melodiesoflife | The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

Ales sighed and hopped off Sparks' chocobo, flipping through the book he brought in case finding the seeds would be more difficult than they imagined.

"Of course we'll have to dig. Seeds are usually buried underground, are they?" He hoped that the others would have known such an obvious fact. "And we probably shouldn't have the chocobos dig for us. They're either eat the seeds or destroy them with those beaks of theirs."

He finally reached the page he was looking for and laid it on the ground. "Unless someone remembered to bring tools, we'll be digging by hand." He pointed to a drawn picture of a plant and its seeds. "This is what we'll be looking for."

Ashelia dismounted Sydney, rolling up her own map and depositing it gingerly into a cylindrical satchel. "This is indeed our destination. It is just as I feared." Sparks was right. If this was the main source of Baltoro's Seeds for the city and there were none in the city, it stood to reason there would be something wrong with that source.

"Just a moment, Ales." Out of a large, yet-untouched pouch on the side of her chocobo saddle, Ashelia produced small spades, enough for everyone in the party. It wasn't much, but it would save them some trouble.

The Queen of Dalmasca wasted no time in getting down to business, carefully sifting through the surprisingly soft earth of the plateau. Wait a moment. This earth has all been...dug up?

Sparks grabbed one of the spades and set to work, looked over the illustrations, and set to work a few yards away from the rest of the group. But after a few minutes of digging and finding nothing but soft earth as well, he looked to see what everyone was doing. Figures, turning up nothing, just like him. He called over to the rest of the group.

"Hey, uh. Am I crazy, or as someone beaten us to the punch here?"

Yuffie grabbed a shovel after easily sliding off her chocobo. "There has to be another way."

She eyed the ground curiously and then silently went to digging. If there was treasure in it for her she would dig but after a few moments she stops and looked around her.

"Something seems off."

Cloud poked around at the ground but he didn't have any more of a lead than anyone else. If it was a monster or something they had to face to find these seeds he wouldn't have been happy but he would at least have an idea of what to do. In this case he didn't know the first thing about finding buried seeds. As he kept digging though he started to come to the same conclusion as the others.

"The ground is pretty soft. Do you think they were here recently?"

Edited 2014-09-22 14:35 (UTC)

"I' m pretty sure of it by now." Ales had begun digging slowly, but when he realized that the soil was too soft, he realized the same thing as everybody else.

He tossed his spade a few feet away from him and sat down, holding his forehead tightly. "Where are we supposed to look now?"

"Keep digging," came Ashelia's harried voice from not far off. "They - whomsoever did this, they might have left something." It occurred to the queen for a moment that she hadn't truly believed their search would be fruitless. That she would fail that girl. Her brow slick with sweat, her hands weakly grasping mine own... A good few of her brothers had met the same end. No...

Though the bulbs that dotted the plateau were obviously not what they were looking for, Ashelia found herself digging around one anyway. "Maybe the roots might have entangled one of the seeds..."

Sparks decided to rejoin the group, since he had turned up nothing. He walked towards Ashelia, looking over the empty plateau again. This seems awfully bleak. Watching her dig for a moment, he wasn't sure she was on to something or was just desperate.

"Is there seriously no where else we can get these things?" He quietly thinks on it for a moment. "These things well known to be a cure? They good for anythin' else that people might want 'em for? Heck, does someone own this field? If there's nothin' here, that don't mean we're outta options yet."

Yuffie kept digging but the effort was tedious. "Why don't we try a less obvious spot? Like further into the plain? Unless they are just here." She looked down at her dirty hands and sighed.

"If they are just here, then I guess we should keep digging." Her hole got about a foot deep before she stopped again with a grunt.

He'd joined in with the others, scooping through dirt and tossing it to one side while proliferating what little materials came up from the effort.

"Man, this is pointless."

The young pirate narrows his eyes, using scrutiny to try and spot the seeds as he sifts dirt.

"Ashe. This was the right spot. I don't think the seeds are here." Putting the small shovel to his side, Luffy sits on his knees and begins to sniff at the air. He's unsure if he'll be able to track them, but he's sure that even here his sense of smell should still be strong.

