Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ Lessons In Passing ( Chapter 3 )

Ryven led Rowyn towards a beautiful enclosed greenhouse which grew just about every species of plant, both alien and earthly, known through the universe.

Blooms of various hues against glossy green foliage and bare brown entwining limbs grew upwards to drape like a canopy on the inside of the dome-like glass walls and ceiling.

Rowyn paused in the doorway to admire the garden where everything seemed to grow wild and free. There were no straight rows of plants here, everything mixed and mingled with each other, flowing vines with pretty white blossoms embraced tree limbs like lovers and the occasional weed squeezed in among the roses like a outcast friend come home. It was chaotic, to be certain, but there held a large amount of harmony to that chaos as well.

Ryven, always having preferred the outdoors to any place else, assumed the other elf felt the same. She knew that it was too soon to take her back down to the ground so she thought this indoor greenhouse, this garden grown under an artificial sun, for there were grow lights mounted throughout the area, would be nearly like the real thing and help to breach the barrier of fear which still held her at an arm's length from the other girl.

She wanted Rowyn to open up, to trust her. More than that, she wanted to be the girl's friend. Someone she could trust. Someone she wouldn't feel afraid to come to and confide in. Ryven could feel that a friend was something very alien to this little rabbit of an elf.

"Oooh!" Rowyn exclaimed, she ran to a small, very tender flower with petals of various hue, seeming to change all the time by the way the light shone upon it, "Look! It's so pretty!"

Ryven looked over Rowyn's shoulder at the flower she'd discovered and an odd taste hit the back of her throat. She realized that she recognized that flower, thought not from the greenhouse…a coldness crept up her spine…She knew that blossom! How in the world it had gotten into the greenhouse she'd never know…! She started to reach out to Rowyn, to pull her away…!

"Get away from that, Rowyn!" She cried, but the other girl seemed not to hear her, for once, however this was not the time to start ignoring her commands! "Rowyn!"

"Such a pretty, perfect little flower…" Rowyn muttered, admiring it from all angles, the colors of the blossom faded in an out, and spiraled around in various shades and hues, patterns and shapes, making her dizzy just by staring, "I could watch it all day…I wonder…"

She reached out her hand, to touch the wondrous bloom, growing there all alone, all the other plants around it having died and gone back to the soil. Ryven made a swift move and grabbed her by her shoulder, yanking her backwards.

She ran up to the flower, which was now not pretty in the least as it's center had broken apart in three separate directions and a huge maw had forced itself outward from that disrupted center, open and gaping, rows upon rows of needle-sharp teeth waiting, gashing, seeking blindly it's prey…

With a quick swipe of her sword, Ryven severed the horrid mouth and watched in disgust as it plopped from the flower's stem, leaving it quivering there, headless, in pain.

Quickly, for she knew that the flower would only grow a second blossom just as fast as it's first was cut off, Ryven used her sword's sharp point to slash as the ground and dig up the roots of the offending plant. Once she'd gotten it all, she carried it to the incinerator and threw it all in, dirt and all.

"W-what was that?" Rowyn asked from where she'd fallen after Ryven had shoved her away, "Ryven?"

"A Kaleidoscope plant," Ryven replied, drying her blade off on her pants and re- sheathing it, "It's changing colors and patterns draws the prey in, hypnotizing it somewhat until it either bends down to try and sniff it or reaches out to touch it. Then, it strikes! Thought, how in the world one got in here is beyond me!"

"I…I didn't know…" Rowyn said, feeling slow and stupid next to this beautiful, graceful and capable elf. "I'm sorry…"

"No, it's okay, Rowyn," Ryven said, "But didn't you feel it's ki? Didn't you feel how it felt...negative…?"

"Ki?" Rowyn looked up, confused, "What is that?"

"It's the essence, the life energy which surround all living beings," Ryven tried to explain, she wasn't very good at teaching things, at least she never thought she was, "If you try hard enough you can feel the ki around you from other beings...animals, even plants.

Sometimes inanimate object like chairs or a table has a ki signature around it left over like a residue after people have been using it. Some things, like dangerous plants, emit a negative-feeling ki that acts kinda like a warning device to other creatures who may intend it harm…see…here…I'll show you."

