Moonpetal's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

Moonpetal stayed at the edge of the clean soil until the sun climbed high. The fanged flower watched her. Every time she leaned toward the good ground, its mouth snapped shut inches from her face. She could not dig here. She could not even kneel here. The thing would take her hand, then her arm, then all of her. Sage landed beside her with a thump. The dragon-woman had guarded this ridge for years, and she still kept her body between Moonpetal and the teeth. "You've been staring at it since dawn," Sage said. "Staring won't stop it biting." "I can't reach the soil," Moonpetal said. "It won't let me close." Sage reached into her belt pouch. She drew out a small glass vial. Inside, pale blue liquid swirled with a soft light. "I've been saving this," she said. "It's a sleeping draught. One dose puts a grown bear down for an hour." She turned the vial in her clawed fingers. "I don't know if it works on a plant. Nobody's been stupid enough to try." Moonpetal took the vial. The tarantula on her shoulder shifted, watching. "How do I get it to swallow?" "It bites anything soft," Sage said. "So give it something soft." Moonpetal looked around the hollow. She found a fallen branch and wrapped a strip of cloth around its tip. She soaked the cloth in the draught until it dripped. Then she held the branch out toward the flower. The mouth lunged. Teeth closed on the wet cloth and tore it free. The flower chewed. Blue liquid ran down its petals. It hissed, then swayed. Its head dipped low. Its jaw sagged open. The teeth went still. "It's asleep," Sage breathed. "It actually worked." Moonpetal did not wait. She dropped to her knees on the clean soil and pressed her palm flat. The dirt was dark and rich under her hand. She fed it a thread of green magic. A shoot rose and stayed green. It did not curl. It did not blacken. It lived. She laughed out loud. Her first living plant in all of Vinerot. Then the flower twitched. Its head lifted an inch. A low growl came from its throat. Sage grabbed Moonpetal's arm and pulled her back. "It's waking already," she said. "That was one dose. My last one." Moonpetal stood on the clean soil with her one small shoot behind her. The flower shook itself. Its mouth opened wide again, hungry, awake. She had reached the ground. She had grown something here. But she could not build a grove in the minutes a sleeping potion bought her. "I need it gone," she said. "For good. Not just asleep." Sage looked at the waking flower, then at Moonpetal. "That thing eats the poison," she said. "Kill it, and the soil dies too."