"Use your fur. Grow some on your shoulders or on your back, and you'll always be armed, just in case." Her response was near-immediate-- in the sort of way that it was clear this was something Aethril was going to bring up anyway.

She let go of her grip on the vines and the oil-slick foliage crumpled limply to the ground, inwardly splashing iridescent-black oil on the ground. "That's good," she said, shifting. "You can set traps on the ground, too-- don't stand on mine."

Aethril shook her wrists out and focused; but nothing came. She cast a quick dart of her eyes over Pollen and-- "hold on a second."

double posting w permission

The Hand was shaking her arms and legs out, now. The spell she was going for was difficult-- brutal, but one she hadn't done too often. She liked to be direct, like Obieth, she supposed-- she wasn't the type for traps and waiting for them to work if she had to fight.

She liked to see the effect she had while fighting. She liked to see blood and fire and lightning. She liked the tang of blood and sweat in the air, the taste of ash in her mouth, and the ring of her ears from booming thunder. But it was clear what an asset it was to corrupt the very ground someone could walk on.

Pitfall traps were very valuable.

Her hands outstretched forward and corruption left her body and sept into the ground-- but this time it didn't just take hold of the roots and corrupt the grass. The very soil and cave floor underneath were plagued and blackened; and soon it was crumpling away.

With a great rumble the very ground shuddered as it bled away to reveal shiny, dark gemstones underneath a ravine six feet or so deep-- difficult enough to most people to climb out of, with sheer, slick gemstone walls.

Aethril was overlooking her work for a moment, sweat beading down her temples and the back of her neck. "Don't get too close," she reminded Pollen warily. "But do you think you can do something like this?"

@Pollen

Grow plants. Pollen should get something beefier, then, than just honeysuckle and ivy... She hummed, gently, trying to think of what she could use. Traps in the ground, then, and Pollen drew her limbs in closer, watching as Aethril prepared her magic.

She startled backwards, shuffling up and making her way behind Aethril as the caves moved and shuddered, staring at the forming hole as crushing rock sounded in her ears. Could she do that? "I can only do plants!" she squeaked, her voice cracking as she shouted.

Could she do that someday? It was so big, and she slowly stepped out from behind Aethril's legs, looking at the giant ravine. She wouldn't get close- not with Aethril's warning- but she still stared with wide eyes.

Carefully, very tentatively, Pollen looked to a larger sort of tree, curling her claws into the earth as she tried... Something. Roots shuddered, slightly, and curled back- but they barely scraped the earth, pulling it away languidly rather than the speed of Aethril's ravine.

It was the best she'd probably get, for now. A small divot into the topsoil, churned up by slow, ancient roots, but it was a hole.

Just, with her own magic.

@Aethril

Aethril padded around to take a look at the hole Pollen had made, thinking. "You could probably do more than plants," she offered. "A lot of people can do two or three kinds of magic-- even more." Not her, and not the corrupted, but that didn't matter.

"Take some time to practice and explore. Just-- do whatever you think of, and it might come to," came Aethril's suggestion. She weaved past the two holes and went back to her spot to sit down, slumping down against the tree trunk.

Another flash of magic and she was quietly refreshed, slumping a little further down until her chin had caved into her neck, eyes falling half-shut. "Take a stab at it now, if you'd like. I need a few minutes to rest."

@Pollen

She did want to do more than plants, but she wasn't truly aware of what she could do. Right now, her mind was on the magic she knew, and she was comfortable there. But-- perhaps, in the future she could learn? Maybe, and she stowed that idea in her mind away for another day.

For now, she drew her hand up, looking at the vines twirling down it. She could have her weapons on her, and she mulled on that for a moment, drawing the plants closer to the end of her limb. It was a few small tendrils, but they wrapped around each other and tied together, and Pollen took it in her paw as she felt its short length hand off of her arm.

She could trip someone up with this. Flexing her digits over the thin braid of vines, Pollen stepped forward into the grove (and side-stepped the ravine), turning her wrist this way and that as she tested her limits.

Like the vine she'd charmed before, Pollen used her hand to twist back, her upper torso turning with it as she prepared. Then, fast, she whipped her arm around and used the plants along with it to whip out into the open, the end turning back and coming dangerously close to slashing her. She squeaked as she sidestepped, and the vines fell to the ground, and she stared for a good moment.

This could be a weapon.

The child now had a weapon.

Pollen grinned, looking back at Aethril. "Look at this!" She waved the whip around wildly, churning up dirt as she went wild with her new... toy? She was lucky she didn't cut herself yet- but the whip came many times.

@Aethril

Aethril did not move from her spot, damn near half-asleep on her spot by now. The sound of Pollen working away-- vines creaking, leaves rustling above --left a pleasant tingling sensation in the very back of her skull. Her eyelids fluttered, pupils vanishing underneath thick eyelashes.

