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Step. 

Step.

[i]Thud![/i]

“Glorious solid material!” Orb whimpered happily, their entire form face down on a sandy beach. Their cloak was drenched and crusted with what could have been weeks of salt. Two hands gripped the sand tightly, a soft happy sob breaking from the cloaked figure. Their modified boat creaked in the gusting beach wind, keeled up onto the shore completely -- having been propelled by a major tidal surge.

Orb’s knees and elbows were screaming, having finally been released from their sitting and paddling positions. They haggard a victorious breath, thankful their stomach was still full from their rations and their mouth was wet, because otherwise, Orb felt that they could lay where they were forever. They closed their eyes, still whimpering happily along with their buzzing muscles. The sounds of Kalgrun echoed around them, the vast forests off the shallow shore repeating with bird calls. Orb couldn’t help but smile softly, their mind slipping into a sudden sleep. 

They could see it... the sun blasting down from the heavens, blanketing the golden desert with a scorching heat. The horizon wriggled as the air seemed to boil, turning the distant, massive spires of limestone into yellowed serpents. Great jets of power shot from each steeple, invigorating Orb as they stood witness to the desert. Crystal water flowed in moving canals of water, and a mighty tree stood center an oasis.

[i]Sniff[/i]

Orb’s eyes strained open, met by the darkness of the sand -- their face still buried into the shore. Suddenly, a wet pressure made its way through their hood and up the back of their head, followed by the rustling of leaves and subtle shifting of sand. Orb made a face for a second before suddenly and urgently rolling over. 

One hand shot out to grab the perpetrator and found its way onto a soft, uneven surface. There were lines along the surface made of tiny leaves, ridges and decently sized orbs that kind of felt like closed eyes. When Orb’s eyes made contact with its attacke, it realized that it was indeed a face that it had been fondling, with a pale green unblemished skin, soft features and thick eyebrows consisting of leaves, and a thick mass of vivid green sinuate leaves finishing off its appearance. The leaves were quivering and the eyes fluttered open once Orb’s fingers moved away from the exotic being’s eyelids, showing two shiny black spheres that stared intently at Orb’s mask, mere inches away. Its pale green lips curled into a gentle self-pleased smile and its expression and the quivering of its leaves gave off the impression of purring.

Hesitating, Orb let their fingers fall from the strange creature. Cautiously, Orb moved to sit up, scooching further away --Uselessly as the plant only scooched closer as Orb moved away-- from the plant-person before issuing a standard runic, “Hello.”

The plant perked up. Its eyes widened and its mouth fell agape as it tilted its head curiously and wrapped one of its hands around Orb’s wrist. Orb shook their wrist free and slipped their hands back under their cloak, squinting behind the mask. They shifted languages to that of the Nebulites, “Hello?”

Again, the Plant perked up even more, its leaves standing on end and making its head look more like a cactus than a cute shrub. It closed its mouth, then opened it and closed it again before looking away. Without looking at Orb, the feminine humanoid pulled a piece of the masked figure’s coat up to their nose, took a sniff of it, and then began nibbling on it.

Orb narrowed their eyes, a hand snaking out of their cloak. Slowly they brought their gloved hand close to the living-shrub’s face, curving to gently grip its jaw. The shrub seemed to chuckle although no sound came out, and its leaves went back to their relaxed state. It let Orb handle its jaw however they wanted, sticking out its tongue slightly through gently biting teeth.

Squeezing the plant’s cheeks between their fingers, Orb peered inside the plant’s mouth, humming a curious tune. The plant’s teeth were remarkably similar in appearance to the Nebullites’, although upon closer inspection their pigmentation was slightly darker, and there were wooden patterns along the edges of the teeth, like those one would see in the core of a tree trunk. Its tongue was a darker shade of its skin color and taste buds could be seen along its surface much like on a Nebullites’ tongue. 

Suddenly, the plant opened its mouth and poked its own tongue, then tried to guide Orb’s finger into its mouth by grabbing their hand. Orb gulped, “If you bite me, I’ll be very upset.” The said as they willingly let their finger prod into the shrub-person’s mouth. The shrub gently bit down on Orb’s finger and smiled innocently.

Orb’s eyes narrowed again and they gently slid their finger out of the creature’s mouth, “So you can understand me? What is your designation?”

