rooted beginnings

A butterfly flutters through the highrise wildflowers flowers after sighting a glistening pond.

With a swirl of sparkle, she grows and lands on her dainty orange feet which tiptoe over the soft grass. Her skin is adorned with black and white spots, reminiscent of the butterfly's patterned wings. Vibrant antennas sprout from her head, resembling delicate filaments of hair, and bounce in sync with her footsteps as she makes her way to other butterflies hanging around the flowers.

Two of the Flyfolk were bathing eachother in the pond, creating iridescent ripples all over the water body, and three of them had their limbs wrapped around Flowerfolk, lips busy in sucking nectar from various parts of their flower bodies.

"Hear me, hear me, did you?" Her shout catches the attention of others who were busy playing.

"What for?" A butterfly pulls away from a daisy flowerfolk's chest. Golden nectar drops glaze her lips and chin under the shining sun.

"Fungi! A Royal Edict, she received! Set to marry, she is!"

"My my! Fungi? The one whose family got uprooted last bloom?" One of the pond butterflies skitter closer to the stone edge. Their excitement expressed in the rippling water around them.

"Her, yes! Being set up by the King, she is, himself!"

"Why though," a marigold flowerfolk yawns, caressing the antennas of the butterfly sucking from her.

"Because - Because, I don't know! Edict was all I hear!!"

"Set to marry with who, is she?" The pond butterflies step out and let their colourful bodies glisten underneath the sun, shining like a million diamonds embracing them.

"Yes, I know! And its so funny!"

"Tell me, tell us," the Flowerfolk and Flyfolk urge.

"Come with me, then, you must," the orange butterfly giggles, swirling into the sky as her wings grow out and body shrinks into a smaller, dark, abdomen and thorax. The flowerfolk groan and remain grounded to their gardens, not excited enough to leave home.

Her fellow butterflies burst into conspirative giggles before transforming into their true selves and fluttering after her.

All but one, who chose to stay and suck the remaining Flowerfolk dry. "I wouldn't abandon you all, my loves," she smiles a toothy smile, before getting back to devouring the daisy flowerfolk's chest.

The kaleidoscope of butterflies ride the current for only a moment or few before they're met with the restrains of a net. A few of them struggle to fly out, but the exit is clasped shut by a muscley hand and nimble fingers.

"Ha! Gotcha!"

The tall man stuffs the net in a glass jar and turns to grin at the gaping flowerfolk and unbothered butterfly. "Ladies," he tips his hat in a pleasant greeting, overcome by a wide smile and ogling eyes.

"Gentlemen," the flowerfolk recite in unison, their drooped petals, for hair, blooming upright in curtsy.

"Mhm, you taste so-o good now, the bloom, keep up," the butterfly moans between haggard breaths and incessant suckling. The daisy flowerfolk giggles in reply as the men walk past them.

They were two friends from the Amphibian Terrain and Reptile Realm.

"Brunch's saved for you and we'll get a Lumia Garnet for each we sell, I promise," the tall man turns to smile at his friend, victoriously shaking the glass jar in his perspective. His friend is green and hopping alongside, yellow eyes slit in a trance so deep that he ignored the Flowerfolk as well as the Butterfly Court.

Two of the most beautiful species in the World.

"Do you hear me?" The tall friend whacks his tail on his green friend's behind, spanking for attention. The green friend ribbits out a cry, hopping in front of his tall friend and blocking his path.

"Underrrstand me, why the Hoarrrrder, of all people?"

The tall friend shrugs in reply. Three of his greenish-brown eyes roll in contemplation, as he strolls along the valley and recalls, "Last I heard, he was Wanted by the castle. Now, he's getting mated to a Fungi. The Emperor is hilarious, I tell you,"

"It's scarrrry is what it is, I tell you. The contrrrol an Ephemeral has overrr all Enchanteds," his green friend snatches the glass jar from his friend's arms and slides open the lid. It gives way to a small hole through which he inserts his tongue and catches the fluttering orange butterfly. He pulls back and munches it with a slight moan.

