Chapter 13: Bloom

Astra and Joy's appearance brought Sue a great deal of relief and happiness alike- both at knowing they were doing well after their sudden separation yesterday, and at the fact that Comet would have someone to play with besides just her. With that heartwarming revelation came another that was less reassuring if similarly good at the face value- the bandages wrapped around Joy's maw were gone, a couple cuts that were previously hidden only barely visible anymore, the intimidating back mouth now able to move around freely, left slightly agape as the girl herself looked up at her tall friend from her hug.

That smile was really good at melting through Sue's worries, she had to give Joy that.

Once the two mouthed girl had detached herself from the Forest Guardian's legs, she ran back into the sand pit, Astra passing Sue a wave as she sat down and got comfortable herself, Comet's squeaks and wriggling making it very clear he wanted to join them all in there, and thankfully for him, so did the adult holding him. Thankfully, the dragon got the cue that Sue would need help with actually sitting down herself, helping Comet down into the play area before providing support for the once human as she lowered herself down, Sue's seat in the sand not exactly the most comfortable, but she had more than enough distractions around her to keep that fact from becoming too annoying.

One of said distractions could hardly contain himself after finally being released onto his own legs, a clumsy waddle leading him first back up to Sue, and then over towards Joy, her maw opening a bit more as she scrambled a bit closer to her guardian at the sight, Sue's careful pets helping her keep her composure.

"Don't worry sweetie, he just wants to shay hi."

Sue's words were appreciated a lot, if not for their contents then for their tone, Joy reaching up to hold the Forest Guardian's hand close to her front for a moment before finally daring a step forward towards Comet- a step that the littlest one himself responded to with a gleeful squeak and an excited scramble, pulling most of Joy's body into a clumsy, but very heartfelt hug.

A couple stammered, incomprehensible words that followed from her, responded to with a quiet mumble from Comet, made Sue want to link up with her and hopefully provide some understanding the girl lacked much of the time, the Forest Guardian beginning to go through the motions before her attention was yanked away by Spark's glorious return right onto her lap, wonderfully warm presence accompanied with a couple woofs that caught the other two's attention.

Fine, fine, Spark's been waiting for her chance to speak for longer, teehee.

Joy watched the following display of weird gestures from the friendly Forest Guardian with confusion in her little mind, arms holding Comet all the while until he decided to waddle away and sit down, Sue speaking back up interrupting her in trying to follow the baby Forest Guardian's lead-

"Hey Sparkie, yes you can hear me now~"

The lil' vixen was thankfully not discouraged one bit by having to piece some of Sue's sentences together, woofing back with enthusiasm shortly afterwards-

"Yay yay! How do? Thought you not do."

Sue had to think back to the cover-up story Solstice had disseminated around, hoping Spark wouldn't know enough to start potentially poking holes in it-

"Solstice taught me sweetie, I'm really thankful to her."

Spark's excited head nods in response were adorable, the little one seeming to think for a moment before responding-

"Can teach me she?"

"Why not your mom?"

Sue felt a bit of a sting inside her at seeing the firefox deflate at her question, worrying briefly she'd accidentally misspoke- though thankfully, that wasn't the issue.

"I can't she say. Too small."

"Well, I'd guess then that she knows best."

Spark's grumbles netted her a few more pets all over her back, the affection thankfully helpful in getting her though some of the resulting grumpiness, though Sue wished she was able to do more. Before either of them could respond, they both looked over at hearing Joy mumble something out at them in confusion, the cub thankfully able to parse enough of the toothy one's mumbles to answer-

"We talk Joy! Sue can talk brain, Solstice teach!"

Even the little Joy could understand was enough to make her face light up at the idea, the girl's front mouth opening up to speak before the whole of her jolted and jumped a bit with a startled cry, metal teeth clinking together as she turned to look over at Comet, the little one dumbfounded at just touching his newly made friend's black part eliciting such a big response, sitting down in surprise. Thankfully, Astra's comment got Joy and Comet alike calming down, the former gathering her bearings before walking back to the latter, the martian baby wasting no time before providing some more affection once she got near enough.

As much as Sue's heart was warmed at the sight, it was probably for the best to give them all something to do to more concretely bond over, their barren surroundings not exactly leaving them with too many ways of playing- though there was the big obvious one still, and the former human hoped it'd end up proving entertaining enough for the little bunch.

"Wanna try building sandcastles?"

For once, her telepathic capabilities fell far short, Spark just tilting her head at her without any idea of how to respond- which left just going for a practical demonstration, and Sue wasn't opposed to that one bit. As weird as these big forearms and oddly shaped hands were, they were rather well suited for the purpose of shoveling sand, the whole group watching closely as the Forest Guardian dug into their playground, eventually grabbing a couple handfuls of wet sand and sculpting them into a cylinder, a pointed fingertip drawing a brickwork texture on its sides completing the look of a barebones tower.

Fortunately, this was all the example the two handied tykes needed to get inspired, Joy reaching into the dugout shortly after and starting to grab tiny handfuls of wet sand at a time, slowly trying to build a tower of her own while Comet got an equally bright idea of wanting to decorate the tower Sue made by sprinkling some dry sand on it and decorating its peak with a pebble. Spark didn't have anywhere near the handiness or fine motor control to contribute directly, a tentative attempt to draw something on the tower's outside only ending up taking a noticeable chunk out of the impromptu structure, but what she could do is dig, and dig she was going to.

