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// 10 - To Answer the Call 
// Story: Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers 
// by David Silver 
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They had been droning, calling, and dancing for what felt like forever. Sure, it was actually one day, but a day-long ritual was no small feat. All five of them looked haggard, four butterflies and a pony, heaving for  breath as they came into the final part, clopping their hooves down in a circle.

What they didn't expect was an equally surprised Lily to appear in the center of the circle. The head caster raised a brow high. "You are that outside pony!"

"Um, yeah?" Lily looked around slowly. "Where are we? This is the ground, right?" She could see a lack of branches. They didn't seem to be in the center of a tree either. "Are we close to Prisma?"

The pony stepped forward. "We were calling a force of nature to assist us."

Another butterfly bobbed his head. "And you appeared instead. Are you even a fae, or an animal?"

The pony waved. "She clearly must be one or the other, or she wouldn't have been called. But why would nature itself choose you of all creatures to answer us!?"

The butterfly in charge frowned. "Perhaps we failed..."

"Or perhaps you succeeded?" offered Lily with an awkward smile. "Tell me what you wanted and we'll know for sure."

The pony shrugged. "No harm in that. The ritual is done, for better or worse. We were hoping to summon a natural being that could help them." He pointed off to a small dam in an equally small river. "The beavers seem depressed, and we have failed to discern why. Their presence is vital to the local plants and animals."

"Aw!" Lily clapped her hooves together, beaming at the cute little fuzzballs that were busy around their dam. "Look at them go. Such busy little things, beavers are." She leaned forward, as if she wanted to take a step. "They say we earth ponies have a link to animals."

The pony raised a brow. "I'm an earth-bound, but I feel more kinship with storms than animals."

"Huh." She shrugged. "Well, I'm an Equestrian earth pony. You're a... whatever this place is--"

"Everglow," provided the stallion.

"Yeah, that. You're that. So it works a little different." Lily shrugged helplessly. "But I will want the girls. We're a team!"

The head butterfly, who was not the leader the druids as a whole, inclined her head. "Girls? Oh! The other outsiders?"

"Yeah." Lily bobbed her head. "Point me back at the--"

The head flutter had her hoof up. "It will be faster for us to fetch them. We'll be back." All four flutters lifted into the air, lifting up into the sky on gentle wings.

The pony watched them a moment. "I get jealous at times, how easily they can move like that."

"I hear ya." Lily nudged her new pony friend. "You're a druid, right?"

"I am." He raised a brow at Lily. "I hear you have mastered a spell."

"Several," proudly claimed Lily, sitting up. "Teacher said I could try a 'first circle' one soon. Said it worked differently a little. I want to see." She fidgeted in place, perhaps imagining what spells were to come. "Is this what Twilight feels like?"

"Twilight? Oh, there they are." Two flutters to each, they were lowering the other flower mares to the ground just in front of Lily. "Now that your friends are here, you can proceed?"

Rose took an unsure step forward. "Yeah... Hey Lily. I was super confused when you just... vanished."

"Poof!" Daisy threw her hooves wide. "Right in the middle of a sentence. You alright?"

Lily met them, a hug given and received at once. "Good to see you all. They were trying to call help for some sad beavers, and they got me."

Daisy inclined her head. "Huh. What do they think you are, Fluttershy?"

"I'm not that good, but with you two here, I think I can try." Lily turned to face the dam. "If you're up for it?"

Rose advanced to Lily's side. "We have your back."

"All the way." Daisy took up the other side. "Besides, they're just beavers."

"Beavers that need a little help." Lily advanced at a slow pace, eyes on the colony of furry critters. They were, in their own way, alien. Just like Everglow ponies, they weren't shaped right compared to Equestrian beavers. Their worlds were not the same world. But they were still animals.

They were hurting. She would do her best. "Hello." She sat down in range of them, but far enough away that she could be avoided easily. "Hello. What's bothering you?" She offered a hoof and waited. And waited.

Rose inclined her head slowly, seated a little back and to the left. The doubt was clear, but she kept her mouth shut.

A beaver advanced, sniffing at Lily curiously. Lily smiled just a little, not showing her teeth. A little twitchy nose touched her hoof and she gently brought it in for a little pet. The beaver dashed away. She didn't move, leaving her arm outstretched.

Her patience was rewarded, the same curious beaver eventually daring to come close again. She managed a little pet without it fleeing. "That's a good boy... Now what's bothering you?"

The beaver dashed away, but Lily was following at a sedate pace. The other girls watched with amazement, but let her go as she wanted. "Is it this way?" The animal had no answer, being an animal, but it kept on going, and it wasn't trying to avoid her specifically. Into the water it slipped with barely a splash.

Lily did not have waterproof fur, or even all that much skill at swimming, so she made much more of a sploosh when she dove in, swimming after the beaver. She fished out a set of goggles and slapped them on as she went, allowing her to see clearly as her furry friend went under the dam and swam up into it.

