Summary: Plant magic ... how bizarre
"YOU CALL THIS FRUIT RIPE!?" All in the Plant who heard the voice of Terra Snapdragon coward in fear. Plant magic was strong, versatile, and allowed one to get creative at times, but for those high up, it was just as much a burden as it was a blessing to be a part of it. The head of the Plant Coven, one of the oldest Coven Heads alongside Vitimir and Heartburn, was, to put it simply, absolutely psychotic.
"We-we spent sixteen years growing it with the most po-potent plant magic." The poor boy stuttered in terror.
"I could have had it done in eight, how sorry that this generation is going to manure!" The woman shouted, tossing the man out of a window. "I knew the education system was far too soft on the last one. If they weren't so picky and let me kill a couple dozen weaklings, then the current generation wouldn't be so garbage!"
Yep, a firm believer in culling of a generation. If only the strong lived, only the stronger would be born. Sound logic that they didn't necessarily disagree with, but the aged woman had a habit of being just a little too into the process of culling. "Um, Mrs Snapdragon." A man bravely stood up. "This fall is already limiting our budget due to the lack of … flowers."
"Well if those flowers can't survive the cooling season, why have them at all?!" And then there was her habit of extending her culling habit to practically every little detail. "We can't have weak plant's that wither away just because it's a little chilly! Force them to stay alive, I don't care if you have to rip out pieces of your soul, you make sure that not a single petal wilts off!"
Oh sure, not all of them were miracle workers, but they'd do their best … and sadly, it was time for their report. "Ms Snapdragon?" They started. "The um … report from the Garden came in."
"And?" She looked down at him, like he was a fly about to be gobbled up by a witch-trapper. "The results BETTER be better than last years, or I'm ripping off someone's head and using the blood as bird feeder."
"We were able to obtain twice as many plants as last year due to the blood spilt." He buttered her up with good news.
"Hah, and they thought it was controversial to use grinded corpses as fertilizers. Show what they know."
"However …" Her eyes instantly narrowed like a Hawk. "Thanks to the Crystal Devils … there are too few Palistrum Trees this year."
"Not enough….not enough!?" And there goes all the feeling in his legs. The vines she was wrapping around him went right through the bone. "Secruing Palistrum wood is our top priority above all else!"
"I'm sorry, but even the strongest can't grow Palistrum wood through magic." He pleaded. "The wood takes years to grow and fully mature for use, and seeds have become scarce to grow new ones."
"UGH, That's what I get for getting amateurs to handle the overharvesting." Terra groaned. "No one can do anything right around here."
"Wait, we can't grow them through magic?" A plant scout asked with confusion.
"… Why would you think otherwise?" Terra asked with a threat of murder in her voice.
"Well one of the times you threw me over Bonesburrow, I saw two children in the Hexide greenhouse, talking about growing a palistrum tree with one of the kid's spit or something." The member shuddered in fear. "I don't know what they were trying to talk about, but I know they have a seed with them."
"Hmm …" The woman smiled. "Good job. No violent launches for you today Tony."
"Good day for Tony." He shouted, before getting burrowed head deep in the ground.
"That was for not bringing up the presence of a palistrum seed sooner." Yep, Terra was still a psycho.
"Shall we have the emperor's coven extract the tree?" He asked.
"No. Something tells me things will be much more interesting if I do this personally."
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Willow watched with wide eyes. "It's beautiful." She stated, gazing at the tree, tears coming down her face as she could barely find the strength to wipe them away. She's never seen Palistrum wood in person before … and she never lived then either.
"After you've seen a forest of them, the first time wonder dies down. But even now I shiver in excitement when looking at them." Lucci smiled brightly. "It's big, it's fervent.."
"And it's not alive!" Willow couldn't help but be extremely excited about that last part.
"I mean, aren't all plants alive?" Lucci questioned.
"Fair point, but, you know what I meant." She nudged his arm playfully. "It's not trying to hurt us or kill us or trying to take over the world!" She jumped in the air. "I didn't think it would be possible…i mean, you and plant magic never mixed well before!"
