both of their forms, however, the tree, and the free leaf.”

“Really?”

Vayvaresi nodded. “Free leaves are extremely rare because the dryads work tirelessly to prevent them from existing. I suspect there is maybe one in the entire world at any given time, due to the way they try to raise only one child at a time. The one I knew would be long dead at this point, he was already old when I last saw him.”

“What are free leaves… like?”

“I can only speak of the man I knew. He was… a little eccentric, even by your standards. Collected computer chips for their aesthetics, thought it funny to use plants to control the movements of birds, had a habit of poisoning people for fun. Not the best man in the world, clearly, but I can tell you that he was happy and satisfied with his life.”

Amaris nodded, taking that as encouragement.

“As for the dryads on the ‘normal’ life cycle… even someone as old as I am struggles to identify with them. They do have a maximum lifespan, but it’s measured in the millenia, and in their protected Glens they rarely face actual danger. They view time from a higher level than we do, thinking more like a forest than anything. This otherness has led them to be mistreated by many like us, and even when we do not wish them harm, attempted connections rarely go smoothly. Our worlds and ways of thinking are just so different. I am unsure, but I wonder if trying to think on our timescales is actually physically painful to them, they try so hard to avoid it and speak of it with such disdain whenever they have to.”

“…Will that happen to her?”

“Possibly. But do you think even a struggle such as that would get her to cut ties with you?”

Amaris looked to Coleus. “…No. Not her, and not anyone else here. They all put up with too much stuff from my curse. Well, except you, Vayvaresi,” Amaris chuckled. “I’m your little cure!”

“I am still in your debt for your simple kindness.”

“Eh, if you say so.”

At this point Coleus got close enough to talk to them. “Soooo are y’all talkin’ ‘bout me, hmm?”

Amaris blinked. “What’s with the fake accent?”

“Sometimes ya gotta just spread out from th’ puns, y’know?” Coleus pretended to spit on the ground before returning to her normal voice. “Though it is a little hard on the throat…”

“But why though?”

“I heard it once on one of Irene’s video games and it sounded cool. Frozen, even.” Coleus chuckled at herself.

Amaris rolled her eyes. “Okay… anyway, to answer your question, yes we were talking about you, but more dryads in general. Vayvaresi actually knows a lot.”

“I bet she doesn’t know everything,” Coleus chuckled. “Got any questions?”

“Actually, there is one thing I am curious about that none would ever tell me,” Vayvaresi said. “The magic of the Glens is highly unique and in opposition to much of the way of this world. Where does it come from?”

“Ah…” Coleus shook her head. “I can’t tell you that, because I don’t know. Not a shingle clue. The oldest dryads in the Glens know, but whenever they’re asked they say ‘that secret will not be passed to the next generation, we have decreed that it will be lost to time.’ “

Vayvaresi blinked. “Why do I have the feeling we weren’t even supposed to know that much?”

Coleus shrugged. “I don’t see what you can do with the knowledge that the secret is kept so hard that no one ever tells it to anyone.”

“It makes me more curious.”

“It might actually be relevant, too,” Amaris said. “The Strider was made out of a Glen intentionally, for… vague reasons. Maybe that has something to do with why.”

Coleus shrugged. “There is a truly ancient dryad in the Strider Glen right now, he didn’t seem to think it relevant.”

“Hmm…” Amaris scratched her chin. Pitch came out and started licking her face as she did so, increasing the amount of action on the chin, almost as if he thought that would help her think. “There’s something important here, but I can’t figure out what. Which means your family is doing their job at keeping the secret.” Amaris shrugged. “I won’t pry unless something else happens to make it really important.”

“The Glen’s power works even if we have no clue how,” Coleus said.

“Hey! Girls!” Amaris’ Mom called from the front of the Headquarters. “It’s ready!”

Irene, Vayvaresi, Coleus, and Amaris ran to the front. As they ran, they got a good look at how much the building had changed. It no longer looked run down, instead it looked green and healthy and almost all the trash had been cleared away. The lots had been tidied up, and a few ornamental trees had been planted.

