2. Sigh of Seeds

Quili met Epoh on the way back to camp. Her answer to the question of where Samson had gone was predictable.

“What do I know, what do I know.”

She held the large seed between her teeth. She only knew tiny seeds, light enough that the wind could carry them to other places. But this one? It was larger than a piece of fruit—and heavy. As if she had to carry the weight of an entire Equid in her mouth.

Didn’t Eeris also carry seeds like these sometimes? She would blow them away or spit them into the ground. Quili almost accidentally swallowed the seed. Was that how Eeris made new plants grow?

“We must put this seed in the ground,” Quili said.

“What would that ever do?”

Quili snorted. “I’m just trying things! Maybe this one creates a plant that also grows meat!”

“Are you going to tell that to Tibbowe? He’ll laugh at us and send us away for good!”

“It’s an idea we have to try.”

“It’s a bad idea. A crazy idea.”

Epoh had received a basket from Gossin, which she carried around her neck. She used it to collect all food she could find: berries, nuts, and one dead mouse. Not even enough to feed one soldier.

“Yes”, Gossin said, as he suddenly stepped out of the shadows. “We will hunt and gather. That’s what we have been doing in forever, so it works! I don’t understand why other species refuse to follow our example.”

Quili did understand. De Gosti lived in large groups, cooperated, and ate both meat and plants. That allowed you to collect and store food for a while. All other animals were alone or in small herds. If they grew hungry, they’d just find food on the spot, and that was that. Maybe these camps would change that. Ever since Amor was founded, the gods were even starting to call them villages.

They entered camp. Tibbowe spoke to a group of eagles.

“We haven’t won a single battle,” he roared. “How? Are your eagle eyes blind?”

The eagles shook their heads. “The enemy hides well. They walk clever routes and sometimes seem to magically grow invisible to us. We really try, but we always see the enemy far too late.”

What did magic mean? She heard the word perhaps for the third time in her life. When she asked her parents, they claimed it didn’t even exist when they were young. This time, it was apparently bad. Bad enough to scare Tibbowe.

“If it’s magic … what hope do we have left?”

“The gods,” the eagle spoke confidently. “They’re our hope.”

Tibbowe sighed. “Then we move on. The Pricecats and their traitors may not settle here. My own home camp is already plagued by wolf dens because we were too slow to react. And keep looking for the place.”

“The place?” Quili let the question escape. Maybe Epoh was right and she had to stop doing weird things, before she was banished from the only safe camp in Traferia. To her surprise, the king responded.

“We raced to this place because something important might be here. Something the enemies may never get. If you find an odd place during your searches, one that feels magical, immediately let me know.”

The eagles frowned upon seeing the superseed in Quili’s mouth. She enthusiastically yelled: “We have a plan!”

“That one has a plan,” Gossin said. “We have a different plan.”

“So two plans,” Tibbowe said with a sigh. “Explain.”

“I will put this seed into the ground and then—”

“We have a seed under the dirt. Congratulations.” Gossin showed his half-filled basket to Tibbowe. “No worries, oh royal highness, we are actually looking for food and a solution.”

Epoh stood between them. Her eyes crossed those of her friend. “Sorry,” she whispered, as she joined Gossin instead of her. “What do I know, what do I know.”

As everyone walked away, a single eagle hopped to her. “What’s wrong with them, right? It’s a great idea! Maybe this is truly a seed from the gods. Each god has one Heavenly Object that contains part of their power—maybe this is the one for Eeris.”

“No, her Heavenmatter are the Heavenly Flowers. I lived there.”

“Then this must be a seed from that garden!” The creature, five times as tall as her, studied the seed from all angles with his sharp eyes. Sometimes it seemed as if they could see through objects. “Maybe it grows all kinds of food.”

“Yes! Exactly!”

“But you shouldn’t just throw it in the dirt anywhere,” the eagle said. “Where I come from, in Garda, Feria works on the Legendary Gardens.” Quili had heard about it. It was supposed to be beautiful, even though Feria had made them secretly, hidden from the other gods. She thought Feria might have hidden her Heavenmatter there too. “If we believe the gods, you have to create a garden for plants. With a fence around it, controlled.”

The eagle scratched his chin for a while with his wing. Then he wrapped it around Quili and drew even closer, as if he was about to reveal his biggest secret. But he didn’t—what he said was common knowledge. “Except Darus, of course, who still hasn’t found his Heavenmatter. What do you think it is? I heard he is much stronger than Ardex, the eldest god. Maybe his Heavenmatter could transform the entire planet!”

“Oh, but Ardex has the Firering. Surely that is stronger than all?”

“Some say … he has lost the Firering. And corrupted his Flamefeaster. Yes, sure, if he still had them, we would have already won the war long ago, right?”

“That would have been nice,” Quili mumbled. She was glad somebody supported her. Together, they found an area just outside of camp, where the trees could let go of each other for just long enough to create a clearing. It wasn’t much. But if this superseed made a superplant, it now had enough space.

The eagle smiled and winked. “So, hey, if you see a magical firey ring, also let us know.”

“But I’m not searching anymore. I’m making that garden.”

“Dear Equid, it’s only a garden if you have multiple seeds! Come, I’ll gather more animals, and then you can all search for more seeds.”

Quili agreed. They dug a small hole, spit the seed inside, and then closed it again. They remembered the location through a fence of vertical twigs. Midnight had come and Quili was exhausted. She planned to walk back to camp and fall asleep at the entrance. If the eagles were behind her, surely she could convince Epoh too. They were supposed to do this together, as always.

The forest had other plans.

Rustling sounded overhead. A pile of leaves fell down, as if a roof collapsed at once, and obscured her sight for many heartbeats. Two thuds. A bang. A withheld groan. When her world finally stopped rustling, and she had chewed away the leaves, she looked around her.

The eagle was gone. In his place, on the floor, lay an unnaturally huge seed.