"Yeah, now you and Amity won't kill me whenever I spit on the ground." The boy chuckled. "Maybe I can make a plant fist covered in a pink knuckle duster."
Creating this amazing work of magic, with one of her oldest friends too…the feeling she was feeling now was unbelievable. "Bring me in on that next test fest, what we did today together… it's too amazing for words, Lucci."
"Bzz."
"Yes, you are a great creative guide, Clover." And with their own palisman to boot! It was like every amazing feeling rolled into one. "Teaching you plant magic, getting my Paliman, and growing a Palistrum tree, it's like three impossible dreams coming to life at once."
"I know." Lucci grinned. "Thanks for the help Willow, I definitely owe you." Aww, you too big guy. This was definitely better than constantly hating each other. "Now, how about we get a block of wood for Luz …" He paused. "Shoot, Grandpa never taught me how to properly extract these things."
"Can't you just cut it down?" She questioned.
"Nope, the seeds are embedded into the tree instead of just hanging from the branches. If you do it wrong they don't grow back …" He paused. "Like what caused Ivan and the others to …"
"Are you seriously feeling bad for that psychopath?" She asked. Empathy wasn't exactly Lucci's strongest trait, especially to jerks. "He tried to kill us all. You've been fine with taking out Lilith and the Golden Guard for less."
"Well, I've actually been trying to let go of my hate for Lilith, but you have a point about the Golden guard." As if she never had a good point. "It's just….he was different from the other people I've fought. His entire race was driven to extinction and he had no will to live other than the hate left to fester inside…I had to have that image in my head while I let Boscha shove poison down his throat to save everyone else."
She sighed. "I know it was rough … but that's how the Boiling Isles is." She patted him gently on the back. "Life sometimes sucks, which is why you have to constantly fight for your happiness. You can't let one bad guy ruin your life. You're still here, still alive and breathing. You still have a chance at being happy."
Lucci's frown lifted up just a little. "Yeah, I do." He placed his hand on the tree and gently rubbed it. "It'll be even better once Luz is able to carve her own Palisman. I can keep grandpa's trade alive, maybe we'll be able to set Centi free and feed her the leftover shavings."
Willow looked at the excited glee on his face practically sparklingly off of him. It reminded her a little of Luz…or rather, of Child Lucci. "You know… seeing you look so happy about helping people through something not legally questionable for once… it's a great look on you."
He turned to her. "Meh, it's just the way life is. My best faces are rarities." Sure they were, 'mr emo'. Lucci was a good person, even if he didn't acknowledge it. "Now how do you think we should go about there Sugar?"
"Hhsss."
"I don't know where we're going to find someone from the Plant Coven at this hour." He asked back. "And would that even be wise? Palastrum trees are rare, they'd probably take it the moment they see it."
"We can always get my teacher to do it in the morning." Willow suggested. "I'll get an endless stream of extra credit for probably the rest of my time at Hexide and we won't damage the tree."
"You could always just hand it over to me." A new voice spoke up.
"But we don't even know who you are, mysterious voice." … Admittedly, a few seconds passed before both of them realized what was wrong with that sentence. "We're going to regret turning our heads to see who's there, aren't we?"
"Yep." Willow nodded, before bracing for the worst case scenario, and was still mentally unprepared for who it was that crashed through the glass ceiling. "Coven Head Terra Snapdragon!?"
"Oh come on!" Lucci shouted. "What is up with me and Coven Heads lately!?"
"If it's any consolation, Emberwolf doesn't hold your actions against you lot." Yay, one out of nine didn't hate them, goody. "When I heard that two children were attempting to grow a Palistrum tree, I was intrigued."
"Okay … I hope you're not disappointed." Willow nervously chuckled as she took a mental note of anything they could use to flee.
"Far from it, little sapling. Though in retrospect; I suppose I should've expected a Clawthorne to be involved." The old woman chuckled, slowly approaching them. "I knew your mother when she was just a sprout, little Lucifer. So talentedly troublemaking."
