вlood & peтalѕ [ ĸoтlc - тιana ]

ch. lii

You know, if I keep updating like this, I'm  Shannon right now.

*evil laughter*

Biana felt surprisingly calm as she linked arms with Linh and Dex. They were all on the same mountain where they'd planted Mr Forkle's Wanderling.

She and Linh had already dubbed it 'Twin Mountain'.

This planting, unsurprisingly, had a much smaller audience than the 'official' one had been. Just the Collective, all the Vackers (except Alvar, obviously), the Ruewens, Sophie,   Keefe and the Dizznees. And this time, even Biana was wearing green. She was done rebelling, and hopefully, so was Tam's Wanderling.

Right now, they were all waiting for Mr Forkle to find the seed, from whichever of his numerous pockets he'd placed it in. And from the way they'd watched him expose numerous secret pockets with no yield, it was probably going to be a bit of a wait.

They all looked impatient; Sophie looked like there was nothing she'd want more than to tug out a few (dozen) eyelashes; Keefe had the jitters; Fitz had taken to crunching the dried leaves with his feet; the Dizznee triplets were engaged in a (surprisingly) quiet tussle; Squall and Kesler were trying to get them to stay calm; Dex was staring at his shoes and ignoring the rest of his family; Grady and Edaline were both standing with a slightly spaced-out air about them.

Biana was 90% sure they were reminiscing about the plantings they'd previously attended.

"Here it is!" Mr Forkle pulled out a small glass box from- how the heck was there a pocket in his collar?- and gestured for everyone to gather around. "If Miss Linh would do the honors..."

Linh bowed her head, so that her hair swung forward and hid what Biana was pretty sure were tears, as she accepted the tiny object. "Thank you. Um, how about the thing you water it with...?"

"Here." Squall handed over a small green bottle which looked exactly as Biana remembered it to look. "Best to finish it quickly. The seed itself is rather sensitive- especially to the cold. Weird thing, though, considering how hardy the tree itself is."

Biana could still see Linh nod through the curtain of hair.

She then kneeled down on the prickly grass, scraping a small hole in the rocklike mud, much like Mr Forkle had done. Biana was pretty sure Linh had broken at least ONE nail doing that, but at the moment, she knew Linh couldn't possibly care less.

"Done." Linh stood up, grimly moving the hair out of her face and getting mud all over the silver tips. "How long does it take to grow? If it even is growing."

Kesler looked mock-hurt. "Have some faith in me, Linh."

"Sorry." She certainly didn't look sorry. "Just...I need this to work."

"Same here," Biana mumbled before she could stop herself. "I made a promise to him...and I need to be able to visit his Wanderling for it to happ- oh!"

And as they all watched with slight awe, the tree began to sprout.

I know, I know. I haven't updated in, like, FOREVER.

[ Also, the scene with the 'official' planting isn't a conspiracy theory or anything like that; it's just a bit of character development for both our queens. ]

Also...tomorrow's the last exam I have to actually STUDY for. So hopefully I'm back to updating after it's over? ^^