Cass woke up with the sun hot on her face- the shade of the lean-to had moved during the long day. She had a mild headache and was dying for a drink.

  [New Class Obtained - Seedborn(Drone) level 1], [Skill Mana Seed], [Quest Recieved! Serve the Seedborn!]

  She groaned and sat up.

  "Sora..."

  "Cass!" she heard her sister cry out from her makeshift workshop. Papers fluttered off due to the gust of wind she created as she hurried to Cass.

  She brought her a cup of water, which was some of the best water Cass had ever tasted. She's taken a beaten before- but this felt like a step above that.

  Sora watched her as she thirstily drink it down in one gulp. She hurried to collect more- they had found a place nearby to fill their canteens so they had plenty. As she did she asked her how she was feeling.

  Cass felt like a sack of kittens fished out of a canal. It's an orreyrian saying.

  "I feel fine. But it says I'm a- AAAH!" she screamed- she'd only just noticed the plant buried in her shoulder. The flower looming over her shoulder uncomfortably close to her face. The little flowers mouth flinched back and screamed as well in a high pitched squeak; "eeeee!"

  Cass turned towards Sora mid-scream and to no ones surprise she was screaming as well.

  The three voices turned it into a circus that no one could take seriously and Cass calmed down. And the three exchanged looks. The memories of before suddenly catching up with her-

  "What the hell is this thing!?" she leaned away, and so did the flower. Pulling it's thick gnarled stem with it.

  "Crav says it's a thing called a 'seedborn'! We need to get you to a powerful healer to get it removed!"

  Cass looked back towards the thing, and really looked this time. It was pretty, in a morbid way. The roots travelled down into her skin and became like tattoos of lightning streaks. Out of her shoulder grew the barky substance that became the stem that led to a fairly large flower. Not quite a sunflower, but about half way there.

  The petals were a yellowish orange color and when the things mouth was closed it seemed like a regular flowers pit. Lined with stamen and pistils.

  "Crav..? Is this thing trying to eat me?" she asked nervously. "Kind of. It's trying to take you over so you can protect their 'queen', whatever that means..."

  "I... Don't feel like protecting any queen...", she reached out and the little flower petal reacted to the motion- lowering itself down towards her hand. It rested the flower petal in her hand trustingly.

  "That's so weird." Sora said. "You're telling me... I feel like it's reacting to what I think." she held up a finger and the flower petal looked at it- though it had no eyes. It followed the slowly moving finger.

  "Can you move?" Sora asked. Cass looked down to her legs. The pinstriped skirt that covered her leather leggings were dirtier than usual, and her knee length boots had been removed. She wore her breastband. She felt exposed, vulnerable. She hadn't walked around without her armor since before who knows how long.

  "I need my stuff." she said first. Sora had an expression of realization and made for a heap of leather. Her boots, vambraces and corset. Though she called it that- it had been sewed onto a more flexible bit of clothing with leather padding on the shoulders and arms as well as a piece of leather that wrapped around her midsection.

  Sora stammered; "I-I made some adjustments. I figured I'd have to considering...", Cass stared at the missing section of leather meant for the flower to slip through.

  "It's fine." she said, a vein beginning to bulge on her forehead. There were few things she preferred to care for herself rather than relegate the responsibility to Sora. And that was her armor. But it had to be done.

  After lacing her corset and boots on, Sora offered her a hand and they both stood up carefully.

  "What's that?" she asked- looking towards a big shiny sphere on the ground nearby.

  "Oh that? That's the bomb chassis. I'm going to blow those goblins to high hell.", "You might want to work on that phrasing..." Cass chuckled and gripped her side. "Ah, it hurts to laugh."

  "I'm glad you're feeling like yourself at least. I was worried you'd wake up and start growing roots. The way you drank that water I half expected it.", Cass pushed her on the shoulder lightly, and they both smiled at each other.

  "Someone's feeling better!" Vaz said with a relieved expression, stepping out of the brush. Strapping and handsome as he usually was. A spear clutched in one hand, a shotgun in the other. Cass suddenly became more acutely aware of her thirst as she swallowed.

