Open Post: Treat

[sporesprouter]

Now that the latest burst of activity has actually settled into something like calm for a few days, Tress has settled into a temporary project. In fairness, most of the temporary project took place the previous day in the out of the way kitchen that she had previously commandeered small appliances from. But today requires a bit more wandering.

So she is currently in the process of going around various at least semi-frequented common rooms leaving trays of both nut and honey balls and chocolate coconut balls. Next to each room's tray, she sets down a small card that says in careful handwriting, 'It's been a tough week. Help yourself!'

She's not putting a whole lot of fanfare into the process, but she's also not being particularly secretive about it, so she's easy enough to find throughout.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

The answer to that one is simple. "They grow into needle-sharp spines."

[az_fell]

"Ah." He wrinkles his nose a bit. "Not teddy bears, then. Dangerous indeed. How did you manage?"

[sporesprouter]

"Honestly, at first it was luck. When we did cross into the Crimson again, we avoided the rain for a while, which gave me time to work on other things. I managed to help Fort work out at least some better meals, in trade for a flare gun. I worked on modifying it, and also with spores, and... well, all right, while I was doing that, I never lost my caution about them, but I've never really been afraid of them since then. I also realized that Hoid's curse meant we could figure out where the Sorceress's island was, which would be very useful after getting past the dragon."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale smiles, liking that she was already making plans assuming they would, indeed, get past this dragon. "Keeping caution but not fear is quite wise of you."

[sporesprouter]

"Our luck didn't last forever, though. A squall showed on the horizon and started heading right for us. Salay managed to turn the ship just in time to avoid the spikes, but after they form, they sink into the spores, which just unsettles the sea even more and makes it more difficult to keep a ship upright against the waves. Salay managed, but a wave broke high enough against the ship to send a lot of spores onto the deck. The silver infused into the planks did kill them eventually, but not before we lost a crew member to them.

"So of course, that's when a stilling hit. And the rain turned right back in our direction. For a moment it was like the moons were trying to kill us specifically, but the storm ended up just missing us. It was an awful day, but a lot better than it could have been."

[az_fell]

With sincere alarm and sympathy, Aziraphale takes this in. "How terrible," he says, meaning it. "I'm very sorry to hear it."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "Crow let the crew open a barrel of something to have with dinner that night. I noticed Salay didn't come out to eat, so I brought her a plate. We got to talking, and she was taking the whole thing hard. During our conversation, though, an absolutely wild idea came to me for how we might be able to fare better if we came up against a rainstorm again."

[az_fell]

"Oh, don't leave me hanging, then," urges Aziraphale. Tress is such an inventive little human.

[sporesprouter]

"Well, I spent the next few days mostly holed up in my quarters experimenting with verdant spores, for that and for something else, too. I'd come out to help Fort with dinners, but I didn't know for sure how much time I had. It turns out I had... well, just enough. We hit another stilling... and there were two lines of rain heading right for us.

"I sent a crew member to tell Salay I needed two long ropes and a barrel of water, while I ran to my cabin to get what else I needed, which was a big roseite ball filled with verdant spores. I ran back to the deck, had them use one rope to lower the barrel of water down near the spores... and use the other one to lower me next to it. When I got down there, I opened the barrel, drilled a hole in the ball of spores, asked the spores to grow upward and hang on, and dropped the whole ball into the barrel.

"Thankfully, they listened to me. The ship tilted a little bit to start, but the vines grabbed hold of it and lifted the entire ship into the air, above the range of where the spikes could grow from the crimson spores. The rain hit and the ship managed to avoid getting damaged. Thankfully, Fort thought to haul the rope with me on it upwards as the ship was climbing. As is, the spikes were already brushing against my shoes."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale takes the time to picture this to the best of his abilities. Luckily, his imaginative abilities are fairly well-honed. "That was incredibly clever of you," he says appreciatively, "and wildly brave, and fantastically foolish. I hope you were quite pleased with yourself for coming up with such a thing."

[sporesprouter]

"Foolish would have been not trying, because that would have been certain death, instead of only probable death. But yes, I was pretty pleased with myself for a little while."

[az_fell]

"That was the complimentary use of foolish," Aziraphale assures her. "I hope the rest of the crew was as complimentary."

[sporesprouter]

"They were. Very much so. Everything was wonderful for the next few hours." A little smile. "Fort even gave me some tea from his own personal supply without even trying to trade anything."

[az_fell]

"Tea!" Aziraphale is especially pleased on her behalf at this particular reward. "Richly deserved, dear girl."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "It was delicious. Of course, I was also drinking it while we were having another meeting to plan a mutiny. And I discovered far too late that Crow was listening in on it."

[az_fell]

"Ah," says Aziraphale. "So you weren't the only eavesdropper aboard. I suppose it makes sense, but. Well. Oh dear."

[sporesprouter]

"We decided to try to move right away, but... we didn't have time. Laggart was waiting right outside the door, and... well, it didn't go well. She basically challenged us to a fight and humiliated us completely. Oh, and at that point we'd arrived at the dragon's lair, even though she'd said we had another day to sail to get there."

[az_fell]

"I see the scales had tipped, unfortunately. You had had such a great success, and then... well, not quite so much. And I had nearly forgotten about the dragon in all of that. Goodness."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "So Crow marches me off the ship, onto the spores, and down a tunnel through them into Xisis's lair." She grabs a chocolate coconut ball for herself and eats it.

[az_fell]

Attentive, Aziraphale sits up a bit straighter. He presumes that this dragon encounter is going to be an especially interesting portion of the story. "I'm on tenterhooks. Do go on."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "So Crow calls the dragon forth, and he appears, and he's much bigger than Temeraire is here, probably more than twice the size. And she says she's here to fulfill the ancient pact and that she's brought me as a slave to work for him... And I... I do the only thing I can honestly think of. Before he responds, I say the same thing about Crow."

[az_fell]

This takes maybe a second to fully sink in, and then Aziraphale laughs, surprised and delighted. "That was very bold of you," he says. "And did it work?"

[sporesprouter]

"Well, we both made our cases as to why the other one would be the better servant. What eventually won the dragon onto my side was that I told him that I would never stop trying to escape. I had to rescue Charlie and I couldn't do that from inside his lair. I'd be a useless servant."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale considers her, rather fondly. "Yes," he says, "I can see that. If you thought the work worthwhile, you'd be a fine servant -- but not in that scenario. You have quite the stubborn streak. That, by the way, is also a compliment."

[sporesprouter]

"Thank you." She smiles. "Of course, then the dragon asked what I wanted in trade, because he traded for servants, didn't just take them. I hadn't actually gotten that far. I thought my freedom would be fine, but then I had a better idea and asked if I could get three little boons instead of a big one. For Ann and Fort and Salay."