The part Amaris’ Mom wanted them to see, though, was the sign she’d put out front. Using her artist’s sense of aesthetics, she had created a logo that was somehow both simple and impressive. Four large black letters dominated the doors, each with four-pointed stars in them that were lit by a backlight.

ORHI.

Outer Reality Handling Incorporated.

“Behold, ORHI!” Amaris’ Mom declared, bowing extravagantly.

“Or he what?” Coleus asked.

Amaris elbowed her. “He’ll call the pun police and acronym police and grammar police on you all at the same time.”

Coleus nodded. “Understandable.”

Amaris looked at the sign and grinned. “Yes… yes, this will do. This will do nicely. Soon, people will come to us with problems, and we will deal with them. The weirdness in this city is going to find the opposition has become organized.”

Coleus winked. “Between you handling things down here and me mane-aging the Strider, we should be able to get it all under control.”

“The darkness won’t know what hit it!”

“Y-yeah!” Irene stammered.

Amaris put her hands on her hips, a smug, satisfied expression coming to rest on her face. “This… this is what I was meant to do. Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for being… you. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you tried to protect me from everything and hide me from it all.”

“Oh, I wanted to, don’t get me wrong, I still want to shelter you like a mother hen. But… well, that would be unrealistic, and you were clearly given this ‘curse’ for a reason. Dia knows what that reason was, and it’s hard, but… you do good, Amaris. I’m proud of you.”

Amaris jumped her Mom into a hug. She was a little old and big to be held above the ground, but her Mom did it anyway, though she let out a few grunts.

Amaris took a moment to appreciate just how fortunate she was. Her curse had had no bearing on who her parents were or where her home was—this was all in place before that. She could have had terrible parents, or misunderstanding ones, or overprotective. But no, she had her parents.

