TacticalFallacy: The Rarest Flower

Job: The Rarest Flower
Rank: D
Player Requirements: D-Ranked Wizards

Job Requirements: Find the mysterious white flower deep within the Spooky Forest! Minimum of 10 posts. Must defeat at least one batch of monsters. 150 words per post.

Job Location: Spooky Forest

Job Description: The medicinal shop in Magnolia can't seem too pay their workers enough too journey into the Spooky Forest too gather a specific type of flower needed as an ingredient in a powerful medicine. Find it for them! But watch out...something's lurking, stalking, snarling.

Enemies:
Weak: Goblin x3 (Who knows what they're doing, and why they've decided too follow you. But they are not friendly...at all. A few hits should clobber them out for the count though.)

Normal: Wild Pack Wolves x4 (Four wolves have been stalking you...and they've decided you're lunch! Defeat them with at least 2 hits on each one of them! They attack with claws and fangs, each will attack you once each round, roll too block!)

Strong: Lone Wolf (This wolf rolls solo, and that alone should prove how tough he is! He attacks you twice each round on his own. Every so often he'll attempt a pounce attack too pin you too the ground. Roll 3 "Block Die" if he does this. If you roll 2 or more Blocks, you don't get pinned. If you get pinned he bites you for "4 Attack Die", though you can still attempt too block. Take him out with 5 hits!)

Boss: Dire Wolf (This wolf is....huge too be honest. He stands about ten feet, quite big for a wolf, indeed. He'll attempt too run circles around you too confuse you, but stay focused! Every so often he'll dive in for an attempted bite or claw swipe against you. Roll 3 "Attack Die" each time he dives in for an attack! Roll 3 "Block Die" too see if you get away. If you don't block you'll be shredded for C-Ranked damage, be careful! His normal bite attack also deals C-Ranked damage and can truly hurt! Put him down with 10 hits! Good luck!)

Reward: 2000 Jewels

Shish....swash....At first, the seemingly random sound of rattling leaves and flagging branches had been a blocked out annoyance in Aldous' ears, but as the mage skidded down a slippery slope and managed to stop himself at the base with the support of a close trunk, the forest notes are becoming a melody that he could not ignore. That was all well and good, for Aldous had yet to fully recover from the mental exhaustion that he had undergone in his last job. He had intended to take another urban-sited request, but after the one in Hargeon Town, Aldous just could not find the will within himself to risk a chance of fighting people again.

Now, in the Spooky Forest, Aldous hoped that he would still be doing a job that is far less morally ambiguous. Brushing off stray leaves that had gotten caught in his shoulder-strapped cloak, Aldous then pulled the whole thing off, bundling it up and stuffing it into the bag he had brought with him. Thinking in a logical and practical manner has had a calming effect, probably because it brought a relaxing order to him, in contrast to the chaos that emotions were so apt to fall into.

The flower that he is searching for in the Forest is the White Star, a herb whose sap, if applied properly, can draw upon the magical particles in the air and allow them to be channelled into the wounds of its beneficiary, sewing them up and replacing the pain with what some attest to be the feeling of floating through the skies of Earthland. Aldous was quick to dismiss the last part as the expected effects of an aphrodisiac, but he did understand the value of such a herb. Healing Magic is especially rare around Earthland, with the original being a member of the mystical and near-impossible-to-find Lost Magic. As a result, substitutes such as this herb has sky-rocketed in both demand and price and the various medicinal shops have been competing ruthlessly to get their hands on the herbs. Aldous, strolling between the trees with his eyes peeled, briefly recalled a rumour that some of them have begun to grow their own supply of herbs to maintain an edge over their rivals.

The particular shop that Aldous is working for, however, was just a small little neighbourhood apothecary, owned by a stingy old man who was also nice when he wanted to be. With a blind eye and another behind a monocle, the man had immediately surveyed Aldous the moment he came into his humble shop, noticed the multi-layered bandage wrapped above Aldous' waist, and told him that he was out of stock of the appropriate herb, the White Star.

