Farming the magical desert plants hadn’t been a smooth or simple process. Kairen had watched on with curious interest that morning as the nomads marked off a section of soil in the Oasis to begin transplanting the plants their Pathfinder had retrieved. The soil was moist enough to break apart easily and it didn’t take long at all to dig rows of shallow holes. Compared to the dry sand outside the Oasis it was a haven for plants. Kairen had grown up in a mining settlement, but his mother and some of the neighbors had put in the effort to cultivate small gardens. Tilling the soil to mix in fertilizer had been a loathed chore for him and his siblings and even with constant attention only hardy plants were able to be grown. Agave, aloe vera, and various cacti had grown in the spindly shade of a scraggly olive tree behind his house. One affluent neighbor had invested in a fertilizer potion and had been able to coax beans and peanuts to grow in their garden, so Kairen was somewhat aware of just how much soil composition mattered when growing plants. His brief experience with gardening didn’t warn him that it was possible for soil to be too rich for certain plants, and he was just as surprised as anyone else when the new crops began to die.

With regular plants the farmers would have had days or weeks to notice problems appearing and to take steps to correct the underlying cause. Several factors present in the Oasis worked to accelerate this timescale to the point the nomads could only watch helplessly. All of the plants the tribe was attempting to cultivate were native to the desert and had evolved to take as much advantage as possible of the infrequent rainstorms that appeared. These plants did not have a leisurely period of months to gather water and nutrients to grow but had hours after a storm before the dry air, baking sun, and porous soil stole away their precious source of water. Given the right conditions explosive growth would occur, as the plants grew from seeds to saplings to maturity practically overnight.

Even with such a short period of growth an experienced farmer would still be able to head off problems before they became serious, but the nomads were not farmers. Their healer cultivated some useful herbs in small pots, but no one working with these plants was familiar with either the needs of the plants or the characteristics of the soil. The few warning signs shown were completely ignored, and it was only when the plants began to wilt, lose their leaves, or simply burst like bubbles that the farmers realized something was wrong.

Despite their inexperience the nomads weren’t stupid, and their autopsy of the various plants revealed three distinct problems that affected the different species present to differing degrees. The most common problem was that of water. Simply being close to the oasis ensured that the soil was saturated with water, ensuring the plants growing there didn’t have to rely on rain or manual irrigation to meet their needs. For plants used to desert conditions, it was simply too much of a good thing.

The five-day beans had the best reaction to the surplus water. They simply burned through all their stored nutrients creating as many roots as possible to absorb the life-giving liquid. They simply didn’t have an inbuilt mechanism to stop and continued to expand their root network as long as water was present, even at the cost of starving the rest of the plant to death. The cacti had a similar problem, where they continued to absorb and store water to the point that their internal structure was ruptured, killing the plants.

Mineral crystals on the edges of the salt leaf that had been planted was the clue needed to recognize the second problem. Salt leaf was known for its ability to filter minerals out of the ground around it and then excreting useless salts onto old leaves, but all the plants in the desert had similar magic to some degree or another. It allowed them to eke out an existence in terrain that would kill off other species. The excess magic present in the wilds allowed them to efficiently gather the resources they needed without expending too much biological energy in the process. The downside was that when placed in soil that had large quantities of those usually rare minerals the plant would poison itself by absorbing too much.

The final cause of farming failure was the soil itself. The rich dark soil was simply too different from the rocky sand that most desert species were accustomed to. A couple of species reacted to their first watering by digging roots downwards, looking to anchor themselves firmly given the loose nature of sand. Even though the dirt around them was more firmly attached it was simply too fine to be tangled up in the probing mass of roots that pushed downwards. Much like the five-day beans, these species focused too much on avoiding disasters that were not going to happen. Even though the plants managed to stay alive, it wouldn’t be possible to farm them if they never put the energy into growing properly.

The surviving plants along with some spares from the storage huts were then carried outside the oasis. Kairen was unable to follow them the entire way, but their chosen location was close enough to their camp that he could watch.

“Five-day beans only, let’s see how this works before we risk any of the other plants.” Elder Gomer directed.