It truly was the best gift she had.

~~~

“So,” Coleus said, pulling out a folding chair and placing it just outside the six large rock pillars that marked the Glen’s boundaries. “I’m here to talk. First of all, I fully intend to put down my roots.”

This prompted a response. The dryads around the center lake directed their heads toward her. They were somewhat far away, but the Glen had no issue transmitting their voice to the edge.

“Child, I sense you have conditions,” the eldest said.

“Sort of?” Coleus said, tilting her hand side to side. “My work out here is not exactly done, but I’ve come to the realization that I can still do it even while rooted in place. This Glen is connected to the entire Strider, I don’t need to be able to move to do things here, and I can keep managing everything just fine. …I will still be able to think fast enough to do that, yes?”

“The adjustment of the mind is a process.” The eldest paused. “It seems quick to us, but a few years to you may be long.”

“Right,” Coleus nodded. “I understand that it’s hard for you all to interact with mortals, but things still need to be done for the ones that are here. I’ll do it, and I’ll try to do it without help.”

“Very well.”

“And, I’m not coming back right now. I want to spend the next few days with my friends outside while I still can. Because… well, once I’ve put down my roots, I can’t exactly go out to restaurants with them, they have to come to me.”

“So long as you return before your time is up.”

“I… I will.” Coleus gave them a sad smile. “I don’t want to lose my family. I know we tend not to use that word and try to be all unified like a forest, but that’s what you are to me. I…” She paused. “I know you made a deal out of not telling me who my parents were, as is tradition, but I think I know. And I just… I want to thank you for all that. I have been…” She rubbed the back of her head. “More than a little rebellious. I still think your disdain for mortals is, quite frankly, stupid, but I’ve been dismissive and rude in a lot of other ways. You… didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry.”

“It is rare to see such maturity appear prior to putting down roots, for all the ways the outside world has infected you, your experiences have forced you to grow.”

Coleus nodded. “And I thank Amaris and the others for that. You may not, but I do. I understand that you want to bar her from the Glen and… I disagree, but I can be fine with that. I can talk to her through the Strider while I manage it.”

“It is… acceptable.”

Coleus chuckled. “W—wow, I was expecting this to be sew much worse. Get it? Because of the—never mind.” Coleus waved a dismissive hand. “But you’re being… amazingly agreeable! It’s… wow I almost don’t believe it, I was expecting an argument.”

“We just want you to return home and not throw your life away. Anything that permits that is acceptable.”

“You… really did all just want the best for me.” Coleus chuckled. “I… all right, thank you.”

“Your terms have been accepted. We look forward to your retu—”

“I can’t take this anymore,” a female dryad said, doing what their kind almost never did, move quickly and decisively toward Coleus. “He is lying.”

“Pistil!” the eldest called. “Your words will consign a child to death!”

“I will not have her resent us for misleading her.”

“You defy the will of the Glen.”

“You defy the will of Dia, that is the truth.”

“You have said enough.” And, like that, Pistil was frozen in place.

Coleus stared at her. Mother…

There was silence. The other dryads could not think quickly enough to come to a decision on what to do. And Coleus was reeling.

However, her mind cleared first.

“That’s what would happen to me, huh?” Coleus said. “You’d freeze me so I couldn’t do anything. For how long?”

There was silence.

“For how long?!” Coleus shrieked.

“Until we are able to excise the Glen from the Strider,” a male dryad who hadn’t spoken yet said.

“W-what?”

“The Glen is not meant to be known by mortals. We have only remained so long because it was so intimately tied to the structure of this place. Once we can move it, we will, and it will no longer be our concern.”

“B-but… you just want to abandon these people!?”

“The Glen is not meant to be what you wish it to be. We are immensely grateful that you have returned it to its health, but its restoration is not complete. It cannot be complete until it is hidden.”

Coleus’ eyes were filling up with water. “I thought, surely, surely, after seeing all the good that staying here and being open has done, you would change.”

“The ways of the Glen have been bent to the point of near blasphemy already,” the eldest said. “We already long for the day where we can return to our proper ways.”

“You can return! I… I can stay here by myself, rooted to the ground, if need be!” Coleus wailed.

“Since lies are no longer on the table, I will give you no illusions. We want you back. To lose you would be a great travesty. But the laws of the Glen should bend for no one. I, personally, have been absolutely disgusted by what has needed to happen here, how it has made us cross lines we were never supposed to cross. The people know of us, Coleus. If we remain they will abuse us.”

“How do you know?”

“Do you think I am not old enough to have seen the formations of the laws!?” the eldest dryad was clearly angry, another thing that rarely occurred in their kind. “We were blessed! We had great power! We could push back the darkness! But once we did, we would try to work alongside those who we helped. But every single time, without fail, they took advantage of us. Started harvesting our purity. Draining us of our life. There has not been a single Glen, Coleus, not a single one that has survived prolonged contact with mortals.”

“Wh-what…?”

“They fell us like trees, they butcher us for our healing, and if they can, they enslave us. We were the saviors, the lights in the darkness, and then we saw that the true darkness was within the hearts of men. The world is evil, Coleus, and that is not hyperbole. It does not deserve us.”

“That’s…. why didn’t you tell me any of this!?”

“Because it breeds hate,” a female dryad said. “To know the crimes that have been committed against us in the past has led many a dryad on the warpath, sending us into the very darkness we are sworn not to become.”

“So we live like this,” the eldest added. “Secluded. Hidden. Away. Raising our children away from corruption. We help those who come to us by chance, in the background, as it is the only way we have found that keeps us safe.”

Coleus stared at them blankly. Then she clenched her fists. “If we aren’t willing to risk ourselves, then how are we any better than them?”

The dryads had no response to this.

“You don’t have an answer, do you!?” Coleus shouted. “We’re concerned about our own safety! Well, guess what, all of them out there are as well! They’re selfish, we’re selfish—”

“We do not hurt them.”

“If you remove this glen from the Strider the forces within will go on a rampage,” Coleus spat. “I have kept them back and slowly burned away the darkness, but the moment there are no more ropes tying them down, there will be carnage.”

“We are not performing those acts.”

“But you, simply by staying here, can stop them. Or just letting me stay!”

“That might have been reasonable, if you had demonstrated even the slightest bit of respect for our ways. But you have not. You are a rebellious child who denies our code that has been built up over thousands of years, each and every portion of which has good reason. You… are not an acceptable master of this Glen, to give it to you alone would be a disservice to it.”

Coleus clenched her fists. “If that’s how you’re going to be… then… then I don’t want any part of it. I’m going to stay here. I’ll become a free leaf and run the Strider that way!”

“How are you going to do that? The power of the Glen is all that keeps this in check.”

“I don’t know!” Coleus shouted. “But I’m going to try anyway! Which is more than I can say for you!” She stood up and kicked the folding chair over, tears streaming down her face. She started storming off… but she stopped.

“…Thank you, Pistil,” she said. “I hope… they’ll forgive you for this.”

“…We do not hold grudges,” the male dryad from before said. “Do not worry about her.”

Coleus nodded. She left, but the anger had already deflated from her. There was no stomping or storming, just a resigned, lonely walk.

