By the next morning, the Stoners had calmed down but they remained locked behind roots and were very excited to see Vella. She spoke but they moved their mouths in a copying motion.
When she walked, they tried to take her stance and strut as far as their cell would go. All seventeen, as if mesmerized, followed Vira's movements almost exactly. It seemed juvenile but they were just that, newly born into the world. Everything was a new experience at that point.
When Vella was convinced that they were listening instead of just following, she used a communication stone to contact Mike. "I think its time we bring them back out, It wouldn't hurt to put a bell on them or something."
Mike laughed on the other end, the crystal broke and he flew toward the Castle. He was checking on the Docks making sure that security was not complacent. When he arrived, his subordinates were all staring at him fiercely. 'Are they staring me down? Or just staring?'
Leading them out of the Castle, Vella and Mike got them into the Air and with some form of luck, they managed to follow behind, albeit slow and clumsily.
The Village would take about thirty minutes to fly there at their pace but it was better to go slow and allow the Stoners time to get use to flying high. When they reached an abandoned pasture, Mike set down on the grass and had the subordinates follow his movements. He handed them all shovels and did the movements to demonstrate.
Mike felt like he was being ignored until Vella picked up a shovel and yelled at them, motivating them to do it as well. The Stoners had an overwhelming desire to follow Vella's actions, not Mike's. They chose to stab at the dirt with the shovels. Onyx and Jim were trying to dig with the handle but eventually they would figured it out and chose to correct it. He was sure that they were learning by repetition and representation, manifestation and visual imagery.
A type of training technique he had heard about in stories as a kid, it was all fantasy but the concept was that you could do something just by belief that you could do it and that motivation, that driving force could carry you, bringing you out and into new potentials. An example in nature would be like a penguin raised by a chicken, believing it was a chicken, would learn to overcome its shortcomings and gain the ability to fly... even if only temporarily.
It is a feat that was simply unobtainable, their learning capabilities were somewhat stunted from some unknown reason but their capacity for growth helped them overcome a steep incline in necessary cognitive functions. Mike felt like rewarding them, the Stoners were learning very quickly.
Vella could read Mike's body language, he had been the same way with the girls at first. Generous and giving but direct and firm. He was in the rewarding mood and she could tell. Turning her hand over, a basket of muffins appeared.
They were a bit green but they had meat in them, Vella insisted.
Cannabinoids could bond to any fat. So, even in Milk or baked goods, all the fat content carries high traces of them when infused properly. The green muffins showed that Vella had rushed them a little bit but with the Meat inside, it was bound to have a distinct taste. Mike had to make his own edibles back on Earth because of a similar problem, he would buy an edible but it would be such a low quality that in order to get any noticeable effect, anyone would have to consume several or even a dozen of the treats.
In effect, it came off as a form of robbery to the inquisitive taste bud. Mike knew that if a recipe made 16-18 muffins, he would just have to make sure that a tablespoon of material made it in. Four grams split up between sixteen edibles always gave 250mg. He only had to do simple math to figure that out and when he did, his distrust in the commercial edibles industry of Earth flared into overdrive. People were paying close to fifteen dollars for 10mg edibles. Sometimes twenty-five dollars for a 55mg chocolate or similar small chewy edible.
Just remembering it made him sick to his stomach, profiteers that veiled themselves as professionals just because they had enough money to buy their way in. The industry, once it activated, left a shortage of spaces to drive the price of the Licensing up, which kept small practices or distribution centers from opening. There were many ways to profit from Cannabis, but it should have always been in the hands of the people, not sold to them in microdoses for astronomical markups.
Mikes grow on Earth, although it had only been in operation for a few years, had driven the price per gram to less than three cents. He didn't just grow plants, he grew trees.
Vira was still holding the Basket, she didn't like the way they were grabbing toward it and she yelled at them. "NO!"
Her reaction was a sort of shock to them. They all repeated her word. It was so short, they couldn't help themselves but attempt to make the noise.
"no""no""no""no""no""no"... it sounded out almost constantly for a few moments, all seventeen of them were repeating the same word, a declination.
The shocks didn't rest entirely with them, sort of. Mike was pleased to see such a rapid recovery rate, they were becoming familiar with their bodies and hopefully their capacity to understanding.
Vella wanted them to start doing things, instead of just acting like wild children. It was only the second day but she didn't want to make a profession of their recovery. She pointed her finger at a broken wall and yelled.
