A Crystaline Forest

Mina poked the fire a bit while contemplating the day's events further. Her thoughts were occasionally intruded upon by memories of the past, of the day she ceased to be a potato farmer. She thought again of death, of sacrifice, and of protection.

She was shy. She still felt like she didn't belong. But her experiences this day, however brief they were, emboldened her a bit, as did the thought of her nearly invisible guardian by her.

"I think... the crystal forest, is a sacred place. I think people should be able to come visit it. But, at the same time, it needs to guarded. It should be like a holy temple... kind of thing."

She didn't know much about churches or temples. Her past experiences hadn't endeared her very much to religion. She of course knew there were higher powers out there, but considering one of them had tried to kill her she had little reason to trust in tales of the others. But, there were definitely good things out there too. So, she supposed some people must be worshiping the right thing by probability alone.

She regarded the funny plum with a bit of suspicion. But it did look pretty tasty.

"Fisk, what do you thi-"

Mina spotted the remains of a fruit's husk by the pooch, and it was now chasing its tail in circles. She watched the dog get dizzy and fall to the ground, then get back up and do it all over again like it was suddenly the greatest thing in the world.

Mina smiled and sat up and gestured to Hoegr Rakki , bidding him to sit closer to Uma. "You two should sit next to each other while you eat these things. I have a feeling it'll be a good bonding experience." Mina winked. "Don't worry, I'll keep you crazy kids from doing anything stupid."

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Rakki eyed the funny plum with even more suspicion. As a matter of fact, he was certain that if his tribe elder were to catch him in such an elevated state with a woman he had just met he'd never hear the end of it. But such things were not unprecedented among his people. Old men often complained of the youth overindulging in berserker's teas and then wrestling each other.

But Rakki took Mina's endorsement and went ahead and scooted closer to Uma. It was strange. He could have sworn Mina was younger than them but now she appeared to be acting older. Maybe she was just shy? Why did women have to be so shy?

He held up the plum and smiled at Uma. "Inspiration for my next song, right?" Then he dug in.

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Fisk was surrounded by color. Everything was colorful. He was witnessing more colors than he had ever seen in his whole life, which wasn't saying much since dogs have dichromatic vision. The way amber light of the fire reflected through the hairs of his tail was as beautiful as any sunset could ever be to a human. He never wanted to stop chasing it. Tails were wonderful things. He'd never thought about them before. He'd never thought about anything before. He was a dog. But today was special. Today he was enlightened. The universe had bestowed great truths to his canine consciousness. And one of these truths was that tails were wonderful things.

He fell over again from dizziness. He panted, with a smile. He took a deep breath through his wet nostrils.

He smelled the cosmos. Bugs, grass, trees, that weird plant material that humans rubbed their hair and armpits with to hide their natural musk (a wholly unnecessary ritual in his mighty opinion). He smelled Uma, and Mina, and even Mina's strange friend. Yes, even the friend had a smell. The way its presence subtly moved air like a duck's swimming left trails of ripples behind it, he could smell it. He could smell gentle ebbs and flows of scent as the air passed around the entity. It was almost like bats and their echolocation. It was smell-o-location if you will. Scent was an entire universe that humans could scarcely understand. He could smell health. He could smell life and death. He could smell the passage of time with as much accuracy as any sundial. He could smell north, south, east, and west. He could smell rocks and sky. He could even smell magic.

But that started to get boring. He wanted to start seeing things again. Wonderful things. Where had his tail gone again?

... Oh, there it is!

Woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh.

Rakki partook of the fruit, and saw that indeed it was good. But he wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about until-

Oh. Oooooh. Interesting.

As the warmth spread through out his body and all the tension left his neck, he too started giggling. He fell back next to Uma and looked up at the stars. Meteors were just as strange and beautiful in his world as they were in this one, and apparently Uma's.

"We are all bound, by a sky full of stars. We are... all under the stars." He giggled some more.

When Uma's body started to glow, Rakki remembered when he first showed her his people's magic. Unfortunately, his own  body did not glow, as Varans and their ancestors resisted magic within their bodies. But, that didn't mean the fruit was powerless on him.

He began to hum too. It wasn't a particularly distinct tune. He was just humming random pleasant strings of notes like some old ladies did while crocheting. And with each note, some of the plant life around him glowed a faint blue. Little grasses, saplings, and clovers flicked on and off like fireflies. Eventually his hums would synch up with Uma's and their two light displays would pulse together in harmony, like a giant luminescent flower.

He held Uma's hand.

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Not wanting to be a third wheel, Mina the Self-Taught Knight decided to hold off on eating the fruit for a bit. She knew she'd start acting foolish and she didn't want to interrupt Uma's and Rakki's colorful duet.

People are funny, aren't they?

She looked up at her guardian spirit, and smiled. Indeed, people were funny.

I'll eat the fruit, but I'll try not to disturb Uma and Rakki.

She ate it and, despite its effects, mostly just kept smiling and humming softly in tune with the others. 

"You two are way too cute. I'm happy I made friends with you guys."

Mina supposed that part of the reason she came off as less mature than them was because they had grown up surrounded by family and friends, while she herself had been an orphaned serf at a young age. Afterwards her only friend had been a kobold who taught her how to use her spirit guardian. From then on she had been kind of a vagabond, albeit a heroic one.

She smiled. It was never too late to fix things. And that wasn't just the funny plum talking.

Mina started singing again. It wasn't much, just a random tavern shanty he had picked up on her travels about a drunken mule's quest to become a noble stallion. She hoped they'd all sing along with her.

