Nakino flinches and retreats a step at hearing Kuro’s demand. “Talk in private? B-but Kuro, I’m with—“

Kuro lowers her head and bares fangs, issuing a baleful growl as loud as any I’ve heard from her.

GRRRR…

“Alright, alright!” Nakino squeaks, lifting his wings in front of him like a shield. “We can talk in private!”

Seemingly satisfied, Kuro ceases her threat and relaxes her feathers. “Good. Now come with me.”

She beckons with her wings to follow and exits toward the passage into the front room. After taking a moment to exhale from the confrontation, Nakino quickly follows after her, hanging his tail low behind him. It’s not until he’s nearly past my shoulders that he finally notices I exist.

“Oh!” he chirps with surprise. “It’s… you.” As he runs his gaze up and down my body, his face settles in a strange way I’ve never seen before, even as a Lemur. Is he just surprised to see I’m really a Lithan like him?

“Nakino!” Kuro bellows like thunder from outside the room, smacking her tail against the floor. Fear lances Nakino, thrusting him back to reality and propelling him quickly out of the room.

With the timorous doctor out of the way, I have a moment to take in my surroundings. The second room of Nakino’s den is mainly like the first — piles of formed bedding are strewn about the floor, and a hole in the ceiling allows in pale light. Besides the passage back to the front room, two more rooms stemming from this one. One to the left and one to the right. The room on the left seems to be broadly similar to this one. If the drakaina on the floor is any indication, this area is used to treat patients.

Then there’s the room on the right. The pungent odors of decaying plants, many unfamiliar to my enhanced Lithan senses, are drifting away and basking the area in a most pleasing medley of scents. If this den is the equivalent of Sofl’s lab, then that’s the room where the stocks of plants are located.

This is…

Um.

There’s something I need you to understand.

Discovering an entire room of decaying plants utterly unknown to science is the stuff botanists dream about. This is the motherlode. A jackpot in every sense of the term. It could take years, decades even, to completely decode the secrets of the specimens in this room. Our understanding of plants on Jade could be fundamentally altered forever… And I get the be the one who unearths it all. Me, me, me: Princess Asha!

I square my shoulders and stretch my wings, gazing into the storage room with bated breath. I’m sure this Nakino guy won’t mind if I take a quick look inside, right? Besides, I’m sure there’s a whole slew of things I can—

“Um…”

The drakaina on the floor speaks up, interrupting my in-progress botanist epiphany. I give her my attention and try not to look too agitated.

“Are you the Farlander?” she asks coyishly.

Well, I suppose I can’t fly under the radar forever. “Guilty as charged,” I confess, letting my wings droop gracelessly to the floor.

She stares at me and blinks.

Um, right. That expression makes no sense to her. “I mean, yes. Asha, Daughter-Of-Kelani. Pleased to meet you.” I mantle my wings and dip my head.

“Oh, I had a feeling it was you,” she says, loosening up. “Those blue feathers of yours really stand out.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“My name is Messi, Daughter-Of-Flea, “ she says, tripping her good wing. ”Did you get hurt, too?”

Feeling that my moss bandage is still present, I whirl about and raise my wing to present the injured leg. “It’s just a scratch. I’m only here to get it cleaned up.”

Messi stares at the bandage for a moment but doesn’t give it any extra thought. “Oh, well, that’s good. You must not be used to your new body yet, so let me give you some advice: Don’t take a nap near the edge of a root! You’ll fall off and end up like poor old me. Being stuck to the ground is miserable!”

Having been recently granted wings and the ability to fly, I’d have to agree. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I chuckle to myself, imagining how graceless a Lithan tumbling off a Grandfather Tree root must have looked. “Nakino mentioned using something called blood cress. Is that it?”

I angle my wing toward the leafy shrub, roots and all, left on the floor near the chestnut woman.

“Oh, yes. That’s what he was using. But for some reason, it isn’t working today. He needs to loosen my wing before he can rub snowberry into the injury.”

“Snowberry?” I echo. “But that’s….”

It couldn’t be the same snowberry that grows in Ellyntide, could it? I suppose that wouldn’t be too unusual — I’ve seen other plants in Felra that also grow in Ellyntide. But if it’s the same plant, then how can we have the same name for it? That definitely shouldn’t be possible… right? More intrigued than ever, I inspect the blood cress up close. Although it’s a common family member, this species doesn’t grow in Ellyntide. So, what gives?

