Plants of Feather Stick To- Wait a Second

[TB-705]

Jedi didn't own possessions, but Adam Gardner wasn't exactly a Jedi. He used to have a home, before the Jedi Order recalled all the members of the Agricultural Corps back to Tython and Ossus for restructuring in order to help with the war effort. Most of it had to do with growing medicinary plants for the healers, which was why Adam was currently standing inside a horticultural shop for exotic seeds.

The short, stocky Zelosian looked at a row of shelves filled with seed bags. He ran a hand through long, mopish brown hair and blew a heavy sigh. This stuff didn't come cheap.

[member="Sirella Valkner"]

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Adam Gardner"]

In the corner of the room sat the rare and magnificent Gigante Verdant Nelumbo. It was a flower known for its huge overgrown lotus flower. This one was only in the budding stage but still stood at nearly half the height of a man. Soon the great flower would bloom. The plant itself held some medicinal properties but was notoriously hard to grow. Its seeds could cure headaches and the pedals when steeped as a tea provided a calming effect on the drinker. It was a thing of beauty to behold and it was moving. The blossom shook a little back and forth. “Erm that isn’t anything…” the shop keeper said walking over to the plant. “I hope this isn’t another infestation…”

The bud shifted again and again when suddenly a dim light shone from inside of it. Before the very eyes of those inside the shop the bud sprung to life opening into a beautiful flower… but that wasn’t all. No the strangeness didn’t end there. Sitting on the flower was a boy….

“This is a strange plant I came to be in…” he said looking up at the glow lights. “That feels good! I like the lights.” And then he saw it. In the corner there was a patch of dark soil for the plants. “Can I…” he looked at the ship keeper. “I have to…” and then he walked over to the dirt and inserted his feet. He let out a sigh and then without warning threw off his cloak and jumped into the dirt rolling around in it. “Oh blessed terra firma, how I missed you. I was cooped up in that ship for so long.”

He rolled until his body was nearly covered and then shook off flinging soil in every direction. Then he remembered. “It is okay my little friends, I haven’t yet forgotten you!” he ran to his discarded cloak and pulled out a small piece of hand folded paper. He deposited the contents into his hand, several seeds. He put them into the earth and placed his hand on the ground and five sprouts came into existence. “There,” he said to his new friends. “I’m sure this shop keep will make sure you have a good home…”

“Is that Bota?” The shop keeper said staring at the little sprouts.

“Yes, my own hybrid strand.” Hylo beamed at the man. “I knew they would be in good hands here. I could tell just by looking at this amazing place.”

 

[TB-705]

Slack-jawed didn't even begin to describe Adam's reaction to a kid literally stepping out of a plant. And, as if that wasn't weird enough, he literally started rolling around in fertilizer. The stocky Zelosian blinked twice, staring openly. At last his lips compressed as he managed to cudgel his thoughts into order.

Right, kid steps out of plant, kid rolls around in soil, kid makes plants grow. Huh? Adam watched as the seeds began to sprout at a rate that should have taken several days. He scratched his stomach and let out a snort. The Force was at work here, he could feel it in the plants, though he didn't seem able to feel it much place else.

"Uh, kid," grunted the ruddy AgriCorp member. "You just stepped out of a plant. Mind explaining how that happened, cause it's a little weird." He glanced at the shopkeeper. "That's weird, right?"

The shopkeeper nodded dumbly, still staring at the Bota sprouts.

"Neat trick though," Gardner pointed at the sprouts and reached in the Living Force. At once, he felt a connection to all living things, the web of life, or the circle or what have you. People gave it all kinds of fancy titles, but Adam just took it as it was and to him it looked like a tree with a bunch of roots. People didn't know they were all part of the same plant because they just, well, they just didn't look around much. Maybe if people opened their eyes more the galaxy would be a different place, or maybe that talk was just for starry-eyed dreams.

Adam focused on the here and now, on the web of life, and on the sprouts he could feel poking through the soil. Channeling the Force, he used his body as a conduit to funnel them the energy they needed in order to grow. In seconds, they grew to proportions which would have taken weeks.

