"I told you, told you that, that was a reckless plan." the elderly human told me as she came by to check up on me once again. And, rather annoyingly, to pass the same comments as before.
So I rolled my eyes subtly and looked towards the window, "The ifs do not matter."
"I suppose they don't, but how else am I going to teach you caution?"
"I don't need to be taught anything by you..." I answer back with, glaring as I did so.
"I'm only offering advice."
"If I needed such a thing, I would ask for it. Otherwise, watch your tongue!" I snap as she finishes up with her checkups.
"Feel free to pop down later if you are hungry." she offers with a kind smile before she leaves. And, as she did so, I snorted in amusement. Not at her offer, but at the forced smile.
I then look down at the bed I was in, "Make sure the sapling is well-fed first..." I quietly mutter.
Looking up with a sigh before staring out towards the daylit street. Despite the trouble me and Dandel'lhia went through to get out of that place. The outside world does not seem to have been affected in the slightest. The wind-thorns had done nothing and the humans were apathetic.
It was an interesting thing to ponder, given how surely the noise must've alerted someone? Yet, at the same time, it was quickly departing my mind as it did not matter now. That hideous root-thing was dead, and we had escaped. Now all that remained was that we got to the garden-mount.
Were it not for the sapling's words, we'd be there by now and I would be smiling without a care. But, even then, I felt like I would've come back for Dandel'lhia... Not because I missed her or regretted sending her out there. But because I would be watching as her son longingly looked at all the other mothers.
On that topic, though, I found myself rising to my points with a sense of determination. There were mothers-to-be within that building that we had left behind. Regardless of if they were roots or not, even the slightest chance one of them was a son got me up. I had to do something.
Yet, at the same time, I could no longer find the motivation to do so. I had retrieved Dandel'lhia, a fellow petal for her son. My responsibilities in this place had vanished and all that remained was the garden-mount. But, once again, I found myself stumped.
Normally, this would have never been an issue. But while I was there, attempting to save Dandel'lhia. I got to experience what it was like to be an ivy-mother again. I was an ivy-mother once more for such a short time.
The life I left behind briefly came back to me within that place... It was like that corrupted honey in a way, it has left me with a hunger for something particular. Only with this, it was something good and something that benefitted my people. It was foolish of me to give up my duties as an ivy-mother.
There were children that needed protecting and my support, families that depended on me. And I gave it all up for a selfish desire that went nowhere. Nin did not love me, but I loved him, I loved him so much... But at the same time, if he did not love me, then there was no reason for me to be there...
One of the very reasons I loved him is why I could never be there for him. My magic paled in comparison to his, even as I stood in this place as the strongest. I watched him hold his own against a Valkinvar, one of the divine-chosen warriors of Waionr... And I struggled to save one mother in a den of vile decadence.
"Yet, I am doing this because I want Nin to love me..." I admit tearfully as I limped towards the window. I did nothing to hide the tears as I put my head out the window.
"Rose'lhia, someone is here to see you." Dandel'lhia of all people said, much to my surprise. And the oddness of it made me jump. But my position and my injuries did not have pleasant results.
"Da..." I started to swear before I held it back upon seeing the sapling. That hatred was still in his eyes, but there was something in his hands.
"I told him about what you did for me, and he is here to thank you." Dandel'lhia explains with a warm smile as she gently pushes her reluctant son forward.
"N-No... It's fine... I don't deserve it." I tried to explain as the sapling moved closer and closer. Yet, once they got close enough, their expression shifted completely.
"Good woman!" he chirped as he handed me that toy of his. Only now, rather than having a picture of just him and his mother. It now was a picture of me in my bed as those two smiled next to me. A clear message was also written along the bottom of it.
"Thank you..." I read aloud with an uncertain vortex of emotions within my head.
"We're still willing to go to the garden-mount with you, by the way." Dandel'lhia then adds on once her son dashes back into her arms.
"Then we go no- AH!" I start to say before a sharp pain surges up from my leg.
"Not until you have had some time to rest, Rose'lhia. We don't have anyone that we can ask to heal you, so you'll just have to rest and let your body handle it."
"No! We need to get you..." I try to say before she herds me back into the bed.
"I've been away from our flower long enough, I can wait some more. And he has never been there, so I am sure he doesn't understand what he is missing." Dandel'lhia explains before she jokes about her son's unfortunate circumstances.
"Then we shouldn't make it be any longer..." I mutter as I look away from the results of my choices. This sapling was not with his father because of my cruelty. And this mother was not there for the same reasons. And she would go back to her home scarred because of my jealousy.
Jealousy that went on to mean nothing as I fell in love with another...
"Rose'lhia," she starts to say as she puts her hand on mine, "it's fine. Just focus on resting."
"I... I can't..." I admit before I look back out the window.
"I'm sure we can find something to dull the pain."
"It's not the throbbing that bothers me, Dandel'lhia. It's the roots I was with, they need me..." I tell her. Only to find myself glaring as she started to giggle.
"S-Sorry... I'm sorry, I just... Never expected to hear that from you. Even before all of this happened... When I thought I knew you well, it was clear you weren't too fond of those who weren't petals."
"Obviously, have you seen them?" I snort before I smiled gently at her attempt at humour. She was right, though, it was such a strange thing for me to display. But the circumstances weren't exactly normal either.
"No, actually, they kept me down in the darkest part of that dungeon nearly my entire stay there."
"I had a feeling you were kept away somewhere deeper until I finally sensed you. I never once saw you in any of the cells I commanded during my unpleasant stay."
