Zorroku and Peaches

New Beginnings

Zorroku and Peaches

Part 17

Once you and him got to the roof, it was like a beautiful lush garden and from here, you could overlook much of Avlar to see almost every house had a roof like this one, with a wide variety of lush green plants and even crops growing in special planters and containers on the roof. It was beautiful.

"Oh, you got a perfume and incense tree." Zorroku realized once he took notice of the small sapling trees growing from the abalone shells as he pointed to the third one that you couldn't identify earlier.

"A- what now?" You asked as you paused and turned on your heel to look from him to the small sapling.

"So, it's a tree that usually only grows in very high, but also pretty dry climates. Where the desert meets the sea. And the only water they get is from the humidity from the ocean air that comes in. It's a moura tree. Because the mouras who live in those cliffs- they guard those trees while also transplanting them around the world in similar climates, they were the first to discover and then cultivate the trees since the convergence. That's how they make all their perfume and incense. You should have a book on it...hold on." He excused himself and went to the library below and looked through the books before he got one and brought it back and then brought the sapling and set it on the small table in the seating area.

"What language is that?" You asked.

"It's marinai, it's the moura native language. Most of the humans you see in Avlar are moura. They trade incense and perfume for the opals when they come through from time to time and some have chosen to stay. There is only one grove of perfume trees in all of the seven cities that the mouras themselves tend to. And they are guarded at all times." He revealed as he looked out over the roof to the rest of the city to point out the special grove, that looked like a house of glass in the middle of where the seven cities all came together.

"We need to build a special case for it because once that thing starts blooming, everyone will be following their noses here. But here, here is what I was thinking of. You see, the flowers, the buds start out indigo blue, then the buds slowly turn into a light blue, then morph into green, then when they bloom, they turn white first- then turn yellow, then orange, then coral, pink, red and purple, then a dark, almost black reddish purple. And the scent you get from them changes from the different stages of each color." He showed you as you could only look at the pictures but could only wonder how you would speak the language written on the pages.

"What does each color smell like?" Becina asked as she came over and sat on the other side of him to look at the book too.

"Well, to my understanding, when the buds are blue, they smell like water. Most who travel the deserts think that they are on their way to an oasis whenever they get the scent of this on the wind. And it unfortunately leads many to their deaths, following their noses into a desolate desert. And then when it turns green it's smells like cool vegetation but for some reason- that scent will keep bugs away, especially flies and mosquitos. Which the scent of green foliage will again, would lead many into deserts, thinking there's an oasis close by. Then when they bloom into flowers, the white- it smells like...well, like soap, like fresh and clean and it's hard to describe beyond that. And then once it turns yellow, it'll smell like citrus, and the darker the yellow, the more it can smell like fruit. Then once it turns orange, it smells like cedar and other perfume woods and warm amber, the kind you see in the small yellow orange pieces of hard amber in the salt lamps. Then when the color morphs from orange to pink to red and purple, then that scent changes into a very floral scent, usually the more intense the color, the more intense that kind of flower can be. The light pink is a very light, very small flower, but the more intense the hue of the color of the flower, it's like getting punched in the face with a bouquet of flowers. Very intense. Only one flower is enough to smell an entire room, like it would take at the most, two- to perfume this entire roof. And the flowers are only as big as your own palm. Then once the flowers turn dark reddish purple, to the point they almost look black, that's when it can smell spicy and um..." He paused as he tried to think of the right delicate word to use to explain this- as his cheeks flushed.