The moment Attikias saw her pull back, he launched forward, arms out to catch her. "Pollen!" His call was cut short by her guttural scream. He flinched away for a second, before swooping in the rest of the way, planting his hand at her back. Dye be damned, he would not let her die over a misfire. "Pollen, stay with me. C'mon. Stay with me, kid!" Holding back a hand before putting it on her shoulder, he hesitated- one last surge of magic to try and keep the dye stable before he carried her away.

He hissed in sharply when that disagreed with him. Magic lanced across his palms and stung in deeply. Fuck it. Fuck it! He's not going to worry about that shit right now! Pressing Pollen close, Attikias swooped her up and held her tight, vines dragging at his feet as he raced to the house. "C'mon. Don't pass out."

Good thing he didn't close the door. Ignoring everything else, Attikias shouldered himself under the draping pelts and found a soft place for her to rest, laying her in even more pelts and pulling the vines away. It'd be too much to rip them out. He didn't know how deep they went- fuck, they must be deep, the vines were massive. Could she even move? Panic flooded his brain as he turned back, grabbing the bucket of water and setting it next to her. "I'm sorry-- forget the tree, I'm so sorry, Pollen, just don't fall asleep, you don't need to chrysalize, you'll be okay." He chattered with worry, gathering up the nearest cloth to try and wipe away the blood that covered her arms.

All the while, he muttered a small "shit" under his breath, his chest quaking with anxiety. He couldn't have her chrysalize at his home. Aethril would kill him. He couldn't live with that, even if she didn't kill him- he was watching her! This was for him, and this happened! Even his hands shook as he tried to clean her off, his breath hard as he struggled to stabilize himself.

Another yelp pulled from Pollen as her arms moved in the hold, roots digging at her muscles and tearing through her skin a little further. It pulsed at the edge of her focus, pushing aside the panic and setting in hard, physicality overweighing the mental.

She kept her eye shut as Attikias took her from the field and back to the house, focused on the plants. She needed to fix it. A growl rose through her chest as she refused the vines. It didn't grow in right. She needed to get them out. The roots under her skin moved, running along her skin and bulging as they retracted, vines tugging away. It hurt. The body was not meant to be a personal garden, magic be damned.

Blood ran down her arms as the pale base of the vines started to show themselves. "Fuuuck," she groaned. Her breath wheezed out through clenched teeth, and she opened her eye to look at her arms, hands clenched into fists. Attikias was doing his best. She needed-- breathing in sharply, Pollen raised one hand to her other arm, whining with the pain that that gave her. "Pull-"

She cried out, breathing hard. "Pull them out-- the magic-" Her fingers wrapped around one vine and went to tug, but she stopped short at the pain. Like trying to remove a bandaid, it was hard for her to do it herself. "I won't-- chrys- just-- get them out."

Pollen dropped her hand, rocking her head back to just breathe.

Attikias paused when Pollen spoke, grimacing at the motion of the plants. That was... unnatural. He was genuinely grossed out by it, baring his teeth as he pulled back from the motion of the roots. Euugghghh.

Pollen trying to move drew him out of it, and he hovered a hand over her wrist. "Pollen, don't-" but she moved without his warning, taking the vine and- oh, caves. A wave of nausea rolled through Attikias as she tried to pull them out. "They-- are you sure you'll survive? Shit- nevermind- just hold tight." He glanced to her dropped hand, then leaned in, taking her arm in one hand and the vine in the other.

"Think about something else. Think about-- Melody!" Attikias tossed back his head as he fixed his grip, watching for his familiar. Her consciousness stirred in his mind. "C'mere!" The bird equivalent of a grumble ran through him, but she still fluttered over, landing right in his hair. He nudged his head when he felt her- 'to her,' he instructed, shaking her off of him.

Melody chirped, before landing on Pollen's snout. "Talk to Melody." He gave the two of them a brief moment, watching, before ripping the plant from her skin. Using his one hand that he already had on her arm, Attikias kept her still enough to pull out the rest, throwing the bloodied plant ends away from pile of pelts.

With the task done, Attikias released his hand and kneeled back, wiping the blood he'd got on his hands off on his pants.

Pollen pulled back her lips at his anxieties. She just needed them out of her, even if she'd be left pockmarked with holes. It was necessary. There wasn't a way to get the plants into a manageable state, with them grown out of control like this. She'd need to start over, and to do that, she needed a blank slate.