Messi seems amused by my curiosity. “There’s more in his stocks if you’re interested.”

I raise my head and peer inside the room, getting my first clear glimpse of the numerous stocks of plants stuffed into innumerable slim crevices on the wall.

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“So when Tomcat returned, all we had to do was get the sap off the spruce bark and apply it to the back of the moss. It stopped the bleeding, and the bandage has held ever since. Pretty neat, huh?”

Nakino stares down like a Crow as I tell the harrowing tale of how I was injured at the wreck of the Mezonnia. After Kuro finished her lecture, a wide-eyed Nakino led me to his den’s farthest, most private room. Located in the back of the stock room, there’s just enough room for my leg to be cleaned.

Despite the vividness of my storytelling, he doesn’t seem at all impressed. “Mmh. Yes, I know how to apply a moss bandage.”

Oh? “You do?”

“Most of the flock are unaware of the technique as I’m only able to use it away from my den,” he says, giving his chest feathers a quick lick. “The Grandfather Tree, and the trees surrounding it, don’t produce enough sap to use them here.”

“Oh,” I deflate. So much for being able to impress him with that trick. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

Nakino reaches for the plant he brought into the den, slipping its woody base stem between his dewclaw and the rest of his talon. Whoa, what?! I didn’t know Lithans could hold objects like that!

“So, tell me,” he says, resting on his hind legs and using his other talon to inspect the plant like he was reading a book. “This purple blood of yours. You never noticed it until now?”

I shake my head. “Nuh-uh. I’ve only had a few scratches since I became a Lithan. And I don’t think any of them were deep enough to bleed through my down feathers.”

“Sounds like you haven’t had any tough fights yet.”

“A False-Kin almost murdered me,” I remind.

He just grunts as he returns to the ground on all fours.

Sheesh! This has to be what Tomcat was warning me about: his awful bedside manner! Kuro must have had a particularly unpleasant experience to dislike him so much.

With the plant inspected, he stands over my injured leg and pulls up a corner of the bandage with his fangs. “This is going to sting,” he mumbles.

“Alright, g— Ah!”

Without waiting, he rips the bloodied bandage from my feathers, exposing the wound. Once the stinging subsides, I twist my neck around to join Nakino in inspecting my leg up close. The bleeding has subsided, allowing the blood to settle into an unpleasant shade of purple and black.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” I ask.

“Absolutely not,” he dismisses.

Nakino turns and uses his jaws to gingerly rip a small branch from the medicinal plant, causing a flurry of dried leaves and wilted flowers to suffuse over the ground. He then dips the branch into a small depression on the floor where rainwater collects and waits until the leaves are completely soaked. I’ve never seen the plant he’s using before, but with just a quick glance, I can tell that it has therapeutic properties.

This is shaping up to be a very awkward doctor’s appointment. But that’s okay because I think I know how to start a conversation with him. As Nakino returns and lowers his neck to clean the wound, I begin, “When I was a Lemur, my blood was red, and—“

“Believe me. I know.”

After staring at me a moment longer, his agitation subsides. He uses his tongue to reposition the branch to the front of his jaws and returns to work, rubbing the leaves against my wound in long sweeping motions to soak up the blood.

Well, that was rude! But whatever. This guy is nothing compared to the nobles back home. “If you combine the colors red and blue, you get purple, right?”

He stops, gives me a sidelong glance, and then continues without saying a word.

“Well, I think it makes sense, anyway.”

Okay, now he really wants me to shut up. Time to deploy the real conversation starters. “What are those leaves you’re holding?”

He stops and stares at me, unable to figure out why I care. “Sassefron.”

“Do you use it to treat wounds?”

He looks at me like I’m the biggest idiot he’s ever seen.

Yes, well. I suppose that was a dumb question, after all. He throws the bloodied branch aside and reaches around to grab another. My wound is cleaning up quite nicely, and barely any surface blood is left. As he turns around and cleans the wound, I casually mention, “In the Farlands, we’d classify it as a member of the Rosaceae family.”

He stops and stares at me like I’m speaking Lagoran. “The what?”

