“Thank you dear for being here, but if it is too much for you…”

“I am not leaving your side. Before doing that I will want to become something similar to you if you do not come back to me, do you understand?”

“...Leaf… I will be back for you. Nothing will stop me from being with you forever.”

Why do I feel they are saying their last words to each other, stop that! You might jinx the whole thing! I am unsure myself now, look what you did!

“To be able to become the best of what you want to be, trust Null. If you do not trust and accept what he is giving you, then you might break. The definite way to being like me is having an open mind and being ready for change. Okay?”

Snow, I do not know what you are trying to say. I hope your idea is really the reason someone does not break, otherwise I have two broken Root here and I would hate to see that.

“Are you ready? I mean all of you.”

Leafy still holds Petals hand. Shivering like a lonely leaf in a storm is right fitting for her state right now. Finally she lets the hand go and it sinks into the Biomass, filled especially with plant materials.

“Ready.”

Petal says she is ready, but am I? Even I am a bit shivering, but what can I do? While the dark Portal is hovering inside the Room, Petal already has become used to it somewhat. I pull the spirit of the Tombstone flower out. Maybe I should have used the one Guard I already have. This will be risky.

“I will now fuse now the Flower with you. Please be ready and try to accept it with all your heart.”

“I will see you after my rebirth my love.”

With a smile Petal closes her eyes. Please let it not go horribly wrong.

…

“Searching for someone?”

“Huh? Oh no Lord! I just thought I might have seen someone I know. Must have been mistaken.”

Yeah sure Mr. Spy. You were to retrieve Rotts plaything, but are too late, not even bones are still there. Keep it up and you might go the same way.

“Would be rather strange, as the people here are mostly Farmers. A Mercenary like you never bat an eye for their profession, are you not?”

“You are right Lord! I should go back to the Caravan before I get deducted my pay for lazing around. Have a great day!”

The Peddler are back. No Elane or other open members of their Caste. Don’t they want some more eggs? Well maybe they think I would not have enough luck to get more of them. Right now I have some, but will not sell them, as I want them for myself. Two more Cockatrice have been hatched, and I must say those little newly hatched chicks… are ugly as hell. No feathers and looking like some kind of fat turkey with bumpy skin.

Right now I rather not antagonize the Cockatrice, as they are on a war path keeping the young safe. Even the other Monsters hide right now. They are angry!

Seems like those were the last Eggs for a while for me to ask for. I let them be, as I can understand how Family is worth more than anything else.

While they are keeping the Greenhouse in check Petal is resting in the middle of the Labyrinth. The whole thing has changed dramatically and now can not be used anymore for Tea at night, if you do not know who is living there. Well nothing lost, as the mishaps this time were at a minimum, even if Leafy wanted to murder me with her looks at the final product.

She is not the only one angry. I am angry too! I made the whole Labyrinth in a way for it to be modular. It is STILL modular but the whole gears and pulleys are now useless as Petal… you know what? Never mind. As long as she is happy with all of it I am happy too.

Still Leafy needs to acclimate herself, and talks on daily basis to her. Mostly making sure she is really the Petal she knew. And yes, yes she is. Do not worry, about the whole difference.

“Snow, when the Root come in a week, make sure Loopy and Oros are hidden inside the Labyrinth for retaliation. They might do something really stupid.”

“Sure Null! And the children are already told to go into the Panic Room for one day as a ‘test’ of how it feels inside.”

“They shall tell us after the day what they felt like inside and if something was missing. Keep appearance, they do not need to think something is happening. Maybe nothing will happen, but if the Queen herself sends a warning I do not think nothing will happen.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

…

“My Name is Dancing Shimmer. I am here for my Daughter. You might keep her hidden here, but as her Mother I have the right to not only see her, but have a say in her place where she lives. Please do not strain our relationship just because of a sapling being misguided, as the Queen has given me authority to see her.”

Her authority ended right after the last tree, but they still think of themselves higher than everyone else. The poor Queen has really some work to do, I pity her.

“I apologize, but who do you want to see?”

“My daughter Dancing Petal!”

“We have someone here with the Name Petal, but if she really is your daughter…”

“Of course she is! Now please do not keep me from my own blood, I need to talk to her and bring her back.”

“… as you wish.”

The whole chaotic happenings are really annoying, but also exciting. While giving Leafy at my side a dirty look she does not say anything, so that is nice. At least they do not go that low to verbally abuse someone, who is protected by me. They might not want me to kick in their front gates again and make more chaos. A shame…

First of she gets hold back for a time as the ambassador comes first. She was really incensed, but knows the pecking order quite well. Even if she wants to complain, Seed is directly ordered by the Queen to be here. If she does not even hold it in for the spokesperson of her own Queen, she might be punished later.

