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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 20:31:38 GMT -6
Aster saw the flowers alright. It was actually not all that hard to spot them, since the hostile plant... things stayed away from said flower, in a pretty convenient radius. They must have had some sort of repellent properties that warded off the mutated plants, and that was probably why the woman needed them too. What she was planning on doing with them was her business, though for her sake and the sakes of anyone else who has to be near this garden plot, he sure hoped she managed to resolve this whole infestation issue with it sooner rather than later.
The real question now was how they were going to get there.
And what a question it was too. No way Aster was wading through that mess. He wouldn't survive. The plants individually didn't look so tough, but there were so many of them gathered in a dense perimeter around the flowers.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 20:57:29 GMT -6
Aster was mulling over the possibility of just trying to raze his way through with a couple of fire spells, maybe, when one of the plants had finally had it with them, and made a lone charge against Azalea to scrabble at her hide with everything it had.
Azalea had no reaction.
"Can you... feel that?" Aster said.
{Feel what?} Azalea replied. She seemed blissfully unaware of what was happening. And as Aster observed, the plant continued to scrabble uselessly at her, while Azalea continued to ignore it entirely.
"There's a... you know what, nevermind." Apparently her hide had thickened considerably after becoming a Pliathor. They were pretty big, sturdy things, and he knew that she had a certain capacity for regenerative healing from the foliage that was a part of her, but it hadn't occurred to him that she might be able to shrug off the best attempts of the little things to attack her wholesale.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 20:59:37 GMT -6
Seeing that gave him a much better idea than anything he had been contemplating though. "Say, Azalea," he said. "Do you think you could move forward like this?"
{I can try,} Azalea said. Experimentally, she sort of slithered forward a little bit. {It's a bit awkward, but I can probably do it if I go slow.}
It was awkward for Aster too, because her front half had a tendency to wobble when she was moving, but he wasn't a skilled rider for nothing. Not that Azalea had been taught to carry a rider, and her smooth scales did sort of... create an issue of a lack of purchase, but even so, he was able to keep his seat through a combination of balance and clinging on for dear life. Aster was pretty good at both of those things, and he had considerable practice considering the sheer number of drakes he'd broken over the years.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:06:54 GMT -6
"Okay, just keep going until I say to stop. If you feel hurt, then start backing up. But keep your head up high like this, alright?" Aster coaxed her through, and Azalea agreed, going forward bit by bit. It didn't take long for them to enter the swarm of hostile plants, and once they had crossed that border, it was all hands on deck as far as the horde was concerned to try and oust this massive monster. Except they didn't really have any more luck than their fellow had, for the most part; Azalea's thick hide shrugged off the majority of their blows, and the ones that landed true bled a little before sealing over good as new a moment later.
Aster breathed a sigh of relief as he watched this happen. He hadn't actually thought the solution would be so easy. Now he was glad he had brought Azalea after all.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:21:17 GMT -6
He'd had his doubts, since she wasn't particularly well trained relative to Avander, but... This really did work out, and in a way he wouldn't have expected either.
It took some time, but eventually they managed to reach the heart of the swarm, where the flowers were. "Okay, that's good, stop here," Aster said, sliding down her neck and landing in the cleared space where the flowers were. The plants hissed even more as they saw him land, but they still refused to come near the flowers themselves. Aster grabbed a handful of the blooms, pulling as many out as he could get. And then, in case that weakened the warding effect too much to keep the hostile plants out anymore, he hopped back onto Azalea's back. "Get us out of here!" he said. He didn't have it in him to scramble up to her head again, so her back would have to do.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:25:17 GMT -6
{Okay, hold on!} Azalea said, and sped out of the crowd of plants as fast as she could go. Which was really nothing to sneeze at, especially since she could freely put her head down now. Even the width of her body was enough that most of the plants couldn't reach Aster, but he did now have to beat some off, with well aimed kicks or the occasional tiny gout of flame. He tried to be careful not to catch Azalea with them, but moving as quickly as they were, he couldn't say for certain that there had been no accidents. He would need to get Rhys to look at her later.
But Azalea didn't seem to be in any significant pain, or even particularly wounded, once they got out of range of the horde. The plants gave pursuit, but not very far, before they lost interest and returned to the place they'd been mobbing before.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:41:37 GMT -6
It was good that they didn't come running in pursuit, though judging from what Aster could see of them, he suspected that they weren't very intelligent. Or even intelligent at all, really, beyond their ability to respond to basic stimuli and move themselves about.
"Queen's grace, I don't want to think about how this even happened in the first place," said Aster, muttering under his breath and still clutching the flowers. He slid down from Azalea's back and pressed his forehead to her hide. He sighed. The things he did for these jobs, he could swear...
Azalea twisted around to nudge him again, more gently this time. It was still a lot, but not quite enough to bowl him over this time. She was learning - adjusting. Some day, sooner or later, she would have better control.
{Are you okay?} she asked. Her dark eyes, when he looked up, were full of concern for him.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:44:15 GMT -6
She was a good creature. Her nature hadn't changed, and now he felt a little bad for not having worked more closely with her before. She certainly had less reason to think well of him than, say, Avander or Summer, and yet here she was.
Although he supposed Avander and Summer showed their concern for him in their own ways. He just wished it wasn't through bickering and nagging... Not that he wasn't the same to them, so maybe he deserved what he got, but still.
