The Flora and Fauna ((Quills!))

[Anonymous]

Oliver looked slightly confused for a moment. Shake? Then he realized that she meant handshake and did so. He nodded and smiled, looking off afterwards. "Hey, so have you always studied plants all your life?" He looked curious again. He glanced upward, making a short, birdlike sound and a hawk came and landed on his shoulder. He stroked it softly. "I've studied animals and people. People are so confusing...animals make more sence."

[Anonymous]

"Oh, yes, all my life. It take that long to know this much!"

So, he hadn't been bragging about his knowledge of animals. That was odd. It was possible that someone so young could have that level of skill, but unlikely (as she had just pointed out). Still, even if he wasn't all he seemed, he was a nice enough lad. She wasn't going to press the issue.

She laughed heartily. "You right there. People are weird. Even my own children, weird." She looked thoughtful, then shrugged. "Maybe I am the weird one. It not really important."

[Anonymous]

Oliver smiled. "That's quite interesting! I bet you know everything there is to know about plants. Well, nearly everything, or else you wouldn't still be researching!" He chuckled a little.  Then, he also shrugged with her on her comment. "I'm weird. I have a weird past, my personality is weird, people are wierd, whatever. In my oppinion, there is no normal, so how can someone be weird?" He shook his head. "Darn logic. It'll hurt my brain."

[Anonymous]

As far as she knew (or ever paid much attention), she did know more than just about everybody else. She grinned. She did so love other people confirming her high opinion of herself. She stood straight and patted her chest with pride. "Oho, you right there! I am the best herbalist in all Le'raana!"

She reached up with some difficulty and put her hand on his shoulder. "I try to think no things like those, boy. No good come from it. If plant make you to be feeling bad, other plant can be cure. If people make you to be feeling bad, much harder to be cure. So you know what I do?"

She gave him a quizzical look and pointed at him. "I ignore!"

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "You are a very smart woman! Ignoring may be a good idea for me to try." He smiled. Then, he peered off into the jungle, saying, "Well, now. Should we try to get the leaf of Assassin's beauty? It'll be dangerous, but I think I might be able to get it." He shrugged. "Perhaps worth it."

[Anonymous]

It may have been a good idea for him to have taken that advice to then ignore it. It only worked for Ulma because she'd built her career on being stubborn and contrary for the hell of it. Applied to other people, well, it might work or it might not. In her opinion, it worked fantastically and she was glad he thought so too. She didn't know that he didn't know any better.

On the mention of the plant, her face lit up. Her cheeks creased into a beaming grin. How she would love to get some of those wonderful leaves! How everyone would envy her! "That exactly what I to be thinking! Let us go!"

[Anonymous]

Oliver began walking over to the last place he saw one, saying, "It's quite dangerous to get the leaves, though. Why do you want them? I'm curious." He released the hawk on his arm. The cat from earlier slinked in the bushes nearby, eying Oliver's new friend cautiously. He found it, standing a ways away to ensure saftey. "Here it is."

[Anonymous]

Once she had managed to get her pack animal moving, Ulma followed Oliver through the jungle. "It a medicine, a good one, and it hard to get. So I get it, and sell it. And then everyone say, 'Ah, that's Ulma got the plants, she is the best! She is the only one who is to be getting it!'"

When he stopped, she stood and contemplated the plant. Yep, it was an Assassin's Beauty all right. She'd know that flower anywhere. She noticed the cat in the bushes, and very deliberately ignored it.

"Now, I do this hard but safe way or easy but dangerous way? Hmmm..."

[Anonymous]

Oliver thought about himself being a shapeshifter. He glanced at Ulma, wondering if he should tell her.  It would be quite useful if he would just turn into a sort of animal, then go and get the plant. He said, "Well, I have an idea. But first, I must tell you I am a shapeshifter. I could transform into an animal and then try to get it, something small enough to not trigger the shooting of poison, but strong enough to steal the leaves?" He shrugged. "I'm not sure, what do you think?"

[Anonymous]

Ulma was mildly surprised by this revelation. She'd not met a shapeshifter before, at least not knowingly, so this was new to her. However, she'd never been one to make a fuss. "Aah, I think you was a little strange, boy like you, alone in the jungle." She nudged Oliver conspiratorially. "I bet it useful, eh?"

She nodded as she thought over his idea. If it worked, it would be both easy and safe, and if it didn't, she was here to make sure he was all right. It was worth a go. "Yeees, it could to be working. We do your idea! What for me to should be doing?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver looked thoughtful again. "As I am going to the flower, tell me if it's going to shoot me with a poison, okay? Also, can you tell me how I should approach the flower to get the leaf easiest?"

