The Plague

Status
Not open for further replies.
"Well remember that little patch of flowers we found and the staff thing we found back near home? Well, look at this." She grabbed the staff sitting behind the flowers and showed it to Roan. It was the same exact one she showed him when she showed him the flowers. She looked a bit more than angry as she looked back at the flowers. "How dare that damn shop keeper take these flowers from their natural habitat! They aren't like the other ones! They only can grow in specific places under specific conditions and this idiot decided to take them from where they were thriving to his damn shop where they will all die!" Asylsa was extremely unhappy with this as shown through her words and she wished that she could take all of these flowers and plant them back where they belonged. She had read that they thrived often in soils that either were in perfect conditions such as warm temperatures and moist soil or harsh conditioned climates. They wanted either perfect or the extremes and being in a store with no room to grow was not in their plans. Asylsa glared as she gripped the staff tightly.
 
Roan's eyebrows only drew closer as she produced the staff from wherever it was hidden and continued to tell him how the plants were only able to live under certain conditions, but that only brought on another series of questions to Roan. He didn't know much about plants but he knew enough to know that if something is living outside of it's habitat it would die, then why weren't these plants dying? They looked just fine and healthy. "How are you keeping these alive?" Roan asked turning to the shopkeeper while keeping a curious eye on the staff.

The last one he'd seen was under the ground and next to one of these flowers, and once again he comes across the same flower and the same staff. He shrugged it off as mere over thinking. "Why don't you ask him about the staff?" He said to Asylsa making space for the shopkeeper as he made his way over. "Perhaps he could have an explanation to what the staff means, or why he has it." He drew closer to the staff and recognized few things if any were changed from what he could tell, but the staff had the same design and near identical patterns; he couldn't help but wonder where he'd gotten it from.
 
The shop keeper turned and smiled at the two. "Ah, you want to know how I keep these beautiful flowers alive?" At Asylsa's nod, he continued. "You see, child, the Jacob's ladder can grow in any condition of a place if given enough magic by a witch or wizard with an affinity for plants. When I found these plants, there was a staff that had recently been touched by one of these witches that was keeping them alive in an area with so much death. I believe a shifter purge was going on in the town at the time. I was just passing through when I found these and I just had to take them for my shop. If you would like, I can sell you a couple? I doubt they will last long though." The shop keeper smiled as he gently took the staff from Asylsa and set it down near the flowers.

The young girl felt like kicking the man. That was HER hiding spot! The man had raided her special place and taken her flowers and her staff! She had called dibs on that place! The man happened to have a type of vine plant near the beautiful flowers that was slowly snaring its way toward the shop keeper, a faint green aura surrounding it. Asylsa wanted to hit the man over the head with a mace she was so angry. The vine wrapped around the shop keeper's leg slowly.
 
"Doesn't that make the staff the one we saw?" He asked Asylsa as he looked back and forth between it and the flowers. He recalled that there was only one at the place that she had shown him, where did the shopkeeper get all of those? Roan was perplexed and began to ask Asylsa when he saw a vine slithering towards the shopkeeper. Is that vine moving? He asked himself watching with bewilderment as the vine wrapped around the shopkeepers ankle. He recalled the green light that his friend had been bouncing around earlier and the mention of vines that chocked the guards that were chasing her a few weeks prior and sudden realization hit him.

"Asysla," he whispered trying to calm his friend. "Don't! Not now at least, you'll only draw attention to us and we don't want any knights coming in here!" The place was small enough, if they came all he could really do was shift into some form of giant animal, perhaps a bear, but the time alone it took for him to do so would have him stabbed and killed before he completed the transformation, and even if he completed it, what good could he do to armed knights in full armour? Roan instead, casually walked over to the shopkeeper and asked to purchase a few of the Jacob's Ladders.
 
Asylsa blinked and the vine quickly slithered back. She took a step back, acting as if somebody had punched her in the gut. The shopkeeper smiled before shaking his head. "Sorry son, but I'll only sell to the girl here. You seem like you aren't interested in the flowers as much as keeping your little friend calm." The man smiled as he stared at Asylsa, waiting for her to make an offer.

She looked over at the flowers before smiling. "I propose a trade. If I can give you something that will give you a year's worth of money in one week, you give me two of your flowers and the staff." She watched the man contemplate this as he looked her over.

"How would you plan on doing this?" He asked, skeptical of the young girl.