The sight of the foxie getting into it right away and starting to excavate much more of the raw building material kept Comet's attention as his playmate kept building, Sue about to keep on adding to the impromptu sculpture before Astra's soft, slightly hiss-like speech caught her attention first. A glance over revealed the orange dragon to be chatting with someone hidden behind her large body, occasionally glancing over at their group all the while, Sue's brief look earning her a wave that was then reciprocated. A bit of Sue's own focus, letting her push through the bright, largely positive emotions right beside her, revealed a bit of uncertainty and hesitation on behalf of Astra's interlocutor, though one that was being broken through with each word. A tiny squeak eventually acknowledged the dragon's words before starting to make their way over towards their group, letting Astra return to her earlier duty of trying to nap underneath a nearby tree's shade.

Sue certainly didn't expect to see the plant bulb-like villager from yesterday to start shyly peeking in, the sight of Sue staring back at her making her pause in hesitation, one that the Forest Guardian helped to break through with a friendly wave of her own. Comet was the first one to react to the new arrival with his own clumsy wave and a loud mumble, the sight making Spark peek out of the impromptu quarry she was excavating and greet the newcomer-

"Hi Petal!"

-before going back to her very important excavator duties. Joy was clearly the least eager of the three towards the newly named Petal, remembering the looks from the last time they saw each other even if she tried to not pay them any attention then, the planty newcomer in turn taken aback at Joy's hesitation. Sue might not have known anything about the oddly mobile plant, including whether they would be nice to Joy, but she was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, one hand reaching over towards them as if to shake their nonexistent one, while the other began to pet the toothy girl's maw, the recipient of the gesture tensing up a bit more before eventually relaxing.

As uncertain as Sue could clearly feel Petal to be, they pushed through their hesitation all the same, slowly walking over until one of the light green... extremities reached up to be grabbed, smooth and slightly wood-like to the touch. From there, it was just a matter of bringing her two hands over closer, the two kids gradually growing less hesitant about it all, the plant child's worries getting replaced by a half squeaked, half whistled apology, not long afterwards, the sounds themselves sounding a bit muffled, probably on the account of the them not having a mouth she could see.

Sue... did not want to think too deeply about how that worked.

For the second time today, Joy took a moment to cool off before walking over, mimicking her big friend by holding her hand out, Petal letting go of Sue to shake her hand instead, the gradual drop of tension palpable for the Forest Guardian, and very, very welcome.

"Petal! Build us help?"

Any confusion as to the meaning of the question was clarified shortly after as Sue grabbed another pile of wet sand in her hands and started sculpting it into another fortified-looking structure, Joy leaping in to help contribute without skipping a beat, followed by Comet, Petal themselves just a bit dumbfounded before trying to simply follow their lead. Even if they were individually tiny, three pairs of hands did add up when it came to construction speed, Spark getting more and more dirt onto herself as she tried to push the decently sized pile of freshly excavated building material over to the rest of the group with her whole body.

For a good while, the group kept building, nobody but Sue having an all too clear of an idea of what they were even making a sandy depiction of, but with the Forest Guardian as their forewoman, the construction of the stereotypical rectangular castle progressed smoothly most of the way through. It was only near the end that the sheer mass of the sand began making the foundation buckle under the load, Sue attempting to keep the whole construction from falling apart through direct manual intervention, however to very limited success. After fortieth attempt to pile on all the material that had fallen away on the sides back on top of the castle failed, Petal's whistled cry finally managed to succeed at catching Sue's attention, the Forest Guardian watching as lil' plant was about to attempt something of their own, waddling over closer and resting one light green extension on the wall of the sandcastle.

As much as it suddenly being in a greenish glow took Sue aback, it paled in comparison with what followed, the whole castle shuddering a bit before she spotted thin, dark roots start creeping their way around the outer walls- and as evidenced by them breaking out in the middle of other walls and on top of the castle, through the sandy building. Following that minor act of natural miraclework, Petal attempted to take a couple steps back from the castle, clearly having a hard time pulling their limb away- which much to Sue's astonishment, turned out to be the source of the roots, all the individual stalks connecting back to it. As rigid as the connection looked like, it was thankfully much more fickle in practice, the plant child successfully snapping itself away from the roots that had sprouted from it moments earlier, patting the whole construction with their other limb shortly afterwards to show how sturdy it now was.

For some bizarre reason, Sue's mind was much more focused on processing just what in the world it saw as opposed to the feat's impact on the structural stability of a somewhat sloppily made sandcastle. Following from what Willow and Sundance had told her a couple days ago about every being here having some sort of elemental affinity or a 'type', she supposed it only made sense for one of these to include plant life, if not more, but she wouldn't have expected in a million years to that sort of affinity to either manifest itself like this, or to show so strongly through the form of the creature in question.