~~~

Scarlet adjusted her tie—today it was an orange one with little red theater masks printed on it. “Okay, boys, they’re not going to like me being there.”

“What happened between you?” one of the camera men asked.

“Not my place to say,” Scarlet said, giving him an awkward smirk. “But what they’re doing is still news-worthy and, ultimately, it’ll be better for them if we do this story. So, get ready to jump.”

“You got it.”

The driver of the news station van called back. “We’re here!”

“All right everyone, let’s go!” With that, Scarlet and three separate camera men stepped out into the old and decrepit parking lot near what was now ORHI Headquarters. “Hello viewers! Scarlet Taylor here. Behind me is the future site of a very interesting business venture known as ORHI, or Outer Reality Handling Incorporated. With a name like that you might wonder if they’re a new sort of law firm or paperwork company, but no, their business application indicates that they seek to deal with the strange and unusual ‘magic’ that has entered our world as of late. They will be the first of their kind when they open up their doors; ready to take in requests from all sorts to deal with the weirdness of the world that the layman can’t handle!”

She made a gesture with her foot for the camera men to start walking with her, approaching ORHI Headquarters slowly. “As you can see, the building itself is hardly normal. There’s a large number of plants on display built right into the architecture, and the architecture itself is that of an old abandoned prison! Why would they bother with such a place? Well, there are many dark and dangerous things they have to deal with that need to be locked away to protect the populace; and as for the plants, well, to deal with the unusual one has to be able to use and understand the unusual. Our favorite little dryad Coleus was responsible for this particular construction and, even though she is not an employee of the company, she is connected to them.

“You may ask who runs this establishment? Well, the only official employee as of now is Irene Velacroux, but as you can tell from the level of development on the property she’s definitely not the only one here, just the only one such an unusual business is able to put on the books. The woman herself is neither from Yeshalo nor the Strider, she just happened to be on the Strider when everything went down. She’s from an extremely distant land known as Valite, and used to be a member of the nobility there, but left that life behind—details are sparse, but it seems that this was not by choice. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to validate any of this as we cannot search our records nor the Strider’s for anything on her, but we do know she has enough connections to establish this company.”

She would have continued on, but at that point someone noticed her.

“What are you doing here?” Dmitri Kelvin shouted.

“Why, I’m doing a news story on an interesting new type of business!” Scarlet said, throwing her hair back. “And no, I’m not trespassing.”

“You dare show your face to us again!?”

“Listen, Dmitri,” Scarlet coughed. “I’m a news reporter, I’ve got to do these stories, and…”

“I’m not stupid, I know you chose this assignment. What, are you hoping to get on our good side by arranging some publicity?”

“Oh, I have no hope of that, I just happen to think you deserve publicity.” Scarlet winked at him.

“That’s… how can you…”

“Hey uh…” Jenny walked up. “Maybe don’t embarrass us on national TV?”

“Jenny…?” Dmitri looked to her. “You…”

“I’m fine.” Jenny turned to Scarlet and put on a big smile. “Old and slow over here’s got a bee in his bonnet, you can ask me questions. Gotta give a better impression after all.”

“Oh, none of what he said will go on the record, you have my word,” Scarlet said.

“Oh how thoughtful of you,” Jenny deadpanned.

“I know right?” Scarlet chuckled. “Anyway, you sure you want to do an interview…?”

“Want to? No. Not really. But you’re here, I’m here, and for once I’d rather do the talking.”

“In that case, describe who you are and what you do here?”

“Hello! I’m Jenny Zero. I may not look it but I’m the muscle, a magic girl who can’t die and loves to throw punches. Like this.” She performed a wind punch that knocked Scarlet back, just enough to be forceful but not enough to do any damage. “See? Gotta be able to take on some of the monstrosities in the world.”

