[h3]An intermission staring the Gemstone Gardeners[/h3]

On the largest island of the eye of desolation a flock had gathered. It had also gathered here ten years ago, and 10 year before that and so on. They perched on the branches of trees surrounding a clearing, the open ground acting as a round table for the upcoming discussion. Most of those present could not remember a time when they hadn’t met in this manner, but a scant few vaguely remembered it's as the palace of their birth eons ago and the golden era that had come after when the world was young. One of these, an Amber macaw whose fathers had long since grayed and faded to a shadow of their former luster, lead the discussion at these decennial meetings. They had no official title or power, but they did have the respect of their peers and the will to act as a voice for unity and hope when such things seemed to be generally lacking. 

“We are gathered here today” the old parrot began “on the day of our kind’s birth” the date was actually chosen randomly, for things like years and seasons where younger than both their race and the speaker “to take stock of the state of the world.”

The loud chatter that had been circling the flock died as the speaker began. Most who had been willing to make the journey held something akin to faith in both their missions and their creator, and so the noramly noisy birds showed deference to the speaker of hope, at least for a little brief moment.

“First, I would like spread the glorious news, that after all this time our mother Azura has been sighted gracing our skies!” the old bird announced, causing an flurry of discussion until one bird,  a very young Blood Cockatoo, yelled out “yeah yeah we’ve all heard this by now. A giant parrot flying though the sky above the sky, followed by the missing birds and accompanied by, get this, a giant flying whale. A giant flying whale! It’s pretty ridiculous. If your going to make stuff up to you should probably try a more believable rumor next time.” 

Their inflammatory statement caused an uproar among the already nosy birds until the old parrot called out “It is no rumor. Here at this meeting there must be someone who saw this event with their own eyes!”

There was a long silence as the awaited storyteller failed to materialise. Eventually one of the Gardeners spoke up sheepishly “I knew someone saw it, but they got eaten by a big lizard in the hoof-lands a while back”

“I knew someone but they were really sad and disappeared. Said they were going to go ‘up to where Azura is’ last time I saw em” added another.

“The southern land is really stable plant wise and also dangerous animal waise. No one sane lives where this ‘sighting’ happened” the original disodent added, more or less ending the discussion. “Seriously if this whole thing is going to be about being like the depressed birds who keep disappearing so you can join Azura’s ‘heavenly flock’ then I am out” the bird said before spreadings their wings and prepared to take off.

“What? No no no no no!” the old parrot responded, agast by this accusation “my child have you not been to this meeting before? We are about hope! About surviving so that when the end times come we will be ready to rejuvenate the earth. We’re not one of those, bleh, cults. They don’t last very long after all, where as we have been meeting for generations!”

“Oh” responded the heckler, folding their wings back to their side “so what are you here for?”

“New mainly” piped up one of their neighbour “sometimes we go plant that a bit after if someone’s heard of a place to do that. That's always nice.”

“exactly” said the old bird, who was wanting to move on from discussion of the disappearances and suicide cults. “So does anyone have any stories to tell or news to share? Preferably something you can give a first hand account of”

“Istasis is still nice.” commented one

“We know. We basically all live there” retorted another

“I live here not there” butted in the heckler “why is Istasis nice?” 

“Well there's not alot of predators and we blend in with the glowing plants, there's these really nice fruits called mangos and it's generally pretty great.” responded the first


The heckler cocked their head for a moment before agreeing that “Alright that does sound nice I guess?” 

“Ok anything else?” urged the old parrot, fully aware that the gardeners could natter on about nothing for all eternity

“So what about those birds with the stone masks and metal on their wings? They’ve been following me, following us, all over. They think their fast and sneaky but they really aren't” said an emerald Kea, who had one of the Alma’s feathers decorative stuck in its crest. “I tried to get them to buzz off but they just keep following us. They aint even trying to hunt us or anything. Just stalking us.”

“Don't think we don't know your there ya weirdos!” one of the Gardners then yelled at the not nearly inconspicuous enough Alma who were perched on the branches of a nearby trees.

“Ignore us!” one yelled back

“Try and eat us or just go away,  jeez.” complained one of the parrots

“We will do nothing of the sort.” was the response before one of the Alma added “Also have you seen a pale skinned humanoid who is always wet anywhere? Or any bits of her like an arm or eye or something?”

“...no?” responded the parrot who had somehow found itself in a conversation with their stalkers

“Darn.” said the one looking for Li’kalla. “Why are we so bad at this?” asked another on the same quest before a third butted in “wait you are looking for a girl? I thought it was a space squid?” 

“Aren't the girl and the space squid are the same thing?” asked a fourth. 

“Space squid?” the even more confused parrot asked, only to be rebutted by a unified “Ignore us!”

“Are you the ones taking birds away when we aren't looking?” another parrot asked

“No!” came the reply “we’re not allowed to take people yet.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” they asked only to receive the response “Brain box says ‘classified’” along with the now standard “ignore us!”

Any further questions where met with similar calls and the parrots eventually gave up.

“So anything else?” the old parrot asked

There where a number of recountings of various events on Kalgrun, the eye and Istasis, which ranged from epic tales of divine births, to battles against predators and tips about good nesting sites. Eventually the stream of stories dried up and the speaker decided to bring things to a close.

“So has anyone seen any good places to go do some gardening?” they asked

There were some general mutterings. A fallen tree here, an avalanche there, until one eventualy sugested Li’kalla’s unknamed island. “It’s just kinda underdone at the moment. There's also this abandoned mansion i thought we could pretty up a bit?”

“Hmmm maybe.” responded the old bird. Discussion continued a bit after that, but eventually they settled on Li’s island and the flock set of on their northern journey. 

