A Gift for Every Sense (Lotus Springs, Rook, Mistletoe, others?)

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook hadn't yet made up his mind as to whether he loved the town, or hated it. For someone raised to the stark order of a hive, no matter how tiny it had been, it seemed... not just chaotic, but lazy, and in his mind that was even worse. The concept of "time off" had taken some effort to work.

Still, it got him supplies. He liked sleeping out in the open no more than any other creature who'd seen the teeth and talons of what lurked out there in the jungles. He landed just out of hearing reach of the main road heading in, folded his wings tightly and down so that only the dull brown undersides showed, and strode the rest of the way in, carrying his full satchels with care. He'd risked more limbs than he was used to in the Shofax jungle securing these particular specimens, and he had no interest in getting them bruised before delivering them to his employer. He'd timed his arrival with early dawn, so the streets were mostly empty and those who were out and about barely gave him a sleepy-eyed gaze before moving on with their morning rituals.

The rhoparan knew, though, that Mistletoe would be already at work in her gardens and greenhouses, and he made his way there. Once within the more ordered world of blossoms and bushes, the produce from which the mantos drew to create her perfumes and tinctures, he relaxed, but only just. There was a rigidity that never left him, not even in sleep, and in truth he'd have it no other way. You never knew when such things would keep you alive. And he did work for a species and an individual known to be... inclined to a bit of exotic eating.

Rook made his way into the gardens, looking for his employer, pausing by a small pond to water lightly the plants in his satchels.

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

Mistletoe’s hands, the upper and far less…harmful set, were carefully cradling a vanilla bloom to her face and taking a dainty whiff of the prized flower. A small moment of respite in the dubious task of hand fertilizing every newly opened bloom. She had the morning to tend the orchid before another task would come her way. From the gauzy flow of her sheer gown, her spiked foreleg busily snipped wilted or tarnished blooms from their stems and let them drop at her taloned feet.

In a few months, she’d harvest the pods from the plant, cure them and sell them for a modest sum. Wash, rinse, repeat. She kept the quality of the orchids high, but the quantity low to gain a small hold on the market for her prized fruits of her labor.

She smelt, rather than heard, Rook’s approach. Despite the Rhoparan’s best efforts, it was hard to hide from a good sense of smell and she just happened to find his scent all the more pleasant for the pains he took to go unnoticed. There was a touch of dusk to him and wildness, like the bitter wash of Hymes…

“Rook, what do you think of the new orchids? I can’t decide if I like them or want to rip them up and start anew.”

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook paused a polite distance away, and considered the lady's question with the same seriousness as if she'd asked for the price he'd put on his own life. He appraised everything - the light morning sunlight on the blooms' colors, the vigor of the plants' leaves, whether their scent was pleasing or not. He'd brought some of their parents from very distant, and not entirely safe places, but the lady Mistletoe tended to hybridize a lot.

"I would save cuttings and try mixing in brighter, wilder colors in, lady", he replied respectfully. "But civilizing a flower isn't always good for preserving its best qualities."

He set his satchel down and gently brought out one of the prizes he'd found for her, a deep blue, almost black orchid. He didn't say anything, merely letting the scent and presence of it speak to her senses.

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

She hummed in thought, thrumming the sound through her body in a near subsonic tremor. Rook was, as usual, extremely adept to his work. She hadn’t thought he’d make a decent florist. Oh sure, he was a Rhoparan, and they had the right make for scents and an eye for the blooms. But that didn’t make them a florist. It was ingrained and learned. Just as she’d learned from her mother, who had learned it from hers, and so on and so forth. Doubtless, but if she ever had any progeny of her own, she’d carry on the tradition. So far, maternal nature was seemingly lacking in her.

“You may be correct. As such, I’ll leave such musings for later. For now, what have you brought me?” She tempered her tone with a small purr. Even if she was a collected female of moderate age, she could still be excited over gifts.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook had worked very hard for some of the plants he was bringing to the lady, but he wouldn't demean either of them, or the blooms, by speaking of it.

The small, almost clear bell-like clusters had come from directly behind a waterfall, loaded with sweet nectar like tiny little cups. The blue-black orchid had been hidden under the fallen body of a jungle giant, surrounded by her more commonly colored sisters. And by some miracle he'd found four or five of the rarer specimens the lady had actually asked him to find, including two blossoms like fire on a stem of emerald. He laid them all on a nearby work table, roots carefully wrapped in moss, and stepped back respectfully. "I hope you can find some use from these, lady."

