George, the Gardener, was nothing like what Colin pictured him to be.
When he first heard of the Gardener, he was simply the one who destroyed Hot Sands with a well-placed camouflaged creeper in a mountain dam. Colin had imagined a large, scarred man with a scythe for a hand standing atop a giant, writhing, carnivorous thorn-vine letting out evil laughs while he poisoned the land he passed through.
But George… scruffy George carrying his spade and tending that little flower with gentle hands and speaking of legends involving a bird who cried for loneliness…
Colin shook his head and made the understatement of the year. "Not quite what I expected. Is this really the guy who destroyed Hot Sands?"
"He's my brother." Scarlet told Colin. "When he heard my husband was paying more attention to the village than to me, he… well…"
"Planted a creeper in the dam and painted it gray?" Colin thought back. There they were, three people hated for destroying entire villages and towns, and all he could think about was that George seemed much too loving and gentle a person to cause such destruction.
"He didn't have the heart to attack directly. He simply planted the seed, told it to stay hidden, and said that if Henry didn't open his eyes and take care of what he had, he'd lose it and then see what he'd lost. At the time, I thought he was talking about me."
"When did you find out what he meant?" Colin asked.
"When I heard the villagers talking about the dam. You were the one who found the creeper, and warned them, weren't you? You saved a lot of lives." Scarlet mused. "George was very grateful for that."
Colin felt like his whole world had turned upside down. He once expected Scarlet to be a raving kidnapper, and the Gardener to be a spiteful schemer who toyed with his victims. Instead, Scarlet turned out to be a loving mother who wanted her daughter and George turned out to be like this. The truth was, they were kinder people than those who wanted them (and himself, now) repeatedly killed.
"I was talking about you." George told Scarlet. "As well as the creeper. It's one of those phrases which means both."
"Right. Thanks." Scarlet said.
George nodded slowly. "Let's bring Colin home, shall we?"
"Yes, let's." Scarlet agreed. "Come on, Colin. Let's get ready, and then we'll set out for Crystal Cove."
***
Colin got a call as they were loading up a truck with supplies. Taking the call without checking caller ID, he named the first person who came to mind.
"Kat?"
"Sorry, Colin. It's Lucy." An older girl replied.
"Lucy…?!" Colin stared. He had left the Lamico Continent, and the post of its Forester, in her hands. "How are things? How's the forest?"
"You left a terrible mess." Lucy said. "Some of those Wilds seem to like the outside world more than the Dungeons you called them out of. We're having to kill them to get them to respawn where they're supposed to be."
"Sorry." Colin winced. "If there's anything I can do…"
"There is." Lucy told him. "Sora and I have decided to rebuild Lamico by focusing on its strong points – tourism and tournaments. The forests's income over the past week would have been your pay if you stuck it out a bit more, but now that you've quit without it, and neither of us can take it, maybe we could use it for prizes…"
"That money belongs to the forest, Lucy." Colin said. "Use it for the forest."
Lucy sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that. Oh well, I'll have to do this the hard way. Come visit us sometime next week, Colin. By then, we'll start hosting the biggest Tournaments this world has ever seen."
Colin shook his head as he ended the call. Lamico was going to be fine.
"What was that about?" Scarlet asked.
"My replacement wanted some money I left behind." Colin told her.
"Oh." Scarlet frowned. "Do you need that money?"
"I'm okay." He assured her. "I can afford enough Bruth to last me all year."
George chuckled. "He's gonna fit in just fine."
Scarlet rolled her eyes.
George's truck was roughly the same size as Edward's; quite small. Enough to load a car in the back, but not much more. Scarlet had bought a big new stove and the kitchen cabinets that came with it. George had two sacks of some special soil, a stack of some glass-like cubes, a few bluish-white plastic-looking boards, and Bruth. Lots of Bruth.