With that on her mind though, she couldn't help but start thinking about what was the 'typing' of the rest of their group, her mind choosing that as a subject to occupy itself with as the kiddos got back to building. She herself and presumably Comet too both had psychic senses, which... counted, somehow, as vaguely defined as that category sounded, and if she remembered right, also some sort of special connection with the Moon, apparently, a trait that Poppy of all people shared as well. Spark was fiery both in looks, body temperature, and skills, her and her mother's ability to manipulate fire burned into Sue's memory from the couple displays of it she'd seen. Petal had something to do with plants. Astra was...

Uh...

It was at that point that any attempt at categorizing anyone present here broke down- yes, Astra very much looked like a big flying dragon, but Sue had no idea how in the world that translated to those supposed affinities- she didn't look fiery, or planty, or... psychicy, or even icy like Snowdrop. She obviously wasn't one of the night kin either, which left... none of the above, that 'normal' type that Willow mentioned and apparently shared? As unclear as Astra was, the Forest Guardian gave up right away instead of even attempting to categorize Joy, her looks or abilities giving very little away when it came to figuring out what sort of elemental affinity she had.

Having a list of all the possible options would help a lot, that's for sure. Or even some idea of how many of them were there- ten? Twenty? A hundred?

Behold Sue, part Psychic, part Clueless.

Before she could accidentally end up in some sort of bigoted categorization with her thoughts, something warm and slightly damp touching her hand distracted Sue away from her thoughts, a glance over revealing it to be in a rather unnerving position of being held by the tip of Joy's maw, away from the large, sharp, shining teeth, but still rather close for comfort. The rest of the little uncertainly-typed girl seemed to either not have noticed or not paid it that much attention, going on about her construction efforts, one finger busy painting Astra's depiction on the side of the castle. As much as the sight of it all looked distressing, Sue would be lying if she said she had any reasons to think that the action as a whole was aggressive in nature, though she had a hard time coming up with other possibilities. Could this have been... affectionate?

Guess it only made sense for a species that was half maw by size to have ways of using it that weren't outright aggression, but that revelation only did so much towards making the end product less unnerving. Unnerving as it was though, that was mostly on Sue's end to deal with- it didn't hurt, it wasn't malicious, it only felt and looked a bit weird, the underlying intent of just holding the big friend's hand while she played with others her approximate age not too difficult to make out. Spooky, but ultimately sweet- guess these traits were true for everything about Joy, hah.

Sue didn't alert her, instead leaning a bit closer and taking a look at everyone else's progress- the towers atop the castle's bastions were left unfinished on the account of nobody but her having the necessary reach to finish building them, but nobody really minded, the tykes having no idea what all this was in the first place, easily switching tracks towards building extensions closer to the ground or just decorating what was already there. At least, the tykes aside from Spark, the kit taking a bit of a breather after digging up enough raw material to use for two more castles like this, a bit of latent frustration clear within her thought process, both at being unable to contribute much more to the building process, and at being unable to start learning telepathy yet like Sue. Eventually, all that grumbling culminated in Spark getting up, shaking all the sand off of herself, and walking back over to nuzzle Sue's free arm.

"I go play others!"

One nod and a couple more pets later, the lil' firefox was free to go, dashing off towards the rest of the playground, bouncing over Astra's legs before calling out to someone else-

"Hello Kantaro!"

The greeting had caught both Sue's and Astra's attention, the dragon opening her eyes and craning her head to look behind herself, surprised at the person there even being here at the playground, while Sue was surprised at literally everything else about them, taking a better look after they dropped off all the cargo they brought with themselves. The immediate comparison Sue's mind went to was a massive, bipedal beetle, dark blue chitin shining at the stray rays of sunlight that fell upon it, with a single, arcing horn originating right above their yellow eyes, breaking off into two prongs at the end. Astra's question that followed shortly afterwards had Kantaro respond with low, clicky, grumbly noises, though the beetle's actual mental state was largely unemotional focus on the sight in front of them, namely the tree that Astra was resting in shade of.

As they eyed something out that Sue couldn't quite figure out, she attempted to crane her head and get a better look at what they've brought with themselves- a handful of planks and smaller blocks of wood, a large coil of sturdy rope, and a bundle of something very colorful that Sue had a hard time making out from the distance. And, as they've promptly demonstrated, a stick of what could've only been chalk, a couple white lines beginning to be drawn on the bark in front of themselves, eventually coming together into a mostly rectangular shape with a triangular extension at the top, approximately one foot wide and one and a half feet tall. Before Sue could even begin to imagine what they were gonna do next, they started scraping away the bark and the wood underneath with their horn within the drawn outline, carving away at the sturdy tree as if it was butter, the sound briefly catching the little ones attention before they went back to their fun.

After a while, they switched over to using their white claws instead, continuing to make it look similarly effortless as a flat surface slowly came into its own, the end result looking impressively smooth from distance, especially without the use of any tools. Neat as it was, Kantaro didn't even think of stopping, immediately grabbing one of the previously prepared planks and starting to size them up to the cutout, cutting them off at the desired length by dragging one of their claws along the cutting line before applying what looked to be minimal force. One more carved slot in wood for the plant to slide into, the beetle finally resorting to using a tool in the form of an elongated chisel for the corners, and some sort of display finally began to take form, the base completed not too long afterwards with a slanted roof above it and a couple supporting beams here and there, the craftsbug seeming keen on avoiding any tools other than their own body as much as they could. Which, while an impressive amount of time, wasn't the entire length of the project, the chisel seeing occasional use to either carve or smooth out corners, what could've only been some sort of glue used for supports.

