Destinies: Separate Ways

10th Fate: The Wilting Botanist

Arga POV

It all started with the fire-the fire that had burned our happiness to ashes, the fire that had destroyed our togetherness, and the fire that was too late for us to extinguish. That fire left a deep scars within all of us because losing a friend during what was supposed to be a joyful celebration naturally traumatized us all. Not only that, even though a month has passed since that accident, not a single one of us has been able to smile again. Everyone is always gloomy and miserable. Eventually, all of us decided to part ways, leaving each other behind, trying to forget this painful memory.

As I was walking in the garden, lost in thought, I saw a broken flower pot on the path, crushed by a stone. I could see the beautiful flower inside the pot, but it looked almost dead, pinned under the weight of the stone. I quickly took the flower and brought it home. I immediately planted the flower in a small pot and placed it in my room.

For some reason, that flower reminded me of our relationship. Something so beautiful could be destroyed if it's left to bear the weight like that stone all alone. Sometimes, the best choice is to remove the weight and take the flower somewhere it can live safely. Perhaps that's why my friends decided to leave and go their separate ways-they were afraid they'd be crushed if they stayed here. It seems like I should leave this place too, so that I can grow beautifully, just like this flower.
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Several weeks have passed, and right now I am in the Selakano Forest, or Dasos Selakano, in Crete, Greece. I've always been fascinated by the various plants and flowers on Earth, which is why I decided to embark on this adventure-to explore, admire, and perhaps study the many types of flora that exist around the world firsthand.

I chose the Selakano Forest because it is one of the most important pine forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean. Some of the plants in this forest include Turkish Pine or Pinus brutia, Kermes Oak, Acer sempervirens or Cretan Maples, and Cypresses. However, this forest is also a hunting ground for birds of prey like eagles, so I need to be quite cautious.

After spending some time exploring the forest, I returned to the city to find something to eat. I bought some local fruits and a few salads since I wasn't too hungry. Once I was satisfied, I continued my journey to see other forests on the island of Crete. This time, I headed to a forest that is home to the largest honey bee farm in Crete, the Kroustas Pine Bee Forest. Honestly, I didn't know whether the bees in this forest were safe or dangerous, but I explored it out of curiosity anyway.

When I reached the heart of the forest, I came across a statue of a woman that had been overgrown with vines. At the base of the statue, there was an inscription that seemed to be the name of the woman the statue depicted. The text was written in Greek letters. To be honest, I'm still not very skilled at reading Greek, but I decided to try to decipher the writing on the statue.
Arga:"Demeter"
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Right after I read that name, I swear I saw the statue of that woman suddenly smile at me. Not only that, but the atmosphere in the forest also felt very different from before. I even felt like the trees and plants around me were moving and changing places.
Arga:"Huh? What is going on here"

I immediately looked around, and the forest I was in became very dark, like it was nighttime, even though it should still be a while until sunset. Not only that, when I turned around, the statue I had just found disappeared, and a small path appeared in front of me. I don't know why, but I felt like something or someone was calling me from the direction of that path, and my instincts seemed to tell me to walk through it. With no other choice, since the path that brought me here suddenly vanished, I decided to follow the small path ahead of me.

I kept walking along the path until I reached a place that looked like a beautiful ancient garden. In the middle of the garden, I saw a woman dressed in an ancient Greek-style outfit, and she seemed to be playing with the plants around her. Strangely, when I got closer to get a better look at her, I realized that she looked very similar to the statue I had found earlier. I then tried calling out to her.
Arga:"Demeter?"
The woman turned to me and smiled.
Demeter:"Hi, how are you, Arga?"
Arga:"How do you know my name?"
Demeter:"I am your ancestor, of course I know everything about you"

Arga:"Huh? What do you mean? Who are you, really?"
Demeter:"My name is Demeter, people know me as the goddess of agriculture"
Arga:"Huh? A goddess? Then why do you claim to be my ancestor?"
Demeter:"You don't need to think too much about that for now"
Demeter just smiled after I asked that. She then approached me and kissed my forehead.
Demeter:"I called you here because I want to give you a gift"
After she kissed my forehead, I felt a lot of energy flowing into my body.
Demeter:"Take this, my descendant, I believe this ability will greatly help you with all your problems"
She then gently pushed me, and as I fell, I suddenly found myself back in the middle of the city.
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A month has passed since my encounter with Demeter, and although I really want to believe that the meeting was just a dream, unfortunately, over the past month, I've experienced many strange events, so I have no choice but to accept my meeting with Demeter as reality. After my meeting with Demeter a month ago, I started to feel an immense power flowing within me, and before I realized it, I could now control trees and plants. Not only could I control them, like moving or shifting trees, but I could even accelerate the growth of any plant I wanted. I could quickly grow fruit from a tree when I was hungry, make a tree provide abundant shade to shelter me, and I could even sprout several types of plants from both my hands.

About a week after I became aware of my abilities, I immediately returned to the forest to search for the statue of Demeter I had found before, but unfortunately, I couldn't locate it. I then decided to search for another statue of Demeter in the city because most likely, there would be at least one statue of her. When I found the statue of Demeter, like before, the statue, which was originally just a normal statue, suddenly smiled at me when I mentioned her name. I immediately scolded the statue and demanded an explanation from it, without caring about the people around me. It seems that this scared the people nearby, and they thought I was insane, and to be honest, I started to doubt my own sanity as well.

Those people even called psychiatrists, and they immediately sent me to an asylum. At first, I was quite offended when they sent me to this place. But when I saw that Ayu and Desi were also in this asylum, I felt a bit happy. I don't know what brought them to a place like this, but when I saw that they became even more miserable than before we parted, I knew I couldn't leave them here alone, so even though I was sure I wasn't crazy, I stayed in the asylum just to keep them company.

The three of us spent our days in the asylum peacefully. Desi and Ayu told me about their abilities and the things that had happened to them. I was very surprised and quite angry when I heard that people considered them monsters, but because of that, the staff were very afraid of us, so they let us do whatever we wanted. However, our peaceful days were suddenly shattered when the Soul Devourers came to attack. The three of us had no choice but to use our abilities to fight the Soul Devourers. I had no other option, so I had to use my abilities as well, even though I was just the Wilting Botanist.