But it was the crack of a whip that forced her awake again, blinking half-alarmedly. "Oh," she murmured. "Oh! Yes, I know things like that." She recalled some using whips to make their mounts go faster, and others whipped the backs of their enemies for punishment.

She could almost taste the blood on her tongue. "You could try weaving thorns into it," she suggested. "When you strike someone with it, the thorns will take hold and take out chunks of skin and meat. If you got a rebel's legs with it, it might stop them from going too far."

Assuming losing blood wasn't an issue, of course. "You could figure out how to use it to take away the things they're holding, too-- disarm them, in a way."

@Pollen

Pollen halted for a moment, blinking back up to Aethril. "Does it have a name..?" If there were things like this before, then they'd be a genuine thing, wouldn't they?

Aethril's suggestion stuck in her mind. Thorns. The muta's free hand came to hold the thin, braided whip, considering for a long moment. It was a lot of work, and a lot of concentration, but the plants coiled around themselves and grew thicker and longer- and, soon, pin-prick thorns grew from the vine that was past her hand.

This would really hurt someone. She could catch a rebel with this... Grinning wider, Pollen drew up her arm and rolled her wrist, looping the whip and SNAPping it right into the air, both surprising and delighting the kid. With it on her, too, she wouldn't lose it, and it could regrow if it broke... This really was a great weapon!

She let her hand drop once she'd cracked the whip, rolling it up and tying it back up around her arm. "I wanna try and learn how to disarm people! -- What is disarming?" She'd walked back to Aethril to talk, flexing her arm. The vine looked like just that- a vine- when it was tied up, blending in with the other plants that curled down her arms already.

This would work wonders, she figured, smiling as she turned her arm this way and that.

@Aethril

"A whip," the Hand responded. "There are a lot of different kinds. A bullwhip is like the one you have-- it's long and thin, and snappy. A riding crop is blunter and doesn't really snap as loudly-- it's for making people go faster." There were... other uses for such things, but Pollen sure as hell didn't need to know about that.

One leg folded over the other as Aethril got comfortable, fingers digging underneath the low collar of her shirt to itch the skin around her gemstone. "Disarming is taking away someone's weapon," she went on. "Their arm. If you're to take up a weapon, you're taking up arms."

From a distance, she studied the thorned whip. Pollen would be lucky if she didn't kill someone with it-- or at the very least, horribly, horribly maim someone with it. It was a simple but effective weapon; and she seemed to be quickly getting the hang of it. Some more practice and the little gardener would be incredibly dangerous.

Aethril licked her teeth, smirking. She liked that image.

"You'll need a good aim," she said. "I don't know how to do it myself-- but if you do practice with someone, make sure they're well-protected from the whip damage, should you miss."

@Pollen

A whip, then. Pollen itched idly at the roots that buried in her skin- but, without good eating, perhaps it'd be worse than it could be. Her's was a bullwhip (does it... whip bulls? Where'd she get that idea?) and she did like the snapping loudly part. She'd rather have what she had than a riding crop, then. Besides, she didn't need to make people go faster.

Letting go of her arm, Pollen slowly unraveled her whip again, listening. Her whip was her arms (or, like extra arms?) and with it, she could take away an enemies. She hadn't seen other weapons, but she got the idea, anyways. She turned the whip over, considering, and looked up to Aethril.

Weren't whips what Rodd Danger used..? She turned around and thought long and hard, looking at the vine draped over her palm. "Can I make my whip magical like Rodd's?" She held it up, then swung it down to crack it on the ground again, surging her own magic through it to make that momentum fueled attack even worse. It drove into the ground, creating a deep furrow, and she held out her free hand to charm the plant to curl around it once it was done.

It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was executed with a sudden solemn silence- only to be interrupted with an excited laugh. "I tried with my own magic- did you see that?" One digit from her occupied hand pointed down to the cut in the ground- while it certainly didn't rival Aethril's, it was definitely more than a normal whip might have been able to do. At least, not by an amateur like her!

@Aethril

Aethril was still rapidly falling asleep, but Pollen kept asking questions. She pushed herself up and rolled her head around her shoulders with a muted groan. Whips, Rodd Danger-- perhaps they should try to find him. He could teach Pollen how to handle one much better than the Hand could.

"No, I don't think so," she was responding, reaching out to her magic with little success. She was beat. "Ahh-- we could get you a physical weapon and find someone to enchant it, I suppose. We'd just need to find someone who can enchant weapons. And an actual bullwhip."

Shouldn't be too hard. Surely someone out there could make something as simple but effective as a whip-- or hell! Maybe some innovative, lonely Valkhound out there had managed to make a better whip, somehow. She'd just need to find out where they were hiding.

In any case, Aethril had not, in fact, Seen It. "Very nice," she lied, albeit quite convincingly, even going as far as to let her eyes follow Pollen's finger to the ground. Whatever she had managed to do, it'd leave a brutal mark across someone's back.

She shook herself out a little. "Let's start heading back to the Palace," she sighed. "I'm exhausted."

@Pollen

exit aethril