Chapter 2309 A Small Request

--- Kat ---

Kat gestured for Appoline to step forward and the elf did so without complaints. "I’m personally interested in some of the plants you’ve been growing. I can trade parts or recipes,"

"P-parts? What do you mean parts? Are you n-not asking for parts?" asked Amaranth.

"I mean monster parts," Appoline said slowly... carefully. Kat narrowed her eyes. Appoline seemed fine but that sort of speech was a lot slower than normal? Did she just want to be certain she was understood.

"Why would I want those things? All I need is my plants. I d-don’t need any monsters!" insisted Amaranth, a slight panic in her voice clearly audible.

"You can use them to make fertiliser if you want, though considering the size of your garden you wouldn’t be able to use it too liberally," explained Appoline.

"No!" hissed Amaranth, jumping forward in a too-quick motion before folding back in on herself. "S-sorry. No, what I meant is that I will have no monster parts. N-no monster parts. None of them. I don’t want them."

Appoline waited for a follow up statement but Amaranth seemed almost distracted, her eyes darted around the room as if they were looking for some unseen predator. Should I be using my calming aura on her? Something odd is going on here.

[Yeah I don’t disagree with that statement... but hold off on the aura. Appoline knows about it so I think she’d give some sort of signal... maybe? She’s also acting a bit weird but maybe she knows more about plant body language then we do?]

Appoline was currently shrugging in a slow, exaggerated motion. "Alright, would you like recipes in that case? I can provide information on how to make potions with the plants you have, or perhaps specific effects as I have not seen everything you grow."

Amaranth seemed to stutter for a moment at that. "N-no I don’t think I need that either."

"Well, what would you like? You offered a trade, but you don’t seem to need or want anything," Appoline mused.

"Y-yes it d-does seem that way. You are correct. I cannot think of what I need. Though... y-yes. Perhaps a trade not of goods but services? One of my greenhouses has been taken over by a m-monster and I haven’t been able to clear it out. Y-you could handle it for me perhaps?" Amaranth requested.

Appoline bowed low, something Kat wasn’t sure she’d seen the elf do, as Appoline agreed. "Of course, we will return once it is done. What area is the monster in?"

Amaranth pointed off to the side to the greenhouse next door they hadn’t yet been in. Appoline nodded again and then started to leave. Kat followed along behind her. As Appoline reached the door she hopped towards Kat, letting herself go sideways as if Kat had been ready to catch her in a princess carry. Kat sent a quick mental image to Lily who moved, leaping up to Kat’s shoulder as Kat threw her hands out to catch the elf. Once in hand, Appoline gestured upwards quite clearly and Kat started to fly. She wanted to ask questions, but Appoline was clearly being quiet for a reason.

Once she was a decent way in the air, Appoline pointed them towards the greenhouse and Kat flew that way too. Appoline continued to glance around for a bit but as they started to hover over the greenhouse proper, Appoline nodded, "Alright it should be safe..."

"Safe from what?" asked Kat.

"Did you not notice anything weird about the woman we just talk to?" asked Appoline.

"Um... other than the fact she was a plant?" asked Kat confused.

Appoline paused. "Wait... you didn’t see her as an elven woman?"

"Noo..." Kat said slowly. "She was clearly a plant person. I want to say dryad but for some reason that feels wrong?"

"Because she’s an alarune," grumbled Appoline. "Except alarune aren’t meant to talk. Their entire purpose is to lure people to their death’s with a sweet scent. For less intelligent monsters alarune can also control them to help defend the main body... but hmm... it IS weird that she can talk."

"Well dryads are plant people that can talk but... well no buts really, they can look however they want. Amaranth was a bit weird though," admitted Kat.

Appoline nodded slowly. "Alright... so... hmm... I don’t know what that means actually," Kat made a questioning noise. "Well I don’t know anything about dryads but if you say they’re real and sentient then... that might be what she is? The pollen she included in the air was meant to make people listen to her more easily... I think? Similar to that relaxed feeling you give off sometimes, though less natural feeling."

"It did? Lily kind of hated it and I thought it was a bit strong but not like... bad?" offered Kat.

Appoline nodded, "Might be that it doesn’t work against you two properly... for me I’ve built up immunity to that sort of stuff, more from growing up in my family then something I went looking for later. Our immune systems were trained to recognise certain plant effects and push them out essentially.

"My plan was to just... get out of there as soon as possible so I agreed to the deal and then left, now though... hmmm... yes I was freaking out but it IS weird she can talk. What do you think?" asked Appoline.

Kat shrugged, "Well... I can certainly withstand the pollen, and as I already said, I could see that she was a plant the hole time. Wait, what does her house look like to you? Is that also all plants?"

"Yeah, it was sort of a major hint that something wasn’t entirely right," laughed Appoline.

"Wait... ok new question. So from my perspective she was in a big pond did you see the pond?" asked Kat.

Appoline nodded, "Well, it had some soap and whatnot inside it but yes, it was basically a pond and she was very naked. Though with long hair covering her boobs and her lower half was hidden by the water,"

*Lily?*

[Sorry I wasn’t actually looking around. The smell was a LOT for me so I was buried in your elbow. I didn’t look at her at all.]

"Ah, well Lily apparently didn’t even look at her so I didn’t notice that what I was seeing and what you were seeing were different at all. Hmmm... yeah so... at the, hmm..." Kat cut off what she was going to say. *I’m guessing that Amaranth IS actually a dryad. The question for us though, is she a dryad pretending to be a sentient alarune, or is she just a dryad that looks and seemingly acts a lot like an alarune?*

[We can’t go on this tangent again. There’s no way to know and Thyme is crazy enough to go with whatever. Heck, I don’t even know if Amaranth is Thyme pretending to be an alarune or some other dryad. It’s just not worth poking at.]

*Blegh. It feels like there should be hints but no, I guess you’re right.* "Sorry, we were just thinking of the dryads we know and... well truthfully we don’t know enough about dryads to say if Amaranth is meant to be one or not. The problem is that they can make their own bodies, as long as their main tree is safe then they can make more," explained Kat, doing her best to tell what she was thinking without simply lying.

"Oh, and for some reason she was... stuttering oddly? Almost like she was skipping slightly in time for some reason?" added Kat, trying to explain it without the video game terms. "Her stuttering wasn’t natural, or at least it didn’t seem so to me. Her mouth moved way too fast and... yeah time magic is my best guess,"

Appoline nodded, "That seems... plausible considering how many issues this place has with time magic. I’m not sure it immediately changes anything, but it’s another bit of the weirdness. Though I personally didn’t see anything weird, you already know I can’t trust my eyes in regards to her."

"So... do we just leave or are we doing the mission?" asked Kat.

"I think we need to at least have a look," Appoline decided. "For me this is an excuse to take some ingredients. Who knows what damage will get done during the fight? And for you, there might be another portal in each of the greenhouses."

Kat grimaced at that, she hadn’t considered that angle of things. "Alright... though knew question why did you want us flying away before chatting?"

"Because I have no idea if she can or not... but I wouldn’t put it past Amaranth to have a way to see or hear through her plants. Maybe not all of them, but some certainly. This way we had some time to go over things. Once we’re in the greenhouse proper let’s not mention any of this... and be ready for betrayal I guess?"