“I see, fascinating…” Scarlet said, adjusting her glasses. “What sorts of things have you encountered that require such force?”

“I’ve been told that there was thi—”

Scarlet’s phone suddenly started ringing. She frowned. She had it set only to do that if a priority caller was coming through. She pulled out the large, brick-shaped phone and put it to her ear. “Scarlet Taylor. …What do you mean there’s about to be a lot bigger news?”

~~~

Coleus took the Retrograde when she left.

Something about driving a giant all-terrain-vehicle with a ton of power behind it was soothing to her. A little act of further rebellion, embracing the technological and artificial.

On the long ride down the elevator to the ground, her demeanor changed rapidly from seething fury to bawling to a blank stare at the ceiling while she wondered what exactly she was going to do. She had set up the Strider well, but could she manage it long term without the magic of the Glens? She had extremely high doubts she could pull it off practically, without the power to back it up she’d have to rely on the infrastructure she’d already made and, while it was impressive, it wouldn’t be as effective against would-be assassins. They would eventually figure out that her power had diminished and then all it would take was one clever attack plan. She wouldn’t be able to purge any dark artifacts, either.

Any plans she tried to make were quickly run aside as anger or sadness filled her, usually in extreme strengths. The two emotions fought over control of her and she wasn’t even sure which one she wanted to feel. Part of her felt ashamed that she was angry at the family who cared so deeply for her; that she could not deny, they had put up with so much just for her sake. But the other part of her felt ashamed for being sad that she was forced to leave such horrible people who would leave so many to die in carnage. It’s like they just didn’t care about anyone else!

She let out a yell and rammed her head into the Retrograde’s wheel, letting out a very long and very loud honk. In the middle of this honk the elevator reached the ground, jostling her.

With an exhausted sigh, Coleus drove off the platform and to the checkpoint.

General Mason was there. “…I take it that it didn’t go well.”

“No. It didn’t.” Coleus sniffed. “…I… might need your people’s help.”

“If I had the authority, I’d give it to you right here, right now. But…” General Mason clenched his chin. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’ll… draft up some paperwork and make it official or…”

“No, I’m not sorry for that. …Well, I am, but that’s not what…” General Mason shook his head. “I have to follow orders, Coleus, even if I don’t want to.”

“Follow orders…?” Coleus frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll… see. Just… sit right there.” He pulled out a walkie-talkie. “The apple has fallen from the tree.”

“Roger that,” a voice said from the other side.

A very deep pit started forming in Coleus’ stomach. “General Mason… what…?”

General Mason couldn’t look her in the eyes.

“I… I don’t know what’s about to happen but I can tell it’s terrible, please, stop it!”

“…I wish I could, Coleus, believe me.” He pulled down his hat. “This ain’t right.”

Coleus looked up. There was a fighter jet above them.

A black dot was released from the aircraft. It was only in the air for a second or two before it crashed down onto the exact center of the Strider.

The explosion was unlike anything Coleus had ever seen. A perfectly spherical ball of white energy emerged from the epicenter of the explosion, surrounding the majority of the Strider’s main body. The ropes holding the elevator up snapped and whipped to the ground in a haphazard fashion. The primary flower was large enough to rise above the white sphere, and those parts that were above it ignited and floated into the air like burning kites.

The white sphere of energy shrunk to a pinprick and popped, leaving only a cloud of ash behind. The Strider’s legs remained standing, unmoving.

Coleus could only stare at the absolute clean destruction for several seconds. Then her face twisted into the ugliest scowl that had ever been seen on it. “You! What did you do!?”

“Eliminated a ‘threat,’ “ General Mason said, clearly not believing the words he was parroting.

“A threat!? I can’t believe you! I ca—”

“You really shouldn’t blame him,” a familiar voice said. “If he tried to put his foot down and refuse he would have been executed and I’d have had someone else do it.”

