Grove of the Druidic Conclave

Jun remained in her meditative state, but gave a little thumbs up to signify that she had heard her instructions.

Jun spent a good amount of time familiarizing herself with the strange life magic. She felt (and smelled) it most prominently among the trees. But the more she concentrated the more she felt it in other places, even the air itself. She continued to meditate on the fact that all life forms were connected and were all sharing this great big ball of mud that was the world. Gradually more and more druidic magic surrounded and infused itself in and around her.

The other auras maintained their distance, so to speak, along Jun to familiarize herself with her new "friend".

Jun nodded and concentrated.

She felt the presence of the little life in front of her, like a child, or a book waiting to be read.

She would attempt to make the seed grow by directing the druidic energy into the seed. She tried visualizing what the plant might look like and "watering" it with her magic. She also tried directing the dirt, soil, and air to "help" the seed. In her head space it looked like there was a coordinated dance of activity as the druidic magic acted in and around the tiny thing.

Jun breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh ok. That makes my job easier."

She put all her concentration into just making the seedling grow, which would presumably make it grow much faster and into an impressive size.

Jun would stand up to examine the new life, and then exclaim, "Eek, legs asleep. Legs asleep!" Evidently sitting for an hour had done her circulation no favors.

(One week later)

After a week, Jun returned to the druidic enclave. This time she was alone, but there were two elongated light construct arms trailing behind her. These arms were carrying two wheel barrows. One had an assortment of potted plants, and the other several pots of food. The potted plants came in various shapes and sizes, mostly flowers, which Jun had been experimenting with. Some of them were much larger than others.

As for the food, most of it was the usual fare. However there were a couple of pots of edible insects, mostly fried bamboo worms and meal worms. There was also a bag containing rock tripe, a relatively new addition to the Land-Tiller's diet. These lichens were being adapted to grow up in the mountains and had a bitter, medicinal flavor only some people seemed to like. Jun was curious what Va'nei would think of these dishes.

Once again she used her green crystal to summon the mighty Earthwarden to her position.

She wore the same leaf-like dress from before. Somehow Jun had managed to keep it alive with what little druidic magic she held sway over. However, the dress was noticeably yellower and even had dried brown bits scattered around it.

Jun smirked. "Show-off." She said under her breath. A part of her couldn't help but be competitive even against the mighty Earthwarden.

"It's good to see you too!" She said more blatantly and sincerely. "I've been practicing like you said, and I wanted to bring you some samples of my work." She reached out with one of her hands and brought one of the light constructs forward. The stretchy hand contracted and brought forth the cart with the pots of plants. "I was practicing with different kinds of seeds. Some of these plants normally take years to grow, but I managed to get them to grow in just a few hours. And some of these grew almost instantly." She gestured proudly at some specific plants in her collection. "Oh, here." Jun pulled out a small seed and planted it in front of Va'nei. "I used to only be able to do this with pre-treated seeds, but this is just a regular seed." She held her hand out over the little mound of earth she made. In seconds a small seedling appeared, which after about 30 seconds grew into a little fern-like plant.

She grinned proudly.

"Oh, I brought you some more food. Do you eat insects?" She walked over to one of the barrels and held out a fried worm before plopping it in her mouth. "They taste better than the lichens that your guardians have been researching. But actually my dad likes them and wants to grow them on our walls." She said this with a bemused smirk as she held up the odd, greyish, rubbery mass. The lichen gave off a not entirely unpleasant odor, a bit like tea. She spun it on one finger like pizza dough before placing it back into the container.

"I'd like that." She said in response to her invitation to the valley. She followed Va'nei to the secluded spot.

When asked about druidic magic, Jun nodded affirmatively. "Much easier. I feel like the magic is willing to work with me more, if that makes sense. Although it's still kind of difficult to keep the other magical energies out. The other day I was in a foul mood and I tried to make a bush grow. I ended up setting it on fire. Poor thing."

