Solar Bright

Seven Bonsai

There's no point in showing the sister's trip through the Firelands together. They started during DewDrop, when the fire sprites hibernate. They watered at the bird song lake through Seeding , and, after a tear-filled sappy goodbye, Solar convinced Glow to return.

Solar had learned from the queen bush that since the invasion, the fire sprites travel into the nearby forests during Burning (or the Dry season, as most Flora call it).

Glow would be safe returning, and Solar continued on alone. She made it almost all the way to the new forest before she encountered the fire sprites.

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"Ow!" Solar cried out as she felt a sharp Burning sting to a root. She looked down and saw steam rising. Then she noticed if you fire Sprites near her. "Oh, no, what shall I do?"

She looked closer at the horizon and the setting sun, noticing that the light was moving. Then she heard the hissing and crackling that is the fire sprite laugh. She knew that her time of safety was up... the pack was returning.

"Maybe if I..." then she began to hum the bird song. When she saw the fire sprites slow, she got louder, singing, "Please rain once more
Before the Burning can begin
Let us build our stores..."

She watched, happily as the fire sprites flowed past her, still crackling. 'It's a plea to the sprites, and they listen.' But, Solar didn't want to risk getting to the end of the song. She moved faster.

She wasn't fast enough. She made it to the forest but they were still flowing through the flora at the border. The running made her respire a lot, and the air attracted the sprites.

They all stopped around her, increasingly excited by the amount of oxygen she was giving off. They hugged her in thanks, their crackling growing louder as they touched her bark. Solar cried out in pain, but it seemed only like the end of the song to the little sprites, and they continued to hug her bark.

Then there was a rustling and the brush at the border parted. Seven little trees no bigger than bushes appeared before solar and begin to spout water at the fire Sprites.

The fires prites room in fear, fleeing into the Firelands and leaving a severely burned Solar in the branches of the seven bonsai. Solar fell into a fain from pain and exhaustion. "Oh my," said the shortest and widest of the bunch. "We will have to take her to water at the river."

"But, Broad Bough, how will we get her there? She's so large." Asked another.

"We will have to try Sharp Leaf. She will die if we leave her here. Thick Root, Juniper, Pineywood! Wrap some roots around her branches and pull. Spruce Hill and Blacascade you lift the trunk. I'll follow and give her water until we get there." Broad Bough ordered.

"What about me? "Sharp Leaf complained.

"You direct the us. Didn't you say that you found a nice stream recently?" Broad Bough directed.

The seven bonsai, working together, lifted solar and walked her to the nearest river with sharp leaf directing. They dropped her unceremoniously Ashley into the water and moved to water themselves as well. Carrying a very large cypress tree was exhausting.

Solar woke up with a start, popping back into an upright position. "Wha-?" she didn't even know what to ask. What happened? Where was she.

And the questions only increased when she saw seven miniature trees, or was it bushes, splashing around her. They must be bushes, but one of them looked just like an uncle she'd seen in her father's sap. "Who... Who are you?" Solar asked of the little tree.

"I should be asking you that. Who are you, and why are you in our forest? You are not a form a bonsai. You are much too large. I mean really!" Sharp Leaf responded in exasperation.