The creature tilted its head once more then grabbed Orb’s cloak with one hand and pointed at the sea. Orb nearly jumped at the grab and slapped a hand over the plant’s -causing it to jump back- a hidden frown forming on Orb's face, “Please, no interaction with my clothing.” 

After a moment of stillness and anxious staring, the shrub-person crawled back up to Orb and veeery slowly moved its hand closer to Orb’s cloak, never once taking its eyes off Orb’s mask. Orb inched just out of reach and pondered out loud, “There is a possibility that you are incapable of speech as well as understanding. We will need to confirm a level of alternative communication if we are to continue our interaction. Yes.” Orb pinched the end of their mask thoughtfully, “I must assess what senses you possess.”

The creature merely looked on, and when Orb finished speaking, it leaned forward and showed the top of its head to Orb, leaves quivering in anticipation.

“Desire?” Orb pondered, reaching out and touching the creature’s head gently with a single finger. 

The creature seemed to freeze, then after a moment it peeked up at Orb’s mask pleadingly.

“You possess touch, and earlier you portrayed taste, smell, and sight,” Orb concluded, resting their gloved palm flat on top the creatures head. As Orb pondered, the creature began rubbing its leafy head against their hand, closing its shiny eyes in what seemed to be pure bliss.

Orb made a curious face and patted the head gingerly, “I assume you are very sensitive in this particular area. I hope and plead that it is simply perchance and not the result of something unsavory that I am unaware of.” Orb shook their head and retracted their hand, “You can’t understand me, either way. Yet you do have ample use of facial expression.”

The creature looked at Orb and then patted their hood-covered head while grinning happily. 

“Yes, yes,” Orb said, scrunching under the petting reluctantly, “Uh... thank you.” Orb moved a hand forward and pinched their own mask. “Right, we are going to experiment on a theory of mine, now.” Their other hand moved the plant’s own away from their head, two hidden eyes staring intently at the plant’s own.

“Look at me,” Orb commanded, well aware of the uselessness of their words. Sliding their mask up, they took in a deep breath. The once hidden band of the mask fell from behind Orb’s head, their hood falling to their shoulders. Orb pulled the mask from their face and anxiously held it against their lap with both hands. 

Two big eyes colored similar to a starry sky twinkled at the plant. Orb’s feminine face was gentle, with a deep tan. Their cheeks were full and angled to their gentle sloping chin, indeed giving their face a heart shape, with a small nose and a mouth that seemed to have a slight natural curl at each end. Orb had two tiny thin strip of burgundy down feathers where eyebrows would normally be, matching the long silky burgundy feathers that trailed down from their scalp, many strange beads tied into the cascade of shoulder length feathers. Orb let out a beaming (albeit forced) smile, showcasing a white brilliance. They pointed eagerly at their face, “Happy.”

The shrub-person looked between Orb’s lap and their face, and eventually put a hand on each. One rubbing the mask and the other Orb’s now flinching face, specifically their nose and feathery eyebrows, which the plant seeming to enjoy the most, running its fingers back and forth along the eyebrows in amazement while the other hand inspected every accessible surface of the mask. 

“You are a touch based learner,” Orb suggested, letting their mask fall to the sand below for the meanwhile, allowing the plant creature to focus both its hands on Orb’s bare face, with one slowly settling around their throat. At that moment, the plant froze, and then mimicked opening and closing its mouth. Orb hummed in their throat, vibrating against the plant’s hand. It reeled back and stared agape at Orb, then with the tip of its finger traced a path from Orb’s throat all the way to their chest, over where their left lung would be. Orb backed up a little and grabbed the plant’s hand, putting it back on their throat.

“Orb.” They said, poking themselves as they did. Making sure the plant’s hand was steady on their throat, Orb poked the plant gently on the forehead, “Shrub.”

The Shrub stared in confusion, wincing everytime Orb poked its forehead. It leaned in and lightly pressed its hand against Orb’s lips and opened and closed its mouth.

Sucking in a breath through their nose -causing Shrub to look at Orb as if it had performed some unknown forbidden magic- Orb patted Shrub on the top of its head, gently speaking into Shrub’s palm, “Shrub.” They took Shrub’s free hand and patted the hand against their own feathery scalp, “Orb.”