I angle my wing towards the plant at his side. “Rosaceae. We categorize all the plants that exist according to a taxonomic system. I can tell that’s a Rosaceae by its shared evolutionary characteristics: stipulate leaves and the five sepals and petals on each of the wilted flowers.”

He scoffs and chuckles to himself, nearly dislodging the branch from between his fangs. “That’s a lot of Farlander nonsense if I’ve heard it. Why would you need to know all that?”

“When you learn enough about plants, you begin to understand what nature favors.”

He watches me a moment; his face cemented in a dour frown. But as he turns back from tossing away the blood-soaked branch, I see his expression has softened. He asks, ”What else do you know?”

“I know why the drakaina in the other den isn’t healing.”

His muscles tense. “Why.”

“You’re confusing blood cress with elderberry. The elderberry stems are covered in trichomes — an evolutionary adaptation that looks like tiny hairs. The stems of blood cress don’t have any.”

Nakino’s neck recoils, and his wings droop like a spider plant. Without saying a word, he bounds into the stock room and runs his wing over the wall, searching the innumerable crevices where plants have been untidily stored away… all except the blood cress, which I inspected during his lecture with Kuro. When he reaches it, he pulls out a large wad of plants with his jaws, drops it to the ground, and inspects them up close.

“You’re right…!” he soon exclaims. “There are two different plants mixed together! I can’t believe I….”

He flashes a face full of surprise at me, grabs a sample of blood cress, and races back into the room where Messi is resting. Hey! What about my wound?

“Uh, Doc?” I call out.

There’s no response, only the muffled voice of Nakino speaking. Understanding I have no choice, I quickly check my wound — hardly any blood left. If I cover it with my wing, I should be safe from prying eyes. I clamber to my talons, hobble past the stock room, and emerge on the other side to see Kuro and Nakino standing over Messi.

“Now, try flexing,” Nakino mumbles with a branch of blood cress in his jaws.

Slowly, Messi extends her injured wing. She reaches the farthest point it moved last time, grits her fangs in pain, and then slowly pushes it farther. “It’s… It’s working! I can flex my wing again!”

“Keuvra’s blessing!” Nakino exclaims, throwing the blood cress to the ground. “Now, we just have to apply the snowberry!”

Oh, that’s simple. I take a step forward and say, “Wait here. I’ve got this.”

Kuro blinks. “Huh? Asha?”

Before Nakino can object, I bounce away toward the stock room. Even as a Lemur, I could find snowberry with my eyes closed. So pulling it out of the wall here will be a piece of cake! After a few moments of scanning the crevices, I recognize its distinct, white-colored fruit poking out of a hole near the top of the ceiling. I yank out a full-sized plant and carry it back to a wide-eyed Nakino.

“Is this enough?” I ask, dropping it to the ground.

“How did… yes, that’s enough.”

Getting straight to work, Nakino rolls a large clump of berries onto a patch of leaves and stamps with his foretalon. He then lowers his head and blows a flame just above the smushed concoction of berries and leaves, heating it till it nearly ignites. He blows away the excess heat, gathers some of the freshly crafted balm on his wing talon, and rubs it into the wounded area of Messi’s wing.

“Oh!” she chirps as it’s applied. “Yes, it’s still warm. I can feel it working!”

She flexes her wing again, extending it smoothly past the point she could barely reach last time. “Nakino,” she says, then turns me. “And Asha. Thank you, both.”

“You’re very welcome,” I say, dipping my wings.

“Y-yes, I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Nakino flushes, rubbing the top of his wing against his head. For the first time there isn’t a trace of agitation in his voice.

Like a creaking door, Kuro swivels her head towards me. Her face is painted with surprise. “How do you know all this stuff about plants?”

“Well,” I smirk, feeling my cheeks flush warm. I haven’t told Kuro any of this. “I’ve been fascinated by plants since I was a little girl. When I wasn’t doing Princess stuff in my den, I was always outside in our garden planting flowers, landscaping, all kinds of stuff! It was my full-time hobby.”

Nakino asks, “And that’s how you knew what Snowberry was?”

