A Prank, And A Greenhouse

As I left the kitchen I decided to head to the training room walked down the short hall and turned right, as soon as my foot hit the first step I heard the wheeze of Pixie Hall turning on the pipes from the organ and the plucking of some strings, the sleepy tune of afternoon started to fill the house, its small but powerful tune slipped into corners and through cracks. I passed the fifth step where the pipes first popped up through the board and then the wall. I had the quill and ink behind my back as I walked, the stained glass window above the landing was letting in multi-colored warm light through its many stains. A dragon billowed flames in its prism of colors. All our windows were like tiny little theaters, each playing out different stories in miniature. Finally I came to the long hall that led to a few bedrooms and at its end a door to another set of stairs that lead to the attic or the training room. The closer I came to the door the more I could hear Larry up there training. He was breathing hard and I heard the unmistakable pounding of his feet as he ran and jumped and came down. The unmistakable sound of a staff striking the floor sounded like a boom of thunder from a distant mountain top. The attic door was open and I took my first step up and House moved the stairs and walls around me, my next step brought me into the room. Larry landed in front of me. "Yes, brother?" He said through a mess of hair, dripping with sweat and heavy breaths. "Will you keep this safe until I need it later?" I asked, Larry was the best one of us to safeguard the Quill of Destiny while it was outside its hiding place. Larry was the best with essence and weapons, but above all he hated the idea of power, he didn't crave it like other beings did. Sure some creatures wanted power to avenge their people, others wanted it because they never had power or felt that others had power over them. Some beings wanted power because they weren't as powerful as some thought they were and they were desperate to prove them right. Still more wanted power to protect what little they had left. Larry was born before the spell, he was an adult when the spell took effect, in a lot of ways our gift was a curse in his eyes. He would have moved on in life, married or started a branch of the tribe on his own further up the river maybe or down the coast. He would have been a great warrior in his own right, but when the spell took effect it aged him to what we assume is about 28 maybe 30. He was about 19 years old by the time I was born and had already been on his hunt, he had proven himself worthy of being a hunter and warrior he had chosen his path in life before I was born. It was from gaining so much power, from becoming immortal, that he hated having power and sure didn't crave anymore. "So guard it with my life kind of thing or just, you know, keep it safe?" He asked, in one swift move he grabbed the Quill of Destiny, in one swift move it went from my hand to his pouch, then he was in mid-back flip into the air. He landed twenty feet away from me."Can you do a little of both, mostly keep it safe but you know, your life if needed." I answered, turning around and leaving my eldest brother in all his purple clad glory. House created objects for him to jump off of, and creatures to fight. Just like that he was training again.

Hey Henny, you're in an odd part of the house." I waved to Henny as the Boggart walked down the hall, past all the bedroom doors. He looked a great deal better, fresher at any rate. "Did the leaf help?" I asked as I came up on them. They looked at me and changed from his shadow form into a young red haired woman with a giant sun hat on. He smiled brightly and kept walking. As the hall swallowed him I saw a black dress crawl over the body he had changed into. From the looks of it they had plans tonight. Boggarts never lacked for a social life. Being mute never kept them back, their ability to transform and sign language were two very effective communication tools. Before heading down the stairs Henny looked at me and signed,"What are you doing?" They asked with lazy and casual signs. "Me, I thought I'd find Robbie, do you know where he might be?"I asked, Henny had stopped just short of the first step and turned,"Try the green house, I saw him outside the backdoor last." They signed to me before rushing down the steps and lept from the landing to the floor.

