Ara's Wish

Chapter 2

Turles took a deep breath relaxing as the sweet scent in the air wrapped around him. He lounged in his hammock and used one of his legs to gently sway in the bright sunshine. He hadn't had a day to himself like this in awhile now.

The pirate's eyes flickered over to where the arzu was kneeling by a bed of herbs tending to a couple of plants, and the sight made him smile. Ara looked so relaxed and happy, and the sight warmed the alpha's chest. He couldn't believe that the woman he was watching had come from the ruby amulet several months ago.

The soft pleasant humming from Ara was soothing while Turles flipped through a botany book. He was looking over some information on how to further develop the vineyard they had started a few days ago. With the help of Ara's powers, it looked like all the plants had been there for years.

It took awhile to get Ara comfortable with gardening, but she took to it like a duck to water......minus a few of her more interesting attempts early on.

Flashback

Turles blinked a couple of times at the sight before him in confusion. He closed his eyes and counted to ten before opening them once more only to see that the sight before him had not changed.

"Ara?" The pirate's voice was heard through the garden, and the arzu appeared beside her master after a couple of seconds.

"Yes, Captain?" The woman sounded cheerful, and Turles felt his lips twitching upward in an attempt to smile.

"Uh...why are these moon flowers bright green with blue polka dots? I thought they were silver or white."

"Do you like them?" She had a large smile on her face that made Turles' heart skip a beat. "I know the flowers are usually a more subdued color, but I thought I'd try and brighten them up some!"

Seeing her happy and hopeful expression had the alpha speaking before his mind caught up with his mouth as he knelt down to get a closer look at the flowerbed.

"They're lovely. I had just never seen flowers like this unless they were poisonous. It's nice to look at a plant with these designs without worrying for your health." He touched a solid red flower that had petals in the shape of stars with a few fingers before smiling back at the woman.

There was a sudden look of panic that would be funny if a sudden bad feeling overcame the pirate. Before he could open his mouth, the edges of Turles' vision darkened as he fell face forward into the red flowers. The last thing he heard was the sound of Ara's panicked calls for him.

End Flashback

After that incident, Turles had required that all poisonous plants keep their original colors to prevent something like that from happening again. He hated to restrict her, but it was important to others to know which plants to avoid. In truth, it was the only punishment he had the heart to give her after the accident. He knew she didn't mean to poison him, but she felt she deserved to be punished for harming her master. For nearly two days, Ara had been skittish, refusing to touch another flower or even look him in the eyes unless ordered and even then he could see she was terrified. So to hopefully calm her down, he gently imposed the restriction after her repeated queries about how she would be punished for harming her master.