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

(wee, totally making up flora XD; )

She bent over the work table, hands brushing aside the stray strands in front of her face. The more sunlight she let touch the hairs, the pinker in hue they’d become. It was a nerve wracking trait she tried to avoid. The only color she wanted was in her garden, not on her ivory body.

“Honey bells.” she named as she tipped the tiny, clear blooms over into her cupped hand and lapped at the nectar with the smaller sets of mandibles tucked on the inner regions of her cheeks. The nectar was sweet and hinting less of honey and more of watered mead. “Find a dash more sunlight for them and they’re sweeten…”

“And this…this I do not know.“ She paused at the sight of the orchid. Once in awhile she did run across specimens she couldn’t place or name. Such a beauty was likely a natural hybrid. Her fingers caressed the bloom fleetingly before she turned her attention to the rest.

“Always an eye for details, Rook. Reminds me why I keep you around.” She smiled to show she was teasing. Really, for her species, she was just a pussy cat.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

(There's no true black orchid, but the closest current hybrids are purple or blue with black XD)

The lady's pleasure was good, as long as it was out of her arms' reach. Not that Rook doubted her tolerance of his presence, or her appreciation of his usefulness, but it was habit. Everyone was a potential enemy, and it was just safer to treat them as such.

"You enjoy the beautifully unusual, lady. The only difficulty is in acquiring it." He undid one of the fully wrapped satchels; in broad leaves, pinned with the thorns and wrapped with the vines of whatever plants had been at hand, he'd collected more common seeds and fruits from the great jungle giants that were simply too big for the lady to keep... not that he doubted she would have liked to try.

But still he kept the last of his bags closed at his back. He had been accused of being grim, unimaginative, dour, and many other less flattering synonyms for boring, by too many people that didn't know him at all. The lady Mistletoe had been kind in offering him a job, and more, she'd been kind to let him learn it as he went, with infinite patience.

Never let it be said he didn't know how to thank a lady of stature.

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

“I’m sure you are adequate enough to find a way to find what I want.” Out of habit she rearranged the items onto the table in her own type of order. There was planting to be done and more harvesting. Tinctures to be extracted and perfumes to mix but at the moment, in the virginal light of the new morning, she could take a moment to be lazy and simply enjoy the sights and scents around her.

“I am running low on supplies and should make a trip into the nearest province…” She pursed her lips thoughtfully, the inner set of mandibles rubbing against the inside of her cheeks in a near ticklish manner. A thoughtful habit she’d developed over the years.

“It occurs to me I may be too much of a hermit in my gardens.” The thought of venturing out felt tiring to her. Dealing with others and having to put on airs and brush off threats. All irritating practices she didn’t have to deal with in her lovely paradise here.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

It was a problem Rook was all too familiar with, to need civilization's products, but reject its trappings. It was strange, but the formalities with the lady never felt as hollow as the dealings with anyone else did. One treated a predator with courtesy and caution in the hopes of coming away with every limb still attached.

"I will come with you if you think it'll help, lady", he offered.

Meanwhile, casually, he laid the last of the bundles on the table. It was tied and wrapped and secured multiple times, and quivered slightly. This last specimen was less than thrilled at being one such.

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

“I would enjoy your company into town, yes. If anything to be a beast of burden.” Her chuckle tapered off when he pulled out the next bundle and laid it on the ground. She hadn’t seen this one either and wondered precisely why it was restrained in a makeshift muzzle.

“Rook…did you find a carnivorous specimen?” With a deft flick of her claw on the lower left hand, she freed the bindings and smirked when the plant opened with a loud gnash of it’s formidable fangs for one so small. “My, my, what a ferocious beauty.”

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

... Beauty?

There were plants in the jungles of Darpan that liked more than sunlight, rain, and ground. And then there were plants who not only eschewed such things, but actively hunted for a meal. They were beautiful, Rook would have said, in the same way the lady was, or an Arachin. From a distance. With solid walls between them and himself. Or restrained, as he'd brought the suckerling in.

It had been luck, to find the giant predator, and nothing short of a miracle to get away from it unnoticed. After that it had been a matter of coming back in the depth of night, when most plants were dormant, and snatch the tiny offshot from its parental vine. It had been almost ready to separate, anyways.... almost. That had been an exciting moment, and he could definitely live without that kind of excitement (or the bite marks) for a good long while yet.

Except of course, the first thing the lady had done was untie the little beast's jaws. He restrained a sigh. "Not much stranger than this one out there, lady."