It was only when they were trying to hammer in the final support beam with their whole body, each tackle shaking the leaves wildly, that Sue stopped following the incredible display even briefly, on account of something falling down in her peripheral vision, the Forest Guardian blinking the daze of her focus for a moment before looking at what had happened- and gasping frightfully. She might not have any idea as to what differentiated the creatures in the village from those outside it, but if there was any species that seemed to definitely belong in the latter category, it was the green, horned spider that had just fallen down onto Astra's front, blood red mandibles making Sue shake as the recollection of her near-demise on the legs and fangs of the red beast of a spider crept back into her mind. Confusingly enough, hers was the only negative reaction to the unexpected newcomer, Astra herself looking over at the insect in surprise, eventually speaking up with a question.

And... the spider responded, to the best extent Sue could make that out, their 'words' mostly composed of soft click-like noises. Their exchange didn't last all that long before the spider... crawled off of her and began making their way back into the village, Sue left blinking in surprise at it all.

Wh-what, how- didn't one of these things, or at least their bigger cousins, almost eat Spark, Pollux, and her? If there was any species that shouldn't have been allowed inside the borders of the village, and ideally not anywhere within fifty miles of it, it was these spiders, and this one was... just there. Resting on a branch or something, and now walking back into the safety of this little settlement, to, from what she could make out, nobody's negative reaction, Splitleaf even waving at them as they crawled past.

Before Sue's brain could begin to fry itself at attempting to solve that paradox, she heard someone else's voice speak up from nearby, sounding as soft as growls and other, whine-like sounds could possibly sound, with a particular croaky hint that made her think of Willow. To little surprise, the newly arrived source of the voice was completely unlike the medic in all ways except for partially their coloration, the cream of the medic's snout and front matching the shade that seemed to cover most of the newcomer's body, or at least the parts of it she could see. Their body shape also seemed to be bipedal, but not wholly so, the stubbiness of their legs in particular making her think of a cat or a dog that stood up for a trick as opposed to a creature that moved on two legs all the time. Admittedly, Sue wasn't paying as much attention to their legs as she did to their... collar, she guessed- the band of dark, purplish fur was dotted with several lighter purple spots along its length, emanating a soft glow that flickered in intensity. The top of their head was covered in the same dark fur, and so were their small ears and similarly short, wispy looking tail.

Their words had the dragon sit up on the spot before looking over at them with a hint of concern, her response part justification, part apology, featuring her glancing over at Joy a few times throughout, the little toothy one picking up on the attention and scooting up close to Sue at seeing the newcomer, her thoughts clearly full of worry, even a bit of fear.

Whatever their exchange was about, Astra's response only made the newcomer more annoyed, Sue swearing she could briefly see violet flames flickering from the purple spots around their collar as they reached a paw to their snout and grumbled into it, the sounds not intended to be interpreted as speech to the best of Sue's ability to tell. Their response was short and rather rough, but it seemed to bring the dragon some relief thankfully, the unusual arrival intending to look up over at what Kantaro was doing- at least before they spotted Sue in the corner of their vision, the sight evidently catching their interest, though Sue herself couldn't say she particularly enjoyed being in their focus, for one reason or another, despite their emotional outlook seeming to improve at the sight of her. Their steps over towards her were slow and rather clumsy, previous light scowl turning into a similarly mild smile as they leaned in and bowed as much as their elongated body could manage- which was by no metric little, showing off the remainder of the purple spots around their neck and their near-black back.

The gesture was coupled with some sort of greeting, words slow and sounding as enunciated as it was possible for animal noises to be- and ultimately, no more understandable as a result. They held that bow for several long, awkward moments, Astra eventually speaking up to clarify something about her- most likely the fact that she couldn't understand what the newcomer said, the revelation, whatever it might've been, clearly hitting them from the left field. Even with that knowledge, they held their bow for a couple more moments, Sue eventually feeling obliged to chime in just to drive the point home-

"Hello, I-I can't understand you."

She could swear she saw their eye twitch in response as they looked back up at her. Even if it did, they resumed their graceful appearance shortly afterwards, straightening themselves back up and speaking some more, a bit of contempt dripping into their thoughts while at it, though it was clearly not aimed at her. Realizing they were gonna get nowhere, they simply sent her off with a light nod before turning back towards Kantaro, the beetle seeming to not have slowed down even slightly with the new person's arrival, continuing to add small decals all around to what was quickly turning out to be a small shrine- though currently with nothing to house or display. The beetle's response to the... weasel's? words was curt, but full of respect, Kantaro even briefly stopping their work to give them a quick bow before getting back to the swing of things, working some sort of polish into the wood with a small rag.

The two conversed while the craftsbug continued to work, occasionally pointing out one of the elements of their handiwork so far- or over at the almost completely horizontal branch that the green spider had presumably fallen off of on a couple of instances, the oversized weasel acknowledging it all one by one. Shortly afterwards, the wood polishing was done, giving it a pretty, off-red color, the shrine? looking basically ready as is- though Kantaro wasn't quite done yet, reaching to grab a small handful of colorful objects they had brought with themselves. As they started to hang them around the shrine, on dozens of small notches covering the edges of all the planks and almost the entirety of the support beams, Sue could more successfully start making out just what they were supposed to be, the flower-like tassels doing a good job mimicking the appearance of Duck's main shrine, even despite their limited color palette.