The whole talk was more or less bland, but a bit needed, as we just invaded a danger zone without calling beforehand. Taking the Flowers might have been a slight if they were not dangerous things they already try to lower as best as they could, so we talk about the reasoning.

“The whole thing was a bit abrupt, as we needed it for a quick wish from a dear friend of mine. Right now it is mostly harmless as it was used in an experiment. Do not worry, all people involved in the experiment not only gave consent, but even pleaded for it. So nothing to worry.”

Cold sweat is rolling down the face of Dancing Shimmer. She knows not what this means, but has a horrible feeling of foreboding. Well maybe we let her cook a bit more.

“As we are slowly beginning to make better work with the broken off branch in making the dew, I can be glad to say we can increase the production to three fourth of the original. Sadly we still have work to do, but right now there is another place rather dangerously strained, which might be problematic. I hope you could keep everyone in the Root community be at ease, so we all have time to make everything work like always?”

Seed shows a bit confusion, but writes it down anyways. She will know what I mean later. As long as we keep the cool between us, there will be nothing we can not solve.

“And about the sap and dew? Do you need more of it, for the heightened Mana dew outcome?”

Slow Seed is rather nice. It is great for her to ask if I would like to bring the produce up a bit more but…

“That is alright. As we have only one former Root here, so much extra is not needed. It will be enough for now, that we not need the increase. Take it as an apology for all the happenings between the time the dew got reduced and up and including today. We all want to be peaceful about our alliance, so let us keep an open heart.”

Seems like Dancing Shimmer is a bit more relaxed right now and thinks we just give her Petal back. Her eyes still swim a bit as if she tries to make sense of some words in my speech.

“As Ambassador I am grateful for your humility. We Root will be gratefully accept your proposal and just see everything as washed away by the clear water of friendship. My Queen will be delighted to hear the news. By the way as we often have your… Multivitamin juice you call it? We would like to ask if it would be possible to have some of your Fruits who made this for our own to consume. Our Queen heard of the taste and wants some for special events and her own use.”

“Ah, that is no problem. Leafy, can you ask the Villagers to bring a sizable portion of each Fruit? I would love to give some as a gift and for testing, which one would taste the best to you Roots.”

“We are grateful, and our Queen Mother will decide if there will be a later trade of fruits of your kind. As the juice is already sweet and energizing I can not wait to taste a fruit freshly plucked.”

…

All had to come to an end, and I can not further antagonize Petals (former) Mother. Now we are walking to the Castle.

“So, you grow those plants only for the reason of consume? Your people outside are rather strict with your plants to force them into such a poor life.”

“It is the way of the humans, Seed. They need sustenance, and as they are living here, they get it from these farms. A necessary evil especially as the Mana inside is too strong and would grow way too wild, if it were not the plants cultivated by them.”

A white lie, but they do not know better.

“You might be right. Still sad to see them so caged. At least they sound happy, so it is not that strong of a demerit.”

Walking further they see finally the castle wall.

“Cold Rock… I can not understand how people can live such a life. I hope my daughter is not more sick because of that.”

Dancing Shimmer does not hold back. Well she thinks she knows everything, so let her keep the nose high until it chafes the clouds. I do not care.

“Petal is inside of her own place, this way.”

The Labyrinth is inundated with many purplish pink flowers. As the Root see that, they were scared. Yeah, those are dream Flowers.

“What do you mean by that! My daughter is in that dangerous place?!”

“First of it is not dangerous. Do you see anyone of these flowers bloom? No. Second, she made it like this herself. It is her own place where she put her roots and makes it how SHE likes it. I made the place, but now it is hers.”

“Not for long. She will come back!”

Whatever you say. I do not care about your outbursts. Twelve people go inside. Leafy, Me, Seed, Shimmer and a whole eight guards fully armed. No token weapon but those dangerous ones, who were wielded by the Soldiers with Leaf the time she invaded. Such a long time ago, rather nostalgic.

The whole company is rather unwell seeing how the plants seemingly show the way. For effect Petal was so mischievous to send us into a dead-end and then opening a way forward. She really wants to make it more mysterious as it is… Okay it is as mysterious as it is.

Finally entering the place of her resting. Everyone was shocked to see what was in front of them, except us of course. While still being shocked silly, Petal starts to unfurl.