Mutante: Chapter 11
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
The path behind them had disappeared. Dread pooled in Rosie’s stomach. They were committed now. Either the spell had worked or it hadn’t, but they could neither return home nor go to Grandma Essie’s.
“Well, let’s get started then!” Robert said, beaming at Rosie.
She gave him a sickly smile and as Waterdancer lurched forward, Rosie gripped Waterdancer’s saddle tightly to hide the shaking in her hands.
Less than an hour later, the path ended at a stand of cerulean kelp. The only problem was that it remained outside the tunnel, pressed up against the invisible walls.
“Well, we can try collecting it from in here first,” Robert said. He detached a long hook from the outside of his saddlebag and handed it to her. “You bring a leaf in here, and I’ll chop it off.”
Rosie gave him a tight nod. Could the hook or the leaf breach the tunnel? She silently begged the path to let one stalk (and only one stalk) through. Once Robert was in place, she swam closer to the bottom of the leaf, reached out with the hook, and yanked. The moment the kelp passed into the tunnel, it started thrashing about like a shark trying to escape a giant octopus. Her arms shook, trying to keep hold of the kelp without being dragged out of the tunnel.
“Cut it!” she called as the kelp curled along the hook and twined about her arms, tightening painfully.
With a grin, Robert lopped it off as close to the tunnel wall as possible. The leaf immediately flopped to one side.
Rosie quickly removed it.
“Ah, what a beautiful day in the forest,” Robert said.
She stared at him.
He shrugged. “It is. Why do you think I harvest magic kelp? Forces you to keep your wits about you.” He curled the kelp up and carefully placed it in his saddlebag. “I think we might need one more. We don’t want to run out. Actually, we should probably get two of every ingredient—except for that vial of your blood. You can keep one on you, and I’ll keep the other in my saddlebags, just in case.”
Rosie put her hands on her hips, scathing words begging to erupt like a lava on the brink of annihilating the surrounding countryside. How greedy was the man!
“If time is of the essence, we really don’t have time to go find something that gets lost or damaged in this quest,” he said seriously.
She deflated, her sense of the ridiculous overcoming the heat on her tongue. “Quest?” she said with a little laugh.
“Well, isn’t it? A quest to rescue a fair—well, a merwoman anyway.” He peered at her. “You disagree?”
“With the ‘quest’ bit? Not if it makes you happy.” She crossed her arms. “Just what were you intending to do with the second half of the ingredients?”
“Well,” he gave her a sheepish smile. “One should never turn down the opportunity for profit.” He held up a hand to forestall any complaints on her part. “But really, these are crazy hard to get to, and you wouldn’t want to fail just because we didn’t have a back-up plant, er, plan. Would you?”
Rosie sighed. “I suppose not. Things certainly haven’t gone according to plan since we entered this forest. Might as well plan on our plans changing.”
He gave her an eager grin. “That’s the spirit!”
“All right.” She gripped her hook. “Ready?”
He nodded and then chopped off the writhing tentacle of kelp the moment she pulled it through. He rolled it up and handed it to her. Rosie carefully placed it in one of the basket’s various containers.
“What now?” Robert asked the mirror.
Thomas gave him a very bland look. “Now, Miss Rose decides which ingredient she wishes to pursue next.”
Rose took a deep breath. “I think we should look for the siren-plant, but I have an idea on how to protect us.”
“Protect us? Isn’t it my job to protect you?” Robert asked, puffing out his chest.
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been thinking about how to avoid the plant’s defenses. A fan-tail leaf should filter out the worst of the pollen. The siren-plant screams are—unpleasant, but less life-threatening than believing someone is actually in danger.”
Robert swished his tail. “It’s not as though I wanted to believe someone was in danger. It’s not my fault that stupid plant can play tricks on the mind.”
“No, of course not,” Rosie said in a monotone. “It’s not as though someone told you that it was a siren-plant and not a person.”
He fidgeted with Waterdancer’s saddlebag. “Fine. I already said I should have listened to you. If I hadn’t closed my gills, I would have been a goner for sure.”
“Well, I for one think using a fan-tail leaf is a marvelous idea, Miss Rose,” Thomas put in.
“Then let’s do that.” Crossing her fingers, Rosie rearranged the words in the rhyme and then tried the new version.
“Grant us passage that is safe
through this dark and gloomy place.
to find a fan-tail plant we go,
through all the currents, high or low.
Take us on the way that’s true
through the realm that’s deep and blue;
allow no dangers, vast or small,
to reach us on this path at all.”
The path warped around them, which hopefully meant it had accepted the change.
The further along the path they got, the tighter Rosie’s shoulders grew. Finally, she turned to Robert for a distraction. “What’s your family like?” she asked.