Shrub’s eyes lit up in understanding and she nodded, petting Orb’s head with an airy smile on her face. She mimicked Orb’s lip movements and mouthed [i]’Owb’[/i]. Orb nodded with a big exaggerated smile, “Good.” 

And then Shrub started mouthing off, [i]’Owbowbowbowbowbowbowbowbowb...’[/i] over and over as she slid up to Orb and hugged her new friend, nuzzling their feathery hair. Orb squirmed uncomfortably, slipping from the grasp, but gave Shrub a gentle pat on the head and a weak smile.

“This is a start.”

Shrub suddenly released Orb from the hug and nodded fervently, standing up and trying to pull Orb onto their feet, [i]’Owb!’[/i]

Scooping up their mask, Orb rose to their feet, “What is it, Shrub?”

Shrub intertwined her fingers with Orb’s, but the cloaked figure broke free to run to their paddle boat. Leaning onto the deck and out of sight, Orb quickly grabbed a backpack (depositing their mask into it) and swung it over their shoulders before running back to the waiting Shrub. Hesitating for a moment, they placed their hand back into Shrub’s who led them further into land, looking back every so often to confirm Orb was really there. After what felt like a long time, they arrived in a particularly dense patch of jungle, where the overgrowth went almost past their waists. At that point, Shrub gave the air a few sniffs and squatted down into the overgrowth, emerging a few seconds later with quivering leaves and presenting a newly hatched griffon to her new friend. [i]’Owb.’[/i] There, with strong rays of light reflecting off of every possible surface, it was easy to see the crystallized sap going along Shrub’s arms, shoulders, chest and back, with deep gashes visible under the crystal-like fluid of life.

“Wha-” Orb suddenly had a flashback and shivered, “Ah, one of those.” Staring at the scarring of what could have been wounds, Orb began to piece the puzzle together, “I was taken by one of those too.” Orb offered helplessly, braving a single touch of the baby griffin. It cried weakly in response, squirming away from Orb’s hand. It seemed to be half-starved, and so it could do nothing but cry once more as Shrub thrust it into Orb’s hand. 

Orb fumbled with the weak baby for a moment before finding an appropriate grip on the squirming creature. Orb’s starry eyes studied it intently, “It requires sustenance.” Their own stomach rumbled, “I also require sustenance.” 

Shrub tilted her head and pointed at a nearby ray of light and at Orb’s rumbling stomach.

Orb hummed and shook their head. They pushed the baby back into Shrub’s arms and slipped their pack off their back. Snapping the bag open and after rummaging through it briefly, Orb pulled out a strip of cloth. Unraveling it they plucked a dried fruit from it and tossed the fruit in the air. The small fruit looped and came back down, landing square onto Orb’s blue tongue. They chewed and swallowed, giving Shrub a wink, “See? Consumption.” 

Shrub stared on for a long few moments, until her eyes suddenly lit up and she placed the baby griffon on her head, proceeding to scratch at the crystallized sap on her arms until it fell apart with a silent grunt of pain and fresh new sap began to slowly leak out of her flesh. After letting it accumulate for a while, she coated her finger in a generous portion of her sap and brought it up close to the griffon’s beak. It took the baby a split second to react, and then it began energetically licking up the sap. Shrub’s face lit up with a wide grin and starry eyes and she looked at Orb.

“Well that’s one solution,” Orb surrendered as they ate the rest of their fruits, “But I have a feeling that infant requires fleshy sustenance.” Orb swallowed their meal and rasped, “Come.” they coughed on a loose rind stuck in their throat, “Come aid me in relocating the materials and supplies of my vessel, I think I spotted an adequate clearing on the way here where I could lay a foundation.”

After the griffon finished licking her finger clean, Shrub nodded to herself and skipped close to Orb, wrapping her arms around one of Orb’s.

Orb seemed to freeze for a moment before reluctantly sighing, allowing the cling, “Let’s advance.”

[hider=Summary]

Orb finally makes it to Kalgrun. Has a foreboding dream. Meets a plant lady who is named Shrub by Orb. Orb reveals their face to Shrub (Who cannot see it anyways). They nurse a baby griffon back to health.

[/hider]