Jun's hidden aura was indeed almost rainbow-like.

"I see. Ow. This reminds me of -ow- when Lum'Valia was teaching me- ow- to make light constructs and healing magic." After being repeatedly headbutted by the young goat, Jun playfully batted her hands at the kid and then reached out and gently bopped it on the head with her palm.

Jun closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she needed to block out any distractions and focus on reaching out to the druidic magic around her. She tried to copy Va'nei's feat. She extended her hands and focused on the patch of dirt before her.

Perhaps to Va'nei's surprise, a small, seedling like structure began to appear from the earth! The seedling erupted into a vine. But it wasn't a normal looking vine. It was troublesome, with brown roots and odd glowing patches all around it in various colors. The abomination was able to grow a few meters before suddenly bursting into flames and disappearing in a cloud of ash. Oddly enough it left behind a pool of water as well.

"Eeek!" Jun batted the smoke away from her hands as the poor vine immolated itself. She stared disappointed at the remains of her "plant".

"Vokrii?" Jun cast a light spell on it in an attempt to repair the structure. The ash came together and formed into a vine... made of ash. Jun poked it with her finger. The vine disintegrated yet again, though with fewer special effects this time.

Jun looked up at Va'nei and grinned shyly.

Jun pouted and pointed to no particular spot around her. "Bad fire energy. Don't set fire to my plants." She sort of just stared at the air with an amused grin and then turned to Va'nei. "Honestly it's like trying to force children to get along."

It would be hard to tell just how serious she was being. But most likely she was just playing around.

Jun started meditating to build up druidic magic, and tried again. She waved her hands forwards and tried to create new life. But this time she had no success at all. Life simply refused to find a way. Jun opened her eyes and glared at the ground, frustrated. Her hands remained where they were and Jun strained. Her hands began giving off sparks of energy and there was a rushing, whining sound around her as more mana swirled around her.

Suddenly a massive root erupted from the ground. It spit chunks of earth everywhere as it writhed about like a decapitated octopus tentacle. But like last time the vine was infected with different types of magical energy. Great boils of concentrated magic appeared around the vine's flesh. By the time the vine had reached 15 meters tall and had grown as thick as a tree trunk, it looked more like a failed attempt at a candy cane made by a blind child than a living plant. The boils exploded, releasing clumps of dirt, mud, snow, and water. Fortunately there was no fiery blast. The large "plant" would surely have injured both of them.

Jun stood up and folded her arms, examining the "plant" with intellectual curiosity. Her head bobbed up and down. She stood on tip toe then knelt down, then stood back up, all the while humming "mhm" noises. She then peeked her head around the plant to speak to Va'nei. "We're gonna be here a while." She said confidently.

A boil exploded, covering Jun's face in mud just as she finished speaking. If Va'nei's ears were sharp enough she'd hear teeth grinding sounds coming from Jun's otherwise stoic face.

Jun gave a thin-lipped smile as the mud slid off her face. She waited until she was completely clean and listened carefully to Va'nei's words.

"It's not easy to separate the magics. I think it's because of how conceptualize druidic magic. It's the essence of life, interconnectivity. In a sense life is where all the other elements get their power. So there's this weird sort of natural bond between them, at least for me. It's like every element is a spirit that wants to be a part of life, fire, water, light, darkness, lightning, earth... This principle I feel is what allows me to wield druidic magic so quickly, but also makes it hard to focus it by itself."

Jun decided to try again, just for fun. She tried to command a flower to grow out of nowhere. After a few seconds a brilliant red bloom blossomed out of the earth. Jun was stunned by its beauty, It had large waxy petals and golden highlights spread throughout the blossom like veins. She gave a satisfied chuckle... until the bloom suddenly began steaming and burst into flames. The once glorious plant withered into a little grey stalk and then disappeared.

"I'll seek out a magical nexus and come back later." Jun saluted. She stared at the spot where the flower had appeared, her mind suddenly struck by ideas and possibilities.