General Mason suddenly stood to attention. Slowly, Coleus turned her head to the side, noticing a small white cat in a golden tie on the ground. He looked so small from her position in the Retrograde. But it was still unmistakable. President Antonio Castillero.

Coleus could barely sputter out the word “why?”

“Why?” Antonio sighed. “Well, simply put, because they were extremely dangerous. My cabinet has been clamoring for action to be taken against them since the very start. They had many good points, but in the midst of it all, I saw you, able to work and keep things mostly under control. I had faith and trust in you that you continued to deliver on. You were the best thing for the Strider, and what gave me the edge to convince everyone not to try to destroy everything.”

“I… I was still going to…”

“I know, we bugged the entire conversation. But you have to admit, without the support of the Glen you do not have the requisite power to control the situation. The risk assessment became too great. There was no longer any justification I could give for allowing the Strider’s core to persist, especially since we had this new weapon developed that could take care of it so cleanly.” He paused. “You are not to blame for this, you worked tirelessly and with great integrity all the way through. It is those dryads, amazingly short-sighted for such a long-lived race, who pushed our hand by rejecting you.”

“…No.”

“Excuse me?”

“They are not to blame. You are.”

General Mason visibly tensed.

Antonio tilted his head and frowned, flicking his tail. “You know what, you are completely correct. I could have vetoed this. I had the power. As regretful that I am that this had to occur, I am the one who decided that it had to occur. I am the ultimate cause.” Antonio fell silent. “I do not believe that helps you decide what to do next.”

“Of course not!” Coleus shouted.

“Naturally. So you have someone to blame now. I will gladly take it.” He flicked his tail. “The question now is, will you act on that?”

Coleus stared at him dumbly.

“You really are such a pure soul, it hadn’t even occurred to you until now to try to exact revenge. And even now you’re horrified that you could even entertain the idea, despite having far more reason to do so than most.” Antonio tilted his head to the side. “I believe I made the right choice, waiting until you were out. It was a risk that they would find out our plans, but a worthwhile one. You will be a very great asset to this country.”

“I don’t want to do anything for you.”

“I highly doubt the help you will offer will be in the form of governmental work. It’ll come just from you being you. I have high hopes for you, Coleus.”

“…I have no hopes for you.”

“Then vote against me next election, you have that right, you got all the papers signed, after all. None of them are void and they will still be processed. We live in a democracy, and you might just have enough weight to your words to hold some sway.”

“I…” Coleus’ eyes darkened. “That’s what you want.”

“The only way you could give me what I don’t want is to leave the country. And you won’t do that. Your heart bleeds too much.”

“You… you’re a monster.”

There was the slightest hint of a smile on Antonio’s face for a moment. “So I am. Surely living among monsters is nothing new for you?”

Coleus felt a new feeling rising within her. Not anger, not sorrow, not confusion… fear. Pure, simple, fear. She suddenly felt really, really small compared to the cat she was towering over. She knew in that moment that she needed to go. She slammed her foot on the pedal and drove the Retrograde away at high speed.

“Let her go,” Antonio told the soldiers. “The car has registration, and this checkpoint is about to be dissolved anyway.” He turned to General Mason. “By the way, exemplary work, I do admire those who can follow even the most distasteful of orders.”

“I will accept no medals or accommodations for this,” General Mason said.

“Nor would I expect you too, but know that you have risen considerably in my regard. I need more men like you; loyal, but who can also take two seconds to think for themselves.” He flicked his tail. “Now, if you excuse me, I need to go give an address to the people to explain what just happened.” With that, he walked off, several bodyguards revealing themselves from hidden positions around the checkpoint.

General Mason looked up at the smoking hole where the Strider’s main body used to be. The smoke and ash had finally started reaching the ground.

“…May Dia have mercy on us.”

