How Much Longer?

"How much longer until we're done?"

It had been a long and quiet journey. They were walking through a forest on their way to do their “mission” when Thyme stopped to turn around. She realised the ask came from Dart, who had been trailing behind her quietly the entire way. Omelette didn't seem to hear them, as she was too focused on the noises around them, sensing for danger whilst sitting on top of the parasaur’s back.

As they passed a stone gate and ducked under an arch covered in flowers, the fast growing vines that hung from them hit Omelette in the face as they passed under, making her gently squeak.

"Til what?" Thyme eventually responded, sounding confused. "You said that there was some old green colored houses this way. We're nearly there. Right?"

"I mean until we've done enough for the-your Queen? We've planted so many seeds by now. Aren't you worried their plants might....ingulf the islands?"

"I think you're being ridiculous!" Thyme sounded impatient now, deciding to not even look back towards Dart, too focused on walking along. It’s clearly not the first time he’s brought it up.

"You know it's a good thing we're doing. We're helping the Atlanteans. They need their new world to feel like home."

"Home plants is scary. But is nice. You respect plants, they respect you." Omelette piped up from above Thyme's shoulder. She began preening her underwing as they arrived to their destination. Everyone fell into comfortable silence as they stared at what they came here for.

"We're here." Dart mumbled after a while. They had been staring at the large glass structure for a few minutes before he broke the peaceful silence.

Slowly walking past Thyme and into the greenhouse, Dart had brought a watering can along with him, filled with water, the entire way. He remembered that he needed to drop it back off with Dr Sunflower afterwards. Although I think he's got enough of these things to make a museum. He turned around to watch the others start their work.

It was night now, and all three of the long abandoned greenhouses were all solely lit by "ground fires" as Omelette had called them. Dart had asked her to bring one in to help them see inside better. Small darkness-detecting lights stuck into the ground surrounded the courtyard around the greenhouse. When the sun is gone and the sky is dark, the lights turn on. Thyme also noticed the biggest of the houses had large panelled rectangles along the slope of the roof. Thyme remembered when Dart explained sun power to them. Omelette acted like she seemed to understand, but Thyme just couldn't get it. How could there be power from the sun, enough to make a tiny sun? And how does this one light when the sun is gone?

"Lets get to work then." Dart moved towards the middle of the room. Different plants were strewn around, having grown out of their pots for many moons. Dart recognised a few succulents clinging on to life hanging from the ceiling, occasionally watered by too much rain that would be moved by the wind through the broken windows.

Thyme began by clearing some soil plots for more plants. Dying or dead plants were plucked from the earth and deposited in a leftover plant pot off the side of the area they were focusing on. Thyme softly honked in contentment as she worked, digging in vertical lines across the plot. She didn’t put a mind to any dirt going flying, the ground had risen since the structure they were in was built anyway, covering what was once a tile flooring with soft grass.

While Thyme was clearing the area, Omelette opened the cloth bag full of seeds she had been carrying, just small enough for her to carry over her shoulder. Following Thyme’s footsteps, she grabbed a handful of seeds and threw it into the holes as they went along in tandem. Dart followed behind them making sure the seeds were covered completely, using his thick claws.

“Why did you choose this area to plant in today, Dart?” Thyme blurted out while they worked. “You’ve never taken us to a place like this before.”

He thought about it for a moment. “If you want these dome plants to actually thrive, I think a contained environment like this would work well.” They chatted along as they all went through the planting process over and over again together, for each of the three large soil plots that covered the ground of the greenhouse. “Since they are pretty native to the rainforests in the dome, humid environments would suit them best.”
“When it’s warm outside, the material this building is made of reflects the sunlight and warms the plants inside. Isn’t that cool?” Dart explained passionately as he followed behind them, still covering up their tracks and making the ground even. “These plants need somewhere warm that keeps moisture in.”

Thyme started to dust herself off, shaking dirt everywhere. “That’s all for this building now, Dart. Right Omelette?” Thyme turned to look at the oviraptor, who was planting the last seed and making sure the ground looked flat.

“Yup yup!”

Once Dart seemed pleased with all the marked areas looking neat, he walked over to where he had placed the watering can. Maneuvering his head so that his nose horn was underneath the handle of the can, he lifted it up and balanced it with the help of Omelette. Thyme watched as they walked slowly along the order they had planted the seeds, very carefully bending down to tilt water down before immediately stopping. They had to be steady and patient, as they had no close stream or water source to refill the can with, so they tried to use as least water as possible to make sure all seeds get atleast a drop.

“We don’t need to drown the seeds.” Dart started to explain again what he gathered about the plants, although no one had asked him. “This area isn’t completely closed off. It’ll rain soon enough.”

“Rains often, out here?” Omelette was always curious about the world outside of the dome, Dart equally curious about life inside of it.

“Yes, it rains quite often out here. The weather is unpredictable and can be very dangerous.” the oviraptor turned to him, starting to look worried.

“Your home is sort of like what this greenhouse used to be. Contained, warm, full of plant life.”

“Prediccable.”

Dart had turned away, but he looked back at Omelette again to probe her for more after hearing her sound quieter. 

“Predictable? Like you know what’ll happen?”

Meeting the small ovi, Dart wasn’t initially that impressed by her, but after lots of time together there were moments where her intelligence came out. Omelette usually seemed to have the air of not knowing much of what was going on, yet she could also sometimes describe human gadgets to varying levels of accuracy. The truthful extent of her knowledge is unknown.

“Prediccable because, whenever river run low, we know it rains next day.”

“River fills up again. And then sun.” Omelette stated, seeming proud of herself for calling it “sun” instead of “sky fire”.

Dart didn’t know what else to say, so he didn’t reply. He thought about whether what she said means that she understood that the dome worked on a schedule, as it was human built. Before he could say anything, Thyme came running in from the entrance. He realised they didn’t even notice her leave.

“Hey! I’ve already cleared the second house for planting. What were you talking about?” out of breath, she looked between Omelette and Dart, waiting for an interesting answer.

“Oh you know, the weather.”

Thyme suddenly looked extremely bored. She turned away and looked back at them again, huffing at Dart’s silly sarcastic comment. 

“Cmon. Follow me!”