They stood sweating and exhausted above the corpse of the Fluffy.

“A successful killing of a Fluffy.” Onion celebrated while tiny turnips sprouted among his roots. He surveyed the new growths “This is a once in a lifetime experience.”

“We’ll want to harvest the meat.” Mrs. Strawberry asserted, she grabbed her Tattered butcher blade and started to slice of chunks of meat. Devourer joined her in the work effort while the other members of the party cleaned up themselves and Eli. The blue cub was none the worse for wear, he squirmed and attempted to escape the Derkaz’s tongue bath but after a futile effort to get away he submitted to the grooming with a glower.

Once cleanup had finished Onion and Descendre studied the felled behemoth until the party was ready to move on, the Silken and Derkaz still in deep discussion about their findings and how the information might help others combat the Fluffies. They stopped their discussion when they crested a mountain. The two stopped short.

“We got a fully mature Fluffy.” The cat hissed out in frustration.

Mrs. Strawberry climbed down from her Eulb beetle to look over the edge and saw the towering Fluffy. She was not the only one who stared in shock at its size. Its fleshy petals were as big as a bus, most of the eyes on the petals were closed.

Devourer whistled quietly at the creature “Anybody wanna try to take this one out?”

“Now is not the time to be stupid.” Gus stated.

The three-eared gentleman stuck out his tongue “Aw, come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

Gus ignored the obvious attempt at silliness as he inspected the beast. “Forty-six meters high, and all designed towards raining destruction from above. Even one shot would wipe us from the off this cliff.”

“One hundred and fifty feet…” Mrs. Strawberry mentally did the unit conversion from meters to feet. “That means this Fluffy is roughly the same height as the Statue of Liberty in my world.”

The monolith creature swayed in winds too high up for the party to feel, the flesh petals swaying and flapping in the wind like sails on a giant ship. The gleaming bones that were stuck between the folds made it clear that getting too close would mean death. A small group of fowl were surprised by Eli and took off in surprise, before they were a meter off the ground, roots caught them and yanked them under the earth.

Devourer stared at the close proximity of near death and took a careful step back. “Maybe we take an alternative route.”

Eli tried to snap at the feathers left floating in the air.

The adventurers took a different path and found more monoliths of death. In the end they just moved incredibly slowly and carefully as they moved between the territories of the Fluffies. They had found that Fluffies were territorial and witnessed two of the tentacled titans go into a knock down drag out fight. It had started simply from red roots crossing into the area of another’s. After the smaller one withdrew to lick its wounds, the vacated area was free to travel. With a little observation they were able to figure out the borders that they could traverse. After a time, the distant snapping of petals and creaking of Fluffy armor plating rubbing against itself became background noise around the group.

The adventurers spoke in hushed voices when necessary but tried to keep it to a minimum, following Onion’s hand gestures to avoid imminent death.

It was several hours before they were able to find a small oasis of safety among the deadly sea of red roots. It was roughly a hundred acres of forest with fresh air and a pleasant unfamiliar scent. There was a distinct green border of plants and moss where the red roots abruptly were absent. The lush trees sent out an alluring coolness that made the travelers breath a sigh of relief as they stepped onto the unexpected safety.

“We could take a break here for a bit.” Descendre suggested with an odd gleam in her eyes, she raised her nose to sniff the air. She moved through the broad-leafed plants that were still covered with dew from the night before, there was the chatter of various forest creatures as they went about their various activities, the trees muffling the sound of the Fluffies all around. The Derkaz stretched and clawed the bark a tree with a look of satisfaction on her face. She sniffed the air again that gleam still in her eyes as she announced. “Smells safe.”

Gus surveyed the moss-covered flat boulders with an appraising eye. He looked to the two mounts, neither appeared to smell anything dangerous, the beetle started shoving various felled trees and rocks into a nest shape and hunkered down in the middle with a contented chitter. The Mottoy took that as a sign that no nearby danger was imminent “Everyone, get some rest. We need to unwind and relax, but not take too long. We still have a long ways to go.”

“Nice to feel safe for a little bit.” Onion hopped along the bases of the trees until he found a bare patch of earth and sank his roots into the ground with a happy little hum, once settled he lifted his tail up and it twined into a large tree above him. He started to snore quietly.

Gus pulled the saddle from his ant-horse and started to cleaning down the steed’s exoskeleton with a stiff brush. Eli decided to help by grabbing a large leaf in his mouth and tried to rub the leg of the equestrian insect.

“Well, I can start making some food, no reason to forget to fill our stomachs.” Devourer stated as he unpacked the food. He whistled a happy little tune to himself as he chopped tubers and sliced meat. Once he completed meal prep, he put them in a large pan over a fire and started cooking the food. Once the juices of the various ingredients were hissing on the heated metal he took a quick bite, smacked his lips and then add another spice of heat, another tasting and then a finely chopped a bright red herb that he dropped among the cooking food. Mrs. Strawberry watched his activities with a bemused and proud smile.

