The terrible howl of gale force winds tore me from sleep in the early hours of the morning. Whistling air roared through every open balcony door and window in the whole structure, whipping the plants in my room into a frenzy. Even as I groggily clawed my way to full consciousness the foliage was being shredded, leaves and flower petals swirling out into the night through the window.

“Shit!” I swore, scrambling to secure both of the packs and all the loose items that were laying on the grassy floor. Some of my clothes had already gone flying out the window by the looks of things.

I stuffed everything into the packs and secured them by growing several vines over the top of them. They weren’t my primary concern however, Grace was, and before the vines had finished growing I was rushing out the door, across the common room and up the stairs. I burst out into the greenhouse completely out of breath, but that didn’t stop me from stumbling across to the large yellow flower in the center.

My shaking hands landed on one of the petals with gentle apprehension, sensing through with my mage sight. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that none of the wild magic outside was making it to Grace, she was safe.

For now.

I just had to secure the tree first, which meant that task number one would be putting the huge gate in. I’d also need to figure out a way to deal with the windows, as already half of the window leaves had been torn out all across the tree. I might need to just grow crystal bark over each opening for the duration of the storm, but I’d need to wait for growth energy to start filtering down into the aquifer.

Rushing down the stairs two at a time, I was out of breath by the time I made it down to the entry hall. Everyone always talked about how running up stairs was hard, but they never mentioned that running down them was just as hard, for different reasons. The hall was a mess, leaves and flowers and everything else were strewn all over the place. It looked like the tops of my windbreak trees had made it into the foyer.

The new doors were intact however, still safe where they had been laying on the floor. So using my telekinesis I began to push them into position, struggling against the wind the whole time. Rain was beginning to find its way inside now too, causing the floor to become slick and dangerous.

As I was about to seal the doorway, a procession of buns rushed through, each one carrying a gourd full of water. Water lapping at the edges with every hop. There were like, twenty of the little friends, all tottering through in a line on their hind legs. What the hell were my buns up to now?

Whatever, I needed to get this job done, then I could figure out whatever harebrained scheme they were up to. Making sure that there weren’t any buns left outside in the storm, I pushed the door into place with my mind.

Using my magic and the first trickle of growth energies coming up from below, I was able to mold the entryway to accommodate the door and lock it in place.

The moment I released my telekinesis they crashed open again with a boom and I was sent stumbling backwards as howling wind and driving rain slapped me in the face. Crap! I hadn’t put a lock bar in place!

Thinking fast, I rushed back to the storage room and threw several logs into the way, using them to block the doors closed. It would have to do for now, I needed to rush up the tree and fix all the windows.

Thankfully the crystal in the downstairs balcony and upstairs greenhouses seemed to be holding well, so I altered the plans of my tree further to cover all the openings with either crystal or plain wood. It was exhausting work on so little sleep, and I vowed to pay a carpenter to make me some damned windows once we made it to Millowhall.

Growth energy was everywhere now outside, gushing up out of the soil as my plants generated it on a massive scale. I had more of them this time too, hidden everywhere that I’d needed them. The water reserves under my plateau were rapidly becoming saturated in the stuff, and it was very obviously going to become a problem.

A problem that I had absolutely no idea how to solve.

Wait, the buns…

What had they been up to?

Shit!

“Hey!” I called, rushing for the stairs. “You’d better not be doing what I think you’re doing!”

I took the stairs two at a time, fuelled by worry for Grace. God damn, I really needed to figure out a solution to the whole stairs thing. Where the hell as Esra when you needed her?

Rushing back out into the greenhouse, ready to collapse, I yelled, “Hey! What are you doing?”

The scene before me would have been comical if my heart hadn’t been pounding with worry.

A swarm of bunnies surrounding Grace’s flower holding gourds and other containers, most of which were now empty, save one or two which were full of growth magic imbued water. They all froze when I yelled and turned to look at me, little noses twitching as they stared.

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Making eye contact, one cheeky little bun poured out the last of its water, the trickle of magically charged liquid slowly pattering into the soil.

“You… you… oh my goodness,” I sighed, leaning heavily against the wall as the storm continued to rage and batter at the tree. I could barely see outside with all the rain running down the windows.

I slid to the floor with a groan, enjoying the vibrations of the storm shaking the tree as it helped with my stiff, tired muscles. I’d been running and leaping up and down stairs all morning and my limbs were now making their displeasure known. I couldn’t stop the buns now, they’d already gone and poured the stuff all over her. I could see the growth magic being sucked greedily in by the roots of Grace’s flower.

The buns seemed to take my exhaustion as an invitation to cuddle, hopping over in a swarm. One by one they flopped down onto their sides next to me, or in a few cases splooting, their back legs stretching out behind them. No amount of cute antics was going to save them from a stern talking to though.

“You lot need to be asking permission before you go messing around, alright?” I frowned at them, getting nothing but twitching noses in reply.

With a sigh, I attempted to calm down a little. The flower seemed to be fine for the moment, but something told me I’d need a blanket for her sooner rather than later.

