ORIGIN

This time, when he pressed his magic into the tree, a meager few white caps bloomed out, quickly rendered to smoldering ash as the pyromancer ran over them with his flames. He could help in more ways then just control and regrowth.

He looked around, wondering how many of these trees and plants had the infection running deep into their roots. For a moment, he understood the desire to burn the forest down and regrow it, uninfected. His nerves and hesitancy melted away just a bit at these thoughts. Maybe it would be better to simply...destroy and rebuild.

Another burst of his magic brought a little more of the mold to the surface, but fungus resisted his attempts - only a bit, quickly burned, was able to be pulled onto the bark.

By this time, September was wrapping up his own magic and the last of the fire winked away, leaving smoldering remains where there had once been fungus and order-infested plants. Rift nodded to him, his heartbeat settling now that the fire was mostly put out.

The area was not actively on fire, but it was smoldering. An ember could easily catch into a blaze if they weren't careful. As September turned, Rift nodded. "I'll be there in a second. Lemme just fix it up here a bit."

He made his rounds around the area they'd burned and spat small jets of water onto the worst of the embers, to put them out completely so they didn't turn into a problem later.

With the area blackened and charred, Rift knew that growth would happen again soon - healthy, uninfected plants would soon rise to take their place. But knowing that they had the Master of Plants breathing down their necks, and also saddened by the sight of the devestation, Rift stepped forward, closing his eyes and pressing a paw down.

There were plenty of stray seeds that had fallen onto the ground in the thousands of cyces that Eridanus had been here, some were buried in the earth, safe from the flames, and these were the ones Rift called to. All around him, small sprouts and young plants began to poke their way out of the ashen earth, a speckled spread of green overtaking the blackened ground.

As he made to press more magic into the plants surrounding him, to speed them up into the next stage of their growth, there came a sudden backlash, a halt in the magic that quickly soured. A few of the sprouts directly around Rift immediately died off, wilting and crumbling.

"Damn," he hissed, stepping back from them, as if burned.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and tried again, more careful this time as he spread his influence across the area, coaxing each of the plants to grow more - not quite to flowering stage, but each would mature, going from sprouts and small leaves to grasses and ferns well on their way to adulthood.

He breathed deeply as he released the spell, eyes blinking open again and smiling at the now much more lush area. It would take time to bring it back to its former self, but much of the infection in this area of Eridanus was gone, at least. Hopefully, it wouldn't return.

With a satisfied nod to himself, he trotted forward to follow after September.

*exit