She felt nearly sick with anticipation as she braced herself, Attikias's hands on her arm and plants. "Just do it," she pleaded, cringing into herself. No, he was worried about her- fine. She barely registered Melody before the bird landed on her, and she blinked hard up at the Gembound. So, her name was Melody? Still grimacing in pain, Pollen laid her gaze on her, breathing out softly.

Talk to her. Alright. "... hello, Melody," she began, her eyebrow furrowing. "... how are you?"

Attikias pulled the vine, and it popped free with strings of red roots trailing it. "FUCK-" She cringed forward as Melody flew from her face, the bird flitting about to land on her owner's shoulder. Each vine- four in total- pulled from her earned another cuss, another flinch and cringe back as blood trailed from the holes they left. "fuuuck."

It was done. Pollen whined as she dropped back, raising her hands to clutch her arms. "Fuck." She tried to focus on the plants, but nothing connected- they'd been ripped from her, and the magic was lost, and- frankly, she didn't care about them right now. She just wanted to recover. Bloodied hands traced up and covered the wounds, staunching the bleeding while she could.

Attikias kept his hands at her shoulders while she sat back. "... sorry," he spoke softly, rolling his thumbs over her shoulders. "It's over. Hold on, I need to get bandaging, okay?" The elf pulled back and stood, stepping out of the covered room. He didn't take long- he knew where the bandaging was, returning with the roll of gauze in one hand.

The elf lowered himself down to his knees once more, holding his hand out to take Pollen's arm. He'd done this enough times for his own scratches, or his family- while the gauze wasn't medical grade and rather primitive, it was still cloth to staunch the bleeding. He'd known its limits. And she didn't need blood on her arms.

"Here." Before he unrolled the gauze, Attikias took the cloth by the bucket and wiped off the blood from Pollen's arms, careful to not make it sting too badly. If blood got on the pelts, too bad. They'd wash out. Right now, he was more worried about the person on top of them. "Don't worry about paying me back." He searched her face for a brief second. "Seriously. Just-- recover, okay?"

Expertly, Attikias unrolled the cloth and began to wrap one of Pollen's arms, her fingers gentle on her fur. "You can stay here as long as you need." His tail flicked in place, uneasy. "I can tell Aethril you're here." He tore the gauze with his teeth before moving on to her other arm, wrapping it too. A tree was nice, but the seed was planted, and it would stay planted. They could return to it later.

When he was done, he held his hands together as he rocked back, placing the cloth down to his side. "Keep it on for a bit. I don't-- you don't need to be bleeding out over that." Idly, as he gathered the plants into one pile, Attikias stared down at it, before looking up and placing a hand on her shoulder once more. "Let me--" He stared at his hand. One last try for the dye? Spreading it, he felt the gem on top against his skin, the plating move around it. Magic flowed freely- finally, the dye should have affixed, and Attikias let out a sigh with a drop of his shoulders.

"The dye's done. No need to worry about it, just- stay here and get some blood going in yourself again. ... are you hungry?"

Pollen was at his mercy. Her arms were heavy and limp as he maneuvered them, but she held them in place for him, watching him clean the blood and wrap her up. "... thank you," she uttered to the hospitality. Her gaze turned to the discarded plants, and she grimaced down at them, breathing in sharply to sit up. The sting of pain was fading- while it hurt to move her arms, it was superficial, practically only skin deep.

"I'll be fine," she stubbornly mumbled. Her teeth clenched as she reached for the nearby wall to stand. "My legs aren't hurt too." Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath, and she leveled her gaze on Attikias, trying her best to keep her expression cool and calm. "I'd rather get it over with- my magic isn't hurt." It was tiring to have to deal with the vines, but she could still go for one more try, one more attempt.

She took a step forward, before frowning at Attikias. "If you want to make food, I guess..? I don't--" She looked forward to the curtains. "I'll be fine this time. It won't take long, and I know what went wrong, so it won't go wrong again." Stepping forward, Pollen went to push under the curtains and head for the door, determination in each step. Every movement of her arms hurt, and after a second she opted to just fold them in front of her, minimizing the motion of them as she walked.

Attikias's face contorted into a wince as Pollen stood, instinctively holding out an arm to help her. "Pollen-" he almost chided her, but cut himself short, standing to follow her. "Pollen."

He reached for her arm and held it, just for a moment. "You don't need to push yourself." He looked between her, then the door, then sighed out through his nose. Magic wasn't physical, but she could still strain herself over this too much. "... if you want to do it now, do it, but-- come back in to eat something, okay?" She had Nedies to feed her, true, but he still wanted her to eat. She needed something in her. He wasn't the greatest cook, but she deserved a bit of comfort after all that.

