8- Ghoul

Ghoul and Shimmer stared up at the roof and top window at the front of the house. Wild, exotic flowers could be seen blossoming from the creaks of the rooftiles. Shimmer began floating up toward the window. "I LOVE these type of flowers!" she peered down at Ghoul. "Well come on then!"

"Uh...wouldn't it be more polite if we just knocked?" He suggested. Really he knew his new friend would tease him for not knowing how to float at this age. The star-bender pondered for a moment. "Good idea!" and knocked hard on the bedroom glass.

Ghoul took several deep breaths before finding the strength to hover about six feet in the air before Shimmer hauled him beside her and seated him on the rooftop window. The pair peeked in through the scratched glass to find a literal jungle of a bedroom.

More foreign flowers were blooming on the floor, its stems stretching to and through the ceiling. The floor was a soft carpet of moss which created a trail out the door and downstairs. Vines plastered the walls and the room itself was as dark as night, the open door, holes in the ceiling and now open window being the only sources of light.

"Wow, now THAT'S a green room!" Shimmer exclaimed, floating in, "I wonder if the girl lives here?"

"Gosh I hope not," Ghoul replied. "Imagine the bugs and insects you'd attract."

Shimmer called out into the darkness of the room, "Dicentra! Hello? We are your friends! Don't worry-"

Suddenly a thick weed plant appeared and coiled itself around Shimmer's leg before pulling it out from under her. "AHH!" She yelled as she was pulled into the shadows.

Ghoul dropped in after his friend. "Shimmer? Hello?" He walked briskly to the center of the room and called for her again. He was in the middle of the room now, barley able to see a thing aside from the light from the window. Now he began thinking this Dicentra girl wasn't as innocent as Elgetrat made her out to be. "Look Dicentra, we're not enemies okay? We're your friends!" Ghoul said to the darkness, "This isn't because I insulted your room is it? I'm sure the insects are lovely company!" That must have set the plant-bender off as a second weed found itself crawling up the prince's ankle. The teen yelped and kicked the plant away. As he did he backed into something big. "Hiyah!" he yelped again, now on adrenaline he made a karate chop motion toward the object. The prince then decided to use logic instead now and pulled out his mobilizer, allowing the light of the holographic home screen light up the area. Now he could see, he noticed he backed right into a flower stem. Ghoul marveled at how tall it was. It went right through the roof, allowing small stems of light to leak into the room. "It's pretty." He thought out loud.

"Thanks." a voice said from behind him. Ghoul whirled around to be standing face-to-face with a girl, his age or younger. She smiled sadly at him. "I made them myself. Unfortunately."

The girl had dark green skin and lighter pistachio hair tied into a messy bun. Her eyes were the shapes of flowers. She wore seaweed jumpsuit with a hole cut at her stomach, showing off her pendant. Like all plant-benders, it was a daisy sprouting out of a seedling cup, with the usual white outline. Her smile was friendly, but she herself was so obviously fatigued and sad. "Dicentra?" Ghoul asked, before back-pedaling in a split. "Uh okay I mean OBVIOUSLY you're Dicentra! You're one of the few plant-benders left in existence! That was stupid, I'm stupid. Sorry."

The girl laughed at Ghoul's flustered behavior. Without saying anything she took several steps toward him. As she walked she left a trail of daffodils where her footprints were. "I haven't seen a bender like you before."

"I'm Ghoul. I'm a soul-bender."

"Never heard of that before. What can you do?"

"Float. See ghosts. Never seen a ghost though. And I can't float. So I guess I can't do much."

Dicentra took one last step to Ghoul. The prince just backed up toward the plant's stem. Dicentra's faced morphed from curiosity to panic. "Step back!" She yanked Ghoul's arm and pulled him away just as a flower head crashed through the ceiling, chomping down at the spot where Ghoul was previously standing. It's petals sharpened like teeth as a low growling noise came from it. "Easy now," Dicentra walked toward the beast, patting its head gently. "Sorry I made you like this."

"THAT THING TRIED TO EAT ME!" Ghoul shrieked from his new spot. Dicentra snapped him a warning look as the flower nuzzled into her. "I guess he doesn't like it when strangers come in through the window, karate chop then grope him." she replied flatly.

"I only came in here to help my friend, who you dragged in here by her feet!" Ghoul argued. "Speaking of which, where is she? I need her help explaining why we're here."

"Oh yeah..." Dicentra said, her voice trailing off as she tried remembering where she went. The girl went to light switch and flipped it, making Ghoul realize a jungle was a COMPLETE understatement for this room.

Shimmer was in the corner beside Dicentra's dresser. The girl was on her knees as the weeds curled around her whole body. Once she looked up and saw the other two, she let out a cry that was muffled by the weeds. "Oh my gosh!" Dicentra ran up to the poor girl and started pulling at the weeds. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't even in control, these things just happen out of nowhere and I'm sorry."

"Hold still Shimmer." Ghoul chimed in for support.

"Oh yes definitely. I learned form experience the harder you struggle the harder it'll choke you so.." Dicentra said. Shimmer squealed out in fear before the weed wrapped itself around her throat and began squeezing. Again she let out a scared yelp, but more dry, like her throat was closing up.

