Chapter Text
The whole tree seemed to buzz with a diligent synchronicity.
Sucrose crouched low, her knees sinking slightly into the damp earth as she adjusted her glasses and observed the intricate structure on the mango tree—a spiraling waxen trumpet that Sucrose hypothesized to be the entrance to the inner hive. The tree produced a waxy resin which, seemingly, was used to form this cone-like gate into the tree. It resembled an off-white flower bloom—camouflage perhaps?
The bees came and went, their tiny bodies dusted with pollen as they returned home to feed the colony. They looked a little different from the honeybees of Mondstadt—what environmental adaptations caused the deviations? And was this relationship between tree and insect colony symbiotic? Providing a home for pollinators was a common tactic—Sucrose hypothesized this to be the case.
“Fascinating…” Sucrose murmured, her lips barely moving as she sketched a rough outline in her notebook. She scribbled quickly, abbreviating as usual—“genus Trigona (?) … > hive hex. config. resin / wax ⟶ floral mimicry? Adapt. bees → symbiotic?” Her notes weren’t perfect—brief and rused—but she’d revisit them later tonight when she organized the day’s insights. She couldn’t care for perfect documentation when there were so many fascinating things to find.
Her eyes flickered between the beehive and her notes, lost in her own world yet entirely captured by the mysteries of this one. Assuming a symbiotic association, maybe the bees also acted as protectors against pests? Might she catch a glimpse of such defensive behavior if she observed longer. She hadn’t been stung yet. These particular insects likely belonged to a genus of stingless bees—or at least, the stingers they possessed were greatly reduced in comparison to other bee and wasp species—Tighnari had mentioned common in this area.
A flicker of color danced in her peripheral vision. Her eyes flicked up to see, for just an instant, something colorful—an animal of some sort with a round body and something on its head.
But the creature was gone in a moment, leaving Sucrose to stare in the direction it had been, keeping her eyes locked on the space around it. It must have hidden in the fallen tree, she thought; it's too brightly colored to get away from that thicket without revealing itself. Seems scared of me, but if I’m quiet…
The bees were all but forgotten as Sucrose carefully put a hand on her camera, then decided against it. Then carefully grabbed her camera because even a blurry picture would be better than memory alone if it darted away again. She crept quietly in the direction, a few steps. She didn’t want to get too close and scare it off.
Bright orange-redish color with—was that something bluish on its head? Creatures displaying bright colors to stand out often signify poison. Was it curious about her too? Sucrose wracked her brain, comparing a single glimpsed blur to the images or descriptions of animals she knew. Could it be a predator of some sort? It’d looked to have a round with short limbs unless it somehow employed a more stationary method of trapping or luring prey, but she only glimpsed it for a moment. Evasion might not be the optimal tactic considering. There are certain reptiles, she’s heard—creatures that can actively employ camouflage methods, changing their color to blend with their surroundings.
Sucrose startled when she felt the soft rustle beside her. Her mind, still fixated on the thicket and the hollow of the fallen tree, barely registered the presence until Collei’s voice broke the silence.
“Did you see something? What are we looking at?” Collei whispered, her breath quiet and curious in the humid air. She leaned in just enough, keeping her voice barely above the rustle of leaves.
Sucrose blinked, her focus snapping back to the present. Collei’s light-footed grace was tempered by her time as a Forest Watcher, and improving ever more in her recovery from Eleazar. Sucrose hadn’t heard a single step.
“Some kind of animal… in that fallen tree,” Sucrose murmured, keeping her voice low as her eyes flicked back to the hollow. “I didn’t get a good look, but…” Her mind raced to piece together the brief glimpse she had caught. “It’s bright orange-pink—like a mango or Sunsettia—with a round body, I think.”
“A shroomboar maybe? Sometimes the fungus can have bright colors,” Collei offered, her green eyes narrowing slightly in thought. “Or maybe a giant gecko? Some of them have flashy markings to warn predators.”
Sucrose shook her head slowly. “I don’t think it was a gecko. Maybe a small shroom..boar? Uh, it also had something on its head?” Sucrose adjusted her glasses, then opted to remove them to wipe the foggy lenses with her shirt—the humidity was inconvenient, but wiping off fogged lenses every few minutes was better than being blind without them. “But it hid before I could get a proper look. It moved so fast… unless it had some sort of adaptive camouflage…” Her voice trailed off, her mind back to theorizing possibilities.
“Some lizards can adapt their color to fit their surroundings.” There was a little smile in Collei’s voice. “Wanna get closer?”
Sucrose’s ears strained to pick up any slight movement as they quietly circled the fallen tree. The forest around them breathed in its usual rhythm—the rustle of leaves, the chirping of insects and birds, and the flap of wings or leap between branches of an animal overhead.
Since Sucrose arrived in Gandharva Ville for a research trip, Collei had been willing to humor her every time she caught a glimpse of something curious. Various birds, monkeys, strange insects, small reptiles or amphibians on the forest floor—they haven't seen any elusive small wild felines, only the Avidya Forest Leopards from a distance. Dead things and plants were a lot easier to investigate since they didn’t tend to run away or vanish.
Whatever had been in the hollow was gone.
“Well…” Collei said quietly, crouching beside the hollow and peering into the dark, decaying wood. “Whatever it was, it must’ve snuck away.”
Sucrose exhaled softly, her shoulders sagging just a little. But mild disappointment was insignificant in the face of her curiosity and an entire forest of mysteries. The sparks of wonder overcame it in an instant. She wasn’t one to dwell on missed chances—there was always something new to uncover, another question waiting to be unraveled.
They both stood, brushing off the damp leaves clinging to their knees.