After a long moment, he let her go. If she went or not was her choice. He couldn't claim to know what was going on in her mind.

"At least let me get you some bread." Stepping away, Attikias went for the storage area next to the oven and pulled open a container, checking the innards. It was a hard, stale bread, but it was bread, something to eat when there's no time to cook. He turned his head as Pollen left, waiting, before looking back to the bread.

That was certainly a series of events. What would she tell Aethril? Attikias's lips drew thin as he frowned, hands curling into fists on the table. Maybe she wouldn't mention it at all. But how would she explain the tattoo? Huffing, Attikias leaned back and stared at the door, listening for the sound of some sort of misfire. He should've discouraged her from trying again, but she was still... She needed to go through something. If she wanted to grow a tree, then... okay. Attikias wouldn't be in her way.

He would worry, though. It's the least he could do.

Pollen flinched at the touch. Her ear flicked when she turned to look back, determination set on her face. The moment was held too long. She swallowed nervously and leaned to the side, looking away from Attikias. "I will." She lingered when he let her go, still keeping her arms folded as he looked for bread.

Best get it over with. Tensing her arms, Pollen stepped out of the door and made her way back to the seed. It was still just there in the dirt, amidst the growing plants and doing... not much. Her shoulders dropped after a moment of simply taking it in- it's not the seed's fault she got hurt. "Sorry, buddy," she spoke softly, reaching down to kneel in front of it. "Let's get you going, okay?"

Pollen reached one hand to the side to gather loose soil and pack it over the seed. "No distractions." She breathed in and held it for a moment, shutting her eye to focus. Magic flowed- freely, this time, out from her and to the seed. It came with her exhale, growing slowly, peeking out from the ground and expanding. "There we go." The muta stood back as she continued to shape it, folding her arms again. It was tiring. She needed the practice with bigger uses of magic, but this still- it was so much, enough to drive her to sit again. A few feet away, Pollen lowered back to the ground and crossed her legs.

The tree creaked and groaned as it grow, thick branches arching over Pollen and roots coalescing around her feet. "You should be good," she encouraged, craning her head up as flowers bloomed within the green leaves. "... that should be enough." Voidlight shade covered her pelt. Finally, she didn't have to come back here. Grass pomfed behind her when she flopped back, dirt clinging at her back and the plants itching at her gauze. Pollen stretched her arms up in front of her- fuck, that hurt. She winced but kept on, head at an awkward angle as she splayed her paws in the air.

Dramatic. That's what she was being. With a huff, Pollen dropped her arms at her sides and turned her head, watching the newly born leaves dancing in the wind.

She loved her magic.

She'd been out there for a little while. Attikias was worried, fiddling with something else- he needed to put away some stuff, he'd noticed, and organized his pile of items. Was she okay? She didn't pass out, did she? Anxiety gnawed at him as he peeked out the door, staring at the tree that had cropped up in his absence.

Well, the spell worked. Was she okay? She must be waiting for him. Leaving the bread for now, Attikias strode towards his field, staring up at the tree. Wow, that was- there was a whole ass tree there. Dipping his head, he stared at the boughs, at the flowers, holding his hands together in uncertainty. It was enough to leave him in awe, but Pollen was at the forefront of his mind. She had fallen at the base of the tree, and Attikias's throat shut at the thought that she was asleep. "Pollen?"

Leaning to her, Attikias peered down at the muta, face tight. "... are you okay?" He reached out for a second, split between trying to grab her and help her up, hovering his hand there in between the two. The tree's shadow played across his arm, and he looked down at it, then up, watching the dull light sift through the leaves.

... he had a tree in his yard now, huh? Alright.

Pollen's eye tracked Attikias, and she sat up when he came close, propping herself up on her arms. "Hey." She kept her gaze on him for a brief moment before turning her head up, watching the tree, too. "... did it."

The muta's head tilted to Attikias. She grinned up at him, sly at first, but raising to genuine. "I just need the practice." Her voice croaked for a moment. Bleh. Why was she so tired? Well, she knew, but- still. Stifling a yawn, Pollen took Attikias's hand and stood, leaning on him. "Do you mind if I stay for a while? 'M tired." She yawned again, raising the back of her hand to her muzzle.

Steeling herself, Pollen stepped towards the home, ready for a good, long nap. She'll tell the others where she was after she rested up. They wouldn't worry about her too much, she figured- it would just be one afternoon.

"Remind me to not grow any giant trees again for a little bit." She looked to Attikias, laughed to herself, and continued on.

;exit Pollen