Tiny Vessels

Rain moved through the garden with his nose to the ground, searching intently while the monkey at his side rooted about the overgrown grasses and vines. While most healers prepared for winter by stocking up on herbs to treat coughs and runny noses Rain knew enough about healing to know that the best treatment for colds and flus was to boost the immune system not to get it in the first place. While the garden was home to several green plants that would be beneficial with the coming dry season the small male knew the best treatments came from fruits. With the prolonged wet season several of the citrus fruits were still in bloom and had collections of ripe fruit at their branches. Rain however sought something else entirely.

One of the vines growing rampant in the garden bore a veritable rainbow of hanging pods ranging from green, to bright red and every conceivable color in between. Bell peppers. Bell peppers were thankfully less painful to eat than chili peppers and had a great deal more vitamin C than oranges. He had learned of the marvelous properties of the plants while he was abroad traveling with his father. Although he hadn’t learned much in his time away from Boreas what he had learned had proven to be valuable, once to his father, and now to the empire since his father’s abandonment.

Although the vine had grown wild for years without human intervention the hanging pods were not out of reach even for the male, as small as he was. He shrugged the clunky bags off his back and shook his fur  out before he rose onto his hind legs and began plucking the vegetables off the vines. Some of the otherwise green pods were splotched with red or yellow but most were either a solid color such as orange or red. It occurred to Rain quickly that none of the pods appeared to be yellow until he saw a single pod near the top of the vine, glistening with morning dew. It was far too high for Rain to reach on his own and the structure of the vine itself was too frail to support Faldur. It was silly but the fact that the pod was so unobtainable only made Rain want it more and he began to wonder who would be worthy of the “golden fruit” he would offer when he returned to the kingdom. His first thought was Malleus but he felt he had done enough for the king and he would most likely be unimpressed by the gift. He then thought of Pyrric, the two had become friends in a sense since the day Rain found him lost in the woods. He would be a year old soon and he supposed if anyone would appreciate the thoughtful gift it would be him. For Rain that settled it, he would have to get the yellow pod one way or another.

The two first attempted to reach the pod by standing on top of each other; the primate holding Rain in his outstretched hands while Rain grappled feebly for the yellow pod, only to come up sort. The two then switched places, with Faldur standing on Rain’s shoulders while the wolf braced himself against the frail fencing the vine had been growing on. Just as Faldur was about to reach the pod however the fencing gave out and Rain toppled to the ground, bringing his companion down with him who fell over his ribs, knocking all the wind out of him. He twisted and got to his paws shaking sawdust from his fur just in time to see the entirety of the fencing come crashing down and dragging the vine system down with it.

Rain folded his ears briefly, acutely aware that his own stupidity had robbed the empire of future use of the peppers until further notice. He gently plucked the single yellow pod then quickly began collecting as many of the pods that he could from the newly felled fencing. He would have to find some way to preserve them in the hopes that they would last long enough for the vine to regrow and pray to the Fallen One that Malleus didn’t find out what he had done and why.

Rain and Fauldr placed as many of the pods as they could inside his bags, leaving the single yellow pod separate from the others to ensure that no one else picked it out at random. He placed the golden pod in the top bag of his pack where it would remain separated until he could give it to Pyrric, then took one of the red colored pods and gently planted it at the base of a nearby tree. He would have to come back later with a trellis before the vine began to grow in earnest just to protect the tree but for now it would just have to make do.

Word Count: 825

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