Boreal, Zalia, Delphi and Ro-ak stood side by side at the edge of the new island they were here to explore. They had left the keep and the ruins of the Bathar city Hetheir soon after Delphi had pronounced that they would find not only “that which grows” which Zalia had taken to be some type of herb or plant but also the remnants of a god. Both were things that Zalia definitely wanted to find.

Why Delphi had not told them about this earlier, they would not say. Either way, Boreal wasn’t much bothered. She knew that she could trust Zalia to lead them, the feeling even stronger after Zalia had taken a blade through the chest for her. Her cracked ribs had long healed now but the feeling of Zalia’s healing pushing away the throbbing pain only leant further to her love of the tall one.

The island before them was forested much as the one that held their cave home was, only it was much thicker. As they began moving into the woods, Zalia strode through the thick undergrowth with barely a hint of effort, her long legs lending her greater mobility. Boreal on the other hand, struggled somewhat more with her short legs, having to jump up and down over obstructions that Zalia could simply step over. Boreal used her shadow teleport to keep up but couldn’t help but be envious of Delphi’s place on Zalia’s shoulder.

“Does the collective have any memories of bread?” Zalia asked into the air.

She had been doing that a lot as of late but she knew that Delphi was having a conversation with her. Boreal had had her own mental conversations with Delphi as well, though their topics strayed far from the worries on Zalia’s mind.

Jumping over a log, Boreal crouched behind it and looked back waiting. When Ro hopped over, Boreal pounced, causing her friend to jump back in alarm before realising it was her. Meanwhile, she nonchalantly sat, cleaning her paw. Ro gave her a look that she knew meant she would receive payback for that one later but she didn’t mind. Their little games definitely made the days much less tedious. She loved Zalia but she could be awfully serious sometimes.

“It’s a pretty basic food that my people very commonly eat. I just realised I haven’t had it in quite a while and am kinda craving it,” Zalia said.

Ignoring the half conversation she could hear, Boreal peered into the woods around herself, trying to find something interesting. She saw a little plant pad sitting on the ground and padded up to inspect it. She gave it a sniff but couldn’t identify anything weird about it. It looked squishy, soft like a nice patch of grass. She lifted one paw and poked at the pad and it instantly snapped closed around her front leg. She was about to give a loud meow of alarm when she got pulled off her feet and got the breath knocked out of her.

“I wish I could but I don’t really have the ingredients to make it here. I’d need some kind of raising agent and a type of flour,” Zalia continued saying.

The pad turned trap started being pulled through the woods, dragging Boreal with it. Recovering her breath she managed to start struggling and began furiously scratching at it.

“Help!” she mentally said to Zalia.

“Maybe I could make Bitterb-” Zalia said, cutting off, “Boreal whatever you and Ro are doing ba- Oh, shit!”

She cut off as she noticed Boreal being dragged away by the leg. With a sound like a drop of water hitting a pool, Zalia appeared right next to Boreal, already swinging with her sword.

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Zalia swung a second time at the vine holding Boreal and finally cut through. She quickly checked their surroundings to see if there was any threat and seeing none, levered off the pad that was firmly wrapped around Boreal’s leg.

“What the hell is this?” Zalia asked.

Boreal sent an image of her prodding the pad with her leg, a feeling of shame attached to it.

“Your curiosity is going to get you killed some day, I swear,” Zalia reprimanded.

She held up the piece of plant and inspected it.

Living Trapvine - Bronze rank - Use in a ritual to add an element of Mind.

“Element of Mind, that could be cool,” Zalia muttered.

She glared at Boreal once more who for her part looked regretful, regretful yet too damn cute.

“It’s alright Boreal, it’s bound to happen. You just have to be a little more careful, ok?” Zalia said.

“Mreow,” Boreal replied softly.

“I know it looks comfortable but there is a lot of danger here. We don’t know anything about this island,” Zalia explained.

Boreal let out a quiet mew.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It’s alright, you don’t need to apologise, just take care of yourself,” Zalia said with a sigh.

Zalia turned away, inspecting the plant but she didn’t miss Ro-ak hopping over to comfort Boreal out of the corner of her eye. Unfortunately her Herbal magic ability wouldn’t be able to tell her the uses for the new plant until she reached Bronze rank but the element of Mind could be super useful to her. Even just considering the two herb combinations she may be able to perform with it made her excited. Something such as mixing Frozen Heart and the trapvine could possibly provide a type of mental healing. Something that might even be able to heal the trauma those men in the army camp suffered from.