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

“Such a temper! And you’re but a sproutling.” She was too amused by the exotic beauty. Looked like a cross between a lily and a venus fly trap. Perhaps something else. Right now she was too distracted by the tiny stem supporting it’s rather large mouth as it followed her hand with obvious ill intent.

“I think I shall put you near the gate to stop any interlopers from breaking into my garden in the dead of night…” That brought a wicked smile to her usually genial face.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

.................. Near the gate?

Rook resisted the urge to express out loud his dismay. 'Dismay' being a vastly understated way of expressing his feelings. The true carnivores found in the jungles of Darpan were monstrous, over-large devourers quite capable of putting away a Scarabin, let alone one or more of the lady's regular customers.

"Ah... it might grow quite big without very careful supervision, lady. Exceptionally careful supervision." Such as tying up the snapping maw and putting it away from anyone with tender and not-so-tender limbs. But certainly not near a gate with heavy traffic, where it would likely end up gorging on poking fingers and unwary toes. "Exceptional, continuous, careful supervision."

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

A mild frown plucked at the corner of her lips. Rook was far too practical and she wasn’t really thinking of the customers. She cared more for her flowers and plants than the ones who wandered into her domain. Often, she resented their plucking fingers or parts at her specimens. Not to even speak of the offspring…

“Oh fine…perhaps I will place him in the deeper recesses.” A slow grinned bloomed at the thought. “You are not meant for regular eyes anyhow, are you?” She held up the plant and chuckled at the snap at her face. All it got was a small mouthful of her hair for its trouble.

“Rook…you look completely ashen. Have you eaten?”

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook had a moment imagining the predator, grown to its full jungle size, somewhere unexpected in the lady's garden. He hardly even heard her question, though at least she'd taken his blanching for something else altogether.

"Ah... I..." Being fretted over was something he was all too new at, and he was undecided as to his opinion of it. "I only just arrived to the town this morning, lady. And I came straight here."

To be honest, he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. It hadn't been too long ago... had it?

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

She gave him a knowing look. Rook never ate, that she saw of him, on his own recognizance. That he had to take sustenance elsewhere was a given unless she was shoving food down his gullet while around her. As for herself, she had a voracious appetite.

“Follow me then.” The snapping plant found a temporary home in a metal box as she glided by her work table. “Now then, you little fighter, you can snap at that all you want to but you’re not going anywhere.” She shut a grated lid over the opening and made sure to spritz the growing sapling with a bit of mineral water before heading across the path and through the maze of the nursery to her veranda. Breakfast was already set out for her by the few shadowed servants she kept around. They were more skittish of her than Rook was.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

She always did this. Always.

It wasn't just sharing a table and vittles with her. It was just... well, Rook didn't know what it was. But he felt like a thief at her table, unfailingly; he didn't know why, but he knew he didn't belong.

Still, there were some fates one couldn't escape no matter what attempts were made. He sighed a little, antennae slicked back, and moved to pull the chair for her, serving her in the stead of the servants, before moving to take a seat himself, however gingerly. Somehow he didn't think light conversation with the Lady would be light at all. And the food did seem rather nice...

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

A smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she watched Rook. True to his nature, he was always uncomfortable as hell inside the classier settings of her home. As Spartan as the settings were, they were still surrounded by valuables of vast wealth. Mistletoe may have lived like a monk, but she lived like one with a expensive taste for the finer silks, furniture, and food.

The dining room was mostly empty but for the wooden floor and ceiling, in lavish cherry wood. Shoji screens with bamboo and lotus patterns enclosed three fourths of the room. The last wall was open to the garden so she could enjoy the view and scents. Silk curtains, as sheer as the brocade gown she was wearing, danced in the slight breeze that swept inside like a small whisper.

Sitting on her small throne of pillows and elevated seat, she leaned a delicate chin on the back of her hand and watched Rook because she knew it set him on edge in the smallest ways. He was a large puzzle to her. She had no idea where he came from, chose not to ask him for that would ruin the game. His mannerisms were almost military the way he carried himself, like few moths ever did. Yet, he was unerringly careful around her as he should be. She wanted to reach over and grasp one of his antennae as he held them in the cutest manner when he was at ease. He’d likely spook at that action. They rarely if ever touched one another.

As beautiful and delicate looking as Mistletoe was, she was also a predator in the highest regard and had started life out grasping in the muck and mud like the poor sods around her. She had little pity on stupidity and rewarded such notions with a cruel justice. One just wouldn’t think it looking at her. She was devilishly attractive in the morning light with the sun glowing across her white skin and through the sheer robes she wore, giving a tantalizing peek of her chest if one stared long enough.