“Oh,” Collei’s expression brightened, a small smile tugging at her lips. “I finished with the last camera-trap over there.” She gestured vaguely toward a dense thicket in the direction she’d gone off when the bees snatched Sucrose’s attention. “And I grabbed the footage from the past few days. Maybe it caught something.”
Sucrose perked up at that, her curiosity instantly reigniting. “Oh! Yes, that’s possible!”
“We should be done in this area then,” Collei said, her tone light and easy as she glanced around. “Unless you have anything else you want to check?”
Sucrose’s gaze lingered on the hollow for a moment longer, her mind still playing with possibilities. The creature had been too quick, too fleeting to identify… but if it was something new then the thought of it disappearing back into the dense undergrowth only made her more eager to discover what it might have been.
“Mm… I think that’s all,” Sucrose said, eyes sweeping over the forest one last time, but all she saw were the usual colors—greens, browns, and the occasional burst of flowers tucked between the foliage. A few dusk birds flitted through the canopy, their soft calls echoing through the thick, humid air. The mango tree with the bees didn’t have any ripe mango-colored mangos to suspect or compare.
“Great.” Collei smiled. “Because I’m getting really hungry. And I know the perfect spot we can stop for lunch. There’s a reeeeaaalllly neat area just a short walk from where we were earlier by the river.”
“Oh?”
“Yup.” Collei’s grin widened. “It’s got this gorgeous waterfall. C’mon.”
…
Sucrose’s foot slipped on a moss-slicked, half-rotted log spanning a narrow stream.
“Ohp—Careful!” Collei warned with a small laugh as Sucrose caught herself with both hands, wincing a little as her palms slapped against wet, splintered wood. Rain from earlier had turned the bark into a treacherous, muddy trap—though the fall would only have been a meter or so into shin-deep water. She wiped her hands on her cargo pants—now streaked with dark humus and flecks of ochre clay—then hopped down beside Collei on the far bank.
The ever-present drone of cicadas faded as the louder, crashing roar of falling water began to dominate the air around them.
Soon, they stepped out from the canopy’s dappled shade into a clearing of laterite rock. Before them, a wide, glimmering forest pool stretched out—fed by a waterfall that plunged from a cliff above. Mist caught the midday sun, forming shimmering rainbows in the air. On the opposite bank, a flash of russet and white—a spotted muntjac or sambar deer maybe? some sort of cervus—vanished between stands of bamboo.
The girls’ boots crunched over scattered pebbles, and with soft sighs, they shrugged off their packs onto a flat-ish slab of granite.
Sucrose went over and knelt near the water’s edge. “Ohh—!” she mouthed silently, gaze locked on a tiny, brilliant creature perched on the petal of a floating flower. A frog, no larger than the pad of her finger, its damp skin a blend of turquoise and electric yellow.
But even her careful approach was enough to send it leaping into the water. Ripples spread outward. Dragonflies and other insects with transparent wings continued to dart around or skim across the water’s surface.
Sucrose observed the Nilotpala Lotuses swaying with the current. Most of their petals were tightly shut—awaiting nightfall. But one near the edge remained curiously open. A slender twig had wedged itself inside the petals, holding them apart like a splint.
Collei knelt beside Sucrose. “Aw,” she murmured. “Looks like its inhabitant already left.”
“Inhabitant?”
“Mhm. Little blue frogs.” With a careful tug, Collei plucked the twig free. The lotus petals folded closed smoothly—spider-like; well, not technically hydraulic in the same way as a spider’s legs curling in when it dies, but Sucrose was reminded of such the first time she’d encountered similar nocturnal flowering plants. It’s actually due to certain motor cells activating to increase and decrease pressure for inner and outer cells of the petals according to environmental stimuli.
Collei sat back on her heels and explained. “The frogs are nocturnal, like the flowers. During the day, they curl up inside when the petals shut. It keeps them cool and hidden. And the toxins deter herbivores that might eat the blossoms.”
Sucrose’s eyes widened with interest. “That’s…a remarkable symbiosis. The frogs must be adapted to the humid heat—evaporation resistance, maybe a low metabolic rate during the day?”
“Exactly. Plus, they’re bioluminescent and mildly toxic. The light attracts nighttime insects to the flowers, which helps with pollination.” Collei exhaled. “But both the frogs and the lotuses are targets for illegal gatherers. Especially when Elezar was still prevalent—lotus extracts were used to relieve symptoms. That created a whole black market.”
Sucrose frowned. “I’ve heard Glaze Lilies in Liyue face similar problems. Endangered—nearly extinct in the wild—highly valuable in traditional medicine, and night-blooming too. There’s even folklore that they open to music.”
“Do they? —wait, you mentioned something like this last Windblume…”
“Mhm, I tested it! There’s some truth behind it—it’s about resonant frequency. Only one bard was able to coax the flowers open consistently. Um, he claimed he could talk to flowers, but it’s more like the songs he sang hit the right range of vibrations. It’s genetic, though. I once bred a Glaze Lily variant that responded to broader frequencies. But um, there were trade-offs—the wider the response range, the more fragile the petals became due to thinner cell walls…”
Sucrose trailed off, eyes squinting across the clearing. “What’s that by that tree?”
She was up on her feet and, moments later, Sucrose returned, triumphantly holding a small turtle shell.
“Pfft,” Collei laughed. “Patrols are so much more fun with you. You get excited about everything.”
Sucrose grinned, shaking off a couple small black insects and showing off her prize. “It's still perfectly intact! How are you not excited?”
“I am!” Collei insists, laughing. “You’re making me excited—it’s contagious!”