"The Hoarder is an Ephemeral too, isn't he?" The tall friend scrunches his nose as his hands find their way to stick inside his pant pockets. Be of Reptile Realm or not, he as a Lizard held a well dressed dignity which could compete against the Ephemerals for days.

"He won't be forrrr long if he becomes the Celestial Lorrrd," his frog friend slides the lid close and holds the jar against the dusty pink skies. His huge nostrils could smell all the money they would make from this little catch.

"But he won't, because, Fungi. That's so evil though, I love it," the tall lizard's mouth opens to let out a faint cackle at the expense of someone far superior to his kind. He liked this kind of humour, it made him feel better about himself.

"Marrrket?"

"Aye."

Their talk broadened in spectrum as the destination drew closer. The butterflies flutter restless in the glass jar, knocking and beating against its enchanted confines, trying to break through, but failing.

That is, until, a spear sears through the unsuspecting winds and impales the green friend through his heart. His body freezes upon impact, staggering to and fro for a moment, before falling forward. The spear rests its rear against the ground and the frog rested against it, dead and impaled, at fourty-five degrees.

In the grim afternoon silence of the Jungle.

The tall friend is quick to catch the falling glass jar, alarmed by his friend's sudden death but not quite jarred enough to lose sight of unseen danger. That's how fates within the World were, quick to shatter.

"Lond day, mate," he hastily tips his hat in acknowledgement of the corpse and is about to sprint away when another spear swooshes through and catches hold of his tail coat, hence confining his tail to the ground.

A shriek of pain erupts in his heart and he drops the jar on impulse. With all of his body screaming, "flight, flight, flight," he flings into the air with all might and disappears into the horizon with one jump.

Leaving his tail and the jar laying beside the corpse of his friend.

"Tsk, treacherous," the owner of the spear emerges out of the shadows and pulls her bloodied weapons out of their victims. A satisfactory smirk graces her pouty lips, "Ah, food and lumia," her emerald eyes gather after skimming over her catch of the day.

"That's a twilight garnet," she flips the torn tail coat with the tip of her shoe and almost drools as it reveals a scaly brown tail. "Ugh, so good, but twilight amythest at best. I shouldn't have let him go," she tsks again, flipping the the frog corpse with her shoes.

"Five aurora topaz, at best, food at worst," she calculates the price of the Frog's life before picking up the glass jar full of butterflies. Her eyes zone in on their colourful wings and a devious thought births in her mind, "But if I sell your wings separately... that'd be an entirely different tale."

The faltering terror in the butterflies' hasty movements across their glass confines and the stench of death whelming from the frog has her mind bubbling with opportunities. As long as the Amphibian Terrain wouldn't put her on the Wanted list, she'd be good to go. Not that anyone saw her doing anything...right?

Paranoia takes over as she jerks her head up to take in the stillness of the Jungle around them. In silence, the tree leaves conversed with the winds and the Bird Lords burst melodies unknown to her Fox kind. She was almost satisfied by the unsuspecting nature of her surroundings when her ears caught sound of feeble whimpers.

Her red fox ears twitch and white brows furrow in concentration as she holds a spear in position to hunt.

An Ephemeral or an Enchanted? Only Destiny is to know.

She tiptoes past the dense overgrowth, shoving plants out of her way, and comes to find a humours scene. It's Aurelia Mossbloom, the little mushroom girl from the Fungal Lowlands, holding her little dagger against a plantfolk.

"Listen, Mush, I know you're terrified for your life but so am I. Okay? I'm hungry, erode that, I am starving."

"We have known eachother since we were seven—"

"—minutes old, yes yes, we were grown together, I understand, best seven minutes of my life. But I'm like, really really hungry so if you could just—"

"I won't die for you!"

Aurelia's family home was pillaged last week and she had been alone eversince. All of the Jungle knew that because she had yet to convince someone to become her food.

The Fungalfolks are looked down upon by every other species so it wasn't a surprise that Aurelia was left to fend for herself. The Foxgirl had seen Aurelia wander the Jungle quite a lot over the past week, more than ever. Aurelia seemed to have a connection with nature...or at least that's what she wanted people to believe with the constant chattering.

