La Green Fae

Posted on Sun May 28th, 2023 @ 12:24pm by Ombretta del Carlo & Glitch

1,966 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Welcome to the Hometown
Location: Flora's Place

The day shift had just ended and the crew were heading to the locker rooms from the bio farms when one short human male sidled up to Flora. His skin looked sunburnt all the time and he went by the name Shine, and his main job was to use his power to provide illumination. It came from his skin and as a result, often left him reddened.

"Hey, Flora, wait up!" he called as he jogged after her.

Flora could not be more annoyed. Most days she preferred to remain in communion with the plants and joining in their song. Her algae encrusted arms were as brown as the dirt she'd been working with today, and were it not for being too worn out from all of the plants she'd helped grow, she'd just as soon stay a while longer. "What is it, Shine?" she asked, her tone in a huff.

Shine slowed to a stop and fidgeted. Everyone knew he worked hard, but he also spent his creds as fast as he got them and usually on things he could have done without. "Sorry to botha ya, Flora, but could you hook me up with an aloe plant, please? I'll...I'll shine for you when it's winter or something."

"Aloe?" Flora said, looking down at Shine's red skin. "You mean, it isn't supposed to look like that?"

The young teen shook his head. "Comes with the territory. I have to take the good with the bad."

"I suppose I can relate," Flora said, brushing some of the dirt off her algae-encrusted arms. She started to think that he arms would never again be the color of flesh, but she didn't care. She'd gladly accept green for her entire body, if it were biologically possible. "But I can't just make it appear. I have to have a piece of aloe handy. The closest one I have is..."

"Please, I'll do anything," Shine said. "I'll even run errands for you."

Flora looked at Shine for a moment, considering her response. She always preferred to be alone, but she was not one to turn down a plea for help. "I have aloe at my home. I will pluck off a leaf and give you the plant."

"A whole plant?" He was incredulous, then looked wary. "How long will I have to run errands for you?"

She shook her head. "No errands. But I do have a project that I could use some extra light for."

"Anything," Shine said, the sixteen year old looking immensely relieved. "I mean it, too. I promise I'll never bother you again after this. Can you show me how to care for the aloe plant, too?"

Flora smiled. "I'm glad you wish to care for the plant. Not many let the plants continue to sing once they're adopted."

"Well, yah," he said as if it were common sense. Growing up in a hard world where resources were harder won gave one a healthy respect for plants that were useful.

The elevators near the biofarms weren't far away and he turned to head that way. "I'm on ten," he said, meaning the tenth story apartments that could reasonably be called a closet with no guarantee of a window, but it was private.

"I'm on fifty-five," Flora stated, following the kid to the elevators. It had been a while since she allowed anyone up to her apartment. She supposed an exception could be made for a worthy cause.

Shine looked a bit envious of that. "I've never been up past twenty-five," he admitted. "I can stay here if you want."

"Why?" Flora asked, pressing the button to call for the elevator. "Afraid my flytrap will want you for dinner?"

It was impossible to say with his constant sunburn caused by the use of his powers, but it wasn't hard to imagine a blush on his face at the thought her words had conjured to his teenage mind. "I..I...I..."

She glanced over to him as the elevator arrived. Flora could not step inside immediately as others were filing out. As soon as it was clear, Flora led the way inside. She turned and faced Shine and said, "You're probably safe. She doesn't like red skin."

"See a gardener," someone muttered as they brushed past her when exiting the elevator.

Shine looked upset at that, but he bit his tongue until he stepped into the elevator.

Flora raised an eyebrow at the young man's expression. Others had told her she had a twisted sense of humor, but she hadn't seen it. She stepped to the back of the car as others piled in. It was the shift change, and so many were going home.

Once the door closed, he looked at her. "People need to learn to shut their mouths. Seriously, though, I wouldn't taste very good. I'm all dried out."

She hadn't been offended by the passerby's comment, despite that it likely intended for her. Even with all of the changes to the human genome, humanity was still slow to embrace differences. "Well, it does like a good crunch."

"Now you're just pulling my vine, aren't you?" Shine asked hopefully while trying to make a joke.

The elevator came to a stop, allowing the first batch of passengers off at a lower floor. "You don't pull vines. Vines pull you." Then she looked over at Shine and gave a sly smile.

"Uh...they do?" he squeaked. In a world where the person standing next to him could literally make a vine do just that, one could never be to certain if one was bluffing or making a statement.

Now Flora chuckled, finding some amusement in the poor kid's reactions. The elevator resumed, and it wasn't long before they reached the forties. "Not really, no," she replied. "And I do have a fly trap that's eaten its share of scorpions. Nothing bigger though."

"They do that?" he asked, curious. "I mean, really eat things?"

