Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers

by David Silver

16 - All I Have Taught You

"You three are just unbelievable." Tree prowled towards their window. "You've learned everything there is for an initiate to learn. That isn't to say everything, as if any being can claim that. Even the gods have gaps in their knowledge, and you're not that." She paused, almost tripping over a beaver that decided to cross her path. "Excuse me."

Daisy waved a hoof excitedly. "The way our first teacher, and our orders talk, there's loads of things we don't know."

Rose nodded with a little humming. "But we know more than we did before."

"You know a lot more than you did before." Tree Whisper's tail lashed as she considered the trio on her meandering path through their room. "Not masters, no, but not initiates either. There really is just one last thing to learn, but I have a theory... Unicorns often do, so forgive that." She turned towards them properly. "Have you all been accepted?"

Daisy waved a hoof. "Almost. They're really happy with me. I've learned where to put a fire, and where to keep a fire away. How to use fire without making a fire that shouldn't be there too, and how to fix mistakes, since those can happen." She blushed as she went over that, as if she may or may not have already made such a mistake. "Good thing nature magic covers that."

Rose pointed to her new collection of art. Unlike her mentor, she favored more than clay pots, though there was a few of those. "I have learned to listen to what the planet beneath us wants." She flicked an ear back. "I feel like an old school earth pony, listening to rocks. Maybe I could hear Maud's emotions now..." She looked quite musing a moment. "Sorry, got off track, friend of ours from back home."

Lily leaned to the side, and soon had Bold Support there to lean against without any spoken commands, the two clearly on the same page. "Speaking of old friends, I feel ready to out-Fluttershy Fluttershy. I can't talk to animals on a whim like she can, admittedly, but I have spells." She grinned, crooking a hoof as if she were mid-casting. "So I can do things she can't. Seems a fair trade."

"About spells." Tree spread her hooves just as wide as need be to encompass the angle of the flower mares. "I meant to ask, have you tried casting something bigger than a cantrip together? Do you all have to prepare the same spell? Is it even possible?"

Rose hiked a brow. "You were acting like you had a theory. Was that it?"

Lily shrugged, snuggling her beaver. "Didn't sound like one."

"Sorry, just a passing thought." Tree stepped from one hoof to the next with a calming breath. "Alright, the theory. I think you three already know druidic."

Daisy shrugged at the idea. "I'd think we'd know if we learned a new language." The other two nodded at that. One did not, usually, surprise-learn an entire language.

"Not if you didn't know it was a language." Tree leaned towards them with a smug smile. "Say if you thought you were learning a song or two?"

The three shared a look, dubious noises shared. Rose was the first to step away from the others. "The only songs we learned were the spells, and the spells are 'primal magic', right? Do only druids use that?"

"Nope." And yet Tree did not look like she was proven wrong just yet. "But you were taught the druidic way. There's a difference. You don't just cast things the primal way, you cast them the druidic way, which includes hearing our songs." She tapped at her own head. "In your sleep, and you can understand those just fine, and you've learned our ways, so..."

Daisy was giddily vibrating, the giggle only barely audible. "Alright, so how do we... do that? The songs I hear are the spells, not words to ask for another serving."

"Framing." The room grew quiet at Tree's lone word. "It's how you look at it, I mean. Alright... Try this for example." And she sang a song. A song of spring and summer, of coming heat and blossoming life. She sang of song of cycles, even if she was focusing one one part of the cycle. "What language was that in?" she asked just out of nowhere, right in the middle of the song.

Rose blinked rapidly. "Po...nish?"

"Druidic." Oh, how satisfied Tree looked in that instant. "Every word, and you understood it. I could see you were following along. I bet you could sing it too. Songs come naturally for you three."

Lily waved that away. "Get out!"

"Try it first." Daisy was still excitedly, dancing from hoof to hood. "Here goes!" And she sang a song of a cleansing fire, clearing away underbrush from a forest. Some would not make it, but the forest would become stronger as a result. Life would rush to fill the space made. It was a needed fire, a good fire.

Tree clopped her hooves together. "Perfect! I knew it. You three knew druidic already. Couldn't say for how long, but long enough. Now, slower." She turned to Lily, who hadn't spoken any yet. ~Greetings.~

Lily's ears danced. "Was that druidic?" Tree nodded without a word. "Oh, um... ~Hiya~ she didn't say, more of a singing. ~I'm doing it!~ she kept right on singing, her ears darkening at the tips. "That is too strange."

Tree nodded slowly. "Good good. Now that you know it, never pass that on." She waved a hoof. "Teach that language to a non-druid and you will be stripped of your power and stop being a druid."

Rose heard the one part that really mattered. "We're druids now?"

Tree dipped her head. "You have nothing else in your way, other than being welcomed to your order, which it sounds like two of you have done."

The three met, hooves in the air, crashing against one another in a great clop of mutual pride. They did it! Lily dipped back half a step. "Wait... If we're druids... Girls..." The other two looked at her. "This means... We can't just get scared anymore."