Colin meanwhile, had found fish to be deliciously cheap. They didn't have tuna, but they had kiver, which the shopkeeper said was similar. Colin tried some; it even tasted similar. They weren't sold in cans; rather they were packed in paper. One pack of minced kiver held as much as ten cans.
For that much food, 50cr was half the price of tuna back in Sunshine Town where he first started. Colin loaded ten packs, thinking he'd probably be here awhile.
The price of bread, however, nearly made his hair stand.
"Wheat can't grow in this cold." Scarlet explained. "Not without an Enviro-Dome. Almost nobody grows wheat around here. Do you really need bread?"
"Fish will do." Colin decided, and headed for the truck.
"All your Comrades eat fish?" Scarlet blinked.
"I have a wolf, a wolfcat, a cat, a fox, a hawk, and a swan." Colin told her.
"Only six." Scarlet mused. "I'm impressed."
"What? Why?" Colin blinked.
"Most new Travelers go around trying to maintain whole armies, or try to get one of every kind of Wild they meet. Others try to get different sorts of Comrades for different terrains or different abilities." Scarlet snorted. "Idiots."
"What happens?" Colin asked, as they got onto the truck and headed out through the south gate.
"They start to realize their mistake when their Comrades begin to quarrel." Scarlet said. "Or when they have serious issues with habitats. You can't put a desert habitat next to a winter habitat. It's bad enough for those who aim for different abilities; if they manage to build and maintain a whole house with different rooms, they might just keep going. It's crazy for those who try to maintain whole armies, they get Abandoned by Comrades all the time. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what happens with those who try to get one of every kind."
"They quit." George grunted. "Either quit that dumb idea, or quit Nakama World entirely."
"The first rule of Comrades; they must Travel together." Scarlet mused. "The second; they must get along at home. That is difficult to do when your Helibook keeps getting its pages burnt by your Firefox every time its 'friend' runs by."
"She speaks from experience." George told Colin.
"She had a Helibook?" Colin blinked.
"A Crimson Helibook, yes." George nodded. "It triple-died and went Frenzied while she was Awake. I had to seal it."
Even such famous people like Scarlet and the Gardener made their share of mistakes in their earlier days.
"I thought it would evolve into a Flaming Book." Scarlet growled.
"Evolve?" Colin blinked.
"Yeah. Comrades can do that, in the right environment." Scarlet told him. "They normally don't, especially if your home or outpost base has your usual habitats and you feed them the same stuff. It also takes special events to evolve them once they're ready. Out here, a snowstorm seems to work best."
"How do you know they're ready?" Colin asked.
Scarlet shook her head. "I don't. I don't evolve my Comrades that way."
Colin turned to George.
"It's mainly a guess." George said. "If they're not happy with the way they are, if they keep wanting to go out and stay outside in the cold… when they start wanting different foods and such… well, that's when I let them."
"So it's really something they wanted?"
"I believe so." George answered. "I think it's like changing jobs. If I was a farmer, for example, I might change from being a food farmer to becoming a herb farmer. If they're not satisfied with what they are, they can change to become something else they can be."
"Most Travelers come here for that." Scarlet said. "All the way to this land that can only be reached by air, just to Evolve their Comrades and leave."
"Wait. What?" Colin blinked.
"This Continent doesn't have much to offer." Scarlet explained. "Nothing unique that can't be found someplace warmer and easier to reach."
"Except the Blue Phoenix." George threw in. "But that's a local legend. Most people don't believe it exists."
{And maybe white wolfcats. Most people didn't believe they existed until they saw Shiro.}
Colin shook off that thought. "That wasn't what I was asking about. You said this place can be reached only by air."
"More or less. The whole continent is surrounded by shifting ice." George told him. "Huge chunks of ice as big as towns and moving as fast as sea ships. Getting through by sea is extremely hard. Easier to fly."
Colin fell silent as the scenery passed by. There wasn't much to look at; white hills in the distance, ice and snow as far as the eye could see, not even a road.