Descendre sidled up to her and asked, “Have you ever smelled that scent before?”

“Scent?” The ranger asked. She took a deep breath through her nose. All the normal scents of a forest surrounded her, she pushed those familiar smells away and found the one unique scent she had noticed when they first arrived in this haven “What is that smell, it makes me think of cinnamon and honey.”

“We should investigate it.” The cat suggested with that same gleam that had flickered in her eye when they first entered. “As soon as possible. It’ll only a few minutes, promise!” Descendre assured her.

The cook looked to the other members of the party all engrossed in their own way of relaxing, she looked at the Derkaz; this was the first time Descendre had asked for anything for herself. It was a good way to encourage the cat to communicate her needs and wants, without a second thought the granny grabbed her pan and announced, “Me and Descendre are going to pick some herbs, should be back shortly.”

“Where are they going?” Onion asked curiously from his horizontal position among the moss. “Is it safe?”

Devourer took a bite of cooking Fluffy meat and pondered the flavor before adding some pepper to the protein, he let the flavors dance along his tongue before answering “No clue, but I am sure it’ll be fine.”

-

The shade of the trees above and the cool vegetation all around was a welcome relief for the two females, among the vegetation were creatures scurrying and chittering. Mrs. Strawberry relaxed as forest sounds surrounded her. Moss and mushrooms grew in abundance among the roots of the tall trees. Descendre prowled ahead sniffing; just when the cook was about call out to the cat the feline returned to circle around the woman with a purr. “Isn’t this a great way to unwind?”

“Yes, it is a pleasant unwind activity.” The cook noted with smile in her voice. “You’re in a good mood today.”

The t-shaped irises of the cat were larger than usual, dilated in a similar fashion to a child on caffeine “Oh?” she sniffed the air “You think so?” she made a tiny hop with all four feet. “I am just feeling pouncy and happy.”

“Ah.” Mrs. Strawberry said in a non-committal tone.

The Derkaz was oblivious to the cook’s noncommittal response and continued speaking a-mile-a-minute “Usually I’m so busy keeping Devourer out of trouble that I forget to relax.”

“He does seem a handful.” The ranger acknowledged while picking up a mushroom, she smelled it before she stowed it in her side satchel.

The cook’s words made Descendre to pause, she contemplated the observation before verbalizing her thoughts “He’s my best friend.” She sat down to face the woman “When I was a kit my Derkaz pride found a habitable territory. It happened to be in the same territory of an Auris pod, the adults from both species got along well, but the very young Aurises; the earlings were less pleasant. Devourer protected me from them.”

“Sounds like he did a lot for you.”

“Still does a lot for me.” The cat corrected. “He captures a small rodent species called Sdrow for me. Helps keep the pigment in my fur coat dark.” She demonstrated it by changing her fur color from sky blue to navy blue. “The Sdrow are incredibly abundant everywhere, however they can smell a Derkaz from miles away and scurry away from our species before we can get close.”

“And Devourer can get close and catch them easily.” Mrs. Strawberry finished.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The cat flicked her tail to snatch a flying bug from the air. “Exactly.”

“Is that why he always goes off on his morning runs and comes back with sticks and grass in his cuffs?” The cook asked, she had noted it a few times on their journey, but hadn’t brought it up.

“Willing to even mess up his perfect outfit for his friend.” The cat admitted. “Oh…” the Derkaz’s words were abruptly sluggish “We are really close to the herb.” Her words becoming even slower “Now just follow the scent and keep your pan out and be ready to bonk whatever you see.” She yawned and her head tilted to the side as she added. “And you’ll want to pick the entire plant, with the dirt and everything else included.” With a great deal of effort, she crawled beneath some oversized leaves as she murmured the last sentence. “You only get one chance at this. So, make it count.” her deep blue fur blended into shadows as she started to snore.

Mrs. Strawberry watched the peacefully sleeping cat thoughtfully, she could drag the cat back to the camp, but the Derkaz had been expecting this sleepiness to occur. And this was the first time the feline had asked for something for herself. “Only get once chance.” The cook repeated to herself. She spun her pan and dismissed any doubts, the ranger oriented towards the source of the scent and started hiking.

The cat had been right, it was not a long distance to reach the herb, it had however taken longer than a few minutes. Mrs. Strawberry had to pull herself up a vertical stone wall using vines growing from the trees high above. In a few places she had been required to smack away some type of venomous squirrel type creature; the animal had attempted to drop onto her from above, she’d grabbed the tail of the creature before it could dig its oversized claws into her shoulder, she had swung the creature against the stone wall a few times and dropped it as more of the creatures fell towards her. She grabbed her frying pan and started playing a deadly game of tennis while holding onto her vine.

