Chapter 59: Chapter 98 – A Blooming Surprise

"I still take issue with your human invention called the grill. It's very—"

"Inefficient, I know! You have been telling us that for the better part of three hours!" I groaned.

Irapesha and I were on our way home towards the end of the afternoon after being invited to Kerry's barbecue. As a tradition, the city's fire department got together every year at their fire chief's home for a party. I had the pleasure of being invited solely to chaperone my netherfolk tenant.

Americans were obsessed with barbecuing and their love for it lent to a rich culture of food that varied from each state. Different ingredients, methods of preparations, sauces… We must have tasted ten different states' worth of barbecue since most of Vandice's fire department came from out of California.

Then there was the beer. Holy shit, there was so much beer. I wasn't old enough for alcohol, but I felt myself grow a beer belly watching them all drink.

However, the most surprising thing was Irapesha's particular fixation to how they cooked. She had wanted to do away with the grills and breathe fire on all of it instead.

"Why don't we host a barbecue? I'm sure the others would very much enjoy that," Irapesha said.

"Are you going to tell me—"

"Yes," she interjected before I could finish. "Why use a grill when we can make use of my breath? Or should I offer my stomach like you did with an egg?"

I shrunk in my seat, feeling the heat rise up to my face.

"I really wish you hadn't told the entire fire department about that… I can't show my face to them ever again." I sighed.

A barbecue at the dorm did sound like fun, but I wasn't very versed. Might need to do a little research before then.

We arrived home to a rather quiet dorm. Cresta and Tamara didn't race downstairs to greet-tackle Irapesha like they normally did.

The dragonewt by my side tensed up.

"Something's wrong," Irapesha said.

My mind went straight to assassins, but there was no way. We had a much stronger resident assassin of our own here. 

"Baa! Baa!"

Rakka rounded the corner from the kitchen and flew into us. The mana beast was distressed.

"What's wrong, girl? Where did everyone go?" I asked.

"Baa!" Rakka flew back to the kitchen.

Irapesha and I followed her in, but we were given pause to the glass door through the backyard left wide open. Because flailing around outside was a giant plant monstrosity with many whipping vines, a bulbous flower, and all of my tenants trapped in smaller bulbs on the ground with only their heads sticking out.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" I ran outside screaming.

"Ah, Caretaker!" Val was the first to regard me. "As you can see… one of my plants has grown a little out of hand. Would you be so kind as to release us before the Isilus Mandragon drains us to death?"

"But how— whoa?!"

"Wait!" Irapesha yanked me away, then pointed to a small bump in the ground where I was just standing.

She picked up a rock and flicked it over. The bump tiny sprung out like a bear trap, clamping down with thick petals just like the ones that encased my tenants. I was a split second away from becoming trapped like the others.

We threw an accusing glare to Val.

"Now, now. I know how this looks, but this is as much a surprise to me as it is to all of you!" Val exclaimed.

"You're saying you didn't plant this thing?" I asked.

"No!"

Irapesha rubbed her chin and expelled a puff of fire from her mouth.

"Valeanor called it an Isilus Mandragon. They are notorious trapping alraunes that can capture and hold even the strongest of prey," she explained.

Alraune?

"Astute, Irapesha. I expected nothing less from Granieda's greatest." Val nodded.

Sighing, I cupped my hands together and pressed my head into them. Another dangerous plant had made its way to my dorm, and I had Val to thank for that. 

"If you knew what this was, why did you risk coming into the backyard?" I pressed further.

"It only grew this large by draining our magic while you two were out. They are typically the size of a fingernail otherwise," Val said.

The main flower was a crimson red, likely ten feet tall and four wide. If what Val said about draining magic to grow was true, then this could only continue to get bigger.

"Uweh… I feel sick…" Ivory moaned, looking paler than usual.

"I'm normally the one doing the draining, so having it done to me is rather unpleasant." Ange wriggled uncomfortably within her own bulb, achieving little other than to tilt side to side.

"I have homework to do!" Tamara wailed. "I don't want to be stuck all day!"

"That makes two of us." Ines sighed.

"Akira, we're out of milk again."

We spun around to find Remmy coming into the backyard. It seemed the slime girl was the only one not trapped.

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"I think we have more important issues to worry about than milk right now. Where have you been?" I asked.

"In my room, winning." Her answer came terse and with a hint of pride.

Of course, Remmy was too engrossed in her games to have noticed something bad had happened.

"Where's Cresta? Shouldn't she be able to free everyone with ease?" Irapesha asked.

