ORIGIN

Rift nodded and glanced around vaguely. It would probably be a little difficult to find some seeds here, but he knew that he had a good stash back at his home. "I have a place where I live that has everything you need. Lots of seeds, plenty of healthy plants that you can move, and I have some hand-made baskets that you can use to move everything."

He stood and gestured with his tail in the direction of his home. It wasn't too far away but he didn't want to just turn and disappear for a while to go and gather supplies for Oliver. "Do you want to follow me there?"

Rift led the way to his home and listened as Olive continued to speak. "Yeah! I use them to carry things around Eridanus and through my garden so I'm sure that you'll be able to use them to take your things to the bone room." By now they reached the edge of the trees that opened to Rift's garden and the massive tree that he called home. This was one of few places that had already recovered from the fire, as Rift had spent a great deal of time and energy restoring it to its former beauty. He wound his way through bushes and flowers until he was at the base of the roots and disappeared inside.

He grabbed a couple of empty baskets from inside and pulled them out for Oliver to see. "Here you go. They're no really big but they should be pretty easy to carry. And they're sealed enough that most seeds won't fall out." He looked away and leaned down, nuzzling the ground carefully as he sent magic into the roots. He closed it eyes and focused as the plants around his garden began to shiver. It was a rustling sound that spread throughout the whole garden as each plant threw off seed after seed onto the ground and pushed them towards the center. Vines and leaves and petals swept at the ground like brooms to push the seeds closer to where Rift and Oliver were standing. When it became too much, Rift gasped and released the magic. Immediately, the plants went back to the way they were, waving innocently in the breezes.

All around them were all kinds of seeds that the plants had swept up and Rift began walking around, pawing them together into a small mound. "Is there anything you can do?" He paused and considered. He had never thought that giving favors required some kind of payment but...there was, perhaps, something that Oliver could do. "Besides growing plants outside of Eridanus, if you could talk about here. This place. To others that would understand and perhaps want to contribute to helping nature thrive. That is, if you come across anyone. You don't have to go out of your way." He sat down and began scooping up the seeds with a big leaf and carefully dumping them into one of the baskets.

Rift's whiskers twitched a little selfconsciously but the raising of his ear showed his pride at Oliver's small praise. It wasn't often that he had visitors that he trusted and it felt good to have his skills appreciated. "Yes, yes I'm fine. It's just a little difficult to move so many things at once."

He stepped back from the basket and swept his tail happily. "Thank you for doing this. It's good to know that there are other gembounds that appreciate the beauty of nature and try to spread it to the darkest corners. Hopefully the bone room will be made more beautiful by the garden. And...I'm sorry for being so rude and mean to you when we first met. I'll try to get better at that." He looked around at the soot-stained trees in the distance. Even though his garden was almost back to normal, there was still much more forest to recover. "Hopefully it will get easier."

He sat himself down and gave Oliver a dip of his head in farewell and turned to leap back into the trees but hesitated. "If you ever make some discovery or headway, or you need my help again, feel free to return. I'll be here."

Without another moment's pause, the cat bounded away and scrambled up the nearest tree. Only choosing the strongest branches, he climbed through the burnt canopy and disappeared into the forest.

*exit, unless stopped