"Commanded?" she questioned with a bemused smile.
"What? You think I was just going to let those roots walk over me even while my body was tainted by that foul substance that creature made?" I asked her, huffing cockily at any potential doubt.
"Foul substance?" she questioned, much to my surprise.
"She sneaked in spiked breast-honey into our food and drink and worked up our bodies into a lustful frenzy. Thankfully, she was clearly getting it from the roots so I was able to keep it under control."
She gasps quietly, "That sounds awful..."
"Ironically, it made you feel good, so you only ever felt bad about it being inside of you after it was all said and done."
"You didn't... Give into to it, did you?" she cautiously asks me as she looks down at my belly. An action that offended me to the point of aggression.
"OF COURSE NOT!" I scream angrily, scaring the sapling in the process, "I just kept my mind on my Love..." I then add on as quietly as I could.
"That's sweet." she comments, clearly having heard what I said. And her words only made the blush on my face burn hotter and spread further.
"I don't want it to ever happen to me again, though... When I found you, I could feel my control slipping. Foul desires were there and I would not have cared if my discipline failed. After all, all the roots back there loved to show you what it was like if you failed to keep your pride..." I explain with a grim expression.
"I understand it's a strange thing for me to say, having not received this corrupted honey. But, don't think too harshly of them, Rose'lhia. It's a lonely life as a root."
"How would yo-" I start to question before her scars reminded me of the plan I had for her. Where I'd dye her hair and dress her up in an unremovable set of root leathers. She was to be so close to the one she loved but she would never be allowed near him again.
"It's alright, that's all in the past now."
"Is it? the consequences of my actions are why we are all here, to begin with." I say to her, something she was more than happy to nod along to. Even with this attempt by her to at least be kind and understanding.
"So... Are you hungry?" she asks me awkwardly, clearly having little idea of how to move away from the topic.
"Not particularly, no, but, I could do with a change of scenery." I say before I tried to get out of the bed again.
"Take this with you, at the very least." she tells me as she hands over that staff I used on our way out of that place.
"I'm sure I said I did not want to see this thing again." I comment grimly as I looked at the hideous attempt to emulate an ivy-mother's staff. One final piece to that dreaded costume that I became so enthralled in. With the help of the corrupted honey, it was so easy to just lose it. I probably would have if I had this in my hand then.
But, thankfully, those foul creatures wanted me to make use of the usual ways they entertained people. So that pole which could've stripped me of my dignity as the honey flowed through me was in fact my saviour. Yet, despite what I also just said in regards to this staff. I wanted to hold it and use it.
I wanted to at least feel like an ivy-mother again, even if I wasn't. That desire stayed within me even without the honey. I longed to be at the top once again... It was such a childish dream that I tried to put down.
But even now, I held onto the obvious pandering with a smile on my face. Even Dandel'lhia's bemusement did not make me stop. Nor did her son as he joined in with the laughter even if he did not know why. However, once we finally came across some humans, the pretending stopped.
"Where do they keep the food?" I asked, having not paid much attention to this place beforehand.
"Right there." Dandel'lhia tells me as she points to the long line of covered tables.
"Good, we'll go there later then." I say with a nod as we move closer to the counter with the two human sons sat by it.
"Well, look who is finally up!" the youngest cheerfully lets out as he gets in the way of the older one. A short-lived fight then broke out as the older one was quickly frustrated by this. Yet, as their mother walked out to see us, it died off.
"Feeling better, Darling?" she asked me as she came out from behind the counter to pass me a chair.
"No, thank you." I tell her before I am forced into it regardless.
"Just sit, Rose'lhia." Dandel'lhia chastises before she sits down on a stall. With her son being moved onto the counter itself. And, it felt weird to be arranged like this, because I was positioned very low in comparison. So I had to look up at everyone...
"Oh, that's a lot of new faces." the mother then commented as a large group of human men walked into the building. And, rather oddly, they began to clear the room out with obnoxious behaviour. But when one of them walked in with a smoking pipe, I became worried.
"Dandel'lhia... Run." I tried to tell her before failing to get out of the seat.
"Excuse me, no smokin-" the mother began to say before they all pulled out their guns and pointed them at us.
"MA!" one of the boys said before he stopped as a gun was brought up right at his face.
"Sorry to be a bother, but, you have something that belongs to us." the pipe-smoking man comments as he walks closer to us with a gun of his own.
"Leave..." I warn as I try to bring out my magic. But, with when that gun clicked next to me. I stopped... There was no way I could beat a twitch of their finger...
"I plan on doing so, once I am done with one final thing." he says as he reached into his coat before he handed a gift-wrapped box to the sapling.
"What..." Dandel'lhia let out in confusion before the man stepped away.
"Bossman? The ever-living thack is that?" one of the goons asked their head as he moved closer to the door.
"Part one of my gift."
"Bossman, whatcha talk-" that same one began to say before he was suddenly brought down with a bang. And, In quick succession that I had trouble following, the rest of them all dropped dead too.
"You won't have to worry about the Madame bothering you anymore." he said with a smirk before he dropped the gun and disappeared into a sudden mist. His gun then suddenly exploded as well and it clearly frightened all of us.
"MA!" the sons roared as they went to their mother to comfort her as she stared blankly at the dead now filling up her place.
"What was that about...?" I questioned before the sound of approaching thorns filled my ears. What was going on out there? Had they heard the gunshots? No, this seemed like it was something else...
There was so much magic gathering beyond the walls of this place.