Liora Glittering's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Liora stood before the stinging tree with its broad green leaves. The cure was in those leaves. But every leaf could burn her hands raw, sap or no sap. She reached out, then pulled back. Aurora watched from the smoke, rainbow hair untouched, arms crossed. "You're stalling," Aurora said. "Rip them off and let's go." "I'm thinking," Liora said. "That's new." Liora grabbed a low branch. Pain shot up her arm. The sap held, but the stings pushed through like needles. She yanked. Three leaves came free. She dropped them and shook her hand. "This will take all night." Then the ground trembled. A creature crawled from the smoke on webbed feet. It had a duck's flat bill, an octopus's coiling arms, and a spiral shell on its back. It dragged a broad leaf in its bill and set it at Liora's feet. More followed. A ribbed snail-thing carried leaves in its arms and stacked them in a neat pile. Liora stared. "Where did they come from?" "The field's still alive under your ash," Aurora said. She crouched and stroked the shelled creature's bill. "They eat these leaves. The stings don't touch them. Ask nice and they'll gather." Liora knelt in the gray haze. "Please," she told the creatures. "I need enough to cure the town." The creatures worked. Their arms peeled leaves the sap-coated hands could never manage. A winged spiral thing lifted from the branches, feathers spread, and knocked down the highest cluster. Leaves rained into the pile. Within minutes Liora had more than she needed. She bundled the leaves in her sap-slick arms. The twisted tree lowered a branch and pointed her out of the field. She ran. The smoke slid off her the whole way. Back in Glitterville, the townspeople crushed the leaves into water as the Mayor directed. They poured the mix along the field's edge. The gray smoke hit it and thinned. By dark the cloud was gone. Green crept back into the poisoned dirt. The Mayor looked at Liora. "It's fixed. You're free of it." Liora nodded. She held up her arms. The dead gray glitter had washed away with the sap. Bare skin showed underneath. Aurora appeared beside her, smiling. "Well? Learn anything?" Liora looked at the healed field, then at her own clean hands. A slow grin spread. "Yes. The creatures do the hard part. Next time I'll bring them from the start." Aurora laughed. "That's not the lesson." "It's the useful one." Liora scooped a jar of fresh glitter from her bag. It sparkled again, alive. She shook it toward the field. "Bigger next time. Every corner." The winged spiral creature circled overhead. Liora watched it and started planning her next mess, already forgetting the burns on her hands.