Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Poppies

           Gem, False, Cub, and Grian slowly trailed behind the clone, keeping their distance and acting sneaky. Or at least they tried to be; Grian kept on accidentally tripping on very noisy things whenever they had to duck out of sight. Hermit False even went as far as to say that he was doing it on purpose and was trying to get them all killed. Somehow, though, the clone False was completely oblivious and never noticed.

           As they followed her, Gem noted how erratic her movements seemed to be. She didn't exactly walk in a straight line and the elf wondered if she even knew for certain where her destination was. Soon they were out of Cogsmeade and the copper city and craggy mountainous rock melted away into a soft field full of fresh flowers and a colorful town on the horizon.

           "We're near Chromia," Gem said, glancing at the nearby empire. "Yeah, but not close enough to hide," False said, watching her clone walk away from them uneasily. "It's kind of hard to hide in a plain." Cub said, stating the obvious. "But we need to follow her!" False muttered under her breath, gnashing her teeth. "We know, False." Grian sighed, sounding a bit miffed for some reason.

           Just then, a few llamas wandered into view, each wearing a different-colored carpet on their back and grazing amicably on thered flowers speckled around on the grass. Scott came running out after them, yelling at the llamas. "Owen! Stop eating that! Poppies are poisonous!" The llamas continued to eat like they didn't hear him. Scott angrily yanked at them and tried to pull their heads up so they would stop eating but the camelids were as stubborn as mules.

           The Chromian collector sighed and flopped down onto the grass. He stared at a singular poppy next to him. "Hello," He said to it. The poppy didn't answer. Of course it didn't; it was a flower. "Do you know what you signify? You signify death. Of course you do; you're red and you're poisonous. But you also symbolize remembrance, and I use you to remember someone special to me. Now if only Owen could stop eating my precious poppies!"

           Owen rolled his eyes but stopped eating the red flowers. Scott shot him a double take and Owen just shrugged and walked away. Wait, llamas can shrug? Gem thought. The other llamas didn't stop eating them, though, but Scott didn't stop them. He just started picking the remaining poppies and tying them into a bouquet with a string of grass. Bet I know who that's for.

           "Hello, Scott," False said. Gem started at the voice, thinking that it was hermit False who had said that and that she'd just given away their position hidden in the sparse wood next to the hilly plain, but then the elf realized that it was instead the clone who was slowly approaching the collector and speaking to him.

           "Oh, hello, False," Scott said, grunting as he tried to rein in his llamas again to no avail. "I could use your help, you know! Make those llamas stop eating the poppies!" "Okay, I'll stop those llamas from eating the flowers." False said, and something in her voice made Gem realize she was plotting malicious compliance.

           Out of nowhere a blade swished through the air and a llama's head would have rolled onto the ground of not for the rainbow-colored crystal sword that Scott produced and used to block the strike. He glared angrily and a little bit warily at the person who had just tried to hurt his precious llama and best friend. False.

           "What was that for?!" Scott roared, disarming the clone with a flick of his crystal blade to her wrist. Her sword flew through the air spinning and stuck itself straight in the ground a great deal away. The fighter in Gem was honestly pretty impressed by the Chromian's sword as well as his stance and movements. Scott wasn't someone to mess with, especially if he had a sword on him.

           False didn't even bat an eye. She didn't even act like her wrist hurt. "You told me to stop them from eating," She said, gesturing at the orange-carpetted llama, who was grazing on poisonous flowers again like an attempt hadn't just been made om his life and he wasn't just about to die. Then again, if he continued his eating habits then he was still about to die.