"... I am sorry if she made it your life mission to kill all Clawthornes." The boy apologized instantly. Heck, it was probably memorized all things considered.
"Darling, I'm not here to kill you." Lucci sighed in relief. "I'm here to take the palistrum tree for the Emperor. Killing children is just a bonus in my book."
"Lucci, remember all those times you told me that the Covens were evil and I always just shrugged it off?" Willow asked, and the boy slowly nodded while massive thorns the size of doorways were now being aimed at them both. "I am so sorry for not taking it seriously."
"It's fine, I never really imagined the depths myself." Lucci answered as the thorns were hurled at them. "RUUUUN!"
"Aaaah, screaming children, now that takes me back." The psycho smiled fondly as she casually tossed cactus needed at their heads. "I feel twenty years younger."
"Please tell me you know how to survive!" Willow shouted as they did their best to stay in one piece.
"The closest we had to survival were the entire group for their numbers, or the sheer spontaneous luck we have!" He shouted back. "There's not much left in our arsenal for people this powerful!"
"Please, you're being too kind here, I'm barely lifting a finger." The woman just calmly approached the tree as she tossed entire slabs of the ground without even looking at them. "I honestly am still cautious. Who knows what dangerous powers you hold that make Belos himself so desperate to kill you."
"I'll be sure to ask him for you after I weed whack your head off, regardless of if it reattaches or not!" Lucci groaned as she sent a saw through one of the vines and ducked under another needle attack.
"I doubt that'll ever happen, but the passion in your voice is appreciated. To think, a couple of children were able to fully grow a palistrum tree in a manner of weeks." Snapdragon went on to admire their hard work. "If it was any other circumstances, I'd consider letting you live to carry on miracles like this….hm…maybe the girl with the glasses would be fine."
"Are you kidding? If Eda finds out Lucci died on my watch, I'd be a dead woman walking!" Willow shouted out.
"Glad to see your priorities in order." Lucci rolled his eyes, before vines wrapped around their legs.
"Friendship reasons go unsaid, that's how it works." The two of them were tied together back to back and hung upside down in front of the psychotic woman.
"You know, I recall having your mother and another little sprout in this exact same position just a little over thirty years ago..you have no idea how cathartic this moment is for me given the circumstances." Snapdragon laughed as she held them over a tree with rows and rows of razor sharp teeth. "To this day I don't even know if it was the right call to let them live. Maybe this is the universe giving me a chance to correct my previous mistakes. Food for thought, don't you think?"
"I think you're single-handedly the most sadistic lady I have ever met." Willow bluntly assessed. That wasn't something she said lightly, especially when she knew Boscha.
"Honestly running up there with Bria from Glandus." Lucci muttered. "Do you speak ill of the dead too?"
"To the weak and useless, absolutely. I grind their corpses into fertilizer." Don't be proud of that you bitch.
"Then yeah, she's the most sadistic." The boy accepted. "Since we're almost going to die without any means of escape, mind if we show you something interesting before that happens?"
"Is it going to be a feeble attempt to attack me while I'm distracted for a brief second?" Sadistic but not stupid. A terrifying combination.
"Not a bit, you have my word." Lucci nodded.
"I really shouldn't….Ah what the hell, this is the most excitement I've had in decades." The coven head shrugged.
"Good, because we were hoping to get your opinion of a certain technique we have, and plants are intimately involved." Lucci winked at Willow, and she instantly understood what he was getting at.
"Yeah, it's the closest thing we have to true control over all plants." She added, holding out her hand to touch him, initiating contact as she tried to get their emotions in sync.
"True control you say? Quite a bold claim." Terra smirked, clearly intrigued, which meant she wasn't actively trying to kill them for now. Perfect.
"Bold is the only language we speak, subtly be damned." Willow gritted her teeth as Lucci's gem began to glow. It was just the two of them and Amity wasn't here. That means they were free to fuse and go all out.
Pooof
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Orchid instantly knew Lucci fully intended on keeping his word of not attacking … because Orchid's new job was to get the hell out of dodge. "Goodbye Snapdragon!" They shouted, a giant flower forcing its way out of the ground, launching them through the sky along with their palistrum wood tree.
