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“Mama, the trees smell funny.”
Jasmine lowered her bow and looked down at her daughter. “That’s the smell when it hasn’t rained in a while, Little Moon. It’s called petrichor.” She breathed deeply and smiled. “The Black Shroud usually doesn’t go this long without rain, does it?”
Moonflower counted on her fingers. “It was ten days without rain, and it was sunny and hot.” Her statement earned her an ear rub, which made the small girl purr. “Does that make the pe… pe… the smell, Mama?”
“That’s right, Moonflower. The soil has to be dry for the rain to make petrichor. It doesn’t happen that often near our home, but you’ll be able to tell soon enough. Now, stay quiet, so Mama can hunt.” Jasmine lifted her bow again to take aim.
The little girl laid down in the grass, breathing in the petrichor and listening to her mother move through the trees. She decided that even if it was strange at first, she liked the scent. It was nice in a fresh sort of way. Maybe it was the trees’ way of smiling? She also decided to go to sleep, which meant her mother had to carry her and the catch back home.
Rain was nice to watch. It went pitter patter or drip drip and it made the forest feel as if it were going to sleep. Snow and winter were usually what people said was sleep for trees, but Moonflower thought that the rain must be like napping in the bathtub. Everything was quiet and drowsy, although there were times that the rain was angry and fierce. Those times, she hid under her bed and slept there.
It was after the rain that was exciting for Moonflower. The forest shook itself awake, and the trees smelled that special petrichor scent. Her feet splashed through wet, soaked grass, and she could still feel droplets on her hair from above. Everything felt so much more alive after the rain.
She missed the rain when she went to Ul’dah. Thanalan was much drier than the Black Shroud, and didn’t get rain nearly as often. Sometimes it would rain in the grand city, but it wasn’t the same. It smelled different, not like petrichor and not like the trees after another rainy day followed more rainy days. But she was determined to learn magic, so she stayed put and lamented the rain in solitude.
Ishgard had snow instead of rain, except for the hinterlands in Coerthas. The snow was freezing and bitter, angry and punishing. The people of this city weren’t used to the snow either, but the Calamity had irrevocably changed their climate, so they had to make do. When they made it to the Chocobo Forest, Moonflower let out a delighted cry and spread her arms wide.
“That happy to see chocobos?” Alphinaud asked, amused.
“Oh, those too, of course, but Alphinaud! Trees!” Moonflower spun, her braids flying. “Trees everywhere! Oh! Just smell them!” She stopped and took a deep breath. Yes, this was the familiar scent of trees and forest animals besides. It had rained recently, too, petrichor still in the air.
When she stopped to look over at her friend, he had a confused expression on his face. He looked like he was trying to remember something he’d forgotten. “I didn’t know you liked trees this much,” he said after a minute, evidently giving up on whatever he was thinking.
“I grew up in the Black Shroud, Alphinaud. Trees and plant life are as much a part of me as anything could be. I missed the trees and the rain while we were in Ishgard.” She patted a tree trunk, comforted by its solid weight. “It’s not just flowers, you know.”
“I see that now.” He looked down, embarrassed, but a hug from her was enough to wipe it away. “Tell me more about where you grew up, Moonflower. You’ve never said much about it and I’m curious.”
“I grew up at the edge of a meadow,” she began, stopping on the bridge to admire the creek that flowed toward the river. “It had lots of flowers and was a nice, safe place. My mother and I lived alone, as Keepers do. I never had any siblings. When the calamity came, my mother was badly injured.” She sighed and leaned against the railing. “I took care of her for a few years after that. The forest was different, but perhaps that was just because I was an adult. I know other people have said that the Calamity changed things, and I do believe them, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what things were like before.”
She looked at him and in a spur of the moment, ruffled his hair. “And when I left to go to Ul’dah, I met you! You and your sister were sleeping, or rather, you must have been faking it, weren’t you?”
“Faking? Oh, no, not at all!” he protested, laying his hair flat again. “Just trying to rest, that’s all. I can’t say if we were sleeping or not. I’m surprised you remember.”
“I remember a lot of things, Alphinaud, more than people give me credit for. Now let’s go make sure Estinien and Ysayle don’t kill each other.” Thankfully, such an incident was prevented, but the two elezen were still antagonistic toward each other.
Rain fell all over the world, but nowhere did the rain and the day after it feel as refreshing and perfect as it did in the Shroud. Moonflower went home after one too many grueling adventures and called out, “Mama?” The rain was tapering off, becoming a light drizzle that dripped from the umbrella she carried.
The door opened and her mother smiled from inside. “Come in out of the rain, Little Moon.”
Moonflower loved the smell of her mother more than the rain.