Chapter Text
Flowers always reach to the sky at the start of the day. They try to reach the sun, and it makes one think, if they could grow up to space, would they be burnt by it? Or would they bear with the pain because the sun is just too pleasant to be around? Regardless, the flowers around Gandharva Ville only get to keep this kind of fantasy in their dreams. Seeking to reach the sun, they are only met with shade. They can’t help but wonder if the flowers on the other side feel the same way. The wall had separated the two regions of Sumeru, but even if the wall was demolished, the two differing flowers would never be able to connect. So, nevermind the idea of the other flowers feeling the same way. How could they ever?
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Avidya Forest had always been a place with a great wealth of greenery, hence the “Forest” part in the name. Full of flowers of every kind, and species that couldn’t be seen in the wild unless imported, it was a botanist’s dream- specifically Tighnari’s. The only thing that would shatter that dream was this one small complication. The Withering. A malicious cancerous like condition that would appear in various sizes patches around Avidya Forest, wreaking havoc on the flora and fauna living there. The level of Withering Zones had always fluctuated throughout the years, and Tighnari knew when the numbers would rise. When they did? He nipped the issues in the bud, no pun intended. Archon forbid he ever actually intended the pun. Always around winter and fall when plants were weakened, would the Withering ravage the forest. Thankfully, it was a summer that was as hot as windy. A little undesirable for some flowers, but the flowers in Sumeru had always been strong ones. So why was Forest Watcher Tighnari running through the forest as fast as he could to find his trainees? Recently, he had been noticing that a substantial amount of dreamlike greenery was replaced with nightmarish murky brown and red. In short? The number of Withering Zones had increased. Speeding through the forest he knew like the back of his hand, Tighnari pushed aside branches and ignored the aching in his heels to find Collei, his Eleazar afflicted trainee.
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He had decided to raise her after she suddenly appeared on his doorstep, or rather suddenly appearing curled up next to a Zaytun Peach Bush on Ghanda Hill when Tighnari was on his way back home. They didn’t make a sound, just soft whimpering and shaking limbs. And no, this wasn’t a baby, they looked like a teenager of sorts. It made him wonder what could have possibly happened to this kid that they were in this state. Looking at them for a moment without making a sound, Tighnari saw something he didn’t typically see in the rainforest. The dark gray scales adorning their legs and forearms. A type of Withering affecting the human body lifelong, Eleazar. Taking the Nilotpala Lotuses he had intended to study out of his bag, he got to work on making a medicine, while trying his best to deliver soothing words to an unresponsive audience who probably couldn’t even hear him. Simple things to be expected of someone who earned a degree in Medical Botany. When he was done, Tighnari tentatively reached towards their shoulder, but once he made contact, he heard the teen say something.
“Don’t… touch me…,” The green-haired kid muttered, with what seemed to be most of their strength. Their facial expression seemed to shift into one more pained.
He quickly drew back his hand and regained his composure after the shock of hearing them speak. Tighnari tried his hardest to keep his good bedmanner, growing restless when looking at the quality of their Eleazar, and calmly explained what he was doing, “I’m sorry, I should have asked. I’m Tighnari, I live around here, and I wanted to administer some medicine for your Eleazar.”
“No…no more medicine!” they pleaded before breaking out into a fit of coughs.
“I’m not here to hurt you, I just want to help you with this,” Tighnari began, moving to where he didn’t see their back, but their face, “See? This is a paste made of medicinal herbs that will help you start moving and treat your Eleazar. No bad stuff here.”
His mood started to inflate when he saw the teen turn their eyes towards the yellow-green paste in his hand. Their purple eyes flitting from his face to the paste, they leaned forward in the slightest and slowly offered an arm towards Tighnari. Letting out a mix between a resigned and relieved sigh, the forest ranger gingerly applied the paste to the scales, taking care to not touch them unnecessarily. While tense at first, once Tighnari was done with both forearms, the kid began to relax a little, even sighing in relief as Tighnari soothed a particularly rough patch of scales on their ankles. Tighnari could’ve sworn that this must have been the most safe the kid felt in years.
It was that day Tighnari decided to take care of this child. So hurt, and so closed off to help. Just what kind of definition of “help” was solidified in their mind? It took four long years for her to get into a moderately healthy state, and two of those longer years to get her to open up to him. Once she did, Tighnari felt like cursing the world and crying all the same. He knew he couldn’t make Collei forget, but he could make up for what they missed. As much as he tries to think of his relationship with the Junior Forest Rangers as mentor and trainees, Collei and the rest of Forest Rangers are the closest thing to family he has. Every parent denies it, but he often does play favorites.
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Everything was a blur of green until he finally reached the Statue of the Seven that Collei would be cleaning at this time. Keyword: would. Whipping his head around so frantically that his ears almost smacked against his face, he searched the area for the familiar yellow chunni he had gifted them months back. His shoes squished the poor grass with such pressure, but that was nothing compared to the wrath the nearest forest ranger was going to suffer. Latching his hand onto a recently graduated trainee’s shoulder, he spun them around to face him and stared them dead in their eyes.
“Iqbal.” spoke Tighnari as cool as he possibly could.
Iqbal gulped then replied in a volume that made Tighnari thank his ears for making him able to hear it, “Um. Master Tighnari- I mean Tighnari! Is there something-”
“Iqbal. One, please we’ve talked about the volume. Two, just tell me where Collei is.” Tighnari interjected, too worried to waste anymore time on pleasantries.
“Collei? She just finished cleaning the Statue and then she took off, and uh…”
“And afterwards Iqbal?”
“She said she was going to do another quick patrol! I’m sorry that's all she told me, other than she would be fine on her own!” Iqbal sputtered out, gripping onto his sash like a lifeline.
