Peek: A Flower in the Garden

Existence blooms in cool soil and warm rays of sunshine. The soil still carries the chill of winter, but the light is warming it wonderfully, and the new living vine scion takes a few seconds to appreciate the newness of reality.

A warm presence, even more invigorating than the sunlight, examines her with a sense of happiness. She knows its her dungeon. She wants to show her happiness, and so tries to craft a gift for it. She can feel it prefers daffodils, the first flowers of spring, but it shames her to admit such a complex flower is beyond her ability to recreate just yet.

Instead, she creates a small orange poppy bloom, and hopes it won't be too disappointed. Instead of disappointment, however, she feels happiness and pride in her from the Gardener. There is no wish she had made a daffodil instead, but rather an appreciation of her earnest gift, and a name bestowed upon her for it: Poppy.

She undulates in happiness at the Gardener's approval of her and her effort, her tendrils tilling the soil and extracting nutrients and water to help her grow quickly. She settles in around her spawner, somewhat observing the denizens as she examines the bonds with the Gardener and his other flowers.

Such a bountiful garden she's been planted in. So many other scions, more strong blooms than all but the most ambitious of bouquets. And so many herbalism nodes! The prospect of so much to tend has her tilling the soil with excitement. There were other scions who would tend the nodes, but their duties have drifted away from those duties, and she is all too happy to fill that niche. She can sense a strong scion, not too far away, who has tended to more mundane plants in the course of his duties as well. It's closer to a hobby than a calling for him, but she gets the feeling she will get along very well with the Groundsreaper.

She thinks both of their duties will allow for plenty of time to exchange ideas. His duties are quiet and simple, while the plans she can feel from the Gardener for herself will take quite some time. She can only catch glimpses of the idea, as the Gardener doesn't wish to crush his latest bloom under the weight of expectations so soon, but the idea is intriguing.

A tree the size of a mountain, boughs laden heavy with delvers and the fruits of challenge. It's a task daunting in scale, but simple in scope... in theory. If the Gardener had a seed with such potential, Poppy feels she should be able to sense it. Instead, she detects a plethora of interesting seeds, of all sorts of plants.

The Gardener directs the other denizens to open the stores of seeds to be planted, leaving the specific locations to her and her sister Titania. The pixie is quick to act and to move, and skilled in choosing the places to plant. Poppy contents herself directing the vines to ensure the nodes can grow properly in their locations, and even takes the time to schedule waterings from the rainbats. She also gathers the tree seeds the Gardener has.

She can feel ideas through the bond with him, even as she can feel him resisting the urge to give her more direction. He seems to like both yew and willow for the tree, and wonders if they could be combined. His combination idea is not one she immediately understands. She could graft or entwine the trees, but she can feel an idea for combination on a much more fundamental level. Something involving boxes separated into grids to track traits, and of some infinitesimal part of all life that could be merged more completely.

The details make her mind ache, but there is a simple method to start the process, one that she understands readily. First, she needs to grow the trees. They don't need to be very large, they just need to bloom. Some she will try twining together, some she will attempt to graft, but the blooming ones she will try to cross pollinate. Ordinarily, such an attempt would be literally fruitless, but she is not ordinary, nor is her Gardener. It will take a delicate touch, and she may need Titania's help, but a careful blend of life and fate should allow her to blend the two trees on a more fundamental level.

She ponders the boxes as she tends the tree seeds, slowly coming to comprehend how they are used to organize which traits are desired and which are not, and how to eliminate them. It will take her some time, but she will grow a tree to match the Gardener's dreams, a tree able to stand tall in all four seasons at once.