It was hard to tell how long she had been traveling. Going from planet to planet gathering different plants had left her with a lose of time and a feeling of home sickness. She spent her time on her ship growing her different finds, gathering new seed, and crossbreeding to keep herself from thinking about it, but it was hopeless. She wasn't the only one of her kind out searching for new plant life that would be able to live on her planet. Several others like her had been sent out with the same mission. Her planet, though it wasn't dying, was losing many of its plant life. Their mission was to find plants that could survive on her home planet without assistance. 

So far all of her efforts had been in vain. Every plant that she had gather could only sustain life as long as she supported it. She was beginning to think that their mission was impossible and most of them would die before they would be allowed to return back home.. 

Home.. She missed it.

The walls of her ship were nothing compared to the towering forests of her planet. Though her kind possessed the knowledge to travel the universe they rarely used it. It was more regarded to have knowledge of the forest and plant life. Only on such occasions as this was their technology used everything else was achieved by their connect with the planet. 

She remembered how she use to run through the forests of her home planet scarcely dressed except for thin materials with leaves or flowers to decorate it. In her hair she would always wear fresh picked flowers that she would wrap around the branch like areas that grew and entangled in her hair. All those on her planet had them, they showed a oneness with the planet. A connect to the life all around them. 

Her last day on her home planet was truly heart wrenching as she had to say goodbye to all those that were dear to her. She still remembered the words exchanged and feeling of decay in her heart.

Gel'linnea had been busy that star light gathering herbs and fungus that grew when one of the males came across her. He was respectable and rarely would speak to her, so there was something important to discuss. Nevertheless she smiled to him as she hung from a branch of a century old tree her feet literally rooted into it. 

"O namali!" She greeted him warmly holding her basket against her stomach. 

He didn't greet her back just nodded slightly and started to speak. "We are gathering to discuss the decay that has been spreading." his words were straight to the point and held no inkling of the warmth her kind normally shared with each other.

She quickly walked up the branch so she was standing upright, her feet becoming uprooted. "Has the decay gotten worse?" She questioned already knowing the answer. The wildlife had already started to move on and even the fungi was having a hard time growing. 

"Yes." He replied. 

"What are we going to do?" She questioned back. Her kind was talented with helping growth, but they couldn't sustain it forever. If the planet was to decay completely they couldn't keep it alive. He looked solemnly to her then away. Realization hit her. "No... No! They aren't thinking of sending us away?" He didn't even motion to look at her as guess was accurate. "For how long?" 

"As long as it takes." He turned from her. "We can discuss this later with everyone else." He didn't wait for her to say anything else as he left. 

She stood there on the branch fighting back the fear of having to leave. She was an adult and healthy. Born with an exceptional gift for growing and supporting life of course she would be one of the ones chosen to leave. 

After letting the news sink in Gel'linnea made her way into the thicket that her people called home. Many others had already gathered. They all wore the same outfits she had with flowers, leaves, moss, vines and other such decorations entangled in their hair and on their clothes. All were the same except for a few. There was a small group that didn't engage with the planet and plant life. They had removed the branch like areas in their hair and refused to decorate themselves with plant life. 

"O Namali!" An elder spoke to quiet everyone down. Gradually everyone was silenced to listen to what he had to say. "As we have known for some star phases there is a decay on our forest." Everyone stood in silence awaiting any good news that might sprout from his mouth. "We have tried to slow the decay, but..." He trailed off looking himself to crumble under the words he had to say next. 

"But our ties with the planet have proven to be worthless." One of the Removed said.

"That's not true." Someone said in the crowd.

"It can't be." Another stated.

"It is.." The elder said silencing the growing talk in the crowd. "Our planet is decaying slowly. Plant life is vanishing one after another even with our help."

"What are we to do then?" Gel'linnea asked fearing the response that she knew would come.

The elder looked around at all that had gathering trying his best to think of the right words to say. Before he could tell them though another of the Removed spoke. "We plan on sending out pods to gather new plants. We want to see if there is any other planet that has plants that will survive here or is decaying like ours."

"Elder..." She barely whispered like a plea. Begging him to say this was not true. 

His eyes meet all his kind that stood before him. They were all different in appearance from the light tints of green on their olive skin to the pink and yellow tints of flowers, to brown tints like the trees. In there differences though there was the same look of fear. 

Star phases pasted before several of the adults including herself were gathered together and put into their pods. As soon as her feet left the ground and were confined to the walls of her ship she felt like she was decaying and would die at any moment. 

Snapping back to reality she hadn't noticed that her feet had sprouted what looked like roots. Letting out a sigh they receded so that her feet looked normal again. She wondered how long it would take her to get to the next planet and if it would be any different this time.