Rowyn listened raptly as Ryven talked, the watched as she held out her hands and after a moment or two her fingers began to glow. Rowyn gasped as she stared at the other elf's hands. After a few more moments, the glow grew into a shape and became large and circular. Ryven held it out on both upturned palms, turning to show Rowyn.

"What is it?" Rowyn asked, eyes wide, the orb floating inches from Ryven's palms reflecting back at her through the darkness of the younger elf's eyes.

"A ki ball," Ryven said, and pulled the orb back into herself, dissipating it as swiftly as she had created it, "You can make one too. Go on, try it."

Rowyn looked at her hands, uncertain. "I…I'm not sure…"

"It's easy!" Ryven said, "Look at your hands, but don't really look at them, think about all the energy you have inside you, like how your body seems to tingle when you touch certain objects. Feel that energy and explore upon it, get to know it. Then, when your ready, pull it all up from inside you, focus it upon the place you wish it to be, the shape you wish it to take…"

After a few tense moments, a small, flickering orb about the size of a fingernail shimmered upon Rowyn's palm. She turned to see how Ryven was watching her and the small ball disappeared when she looked back. Disappointed, Rowyn hung her head.

"Don't worry about it, Rowyn," Ryven smiled, "Just practice and you'll get it. That actually wasn't bad for your first try."

"You've shared something with me," Rowyn said, shyly, "Now I wish to share something with you…"

Ryven, heel-sitting beside her, waited. Rowyn reached into the neckline of the gi Piccolo had provided for her and pulled out a chain. It glittered like white-gold, but looked brighter than any normal gold.

Upon it's end dangled a locket in the space of a leaf, also crafted of the same strange metal. She opened the locket and instead of seeing two old photographs, as she had expected, two holograms flooded out and stood a few feet away.

One, an older elven woman with hair dark and wavy, trailing down to her feet, was holding a little girl elf by her hands and twirling her around in a circle, both had smiles of laughter on their faces.

The other hologram showed a stout young male elf, a bow and quiver of arrows held in his hands. He was smiling at the woman and child, obvious love and pride upon his face.

They flickered in and out as if Rowyn had often watched these scenes play out.

"They were my parents," Rowyn said, watching them, she pointed to the little girl, "And that was me. Before…before they were killed and I…I was taken away…"

"Rowyn…"

"Wasn't I cute?" Rowyn asked, ignoring Ryven's attempt at sympathy, at empathy, really, for she knew what it was to lose a loved one, "Look how pretty Mother looked…"

"Yes, she…was very pretty," Ryven said, "Rowyn, how is that none of us found this on you when you were…sleeping….?"

"Oh," Rowyn said, closing the locket and ending the holograms with a zzpt kind of sound, she tucked it back into her clothing, the chain disappeared against the girl's fair skin,"It was made for me by my only friend…a dwarf smith who used to make all the armor and weapons for them…" Ryven still had no clue as to who these people were Rowyn kept referring to, but she thought that there would be time enough to dwell into that later,

"He had been captured, too, like me, only he'd been half-grown when he'd been taken, because they needed him to know his trade.

He had a magical mythril tunic which someone had left for him to fix a hole got in battle and then the wearer was killed himself, leaving the tunic ownerless.

The dwarf melted the tunic down, and decided to make of it what he always longed to make even though he was forced to make things of war.

He made pretty trinkets and jewelry. He made me this locket and unbeknown to either of us, the magic within the tunic still lay within each of the pieces of jewelry he'd created out of it.

It turns invisible to both the eye and the touch whenever I am not actively touching it. He also helped me with the installation of the holochips as well. It's my most prized possession and I haven't shown it anyone other than the dwarf who made it for me."

"Thank you, Rowyn," Ryven said, "For showing it to me."

Rowyn blushed and grew silent. She hadn't talked so much at one time since before she'd been captured! Somehow, she felt different, comfortable around this other elf, almost as if she had somehow stumbled upon a long lost sister of sorts.

"Are you hungry?" Ryven asked, feeling and hearing her stomach growl, "I am! Come on! Let's go see what we can scrounge up around here!"

Rowyn nodded and followed, still more comfortable being led. Well, Ryven thought, at least she's opening up more. One thing at a time…