EPISODE 14

Eventually, the pappo trees started to thin out. And so did the yungits. And the reedcane. And all the other familiar trees. The forest was instead populated with more coniferous trees, mostly light brown cedars that grew sparsely in Glass People territory.

And the rain was definitely colder the farther north they traveled, they had all noticed. It was unfortunate they were unable to make cloaks from the beaver family, because they all hated the chilly rain. And they hadn’t had the opportunity yet to hunt any other large animals, for they had been making due with rabbits and hamsters. They had just about collected enough skins to make two cloaks, which would of course go to the highest status members, Faydayo and Krissa.

The group had grown more cautious as they gathered off the land, for the flowers and flora were becoming overtaken with new and different sorts as well. Even Minty, their expert herbalist, was unsure about the new plants. One day they had all binged upon a trove of what they thought were fallen trutoo nuts, however later as they walked they had all gotten sick stomachs, and made camp early so they could puke their guts out.

They continued on through the cedar forest for six days, living mostly off of dried salt beef to avoid another gut mishap. Though, they were running low and would be forced to live off the land in a day or so. Yuliko thought it was worth the risk of another evening of hurling if she didn’t ever have to chew on a hard chunk of salt beef ever again.

One night they heard wolves howling. It was in the far distance, but it still put them on edge. They all remembered the rumors of a great wolf pack unafraid of man kin.

On the seventh day the cedar forest came to an abrupt halt. They stepped beyond the cedar treeline like it were a stage curtain, and entered into a rolling meadow of bright flowers—rich red shades, striking orange petals, vibrant yellows—sweeping through the valley.

“By Maw’Goro’s magic, look at that,” Zana said. “It’s beautiful.”

The others couldn’t help but agree. The meadow flickered like a flame with the blowing breeze, causing all the colors to sway.

The meadow appeared to be largely made up of sunflower-like plants with tall stalks and disc head flowers. They were fragrant like sunflowers too. However, the stalks of these sunflowers were thicker than normal, almost like the trunk of a sapling rather than the stem of a flower. And some of the disc heads of sunflowers were quite large, as big as serving bowls.

Yuliko remembered the tale of the plants that could grab people. “There was a glyph on the border marker of a figure with a flower for a head.”

“I don’t see any walking flowers,” Pykor said. “Just these.” Then he pushed on one of the sunflower saplings, it had a bouncy flexibility to it. He let go and the sunflower sprung back into place. “Oh, wow. You could wallop someone with one of those.”

“How fascinating,” Minty said, moving to examine the springiness of one of the sunflowers for herself.

Faydayo looked down the rolling valley. The meadow extended far, but in the distance to the north he could make out a pass between two mountain ridges. Either they could use that pass to continue northward or they would have to cross over a mountain.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We will travel through the meadow to the pass,” Faydayo said, pointing to their destination. “But be cautious, don’t harm the flowers, the glyph may have been warning of some defense mechanism.”

They started walking through waist high sunflowers, but by the time they had crossed over the first hill they were treading through head high sapling stalks with sunflower discs as big as watering basins. The width of the stalks on the largest sunflowers was as wide as Yuliko’s arm. She picked up a fallen sunflower seed and saw it was the size of her thumb.

And over the next hill the sunflowers were starting to tower over the mo’huran, even Faydayo, the tallest of them. The stalks were so tall now that they could not even rightly tell which direction they were headed. Faydayo had them stop at the top of the next hill so he could reorient.

“Hold on, I got an idea,” Kardan said. And then he jumped up to grab hold of the disc of the biggest sunflower closeby. Amazingly, the stalk supported his full weight, with his pack and all. Kardan then heaved himself up and on top of the big disc. The flower wobbled somewhat, but managed to hold him up. “Haha!” Kardan shouted from up. “Hey, you all gotta come up here. This is incredible.”

Instantly all the others wanted to see the view. Each of them found a big enough sunflower and started to climb up the same way Kardan had.

“Everyone, stay alert,” Faydayo told them. “Don’t get distracted.”

But all of them had fully diverted their attention to climbing the giant flowers. Yuliko was up on top of her sunflower almost as soon as Kardan told them to come up. And she saw that he had been right, the view was incredible; before them lay a widening meadow that just kept spreading down the valley, but farther in there were even bigger flowers. Sunflowers rising up like pappo trees, with great big discs as big as the floor of a hut.

“What are these strange flowers that never stop growing?” Minty wondered aloud for all of them.

“Whatever they are,” Faydayo said, as he was the last to climb onto a sunflower disc. “We should be more cautious as we go forward.”

“You got it, Chief,” Kardan said, jumping into a mocking bow stance towards Faydayo, but to his surprise the sunflower bounced him back up slightly after the jump. “Hey, check that out,” Kardan said. Then he started jumping up and down, bouncing higher each time. “Guys, look at this.” It was as if the stem of the sunflower stalk had the same kind of elasticity found in the rubber tree sap.

Yuliko started bouncing up and down too. “Woah! This is fun!”

Next all of the mo’huran was jumping and hooting with laughter on the bouncy flower stalks. All except Faydayo who kept telling them to quiet down.

“Hyah! Hyah!” Pykor shouted. “It’s like I’m flying!”

“Weee!” Minty hollered. “We need these at home!”

Zana started hopping between two of the sunflower discs with cat-like agility. “Woo! Woo!” She cried.

Even Krissa had joined in the fun. Her beaded hair clacking all over the place as she bounced.

“Will you all stop being so childish!” Faydayo said. “I want to reach the pass before nightfall.”

“Oh, have a little fun,” Krissa said.

“Yeah, man,” Kardan said. “Have you ever done anything even remotely like this be—”

Suddenly Kardan was pulled by his legs down underneath the flower heads. Yuliko stopped bouncing. “Kardan?”

No answer.

“Weee!” Minty cheered, not noticing anything afoot. “Wee—” Then she too was pulled down to the ground beneath the bouncy flowers.

“Everybody stop!” Faydayo yelled, drawing out his war club.

Yuliko saw Zana and Pykor draw their clubs too and swing haphazardly down below their discs. But before Yuliko could draw her antler pick, a leafy hand had wrapped around her ankle, and pulled her down below.