Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6 1/2: The Last Sakuranoki (OLD)

Here Are We, Floating in A Tin Can...

A couple hours later:

With a sigh, Cherry continued to stare at one of the blank metal walls of the interior of the starship, still carefully holding the little sakuranoki to herself. The absence of life (aside from the pilot and passengers) inside the stark, plain spacecraft obviously made the poor little tree uncomfortable, and Cherry had to admit that it put her a little bit on edge too. Star Warriors seemed to be such colorful creatures, so why were their ships so, well, bleak?

"I know. It kinda bothers me too."

Looking up suddenly, Cherry noticed the white Star Warrior observing her in a somewhat curious manner. With a blush, she stammered back, "Wh-what do you mean? What are you talking about?"

Laughing, Petal shook her head and apologized, "Sorry, but weren't you just thinking about how plain and colorless it is in here? A lot of people ask about that the first time they ride in one of these aluminum-alloy cans. Besides, it was written all over your face that you were a bit uncomfortable. You're not exactly hard to read, sweetie."

"Oh," Cherry murmured with a bit of a smile. "Yeah, I get that a lot. It's the eyes mostly, or so I've been told."

"Same here," Petal chuckled, then sighed and explained, "It's so bleak in here on purpose. If it was colorful, we Star Warriors would grow to feel at home here, and that wouldn't be good. We want to be able to end the war and go home, and if something related to the war started to feel like home... it's hard to explain, I guess. Star Warrior logic." Changing the subject suddenly, she looked over at the little tree fondly. "It's been a long time since I've seen a sakuranoki. This one seems almost... familiar to me. Which is strange, she's obviously not that old and I've never been to Ripple Star before this morning, so I don't know when we could've met."

There was a snort from the puffball lying in the corner with a beret pulled over his eyes, suddenly revealing that he wasn't asleep like he'd seemed to be ever since not long after they took off. "Not you too, Petal. It's- not 'she's,' 'it's'- a plant. A plant. Plants can't think or feel, for crying out loud. And they're NOT 'she's' or 'he's.' They're 'IT'S.'"

Rolling her eyes at Cherry, Petal argued with Tracker, "Who says they can't? I personally think that all plants have a bit of emotion to them. Maybe not a lot, but a bit. Besides which, sakuranoki aren't like most plants. They're magical. They can speak, too."

Chuckling, Tracker muttered disbelievingly, "Trees can't speak, I don't care if they are magical. It can't happen."

Cherry glared at him. For someone who seemed so level-headed and kind, he sure could be a bit thick-skulled. "You can't say something can't speak just because it's never spoken to you. Maybe they just don't think you're worth talking to." The little sakuranoki whooshed indignantly in agreement, making Cherry chuckle.

"You tell 'im," Petal laughed as she reached over and patted the tree's flowerpot gently. When Cherry looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. "I can't quite understand the language of the sakuranoki, but I can get the gist of what they're saying, or at least the emotion they're saying it with. It's like, I can hear the language, I just don't quite understand what it means. Like if you were talking to someone who spoke a different language than you, even if you didn't know what they were saying, you could guess some of what they meant by how they said it: angrily, happily, shyly, etc. She sounded indignant, so I was agreeing with her." The tree giggled at finding someone else who understood her a bit, making Petal grin. "And a laugh is the same in any language. You don't need to know how to share words to share a laugh."

Smiling, Cherry nodded once, then suddenly frowned. "Who's flying this thing anyway?"

A strange look came over Petal's face as she muttered, "Shotzo," then hopped up. "I need to check on the autopilot before we go flying straight into a star or something. I'll be back later."