"Tch. It's still throbbing," Aldous muttered as he felt the knife wound in his side from his last job open up a little when he extended his body a bit too much to grab the next branch. He might have lost his grip and fallen had it not been the friction from the rough bark. Pushing the stinging back into the corner of 'forgotten' thoughts, Aldous refocused his efforts to climb up the tallest tree he had found within 200 meters.

As he reached to the top, planting his feet on a strong branch and wrapping his arms around the trunk, Aldous took his time to survey over the canopy, searching for any more rises or large gaps among the extensive fabric of tree tops. He wondered whether he should have brought Abraxis, who was left at the very outskirts of the forest, but he reasoned that he did not need speed, but strategy to be able to find such a tiny within the massive area that he was given.

He knew how the flower looked like thanks to a picture the shop owner had given him. With a short stem and just a few leaves around its base, the White Star had six narrow petals that ended sharply like the points of a star, but what made it special was that the petals would bond to one another and wrap tightly around the sap-filled centre, but in the presence of animals and people, it would open up, revealing itself in a graceful fashion.

Why it would do this, Aldous could not really find the brain-space to allocate to thinking it through. All he needed to do however was already understood. The flower was a dainty little thing, with few leaves. It would not be able to survive under the shade of a tree, cut off from the sun. Therefore, his best hope of finding them was to search for any openings in the canopy, where the sun could still reach the ground.

"There we go. Three of them," Aldous confirmed his sighting of three breaks, with one of them being a small rise whose peak could be just seen over the tree-line. He would go there first, then he would not need to climb up another tree to find the other two clearings.

As he begun to climb down, Aldous realised that there was a small dampness in his side. Pausing his descent for a moment to look down, he felt himself jump a little inside at the sight of a red patch on his otherwise white bandage. The stinging over the knife wound returned back to his mind in full force. "Damn," Aldous cursed as he spotted the little trickle of blood accumulating as a ball on the edge of the fabric and then when gravity called for them, fell after their brethren who had already begun their head-long drop towards the ground.

And then he heard a rustle below him.

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

"Rawph!" The din of shaking bushes was immediately blown away by a fierce growl. Shooting out from the tall grass and behind the obstructing trees, four large gray-furred wolves shot out towards the tree Aldous was on, their snouts apparently focused on the hand-sized splatter of blood at its roots. At first, Aldous thought that maybe they do not know that he is up here, just that something injured had passed through the area, but that hope was dispelled when all four wolves reared their heads back to stare up towards him with slitted eyes glimmering with ferocity. They must have been stalking him for some time now.

"You probably think you have me trapped," Aldous postulated, his eyes narrowing into a serious battle-ready frown as he locked glares with the four wolves, who now begun circling around the tree, no doubt waiting for their prey to get tired and come down. "I am not, however, your typical human." Then Aldous allowed himself to fall freely. "Seal Floater."

At this command, a shimmering black aura coated itself around his body and as his ability came to being, Aldous planted his feet into the air as if it was the ground. To him in the state, it might as well be. As the wolves, unable to comprehend how their prey continued to stand over them mid-air, backed away slightly, Aldous eagerly looked down on them, his feet fifteen meters up in the air, too high for any of them to have a good chance of catching him.

"Now, shall we begin?"

Seal Floater Ability Activated.

Wolves 4/4

MP: 100%

Seal Floater (Lasts for next three posts)

"Breach Lines!" Aldous called as he extended out both of his hands, aiming each of them at one wolf. When he straightened his fingers, six little black dots, three per hand, just ahead of their tips revealed themselves from non-existence, the little space within their interiors marked with an intricate rune. Within a instance of their emergence, the little dots compressed themselves into fully-filled circles, before hissing maliciously as they expelled thin lasers of destructive energy towards their targets.

At the same time, just as he started his attack, one of the wolves in the pack which Aldous did not target immediately sensed the opening and before Aldous could sense it quickly enough to stop it, the wolf ran under his flying body, growling as it did. Turning his head back to see what it was up to, Aldous' eyes widened at the sight of the wolf leaping up towards the tree trunk, digging its claws into the bark to keep from falling back down, before, much to his horror, pushing off the trunk to send the wolf and its open jaw straight for Aldous' feet.

