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The bright yellow was extremely off putting to someone who had never seen one before. Daisy was extremely nervous as their party approached the vast field of brightly colored flowers with a dark center that reached nearly the height of Taishen. After leaving Drakkar the group hadn’t gone their separate ways, instead choosing to keep their little found family together and explore more of Avantris. Daisy was always curious but wary of all the new things around her and this would be no different to the once captive. Her experiences in nature so far and what she knew from her sister had taught her that most brightly colored things were to be feared or were poisonous. The color was a warning to any creature that would go near it. Yet none of her friends seemed afraid, not even her boyfriend Skrimm who was significantly shorter than the towering plants. He was grumbling, dragging his feet as he flipped a coin in his hand and trudged behind the rest of the group as they disappeared into the twisting stems. But Daisy was still, standing motionless at the edge of the plants that blocked her way, her hands wringing in fear and unable to call out to the group.
She could feel the tears welling in her eyes as the fear of the unknown gripped her like claws around her racing heart. The plants moved, twitching, and shaking in front of her before a familiar green head wearing a hat popped out followed by the coat clad body. “Daisy? What’s wrong? Why did you stop? We coulda lost you,” Skrimm stepped out of the thicket of plants, the shadowy hound following in his path and towards the shaking girl, his eyes wide and full of a deep concern that furrowed his brow. Her hands moved quickly as she signed, ‘Those plants aren’t safe. Too brightly colored.’ Skrimm’s mouth twitched down in confusion, and he glanced over his shoulder at the bright flowers. She could almost see the gears turning in his mind before the lightbulb clicked on. “Daisy, have you never seen a sunflower before,” his voice was slow and measured as he gazed back at the girl before him, a tinge of sadness tinging his features.
Daisy shook her head, hands moving once more before gesturing to the plants, ‘I have never seen these before but plants like these in Drakkar are colored for warning.’ Skrimm nodded slowly stroking his chin in thought before holding out his hand to her with a soft smile, “Do you trust me?” She gave the warlock a confused look and nodded her head rapidly, signing, ‘You know I do,’ before taking the offered hand. The goblin tugged gently and guided the stiff form to the plants. He released her hand for a moment, summoning the brutal blade and cutting down one of the tall flowers near him. Careful hands whittled the stem down till only the head of the flower and a few inches of stem remained. The head of this flower was massive, especially to the small green hand that cradled it, easily as big as Queenie’s bee jar. He waved his hand and the blade disappeared back to wherever it resided when not in use.
He held it up to her, could see the hesitation on her beautiful face. He pushed it closer, “It’s not gonna hurt ya! These are good flowers; you can even eat the seeds if you roast them long enough. Barnabos has a great recipe for them with some ancient estuary seasoning.” He pointed to the center of the flower and ran the pad of the digit across, showing the various seeds that filled the dark center. She reached out and gently grazed her fingers along the center, feeling the rough coating of the seeds against the skin. He cupped her hand gently in his and placed the flower in her hand gently. She jerked a bit, the initial fear getting the best of her as this new thing was handed over. Skrimm was patient though, the gently pressure of his hand under hers calming that welling panic. She nervously brought her face to it and gave a tentative sniff at the soft petals of the flower. She was surprised to find the smell very pleasant and unexpectedly soft.
She held her breath and counted to herself. 1…2…3… Nothing. She was still conscious, her heart beating strong in her chest and breath filling her lungs. Brown eyes met patient red as she gazed eye level with Skrimm. She cleared her throat, a light blush tinting her cheeks as she straightened, handing the flower back to the warlock who gave her an amused sharp toothed grin. ‘So, they are safe? They aren’t going to hurt us, to hurt you,’ her signing stuttered a bit at the end and Skrimm shook his head. “Nah these are harmless. In fact, Queenie’s bees love these flowers a lot. It’s the kind that she’s got decorating most of her! He bees wouldn’t like something that could harm her,” the goblins explanation was exaggerated by a wild flail of his arms to make his point and a grin split Daisy’s face.
An idea seemed to pop into Skrimm’s head, “Hey can you lean down for me really quick?” She nodded and kneeled down, so she was even heights with the short goblin. He stepped up to her and reached around her. She could feel his fingers lightly messing with her hair, pulling gently at the braid, and muttering soft curses to himself that made her giggle silently. When he pulled back the flower was gone, and she could feel the gentle weight of it in the back of her hair. “Wow, ya know I always though gold was beautiful but that flower with you definitely passes it,” the goblin’s cheeks were flushed a deeper green as he stared at her with pure adoration. She couldn’t help it but to pull him in and give him a kiss, pulling his hat down to cover their faces slightly as lips met. She put all the words she couldn’t say into that kiss, and she felt as the nervous man did the same.
Another rustling of the plants broke them apart just in time to the tall Firbolg form break through. “ah there you are. We had gotten concerned you grew lost because of your short size,” the level voice addressed the pair, obviously ignoring the tinting on both their faces and the obvious shortness of breath. Skrimm cleared his throat and turned on the giant with his normal scowl steadily in place, “You know we can’t all be massive beings who can see over mountains! Some of us just happen to LIKE being closer to the ground.” Jornir rolled his eyes and turned to make his way back into the tall sunflowers. The goblin followed him, continuing to screech about not being that short and how dare the giant ignore him. Daisy giggled silently again and pushed herself to her feet, glancing at the wall of flowers before her before following the rest of the party in, feeling more at ease than she had at the start thanks to the normally fearful goblin that she called hers.