Aster took a deep breath, then gave her a smile. "Yeah," he said. "I'm fine. Just... tired."
{If you're tired, I can carry you some more,} Azalea said. {You're not heavy now. I wouldn't mind.}
"Thank you, but no," Aster said. She hadn't actually learned how to carry a rider properly, and the sort of tired that Aster was right now wasn't the kind that made it hard to walk.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:47:01 GMT -6
But that kind of thing might have been beyond Azalea's means of understanding, and anyway it wasn't really worth the trouble of explaining. "I'm fine, really. Let's go," he said, and began walking off in the direction of the quest board so as to stave off any further questions. Azalea hesitated a moment, but she could see that he was in fact walking perfectly fine, so she simply followed behind him like she had been doing before.
The walk back to the quest board was uneventfui. But then, if anything more had happened, Aster didn't know whether he would just wash his hands of this job or what. It wasn't as if he'd had a particularly difficult time once he had gotten there in the end, but seeing all those things scrambling around like that... It wasn't unlike kicking open an anthill and watching all the little bugs spill out.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 21:49:03 GMT -6
And something about the quality of both of those swarms made Aster a little uncomfortable. He wasn't squeamish about bugs in a general sense, but watching a big writhing mass of things moving around like that got under his skin. Something about how they started to become this moving texture... Or maybe he was simply afraid of being overwhelmed. It was hard to put into words; he just didn't like it.
It was, he reminded himself, over. Or at least it almost was. All he had to do now was to give these damned flowers to the person who had asked him to do this in the first place, and then he could really wash his hands of this whole ordeal, and get paid for his troubles too.
Yeah, better to stick it out a little longer, and at least get paid for his troubles, rather than walk away with nothing.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 22:44:03 GMT -6
Once he had what he was owed though, he was out. He didn't care to see how the situation was resolved, or what exactly this person had been doing to let things get to that state in the first place. Aster could sense a hassle when he saw one, and this one really seemed to be more trouble than it was worth.
The woman was still pacing back and forth near the quest board when Aster arrived, so at least she had spared him the trouble of tracking her down. Normally he would have asked Azalea to stay back, because she had a tendency to make people uncomfortable when they saw her, but on this occasion he sort of felt a little intimidation wouldn't have been unwelcome, if it was coming from his end. It might deter him from seeking him out again, for a job or otherwise, if she were otherwise inclined.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 22:46:23 GMT -6
"Oh!" she said, perking up as she recognized him. "That was fast! How did you..." At which point she must have caught sight of the massive Pliathor that was following behind him, since the eager expression on her face then wilted into something more uneasy. "Er, I guess it was no trouble for you with a beastie like that!"
"Right," Aster said, because he had absolutely no desire to explain anything. He handed over the flowers - their stems a bit crushed from the way he'd removed them, and also from when he had caught himself clenching his fist without realizing, on the walk over to the job board. "This is my side of the agreement. We're good now, right?"
"Oh, yes, absolutely!" She took the flowers from him and a little of the enthusiasm bounced back, though now that he thought about it, maybe it was less enthusiasm and more manic energy.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 22:48:51 GMT -6
Or would it be nervous energy, in this case? She had seemed pretty stressed out before. But that was her business and not his, Aster reminded himself. He had to stay focused on the goal. Get confirmation that she would uphold her end of the deal, and then head home.
The woman was rambling, something about how much this was going to help her with her research, and how he was a lifesaver for going out and fetching these for her. "With a little work, I'll be able to get rid of that lot just like this!" She snapped her fingers, grinning, and if there was a manic edge to that smile... Well, Aster wasn't going to think about it. Not his business. He held onto that thought like a drowning man clinging to a buoy.
"If I've fulfilled the terms of your request," Aster said, "I'll be going now."
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 22:51:21 GMT -6
Fortunately for the both of them, she didn't try to stop him - not that she could have, with Aster's abilities and Azalea watching over the entire exchange, but even so. "Oh, right! Yes, thank you so much for your help again. Take care!" She didn't seem the least bit guilty over the amount of trouble she had caused either... Figures. This didn't really seem like the kind of mischief that a person who was actually concerned about the consequences of their actions would get into.
Aster sighed for what felt like the fiftieth time that day, but hey, at least it was over now. At least now he could turn around, go home, and forget about doing any strange requests for even stranger people until the next month rolled around.
It wasn't a bad system, really it wasn't, and the requests he took on weren't always weird or difficult either, but...
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 22:55:59 GMT -6
The ones he remembered best were the ones that gave him the most hassle, because of course that would be how things went.
He walked away from the quest board and the woman, who had resumed muttering to herself, and gave Azalea a pat on the side. "We're going home," he said. "Good job today."
{Is it over then?} Azalea followed behind him as Aster started off in the direction of their home. {Did you give her the flowers?}
"Yeah," Aster said. "I gave her the flowers."
{Did she like the flowers?}
Aster almost laughed out loud at Azalea's innocent question. Did she like the flowers? Well, that was certainly one way to put it. "Yeah," he said, because in a certain manner of speaking, she wasn't exactly wrong about this.
{That's good! They sure were hard to pick, weren't they?} Azalea seemed pleased with the arrangement.
"Yeah, you can say that again," Aster agreed.
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