Is it going to be alright!? As long as the roots are attached it should be fine. We just need to plant it somewhere safe. Far, far away from the crazy woman.
"Have you heard of a vermisian Root?" … Orchid turned to the flying Coven Head. "It's a small parasitic weed that moves into other plants, so deep the only option is to rip the poor creature to shreds unless you have plenty of time to manipulate it …" She gave them a bright smile. "And it also acts like a homing beacon to locate anywhere it moves."
Terra pointed down, as a gigantic thorny fist sent Orchid through a house. "My bathtub!" Some guy shouted in horror.
Ow..okay she's no joke. Powerful and creative. So are we. She's not the goddess of nature here, we are! Which is why they were going to use that power to get one good hit in and scram.
Orchid raised forth a couple of vines upward to strike the woman. "Ohh, how fun. Did you know that vines lack the structure of wood, and therefore can be overpowered quite easily?" She asked, sending a tree sword to cut all of their creations to pieces.
"Did you know you're the master at stating the freakin obvious?" They countered as they fell on top of a bouncy flower they grew and bounced back themselves upward at the psycho with their right arm being shaped into a wooden ax.
"Aww, are you feeling bad because you're young?" She questioned, grabbing the ax with her hands to stop it from slicing them apart. "Alright, if it makes you feel like a big girl, I won't explain this next one."
"It's GODDESS to you!" Orchid shouted … before feeling drained, looking down to see multiple leach weeds grabbing onto their body.
"Oh sure thing … demi goddess." The bitch smirked before breaking the ax with their bare hands, and sending Orchid flying with another wooden strike of the sword, crashing through three more houses.
"Ugh! Seriously, how can a psycho be this versatile? Probably constantly thinking of ways to torture her victims in cruel and unusual situations. Okay, we may have youthful vigor on our side, but she clearly has more experience than anyone in here … we need a new strategy-
Multiple vines emerged from the ground, covered in a slippery and slimy liquid. Please don't be that thing I saw in Luz's head. Probably not, these are patros vines. They paralyze the body and … make it easier for the carnivorous plant to eat the prey!
"I was honestly expecting more of a fight out of you with that fancy combo trick you came up with, though I must say I love the woodland dryad look your going for, very eloquent." Snapdragon giggled as they looked down on them, riding on a giant piranha headed looming plant that was on all fours like a giant dog. "Any more tricks up your sleeve?"
"Yeah … I'm only half plant." They created a flower … which began to produce pink bubbles.
"... And this is meant to be impressive?" Snapdragon questioned.
"You should, or at least, be aware that I placed poisonous spores in them that explode with mustard gas."
"Then I guess I should deal with that." The woman smiled as she covered them up … before the bubbles broke out.
"Something Lucci cooked up for the Golden Tool … microscopic blades on bubbles that spin around really fast." They grinned. "Good luck with the fallout of unstoppable bitch seeking bombs!"
Kabboooom!
Orchid was barely able to make it out of the blast radius, quickly using whatever strength they had left to burry themselves underneath. Cutting it close on that one. No argument here. Sad thing is I know that's not going to do a damn thing. If the golden guard could take on the veggie Lucci's, that's barely going to scratch a coven head.
What's the game plan here? I can't grow any more plants that she wouldn't be able to counter . We need to destroy the Palistrum tree.
What!?
She's going to track it no matter what, so we'd need to ditch it either way. But..but we worked so hard-Lucci! It's a plant. I love plants, and I want to preserve them as much as possible, but it's not worth our lives. Either we give it to her and run, or we take it out so the Emperor never touches it.
There was a quick silence in their head. Fine..let's destroy it. Once again, Covens ruin everything. We'll get revenge someday, but now though is the time for survival. Kinda sad to do it the day we get our Palisman … wait, did we even give them notice about-
Shink
…. Orchid looked down at the thorn poking out of their stomach. Aaaaaaahhhhh! Keep it together! I've taken worse than this, our combined durability should-
Shink Shink Shink.
