Queen of Their Colony (Kindred Tales)

She wished they still had the pack of food and water Mistress Bodikin had given them—if they had, she would have suggested that they all sit down and have a picnic. It had been some time since she’d eaten anything and she was getting hungry. But since there was nothing to eat or drink in the new world—or at least, nothing she could see—they kept on going.

They had only been walking about fifteen minutes—the grass felt cool and ticklish under Terra’s bare feet—when they spotted a field of flowers. But not just any flowers.

“They’re enormous!” Terra breathed, as they got closer. “Look at that—they must be twelve feet tall! Those flowers are as big as trees.”

“We had much larger trees on our own home world of Colony Five,” Rive said thoughtfully. “But you’re correct—they are much bigger than any terrestrial flowers I have ever seen.”

“Should we try to avoid them?” Tem asked. “They could be the Frinkles Mistress Bodikin told us about.”

“Froozles,” Rive corrected him. “And I do not think we can avoid them—the path leads directly through them—see?” He nodded at the glowing golden path which did indeed lead through the enormous flowers.

“Well, they’re just flowers, right?” Terra asked uneasily. “I mean, they’re plants so they’re probably pacifists, right? Like a lot of vegetarians back home?”

“I don’t know if you oughta mention vegetarians to them, little Terra,” V’rone growled. “They might not like the idea of someone eating plants, seeing as how they are plants.”

“You have a point,” Terra murmured. “Maybe we should just try to sneak through them and not say anything at all.”

“Agreed—let’s just go through them and hope for the best,” Rive said.

They all agreed it was the best plan to keep quiet and move as quickly as possible through the forest of giant flowers—most of which looked like Gerbera Daisies to Terra. So they followed the glowing path and kept their mouths shut.

The plan seemed to be working perfectly, right up until they were in the very middle of the forest of giant flowers and Terra tripped and stubbed her toe.

It was her own fault, she had to admit. She hadn’t been looking where she was going—she was too busy looking up at the enormous daisies. They had extremely colorful petals—bright fuchsia and deep vermilion and crimson red.

One especially caught her eye—it had royal purple petals with golden streaks. Each of the petals was big enough that she could have draped it around herself and worn it for a dress. She was just wondering if she could get Kat to make her something with the same colors once she got back home, when she tripped over a rock and stubbed her bare toe.

“Ouch!” she gasped, stumbling forward and running right into one of the trunk-like stalks. Her toe was so excruciatingly painful that she barely noticed anything else. All she could do was lean down and examine the throbbing digit anxiously, wondering if she’d broken it.

It wasn’t until she heard a booming voice saying,

“I say! What the devil? What do you think you’re playing at?” that she looked up…and found herself peering into the face of one of the giant daisies.

A face! It’s got a freaking face! Terra’s heart nearly stopped and she suddenly forgot all about her hurt toe.

The daisy’s face was located right in the middle where the yellow center of the flower usually is and it was surrounded by deep umber petals. It looked like a humanoid face with two eyes and a single nose and mouth, Terra thought. But the eyes were brilliant purple and it was so unnerving to see a flower with a face—especially such a huge flower—that she didn’t know what to say.

Before she could regain her power of speech, V’rone and Tem and Rive were already in a protective ring around her. They were glaring up at the huge daisy and she could hear angry growls rising in all their throats.

“Reginald! I say—come and see this,” the daisy called, apparently speaking to another one of the massive flowers. “I do believe I’ve found some giant skinkles!”

“Whatever are you talking about?” Another daisy—this one with bright red petals, bent on its long stalk to see what the first one was talking about. And then—to Terra’s horror—it moved towards them. It seemed to be wading through the dirt the same way she might wade through water but it moved very quickly for such a large creature. It was like watching a tree suddenly start moving.

“Steady on, old chap,” it remarked to the first daisy, as it peered right at them. “I though you must be dreaming but I do believe you’re right—they’re giant skinkles!”

Terra didn’t know which part of this scenario was more surreal—that two giant daisies were discussing her and her companions, or that they were doing it in fruity British accents that sounded like they belonged in a stage production of My Fair Lady.