“Easy enough. Would you like to do the honors?” A tribesman responded, gesturing at the large jug of water that had been repurposed as a crude watering device. Holes punched high in its side allowed it to roughly simulate rainfall while giving the people using it a little more control over how much water was poured.

“I can hardly lift the thing, let alone pour out water easily.” Gomer demurred. “I’ll be quite happy just standing here watching how it goes.”

Water was poured on the thirsty plants, and it didn’t take long for them to begin to grow. Unlike last time energy was being put into growing additional vines and leaves. Soon the jug was empty, and the plants were still alive, happily working to produce beans that would be ready to harvest in five days. The quick turnaround time was a great benefit of the plant, even if the beans themselves didn’t have much flavor. While the beans would be useful, at the moment the five-day beans had served their purpose as test subjects, and soon additional rows were being marked out, holes were dug, and a second farm was underway.

It quickly became apparent that the limiting factor of the farm was watering the crops. All the plants needed large amounts of water to trigger their growth phase. They simply wouldn’t sprout unless there was enough water present to ensure that they could grow to maturity. Unfortunately, that meant that it took a large number of trips to fill up the watering jugs from the pool, and there were only so many jugs available to be repurposed.

The spare manpower was put to use helping to solve the watering problem. Shovels and picks were put to use digging a shallow trench to bring water from the pool closer to the new farm. Wanting to encourage their efforts at development, Kairen used the points he had gained over the last week to buy another level of his pool size upgrade.

Kairen was still somewhat concerned that eventually he would be unable to upgrade his size further without sinking buildings that the nomads had been put up, but watching the latest expansion of his pool eased those concerns slightly. Each upgrade seemed to be providing a smaller increase to his size. Combined with the increasing cost and the corresponding time it would take to buy the upgrades, Kairen figured he would reach a stable equilibrium before he sunk anything too important. The visible change in size seemed to be taken as a good sign by the nomads, and they worked harder, flying through the dirt as they shoveled it aside. Instead of stopping once they hit sand as Kairen had though they continued onwards, digging a narrow trench between two rows of plants, before heading back to connect the pond to the trench.

There were a couple of areas where the water pooled, but the sheer size of the oasis and the fact that it was generating water out of nowhere meant that it didn’t take long for the trench to fill up fully, the water smoothly flowing along towards the farm.

Some water was lost when it hit the desert as it started to seep downwards, but there was plenty of pressure to keep the water moving forwards. Just as the nomads started celebrating successfully saving themselves a lot of work, things went wrong.

The five-day beans were closest to the irrigation trench, and it didn’t take them long to capitalize on their position. Roots quickly appeared on the bottom of the sandy stream, before growing upwards and thickening. Minutes after the water had started flowing it was blocked off by thick walls of roots, and the five-day beans had once again killed themselves.

“Blast it all. It just couldn’t be that easy, could it.” One worker swore.

“I suppose that helps explain why none of the cities have tried this.” Elder Gomer mused thoughtfully. “It can still be worked around, so there’s probably some other surprises we’ll find out about along the way to make things difficult.”

“Thank you for your insight, Elder. Next time can you try having it before we spend all day digging a trench?”

“Ha!” Elder Gomer barked at the bitter humor. “No promises, but I’ll do my best. It’s not like all our work was wasted. Even if we can’t direct water directly to the plants, your work means a far shorter distance to carry the watering jugs. Best get to it, there are still a lot of plants left that need their fill.”

With the excitement done for the day, Kairen wandered aimlessly around the Oasis. The children were receiving another history lesson and instead of listening in Kairen found himself watching the goats. It didn’t matter what plants appeared in their path the goats calmly ate it all with the same half-lidded stare on their face. Even the remains of the first farming attempt weren’t spared. Without even blinking a goat began munching on the five-day bean cluster. Kairen tried a nibble, only to find that it was horribly bitter, and decided to stick to enjoying the food that was left out for him.

Before he could make his way to wash out the taste and see if there was anything new, his attention was caught by movement near the ground. It was a desert rat and was frozen in place, a chunk of root carried in its teeth. Kairen looked around to see what had caused the strange reaction, only to see nothing. He knelt down to take a closer look, only to have the rat flinch away from him.

It could see him.