“Oh, yes. I… um…” Remembering they don’t know about books, it takes me a moment to think of a concept they’re familiar with. “…I heard all the stories about plants. There are a lot of animals in the Farlands who know about plants, you see. We call them ‘botanists.’”

“I see…” Nakino trails off, deep in thought. “You’re just like me, aren’t you?”

“Well,” I hesitate, seeing Kuro’s face turn sour. “A little bit. I guess. But I was never a healer like you. I just like learning about plants because they’re neat!”

For a moment, Nakino is quiet before exhaling and dropping his head low. He begins pacing slowly to the other side of the room, then lifts his head suddenly. “Asha,” he says, turning back around. He flicks his eyes to Kuro and continues, “I would like you to stay here and rest for a few days.”

Kuro reacts like she is attacked, splaying her wings and taking a provocative step forward. “Is she still injured?”

“Y-Yes,” Nakino stutters, nearly taking a step back himself. “Her wound has cleaned up well but hasn’t begun healing. A-and the Grandfather Tree doesn’t produce enough sap, so I can’t make her a new ba—“

“I’ll find more sap,” Kuro rumbles, taking another step.

“But that’s not all!” the doctor quickly ripostes. “I-I think it would be beneficial if Asha shared her knowledge of plants with me. I mean, with us. The flock.”

Wait, he does? I just got here, and he already wants my help?!

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kuro snorts. “Asha has to finish her training. If she doesn’t, then she—“

“Kuro, wait.”

I place my wing gently against her side. As soon as my feathers touch her, she whips her head around, and I nearly flinch at what I see: fangs bared, ears curled back, the full breadth of her fury directed towards me. The side of Kuro I haven’t seen since we first met and the one I never wanted to see again. I know she doesn’t mean it — I caught her in the middle of being upset at someone else. But seeing this side of her staring back at me again, I can’t help but feel my heart ache.

…I wish I could make her happy…

…Not right now. I bottle my emotions and set them aside. This is too important.

I draw a measured breath and stare into Kuro’s eyes. “I want to help him.”

“What?!” She hisses.

“My training with plants could be invaluable to the flock’s survival! I never healed Farlanders with them, but my brother did. And he taught me most of the things he knew.”

The anger begins to fade from Kuro’s eyes and be replaced by something else. An emotion I can’t quite describe. Heaving quick and erratic breathes, she stumbles, “B-but we have to finish your—“

“If I’m not fully healed before my flight home, then it won’t matter how much training you give me. There is no Nakino in the Farlands. So, I might as well make myself useful to the Flock.”

Kuro grits her teeth and grunts, reacting like I physically attacked her. Can’t she see how beneficial this could be to the flock? Why is she having such a hard time accepting it? Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nakino stepping forward with a glint in his eye, ready to speak up and say something. I flick my eyes toward him and frown, stopping him dead in his tracks.

“Kuro,” I say, stepping forward. “We could save lives!”

She watches me for a moment, unchanging, before slamming her eyes shut. Slowly, her feathers begin to relax, and she settles back against her haunches. “Fine,” she murmurs. “Once you’re fully healed, you’ll have to say your goodbyes. It won’t be long before the crossing to the Farlands becomes impassable.”

So, this will be one of the last things I do in Felra. So be it. “I understand.”

“But, please,” she pleads, angling her head close to mine, close enough to feel her warmth. “I want to be with you on your last night here.”

My heart skips a beat. “You do?”

She nods. “There are so many things about the Farlands I have to know. I-I could listen to your stories all night long if you’d allow me.”

Ohhh, so that’s what this is about. With Tomcat around, there hasn’t been much time to share my stories with Kuro — there’s so much stuff Tomcat can’t know because she hasn’t come of age. And given how hostile she’s been to Nakino, hanging around his den isn’t an option, either. For Kuro, my final night will truly be her last chance to learn as much as she can about the Farlands. Her last chance to satiate the curiosity that compelled her to trust me when everything was telling her not to. No wonder this is such a big deal to her.

“Okay,” I smile. “I promise we’ll spend my last night together.”

She smiles back and chitters the way she often does. As she nuzzles her head into mine, I take in her spiced scent, allowing it to calm me.

“Soooo,” Nakino says, clearing his throat and reinserting himself into the conversation. “What else do you know about plants, Asha?”

I can’t help but smile a big, toothy grin.