The Search for the Eoz Potion

9. A Time for Rest

The Garden of Yllop was dark and quiet when they arrived. The SG noticeably distrubed the peace as the griffins' feet pounded the ground upon landing, thunder in the quiet night. Josef brought the griffin he was flying down and Zack slid off of the back. He reached up to help Claire and Hailey down and then looked back up at Josef. Their eyes silently acknowledged the reality. They had known there would be casualties, known that not everyone would make it out of the forest, but that didn't make it any easier to take. For Josef, action was the only remedy for sadness, so he flew his griffin to the front of the group to go talk to the others and try to lift their spirits as best he could.

Looking around, Hailey and Claire noticed that some of the griffins were carrying small packs draped over their backs. They couldn't tell what was in them, but the bags were bulging. Had they not already seen what these animals could do, they would have thought it too heavy for them to carry.

The girls looked around at the small clearing in which they had landed. It was surrounded by massively overgrown bushes and trees. It looked like a once beautifully manicured and landscaped yard that had been untended for years. They were surrounded by walls of bushes with branches that grew out unevenly in all directions. The trees were being strangled by vines growing up from the ground, and the unkempt grass brushed up against their ankles.

Growing on the ground scattered among the overgrowth were several long stemmed flowers that were about a foot tall. They had turquoise and purple leaves that came together in a point at the top to form a colorful egg-shaped ball. Claire noticed right away how beautiful they were and knelt down among the chaos of their landing to get a closer look.

"It's a Yllop Flower," Zack said as he squatted down beside her to pick one. "They're like wildflowers. They just grow freely in all this mess. I love them. They are beautiful, but they are so useful too. You can dry the petals and make a great tea, or mix them with water and make a paint for art, the stems are delicious. But this is my favorite."

He stood up and blew on the flower. The leaves flew from the stem and were carried up lightly by the soft breeze. As they rose higher and higher, they seemed to glow like little lanterns. When the air passed around the petals they lit up more brightly as they trailed off into the distance. They reminded her of fireflies, but the light was brighter and deeper. She looked back down at the ground to find more flowers reaching out from the overgrowth and picked a few. She blew on the petals just as Zack had and again they filled with light and danced on the breeze off into the distance. Claire watched with a smile and lost track of everything else that was going on around her. It was one of the most beautiful things she had seen.

The other Searchers and the SG were buzzing about all they had been through while Josef finally tried to get their attention. Claire put her flowers down and walked over to Hailey to hear what he was going to say. Before he could start speaking, however, there was a rustling in the bushes beside them. It distracted Josef, and he approached slowly to investigate. When the other members of the SG noticed what was going on, the talking died down and they redirected their attention to the bushes. As Josef walked closer, the rustling became louder and louder until finally an older man and woman jumped through the greenery.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the man shouted, waving a large, crooked walking stick with a sharpened point at them.

The woman with him had one as well and also pointed it at Josef. The two of them were dressed in tattered clothes, the man in dirty brown pants and an old dress shirt that were both far too big for him, and the woman in a dress that looked to be the height of fashion at one point, but was now a dated and dusty relic of an older age. THe man was short and squat with a dark, round face and a head covered desperately by wisps of gray hair. The woman was tall and skinny, a comical kind of pairing. As they pointed their weapons at Josef, the SG stood still and calm behind him. Hailey and Claire looked nervously among them and could not figure out why no one was rushing to his defense. They did not seem to be taking the threat seriously and were willing to simply let it play itself out.