 

[Hylocereus]

Hylo clapped as he saw the sprouts grew before his eyes. “My turn next,” he said. He took another packet of seeds from his coat and placed them into the dirt gently moving them around in his hands. “I never thought traveling the flora noosphere would be so hard. Mother does it with such ease.” He frowned, “And I didn’t think taking a wrong turn would lead me to such interesting people.” Concentrating he placed his hands over the seed and it began to grow. Firs tit was a sprouting, then slowly the bark hardened and branches stretched out and rose while roots expanded and crashed into the ground until finally a full grown tree was present with fruit and all.

The tree wasn’t the only thing that grew, as it rose up from the ground so to did a sprout from the boys head. The little green protrusion rose up and flowered causing the boy to wrinkle his nose. “Can you prune me? Boys aren’t supposed to have flowers in their hair…”

 

[Khione Gardner]

"I'll help," a quiet voice said from the shadows.

Khione stepped forward, one milky white hand reaching to grab a pair of pruning shears from a nearby shelf. She'd been wandering the store since she and her husband walked in, and had found him in the midst of the boy's surprising entrance. She'd stood, silently awed as he had stepped from the plant and then worked with Adam to give the seeds a chance at life. Now it was her turn to help.

Vibrant blue eyes lit with the smile that touched her features, their color reminiscent of the medicinal cornflower. Her voice was soft with a hint of smoke, and her face expressive.

"There you go dearling," she said as the shears snipped through the small green stock on the boy's head. She gently ruffled his hair. "What do you think?"

[member="Adam Gardner"]
[member="Hylocereus"]

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Adam Gardner"] & [member="Khione Gardner"]

“Thank you,” Hylo said stiffing up and wiping some of the dirt off his face. “I would have dune it myself, but it hurts you see. Not a lot, but enough.” Wrinkling his nose he stood up and looked around. He walked over to the tree and picked one of ripe fruits and bit into it. He was careful to pick out the seeds and carefully pocketed them. “Where is this place? I was hitchhiking on an Ithorian starship when I went into a plant and ended up in this strange plant.” Hylo walked over to the orchid. “But we’re friends now aren’t we?”

 

[TB-705]

"Hey Khi," Adam looked relieved at his wife's arrival. He didn't know how to handle kids who'd just teleported out of plants complaining about growths of flowers on their heads, you see.


The gruff farmer gave Khione and the flower boy a thumbs up. He did look better without a plant on his head, that was for sure. The boy started rambling about Ithorian starships, teleportation and what not. Adam ran a hand through his long brown hair, revealing simple gold earrings, and blew a sigh.

"Well, kid, in between you stepping out of a flower and your tall tales of transplantation, or what not, us being friends is about the only thing I do seem to know." Gardner's smile was strained. "Need help gettin' home?"


[member="Khione Gardner"] [member="Hylocereus"]

 

[Hylocereus]

Hylo beamed a smile at the comment about friendship. This was his first friend that wasn’t [member="Spencer Jacobs"] or [member="Ashin Varanin"]. Then he spoke of home. Where was that for him exactly, he didn’t know. He couldn’t go back to his mother. That was apparent to even him with his limited knowledge of the real world. Where else would he go, the Tion Cluster? He had lived in the cluster once, but that was with his mother and she was probably still there playing at her games. The thought made him sad, but he didn’t cry, boys didn’t cry. “I don’t know where home is…” he said.
[SIZE=12pt]He crumpled his nose a little as he thought, “I heard a spacer say that home is where the heart is, I asked what he meant and he said home was where friends and family is. I don’t have any family, not anymore. And you’re my only friend…. So can this be my home?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt][member="Adam Gardner"] & [member="Khione Gardner"][/SIZE]

 

[Khione Gardner]

Khione could feel her heart breaking at the child's comments. She understood what it was to be alone in the world, without even a friend to seek comfort from. She walked to her husband and grabbed his hand, taking comfort from his quiet strength. His presence grounded her, kept her from becoming overwhelmed by memories of a past seeped in pain and shadows. That life was over; she had found her place by Adam's side. Now she wanted to do the same for this little boy whose only knowledge of home had come from a veritable stranger.

She looked at Adam, her eyes begging him to consider Hylo's request. They couldn't leave him to fend for himself; it wouldn't be right. He needed a home, and she was more than willing to provide one. Khione was positive that her soft-hearted husband would feel the same.

"What do you think, my pirate? Can he stay with us?"

[member="Adam Gardner"] [member="Hylocereus"]