  Theo followed closely behind lugging the drill and a pouch of saltpeter. Cass was glad to see him to- though slightly less so, she didn't trust him as much as Vaz. She's spent hours hunting with Vaz, and only had a few conversations with Theo.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Yeah, guess I'm part plant now. What do you guys think? Does it fit my style?" she said as she put a hand on her hip and posed. The flower poked at her face and she brushed it away with a hand.

  Vaz sputtered and chuckled; "Glad to see you're cheery as usual. I was worried that thing would either kill you or turn you into some plant monster."

  "Let me see that saltpeter." Sora said taking the pouch from Theo. She starred into the pouch cynically, then took it over to her workspace. Theo followed like the good little puppy that he is.

  "Let's not count our eggs before they hatch. I want to get this thing off as soon as possible. So what's the plan? We blow up the goblins and fix the ship?"

  "It sounds like a plan, but Samantha is coming too, maybe she has an idea what we can do."

  Vaz and Cass looked at each other. "Who said that?" Vaz asked, looking around. Cass looked to the flower- "It sounded like it said it."

  "I was worried I'd find pieces of Theo all over some kind of sacrificial altar. But this is pretty crazy too. Plant people? That's new."

  The voice came from the little flower.

  "You can talk?" Cass asked, eyes widened with shock.

  "Of course I can talk! What, do I look like some primate?" a little person stepped out from behind the flower stem and leaned against it.

  They starred at each other.

  The little person had dragonfly wings that shone like a rainbow in the light, and she wore a fabric that fit to the contours of her legs. Cass had no idea what fabric it was. She wore strange shoes that were tied with tiny ropes. And she wore a long sleeved blouse that fit her loosely. Her sleeves seemed to flair out even more loosely towards the ends, with a loop that wrapped around her ring fingers keeping them from slipping down.

  Her skin was a light color- almost yellow. A shock of light blue hair tied up into a bun. Her eyes were different colors- one blue like her hair and one red.

  "...Cute." Cass found herself saying before she could stop herself. The little persons eyes lit up at the compliment. "Thank you! I like your flower!" she said in a strange accent as she flew up towards the petal. She pronounced 'R' like 'A'. And her 'ou' sounds were more of just 'O' sounds.

  She went to pet a petal but it snapped at her quickly, she flinched back with an irritated face. Then gripped the stem beneath the flower and began to throttle it. The flower flopped back and forth with the motions.

  "Hey!" Cass shouted grabbing for her- the little person dodged out of the way expertly.

  "He started it! Well I guess flowers have both parts so technically it's different- they started it!" she pointed at the flower.

  Vaz spoke then; "It's probably better to leave it alone... It's a... 'Recent' development. We're not sure what happens when it's injured, it'll probably speed up the process. Who are you, if you don't mind me asking? What are you, rather?" he spoked differently than how Cass was used to hearing him speak.

  This must be 'polite when meeting a new person' Vaz.

  The tiny person smiled mischievously and put two hands on her hips as she fluttered. "I, am Claire Bell. And I'm a fairy~" she threw a hand out and a bit of sparkly powder flew out and floated to the ground. She had closed her eyes but peaked one open to see their reaction- she was disappointed.

  "Claire... You're here with Theos grandmother? Where is she?" Vaz asked.

  "Yep. She's coming, but I'll talk about that with Theo. Who are you? Come to think of it, save it for later. Where's that knucklehead at?" she put a hand over her brow and started to look for him. "There he is! Talk to you later! Nice meeting you! But NOT you!" she pointed a firm finger at the flower who seemed to hiss back at her- before flying off towards where Theo and Sora worked.

  ---

  Sora was glad Cass seemed herself. They were all worried she'd wake up and start doing photosynthesis.

  But she was as motivated as Theo was to get off the island and wanted to spend every second she could working towards that goal. And he was eager to help her with her plan. Operation G-day, he called it. Sora had once called it 'the final solution', but he seemed very apprehensive about the name for some reason.