"Its not like you'll die forever!" Aurelia exclaims, before pressing her lips together to start a rant, "I mean, look at it my way. You die temporarily, I keep you for a week or so, I eat you, other plantfolk rest for a week, I excrete you in the soil and you'll be a plant in right about another week! You've got it so easy, listen to me, will you? I'll be gentle! I promise!"

Aurelia held violence as the lowest degree of offence and chatting someone's ear off as the highest, probably. The dagger in her dusky hand swayed uselessly over her fingers, simultaneously pointing at herself and the mildly annoyed plantfolk.

"I will not be Me anymore! You will grow on me! There's nothing that will be left of me, that is ME! I'll be a plant again, yes, but not ME!"

Albeit Aurelia's small and slender self, pale and sprouting on top of her crimson head, her majestic mushroom cap kept people at bay. The cap is white with delicate blue hues, reminiscent of moonlit frost on the chilly night of her planting. One couldn't truly get a hold of her without the cap providing a vigilant perimeter of personal space invasion.

"What's so good about being yourself anyway? I mean, look at me! I'm a mushroom from the lowlands, what's so good about being me? Certainly you plants have got it worse with the Enchanteds and the Ephemerals after your life, but at least you are important in some way! I exist only because people don't care! Which is incredible if you think of it in any way but the sad way. You, on the other root, exist because folks care! Which is brilliant in all ways! Don't you think so? It's your Destiny to die for me!"

Her cascading crimson hair resembling the delicate, flowing gills of her mushroomself, sway gently with her intense gesticulation. When a spear cuts through air right over Aurelia's shoulder, her spores burst into shades of pastel pink, creating a halo of colour around her.

The spear impales the plantfolk's head and fits the ground, bringing her green body along. Aurelia whimpers, her bony limbs shrinking into herself as she turns back to look in the direction of the attack.

The Foxgirl catches Aurelia's golden gaze staring terrified into her soul. "Did you a favour there, you'll be good for a week now," she snickers.

Aurelia barely nods, too stunned to process anything but the fact that she and Mush's planting were merely seven minutes apart. Not that they had been friends or anything.

The Foxgirl sneaks beside Aurelia, her emerald gaze entranced by the gold of Aurelia's. "You owe me," she whispers in the mushroom's ear, agressively pulling the spear out of the plantfolk.

Aurelia's eyes would be worth Celestium Lumia, if Foxgirl could get her hands on them. Pity, Aurelia was engaged to The Hoarder.

"Th-ank you," Aurelia manages to choke out, subtly shifting away from the Foxgirl and her fluffy red tail which was brushing against Aurelia's clothes. "You didn't have to, but-uh, thank you," she sniffles, scavenging her skirt pockets for a Lumia.

She grabs a fistful and pulls them out, twitching eyes simultaneously glancing at the the Foxgirl the Lumia. "D-do you want some? As compensation-n?" She questions, eyes trying to spot the familiar starstone that she needed.

Each Lumia was intricately crafted by the Duskveins, embedded with a Starstone of varying qualities which determined the Lumia's worth. Lumina serves as the primary currency of the World.

The Starstone is a rare and precious gem at the heart of each Lumina coin, a symbol of prosperity, magic, and celestial energy. These stones are believed to be fragments of fallen stars, imbued with mystical properties which can be found only by the Duskveins.

A Lumia with twilight amythest as its Starstone has the property to hold spiritual connection and is usually used in lowlevel dimension magic. If Aurelia stores the Plantfolk's spirit in the Lumia Starstone, she wouldn't have to literally attach herself to her former friend's decaying corpse for a whole week.

"No, not quite yet. But aren't you late?" The fox girl wipes the gooey plantjuice off her spearhead with an index finger. It falls onto the soil and subtly sinks inside the surface.

"Late? Am I? For what?" Aurelia picks out the lumia and places it on top of the spear wound. The Plantfolk's dead, green, corpse bursts into a green mist and whirlpools inside the coin.

"Your first meeting with the Hoarder and the Emperor."