1st Dice Roll: 3 Breach Lines for first wolf
2nd Dice Roll: Wolf blocks.
3rd Dice Roll: 3 Breach Lines for second wolf.
4th Dice Roll: Wolf blocks.
5th Dice Roll: Wolf attempts to jump for Aldous' legs.
6th Dice Roll: Aldous attempts to dodge.

Wolves 4/4

MP: 88%

Seal Floater (Duration: 3/3)

Breach Lines x 6 (Cooldown for next 3 posts.)

Forgot to add roll.

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#3 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#4 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#5 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#6 'Block Dice' :

As for the wolves that Aldous attacked, one of them managed to move out of the way, causing the lasers aiming for it to drill into the ground, cutting through the stone but nothing else. The other wolf was not so lucky. While it deftly managed to dodge two of the lasers heading for it through a series of side-jumps and back-steps, it dived in too late to dodge the last laser, which went in to deal its target a merciless punishment. Having tried to leap forward to get out of the lasers, the wolf did not anticipate that its tail was just a little too long and the laser thus ran right through where the wolf's tail was attached to its body. As it breached through the tail-bone and completely disintegrated any muscle in its way, the Breach Line severed the wolf tail right off, leaving a bloody stump on the now whining wolf.

At the same time, Aldous was also unable to muster up the reflexes to get away from the attacking wolf, the height difference between them coldly obliterated by the wolf's tactics. "Ga!" Aldous cried in pain as the wolf's jaws, an array of knife-shaped teeth, dug into his left heel and the sudden weight of the wolf caused his Seal Floater to be unable to compensate, resulting in Aldous being forcefully dragged down from the air and towards the  ground, hanging just a meter over it with the back feet of the biting wolf barely touching the surface. Seeing their opportunity, the wolves that were uninjured quickly begun to sprint for Aldous, their claws scrapping against the ground, ready to scrap against flesh.

His instincts pushing his next movements, Aldous decided to discard any attempt to block the wolves and instead flexed his two arms, conjuring up a plate-sized circular seal on each forearm. Shaped like a diamond with a circle encompassing it, the two seals begun to spin as they hummed into activation, bursting into fullness with purple-black energy. Just as the wolves pounced for Aldous, he gave out a determined battle-cry as he thrust his arms towards them, hoping to slam the Breach Disks into the wolves before their teeth could reach him.


1st Dice Roll: Two free wolves attack Aldous.
2nd Dice Roll: Aldous sacrifices his block to try to attack the wolves at the same time with Breach Disk.


Wolves 4/4 (One wolf injured.)


Aldous: Bitten in the left foot.

MP: 78%

Seal Floater (Duration: 2/3)

Breach Lines x 6 (Cooldown: 3/3)
Breach Disks x 2 (Cooldown for next 4 posts)

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Damage Dice' :

Aldous' instincts had given the right idea. As the first wolf at the front hurled itself, fangs bared, at him, Aldous' left forearm managed to get in quicker, shoving the Breach Disk straight into the wolf's face. The screeching plate of energy pressed itself forcefully into the wolf's snout, breaking it, before exploding forth into a narrow crescent-shaped combustion wave that grilled the wolf. While the brief flash from the explosion half-blinded the up-close Aldous, prompting him to squint, the sheer heat emanating off it melted the fur, skin, flesh and most injuriously, eyes of the unfortunate wolf. Howling in pain, the now blinded canine, with its caved in and burnt face, ceased its attempt to attack, crawling clumsily to the side, unable to fight.

Just as he was about to give the same treatment for the second wolf, Aldous cringed at a sudden prickling sensation over the skin of his left arm. Said skin was reddened to a beet-root shade, having been scalded for being in such close proximity to the blast. That little distraction was all the second wolf needed to dive in under Aldous' right arm and sliced a claw through his side. And Aldous immediately bit his lower lip, stifling the pain from reaching his head. He gave a quick glance at the injury and he mentally cursed to himself at the sight of the old wound  being completely opened up, the bandage around it ripped into by the wolf's curved claws. Blood was beginning to gush forth from the wound, wetting the bandage till it felt heavy around his waist.