Growth magic accelerated pretty much everything it touched, and I highly doubted that her transformation would be an exception here. I just hoped that it wouldn’t hurt her or mess up the processes as they were sped up.

With a wince I pushed myself back to my feet and sliping free of the flop, I stumbled down to the bedroom to grab a blanket for my friend. She’d undoubtedly be as naked as I had been when I came out of my fruit, assuming that’s what was happening now.

When I arrived in the bedroom it was mercifully free of wind, although I was going to need to move everything to a different one because it was absolutely trashed. The wind had torn all the foliage apart as it was forced into the tight quarters of the tree’s interior.

Blanket in hand, I stumbled back up to the greenhouse, finding that many of the buns had mysteriously disappeared, while the remaining ones were loafed on the floor staring at the flower. A flower that was moving ever so slightly, independently of the wind that was shaking the whole tree.

Slowing to a stop, I froze as I saw what was happening. Was she really, actually going to be coming out of her flower now? It certainly looked like it with the way the petals were slowly peeling away at the top.

I stood there with bated breath as one by one, the petals slowly pulled away from the center. It was almost graceful the way they curled and fell away, each one coming to rest gently against the ground. A figure was slowly revealed within, huddled in a fetal position and unmoving.

“Grace?” I asked, stepping forward tentatively, heart aching in my chest. Had she flowered too early?

When she shifted slightly, letting out a tiny groan, I felt the first bloom of relief hit me, and suddenly I was swallowing back a lump in my throat. “Grace!”

I rushed over to her where she was relaxing out of her huddle, eyes blinking blearily as she looked around the place. She was indeed very naked, as I’d suspected she might be, although I couldn’t see much, as she had her back to me. She wasn’t covered in any gross gunk like I had been though, instead she just smelled overwhelmingly of lilies.

“Ryn?” she croaked, her voice husky with disuse.

That was all my emotional heart needed to overflow, sending a sob bubbling up my throat and tears tracking down my face. I rushed the last few steps and hugged her blanket-first, clinging desperately as though she might vanish at any moment.

Incoherent noises of relief and heartache came pouring out of me as I cried and cuddled up to her. I hadn’t even realised how much I’d missed her, how much I’d been worried that it would all go wrong until just now. It was like I’d been compressed under high pressure without noticing, and now suddenly I was free of it. Without the bubbles in my blood, obviously. Deep sea divers had to slowly reacclimate themselves to lower pressures again after— nevermind.

Her arms were shaky as they came up to hold me in return, and I realised I was being all theatrical while she was still figuring her new self out. “Sorry!” I blurted, pushing away slightly with a wet sniffle. “I missed you.”

My mind stuttered to a halt when I got a proper look at her. She still looked like Grace, but she also… didn’t. It was like someone who was really good at image manipulation had gone over her and removed any and all flaws in her face. Her skin was perfect, her cheekbones were just a little higher, her eyes just a little bigger and brighter, her lashes just a little longer.

It was everything, including her hair. The outside layer was the same blonde as before, but her red and blue dyed highlights were gone. Instead, the inner layers of her hair were green and blue, so that if she shifted slightly the colours would peek through. The changes had me breathless with awe. She’d been amazing before… but now she was… amazing times two, or three. Maybe more.

“Oh Ryn, you’re a mess… I’m sorry,” she apologised tiredly, one of her hands reaching up to brush gently through my hair in a way that had my heart soaring with happiness. “I’m back now though,” she continued, guilt lacing her voice. “I’m sorry I left you for a week, I… shit, look at you. I didn’t think… I just. Crap, I don’t have any excuses.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I hiccuped, still staring at her in amazement. “I don’t care, you’re back now… and it wasn’t a full week either.”

“Wait, it wasn’t?” she asked, confusion entering her expression.

I turned my focus very pointedly to the buns that had come to sit around us. “They watered your flower with growth magic infused water from the storm. It’s only been like four days.”

Grace’s confusion shifted to a grin and she reached over to pat one of the buns between the ears. “Cheers little dudes. I think you saved Ryn from a lot more of my mistake.”

“Please, it sucked but I don’t want to let it ruin seeing you again,” I asked her, hoping she’d put it to rest.

“Alright, sorry,” she murmured, leaning in against me. “I feel so weak and tired.”

“Do you want to wash up and then head to bed?” I asked, wrapping her up in my arms again. “It’s the middle of the night and the tree is all secured against the storm. I’m pretty damn tired too.”

“Yeah, I think a bath would be good,” she said, her head rocking on my shoulder as she nodded. This felt so nice, my heart already felt whole again. Chuckling a little, she mumbled, “Looks like the flower did its job though, you aren’t getting all horny.”

“Yeah,” I said, breathing her in with a smile. Then I perked up when I realised something, something I’d promised her a while back. “I put showers in! You can have a shower!”

“Really?” she asked excitedly. “Oh my god, please show me, I like baths, but the feel of a shower…”

“Come on, they’re in every bath,” I said, wobbling to my feet, then helping her up too. To the buns I gave them all a stern look and ordered, “Move the bed to a different room please and clean it up for us?”

Ear flick salutes all around.