"They do," Flora replied. "They really can't capture or trap or eat humans. Mainly flies and mosquitos."

Shine looked half disappointed and half relieved. "Do you?"

Flora looked over to Shine as the elevator car came to a halt and opened on her floor. "Eat flies and mosquitos?" She shook her head. "No, that's horrid." She stepped out of the elevator and began to walk down the hallway.

He stepped out after her. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I should be more sensitive."

She didn't know why she'd enjoyed the teasing so much. Perhaps this was the same sort of enjoyment others had had at her expense. "No, I should apologize. You're young, fresh faced. And you've had it easier than some of us. I took advantage of that."

Shine gave her a sideways look and then down at his sunburned skin. "Weren't you one of the Beginners?" He asked, the polite term for the first generation of humans to mutate.

"That question implies I stopped being one." Unlike most Beginners, Ombretta could not pinpoint the first time she noticed she was different. Rather, she only knew the first time she'd heard the song.

Flora stopped at a door covered in vines and foliage. "Here," she said simply. She reached out her ivy and algae encrusted left hand and touched one of the leaves. The tightly wrapped ivy found slack and slithered away, revealing a modest apartment covered in greenery.

"I'm sorry," Shine said again, starting to believe he should have kept his mouth shut from the beginning. When he saw the ivy and leaves slide away from the doorway to reveal the nearly overgrown apartment, he gasped. "This is better than the biofarms!" He inhaled deeply and was surprised that he wasn't breathing in musk and the scent of overpowering everything that always infiltrated everywhere but the highest levels of Hometowns.

Flora had disappeared into the apartment, quite literally. Plants, flowers, shrubs, small trees, vines, ivy, grass... it was everywhere. Even a small pond was in the center of the apartment containing a couple lilypads. What was really incredible though was all of the natural light that permeated the apartment. There were no visible walls anywhere, nor support columns, but that didn't mean that they didn't exist. Also missing were windows, at least windows that resembled glass. Clearly, Flora's apartment could have been described as its own functioning ecosystem.

"In a world that has lost most of its plant life, you'd think humanity would be more respectful of what little it had left," Flora explained, her voice sounding disembodied. "The biofarms get what humanity can respect. Any special cases... I take care of those up here."

He stopped and looked around in wonder at what he saw before his eyes. Everywhere he looked was greenery, life and nature. It was something he had never really seen outside of the BioFarm's, either.

"Where do I step?" he asked as he looked down at the grass, ivy, and plants everywhere. He wondered where the light was coming from but he didn't dare step on something she considered precious as he did.

"No shoes!" Flora called out, this time the voice coming from a different direction.

Shine took a moment to take his shoes off, quite muddy from his work, but still didn't step in or on anything. "They're off," he called to where he thought she was coming from. He stood at the entrance of her apartment, still awed at what she had done to it.

Almost instantly, several hundred thin tendrils began to glide over and under Shine's feet, removing the dead skin cells, grime and dirt.

"Wha...they're eating me!" Shine yelped as he looked down in horror. "You said you wouldn't!"

"They're not eating you," Flora said, emerging out of nowhere with an aloe plant in hand. "They're cleaning. I try not to let too many foreign contaminants run amok in here."

When he realized that he wasn't being eaten, Shine gave a laugh. "That...tickles. It feels good." HIs skin having been so dry and sunburned for so long started to look pink under the cleaning of the tendrils.

"This is for you," Flora said, extending the aloe plant to Shine. "When you need some aloe, pluck a leaf and rub the oil on your skin. Whatever you do, don't eat it. Keep it in the sun, and keep it warm, but not too hot. Water it every other week, and don't drown it."

"Thank you so much, Flora," Shine said with gratitude as he accepted it, a faint glow seeming to come from his every pore. "My...name is Johnny."

Flora smiled and blinked in response to the glowing kid in front of her. "Ombretta," she introduced herself. Not many knew her birth name, and she winced almost as soon as she'd shared it. "Just, uh... don't tell anyone you know that."

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and smiled before he released it. "Your secret is safe with me, Ombretta," he said, trying it out to see how it sounded, but it was nowhere near as good as she had made it sound. The glow coming from him intensified and he winced but didn't try to stop it.

She accepted the hand squeeze and smiled. "Keeping the secret will be the payment for the aloe. If you need more, please let me know. I can always grow more, but it will take a few days."

"Thank you again. I mean that," Shine said as he continued to glow. "I'll shine for you whenever you want."

She smirked. "Be careful what you volunteer for. You might live to regret it one day."

"Promises, promises," he laughed when he saw her smirk.

Flora laughed as she disappeared into the foliage, ready to finally enjoy the time she had to unwind.

 

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