Ghoul jumped down and started tearing off the weeds on Shimmer's hands Once her right one was free, she did something unexpected. Shimmer did a swiping motion with her hand, as she did a golden wisp appeared and formed into a flat, golden star in her hand. Before Ghoul or Dicentra could comment, she used the edges of the star to effortlessly cut through weeds. Ghoul and Dicentra stared as Shimmer stood up and held her hand out to Dicentra. "Hi! I'm Simmer!"

"Sorry about that." the plant-bender said, taking Shimmer's hand.

"WOAH!" Ghoul exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

"Oh this?" Shimmer gestured to the star in her hand. "Just an ability star-benders have. Now Dicentra, we gotta explain a few things to you."

****************************************************************

"That is....AMAZING!" Dicentra finally said once the whole plan was laid out to her. "A chance to control all of this! I'd love it!" she looked over at Ghoul. "Your father can really help me reign in all of, well, THIS?"

"Absolutely. He claims it's rude to brag about his powers, but he really is a badass when he wants to be."

"Mine too," Dicentra nodded. "It's just a shame I'll never be allowed to go with you guys."

"Wow what?" Shimmer whined in disappointment.

"Why?" Ghoul asked in the same tone of voice.

"My dad would never allow me to leave. he might help me out in here sometimes with my powers. But I need to be outside to really get into it. And thanks to a few- or a lot of incidents with the other farmers I realized I'm better in my room where I can't hurt anyone."

"I know all about that," Ghoul said "My dad thins the best way I can learn to fly is from a fire-bender! With wings! I know it's not really the same but... dad's are annoying aren't they?"

"I don't know." Shimmer casually commented.

Dicentra giggled. "Yes, they are."

The plant-bender stood and stretched for a minute. "You guys wanna see something? I recently found out I can make an entirely new kind of flower!"

"Uhh sure?" Ghoul shrugged.

Shimmer clapped her hands in anticipation. "I LOVE flowers! I call on naming it after!"

Dicentra pressed her hand down on the moss the three were sitting on, her hand sinking into the morass for a few seconds. As she lifted it out, a beautiful glowing purple flower sprung upward, its petals the shape of valentines. The flowers anthers and stigma were a glowing silver that matched the grey stem and two leaves attached. Shimmer's eyes widened like a puppy's upon seeing the flower. "That is radiant."

"How did you that?" Ghoul asked in awe.

Dicentra shrugged. "I guess I just could one day."

Dicentra began to wilt the flower, but instead all the others around it began reacting violently. Vines taped to the wall began extending as peeling off the wall, surrounding the three. "Um, Dicentra?" Shimmer asked, "This is part of process right?"

"No, but hang on a sec-" A vine pulled Dicentra's legs over her head, yanking the girl into the air. With a swipe Shimmer made another star-blade. Throwing it like ninja blades, the star cut the vines and Dicentra luckily fell on her side. That didn't stop the overgrown flowers through her ceiling. One by one, heads crashed through the ceiling, chomping at the three, Shimmer flew around he different stems and vines, cutting through everyone she could before a weed shot out from the ground and dragged her through the moss. The over-sized flowers soon became too much for the bedroom to contain and-

BAAASSH!!

The kids screamed as the plants coiled around their bodies and crashed through the roof of the house. From afar it must've looked like a foliage octopus. Ghoul heard a distant shout, followed by more screams and shrieks, presumably from the farmers watching this freak show. One of the vines reached down into the house and pulled out an earth-bender in the middle of making coffee. "Dicentra!?" Elgetrat yelled.

"Dad! I'm sorry!" The daughter yelled back.

Elgetrat looked around at their situation. "It's okay dear, we'll just re-build the house...again."

Dicentra's face twisted with a look of painful guilt. "No! That isn't fair!" was all she could get out before the plants began flopping to the ground around them and wilting. The vine around Shimmer dropped her and wilted in a split-second. Shimmer free-fell for a few moments before Unity caught her. "Your majesty!" She exclaimed. "Thank you!"

Unity nodded before flapping back down to put Shimmer to safety. He turned back to Dicentra's mess, spreading his mint green petal wings and soaring back. Infinity checked Shimmer for any injuries as Unity flew around killing every vine with a breeze. Dicentra turned to Ghoul with a confused look. "Plant-benders can FLY?"

"Sure," Ghoul answered, "When they're old enough."

"How come I didn't know that?" Dicentra mumbled.

"Probably because you've been indoors practically your whole life." He broke the weed holding him and as he dropped he said to Dicentra again, "Be free!"

As he fell, Ghoul concentrated on his floating. "Come on, come on." he muttered. He felt his descant to the ground slow down until he simply stopped about 2-3 feet from the ground. "Nice!" he said, gently pushing himself upward and looking up to see if the remaining two were okay.

Soon enough, Elgetrat and Dicentra were safe and all the plants were dead and the only thing left of the house were wilted vines on the little roof remaining. In fact the whole house was tattered beyond basic repair. They'd have to tear it down completely in order to fix it. A few silent mournful seconds went by before a farmer came up with his burning question.

"So are you getting rid of her?"