Orchid stared at the thorn gaping out of her skull. "In any other situation … I might have been pissed." A voice spoke. "But right now I haven't felt this young in years!"
Agggggh! How the fuck do you deal with this damage all the time!? I learn to repress the pain, now calm down before Orchid comes undone! We need to get at least two seconds of space between us and her before we defuse, or else you'll probably have a chunk of your brain missing! I'll try and help as long as I can. "So, think you can spare us a minute of brea-"
Shink
"Sure, breath on that flower all you wish, child."
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Terra cackled, raining down attack after attack. It felt exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time. "So, when I turn you into nutrition, would you prefer to be buried as one corpse or two? I'm not particularly picky." She wasn't particularly convinced of the fear the Emperor had for the devil child, but they were definitely entertaining.
"Heh..The Willow part of me always did want to be buried under a tree as a last gift to nature." The thing dripped blood that made flowers bloom next to them. "The Lucci side prefers a whole blaze a glory shtick ."
"I would just burn you alive, but far too many people are interested in your corpse once Vitimir showed off your blood." Terra explained as she continued to rain down thorns. This thing has too much raw power, letting it breathe was a bad call in the long run.
" So many people just want me for my body, the price of being beautiful I guess." The thing laughed as more blood fell, the wounds being closed. Time to make more she guessed. " Oh, and that little detail about my blood …thank you for telling me it's not just my spit I can use."
She watched as multiple plant monsters started to form just like they did last time, glaring at her. "Abvaaa!"
"Oh, more of these guys." She laughed as she implanted small vines into the army. "It'll take a minute or two to control all their nervous systems after experimenting with the one in my basement, so feel free to rest for round two."
" Thank you for the break. Now we can do this." The form glowed, before breaking apart and split back into the two children.
"Oh, so you did want two graves instead of one." Terra smirked. "Separating seems like a particularly bad move on your part."
"Clearly power isn't the answer against you either way." The boy panted. "Willow, you alright?"
"Fine. Just a little winded." The girl rubbed her bloody arms. "You get out of here Lucci, this is my fight now, plant user to plant user."
"Willow, not that I don't appreciate everything you do or underestimate you, but Terra Snapdragon took on a power mode that boosted you and is currently taking on the vegetable army with little more than a couple of stringy roots." Clearly the child understood his place.
"Orchid's our pure anger and rage combined…what our strength and creativity can do together…the one thing they don't have however is my indomitable will over plants. No offense, but I have a clearer mind doing this alone." She put a hand on the devil child. "Just trust me on this, please."
The boy looked at her, then at his friend. "Don't make me regret this!" He shouted, running away.
"Aww, staying behind while your friend leaves, how gutless." She answered.
The glasses girl raised an eyebrow. "How is staying behind gutless?"
"Because …" Terra forced the army to turn their maws to the young student. "Suicide is the coward's way out."
"Going by that logic, the Emperor's coven is full of spineless chickens." The girl growled as she gripped her hands, holding them out to try and assert her own control.
"That's not untrue." The Coven Head relented. "So very few buds bloom to their full potential nowadays." She forced the army forward. Once the plant people reached the middle, they stopped, bio electricity radiating off them. Oh, how fun, a control off. Terra added more force as the energy sparked even more. "A fight of mental attrition. You truly believe your control to be superior to mine?"
"I don't know. I just know I really hate you, and I'm a girl that's held in her anger towards life for over a decade by this point." Green energy continued to spark as the plants in the middle began to tear apart a little. "I've held in a rage that wants so, so, so much to tear apart the isles and every idiot that's ever annoyed me or looked down on me, and for once in my life, I don't need to hold that back."
"Holding it in is only to stop one from overkill. If it's all at once than clearly you don't know much about how I roll." Terra grinned as the energy continued to build. "So let's see it. If a decade of bottled teenage angst can stand up to a lifetime of idiocy being saved by weak laws that have ruined what the Boiling Isles once was!" A land of the strong and powerful.
