Kela Crash Course Part 6

Korppi stuck her head fully into the bag and twitched her crests against the fabric to prop it open.

"Nope," she said, "No more seeds, we're done!" 

"Not quite done," Tony reminded her, ignoring the sharp glares from the Cryo siblings, "Just the watering left and you can head back to the dome."

"We can head back to the dome," she corrected him, "You need to be rewarded for your efforts, you've done a great deal for the people of Atlantis and the Queen will want to thank you." The pachy looked a little deflated at the thought of returning to the dome but Korppi knew his attitude would change once he saw the feasts available at the royal banquet. Her mouth watered at the thoughts of the rare fruits that would be harvested for the occasion, some only seen once in a lifetime for most of the lower court members. 

"Let's head up the mountain then," Drift grumbled, "We need to get up and back down again before night comes or we'll freeze to the side of the mountain." She and Brook left without any work, scrambling up a steep incline and balancing along the loose rocks as they made their way up. They were used to this terrain, they had been living here since they were hatchlings after all and it showed. The other three struggled to keep up as the Cryos left them in the dust, sending pebbles skittering backwards in their wake.

"Isd this really the only way up?" Talos puffed, his feet slipping from under him once again.

"It must be, these two know this place better than anyone else I know," Tony huffed, also finding the footing difficult. At the very least the siblings would stop every so often to let the others catch up before taking off again, leaving just enough distance to talk without being overheard.

"Do you think this is happening in other places on the islands?" Drift asked quietly.

"I don't know, maybe they can adapt to everywhere, maybe there's a weak spot we don't have in the highlands," Brook shrugged.

"The ashlands are going to be impossible, we'll all have to move there," Drift theorised, making her brother grimace.

"Don't even joke about that," he whined, "The ash is going to be hell on my feathers." Some hardy plants still thrived in the ashlands and the possibility of any kind of foliage at all made Brook nervous about the Atlantean plants taking over. He wracked his brain as they climbed, looking forward to the fresh water waiting at the peak for them to refresh himself and hopefully kick his brain into gear. There had to be somewhere on the island where no plants grew, somewhere the plants of Atlantis could never take over. His distraction made him slip and Drift caught his arm in her jaws, pulling him upright.

"We'll figure something out, we always do," she reassured him, but his anxiety wasn't quelled. They 'figured something out' when it came to things like the cave flooding or a forest fire, not the entire islands being taken over, she was being way too calm about this. "It's up here!" Drift called back down the mountain. Brook hadn't heard the trickling water over the sound of his own thoughts and his throat suddenly felt tight and dry. He hurried up to the stream, dunking his face in it and gulping down as much as he could without choking himself. He pulled his head back up and exhaled a chilly breath into the late afternoon sunlight, watching it turn to steam in the comparatively warm air. He hadn't felt a dunk so satisfying since he had run headfirst into the water at the beach last summer. As his thoughts turned back to that time, he was greeted by the warm yellow tones of the sand, the deep blue of the sky, the darker blue of the ocean... the complete lack of green. His eyes snapped open. Aside from seaweed, he had never seen plants on the beach, would that be a place safe from Atlantis? He could see himself living by the ocean, learning to fish the way he had learned in the river as a hatchling, the way Drift taught him. When the Euoplos and Tony finally trudged their way up to the water, he was able to turn and greet them with a genuine smile.

"So, how are we getting this all down the mountain?" he asked cheerfully. Talos and Korppi both looked at him blankly.

"Did you not have an idea when you led us up here?" Korppi asked nervously.

"No, we kinda figured the two of you had something planned," Drift admitted, still lounging by the stream. There was an awkward silence, no one on either side daring to breach it and take fault for the lack of preparation. 

"Does... does the bag hold water?" Tony tried, desperate to break the silence.

"It will not," Talos said firmly. He looked over at Korppi's wooden armour, thought of his own helmet with holes built into it for him to see. They really had nothing to carry water in. Korppi was looking at him too, perhaps thinking the same thing or maybe even waiting for him to come up with a solution. He sighed, looking around at the barren mountaintop and finding nothing to save them there either. "I suppose we will hope for rain," he concluded grimly. The Cryos had the decency to look abashed, not meeting his eyes when he looked up at them. Tony was just as exasperated as the Euoplos were, sitting down to take a sip of water and flopping over onto his side when he was done.

"Once more, back down the mountain," Drift tried to raise their spirits with a cheer but it floated away on the stiff mountain breeze, carried off to make room for more awkward silence. Eventually, their ragtag group did stumble back down the mountain to be met by this morning's seeds already pushing their stalks through the soil. Water or not, the growth of the Atlantis mutant plants continued and it seemed like nothing would stop their relentless march towards domination.