“We have to discuss when I am to take a trip into town…I was thinking of traveling farther. I am growing…restless.” A dangerous statement that could mean anything.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook never, ever forgot that dealing with the Lady meant dealing with a fast, dangerous, and voracious predator. She was beautiful, but so was a hungry Queen. She was serene, but so was a quicksand pit. To the Morpho butterfly, she was a business associate and a squall line waiting to happen, and he never allowed himself to lose track of that.

Her undivided attention forced wings and antenna even flatter than usual, waiting for the attack, ready to retaliate or flee... flee, most likely. He had no interest in harming the Lady, not unless she backed him into a corner and broke out the fine dinner cutlery. Fleeing, well, he'd already proved he was so good at that.

Rook paused briefly at her words. 'Restless', that could mean anything, and not all of it good. "Perhaps... the Lady could join one of the traveling caravans? Take her goods to larger cities, where there's more exotic goods to trade for." The formal, distant way to adress her seemed safer, if only minimally. There were times he wasn't sure if being more her friend might make him less... appetizing than being less of one.

Life could get so complicated on the simplest things.

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

"Perhaps..." She looked away from him to the garden outside, ignoring the slide of her hair over her cheek as she tilted her head. It was true...she was restless in a way. Her serene tranquility sometimes felt like a prison of fine silks and beauty. Because everything was always lovely and tame here. Except for the monsters she introduced, this was a paradise. And that was the problem...her kind loved to hunt and be brutal just as much as any predators. Here, she wasn't unless it was to the company and the help and that was just unseemly and rude.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

She was distracted, which in itself was unusual. Rook was used to seeing her lost in focus with her blooms and tinctures, not this odd, distant mood. As with all things related to a predator, it made him uneasy.

He served her; he'd watched the servants do it often enough to know the whole process and do a passing good show of it. "There are no caravans that will come through this town any time soon. But perhaps the Lady would consider hiring guards to travel and join one near the more traveled routes?"

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

"Hiring guards can be a dangerous business in itself. You never know what brutes you open yourself up to." She quirked a delicate, pink eyebrow at him as he served her. It was always amusing to see just how much he could pick up on his own. What traits would be needed that the help had? The answer was likely in making him seem a part of the background and unnoticed by her attentions when need be. But just because she rarely watched her servants, didn't mean she ignored them.

"You are nervous about venturing out alone with me." She gave him a small grin that spoke volumes.

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

"Perhaps some of your servants could provide security as well as care for the goods..." Rook paused at the sudden bluntness. It was not what he'd grown used to from the village, or the few markets he dealt with. Then again, if he could have predicted the Lady to any measure, he might as well take up fortunetelling.

Antennae slicked back further, before he merely straightened up, physically and mentally, and gave her a very level look. He could be just as perfectly honest without in any way being insulting; he had fair respect for her in any case. "Lady. I am wary of being alone with you under any circumstances, not just the road. But if you wish, I will come with you."

Maggot Posts : 35 Join date : 2010-03-29 Age : 40

She laughed, and not the stilted titter of a quiet court, but a full out peal of mirth as his frank answer. This was why she kept him employed near her. His truthfulness. If there was deceit within him, he hid it very well. So well she had a hard time weeding it out of his stoic nature.

"To be perfectly honest, I enjoy your company and trust you more than the staff. You have more at risk." She took a small bite of her rice, relishing the flavor before she continued, "You care more about your self and have no attachments. No family to throw yourself away for. No lover to make idiotic sacrifices. You have only yourself. And that is the most truthful as someone can get. When they are utterly selfish."

Of course, she was guessing at every sentence she spoke. She knew absolutely nothing of his personal life but for the small clues she picked up along the way. He could very well have a brothel of suitors and gaggle of grubs just waiting for pay at home.

What a disgusting thought....

Maggot Posts : 29 Join date : 2010-03-25 Age : 49

Rook considered her words carefully, one antenna twitching to mark every statement. The lady, like a true predator, would hunt for weakness even verbally. But she was one of the few creatures that the rhoparan had ever found willing to hire a stranger with no past, or creditable work experience.

His solitude had stopped truly bothering him a long time ago; he was no hyme, to feel the deep-seated need for a hive to equate with safety or comfort. The hive he had been a part of had never provided either, for that matter. "The lady is very perceptive", he replied calmly, pouring her drink. "But I don't think of it as selfishness. When one is left with next to nothing to lose, it's far easier to take greater risks for the promise of little payout, no? It is instinct to want to find something other than oneself to count as yours."

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