After that little skirmish the rest of the ascent was uneventful. Just had to avoid a bellowing snail made of fire, bonk a few snakes that attempted to strike her from a hole in a tree and cross another singing stream.

It was as she was shaking the broken fangs of the serpents out of her pan that she caught the strong scent of the plant she had been searching for.

She pushed aside some of the large leaves and finally saw the source of the scent. It was much smaller than she had expected. Only the size of a dandelion. She knelt down to inspect the delicate flora; it resembled a fiddlehead in shape, in color it was pink and white. “Hello, dearie.” She said to the fragile plant as she delicately dug around the roots. She stowed it in one of her pouches and then turned back the way she had come.

Halfway on her return trip paused to enjoy the pleasant smells of the forest. After the pause she started back towards Descendre. That is when an annoyed voice was heard.

“HALT!” A tall male ordered as he stepped from behind a tree with a glower on his face. He was skinny to the point of emaciated, and he held a long dart gun between his long thin fingers. “THIEF!”

Mrs. Strawberry looked the yellow skinned creature up and down before speaking “Thief?”

“YES!” the male shouted. The cook was beginning to suspect this creature could only communicate at full volume. He was wearing some unrealistically long, white robes, his hair was perfectly combed and shiny. He attempted to shout but his voice cracked and he had to take a sip from a flagon crafted of glass and gold. Once his thirst was suitably quenched his words were authoritative “You have stolen my people’s most sacred of plants!!! The plants that I care for with the utmost care.”

Mrs. Strawberry raised a querying eyebrow at the use of ‘care’ twice, an overemphasis, she looked at the creature’s impeccably clean fingers. She met his blue eyes and said sweetly, “Oh, you care for the plant?”

“Yes!” the thin creature snapped in annoyance. He was clearly unhappy with her presence and was even more unhappy that she didn’t appear bothered by his abrupt appearance, “We set up spells to summons monsters to kill any would-be thieves, we set up enchantments to make anyone who knows the plant’s name fall asleep when they get close, all sorts of nasty things that we’ve built through the centuries.”

“That sounds very grueling.” The granny acknowledged.

The robed figure swept his hand down dramatically “It is! And you just ruined all that work by stealing that plant!”

The cook decided to change tactics, the creature clearly believed himself to be of high society, she could use that to her advantage, her words became cordial “My name is Mrs. Strawberry, what is yours?”

The creature paused. “Um… It’s Riah of the Diputs.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Riah.” Mrs. Strawberry responded.

The birds in the trees made screeches of alarm, rodents squeaked running to their burrows for safety. Riah turned his attention to the sound and refocused on the thief. He pointed an accusing finger at the old woman “Only the Diputs can touch the plant, you are trespassing!”

“Why are your fingers so clean?” The ranger inquired ignoring his statement, she showed her own hands covered in dirt and grime. “This is from digging up the plant, just a few moments and these are just dirty.” She met the creature’s eyes, her expression and voice making it clear that she knew he was lying. “I’ve worked on plants for several decades and I have never been able to keep my hands clean. Even after I wash them, they still are discolored. How ever did you do that?”

“I’m very careful to keep clean.” He retorted.

“Ah, and the reason why the plant wasn’t in any protection from wild animals or other plants?” Mrs. Strawberry drove the question home by taking a step towards the ‘plant guardian’, she didn’t wait for the answer “You know what I think? I think you care more about keeping this plant to yourself than you do caring for it.”

The creature’s eyes narrowed “I think you talk too much!”

As he said it several more of his kind emerged from behind trees, all with their blow guns pointed at her. She surveyed the creatures “Ah, I was wondering when the rest of you were going to make an appearance.”

“You knew they were there?” Riah was skeptical.

The cook held her own weapon firmly “I’m a ranger, I knew you were all here long before you arrived.” She took a step back, the creatures all around her took a step closer. “You lot, make more noise than a herd of elephants charging through a river. Also, I noticed all your little traps and knew that there was somebody that would show up if I waited long enough.”

“Why didn’t you run?” he sneered out the question.

“Oh, it’s a perfectly simple explanation.” Mrs. Strawberry explained as she took another step back. The white robed creatures took another step towards her, their weapons aimed at her.

“What’s the explanation?” he asked with a patronizing smirk.

She stopped and looked at enemy around her, “It was important to stay in one spot.”

Riah impatiently snapped out his question, “WHY!?”

She met his eyes as she knocked over a branch “For the trap.”

“Wha—” he started to ask. His words were cut short as his world abruptly turned upside down. The Diputs flew into the air as the trap was sprung.

The ranger watched the uppity enemy thrash in their white robes and their perfectly primped hair became disheveled, she looked them over “I saw the bones of those you caught in your territory. It’s tragic you would kill someone that reached this oasis of safety. Those of us that have seen the worst things in the world should be the most welcoming.”