With that somewhat menial step done, their conversation became much more focused, Kantaro sliding in the small block of differently coloured wood they brought along over in front of themselves, speaking livelier than they did at any point previously as they discussed... something with what had to have been their boss. Their discussion was intense, though thankfully not heated, in part evidenced by the purple spots around the newcomer's neck staying almost completely dim throughout. Once an agreement had been reached, the beetle got to work, sitting down as they started to work away at the block of wood, their motions much more delicate and calculated than with the rest of the shrine, the chisel similarly getting a lot more use as they worked on.

To, in hindsight, little surprise, the carving soon began to take on a form of Duck on a pedestal, to the best of Sue's ability to make out from the distance. Even if she couldn't see every single cut or notch their claws made, their focus and devotion to their craft was palpable, previously broad movements growing increasingly more precise and careful, their mastery clear to sense. It all made Sue kinda giddy to watch, combining with a faint, but pleasant aroma that began to tingle her nose at some point to raise her spirits the more she watched, making her kinda itch to get back to her own crafts project, or at least to take a look at how well it was going.

What was a singular castle the last time she looked has now expanded and became a part of a larger fortification, Petal and Joy building up a long wall that sprouted from the castle and surrounded... the asleep Comet, his hair full of sand after he decided to take a nap at some point, thankfully having enough foresight to build himself a little sand pillow first. Joy giggled a bit at her big friend finally noticing how their construction efforts were going, pointing at the sleeping baby martian as he was being surrounded by fortifications, much to Sue's amusement and approval.

As the little one glanced up at her though, something else caught her attention- though before Sue could follow the line being drawn by Joy's gaze, she heard the weasel speak up in her direction, their voice particularly gruff this time. Her glance at them revealed them to be staring in her direction but not at her, the purple spots now enveloped in a fair amount of honest to Duck purple fire, the flames on the back of their head reaching almost tall enough to peek out from behind their stern expression.

The last thing Sue expected was to hear yet another voice from very close up, basically right behind her, words delivered in drawn out, almost singsong whistling. Reflexively, the Forest Guardian turned to look over her shoulder only to see nothing, her sixth sense letting her sense the giddiness and amusement, some of which she had thought to be her own up until now, move over to her other side, prompting Sue to look over her other shoulder right afterwards, only for whoever it was to once more dash right into her blindspot, the purplish flamey weasel growing as annoyed as the former human was getting dumbfounded. Eventually, Kantaro's boss called out even more sternly, flames briefly bursting in intensity, the hidden prankster responding with more whistling before deciding to finally make their entrance- right through Sue no less.

She felt two smooth, large leaves, pleasant and warm to the touch, being suddenly laid on her shoulders before they were followed up by a fair bit of weight being placed on them, her back not appreciating being used as some sort of springboard as she forcibly leaned in forward. Once she'd finished reeling back up afterwards, Sue take a closer look at whoever it was- and managing to catch them wrapping up a backflip before they landed with a perfect split, a couple fruits falling back down into their leafy arms shortly afterwards, their emotional outlook equal parts giddy, show-offy, and... teasy.

Their face was similar to that of Petal's, lacking a mouth she could easily spot, but that's where the similarities mostly ended. As opposed to being essentially just a plant bulb with a face, they had a full humanoid body shape, though one that was similarly plant-like in composition, and a ton more mobility than their smaller... relative? could've ever dreamed of. Their arms, most of their pear shaped torso, as well as "hair" were composed of large leaves of various shades, the growths around their head in particular giving the appearance of a short haircut, capped off with a pink flower. The white-magenta gradient of their legs reminded Sue of some of the onions she'd see in stores- though the yellow... "shoes" they were capped off kinda broke the natural theming, looking almost comically out of place.

The weasel was unimpressed by their display, that's for sure, continuing to grumble on only for their complains to be largely ignored or deflected with a couple words each as the plant person kicked themselves back into a standing position, lightly swaying in place as they eyed out Sue's little play group, with a particular focus on the Forest Guardian, seemingly. Petal speaking up caught their attention though, the plant... lady? showing off the fruity spoils in their arms some more, moving two berries into one of their arms and throwing the third one up into the air in front of themselves, the freed leafy arm briefly glowing green as it sliced clean through the fruit, whatever magic that had just transpired wearing off shortly afterwards, just in time for the only slightly stained arm to catch the two slices.

...don't get cut on those arms, got it.

They spotted Sue's awestruck look right away, whistle-like laugh making the Forest Guardian feel... weird, weirdly nice, a light smile creeping to her face in response. The smile didn't even think of washing off as she watched the planty dancer pass two halves of a green fruit with orange flesh over to Petal and Joy, both the little ones getting light pats afterwards, the former human feeling that bit warmer at the sight of someone just being nice to the toothy girl unconditionally. The second fruit, looking like a vastly oversized raspberry, was pried apart and split in two that way, Astra gladly accepting one piece as the other was carefully laid down next to sleeping Comet, with the final good, the peach, apparently named Pecha from what she remembered Pollux say... was passed over to her, in its entirety.