"GET BACK HERE!" His pain catalysing his rage, Aldous instantly focused down on the wolf that had inflicted him with the wound. Seeing that its back was turned to him, Aldous' eyes narrowed in murderous intent as he swiped his right arm towards the retreating canine. Sent forth in its natural function, the second Breach Disk sliced through the air as it beared down on the wolf, ready to exact vengeance for its caster.

Once he had sent forth that spell, Aldous immediately suppressed the rest of his magic back into himself, emptying his soul of the influence of magic particles, before refilling it with the wholesome and currently wrathful energy of his spirit. Purgatory, having been called forth from his prison, cackled behind Aldous' mental ear, "Ready for a show?"

1st Dice Roll: Breach Disk attempts to hit wolf.
2nd Dice Roll: Wolf attempts to block.
3rd Dice Roll: Aldous, using Spirit Warrior, manifest three legs to simultaneously stomp on the wolf biting his leg. Wolf unable to defend due to the sudden loss of Seal Floater, resulting in it falling to the ground.
4th Dice Roll: Aldous manifests a long sword to cut the tailless wolf who is trying to attack.
5th Dice Roll: Wolf blocks.
6th Dice Roll: Wolf attacks Aldous if it managed to dodge.
7th Dice Roll: Aldous blocks.

Wolves 4/4 (2 injured.)

Aldous: Bitten in the left foot, slashed in the right side, scalded his left forearm.


Lineage, Spirit Warrior, Activated.

MP: 78% (No longer usable)

Seal Floater (Duration: Ended due to magic-suppressing activation of Lineage)

Breach Lines x 6 (Cooldown: 3/3)
Breach Disks x 2 (Cooldown for next 4 posts)

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#3 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#4 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#5 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#6 'Damage Dice' :


--------------------------------

#7 'Block Dice' :

"Do it," Aldous replied as he relinquished his control, finding himself in a familiar throne, its armrests decorated with chains that instantly wrapped themselves around Aldous' arms. Now, he will just have to wait.

As for Purgatory, he could not contain his glee at being back at the reins, stretching Aldous' physical face to reveal a vicious and insane smile. As the Seal Floater evaporated due to the exchange in mental control, the wolf biting Aldous' feet found itself suddenly falling back-first towards the ground, the weightlessness that had been a result of clinging on the levitating capabilities of the power now gone like a speck in the wind. At the same time, Purgatory, who looked over it, raised his free and uninjured leg, the muscles behind it flexing to show creases of blood vessels, which extended even further when the leg begun to strain itself. Then, just before the two of them hit the ground, the raised leg was rapidly wrapped by a solid gray bone-like carapace, the formation of an armoured boot that now readied itself to slam its way into its victim. But Purgatory wanted more and as the wolf's back touched the floor, the carapace just below the knee suddenly creaked and cracked and like a dividing cell, pulled itself apart to form three whole shins and feet, with one real set and the other two being mutated extensions of the Spirit Warrior.

The wolf had no hope of surviving. 

"HAHAHAHA!!!" Purgatory laughed in his typical maniacal way, as he sent all three legs slamming straight through the wolf and into the ground. A wave of evacuating wind was rushed forth from the scene, as the ground groaned under the triple-fold strength of the attack. The soil underneath was forced out and hence accumulated in a miniature crater around Purgatory. And at his feet was an unrecognisable mash of flesh, bone and exploded blood.

"Wargh!"

"Oh?" Purgatory's eyes glinted at the sight of a second combustion wave appearing just off-site. Appearing from behind the black-tinted explosion was the wolf that had struck Aldous' side, its back completely devoid of fur, with reddened skin that looked ready to peel off with the smallest touch. The Breach Disk had managed to hit its target, but somehow the wolf managed to move just fast enough to escape the brunt of the heat, else, Purgatory lamented, he would have been seeing the wolf's spine instead. "Now then, continue entertaining me," Purgatory whispered, his excitement growing upon sight of a tailless wolf running straight for him from his right, its lips raised to reveal readied fangs. 