~~~

Coleus sat on a really comfy recliner bundled up in the softest of blankets, a cup of white chocolate cocoa in her hands. It was absolutely delicious, custom made by Irene from ORHI Headquarters’ kitchen. She took another sip, feeling its warmth spread throughout her body.

I feel so empty.

Slowly, she looked up. She was in the “lounge/meeting room” area, which was filled with various couches and seats. Enough for everyone, and most everyone was there. Amaris, both her parents, Vayvaresi, Emma, Rin, Irene, Orville, Jenny, Nina, Grandpa Kelvin…

“…Thank you, everyone,” Coleus said, sniffing. “Thanks for… being here.”

Emma burst into tears and tried to hide it from Coleus.

“Things… are terrible,” Coleus said, swallowing hard. “I… I don’t know if my family’s alive. They… could have warped away. But the explosion, it was… it was so fast…” She started trembling. “They… they rejected me, and I rejected them, but now I just want to see them again. I’d… I’d give almost anything…”

“I can… try to look,” Orville said. “They may have blocked me but I can… see if I can hunt anything down.”

Coleus nodded. “Thanks, Orville.” She looked down at the cocoa. “I… I know I’m not to blame. But, inside, there’s still shouting. Shouting that I failed. But…” She started to shiver. “Why is the world so cruel? Every single Glen that’s tried to remain in contact with mortals has fallen! Every last one!”

“That…” Amaris frowned. “I’m… I’m not sure. I no longer think things like this are because of my curse. I… something’s deeply wrong with the place we live, Coleus.”

“There is something deeply insidious beneath us,” Vayvaresi agreed.

“…And we have declared it our enemy,” Coleus said, flatly. She narrowed her eyes. “Amaris. Can you promise me you’ll fight until the bitter end to find why the world is dark and destroy it?”

Amaris nodded. “I can’t promise I’ll succeed. But I can promise that I will do everything I can. That’s the entire purpose of this company. This company… that can be a home for you.”

“…A garden…” Coleus looked around at the vines that lined the walls and gave a soft smile. “I… I can do that. I can manage this garden.” She paused. “Unless… that’s what he wants…”

“I still can’t believe the President would order something like this…” Amaris’ mom said.

“You’ve clearly forgotten about the micropurge,” Rin grumbled.

“The what?”

“Oh right, they don’t talk about that, the military operation in the dregs with 50% civilian casualties?” Rin folded her arms. “Almost all of them nekos.”

“Do you think… he’s the problem?” Coleus asked.

Amaris shook her head. “He’s only been in power two years. This all goes much deeper than that, much older than that. Also… he’s just a cat.”

“I’m… not so sure about that,” Coleus said, shivering.

Amaris opened her mouth, then closed it. “…All right, maybe there is something up with him. Still, the problem is old. Very old. We need to figure out what it is and… hopefully, someday, things like this won’t have to happen anymore.”

Rin frowned. “Do you really think it’s possible to get people to stop fighting each other?”

Amaris paused. “I… guess not. But this… this is something else. People like to fight. But there’s something beyond that wrong here. Something that makes it so serial killers are encouraged to form, that monsters can prowl the streets and nobody believe they exist, that makes it so every Glen that tries to bridge the gap is lost to cruelty. That is what we’re facing.”

“It’s like you’re declaring war on the universe,” Jenny said, grinning. “Count me in.”

“Me too,” Coleus said, hardening her gaze. “My family wouldn’t stand up against the darkness because they cared about themselves. I won’t go down that path. I will risk myself. I… am a free leaf. And they won’t know what hit them.” She paused. “So what do we do now?”

Amaris sat back. “…Wait for a customer or something to happen. Rest. Try not to get caught up in the riots that are no doubt already happening.”

“…There’s going to be more than riots…” Coleus said. “A lot of people thought of the Strider as their home and had family up there… it’s going to get worse.” She let out a gasp, suddenly realizing something. “He… he’s too smart not to know that would happen, he must want it for some reason!”

“If the remnants of the Strider devolve into violence…” Rin chuckled bitterly. “It’ll be easy to excuse an extermination.”

“Diabolical…” Amaris’ Mom said, hand to her mouth.

“It’s how politicians and nobility are,” Irene said in an uncharacteristically jaded tone.

“And we’re mostly just a bunch of kids!” Emma called out. “What do we think we’re going to do!?”

Amaris stood up, Pitch weaving through her fingers. “…Everything we can.”

“Even if it’s not much?”

Amaris smiled sadly. “That… might be all we get to do, Emma. But it’ll be something.”

Coleus looked at her cocoa. Even the smallest spark lowers the amount of darkness in the world. I will give myself to that spark, no matter how hopeless it seems.

…When did I become so brave?