Asylsa smiled. "Simple. Use this watering can to water your flowers and they will grow not only more beautiful, but they will also smell so good that no one can resist at least buying one." She smiled as she picked up a watering can that looked rarely used and pumped a little bit of magic into it. She handed it to the man who was skeptical before trying it out on some flowers he hadn't watered. The effects were instantaneous. The flowers seemed to bloom more with their colors brightening. The shop keeper was so surprised that he didn't notice Asylsa taking the things she asked for and leaving, the staff's stick slowly shortening until it looked like a normal sickle. This was done before they even left the store, though Roan could see Asylsa shaking as she took her prize.
 
Roan watched as the vine went back and shrugged at the man's refusal of his offer. He did however, want to sell his plants to Asylsa which made sense to him, he would've given the plants to her anyway. Then he witnessed something crazy happen, Asylsa touched a flowering pot and the shopkeeper flowered a certain plant and it grew into the most beautiful flower in the shop, before he could even say anything however, he saw Asylsa walking out and he was quick to follow her. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" He said, eyeing the staff in her hand and made towards the carriage. "What you did, that was probably the most amazing thing I ever saw, who would've thought you were a witch."
 
"I know but now I feel like shit." Asylsa sighed as she carried her things back toward where the carriage was. She shook her head when he said how amazing it was. "Not as amazing as seeing my best friend as a Lord saving my life." She shifted the pots in her arms, trying to give her tired arms a break. She was going to be so glad when they got back to the wagon and would be able to just sit down.

The streets soon started to thin slightly and Asylsa could actually see some of the wares being sold. Necklaces, fabrics, even the occasional lucky charm was being sold. Some things were practical while others were mere trinkets. Asylsa found it quite hard to think about who would spend their time buying from these stalls when most people could barely afford the food and clothes on their backs.
 
The streets were starting to clear as the day was beginning to end and Roan caught sight of their carriage with his parents waiting beside, he hoped they hadn't been waiting too long. "I can't argue with that," he said chuckling with a slight shrug. Once he was in the carriage his father began asking him a few questions about where they were and how their "adventure" had been. "It wasn't too bad," Roan said with a small smile, thinking better to keep the major details from his parents.

They set out later that evening a few minutes before the town's gates were closed for the night. The ride had been mostly uneventful and Roan kept looking at Asylsa's staff. "Can you do anything with that?" He finally asked, his eyebrows drawing closer together in curiosity. He'd read stories before of wizards with staffs doing impossible things with magic, things that would have him in complete awe had he seen it now and wondered how Asylsa planned on training her magic. He had his parents teach him things and help with his powers from a young age, but Asylsa had no one to teach her, and as far as he could tell, his parents weren't wizards. Maybe they have wizards in the Drow kingdom, he shrugged to himself.
 
"I'm not sure... Let me try something." She focused on the moon shape of the staff, her eyes trained on it. It started to glow a bluish green color, the energy ebbing and spiking in random places. She focused for a little bit before making it disperse. She sighed as she leaned back, looking over the staff. "Looks like I have to practice... whatever it is I'm doing. I honestly have no clue how this happens." She flipped the staff around before setting it down.

She looked over at Roan. "Hey, do you think that maybe we'll find others who can do what I do? I mean, there are other shifters, there has to be other witches, right?" She started to feel slightly jealous of Roan. He had his parents who were still alive and could teach him about his amazing abilities. Asylsa's parents had died, twice if you counted her birth parents, and had no one to teach her about her abilities. It all seemed unfair.
 
Roan watched the staff with growing interest as it grew brighter and brighter, but once nothing happened all that excitement deflated and he looked at her and gave a shrug. "There should be," he responded to her question. "Drows are cousins to elves, they have to have some sort of magical knowledge. We'll look for one once we get there."

As they rode through the main road, Roan could make out the large dark blue keep of the first city within the outskirts of the Drow kingdom from the horizon. The keep must have been huge to have been seen from this distance, and if his guessing was right, it wasn't even the main city where the royal family lived, just some lord meant to guard over a portion of land. Their old town had a keep, but nothing so large that they could see it from the horizon so far away. The sudden urge to go visit that keep once they reached the first city came over him and he told his plans to visit it Asylsa in a hushed tone so that his parents wouldn't overhear.
 
Asylsa thought about it before smiling. She nodded to his plan and started to whisper back. "What should we look for first?" She asked in a whisper as she thought about what would be in the keep. Treasure no doubt. This reminded her of her little adventures she had with Roan into the forested areas near their town. This would be the perfect distraction to keep her mind off of everything.

As she looked over at the keep, she whistled. It sure was large. Definitely larder than their own had been. She smiled at the thought of exploring every nook and cranny of the place. No stone or curtain would be left unturned or alone. They would search to their heart's content.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back