He glanced over at her, eyebrows halfway up his forehead. “Why?”
She shrugged. “You already know a great deal about my family, but I know nothing about yours.”
“You know about my grandfather,” he said quietly.
“True. And you don’t have to tell me anything else. I was just curious.”
Robert fiddled with the extra strap coming off Waterdancer’s saddle. “Well, there’s not much to tell. Just my parents and brother and sister. What about you? Any siblings?”
Rosie shook her head.
“No wonder you’re so bossy,” he said with a laugh.
She glared at him. “Me? Bossy?” Her tail gave an extra flick. “I am not!”
He held up a hand. “Well, no, maybe not bossy in the traditional sense. You have firm ideas of what you think should happen, though, and you’re not afraid to say them.”
“In here, yes,” she muttered, trying not to think of how much of a guppy she was in every other area of her life. Some days it felt as though her voice had withered away from disuse.
“Not outside of the forest?”
“Well, I know the forest. I know what the safest course of action is likely to be. Out there—let’s just say it’s a different story.”
He waited patiently, as though sensing there was more she wished to say.
“My father is a councilman,” Rosie said. “We all have to be careful what we say.”
Before they could discuss the matter further, the path came to an abrupt end. Rosie chewed her lip as she turned in a circle, trying to spot the fan-tail plant. Maybe she had messed up the rhyme?
“There!” Robert said, pointing towards the tiniest sliver of gray that showed through the cacophony of kelp. He removed his hook. “May I interest you in a spot of fishing, my lady?” he said with a smile.
Rosie took the hook. The moment she slipped it out of their tunnel, kelp wound around it, and she yanked the hook back to safety. “I don’t know if I can get close enough.”
“Just keep the hook close to the ground,” Robert said. “It seems like the kelp reacts to things that touch its leaves, but there’s a small open space at the base of each plant. Try to go through there.”
She nodded and sank to the ocean floor. This time she was able to reach the fan-tail leaves. She grabbed one of the stalks, hoping it would contain enough leaves. After a breathless moment, she pulled the hook back, gray leaves slowly inching along with it.
Robert clipped the leaves, which thankfully did not attack them. “Well, that was disappointingly easy,” he said.
Rosie chuckled. “I’m sorry it was so boring for you. I, on the other hand, am thrilled that something was relatively easy. Not everything has to be life-threatening. Anyway, this was only step one. I’m sure the siren-plant will be suitably invigorating, even for you.”
“Probably.”
“I would imagine so,” Thomas put in. “Siren-plants are notoriously finicky. I myself have never seen a harvest performed, but I have heard they are delicate operations. Of course, I cannot guarantee that the blue siren-plants behave similarly to the magenta ones. Your grandmother used the blue plant pods because she had never seen one and was interested to see how the differing color would affect the potency—”
“See!” Robert exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “You should study the varying colors. They might do different things.”
Rosie shook her head, and Thomas cleared his throat disapprovingly.
“As I was saying,” Thomas continued, “the blue plant may behave differently. I cannot make any guarantees, but I am confident that you will succeed admirably.”
Rosie’s stomach lurched. If only she were as confident in their capabilities as Thomas was. She had saved Robert from the last siren-plant by the skin of her teeth, and the odds of repeating the feat seemed miniscule. Well, she could only do her best.
Robert squinted up at the gloom and then pulled a timekeeper out of Waterdancer’s saddlebag. “Before we tackle the siren-plant, I’m nearly certain that it’s lunchtime. We should definitely eat something. It’s important to keep up your strength, you know, especially when on an adventure.”
Rosie made a face, her stomach still disturbingly hollow—as though she had dropped off a cliff and it hadn’t quite caught up. Really, she still felt as though she hadn’t caught up to the day at all! Clearly, she had never envisioned anything like this when she had left the house yesterday. “I suppose.” Whether she actually could eat anything was another matter.
Robert had a hearty appetite and spent their meal enumerating the adventures he wanted to go on. Fighting monsters and discovering treasure figured large in them.
Were glory and wealth all he cared about?
A/N: Sorry I didn’t post yesterday! My kids are at summer camp this week, so I’m off-routine and I spent all day thinking it was Wednesday. *face palm*
I love seeing Robert through Rosie’s eyes 🙂 He’s so obliviously obnoxious! And yeah, there are reasons for that (as there are for everyone’s behavior), but he’s definitely a character. Next chapter: figuring out how not to die when harvesting from a siren-plant.
I’m still looking for a beta! So if you’re interested, please message me. I do have the story finished but I’m hesitant to post any faster until I have an editor.
If you notice anything amiss, please pass it along!
See you on Saturday!