Pulling his right arm back across his chest, Purgatory sneered as the same grayish carapace weaved its way around his hand, filling out the gap in his fist. As the hilt of a sword fully materialized into his grip, the carapace shot forth from the hilt and straight into the air, fully hardening once it had formed a four-meter blade that extended over his shoulder. Easily controlling the weight of the great sword with one hand, Purgatory casually sent it cutting towards the charging wolf. "Oh?" Purgatory smiled, amused at the sight of the wolf ducking under the attempted cut, rocketing forth towards Purgatory to give him a quick bite in the left knee. The remaining armour on the leg managed to prevent a good deal of damage, but the wolf's fangs were strong and hence it managed to bite through the material and sink its fangs into its target, just enough so that it could twist its jaw to rip out some skin from the area, immediately falling back to keep away from Purgatory, who continued smiling, not even feeling a thing from the new injury.

"Tch, finish this, damn it!" Aldous mentally yelled at Purgatory, his gritting teeth betraying the pain that he was feeling from his knee.

"Oh come on, you dolt. Can't I enjoy myself for a bit?" Purgatory maliciously grinned back. Then, after he returned his eyes back to the three wolves who are now grouping back together to face him as a team, Purgatory gave a little shrug. "Heh, alright then, I think these little puppies have given me as much fun as I could possibly extract from them."

"Let's finish this, shall we?" Purgatory hissed out to the wolves, his tooth almost seeming like fangs under his murderous visage. The air around him begun to twist and turn gray, as Purgatory readied himself to call upon the complete Spirit Warrior.

1st Dice Roll: Purgatory attacks all three wolves with Full Spirit Warrior. The strength of the attack makes it impossible to block, so the only hope for their survival would be a dodge. The use of a sweeping attack means that for one attack, all three wolves are targeted, resulting in 3 dodge rolls.


2nd Dice Roll: If the wolves survive, all three of them charge in and attack Purgatory. Purgatory blocks.


Wolves 3/4 (3 injured)

Aldous: Bitten in the left foot, slashed in the right side, scalded his left forearm, superficially injured on the right knee.
MP: 78% (No longer usable)

Lineage, Spirit Warrior. (Duration: 4/4)


Breach Lines x 6 (Cooldown: 2/3)
Breach Disks x 2 (Cooldown: 4/4)

Re-rolling to comply with the new dice rules. From this point on, new dice rules are followed.

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Block Dice' :

As the environment begun to shake in the wake of his full power, Purgatory was laughing off his ass, his arms flexing beside him, straining together with his concentration to fully manifest the Spirit Warrior. The once translucent gray carapace begun to grow opaque, forming the chest of an unusual skeleton around the maniac, with a lighter aura emanating off it, apparently vents of magical particles steaming off the bony and exposed ribcage that was around 7 meters tall. And then, from its right shoulder blade, an arm made out of entirely bone, as long as the torso was tall, stretched out into existence. "HA!" Purgatory yelled.

It came fast. Whatever it was, the wolves could barely register the attack. Only one, the least injured wolf with a minorly burnt back, spurred by animal instinct, quickly dived in straight for Purgatory, aiming to go through where the ribs just barely could not connect. The other two, one barely blind and one tailless, were too trapped by pain to do anything as they were suddenly swept away, their animal forms losing their entire integrity at the force of the sweeping arm, reduced to little more than meat rolls. Clouds of turned-up dirt and dust sprung up behind the destruction path of the arm, but the surviving wolf ignored them, its quick dive having allowed it to go right under the Spirit Warrior's arm. Purgatory, ever easily amused, opened his eyes wide at the sight of this lone wolf charging straight for him and passing his 'full' power.