She put the thought aside and stored the piece of plant in her Stasis ability’s storage and looked back to their surroundings. After she had chopped the vine it had simply fallen to the floor inert, as if she had cut off its head. It felt off to her that it would keep whatever allowed it to live in the part of it that was the trap. It had also been dragging Boreal off somewhere else which made her think it might be a smaller part of a whole. Maybe whatever it was actually had a bigger central part to it.

She explained her thoughts to her companions and began carefully following the vine limb. It led on a winding path for a few hundred metres until Zalia saw where exactly it led. She didn't know what lived in this forest that the monstrosity before her fed upon but there must be something for it to have grown this large. Growing out the top of a large stone structure sat a bulb with flower leaves spiralling outwards from the central hole in its top. Coming out of the hole were perhaps six dozen different vine lengths, each spreading out to a different section of the forest.

She observed it quietly before retreating into the forest to think. The stone structure that the bulb was growing out of had a symbol that she recognised from the city ruins back on the other island. It was the Y shaped crows foot stylised like a tree only this one was a metal fascia that sat upon the wall above the entrance to the building.

As they retreated, Ro-ak spoke for the first time in a long time.

“A piece. Find the piece,” Ro-ak croaked.

“A piece?” Zalia said questioningly.

“A piece,” Ro-ak agreed.

“A piece of what?” she asked.

There was no response as Ro looked away and went back to his normal self. She was momentarily frustrated by the vagueness of the words but remembered Delphi’s own. The remnants of a god. Might she find a piece of whoever the god was that spoke through Ro?

She already had the altar dedicated to the god back in her cave but a remnant may mean something else. With that in mind she decided she would definitely need to find a way into that building. The best chances of that happening unfortunately lay in the killing of this sentient plant. Something about that didn’t quite sit right with her however, an instinct telling her that doing such a thing would be wrong.

Alright then, maybe she could remove it from the building or at least befriend it. If it could even move. Or be befriended.

“Know what this thing is?” Zalia asked Delphi.

“This is that which grows,” Delphi replied.

“No way, do you know what it is,” Zalia repeated.

“The collective has never come across this plant life before but we have seen that a peaceful arrangement is possible,” Delphi said.

“Why don’t you tell me these things before I ask you?” Zalia asked with frustration in her voice.

“I already told you that knowing what is to come may change the very future that was seen. Unless what we see is disastrous there is no need to change the memories to come,” Delphi explained.

“I guess that is fair enough,” Zalia admitted.

Delphi was silent though she could tell they wanted to say more. Maybe there was something they couldn’t say lest it break the future they deemed to be ‘non disastrous’. It seemed like a terribly frustrating way to live now that she thought about it, knowing the future yet unable to voice it lest the new future be worse.

“Didn’t you say that Those Born of the Watery Depths often came to the collective to see their futures?” Zalia asked.

“I did and that was the truth. Only rarely would we tell them anything and only when deemed important to do so by the collective. If I were to deviate from what I’m allowed to say without the collective wisdom of thousands of cycles to guide my words, I may cause a tragedy. It has happened before,” Delphi explained.

“So you could tell me more if you were with the collective?” Zalia asked.

“Maybe, the importance is in knowing what is safe to say and what is not. Separate from them I do not know,” Delphi replied.

It… made sense. As much as she would like to know the future she would just have to trust that Delphi and the collective knew better. Hell, they definitely knew better considering just how long they must have been peering into the future and preserving those memories in the minds of their next generations.

“Right, you said that a peaceful arrangement is possible?” Zalia asked.

“Yes, though I cannot say how. This you must figure out yourself,” Delphi said.

Well that was great. She would just have to trust in her druidic instincts, they had gotten her through similar trials before. She would just need to figure out what she could offer to a large, possibly carnivorous, living bulb that lived in an ancient temple to a long dead god. How hard could that be?

“Got any ideas Boreal?” Zalia asked, turning to where Boreal was politely sitting and waiting for her to think.

“Mreow?” Boreal asked questioningly.

“Oh, right. Any ideas on what we can give this giant plant thing that will make it friendly towards us?” She amended.

“Friend?” Boreal said questioningly.

“That is the plan, yes,” Zalia said.

Boreal looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up. Despite Zalia knowing Boreal was quite intelligent, this was obviously not something she was good at.

“Feed?” Boreal suggested.

“That’s certainly an idea, yes," Zalia replied dryly.

Boreal looked up at her expectantly.

“Alright, we’ll try it,” Zalia conceded.