{A place that has nothing unique to offer and can only be reached by air. Only one town on the whole continent. A whole lot of empty space and nothing going on.}
{It's like the exact opposite of Lamico.}
"What's Crystal Cove?" Colin asked. "Is it a village?"
Scarlet laughed. "No, Colin. Quite the opposite."
George answered for her. "Crystal Cove is a dungeon."
***
Scarlet showed him a map, pointing out Soft Snows. "We're here, following a trail of underground beacons to the south-east."
Colin glanced through, seeing Soft Snows as a starting point, frowning. According to the map, there were forests to the north and east of where they were.
He looked out the window to the left. "Where's Silver Pines Forest?"
"Way out there." Scarlet told him. "But there are some low hills in the way and they're too far to see from here."
Colin gulped, only then realizing how much distance this map actually covered. He looked directly ahead, and could barely make out the Forbidden Mountains in the distance.
.
Map Image:
https://imgur.com/hhg1Um4
.
"Uh… how long is this trip, exactly?" he asked.
Scarlet laughed. "Relax. We won't go this slow forever."
"We're not?" Colin blinked.
"Yeah. We've got some hills behind us and nobody on scope. Here he comes now." George said.
Colin's eyes widened as the ground in front of them erupted and a huge beast surged out of it.
He barely had time to see gaping maws open up before the entire truck was swallowed.
***
"Wha-?!" Colin yelped. "We've just been eaten!"
"Don't worry." George said. "It's just Squirmy."
"Squirmy?" Colin blinked. That sounded like a name.
"My Frostwyrm." George told him. "He used to help me out by loosening the soils for me when he was little."
{When he was little…?} Colin looked around at the dark interior, what little there was of it visible by the truck's lights. It looked (and was, literally) the inside of a mouth.
"He moves a lot faster under the snow than the truck would on it. We need the truck because we can't bring him into town without all the townspeople screaming and attacking him." George added.
Scarlet laughed again. "That was quite a day."
"Poor Squirmy didn't know what to think." George said sadly. "He kept shaking his head at them, but nobody seemed to understand. Everyone just panicked or threw things at him."
"Next time, try sitting on top of him instead of walking into his mouth." Scarlet advised, then burst out laughing again.
"But his outer skin is too slippery!" George protested. "And it's so much warmer in here."
Scarlet went on laughing. "I even saw a kid throw her stuffed penguin at him!!"
Even Colin had to let out a snort of laughter at that one. Scarlet, meanwhile, was holding her sides, gasping for breath.
"Half the town fled until Scarlet put on her show." George grumbled.
"What did she do?" Colin asked.
"Oh, she offered to take out the Frostwyrm for some payment." George said. "Then she played with him a while. You know how it goes, calling her Comrades and using fire attacks on him and all. We do that a lot during training. Afterwards, she told him they were playing catching and that it was his turn to run. So he ran off and after a week without seeing him, the mayor paid her."
"Didn't it hurt him when she 'fought' him?" Colin asked.
"Nah. We do it all the time for training. Squirmy's got some serious fire resistance thanks to her." George looked at the insides of the Frostwyrm's mouth fondly.
"Squirmy was raised as a tank." Scarlet told Colin. "We made sure he's got powerful resistances all around. Hard to imagine that he used to be a Silverworm small enough to hold in my hand when George got him."
Colin gulped. From a little worm, Squirmy had evolved into a Frostwyrm and grown big enough to fit an entire truck in his mouth. George and Scarlet really knew how to raise Comrades.
Suddenly, he felt extremely grateful that he hadn't had to fight Scarlet to rescue May. Scarlet had dominated the Sunshine Town Tournament Championships with total ease. Colin could imagine George just walking in with Squirmy and winning it because everyone else forfeit.
Squirmy's mouth opened up, and Colin turned to find himself looking at a cave filled with crystals.
"We're here." Scarlet told him. "Welcome to Crystal Cove."