"Interesting, I could use a pet like you," Purgatory offered gleefully as he bent down on his knees and cooed the the nearing lupine. "Why don't you join me?" He was just about to say that with an extended right hand, when the wolf managed to slip under the Spirit Warrior's sternum, snarled a bit before planting its teeth into said hand. Purgatory paused, silent at first as he and wolf stared deeply into each other's eyes, the silent exchange between beasts, if one wants to be poetic. As the seconds gone by, the new wound that he completely did not care about begun to seep blood through the wolf's sharp canines, the sound of drops becoming a quaint break in the tense silence.

"Wrong move, puppy."

1st Dice Roll: Purgatory tries to use the ribcage to crush the wolf. Wolf dodges.


2nd Dice Roll: Wolf attacks again. Purgatory blocks.


3rd Dice Roll: Purgatory attacks with the Warrior's arm. Wolf dodges.

Wolves 1/4 (1 injured)

Aldous: Bitten in the left foot, slashed in the right side, scalded his left forearm, superficially injured on the right knee, bitten in the right hand.


MP: 78% (No longer usable)

Lineage, Spirit Warrior. (Duration: 3/4)

Breach Lines x 6 (Cooldown: 1/3)
Breach Disks x 2 (Cooldown: 3/4)

Forgot to roll again. -.-

The member 'TacticalFallacy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#2 'Block Dice' :


--------------------------------

#3 'Block Dice' :

The moment those words left Purgatory's grinning lips, his counter attack came.  With exactly the same speed as that right arm, the rib-cage of the Spirit Warrior twitched for the briefest moments, before its rib bones suddenly twisted inwards, their free ends washed over by that light gray aura, sharpening them to a vicious degree. Before the wolf could realise its mistake and tried to back away out of the opening it had managed to use, the bones clamped down on the 'puppy' from all directions, the sharpened ends piercing through every orifice in its body and creating a few more. As the body of the wolf, which died on the spot, spasmed from the last vestiges of its fading life, Purgatory sneered as he brazenly brushed a small splatter of blood that had landed on his shoulder, entirely unconcerned by the huge spurt that had painted itself across the chest of his shirt.

"Thankfully I had packed my cloak away," Aldous, watching this from his mental throne, sighed to himself in disgust at the sight. Purgatory always had the habit to leave a dirty mess behind. Yet, somehow, Aldous felt a little....relieved that he only thought it as a 'mess'. "I just hope when this is all done, I can use the White Star to heal these injuries," Aldous cringed at the pain coming from the entire palette of injuries that he had accumulate from this battle. He is actually beginning to feel a little cloudy in the head from losing blood.

"Heh," Aldous reflexively flinched at the unexpected voice directed at him. "Getting giddy from a little blood. You are such a weakling, don't you know that?"

Aldous felt himself getting flung out of the throne, its ice-cold surface leaving his skin to his relief, and before he could say "Switch", Aldous found himself back at the reins. And, he realized with a gaping mouth, his head had became much clearer and the injuries he had no longer stung as much.

"Think of it as payment and....insurance," the culprit Purgatory whispered to Aldous, his smiling conciousness retreating back to the mental depths, while taking the pain away with him, just as Aldous had done for him during the fight. "I can't have my landlord dying just yet." With that, Purgatory faded away, the pressure his presence exerted on Aldous fully lifted, allowing his head to become utterly alert.

"Thanks" was what Aldous wanted to say, but before he uttered the words, he remembered what Purgatory had done long ago and concluded that Purgatory did not deserve it. They are still not even. Those were Aldous' last thoughts on Purgatory before he dispelled all internal discussions about him and headed for the rise that he had already identified from atop the tree.

As the small rise that Aldous had targeted begun to come into view, Aldous' face, lethargic with the pain that was beginning to return, finally allowed its eyebrows to be lifted up at the sight of a small field of briliant white, layers with six-petalled flowers, opening up as he came closer. "These are it," Aldous murmured under his breath, before quickly changing his volume as he cupped his hands around his mouth.

"ABRAXIS!!!!"