Fisk started howling along, at least.

Her spirit guardian lit up with a soft pink, as if someone had placed a lamp inside a glass statue. It began twirling, its arms tossing sparkles through the night air.

Hoegr Rakki of course took the hint and sat up to put his arm around hers. He'd even go farther by gently rocking them both side to side as he joined in with their song. His arms were warm, powerful, but gentle. Eygor Mjok men definitely worked out.

Alright, women were allowed to be shy about peeing. Heck Rakki knew men who were shy about peeing. Weird, but not unprecedented.

He let go. "Ok, good luck marking your territory." He chuckled softly, and uncontrollably. The funny plums made him feel like he could have been a great jester instead of a rune lord.

Normally he would have sent Fisk to escort Uma but uh...

*snarl, whimper, rustle rustle rustle*

Fisk was currently occupied death rolling a blanket, as if it was now the new most interesting thing in the world.

Rakki looked up at the stars again and hummed to himself. The bits of plant life around him flicked on their own now, a bit more intensely, as if trying to mirror the stars in the night sky. This did catch Fisk's attention for a just a moment. His little canine brain wondered why there was a sky on the ground to go with the one up in the air. But even that couldn't dissuade him from his blanket for more than a few seconds.

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Mina the Self-Taught Knight didn't even say yes or no right away. She just hopped up dutifully while continuing to sing and giggle. The funny plums sure worked quickly! Of course she would escort Uma to take care of her business. She'd even help her up in an oddly gentlemanly sort of way.

"I'll bring her back safely, don't worry. You boys take care of yourselves." She winked at Rakki and Fisk for no real reason.

She'd help her find a large tree to hide behind. With Uma glowing in the dark, her neon form crouching down awkwardly would probably send Rakki into a strong enough laughing fit to kill him. The tree of course would also help hide the fact that Uma wanted to talk instead.

Claim... our mates?

What does that even mean?!

Mina, no longer feeling like the adult in the situation, turned almost as red as Uma.

No, I can do this. I'm a grown woman... whose closest thing to a romantic interest is a deceased guardian spirit who kinda looks like a doll. Oh dear, what would Doobie the Archmage Kobold do? Oh they lay eggs that's no help.

Uma's staring at me expectantly. Ok, we got this.

"Well, he's not of your culture. If I had to guess, among his people, it's probably the men who claim the women. Either that, or they meet them half way. But, he's young, and open minded, and he likes your people. It's obvious he likes you too. Just tell him how you feel, and well, be honest. Gently ease into it, no pun intended. Tell him he's special to you and you want to get to know him more intimately. Then tell him you wish to, uh, claim him and if he says yes, then well..."

Mina blinked.

WAIT A SECOND, WE'RE ON FUNNY PLUMS WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!

She held a finger up. "Uh, quick question. If, if you can remember correctly, did you want to, uh, claim him before we ate the purple thingies? If you're not sure I think you guys should uh, maybe frolic around for a bit first before doing any, uh, claiming. Don't wanna have any post funny regret y'know?"

"Ohhh, I see. You're nervous." Ok this is much less awkward.

Mina folded her arms. She chuckled slightly. The funny fruit was still active, but Mina felt she could play it off as some sort of reminiscing... which wasn't totally inaccurate.

"I remember it took me a long time to start to feel confident in myself as a traveling adventurer. I wasn't like the others. I wasn't bold or brash or... ew, feisty." Mina rolled her eyes a bit thinking of Jun of the Celadine. "I just know that I wanted to be something better than a orphan potato farmer, and then I got lucky, if you can call getting power at the cost of a friend's life lucky. But, after a while, I became more confident in who I was. The places I helped protect and guard felt more like home, and the people I made friends with felt more like family. I lost that in the floodwaters like everyone else, but something about those memories has still stuck with me."

Her smile was a bit too bright for the heavy subject matter, but it wasn't all the funny fruit.

"So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you ever need to feel braver, more confident, try thinking of your home, your identity, your, I dunno, title. You're an Usquean. You've got a bunch of sisters who love you and care for you. You're part of a long history, a legacy. And you're a survivor of the floodwaters and the mists. Take all that, your home, your story, your sense of self, and keep it close to your heart. You're a great woman and you deserve a great man."

Mina tomboyishly punched Uma's shoulder and started chuckling uncontrollably again. "If I can be brave, so can you."

Mina peered from behind the tree to view Rakki and Fisk, who were now frolicking with each other in the remains of lights.

"Besides, those two are far from frightening. I've seen beetles scarier than them, literally. Not even giant ones."

Mina peered around the tree again and gave Rakki a queer look.

Seriously? This man has this poor woman as tongue-tied as Tana? I guess it must be the the fact that he uses soap and is good with animals. She nodded to herself. 

Better think of something. Even Rakki must know it doesn't take this long for women to pee.

"Well, I'd say just take a deep breath and practice before you, uh, stake your claim. Find yourself a mirror or a nice clear pond of water, take a deep breath, and say, 'Rakki, I want you to know you're very special to me.' You don't even have to make your whole lover's confession in one go. Nor does it need to be perfect. Just practice a bit of it and let the rest come from the heart."

Mina licked her hands and slicked back her hair in an attempt to mimic Rakki's pony tail hair style. "Tell you what. You can practice with me. Just say it once."

She cleared her throat (quietly) and said in the deepest octave she could muster. "Uh, hello, my uh, beautiful, friend? Uh, how's it hanging? This is how men talk right, uh, bro?"