[Anonymous]

"The leaf, it is sharp sometimes. You be careful and you get, what you can get." He had wings right now, didn't he? Ulma looked at them, and added, "If you not on the ground, that help also. The plant, it feel the ground and what is on the ground. It feel not the air so much."

She held up a finger to tell him to wait for second and moved further away. "I stand here, and I am more safe, and I watch the plant for you. Yes?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "Alright then. Sounds like a plan." His wings changed shape a little. He jumped up easily, and went towards the plant from the side. He reached for it, saying, "am I doing good so far?"

[Anonymous]

Ulma watched the plant carefully for any tiny sign of danger. It looked to be quite still as Oliver approached, save for one or two tiny movements that may have just been her eyes tricking her in the dim light of the jungle. They must have been; they were different from the warning signs she usually looked out for. Surely it was nothing?

"It all fine, I think, maybe," she called. "But you be careful still, you are very near. If it shoot, you have no time for to be moving! So much much care!"

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded and stared at the plant for a moment, then cautiously reached his hand foreward. Something in his mind told him that it was a bad idea, but he steadily kept approaching it. His hand grasped the leaf and he whispered loudly, "got it!"

[Anonymous]

Ulma kept watching the plant, carefully, very carefully, and this time she definitely saw it move. When Oliver touched the leaf, the flower twitched, and she'd seen one twitch that way before...

"Go!" she yelled.

[Anonymous]

His hand was about to grab the leaf when he saw the flower twitch. He knew that couldn't be good. He heard her yell, 'Go!' just as he had grabbed the leaf. A poison thorn launched at him, and he avoided it with breakneck speed, going so fast that you almost couldn't see him. He avoided the thorn by a millimeter. He got away from the tree, standing next to Ulma, eyes wide. "The leaf..." He held it up, smiling. "I got it."

[Anonymous]

Ulma watched in trepidation as Oliver grabbed the leaf and then was nowhere to be seen. Had he been hit or had he made it out? She had seen him pull the leaf off the plant, so if he was poisoned she could help him, but it would still have been her fault. She should never have let him do it. It was a job for an expert, not a boy...

Barely a second later, he reappeared beside her. She realised she had been holding her breath, and let it out in a relieved sigh. "You did very good," she grinned, gently taking the leaf from him. "You are fast, that is talent. Very good."

[Anonymous]

Oliver smiled, backing up a step and not realizing what he just did. The flower shot a thorn at him, and he turned around just in time for it to hit his arm. He winced, stepping out of range. "Oh....That's.." He couldn't find anything to say. He held up his arm and said, "I'm sorry..." That was about the moment he fainted.

[Anonymous]

Ulma didn't have time to react to this shot. She hadn't seen it coming, either. As Oliver fell, she groaned quietly and tucked the leaf into her sleeve. It seemed that she wouldn't get to sell it later after all. All that gloating she'd get to do, gone in a second.

Well, first things first. She had to move him. It was no good making up an antidote if he was going to stumble around disoriented and get shot again as soon as he woke up. Looking at him, she had no idea how much he would weigh. He was tall, but he was also a shapeshifter, so he could be as light as a snowflake or as heavy as an entire mountain. The easiest thing to do was just to try to pick him up herself.

She carefully positioned herself so that she wouldn't get shot too – that would be the stupidest thing she'd ever done – and dug her hands into the dirt underneath Oliver. She braced herself... And almost threw him over her head, he was so light. Well, that answered that question.

She set him down carefully a good three feet away, then went over to Ugly, who was chewing the moss off a tree trunk as if nothing much interesting was going on, and rummaged around in her bags. She pulled out a pestle and mortar, a pair of tweezers and a couple of glass bottles, all of which she carried over to his still body. She slowly pulled the thorn out of his arm, careful to get all of it so that no more of the poison could seep in. Then she took the leaf out of her sleeve and started grinding it into a fine paste. It would work better dried, but she really didn't have time to waste. The longer the poison was in his body, the harder it would be to treat and the more painful the recovery would be.

She made quick work of the leaf, and mixed half of it into a spoonful of the purified clay that was in one of the bottles. She smoothed the poultice over the wound. It wouldn't cure him completely, but it would buy her some time to make a proper medicine, and might even wake him up so he could take it more easily.

She poured a small amount of liquid out of the other bottle into the mortar and started crushing the remainder of the leaf into it. The liquid was mostly water, with a small amount of alcohol to make sure everything dissolved as it should. Even so, it would take a couple of hours for the oils from the leaf to diffuse well enough out to make an effective medicine. Until then, Oliver would just have to hold on...