"ON THE WAY!" Abraxis' voice, which sounded obnoxiously like him, came first, sweeping over the landscape and sending flocks of birds from kilometres away fleeing the scene. An approaching dust cloud formed over the tree-line from Aldous' perspective, as he calmly picked the White Stars that are at the edge of the field. He made sure he did not over-harvest it, so that there would be a sustainable supply for anyone else who was doing this job. Neatly placing the goods into a small herb pouch that the shop owner had given him, Aldous was done with his picking when the rambunctious bicycle, known as Abraxis, came smashing through the trees, which for anyone else would be a real horrific sight to behold, but for Aldous, he just covered his eyes with his hand to pretend that he did not witness the bicycle's lack of finesse. "THE CAVALRY IS HER-WHOA OH NUUU!!!"

And then, for a bicycle who could drive through the terrain of a forest, Abraxis suddenly lost the ability to avoid a conveniently placed rock. When his wheel smashed straight into the stone, the bicycle uncontrollably flipped over it, spiralling through the air like an ungraceful duck, and  landed right on top of the flower field, his momentum resulting in his metallic frame slicing right through the precious herbs. By the time he had stopped, the field had half of its colony flattened to a pulp. Aldous, who could no longer pretend not seeing that, forgot all about his pain as with gritted teeth, he barely tried to stifle the growing wrath that was just waiting to be released. He failed.

"ABRAXISSSSS!!!!! YOU IDIOT!!!"

"My, my, that is q-q-quite the load you have there," Mr. Pong half-stammered, half-salivated, rubbing his monocle with his apron before putting it back on, as if he could not accept that such a prize was before his eyes.

"I could not have it all go to waste," Aldous summarized his explanation, shooting a accusatory glance at the pouting bicycle beside him. Feeling a little lingering aches from his injuries, Aldous grunted as he readjusted himself to better bear with the weight of the huge basket in his hands, with the pile of White Star flowers reaching up his chin. Some of the flower heads were intact, some were with half-clipped petals; most of them were flattened. "So, I guess this is enough?" Aldous asked, placing the basket onto the counter, his sharp nose slightly wrinkling at the unmistakable odour of mashed herbs, comparable to compost, if he was a little harsh. He had to be though, for the apothecary, which was just a small front-room walled with a few shelves that are arrayed with various potions and bottles of raw herbs, was filled with the smell.

"Oh yes, more than enough! Several times than enough! I should be able to last on this stock for a few years. Even when mashed like that, it just makes my job easier to extract the sap." Mr Pong, grinning toothily(with a few missing), took the basket graciously with one veiny hand and much to the duo's jaw-dropped shock, lifting it easily with just that one hand as he energetically skipped through the back door to his storeroom.

"Oi, do you think the herbs have gotten too much to his head?" Abraxis chirped, his voice slightly wavering as he begun to back away from the bottles as much as possible. Normally, Aldous would have chided Abraxis for such rudeness, but this time, he was too tongue-tied. Before he could unravel his speech, Mr. Pong came back, this time with a pace that was more appropriate for an old man like him. Apparently, the presence of herbs in his hands rejuvenate him.

"Now then..." The old man spoke gently, his hands placing a small bag on the counter, the contents jingling characteristically upon contact. It was now Aldous' turn to have sparkling eyes; he could not bear not doing so with jewels so close at hand. "...surely there is more I can give you for bringing in such a fine bounty."

At hearing this, Aldous immediately opened his mouth, ready to request more jewels, but before the request could leave his throat, Aldous instantly shut his jaw back up. Despite his focus on them, Aldous understood that there were times when one must leave aside his work for more important matters. "I..."

"Ah, now that I no longer have those herbs taking my attention, I can see that you got yourself mightily beat-up in your job. Well, I guess as compensation and reward, I could give you a free treatment with those White Stars. I might even make it lifetime, if you continue patronizing my shop." The old man offered with a gracious smile, softer than the excited grin that had been practically melded to his lips for nearly the entire time.

"I would definitely like that," Aldous accepted, realizing that he had finally gotten down to what he had came to this shop for: treating his wounds, old and new. Sitting down on a chair at the old man's guidance, Aldous felt the end of his lips turn up slightly as he patiently waited to be treated.

"OI! What about me?! I helped!" And for that last part, Abraxis received a punch in the bell.