LIGHTNOVELONLINE 116: Very Pretty Song
Cream’s POV
Our lady—I mean, Ryn—placed her hand on the top of my head and we went over to the… what was it called? The ring? Why was it called a ring? A circle world made no sense. Worlds were bubbles, not rings.
I made sure to have a tight hold on the little seed in my paws, which glowed with so much of Ryn’s beautiful light. Just before we left the grove, she’d stood in one place for long minutes, eyes closed, until all of a sudden she turned into her plant form and arched her back. Out of her chest grew a long, snaking branch, and then on the very end of that, a flower grew. Very quickly, it turned into a tiny berry, then fell off and hit the ground, where the skin and flesh of the berry vanished as dust. Only the little seed I was carrying remained, and it was precious.
We arrived in the place the humans called Avonside, right next to a big stone person who was holding a book. Ryn called it a plaza. It was a place where people could do verbal fluffles, which was like when us buns huddled and spoke mind-to-mind, except the humans didn’t touch, and they used sound-words.
Ryn led me out of the main stone-tree forest-burrow place and out onto the grass and treats fields. The humans from the ring grew plants in a very strange way—all in rows and only one type in each big square. I couldn’t see any of the careful forest-weaving that us buns did. No plants to gather and store the bad smells, no mushrooms to turn the dead wood back to soil, and no mixing of crops to balance the smells of the dirt. Ah, but… there were many more humans on the ring than there were buns and humans in the grove. The way they grew treats didn’t use too much space, and the soil still smelled… okay. Not great, but okay.
Then we came to a big empty square, and I understood how the ring-humans were doing their treats growing. This square was empty of plants, but the human tenders were spreading healthy-smelling soil out to replenish what the lines of plants had taken out previously. It was smart, if you wanted as much treats as possible out of a patch of soil.
Near to the river, many of Ryn’s friends had already gathered, and they turned like startled kits to watch us approach. Grace smiled the whole time, and when we got there, she hugged Ryn up in a big squeeze.
“Hey gorgeous, where’s the fruit?” she asked.
Ryn pointed down at me, and I proudly raised my paws up so they could sniff the seed with their eyes. I mean, look at the seed. Buns didn’t have nearly as many ways to say things as humans did.
Troy crouched slightly to get closer and asked, “That’s… a seed?”
“It is, we have to plant it and let it grow,” Ryn nodded, and with a kindly glance down at me, asked, “Cream, care to plant it down here? We’ll discuss who to give it to while you do so.”
“Of course!” I said cheerfully, and hopped a short distance away to dig a hole for the seed.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the fact that she can talk,” one of the humans commented, and I looked over my shoulder to see who. I couldn’t tell, but it sounded like one of the men. I thumped softly. I was right here! Even me, a bun, knew that talking about someone like they weren’t there was rude.
“She can hear you, you know, Adam?” Ryn grumbled. “Anyway, Troy, I was hoping we could let the Order’s council decide who gets the fruit?”
Troy, always so calm and smart, paused for thought. Meanwhile, I placed the seed off to the side and began to dig a hole in the wet soil of the ground. My claws were very good for digging, and I used the proper digging form while I did the digging, so the digging was quick. Honestly, I very much enjoyed digging. It was a calming thing to do. Exercise to keep the body busy while the mind binkied down whatever burrows it so pleased.
“We’ll nominate people, but not ourselves,” Troy decided after he was done doing mind binkies of his own. “I personally think Kelsey would be a good fit for a mage.”
“What about Bray?” Adam asked. “Adding magic to his smithing would be pretty sick.”
“I think Mer would be good,” Catherine said, speaking up as loud as her quiet voice could go.
Mer was quick to shake her head and take a step away from the circle of tall bu—humans. “No, not me. Definitely not me.”
“Why not?” Catherine asked, frowning up at the woman she was so obviously in heat for.
“I’m not ready for… that,” Mer said, wincing and scuffing a hoof on the ground. “Gimme a year or two and I might reconsider, but… I’ve made one big life decision recently. I’ll let others blaze a path through the jungle.”