If it were anyone else, they would be causing a scene. The Stoners understood a little bit, and started to re-stacking the wall with the broken rocks.
Mike flew over to help by doing what they were doing, making it something that they were all doing. 'Its a start,' Once they had started to rebuild the broken section of the wall, they weren't satisfied with how the pieces fit, they tore it apart and re-stacked it from the bottom.
In the Titan's memories, he had seen a lot of fast learning species but the people who were trapped in the rocks, like Vella, the Stoners, were among the fastest to pick things up. It was embarrassing of sorts but Mike did have the Titan's Legacies. The nature of that legacy on a whole was still unclear but with all the things that had happened to bring him to where he was in that instant, he was grateful.
Mike wanted to make sure that the Stoners wouldn't cause an issue the next time they returned with him to the City and the Castle. Their fixation and authority seemed to only extend to Vella. Even Vella can't break out of his roots so easily, so when Mike saw the opening, he surrounded them entirely and brought them back to their rooms.
When he was sure that there was some downtime, Mike snuck down into the tunnel and read. The lights were always on, Mike spent the majority of his time reading the many books at his disposal.
At Lunchtime, Mike's stomach made noises loud enough to echo in the hallways. He roasted a bird he had caught some time ago. Its meat was as juicy as if it had just died. Wiping the grease from his chin, Mike spread his wings and flew back to see the Grow, leaving Vella with the Dragoons and Stoners.
There were fields of green, a Sea of green and even a bubble bucket setup, all of them were ready for Harvesting. Mike couldn't wait to get it over and done with so that he could begin isolating and perfecting the strain.
When the plants are harvested, there would be space for the Girls' next crop.
Mike wanted to cheer, but the girls weren't there. It was lunchtime still, he had finished early and decided to search for them. The search was a small one, after only a few turns, he had found them. They were all going over the extraction process that had been done back in the Poocha Kingdom.
A thick smell of concentrate came across the breeze. It was a sedative like effect on those who didn't spend a lot of time around it. 'They actually harvested one with out me?' Mike Coughed and got their attention, it spooked the girls and they dropped a seed pack on the ground. It was one of the packs he had given to the Poocha Troop to hide so long ago. 'This makes me want to laugh.' He passed the seed pack back to them and turned to leave.
"Mike, sorry. We were trying to surprise you." Rissa, Jodi, March, Cara, Mona, Vella and the others were all dress rather seductively. It gave Mike an impression, it showed in his stance.
"Don't worry about it, lets go pick seeds!" Mike didn't want to take away from their group activities, seeing them working without direction was equally refreshing and gratifying.
Mona's face lit up. "REALLY?"
Mike kissed her on the forehead. "Of course. Since there are a hundred fifty clones in the sea of green setup, that means each of you are going to harvest ten of the plants from the sog. After that, we're going to harvest the rest of the big plants outside, its finally harvest time." He wanted to see what they would do when motivated, harvest time brought out the best in workers. Afterward, the only plants remaining were the ones that the girls had just planted, and they would be the next generation of plants to go through flower, a renewable source.
Aside from the few plants from the Girls, the only other plant that wasn't harvested was the one in the Tunnel, the Mother Plant below carried special traits. Mike was struggling with the decision to flower, clone or even cut into it. The blue light was so mystical in nature, he feared the reaction would stop.
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Class was due back after lunch, many of the new hires had a serious interest in staying on long term, so cultivation of dry materials was something they had to learn. He once again showed them how to Make J hooks from the plant itself, cutting it into segments with small nubs to hang them on. Once he was done, he made sure to put a wind spell formation down nearby, keeping the air moving slowly. "Stagnant air is what allows mildew and disease to form, make sure you keep your plants with a fresh air supply even when drying. You don't want to batter them with wind either, it needs to be a gentle and soft blowing force. If its swaying around, you're losing potency of the plant." Mike's tone went deep, he caused the girls to stare into his eyes. They started to gloss over and he forced himself to stop, the charm ability of his eyes was very unconcerned with timing.
Mike Clapped, snapping the group out of it. 'That's more like it.' "If you want to cure the plant, and by Cure the plant I mean that the plant will be perfectly preserved, then you need to find a jar of some sort, place your dried material in it and then find a dry dark place to store it. Every day, every other day, you'll have to come out and open it, releasing extra gasses that accumulate and exchanging the air. Remember what I just said, even when you're drying the plant, it needs air."