Rose turned to the druids. "Um... I think she's following it."

Daisy bobbed her head. "Duh. What else would she be doing?"

The head of the others nodded her head. "I hope this works. I was not aware she could cast first circle spells, let alone second!" The flower mares peered at the butterfly with confusion. "Did she not just use speak with animals?" Both shook her head. "Huh... I am humbled. She reached an accord without primal magic."

In the water, Lily came up with a loud gasp as she reached an air pocket inside the dam. She shook her head dry and focused on what was in front of her. It was the beaver, watching her... expectantly. She could see tunnels went past him in various directions, working through the dam. "Alright. So the problem is in here?" She pulled herself up into the cramped space. "I'm on the case."

She set her hooves on her goggles as she wriggles and sang. Light spilled out from them, becoming her torch with no heat or smoke. "That's better. How do you see in here?" The beaver had no answer. It was a beaver. "You wait here." She wriggled past the critter, searching for what was bothering them.

It was a blessing that Equestrian ponies were made of marshmallows. She could squeeze and contort  through the tunnel, slowly inching forward where many Everglow ponies would struggle. A new smell reached her. The scent of sticks and mud and the powerful musk of beavers had always been there, marking it clearly as a home of the beavers.

The new smell did not belong. "Is that?" Surely a new strange scent would be displeasing to the beavers, or so she figured, wriggling her way forward. Her going was slow, so slow, but she was doing it. She could advance, so she did. "What are you?"

She fell down into a lower tunnel with a rough grunt. Nopony said her mission would be easy! She got to pushing ahead, the scent growing stronger bit by bit. C'mere you..."

"Is she alright?" One of the other flutters was peering at where she vanished into the water. "Can you breathe water?"

Both flower mares shook their head quickly. Rose cut the air with a hoof. "Not one of our tricks," assured Daisy. "But she'll be alright. I believe in her!"

"Yeah." Rose nodded firmly. "Besides, I don't see a rush of bubbles." She was watching the calm water. "That happens when you're drowning, pretty sure."

All the druids and would-be druids watched for the sign of fresh bubbles.

What Lily did not expect was to be suddenly bit. An angry snarl came just moments ahead of a sharp pain through her left leg just past her hoof. "Ow!" There was a beaver, not like the one she followed. This beaver's eyes were bulging and spittle dropped from its mouth It was sputtering and hissing, clearly wanting her to leave.

It was not cute. And yet, Lily didn't immediately flee, nor attack, though both were fine options.  "Poor thing." The beaver was trembling and snarling at her. "Your friends are worried about you." Alas, all she knew were cantrips, and none of them seemed immediately useful... except! She spoke the words of magic in a, she hoped, soothing melody, getting a fresh hiss, but not a bite.

Focusing on the beaver, the dirt, spittle, and other signs of its lack of self care began to fade away, bit by it. She was cleaning it without touching it. This confused the little fuzzy thing. It ran its paws over its face and chest, but could find no sign of the filth that had fled it. It sank down, so very confused.

But it wasn't attacking.

Back above, the lead of the druids there shook her head. "We should not have allowed her to throw herself in the river. It will be my fault if she comes to harm. You are our guest. Your safety is our responsibility."

Rose raised a hoof. "Relax. Your fancy ritual called her, so she had to be the right pony for the job, right? Have some faith in her."

The leader squinted at Rose. "I have faith in the grand nature of things, but you are from another thing entirely. How do I have faith in something I barely understand?"

Rose put her hooves on either of the leader's shoulder with a smile. "Same way I'm doing it. She'll come back, promise. And now it's my fault." She curled a hoof on herself. "I take the blame."

The druid laughed at that, a short noise. "I appreciate the attempt, but you are not even yet a druid. This fault is mine. I was the one with that responsibility. Still, thank you. It is in kindness spoken, and I do recognize that." She dipped her head, gently bopping Rose with her antennae. "Nice of you."

A great splash announced Lily's arrival, a sickly beaver in her arms, set out on the shore limply. "He's sick!"

"You're cut!" Daisy hurried up to her friend, eyeing the bite wound on their leg. "Doesn't that hurt?!"

"Yes... a lot, actually." As if reminding her of it was too much, Lily promptly passed out, joining the beaver in the more comfortable world of the unconscious.

The druids were upon them in a hurry, separating the two. Their wounds were tended with warm natural magic and diseases banished from the both of them. With the cleansing, the other beavers began to move with more energy, as if they knew instinctively that their friend had been cured. The dam community was saved.

"Your friend is a hero." The pony among them patted the sleeping Lily. "Clearly drawn to the path of the animal. I will report her deeds, so she is assigned properly."

Daisy flashed a bright smile. "Ha! Take that, Fluttershy! She's going to be so jealous when we get back."

Rose snickered at the imagined idea. "So... animal. What are the other options, just so we have an idea."