"N-no, wait, that's not fair, you deserve some too-"

Sue's subsequent attempt to tear the peach in two with her hands was stopped by the plant's smooth, slightly juice stained arm lightly cupping her cheek, Sue's face erupting in a blush as her attention was guided upwards, straight towards their shaking head, the accompanying whistled words conveying gratitude, but also disapproval.

Why did that feel so nice?

The message was understood perfectly, though She couldn't deny feeling a bit bad at receiving an oversized part of the stranger's gift, opting instead to convey her thanks by bowing towards them, which seemed to make them that much happier, their hand stroking her cheek some more and lightly patting her green hair, certainly not helping any with Sue's fluster. Oddly enough, the weasel seemed to get that bit more annoyed at seeing that, speaking up more sternly towards the newcomer as the whole group got to eating, their response as upbeat as everything they did, but more forceful and pointed, capped off with a question back at the speaker, plant dancer's free arm pointing at them, making them even more annoyed.

Before the flames on the weasel's neck could burst again, Kantaro's voice caught the group's attention, the sculpted likeness of the Pale Lady in a protective pose now clear to see, careful application of the polish even making her weird wings look multicolored. Planty seemed to like what they saw a great deal, and so did Astra, both of their responses upbeat and flattering- the weasel merely responded in positive acknowledgement and a short, approving comment, making Kantaro carefully deposit the sculpture in the shrine and briefly pray to it together with their boss before the latter departed from the scene, neck surrounded in purple embers as they grumbled and rubbed their face in their hand.

The dancer seemed to enjoy that development in particular, at least that's what their resulting pirouette and a pose indicated, their whistled words now aimed Astra's way, the two conversing for a while, planty's glib movements soon resulting in them sitting down right beside Sue, their warm, plant-like body leaning on hers. The Forest Guardian herself had no idea how to respond to the universe seeming to be keen on providing an endless supply of fuel for her fluster, but she couldn't honestly say she disliked the current development one bit, a smile eventually forcing itself onto her face as she took the situation in, her hand slowly reaching down to maybe return some of the affection- only for all that to be interrupted by another call coming from Kantaro. The planty dancer perked up at hearing it, springing onto their yellow shoes? from a sitting start, the motions really elegant and nice looking as they walked over towards the beetle, the craftsbug themselves stepping into the sandbox as they exchanged words.

The topic was clarified a fair bit with Kantaro leaning in to draw something in sand, Sue vantage point letting her figure out that the subject of the drawing was... the tip of the beetle's horn, or at least that's how it looked like. The depiction they drew was similar to their current one, though more pointed all around, and lacking a small prong between the two main ones, instead being a clean V shape. The side and lower edges were curved much more inwards than their current one, the beetle drawing attention to the difference by overlying the current shape of the horn tip on top of what had to be the desirable one, planty getting the gist in not too long.

Stepping aside from the drawing to be able to use it as reference, the dancer went to work, leafy arm once more growing green as it sliced away at the beetle's horn, each singular cut small and careful, planty feeling unusually focused themselves as they did some light... horn-icure? Sue was stumped as to what the purpose of this... minor cosmetic surgery, essentially, even was- though it seemed to be providing the recipient a fair bit of relief, for one reason or another, could be something as simple as making sure their primary tool of their trade was well tended to, but something told the once human that the actual purpose went deeper, especially with the bit of euphoria breaking through the craftsbug's usually stoic outlook at the end.

The procedure was done not too long afterwards, Kantaro looking over at Astra for her to verify the new look, the deed done with an eager smile, before glancing over at Sue for a second opinion- and realizing the futility of that shortly afterwards, instead taking a deep sigh and thanking the dancer, a whistled "you're welcome" just flat out pleasant to listen to. Sue could definitely spend all day listening to it, at least.

With that done, the beetle turned around to take a look at their handiwork, the sight of the shrine, and particularly the sculpture inside making them... annoyed, less so at it being there, and more so at how it came out, somehow. Sue would've obviously needed a closer look to be able to tell for sure, both from what she could see it looked stunning, and so thought both Astra and the dancer, and yet, the sculpture's own artist seemed deeply unsatisfied with it. They shrugged that thought off not long afterwards, instead grabbing the couple remaining items, namely the coils of rope, and began climbing onto the tree with it, looking more glib while at it than Sue thought possible with their size, the gracefulness of the sight kinda diminished by the rope being held on their horn, obscuring most of their face.

Planty's whistled call caught the Forest Guardian's attention before she could watch for much longer, her glance over at them ending up having her stare face to face with the dancer from just an inch or so away, their cheerful, whistling words continuing all the while. Before she could flinch or reel her head back, the stranger leaned in that bit more to nuzzle her cheek before reaching in to ruffle her hair and say their goodbyes, waving over at their entire group as they bounded off, each springy step letting them leap what looked to be almost their body's length.