While they all continued to argue, I took the seed from where I’d placed it and carefully lowered it into the hole. Then, when it was seated nicely, I carefully brushed the dirt back over the top. It filled the hole nicely, and I thumped it down a bit for good measure.
While I was pressing the dirt down, another commotion drew my attention. Multiple humans from the Avonside burrow were coming our way as fast as their awkward legs could take them. They carried themselves like a dominant bun might, and I realised that they were probably people in charge of this place. The humans that didn’t answer to Ryn and Troy, I mean.
“What is going on here?” A blustering voice asked, and I laid my floppy ears closer against my head in an attempt to protect myself from the noise.
“Dr Richards,” Troy greeted them. “We’re just deciding some internal Order business. What can we do for you?”
Before the strange man with the loud voice and the big fluffy dewlap responded, the magic seed all but exploded out of the ground right beside me. I squeaked in surprise and hopped backwards, instinctively thumping my feet in displeasure when I landed. Bad plant!
The actual plant part of the new growth was just a stem and a few leaves, but on the end of that stem, a beautiful magenta flower bloomed. In the space of a few moments, it went from that flower into a fruit, with the petals falling to the ground. It was wonderful to see, and I stood mesmerised by the gently bobbing treat—I mean, fruit.
“This is one of those mage fruits you described, is it not?” Dr Richards asked loudly. “Why were we not informed that one was being grown on our land?”
Ryn snorted in open amusement. “It wasn’t going to last long enough for it to matter to you. It’s mine, and nobody else's. We were just discussing which of us would get to become a mage.”
“Are none of us in the running for this honour?” the annoying man asked, gesturing to his friends while his face got redder. What a strange thing. Why did humans get red faces?
“No, actually,” Ryn replied curtly. “Again, it’s mine. I am giving it to someone on the Order’s council, not to you or any of the sciences faculty.”
The man opened his mouth to start hurting my ears again, but Troy interrupted him. “Dr Richards, please. There may be a few fruits we donate to the university at a later date, but is it really worth souring our relationship to take this one now?”
“As if you intend to share in this wealth of possibility!” the man yelled, and I had to make sure my feet stayed on the ground before I started a drum beat with the soil. He was very annoying.
While I was trying to suppress the noise of the man, I heard another sound. It was like beautiful running water and the quiet happy grinding of bun teeth, all squished together. The fruit was… singing?
It swayed there in the wind, making a pretty sound while its soft magenta skin glistened with dew. Where did the dew come from? It was not overly humid, and yet… I wonder if it was cold? I reached out to touch it, but instead of finding a cool surface, it was pleasant and warm.
The humans were still arguing, and when I looked back after a particularly loud word was spoken, I saw hands on sharp things, even if they weren’t pointed anywhere. So much anger over the pretty singing fruit. It was silly. Emotions were everywhere, anger on the face of the Richard man, and fear in the expressions of his friends. Everyone had to know that Ryn would just stop them if they tried to take the pretty fruit, right? But even then, things would become very complicated. So much of that thing the humans called polite ticks for power, but none of them would even appreciate the fruit itself, or the magic within.
Maybe… maybe I could fix this? The point of the fruit had already been fulfilled. It was grown outside the grove, so the grove’s essence was saved…
Gosh, and the song was so pretty… so, so pretty…
Circling it, I reached out. I traced the curve of the fruit with a claw, gently, but longingly… Was I meant to want this yummy fruit so badly? I was a grove tender, and yet myself and all the other buns were so much more than the tenders described by the old one and her forbidden-to-chew magic tomes. I went to the old one’s grove one time and saw one of her tenders, and they were nothing like us buns. We were people, just like humans.
I couldn’t help myself. I leaned forward and brushed my chin over it once, claiming it as mine before I chomped down. Oh, the juices of the yummy treat! So sweet and lovely! Like the best and most fresh fruits picked from my lady’s grove.
The noises from the humans changed, and I turned to see looks of shock, anger, and in Ryn’s case, surprised delight. I tried to smile at my lady, because I fixed the problem and I stole some treats, but the world blurred into a mess of magenta and sleepies.