“Specifics! Which direction!?” Tighnari demanded, losing his patience even quicker knowing she was out there in such an unpredictable environment.
Iqbal speedily pointed further down the ravine, and after leaving the man a grateful pat on the back, Tighnari rushed rightward and used his Dendro vision to lift himself out of the small valley, heading towards Collei’s general location. Sprinting parallel to Gandharva Ville before dropping back into the ravine, Tighnari took to copying Collei’s regular route she described to him, hoping he would meet her walking along it. Back to running through the forest for the second time today, Tighnari’s thoughts touched on many topics while pushing his way through a thick patch of overgrowth. Once he was sure Collei was safe, he would get to researching the reason for this-
Tighnari’s mind spun, and he felt vomit pooling in the back of his throat that had suddenly gone dry. Now stumbling, the ranger tried to regain his bearings with what of his vision he had left, he didn’t even register his vision had shut off till now. His hand reached out to help him lean onto a nearby trunk, but was met with nothing, as his dead weight caused him to plummet to the ground. Fuck, the overgrowth was covering the path ahead so well, he didn’t notice he stumbled right into the Zone itself. He couldn’t muster up the strength to say a single word, as if a rock was crushing him from above. At least if he really was being crushed by a rock, Collei would be safe, even if he wasn’t.
Collei.
Tighnari could make out the yellow of Collei’s chunni near a mass of red. Fuck. They were right next to the tumor itself, and even worse, their Eleazar scales began to creep up their neck. The normally soft grass was digging into Tighnari’s bare skin as he heaved his body towards Collei. It blended into the external pain he was already feeling. It took almost everything out of him to use his vision to get vines to drag Collei towards him, his hand weakly reaching out towards her. Hooking his arm underneath her armpits after getting the vines to latch onto her, he tried his best to drag both him and a limp Collei out. It was one drag of the elbow after another. Just keep moving, that’s all. Don’t stop . Tighnari had to keep telling himself that as he hauled the two towards the nearest green area. His vision was phasing in and out, and everything seemed to come in twos. Just keep moving to where you came from. A horrible and sudden pang in the back of his head made him let out a hoarse yelp, making Tighnari lose the leverage from his elbow. Cheek hitting the coarse dirt and grass, Tighnari could only think of just how he would get out this one. He refused to accept his fate and inched back up to a prone propped up position. Almost celebrating getting back up, he heard something flying through the air towards him.
Eyes going wide, a red projectile hit him square in the jaw, and sent both him and Collei flying into a rocky wall. Definitely crushing at least one rib after not only having a wall meet his back, but Collei landing on top of him, Tighnari felt blood well up in the back of his throat. He was in so much pain he couldn’t even fathom how he would feel when off the high of adrenaline. So this Zone was that kind of Zone. Most of the Withering Zones in Avidya Forest were relatively benign to humans with elemental blessings, but some outside of the Forest were as malicious as a ticked-off Stumper Beast. Elemental abilities or not, you’re bound to get hit. Regardless, with how Tighnari was feeling, this Zone has to be worse than all of them combined. Tighnari naively allowed himself to think, there’s no way this can get worse . Even if it was decaying, he would have loved to have some wood to knock on right now. His hypersensitive ears -albeit a little weakened from the area they were in- picked up yet another sound meaning danger.
Tighnari wouldn’t be too scared of this silly sounding bouncing noise coming closer and closer, if he wasn’t in a Withering Zone. Lifting his head as best as he could, Tighnari was met with the sight of Fungi closing in on them from all sides, a red aura emanating from them menacingly. He held Collei tighter to his chest and quickly regretted it, he would have preferred being met with cold skin and not cold scales . Unceremoniously dumping Collei behind him, Tighnari tried to keep her as protected as possible, he reached back to put his hand in Collei's. It was almost petrified. If Tighnari was going to protect her, he wanted her to know. To know she wasn’t here alone. To know he was there for her. Sooner they probably wouldn’t even be here. His ears were ringing and he was hit with another projectile, or was a Fungi? He couldn’t tell, spots plagued his already blurry sight. He felt blood on his mouth and a burn of stomach acid in his throat. He was really done for this time. No one was going to find them, let alone not die the moment they stepped into the zone. He was feeling so many dull pains pop up on his body that he assumed to be the Fetid Boughs or the Fungi or both, which meant at least nothing was hitting Collei. Archon forbid something did. Tighnari just kept preparing himself for the last hit that would send him to the other side. As much as he wanted to stay logical, with the corner he was backed into both metaphorically and physically, there was nothing he could do but postpone the demise of himself and Collei. Squeezing Collei’s cold hand once more, he stopped fighting his fatigue and closed his eyes.
…
It began with a whoosh big enough to cleanse the impurities forced upon Tighnari’s body. Big enough to allow Tighnari the liberating liberty to feel the scales fade away to Collei’s normal skin again. He could feel the air being purified and his mind clearing. He could smell the same comforting lushness of the forest that he had thought of as commonplace. However, most importantly, he could see. He could see the wondrous sight of the tumor and Fungi fading away to make way for the vegetation he knew and loved. All familiar sights he didn’t know he had taken for granted, until they were hidden by murky brown fog. Save for one unfamiliar sight, something looking awfully human like, yet not. They were a couple paces away from him, near the disappearing tumor. There was a human body with the head of a jackal and the claws of one too, except the claws were decorated with ancient text. Tighnari watched in awe as the jackal features of the person a couple feet away from him faded away to reveal human hands clutching a polearm and a very human head. They turned around towards him, and Tighnari’s breath caught in his throat. Not because of their appearance. No, no he didn’t get to see what they looked like. The high of adrenaline had worn off, making his throat seize. Tighnari passed out on the spot. He only thought, ow .