Rose hiked a brow at Lily. "Why not? I'm not feeling suddenly braver."

Lily pointed at Daisy. "If a big fire was making a mess, you would..."

"Try to put it out." She rubbed at an ear. "Wouldn't you? Fire isn't your specialty, but you wouldn't just... Oh. Oh..." Realization set in for the second of the flower mares.

Rose threw her hooves wide. "I don't get it. I'm still me. I'm still Rose. I will get scared of things. It's kind of... our thing."

Lily leaned towards Rose, the pillar of their group. "You were always the bravest anyway." This was not a high bar to get over. "But if someone... say Flim and Flam, were busy making a big mess that tore up the ground to dig up gems they decided they wanted, you would...?"

Rose grunted at that mental image. "I'd thump them on the head! Sounds like a great use of that shillelagh spell. One bop for each of them!"

"That isn't the Rose of yesterday's reaction," noted Lily with a little smile. "And that's... That's alright..."

Daisy set a hoof on Rose's side. "We changed."

"Change is scary." Rose sank to the ground. Despite her words, she wasn't trying to argue that it hadn't happened. "Can I be scared of that?"

"Only if I get to join you." Daisy flopped down next to Rose.

"Let me in on that." Lily came in on the other side, Bold Support curling with her. The three flopped over together, sharing in their moment of abject terror. "The horror."

"The horror," agreed Rose.

"The horror," echoed Daisy, the three dying, or at least passing out for the time being.

Tree was left with three defeated flower mares and their beaver, all flopped over and killed. "Is... this a bad time? Do you need any help?"

Lily peeked open an eye. "It's a coping thing."

"It doesn't feel the same." Rose pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Still helps though." Noises of agreement came from the other two. "So... druids! We're those? What does that mean exactly?"

Tree blinked softly. "You went through the learning and trials and are still unclear on that? I can't... Outsiders." But there was a little smile on her face, more amused by the alien nature of the others at that point. "You have promised to watch and care for the primal orders of the world." She slowly swirled one hoof over her head, to repeat down low. "The animals." She nodded at Lily. "The earth." She nodded to Rose. "And the fire." A nod given to Daisy, "And how they come together and make a wonderful whole. We are its watchers. Its power is ours, but so is the responsibility of its health."

Daisy nodded at that quickly. "I got that part, but then? What do we do... day to day? We were florists." She waved at the other two flower mares. "That meant get up early in the morning, care for the flowers, snip some, make pretty arrangements and sell them to ponies that want them."

"What is the day to day for a druid?" Lily threw a leg over Bold Support. "I have to take care of him and I don't mind that part, but that isn't the whole thing, right?"

"That's a big question." Tree resumed her meandering, a habit she had when thinking big thoughts. "A druid, at face, doesn't have a strict schedule, other than making sure they take part in the dream songs and prepare themselves for the day. After that... It's up to them." She turned towards the florists. "Some go on grand adventures." They winced as once. "Okay, maybe not that... Some teach other druids, like our teachers did for us. Caring for the next generation is very important."

Daisy waved excitedly. "Do some fires go looking for places in need of a good burning?"

"Yes." Tree nodded. "I could go to the beachside and make a living for myself as I kept an eye on the waters and what happened in it. I could do that in sea town, city, or just a lonely hut. Up to me which feels right, and which I can pull off." She wrinkled her nose faintly. "Right now, I'm still keeping an eye on some strange ponies that I've decided aren't all bad."

Lily came in with Bold, trapping Tree in a hug from left and right, "Aw, you're not all bad either."

Rose rolled her eyes with a snort. "Glad we rate at least as 'not all bad'. Fine, so... We became druids and... up to us what we do with it. No guide, no orders, just, go on, live your thing and keep an eye on nature, focusing on your order?"

"Yep." Tree burst into a brief bit of giggle. "Sorry if you were hoping for more than that, but druids are very individual, so if we tried to be more strict than that, we'd scare half our fine candidates away for no good reason. Mind, some circles are like that." She pointed out to the colorful city of Prisma just outside the window. "But not here. The flutters adore self expression, and how they druid doesn't really deviate from that. Show your colors, that's a favorite saying of theirs."

"About the flutters." Daisy rocked in place with an unsure smile. "They aren't ponies, but they seem to like them, a lot."

"A lot," agreed Tree. "Is that bad? A friend is a friend, no matter the race they happen to be. The flutters are ready to welcome you as one of their own, or just be a pony, they like that too."

Rose's brows came down and together. "About that... Are we allowed to leave now, if we want to?"

Author's Note:

The big question~

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own written here at atreon!

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Ah, they can Sing at will now, very good indeed.

Yes, learning and doing new things is scary, but they've got each other, no?

[Booster Spice]

Now they can start getting levels in Druid Class, but has it unlocked an options from Character level, stat biases or have they already been taken into account?