Breeze through the Weeds

Poko stared blankly out past the village, letting the gentle, cool breeze naturally flow past her. Her long, blonde hair blew a little in her face, but she ignored it. Poko looked up to see Zephyr chasing a butterfly through the air making her smile. Her eyes flickered yellow and she suddenly stopped herself smiling and concentrated on feeling nothing, forcing them back to a deep blue.

Poko took a deep breath, before thinking about what she had to do. The job seemed simple enough, find 7 strange plants, destroy them and bring back a sample for the herbalist. It couldn’t be that hard right? It was just a D-rank mission after all.

"Come on Zephyr" She murmured towards the half-cat, half-rabbit like creature. He flickered his purple ears at the sound of her voice, taking one last longing look at the colourful butterfly fluttering before turning around and gliding over towards Poko. He landed on top of her head and nestled his face into her hair before curling up on top of it and closing his eyes.

Poko felt the warmth of her favourite furry friend and couldn’t help but feel happy. 'Damnit' she thought to herself ‘Well it’s not like anyone is watching anyway’ and so she let her eyes change to a bright cheerful yellow as she stepped forwards towards the direction she was told the weeds were last seen.

Poko pushed past some shrubbery, careful not to let anything hit her head or Zephyr as she entered a small garden of sorts and gasped. 'WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?' she screamed internally. While the majority of the garden seemed normal, some pansies, roses and tulips scattered around beautifully there was a strange plant in the middle; it was an odd purple colour and only just bigger than the size of her hand. For some strange reason it stood out around the other plants. 'Why are my eyes attracted to it more than the other flowers in the garden?' Poko wondered, her eyes flickered to a pinkish-orange as curiosity hit her as she strolled closer to the weed. She bent down and tilted her head getting a better look at it. It had two leaves and as she lent closer one of them brushed against her lower arm.

'AH!' Poko yelped as she jumped back, gripping where the leaf had touched her. It stung pretty badly and she could already feel herself not feeling too well. Zephyr looked at her with concern in his eyes as he attempted to lick where the plant touched her. Poko brushed him away hastily.

"No, Zeph, it could make you sick if you lick it." Poko said gently to her favourite creature. 'I guess I’m not better than those other idiots in the village…' Poko sighed to herself. She quickly began gathering the wind around her wound to heal herself before it could get worse.

"Guardian Gale." Poko hissed to herself, activating the spell and healing some of the damage caused by the plant while ‘Grace of the Gods’ kicked in around her passively beginning to heal her as well. Poko’s eyes became a much more red-orange as she got angry at herself for touching the plant after being warned about it.

"Guess I’ll get this job done now." She muttered to no one in particular before concentrating on forming a blast of air from her hand directed at the plant.

"Air Blast." Poko stated dryly, allowing the concentrated ball of air to fly at the plant, causing it to take a bit of damage, although the plant still seemed somewhat intact, minus one leaf. ‘Damnit’ Poko cursed internally at herself for being so weak. She would have to wait a while before forming another Air Blast to finish off the plant so she decided to lay down on the grass by the plant while she regenerated her magic power for another air blast.

After some time she finally finished off the plant. 'It’s going to take forever to do this.' Poko thought to herself as she went off to find the next purple weed, Zephyr floating behind her, still watching curiously at the spot Poko had been touched by the plant.

Poko found the next weed easily; the directions the villagers gave her were pretty easy to follow. This plant only appeared to have one leaf and she wasted no time forming another air blast to destroy it. This time it disappeared with just one blast. 'Hmm… guess the number of leaves indicates the strength of the plant.' Poko assumed as she began walking off to the next location she was given.

Poko got to the next plant with no trouble, this one had two leaves again. 'Two Air Blasts again?' she wondered.

"Time to test my theory Zephyr." She said smiling at him, Zephyr simply ignored her, uninterested in the plants and more interested in the butterflies floating around the garden. Poko rolled her eyes and shot an Air Blast at the plant, it still stood, this time with only one leaf. The blonde grinned and her eyes turn a mix of yellow and purple. 'Looks like I was right!' Poko told herself before concentrating on trying to gather the energy for another Air Blast.


Poko panted as she reached the next plant, these air blasts were taking a toll on her magical energy, but if she tried to destroy them physically she’d get sick like the villagers. 'Hmm.. Three plants down and I believe the herbalist said there were seven. There’s got to be a better way to deal with them.' Poko thought to herself, thinking carefully, 'Perhaps if I just collected them all somehow instead of destroying them. I mean the herbalist did want samples for testing and that way villagers wouldn’t harm themselves on them, so it’d be win-win, but how?' Poko looked around trying to see if there was anything useful around. Suddenly Zephyr came whizzing past Poko, blowing her golden locks all over the place.

"ZEPH PLEASE!" Poko shouted angrily, staring at him with bright red eyes. Zephyr turned to look at Poko for a second before continuing to chase butterflies around. Suddenly watching the butterflies flutter around gave Poko an idea. Quickly she began digging around the plant, careful not to touch it or either of its two leaves. Once the earth was removed from around the roots she carefully gathered wind around it and lifted it up.

"Ha!" Poko exclaimed with happiness, turning to her pet with glowing, yellow eyes, "Look Zeph, we’ll be done in no time like this!" This time Zephyr turned with interest at the floating plant, gliding over and landing on Poko’s shoulder. The dirt-covered girl grinned widely at her familiar before carefully placing the floating plant into a container the herbalist had given her to put the samples in.

"Ok let’s go get the rest!" Poko cheered as she marched towards the next location.

Poko repeated the process for the next three plants, two single and one double leaf, placing them all inside the container. The final one was a little difficult because it was getting so full, but eventually she managed to cram it in and close the lid.

She strolled happily back towards the village, but before entering, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened up her pocket-watch that contained a mirror to ensure her eyes had turned back blue and noticed her face covered in dirt. She looked down at herself and saw her clothes, knees and hands were all coated as well.

Poko sighed and went to find a place to clean up before going to find the herbalist and delivering the plants. She seemed amazingly happy with the amount of samples Poko had collected; they would be incredibly handy for doing some extra testing.

With everything sorted, Poko collected her reward and left the village, deciding to follow the direction and flow of wherever the wind would take her for her next adventure.