“Lea! I’m back with what you wanted.” Matrix gave her the bags he had taken that were now filled with various plants. “Bluegrass warned me that you need to wear something to protect your paws when you work with the blue flower one. I thought she said something about poison oak, but it’s doesn’t look like that.”
“That must be the poison joke. I’ve read what it’s done to some ponies. While it might not work the same way with pokemon, it’s better to be safe rather than sorry.”
“Okay. Also, she said that one of the plants you wanted only comes in season once a year for only a day, so she doesn’t have any and doesn’t think she ever will.”
“Which one was that?” Lea asked, opening her book so she could make note of that.
“It was the zap apple. She said if we ever wanted it, we would have to go down to a place called Sweet Apple Acres during the few days it would be growing and hope you could grab one or two on the day they’re ripe. Apparently they use most of their crop for making jam.”
“Alright, I’ll take those off the list. If we can’t get them year round, it won’t be a good idea to use for potions since everyone will need them. I’m going to start making the samples now.”
“Alright. And Lea?”
“Yeah Matrix?”
“Try not to do anything that will harm you instead of heal you.”
Lea rolled her eyes. “I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Matrix said as he left Lea to her own devices.
“First on the list, heart’s desire.” Lea started off a paper to compile her notes. In front of her were various dishes with the same solution in each of them, waiting for their final ingredient. Lea moved one of the dishes so it was in front of her. After failing and grabbing it in her paws, Lea then picked up the pink, heart like flower in her mouth. When the flower was right over the dish, she pawed off a few of the tiny hearts into the dish.
After mashing the little hearts so that it was all one mix, Lea grabbed a brush and applied the liquid to one of her cuts. Once she set the brush down, she eyed the cut to see if there was any change. After about a minute of nothing happening, Lea gave up to try another plant.
“Alright, plant number seven, plunder seeds.” Lea took four of the seeds that Matrix had gotten and started to grind them up. After she had a dark grey powder, Lea added some of it into another of the solution dishes. After mixing the full solution to a light grey liquid. Lea picked up a clean brush to use on this test.
Lea found another cut on which to test on. It was smaller than some of the others, but it would do for the test. When Lea brushed the mixture onto the cut, there was an immediate effect. The cut was healed, but it was also oddly colored. After a few more seconds, Lea felt her cut start to sting and itch. Trying to keep herself from irritating it more, Lea diverted her attention to writing down the results. “Plunder seed mixture… while it heals the wound, also makes it... sting and itch!”
As she wrote her results down, Lea kept shifting from the irritation she was being caused by the cut.
“Alright, on to test number eight.”
“Test number twenty three, poison joke.”
Lea was down to her last plant, the blue flower known as poison joke. After reviewing her book, she found that her best bet was to use the stem, as the pollen from the flower that lightly powdered the petals was what caused its normal effect.
Lea had already covered her paws and was working on removing the petals from the plant. When all of them were removed, she cleaned off the stem to make sure no stray pollen particles had found their way onto the stem. Once she felt it was sufficiently clean, Lea started to crush the stem.
As Lea crushed the stem, a light blue liquid came from it. After Lea had gotten enough of the juice, she added it into one of her unaltered dishes. Once again, after mixing it, she picked up a clean brush to help her apply the mixture.
This time when Lea applied the liquid to a cut, the injury started to heal. It was slower and less than a normal potion, but it was close. Lea waited awhile to see if there would be any side effects, but it seemed that there were none.
“Okay, so the poison joke stem helps with the healing solution. It doesn’t fully heal the cut, but there is some healing properties in it. Maybe if I use a more concentrated form, it will work as a perfect substitute.”
Lea wrote her findings down near the bottom of her most recent page. She had created a small stack of her notes about four pages high. After she finished up, Lea moved the papers to the side and started to clean up. She poured the leftover unchanged solution into a single container labeling it as such. The plants she had used up and had no use for were put into a bag she was going to take up to the roof in the morning for composting.
As Lea finished up putting everything away, she yawned. A few of the tests had really taken a lot of energy from her, not to mention it was starting to get late. Lea walked over to the pasta Caddi had brought up earlier. Putting it in her mouth, Lea wished she had eaten it when it was first brought up and it was still warm.
After Lea had finished eating, she quickly brought her dishes downstairs and went back up to go to sleep. Upon arriving at the bed, Lea found Angela had already fallen asleep. She also noticed that Matrix wasn’t there with Angela, but he had started to sleep downstairs with the younger pokemon after he got tired from playing with them.
Lea grabbed an extra fluffy blanket and wrapped herself in it before getting into the bed. She pulled some of the covers Angela wasn’t using over herself. After turning a little bit, Lea found a comfy position and fell asleep.