"Why don't we just smell them out? Maybe they're inside the plateau? I mean, what if there's a cave inside this thing."

Cloud remains quiet as he keeps digging, but he wears his growing doubt plainly. Even if they keep digging, there was a good chance they'd have to scour the entire field to find something and that was if there really was anything left. If this was even the right place in the first place.

But someone was here recently, and if they could find that person then they'd surely find some answers. He looks up at Luffy's odd display, raising an eyebrow. Is it even possible to smell seeds?

His eyes then scan the plateau. They've been here for a while and tromping all over, but maybe there's a clue somewhere of the others who were here. He can only hope.

Smell them out? Ales rolled his eyes at that suggestion, but the others had the right idea.

"It'd take up days to search this field properly with the few of us. It'd be too late once we find those seeds, if there are any left." He stood up and dusted his robes. "Awfully inconsiderate of them to tear up this place."

Ashelia stopped digging, pulling herself to her feet. "This is the only option. Like I said, the seeds are used in my different processes, from alchemy to botany. This plateau was indeed stripped purposely of any trace of Baltoro's Blooms..." She dropped her spade, crossing her arms; where her small tool landed, the soil jumped ever so slightly, perfectly disguised by the landing of the object. By Ashelia's right foot, a small tendril dug through the dirt, wrapping itself around her ankle. However, sunken as it was under the soft soil, it was impossible to see.

The others' predicaments wouldn't be so hard to spot. Roots and vines sprouted forth around the other Heroes, attempting to hold them all in place by their feet.

Edited 2014-09-24 13:01 (UTC)

Yuffie picked up a pebble and aimed it at Luffy's head; she still hasn't forgiven him for forgetting her. "What are you, some kind of dog?" A parade of mean clever nicknames rolled through her mind as the vines slowly wrapped their way around Yuffie's ankle.

She rose to stand but instead fell forward, getting a mouth full of dirt. "What's going on!?" She looked down at her ankle and frantically started to claw at the vine with her fingers. "Let me go!"

"What's--" Hearing Yuffie call out, Sparks looked down to see his own feet getting entangled. "Oh no you don't--" He calls out to his moogle to switch into his Job's armor, complete with robot fists. He quickly puts them on and grabbed the vines, wrenching them off before they got any further up his legs.

"Everyone, off the field!" Once he managed to free himself, the marshal darted over to Yuffie to help her out.

"Woah!" Shovel in hand, Cloud forgot about his staff for a moment and ran by instinct. He slashed the spade at a rising vine, but while his form might be decent the shovel wasn't as strong or as sharp as a sword and he only managed to bat it away.

Still, it gave him enough time to notice the vines starting to crawl up his legs. He stabbed at them a bit more solidly and carefully, splitting them and allowing himself to jump back. "Did the map mention anything about this?"

Ales got up the moment he saw the vines rising from the ground around him and ran for the edge of the field. "Get out!" He managed to shout before a vine sprang out of the soil and tripped him, wrapping around his ankle. Thinking quickly, he took out the first tool he found in his pocket: a magnifying glass, which he began beating the vine with.

Fortunately, it was a relatively thinner vine so that a few hits bruised it soft enough that Ales could pull his foot out. He got up and ran to a piece of ground that he believed the plants wouldn't reach, as the soil wasn't as soft, and scanned the area.

The plants had to have been buried deep underground. Was there something beneath them controlling them? He noticed his teammates hacking away at the vines crawling up, and Ales had to do something do help.

"Hey! Try not to stand in the same spot for too long! They'll grab you for sure!"

Yuffie shouted at Ales. "That isn't helpful!" She pulled out her dagger and began to hack at the vine.

"If its under ground how do we fight it!"

Mooshoo flew over with a worried glance at his hero. He searched the plain as she worked on cutting the vine around her leg. "I don't see anything..." His voice was calm but the little moogle was close to running. He didn't like his hero but he didn't want her to get hurt.