  "You don't have to stand so close." Sora said, getting tired of smelling his crocodile breath. "Oh, sorry." he shifted a step away, still leaning over her schematics. She sighed. He might have a point about the flirting stuff. Either that or doesn't know about personal space.

  "Watcha doooo-in~" a cheery voice said over Theos shoulder. "AH!" Theo shouted out and looked over his shoulder.

  Sora looked to see a tiny person wearing the strangest but alluring fashion. Her wings fluttered faster than the eye could see like a humming bird. Creating a pearlescent shimmer in the air behind her.

  She put up both hands quickly. "Wait. Just wait." she said as they both opened their mouths to ask. They bother stammered and exchanged looks. Then tiny woman poked Theo on the snout.

  "Boop."

  Theo stumbled backward and wiped at his nose- "Hey! Who are you?" he said, recovering from the assault.

  "I'm Claire- I'm pretty much your grandmothers boss! Honestly, I can't believe you don't recognize me. Haven't you seen me around the guild?"

  His expression turned confused as if he wondered if he had. Clearly the tiny woman was just teasing him, but Theo was dense as granite towards that kind of thing. And as expected Claire smiled humorously at his genuine attempt to remember her. A 6 inch tall person.

  "You're with his grandmother? Is she here?" Sora asked hopefully. "Almost! She's taking the ship around the island. Maybe she'll get the crew to go ashore, maybe not. Personally? I doubt it. But she'll be here on the other side by tonight. We should go there. Are you building a bomb?"

  She asked looking down at Soras' schematics.

  "I was..."

  "Cool, cool. So Theo, how are we feeling? No illness or flowers?", Theo looked towards Sora, almost asking for confirmation. She only rolled her eyes, he could think for himself for once.

  "I guess not..?" he said eventually. "Good!" she pulled out a miniature quill and paper pad and started writing; "I guess not." she narrated. "Mission one, and done. Alright. Let's go." she started flying off towards the jungle. She looked back at them- "You coming? Or do you have to pee first? I say you pee now, because I don't want to make any stops along the way."

  "No... I don't have to pee." Theo said, annoyedly.

  "Are you sure? Because if we have to stop halfway because Theo has to pee, I'll get angry."

  "We're kind of busy with the bomb and all?" Theo said uneasily.

  The tiny woman put her hands behind her back and patiently hovered over to Theo at a walking pace.

  Theo recoiled away from her as she got within striking distance.

  "Theo... Theodore- I understand that the world is a big place, and this island? Massive. That's scary right?" Theo didn't answer. "I get that. But we can't hide from scary things, or else we'd get dogpiled by scary things." she placed two hands on his saurian snout and leaned forward. His eyes were cross-eyed trying to look straight at her.

  "Confront your fears Theo. What would Violet think, seeing you shaking in your scales at the thought of going on a walk through the woods to find your grandmother? When has ever such a thing gone wrong?"

  "Who's Violet?" Sora asked. Claire showed Sora her index finger without looking, keeping eye contact with Theo.

  "I can think of a few things that could go wrong. Haven't you noticed all the goblins?" Theo said.

  "There's no difference between going and staying in that case. They're everywhere. Hell, on the way here I passed by two shagging in the jungle less than a mile from here."

  Sora was skeptical that was true, but she had a point.

  "Just go Theo. And take Vaz, I'll stay here with Cass and finish the bomb. You can come back here."

  Claire flew towards Sora at that. "That's not going to work. Splitting the party- never works. This isn't scooby doo kid. This is Claires world, and you just live in it. If you don't come, I'm going to beat you up and force you to."

  The way she said it was unserious, but that's not the vibe Sora picked up on. She let out a defeated sigh.

  "Good girl. I'll give you a few minutes to pack up your things. Not a bad spot though, I might build a vacation destination here." she flew off examining the space.

  Theo looked to Sora with an apologetic look.

  "You have a girlfriend?" Sora asked, in disbelief.

  Theo was taken aback by that, he had to shake the confusion from his face- "That's the question you ask!?"