The air was suddenly filled with a pressure that was practically suffocating to any normal witch. A pressure that one only felt when someone great was in the room, a presence Terra felt often whenever she was in the presence of Emperor Belos.
Terra wouldn't say she was struggling right now, but admittedly caught off guard and surprised by how much pushback she was receiving now. It was like she was controlling a puppet, but that puppet suddenly began talking of its own free will and started arguing with her.
She eventually started to extend it when these puppets began breaking down, adding the plants underground into the mix. "GrrrrAAAAAA!!" Only for them to be stopped as well, the energy building up so intensely that all life forms were stopped in an instant.
"You're not going to grow any more plants as long as I'm around ." The child growled again, her eyes glowing with an almost blinding green light. "I've spent years talking, communicating, growing, loving, hating, and befriending plants of all kinds…I understand them probably more than I understand people, and I am not going to let you turn them against me!"
"Such a nicely grown little sapling, I can't tell you how hard it is to find one as talented as you." Terra complimented the girl as she kept ordering every plant in the area to crush her skull in.
"And I can't believe … the first witch I met … that's stronger than me …" The girl gritted out as she kept forcing the plants to back off. "Is an ancient, rotting, weed."
Terra felt a well of irritation boil up. "How dare you call me a weed!" She upped the ante on her force.
"I mean, your….old…withered, and as dried up as….a raisin…." The girl had the gall to keep insulting her even when the plants managed to get a slash or two in before being repelled. "…Maybe it would be….better to….compare you to mold…since you stick around when you're not wanted."
She could take the age jokes, she well accepted that she was well past her prime. With age came growth after all … but to be compared to insignificant plants such as mold? Oh the gloves were off! Terra put the stomp on her control, now physically making her way to the girl to fight her personally as well as magically. "You little brat!" She called out as she continued to press forward. "I'm going to feed those eyeballs of yours to my tracenas!"
"Heh…maybe you'll finally grow something halfway decent when you do." How did she manage to find a girl more irritating than a young Eda Clawthorne!?
"Yo, snap pea! Remember this!?" She turned her head to see the Clawthorne boy right next to the Palistrum wood tree..with a match in his hands. "Palistrum wood is important to the emperor. For what reason, I don't know, but it would be such a shame for word to get out that you let a tree get destroyed under your watch."
That would be horrible for her…but this couldn't actually be a real threat, right? "You're bluffing." She spoke confidently. "A Clawthorne wouldn't dare to hurt Palisman or their source in the manner you're referring to."
The boy paused for a second. "I've done a lot of things I never thought I would ever do before in the past few months…some more regrettable than others." The boy looked down grimly. "But I'll be damned if I let you or anyone else ruin everything good about the Boiling Isles." The boy tossed the match...right on top of the tree.
Fapooof
"No!" She dropped her guard to attempt to stop the burning … only to be sent flying as every plant hit her at once, causing Terra to go flying through a wall herself.
"It's done, run!"
"Don't need to tell me twice!" The girl yelled at the boy. "See you later, Mold dragon!!"
It happened again…the next generation managed to surprise her when she didn't expect it…just like her sprout and Eda did all those years ago…except this time..they got the win over Terra. "Oh how fun this life is." She smiled … she was still going to kill them all of course.
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"That…..sucked." There was a long silence that loomed over Lucci and Willow after they ran away from Snapdragon. There was only so much one could say about how they thoroughly got their asses kicked by an old lady, and neither of them felt inclined to talk much about it.
"Yeah….completely….on the other hand, we can officially say the two of us beat a Coven head alone." Willow pointed out. "The AW in LAW taking down Terra Snappdragon."
"Less of a takedown and more of both sides losing….then again, I saved this." Lucci pulled out a log of the wood from his hair. "All those weeks of work for one log…I didn't even have time to carve it out properly."
"Which means there's less seeds in the world …" Willow winced. "Yeah that's gotta suck … and the Emperor would literally kill for every seed to be under his control."
"Sticking it to Boolus is always a plus, I'm never going to regret that." He snickered a little, before looking back at the log. "I just…I wish it didn't come down to that. When we got our Palisman…it was like…confirmation that everything I've done before was worth it…that we've really have become true witches."
