Cosmic

The Flowers, PT. I

Skye stretched and yawned as she blinked her eyes open. A delightful scent filled her nose and Skye took a deep, appreciative inhale as she sat up in bed.

"Smells amazing, doesn't it?" Nova asked, still laying down in her own bed on her back. Skye looked over at her roommate from across the room. Nova's dark brown hair, messy from sleep, formed a wild halo around her head as she lay there, sniffing deeply. The two girls turned their attention to the vase of coral-colored flowers that Miss Wright had put in their room when she had been doing one of her deep cleans of the house. Miss Wright had explained that she always got the urge to do deep cleans during the month of May for some reason that she could never quite figure out and had bought six bouquets of the flowers from a florist shop in Riverview's plaza to add a floral touch to the rooms.

"I saw them and was just gripped with this sure feeling that they would look lovely in your rooms." Miss Wright had said when the girls had asked her about the flowers.

"I still can't figure out what kind of flowers they are." Skye said. "They don't look like any Wishworld flower we've seen so far. But they smell like blushbelles, oddly enough."

The girls had learned since being on Wishworld, that though Vis mostly had its own unique flora and fauna, there were some plants on Vis that had a counterpart here on Earth. Stellaroses were called roses on Earth, and though they weren't as vibrant as their Visian counterparts, Skye thought they were just as lovely. Celestial Blooms (a flower that grew mainly in Micteca, Hina and Orisha) were called Plumerias on Earth and Celestial Bellblossoms (Chandra's national flower) had a counterpart in bellflowers. Skye still remembered Nova's little squeal of excitement when she discovered that Stellar Stripalilies (One of her favorite flowers and also Orisha's national flower) existed on Wishworld in the form of striped Barbados lilies. Callisto had been similarly pleased (it was the first time Skye had seen her genuinely smile since they had been on Wishworld) to learn that stellargolds (Micteca's national flower) also existed on Wishworld in the form of marigolds.

It was strange to Skye though that the flowers in front of her had the exact same smell as Blushbelles. The girls had learned that in addition to the Wishworld flowers being less vibrant and sparkly as their Visian counterparts, they also smelled entirely different too. Stellaroses had a sweet scent reminiscent of cloudcandy (cotton candy on Wishworld) compared to the more subdued floral scent of Wishworld roses. Halo and Vela had theorized that since Wishworld's fauna, while similar to Vis's fauna, had a completely different environment compared to Vis, it resulted in the flowers smelling much different from their Visian counterparts.

Skye was drawn from her thoughts by Nova's snort.

"Seriously? What are you even talking about? We've been over this! They smell just like glorange-and-lunavine ice pops-just like chatterbursts! I can't believe we're having this conversation, again!" Nova shot Skye an annoyed look. Skye sat up in bed and glared right back. Usually, Skye liked to keep the peace. She had been the one to keep the other girls from snipping at each other and other Wishlings during their first few months on Wishworld when emotions had been understandably high and unstable following That Day and their subsequent (forced) expedition to Wishworld. Skye always weighed her words carefully before speaking, both as result of who she was as a person and as a result of all the etiquette, sociology and diplomacy lessons drilled into her from a young age. But lately, Skye had found herself saying some admittedly not-so-nice things without any forethought. And it was mostly towards Nova, though she had been snippy with the other girls as well on some occasions.

"You're crazy." Skye said, quite forcefully in fact. Nova blinked in surprise, but the look was quickly overtaken by annoyance and mayhaps a smidge of offense.

"No, you're crazy." Nova retorted with a glare. "You're as crazy as a bloombug. Or I guess on Wishworld, it would be a betsy bug." Skye gave Nova an annoyed look. Bloombugs were small purple-and-pink spotted bugs that went wild every time there was a full moon during the warmer months of the Time of Lumiere, hopping up and down in delight at the warmer weather and the longer daylight hours the season brought. A popular activity amongst young Visians was to catch a jar full of bloombugs and then release them at night during the Starlight Picnic that always took place during Stellugust in the middle of the Time of Lumiere to watch them do their Full Moon Hop. Nova sniffed the air again.