Castaways: Origins

Chapter 18 ~ Flora

The sun rose over the horizon. This was the group's cue to walk towards Cinder's ship. Flora pointed her ears to overhear an interesting conversation happening a few meters before her. It wasn't that hard to observe this, since the boy in question was very loud.

"We need a name," Thunder spoke, with confused reactions from his pirate friends. "How about... the lightning thieves?" he suggested, but Neron argued that it sounded too much like a book title. "All right, all right... How about... The pirates of the Lost ocean? POLO's for short?" This was a more fitting name for the crew, and the other two members agreed. The pirates of the Lost ocean... Flora was happy that the trio got along so well.

On the walk towards the ship, Flora observed some more. It was something she was good at. The nymph has done so all her life, and nobody knew she was there. Nobody except Phobus and Aviary.

Phobus, living in the castle behind her forest, snook out frequently, hiding in her house for some rest. Flora had known the prince since he was a little boy, and now this accusation... She really couldn't believe that that person standing before her was the same boy hiding in her house while drinking some tea. Flora knew he wouldn't do such a thing, but everyone needed to be sure.

The group arrived at the ship and within a few minutes, everything was on board.

"Oy Prism! Ye comin', lad?" Cinder shouted, which caused Flora to look down at the wizard, who was still on the shore. Prism appeared very sad, and the nymph felt that that indeed was the case. She wondered what he was sad about, and that thought would stick with her until the end of the trip.

It would take about a day for them to arrive, so Flora took this opportunity to walk around and talk to everyone for a minute. She went to look for her girlfriend, but found out that she was asleep in the crow's nest. She giggled at the irony of a black-winged angel laying in the crow's nest.

So, Feathers wasn't an option. Perhaps she could talk to Prism, see if he needs to talk about what's on his mind. The nymph slowly approached the wizard sitting on a sofa in the living room-like cabin of the ship, who seemed lost in his own thoughts. He looked up when Flora stood before him, and scooted up so that the nymph could sit next to him.

"Is something the matter, Prism?" Flora asked. Prism sighed and finally opened up to someone, pouring his heart out to the nymph.

"Oh, Flora... You don't even know in the slightest what is going on," he started. "But I really need to talk to someone. I cannot tell you everything, but I'll try my best. Phobus is... he's behaving quite weirdly and I don't know what to think of this, unfortunately. There's so much I see that I am unable to explain, and it's driving me insane..." Prism buried his face in his hands, and Flora put an arm around him to comfort him.

"I think he's behaving quite weirdly too. I have known him for years and yet... He really changed over the years. He became more of a rebel, an outcast..." Flora revived the almost dead plant in the room, much to Prism's surprise.

"Nymphs seem to amaze me every time I interact with one. I once was saved by a boy who used a branch from a nearby tree to make sure I didn't fall from a cliff. It was a very clever thing to do, and I'm still grateful to this day." Prism shared, walking over to the plant, which seemed better than ever. "The POLO's should take care of their plants more."

Hours passed, and the nymph and wizard talked for the entire period of time. At some point Neron joined in the conversation as well, since they weren't needed on the ship after steering duty. The trio talked about everything; their life, thoughts and things that made them happy. This made Flora feel happy as well. She never really got paid attention to in her life, and now she has a nice group of friends that she can trust.

For dinner, everybody ate fruits and vegetables Flora grew in the castle gardens last night. With her plant powers, she could speed up the process of growing plants by a lot. This meant that she could grow pumpkins overnight, which is very handy if you're out of food for the following day. She always carried seeds with her if that ever happened.

Everyone was chatting happily; even Phobus. But something felt off... Something made this situation very bittersweet, and Flora couldn't get it out of her mind. Maybe it was just her anxiety of people leaving her again, like everyone that came into her life did. Well... everyone except Aviary before they officially got close.

Aviary, who was sitting next to her and messing around with Cinder, noticed Flora was getting more silent. So the angel put one of her wings around her, which comforted the nymph a lot. Her feathers were warm, especially since the angel had been out in the sun all day, and her black feathers took up a lot of warmth.

It was so comfortable in fact, that Flora fell asleep against her girlfriend. The night had fallen anyway, and when she woke up slightly due to being moved around, she felt the strong arms of her angel laying her down in a bed. Then, Aviary closed the door behind her while she probably went up to sleep in the crow's nest; her favorite spot on the ship.

"Hey, Flora?" were the first two things when she woke up. It was Neron, who stood beside her bed, probably being sent by Cinder to wake the nymph up. "We have arrived in your forest, you might want to get out of bed..." They then laughed sheepishly while adjusting their pearl choker. "You... should prepare for this one... please." They then left the room, adding to everyone on the deck.

Flora quickly got up. She was very excited to see her forest again, and brushed her hair swiftly while looking at herself in the mirror. It's been about 4 months since she had last seen her forest. Maybe nothing changed, maybe everything did.

When Flora walked out of the room, Aviary approached her and put a wing around her again. This confused the nymph. Why would Aviary think she was feeling sad? Her girlfriend slowly led her towards the side of the ship, where the forest view would be, mumbling that she was sorry for her loss.

Flora quickly knew what she meant. Everything was burnt down to the ground. There must have been a forest fire recently. The nymph looked at the forest, or what remained, and tears started rolling down her rosy cheeks. Aviary pulled her into a hug, being visibly sad as well.

Flora stepped down from the ship, putting her hand on the burnt ground. She used her power to feel the ground, still feeling life in there somewhere.

"The royal grounds can't be burnt down for good." Phobus suddenly spoke. "It will always regenerate by itself, as you probably can feel. Ancient nymphs have used their magic to protect these grounds. Unfortunately, it won't bring back the nymph that died due to this fire, but at least her forest was saved."

This made Flora feel a little bit happier, knowing that the forest will be fine in a few years.

"I will make sure a capable nymph will be there to protect the forest when it's back to its glorious self." Flora said, determined to save the forest. "Now, let's walk over to the elf castle, shall we?"

Phobus sighed. "Fine. I can finally prove that I'm innocent."