After many days of travel, and several ill fated gryphon attacks during the crossing of Kalgrun, the flock eventually arrived upon the unnamed island. The Alma followed. Gryphon attacks on them resulted in the offending beast being told to fuck of in perfect gryphon before being shot at.

Eventually the birds arrived on the island and decided that yeah, it could do with a bit of sprucing up. There was some nice water lilies, the usual grassy fields and those ebar forests you found everywhere, but that was about it really. There was also the aforementioned mansion, now seemingly abandoned. Some of the parrots gravitated to this place and ended up playing with both its contents and its reflective nature. The rest set about adding some color and variety to the island, using seeds they had previously gathered from all across the globe.

Red sweetgrass from tendle pog and purple rope grass from a hidden valley on Xishan where sowed, creating vibrant patches of grassland while mundane flowers from all across Galbar where used to create colorful, and chaotic, flower arrangements within them. Fire root, carrots, onions and other root vegetables were planted, along with peas and cabbages, to provide future mortals with plenty of things to cook with whenever they arrived on the island.

Glowing flowers, shrubs and regular mango trees from Istais where a prominent and abundant addition, the gardners had plenty of seeds left over from their home turf, as where the plants form the eye, spread here as they had been spread all across the world. Pine trees from northern kalgurn where sown near their homeland in the north while the force field generating Sanctuary Tree and chime-fruit mushroom trees were planted in the eastern clay region and surrounded by spear grass from the charnel steps.

Once they were finished the islands wilds had blossomed with all sorts of exotic foreign vegetation and the mansion was a mess. Pots and pans, cutlery, pillows, cloths and general nicknacks where strew about randomly or constructed into simple art pieces/nests. Parts of the floor and walls had been turned to soil and then planted with seeds, causing it to become quite overgrown in its owner's absence. 

The flock, having expended the majority of their seed stocks, gathered on and around the mansion to take in the sight of the early sprouts of their labor and to generally chatter about the planting session and their upcoming plans before they all went their separate ways for the next decade. The Alma where still stalking the vast congregation but had given up on trying to hide and where instead sporadically dotted around the outskirts of the gathering. Most demanded to be ignored, those that did speak turned out to be rather poor conversationalists. 

When the assembly seems to be on the verge of breaking up a small group of very late arrivals showed up, having been pointed here from the initial meeting point by a few locals of the eye that hadn't joined the post meeting adventure. Their arrival caused quite the stir as they spread the news of the war on the dragon’s foot.

“Humongous flying fire breathing lizards!” “heat ray shooting giants!” “whole forests burned to ash!”

The news that their work was being undone by Sartravius’s minions caused something of a riot, with the quite literally birds bouncing off the walls of the mansion, squawking and shouting at each other. Over theis the speaker managed to yell “This is glorious news, for we are needed once again! Praise be to Azura, we must depart at once!”

This managed to grasp the attention of most of the nearby birds, though the chaos still continued around them, making an even greater mess of Li’Kalla’s poor home in the processs.

“What are you nuts?” cried the heckler from earlier “You’ll die for sure!”

“Better to die in the service of her holiness than fade away younge one. Gemstone Gardeners! The time of destruction has come and we must all make haste to the Dragons Foot, for its devastated lands must be resown!”

With their proclamation made the old bird took to the skies and a great deal of the flock followed after him, their glowing bodies regaining a luster that had, up until this moment, been lacking. They had a purpose again and it was gloriose. Most of the Alma followed this avians pilgrimage, knowing that once they were permitted to do their duty their own talents would surely be needed. Some Parrots remained behind, valuing their own survival over their commitment to a purpose they had only ever been told about in the songs and stories of their people.

The heckler shook their head at the madness of his kin then let out a sigh. As they pondered what to do now and how they would get home to the eye safely without the protection of the flock one of the remaining Alma hopped closer to them, causing the parrot to flinch.

“So… is this the part where you make me disappear for being a sad sack who doesn't do his duty?” he asked it, slowly edging away from the strange creature.

“Nope” it informed him, pausing its approach. “We don’t do that.”

“Then why are you still here?” they asked

“We are waiting for permission.” it explained

“Who’s?” “yours.” ”Permission for what?” “classified” “dang it”

Attempts to ask for more details only to receive more “classified”s from the Alma

“Ok…. You wanna to go throw pine cones at the weird blob while you wait then?” they finally asked it.

The Alma thought for a few moments before responding “yeah. That would be great”

[hr]

The clay based proto creature was rather unsure what had caused the change to its environment, but it was happy to have new things to incorporate. It had acquired a coat of spiky grass and had also internalized a bit of a sanctuary tree, letting it create a small energy field below it. It had, more or less accidentally, used this power to gain a new form of movement. Now as it skimmed about on this energy disk the occasional pinecone landed on or around it. It was unsure why this whats happening.,Perhaps it was related to the new plantlife? It cheerfully absorbed them regardless of their origin.

The future, in the opinion of the proto creature, looked bright.

[hider=summary]
The gemstone gardners have a meeting and share news with one another. The Alma are following them but the similarity of the two species abilities mean that the soultakers can't hide from their older siblings. They refuse to answer any questions regarding their purpose. 

Hte flock heads to Li’kalla’s unnamed isalnd and sow a large number of foreign plants on it. They also kinda mess up her abandoned house.

Parrots arrive from the dragons foot and bring the news of the devastation there. Most of the birds are hype for the end times and head off to replant the damaged region. Some stick around however. Also some of the proto-creatures are already taking in the new additions to their environment with the “help” of the remaining parrots. 
[/hider]