"I think that's enough for today." Mike was having difficulty turning it off, the Charm kept invoking itself onto his audience. Finding Vella at the Castle, per usual, Mike sent her on the daily run to the Nyankin Village. The Subordinates were learning new movements and concepts every day but there were some recent developments like their speech, that had a quick jump in ability.
He disappeared into the Tunnel and went to see the mother plant. It was too big for the room and rooted to the floor. Its blue flowers would go to waste if he didn't do something. "Honey, I don't to want cut you down. You're just too big though, if I send you into seed you'll die, its just so sad. If I send you to make flowers, you die either way. I'm afraid to even make a clone of you to make seeds too, you're just too precious." He rubbed the trunk of the plant and the blue shadows got brighter.
Mike let go.
-("What is a Clone..") Mike heard a voice. He looked around the room in confusion.
-("What is a Clone?") He heard it again, it came from behind him.
When he turned around again, the only thing in front of him was the plant. "Okay.. What the hell is going on? Vella, are you messing with me. Come on out." He waited. "Vella? Rissa? Jodi? March?...He kept listing their names but none of them replied. It would have been hard for them not to have giggled or laughed after having pulled one over on Mike. He rifled through his storage ring and threw glow stones in every direction.
They pinged off the wall and bounced like marbles across the floor.
-("What is a Clone?") There it was again.
Mike turned his gaze to the plant and its blue shadows swayed gently.
-("Yes, What is a Clone!") The voice changed its question.
"A Clone is a perfect copy of the original, using parts or portions of the original as a template. By taking a clone, a cutting of a fresh piece of growth, I can make a Clone to bare seeds or become a copy of the original. If I make a clone, it allows the original to live, changing its fate. Its a form of reproduction." Mike didn't know why he was talking to the plant but it didn't feel wrong, just very unique.
-("A Clone.. A Clone..") A branch swung down, it radiated the blue light. A small, fresh, four inch bit of growth was poking from a lower branch.
"Its better if I take a clone at medium to top level, since they are the strongest." Mike was hesitant. Roots came out and lifted him higher, "This one will do nicely."
-("Tickles.. .. Ouch.")
'That was an odd response, a pain receptor?' Mike stared at the cut clone in his hand, he pulled a jar of Concentrated Elemental Water out and placed it inside. "The clone should sit in the solution for a while and then, after a bit, roots will develop."
-("Is that all? I don't want to die, I don't want to die. I don't want to die.")
"You're not going to die, the clone will carry on the duty of flowers and seed. Just live. Is this really a plant talking to me?" Mike answered with a smart answer, it forced the plant to stop talking for a moment.
Mike put the Clone away, worried he might be dreaming. 'A plant concerned with death, this is just too much.' He had just finished thinking it over, a wave of energy washed over him, it was driving toward the Plant.
-("Then.. then..") The Blue light grew brighter and brighter.
-("Then.. then.. I can choose my own fate? I don't want to die. I want to leave... to leave this place.") The blue light almost blinded Mike.
A Blue orb hovered above the Altar, it drained the energy from the plant in an instant, withering it to nothing. The five meter plant had broken the bonds between its soil and its flesh.
"Its spirit manifestation!" Mike had read about such an occurrence but it was usually pertaining to Weapons or Divine objects.
A bright golden light replaced the Blue glow, it hung in the throne room and dropped atop the Altar like a sack of potatoes and spread out along the floor.
The glowing slowed down and a shape began to form, it was golden.
"I … I am free!" The Voice seemed to have transcended its former self image. The Plant, which had once given Mike a sense of wonderment, was now doing it again in an impossible way. The feminine voice came from the golden mass that was still forming its body, soon, a figure dressed in an thin orange and green dress, dripped a few times, then crystallized.
Her figure became solidified like amber but it was flexible. Her face was a perfect shadow of gold, long golden hair flowed down to her toes. Even her toenails were golden, it gave her a regal look.
"You can call me Honey!" She adjusted the position of her head and two blue eyes peered deep into Mike's. She began to affix on his face, unable to look away, she stepped closer.
One step at a time, the closer she got, the sweeter the air around her became.
Mike felt like he was healing but he didn't have any wounds, his body got straighter and he felt stronger than ever before. Energy was flowing into his body at a rapid pace.
It was a sort of ecstasy.
Honey felt the aura change in Mike. She rubbed herself against him, her Illusory dress did nothing to change the contour of her body. As it brushed past him, he felt something he had never felt before from plants, a hand, caressing his chest.
Mike gulped, 'How am I going to explain this one?'