Without answering, the entire dorm simultaneously turned in Cresta's direction. She had fallen asleep, snoozing blissfully with a smile on her face.

"Our would-be rescuer remarked how it 'looks so comfortable!' and allowed herself to be caught." Ange rolled her eyes.

Irapesha and I facepalmed.

"Okay, how do we get everyone out? Can we burn it?" I asked Irapesha.

"I can—"

"NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Val screamed, swaying wildly to demonstrate her displeasure. "You will harm my beautiful garden in doing so! The Isilus is also an incredibly rare specimen. There must be another way!"

I folded my arms.

"All in favor of burning the plant say aye!"

A round of aye's erupted from everyone except Val, who hung her head as tears welled around the corners of her eyes.

Irapesha planted her feet firmly on the ground and took a deep breath. However, the earth began to shudder. The giant Isilus flower bulb trembled. Its petals unfurled one by one.

"It's blossoming!" Val exclaimed with unrestrained excitement.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?!" I asked.

A torrent of flames shot forth from Irapesha and engulfed the flower to Val's terror.

"Stop! I beg you! I command you to stop! Rakka, put it out! Put it out!" Val cried, her frenzied pleas were so intense that it startled Irapesha to a ceasefire.

Those weren't the cries of someone mourning the loss of their hard work, but fear for a life. I nodded to Rakka, who was ready to leap in on my order. The mana beast unleashed a breeze as cold as the peak of Everest, putting out the fires and blanketing the flower in a layer of snow.

At last the flower reached full bloom, revealing a figure in the center. There sat a small girl, shorter than even Tamara and Ivory, with cloudy green skin like jade, and wrapped around her waist was a skirt of pink and orange petals. A crown of flowers wreathed her head and long green hair with a leafy-texture draped down her body.

"Is that… a dryad?" I reluctantly asked.

Irapesha shook her head. "No. That's an alraune. All that magic she drained must have enabled her birth. We must destroy it before she grows to become a menace."

"I think not!" Val broke free from the bulb, raced up to the alraune, and enveloped the girl in her arms. "Can't you see how confused and scared she is?"

The alraune girl was shaking. Parts of her body were charred from Irapesha's fire.

When the flower traps loosened, the others joined Val in meeting the humanoid plant. Cresta was the only one who didn't, still asleep and now lying on the ground after being released.

I walked over to join them and knelt down in front of her. She was maybe only two feet tall. A tangle of roots that were her arms and legs rested limp by her side. As I reached out to her, so did she, binding the roots and vines together to form a hand that grabbed my finger.

"Whatever we do, I have to call this in to Professor Markel," I said.

A whole ass task force arrived at the dorm in haste out of an abundance of caution. Imagine my surprise when they took their caution to the next level, and the professor entered the dorm in a hazmat suit and respirator mask.

We were all gathered in the living room while he and a team of scientists carefully inspected the terrified alraune girl.

"Well, it doesn't appear to expel any toxins." Professor Markel ripped the mask from his face and sucked in a deep, unrestrained breath.

"You thought she would release poison or something?" I asked, suddenly scared of her existence.

"Can never be too careful. The number of plants that can kill you from a whiff doubles that of Earth. You said this is an Isilus Mandragon?" He turned to Val.

"Yes, and I hope you don't intend to take her away." Val pushed the scientists aside and scooped the alraune into her arms, cradling her like a baby.

The professor heaved a sigh and gestured for me to follow him into the kitchen.

"I'm guessing we can't keep her?" I whispered.

"It's more complicated than that," Professor Markel began, the weariness of the job showing in his eyes and strained voice. "The plant from which this girl was born from is high on the list of dangerous flowers that is to be destroyed on sight, as ordered by King Tarcosa."

Which explained Irapesha's willingness to burn it without hesitation.

He continued. "The problem is… She is the very first netherfolk to be born in this world. Even more troubling is that she was born in the United States."

"Why's that a problem?"I asked. "Shouldn't that be great? We can just treat her as another netherfolk tenant. Val and some of the others have already grown fond of her, too."

The professor sucked on his teeth and casted a sidelong glance at the tenants playing with the newborn alraune. They were smitten by her. Nothing about her seemed dangerous, but this was Tarcosa we were talking about. 

"Under our Constitution, anyone who is born on U.S. soil is a naturalized citizen. Weyeran natives enter our world as immigrants, and she is not an immigrant having been born here. What I'm trying to say is… by law, she is not allowed to stay at this dorm. We may have to take her away for the dorm's safety."

Val was not going to be happy about that.

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