Before Sue even knew, she was left once more with just her thoughts, one hand subconsciously reaching up to rub her cheek where the dancer had nuzzled, a small, involuntary smile creeping onto her face. For once, her own thoughts ended up catching more of her focus than Kantaro's continuing artistry ever could, the once human going back over what just happened on a loop, all the affection that stranger had showed her feeling like it came out of nowhere, while also feeling so much nicer than it had any right to. Much as she tried to wash it away with her thoughts, the fluster gracing her cheeks sure wasn't fading any time soon, leaving Sue to ponder on what it implied, and whether she wasn't misinterpreting it all as something it wasn't.

Because it sure felt like she was just hit on, again, but this time without being suddenly put on the spot like with Snowdrop, and finding herself considering it all so much more as a result. She had zero idea as to the stranger's name, intent, hell gender even, but at the same time... she really couldn't get herself to care all that much about the latter, the more she thought about it, the less difference it really made in the end. Some of these thoughts she was feeling for the first time in her life, what was slowly starting to feel like her past life not exactly providing her many opportunities to socialize in a romantic way, or non-shitty peers she could do it with, of any gender. She couldn't even say to not be enjoying thinking about all this, to be able to get to know herself more like this, but at the same time...

Sue's free hand clenched into a fist as she slowly nibbled through the peach, thoughts starting to take a somewhat turbulent turn for the worse, the angst at her current situation dripping into her thought stream. Why was it here, in this weird, wild, and potentially dangerous world that she was only now thinking these things through? Why was she being shown affection like that here, with zero knowledge whether any of this would end up lasting and for how long, with every relationship she would form here, be it platonic or romantic, liable to just disappear on a whim once whatever sadistic deity that put her in this position decided that she has had enough of her share there and now it was time to go back to the mundane struggle for survival of her homeworld?

Could she even trust anything she was even feeling, on a second thought? Who knew whether this Forest Guardian body of hers even processed romantic thoughts like that the same way, she could have been very well being manipulated by the very meat suit that she woke up in, and the moment she woke back up at home, she would think back of all this and only be able to feel revulsion? What if it was just this seemingly important and somewhat revered species that she found herself being an impostor of that was even responsible for all the nice things coming her way, and none of it had anything to do with anything she had any control over, or her actual deeds!?

Would she take that trade off? Getting good things and literally any modicum of romantic attention coming her way because of factors she had no control over, while piloting this awkward, weirdly shaped body, versus being true and honest with her accomplishments, her appearance, and her mind and getting nothing but more struggle for it? The worst part was that she wasn't even going to be able to make that nightmarish choice in the end, her fate seemingly up to the whims of some god or another that seemed fit to punish her for crimes unknown by forcing her to quell a conflict between two literal deities of this realm, without her having any knowledge or ability that would help her do so.

Her thoughts might have steered into moping, but now they were firmly on the territory of anger at the divine, low grumbles accompanying each bite into increasingly bitter tasting succulent gift, mind wishing nothing but bad things towards whatever god had done this to her, the swirling angst culminating in a low mumble that left her once she was done eating-

"I'm going to kill that fucking god..."

The last thing that Sue expected to hear in response to uttering these words was by now very familiar laughter, the sudden sound taking her aback as she looked up at Sundance walking the remainder of the way over, the vixen finding her conclusion hilarious for some reason.

"That's one hell of a topic to find you thinking about, hah!"

Sue couldn't disagree on a more sober reexamination, the religious reverence the rest of this place seemed to be offering Duck in particular contrasting very hard with her deicidal thoughts- hell she had a freshly built shrine just a couple dozen feet away from her, the mismatch bringing more and more amusement to herself as well, grumbles slowly giving way to low chuckling.

"Heh, yeah, I can i-imagine..."

"That's the sort of thing you'd only ever find me pondering, hah. How are you Sue, after yesterday?"

With the tension in her body sufficiently diffused, Sue smiled over at the adult vixen as she took a seat down beside her, the same pipe she saw yesterday in her maw, with, to the best that she could smell, the same payload, Sundance seemingly back to her levelheaded cheerfulness.

"I'm... alright, I think. How's Solstice?"

Sundance nodded at the offhanded acknowledgement, taking a deeper hit of her pipe before responding-

"She's better thankfully, still needs a bit more time to herself and her thoughts, but she's likely gonna finish recovering from all the muck later today. It was... a lot, for all three of us, I certainly don't see a point in rushing any of it along. If you want to confide in someone about... what happened yesterday, I'm all ears Sue."

Sue's response got stuck in her throat as she thought of a vile pun to augment it with, Sundance's brief curiosity turning into a mental equivalent of a drawn out groan as she listened in-

"Yeah, you are. But yeah, th-thank you Sundance, I-I promise I'm better now."

Once the vixen was done grumbling, she chuckled quietly, nodding with a soft smile.

"I'm glad. In the meantime, we've figured out a plan for what to do going forward."

"About what?"

Sundance glanced over at her, her response switching back to telepathy-

"^The night kin. Ultimately, we have to make a first step somewhere, and we've settled on heading over to their village tomorrow morning to bring the subject up and try to talk it all through.^"

Sue took the news in with a drawn out nod, though one part of it didn't sit well with her-

"Don't they all hate her?"

"^Not all. But yes, there's definitely a fair bit of animosity there, which makes it even more important to face it, overcome the hesitation, and start to work on possibly mending the wound at the root of it all. It'll suck and won't be pleasant in the slightest, but that's the only way through, in the end.^"

"Won't she get hurt?"