As I walked down the hall I came to the steps when POP, BANG! Then a thick smoke wrapped around me for a split second, as it cleared I was covered head to toe in a rainbow of glitter. Tiny specks of multi-colored bits of shiny glitter covered me in a thick and unnatural layer of glitter. David! Mathew! I yelled, wiping as much off as my hands would, but just as I had a layer down, instead of falling to the floor it made a small cloud and arched its way back to the arm or shoulder I brushed it from. I pushed with essence as I wiped at it and the same results as before. As I walked down the stairs I came to the fifth step and the world exploded in a cacophony of sound, rain. I thought the sound had come from the pipes out of Pixie Hall at first but instead it was coming from all around me, the rain was dropping in buckets from a small dark cloud just above my head. A fizzy sound and bright pink letters were written in the air in front of me. "All work and no play makes brother a dull dull man." The pink light was popping and sparking as it blinked into existence. It vanished as soon as I saw the message. The rain was flowing over me and cleaning away the glitter, large rivers of color formed as it passed my toes, only to flow and drip down the steps vanishing into puffs of steam and fog then vanished into nothingness but a strange generic berry flavor could be tasted in the air as I finished walking down the steps to the floor. "Very funny boys!" I screamed, adding my essence into the mix, making it echo and burst its way down the halls and corridors of House. House itself shook itself startled by the scolding. It shifted and changed, twisted and turned and I was outside, and there were my brothers. My sudden appearance made them jump, yelp, then turn and run. I boomed over the grounds, "I'll find you two later and we will have a little talk!" I heard them cackle and laugh as they ran then turned into mist and were gone from sight. No time for hide and seek right now, but later we'll play a game little brothers I thought to myself as I headed for the southern corner where the great mighty green house was built. House produced it in the late fifteen hundreds. At first it was just a small building with a glass roof and a wood stove inside. It has grown and changed like everything else on our land. Now it covered nearly an acre of land and had chambers that split it down into climates and sectors. Thanks to the magic of House and our family each ecosystem was far larger than the building would ever betray and we had plants here that were extinct everywhere else in the world, the production or procuring of the plants through time also came with insects that were native to the plants time or place. It would be a full blown infestation if any of them ever got out. To get in and out we created a portal that only let human bodies in and out and a protective field that strengthened the glass and prevented anything from getting in or getting out save sunlight. I stepped up to the door and a shimmer of green light started to peek and poke like a mirage on a hot day. I stepped forward, warm moist air flowed over my body from the tip of my nose to my back and my heels. I opened my eyes and I was standing on a smooth black flagstone. Lush green leaves and flowers of every shape, color, and size filled the room with aromas that I could drink in and get drunk on. The only thing out shining the flowers were the fruits that the plants provided. As I walked through the lush undergrowth I could feel the life force of the lives around me, the pressure of the collective consciousness brushed up against my mind. I could hear the whisper of thousands of years of life, story after story of seasons changing, the need for water or weeks of too much water. Other plants silently gave off the need to change to compete with the world around them, others were stalwart in their resolve to maintain what they were in spite of the other plants around them. I felt the rush of growth, blooming, losing the blush of spring and summer only becoming food for the roots after spreading pollen, leaves, blooms and seeds. Then waiting for the next season to bring its gifts and challenges. I felt the most complete in the green house, it wasn't as loud as the rest of the world. It had a presence, it had a voice but it never tried to overwhelm me, I never felt oppression here, I only felt rightness and peace, and resolve.

A small stream ran the length of the green house, filling out into pounds and making little waterfalls here and there. As it formed into vapor and joined with the moisture from the leaves and roots, and climbed to the top of the greenhouse. It would rumble and churn, then dark clouds would rain down and start the cycle all over. Garden Gnomes and Fairies hurried from one place to another, with their touch or in their path clovers, moss, and small patches of green would grow. At the center of the greenhouse in the middle of the desert ecosystem a glass orb hoovered in the air, drops of water falling as a great ocean churned in its center, it applied force against the cool glass and water sweat and dropped from the surface of the orb and it formed the great stream feeding it new drips of water as the old ones were taken and used by the plants and streams, by the clouds and the rain. Across the desert sand against the pane of glass in the crook of the floor and wall corner was an eel skin bag, discarded. "Well this is new." I said out loud, I didn't expect an answer. I was surprised to hear a shuffle of footsteps behind me and turned. My brother was standing there, faceing me but looking down at his hand. He was holding what looked like an orchid but it might have had a cold? It was dripping brown green slime from its lip just outside its anther cup. "Hey Jones, I found it in a cabinet that House stored all the items from Steven's welcome home dinner. After we wrapped it up and put it in there I forgot about it." My brother was explaining it to me while sprinkling some kind of dust or powder into the open mouth of the sickly orchid. "I wanted to see what effect it might have on the plants here in the green house." He further explained. His orchid friend was breathing in the powder my brother offered and it seemed to improve. At the very least the essence it had was flowing through it better."Are you doing anything important at the moment?" I asked him, "Other than the flower I mean?" I walked around the orb of water and looked down at the flush greenery growing under its drops of water.