“Let us down!” Riah ordered, somehow still looking arrogant even while upside down and fully enmeshed in the body encasing trap.

Mrs. Strawberry walked over to the stump and pushed away some moss to reveal a summoning stone. “This rock is similar to one I found while climbing a cliff to get here. It summoned up the most nasty of creatures.” She met the Diputs’s eyes. “All it took was the lightest brush of the skin.”

“You can’t!” the thin creature gasped in horror. “We are a kind and benign race, attempting to keep safe a sacred plant!”

“You’re right.” Mrs. Strawberry nodded her head in agreement. The tension of the Diputs melted away. The granny added “You know, if you are ‘kind and benign’ then this rock will summon puppies. Right?”

Riah gulped “Of, of, of course.”

“If it’s puppies it should be fine to activate it then, right?” she asked with a grim glint in her eyes.

“Right!” he rushed to agree, “No need to activate it!”

“Do you know what someone once told me?” she asked in a conversational tone.

He shook his head. “No.”

“It just popped into my head, probably has no relation to this scenario, but I should say it all the same, you know us old people, we gotta say what’s on our minds.” She held his eyes as she recited the words of a woman long lost “Those of us that have seen the darkest nights should always be the ones that strive to show others the light.”

The male gulped realizing the import of the words, “Don’t.”

Mrs. Strawberry ran her fingers across the rock and calmly walked away from the ring of murderers.

The Diputs screamed behind her.

She did not look back, “Guess they weren’t puppies.”

-

Descendre blinked her eyes open as motes of sunlight snuck between her long eyelashes. Above her crouched the cook. The granny had a look of concern, once the feline stretched and rose up the look changed to one of reproach "You knew that you were going to fall asleep and that the Diputs were going to come hunting for us."

"Yes." the Derkaz admitted rising up to her full height "But I had the utmost confidence in you defeating them."

The ranger's expression of reproach deepened "Oh, I appreciate the faith." She tapped the cat's collar bone with her pan, hard enough to make the cat hiss in displeasure. The cook's voice was hard. "But what would have happened if they killed you off before they came to find me?"

The dark cat's mouth opened in response then closed while she tried to find an answer.

"I can handle myself," The chef acknowledged "But I can't do much if you end up dead because I'm not around. That was a Devourer stunt."

Descendre was visibly hurt by the words. "It wasn't that bad." She retorted. "I did warn you."

"You could have warned me to be careful at the campsite and sent me on my way!!!" The cook snapped. "I would have been safe, I could have followed the smell and you would have been safe, and I wouldn't have had to book it back here just to be sure you weren't killed by another party of murderous guardians."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that." the Derkaz admitted abashedly.

Now that she was no longer worried about the cat Mrs. Strawberry's words were more gentle, a more grandmotherly rebuke,

"And that is why I called it a Devourer stunt. Next time something like this happens you make sure I am properly warned and then see to your own safety. Agreed?"

The cat ducked her head in embarrassment and then like a cat pressed herself up against the woman and purred out "Agreed."

-

At the campsite Devourer saw the two females and started dishing up their food "Food is gonna be more mushy cause you are late." His tone was apologetic.

Gus looked at the two returning party members over "You got into a fight."

Onion perked up at this and darted around the cook and Derkaz, peering up at them inquisitively "You do seem tired but glowing with success at the same time."

"Wait..." The Auris paused, holding their plates of food just out of their reach. "Gus is right, did you both on an adventure without us?"

The granny opened her pouches, pulling out seventeen of the little pale plants. "Yes, you are correct."

"You got more?" the cat asked in astonishment.

Devourer looked around at everyone "I feel like you all recognize this plant. What's so important?"

"Cures wounds, tastes amazing." Onion said, he leaned forward to attempt to take a nibble, Descendre interposed her clawed tail between him and the flora. "This is enough to grow our own crop. Until that happens no snacking."

"That's not fair!" Onion griped.

"There are a lot of legends about that vegetation." Gus added, he hunkered down to inspect the leaves. "Some..." his words trailed off as he became engrossed in his study.

"Some what?" Devourer prodded.

The Mottoy looked up at the Auris. "Hmmm, oh, nothing important." He stood up sharply, adjusting his broad brimmed mushroom hat. "You two are probably famished, best to get you fed." He took the food from the three-eared gentleman and handed to the grateful females. "Eat up. We need to be heading out soon."

Devourer looked at the fungus knight speculatively, the gears in his mind processing the Mottoy's words, before he good get much traction he was distracted by Mrs. Strawberry oohing and ahhing over his successful meal. His attention turned to the food and they were discussing different flavors and possible additions to his meal as they started break down the camp and prepare for the journey.

Gus and Onion shared a look.

Onion pursed his lips and looked at the little plant with a great deal of apprehension.