For the first time since she woke up in this world, Sue felt a bitter pang of disappointment run through her mentor's mind, Sundance taking a deep breath before slowly shaking her head.

"^No, of course not. Yes, they dislike her, but they're not monsters, and as much as some of them resent what happened, they're not gonna murder her in response to what was effectively a bloodless exile.^"

Sue didn't question it any more, just taking the words in with a deflated nod, Sundance's light disapproval giving way to wanting to steer the conversation back towards something more pleasant, bringing back the humorously morbid topic from earlier-

"^So, god killing, eh? What got you to start considering that?^"

"I-it's... complicated."

"^As most things are.^"

"But, wait- is it possible?"

The vixen took another deep hit of her pipe as she chewed through the intricacies of Sue's question, unearthing old, third or fourth hand knowledge from when she herself was still travelling the world, wondering how reliable or trustworthy any of it was, eventually deciding to just pass it on-

"^From what I know and have gathered from mystics and shamans I spoke with during my travels... no, at least not in a way you can kill a person.^"

"Is there some other way then?"

"^I suppose if you were to destroy everything that comprises them, then would "kill" them, and their avatars certainly can fall, but the gods themselves... fat chance.^"

Sue could only blink at that unhelpful clarification, Sundance taking a moment to take another big hit of her pipe as her student asked, having no idea how any of that worked-

"...comprises them?"

"^Well, how do you think gods exist? That they just hang around in the sky, gathering praise and occasionally intervening directly?^"

"...pretty much."

Sundance lightly choked on the smoke of her pipe at her deliberately outlandish idea accidentally nailing Sue's presumptions on the head, the coughing giving way to a more sensible chuckle as she telepathically spoke on-

"^No, not at all. Gods aren't... separate from the world, somehow, they are the world. Or rather, the world is a part of them, as are the people. All the dirt and rock beneath us is a part of the Landshaper, it's all Its dominion, but the Landshaper exists beyond just the ground we're sitting on, It has Its own will, even if that will is to a large extent the will of all the rock beneath us. You can't kill Landshaper short of destroying every single rock that comprises this world, and even then, I don't think that'd fully work either.^"

The Forest Guardian had to chew on that piece of knowledge for a bit to start properly absorbing it, the whole description sounding partially like something she'd overheard from when she was reading up on shamanism for her religious studies class, but not quite like it either, leading her to just slowly nod along as a partial picture began to form in her head.

"^And even then, it's not like there's the one Landshaper with a unified will- everywhere you go, It will be just that bit different, because Its dominion is different. All of them will be greatly influenced by Its innate, divine nature, of course, but not identical.^"

"I-I see, I think. You mentioned "avatars", right?"

"^Aye. They're the physical manifestations of divine will, partially independent from both their dominion and and even from their divine nature, though still ultimately constrained by them. If you're wondering what the being on the altar and all the shines of Night Mother is, that's Her avatar.^"

"Are they just... out there?"

"^From what I understand, no, they come into being when the situation calls for it and when a deity's will wishes to intervene directly into something, but they're inherently transient, at least most of them. They aren't identical to the rest of the deity, they're their own entities, though heavily influenced by their divinity.^"

Sue couldn't even pretend to understand what she was being told in full- though partially to her credit, from what she could overhear of the fiery fox's thoughts and mental state, not even Sundance could be said to understand everything she was saying.

"What about D- Pale Lady? What's her dominion?"

The vixen lifted an eyebrow up at the once human, chuckling under her breath before she answered the conundrum-

"^The light of the Moon, from what I understand, though it's obviously a much more limited dominion than the land, the stars, or even the Moon as a whole. It's so fickle, and the Night Mother is so feeble in might when compared to other deities that, to the best of my understanding, her worshipers are her real dominion, effectively. I think I've heard the phrase "half-god" used to describe such a thing once or twice, but you won't catch me ever saying it out loud in here, hah.^"

"Her worshippers...? So, from what I understand, wh-what happens to the worshippers affects... their god?"

"^Yep. They're a part of her, to wound the people is to wound their god, for half-gods at least.^"

The Forest Guardian nodded deeply as she mulled through the implications, Sundance chuckling at eliciting such a thoughtful mood inside her student, herself glancing over and watching Kantaro finish tying the thick ropes around the branch, the swing now only missing its seat.

If the people here, this village, her worshippers- are a part of Duck, and what they do, what they are, what they believe, can affect her... and if that also holds for the Night Father, no reason it wouldn't with the two gods seemingly two parts of the same coin-

To wound the people, is to wound the gods. To mend the people…

Is to mend the gods.

"I'm coming with you!"

Sundance blinked as she looked down at Sue, steadily creeping mental fog certainly not helping in making sense of the once human's sudden outburst, vixen only able to look down at her before blurting out-

"Wh-what?"

"I-I want to help you and Solstice with... y'know, your trip!"

Even if the fiery fox understood what Sue was actually referring to, her snap decision still left so many other pieces of the whole puzzle unclear- why would Sue want to do this in the first place with her not being of this world, why so suddenly, why so enthusiastically, did she even know what the other village was going to be like or where it even was, the sum total of unexplained and potentially unexplainable questions manifesting in Sundance simply repeating-

"...what?"