Luffy had never been a fan of vegetables. If it came to having a cooked meal by his ship's cook, he'd prefer nothing but meat on the table. However, there had been times where a garnishing or two had made for a tasty side-dish. Grilled mushrooms, buttered squash, and these strange pumpkins that tasted more like cotton candy than vegetable that could only be found on the Grand Line.

While the vines lacked a desirable taste, Luffy set to work his jaws on the vines that were attacking at Yuffie's legs. Leaping forward and grabbing what length of vegetation that he could, his pearly white chompers set to trying to dismember the plant with his razor sharp teeth. While he might not have his Devil's Fruit powers any longer, the boy had once bit through a knife with little to no effort. A piece or two of vine shouldn't be any problem, right?]

Nnnnghh-!! GET OFF MY NINJA!

The vines around Yuffie's ankle came apart under Luffy's voracious onslaught. From a nearby bulb, there came a hissing sound. The same hissing could be heard coming from all the bulbs scattered around the dirt-filled field. A moment later, they all sprouted into beautiful flowers. One look would confirm to any of the Heroes that these were not the blooms they were looking for.

The flower by Yuffie and Luffy turned, as if to look right at them. After a moment it coughed, for lack of a better term. A cloud of pollen enveloped the air, traveling swiftly towards the two Heroes.

Elsewhere, Ashelia gasped as she struggled with the vine encircling her right ankle. She drew her sword to cut it loose, but had to stop when she got a face full of pollen. She sputtered, resisting the urge to wipe at her eyes; that only ever seemed to make these kind of things worse.

At the opposite end of the field that the Heroes had come onto the plateau from, something stirred under the dirt. They were too far away to notice, but something was there. Growing.

Edited 2014-09-26 01:40 (UTC)

Without the use of his Devil's Fruit powers, Luffy's breath does little more than delay the inevitable pollen cloud surrounding him and Yuffie. His lungs can't house the amount of air needed, causing the pirate to choke and gag as he reaches for his crew mate's waist.

Grabbing her, the Captain begins to dart away from the cloud, slamming his eyes shut as he runs blindly towards the voices of the other members in their party.

"Shut your eyes! Don't let that stuff get in your eyes!"

Sparks darted over to Mercury, to help his rocket steed whose back leg got ensnared by one of the vines, and was attempting to fly off. Thanks to the robot fists, he was able to rip away the plants and jump on the horse to fly a few feet above the plateau. He took a quick survey of the scene, and saw Ashelia struggling thanks to the pollen.

"Ashelia! Put out your hand!" The plan was to fly by, grab her and pull her away. With the gloves, freeing her should be a breeze. What he was going to do once he had her... well, he'd figure that out in a moment.

Yuffie watched in surprise as the pollen sprayed towards them. Her palms went to her eyes as Luffy carried her away from the vines reach. She tried to stop the sting of the pollen but instead a series of coughs shook through her.

"Wha- was- that!-" She kept her eyes closed relying on the sounds around her as a clue to what was happening. She was trusting Luffy not to drop her until she could see again.

Cloud reacts as soon as he sees the flowers bloom. He's not sure what they are specifically but he recalled the reports he read on ochu and the like. They were nasty things if they were allowed to take root or worse. He did his best to avoid the pollen, but at his proximity he still got a face full of it.

But even trying to avoid breathing too much wasn't going to stop him from joining the fight. Throwing the shovel aside he tried to find calmer footing and planted his staff. Focusing his energy he then held his hand outstretched to the nearest group of flowers. "FIRE!" He only spoke as he had to, quickly covering his mouth with the sleeve of his robe as he watched the monstrous flora catch flame.

Ales couldn't help but feel utterly useless during the battle. Without any sort of tools larger than a magnifying glass and not fighting skills of his own, what could he do but just watch his teammates get ensnared by the plants and attempt to give some advice?

But then the young boy with the yellow hair cast the fire spell and the plant recoiled quickly into the ground. Of course! What else to destroy an evil plant than by setting it on fire?

"Cloud!" That was his name, right? "Keep using your fire magic! The vines will clear out if you do that!"

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