"Well to our credit, we haven't trained with them at all." Willow turned to Clover. "Sorry for not asking for help."
"Bzz."
"Hssh." Sugar popped out of his hair.
"Good point. There would've been a small chance Terra would've tried to steal them too for Belos if we brought them out." Lucci sighed. "I guess I really don't have a future in plant magic, not with the Coven's wanting to exploit my powers for Belos's gain. Would've been nice to help people in a way that doesn't' involve fighting or stealing."
"You can still help Luz." Willow smiled. "By giving her the only log of Palistrum wood the Clawthorns own-"
Mom popped out from behind the treeline with King, with tools and a map. "Okay, once we get into the garden, prepare for anything-" Mom turned to him. "...Did you rob the Plant Coven without me?"
"We've been growing this for weeks on our own….were you planning on robbing the garden without me?" Lucci asked.
"I tried to invite you, but you vanished before I got the chance." She admitted.
"Dang it, I was gonna set the place on fire!" King complained.
"Ugh, just going to ignore that. I have a log, and I'm giving it to Luz." Lucci groaned. "Thanks for everything Willow, even if it turned out for nothing."
"We have a log, that's more than what we had at the start." She playfully punched him. "And we got to spend time together working on our own project….that's never a waste of time."
Lucci smiled back. "Yeah. It was nice to spend time with a friend again." He needed that moment of happiness in his life.
There was another rustling of trees, as a disheveled Luz came into the picture. "Hey guys … please tell me you had a calm and relaxing day."
"Do you not see the torn clothes and dirt on our faces?" Willow asked rhetorically.
"I was just hoping it was because you tripped, and not because you had to deal with the Golden Guard trying to steal palisman for Belos, who apparently EATS THEM!"
" HE WHAT!?" Everyone shouted.
"How the FUCK does that make him any different than a crystal devil?!" Mom shouted.
"That's what I said!" Luz shouted. "But that Golden Bitch is a delusional, sad moron who kept trying to do it."
"As if I needed more reasons to hate that golden tool." Lucci grumbled. "Me and Willow in the meantime had to go Orchid and fight the Plant Coven head across the city."
"And she let you live?" Mom asked with bafflement. "I knew her when I was a kid. That woman's demented."
"Completely, and it was less she let us live and more we got one good blow on her while we made a run for it." Willow explained. "Seriously, she's not right in the head. She needs to be put in a rubber room isolated from the rest of society because there's NO helping her."
"So all of us had disappointing nights, why not? Misery loves company and all that." Luz moaned.
"Mostly disappointing. There's one silver lining." He presented the log. "Me and Willow had been practicing plant magic in secret for a while so we could have a whole tree of this stuff…but do to said fight…..we only managed to save one log of Palistrum Wood."
"A log …" Luz looked at it with sparkly eyes. "So like … this is essentially a Palistram egg."
"Weird way to put it, but yes." Mom nodded. "You just need to carve it into whatever you want it to be."
"What I…wait..you're giving this to me?" Luz asked.
"Yeah." Lucci answered. "Luz, if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have my own Palisman now. It's only because you came into my life that I have a direction to go in…I don't know what direction that is, but it's more than the content life I had before." He placed it in her hands. "So…this is my way of saying thank you."
"I should be thanking you man." She smiled, holding the log like it was a child. "But … I don't know what to make."
"Make whatever you want, it doesn't matter if no one else understands you Luz … you're unique." He smiled. "So make your own unique mark on the world."
She looked up, the light from her expression showing itself just a little more brother than usual. "Thank you….but…I still need to figure out what direction I want to go in…so I'll hold off on carving for now."
"That's fine, take all the time you need." Mom rubbed her head. "And when you're ready, come to me, and we'll carve it together."
"Will do." Luz smiled. "So, Willow, wanna crash on the couch since we all plan on passing out the moment we're inside?"
"You read my mind…though someone will need to drag me inside." Willow fell on her face right then and there.
"Not it." Lucci was stabbed one too many times tonight.