[WP-004] Strange Flower (Incarnate x Single Thought)

[AMItotic]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft] Single Thought had heard a rumor. The kind of rumor that made it worth rummaging around in the swamp with the imminent sogginess of the new spring. His starclad tail waving lazily behind him, he rooted about in the rushes and mangroves, looking for something that sounded vaguely like 'a flower no one had ever seen before'. But there were all sorts of flowers that Single Thought had never seen before, and just one involved in the rumor--one that was said to have strange and perhaps hallucinogenic properties. Head low to the ground, he sniffed idly, but got no further in his investigation. Barring that, he was out of ideas.

"Hmmm...if I were a strange flower, where would I be..." He continued to mutter to himself, pawing his hooves in the soft grass. Maybe they just hadn't bloomed yet? Would the ground be hiding them all to itself?

[Anhelisk]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]Rumors and gossip were the lifeblood of the swamp.

Well, no. That wasn't entirely true.

Blood was the lifeblood of the swamp, or at least, the creatures living in it. And trees had tree-blood, which was tasty but not the same. Water flowed through the land like blood of its own, and the sky bled water too... but the cultural lifeblood of the swamp-- of the kin, those capable of dreaming and sharing those dreams-- was definitely rumors and gossip.

And when something new and exciting to others was being talked about, it was worth seeking out. Incarnate blinked blearily as he looked around, scanning the land around him for any signs of something special, still trying to shake off the tiredness of having been woken up at an inopportune moment.

"I mean, if I was a flower, I'd want to be someplace that was hard for herbivores to reach. The side of a cliff, maybe? I could get water from the rains falling on the ground above me, and sunlight for part of the day, but it wouldn't be easy to get me if I was on the side of a cliff."

[AMItotic]

Single's splendid friend--(and really, why would you have friends that weren't splendid?)--made a valid point, though the idea made him murmur a low and rolling tone of distress. "Yes, but...we're the herbivores looking for them! It would be better for us if the flowers weren't half as smart as you are." But it was an interesting thing, to think the way a flower would, and Single Thought lifted his head and curled his tail up curiously, as if he needed the sun for sustenance. His ears flickered back and forth as he listened to the shuffling breeze, the sounds of the swamp. If there were words on the wind, it was a language he could not comprehend--the swamp kept its secrets.

"I don't think it's any use," he admitted, looking to Incarnate. "I can imagine us as beautiful flowers as the day is long--we'd be absolutely stunning--but it doesn't get us any closer to finding the things." He tried to think back to what the does had said, about the shape of the petals or the patterns of the colors, but Single found that he'd been more singularly focused on the shapes and colors of the does that had been speaking.

"I think she was...blue...? I mean, I think she said there was something blue about them," he amended, half trotting around another fallen tree to look underneath for blooms. If he had any remorse for waking the other buck, he certainly wasn't showing it. Being at the forefront of all the chatter was far more important.

[Anhelisk]

Incarnate frowned for a moment as he focused on recalling, then smiled. "They're shimmery, and the stuff around them picks up that same shimmer!" he reminded his friend. "We should look for something shimmery.

Much like his friend's glossy coat, the easiest way to notice if something shifted in the light... was to walk around, so the light rolled around their surroundings. "I've heard that if you want to search for something, you start in the center, and spiral around it?" But we'd need to figure out a center point to search from.

But... but how would they do that if they didn't know where to start?

[AMItotic]

Something that shimmered? Single Thought was reasonably certain that he was the only thing in the swamp with his certain sort of velvety shine, but he would take Incarnate's word for it.

"Well, why don't we start...here?" Single said, and decisively he marked the fallen tree that he stood over, etching a marking in the soggy bark with his horn. From there, he started to canter around the outside of the edge of the fallen tree, making his laps larger and larger, until after about the third rotation he glanced up to the other buck, tilting his head. "It's not doing much so far," he retorted, even though he hadn't yet left line of sight of their little clearing, and then he lifted his nose, nostrils flaring.

"Wait just a moment...do you smell that?" He inhaled deeply, and then sneezed. "It kind of...smells shimmery, don't you think?"

[Anhelisk]

How could a thing smell shimmery? Incarnate walked over to find out, taking a sniff, and then sneezed.

"That's pollen," he replied, with a bit of a laugh.

[AMItotic]

"Well maybe it's shimmery pollen," Single Thought replied back, scrunching up his nose before he sneezed a second time. He really should have paid more attention to the gossip, in retrospect, but he'd been so sure that they would just be easy to find if other kin were talking about them so freely.

His ego somewhat bruised, he moved alongside the other buck, eyeing up the terrain. "Where do you think we should look next?" Single Thought had always been the pretty one when it came to pack work--he wasn't used to having to use his head.