Growth

“Flaaay, wake up…!” Glinst gently shook her son’s shoulder in an attempt to wake him up, but it looked like he was having a nice dream guessing from his goofy smile.

“Hmm… Oh, I know!” Glinst got an idea, running to the kitchen to retrieve something she made in advance. Flay turned in his sleep, now facing towards the wall. He wouldn’t hold that position for long though, as he turned right back towards his mother as she walked in holding a plate of his favourite breakfast.

“This ought to wake him right up.” She figured. Flay proved her right as he groggily rose from his bed while rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes and sniffing the smell of breakfast.

“Good morning mamaaaa…” He said with a yawn. Though he just woke up, he was already excited for what the day would bring, especially since it was now his ninth birthday.

“Happy birthday sweetie. Breakfast is already made, just come down to the kitchen, OK?” She wished him a happy birthday while taking the plate with her back to the kitchen.

Though he made great progress on his magic practice, he wasn’t quite able to fulfill his goal, but he always had tomorrow to practice more. Today wasn’t the day for that though, so he decided to take a small break to enjoy what was to come.

And what a day it was. After breakfast, Flay had a great time in the village while playing with the other kids. In past birthdays, at most he’d be wished a happy birthday by his parents’ friends, or by one of the kids out of politeness. Like usual, he played with the trio of Al, Klint, and Harth. Though joining them for the first time was Histen, who still appeared to be a little displeased with Flay’s presence. Not that he cared what Histen thought anyway.

Well, at least he stopped treating Flay poorly for having no magic.

As the four of them played, Flay got an idea. He tossed the ball in such a way that it curved a little in its trajectory, which threw off the one he was targeting. Unfortunately, it happened to be Histen, who didn’t react accordingly and fumbled the ball, dropping it onto the dirt in front of him.

“Hey! What did you do? How did you even do that?” He seemed to be upset, judging from his angry tone. Carefully choosing his words, Flay tried to explain it as best he could.

“Well, I’m getting real close to mastering this spell, so I kind of made it curve?” He said with a shrug.

“Sure, whatever, but does that mean you have to be a showoff about it?” Histen retorted. Flay frowned at how he described it. Was it showing off? How could he tell? He is very new to magic after all.

“I wasn’t trying to, I just thought I’d try something I thought of yesterday!” He put his hands up defensively, but Histen was prepared to tear him down.

“Oh yeah? What’s that? Mess me up and make me lose the game?” Flay was starting to wonder if Histen would ever get along with him. It seemed very unlikely at this rate.

“You’re wrong! I thought you would be able to catch it without a problem! Unless you mean to say you’re not as great as you make yourself out to be.” Flay crossed his arms as he fired back. Rather than countering with words, Histen cast Aquorb and tried to hit Flay with it, however he managed to catch it. The force of the throw wasn’t as strong as Flay assumed it would have been, so he took it as a chance to try to start the game up again, tossing it upwards in Klint’s direction.

“Hey! We’re not through! Don’t just keep playing!” Histen nearly started having a full on tantrum, but when Klint tossed the ball to Al, he tried throwing it towards him. He caught the ball, but glared at Flay and threw it to the side.

“I don’t want to play anymore.” He went home. Flay felt relieved, but he wondered if Histen would be alright. Perhaps he struck a nerve? Either way, at least he could play the game in peace.

A few hours later, Flay was on his way to the woods after asking for permission from his father when he noticed just near the outskirts of the village was Histen, who seemed to be practicing magic. He stood in a pose with his right arm held out, as he tried casting something. Flay recognized that spell as an intermediate Water spell, however Histen seemed to be struggling to cast it. Flay recalled that it took some concentration on its shape, and required a baseline mental fortitude to hold for an extended period of time, so he himself had never attempted it before.

Flay tried his best not to show any attention towards Histen while he passed by him on the way to the woods, but to his surprise it was Histen who initiated the conversation first.

“Oh, hey Stu-... Flay… Um, do you know how to cast Water Sphere?” He asked. Flay could sense the unsureness in his voice, but despite how Histen treated him, he relented and stopped in his tracks.

“Well, in my mama’s book, it says you need to imagine the shape of the spell as clearly as you can, and hold onto that shape as you cast it, but you need a place to send it since it’s bigger than Aquorb.” He explained, recalling what his mother’s book taught him regarding that spell. Histen’s eyes slightly widened with realization, before he went right back to closing his eyes and focusing his mind. After about half a minute, that’s when he performed the chant and had a sphere of water begin growing in front of his outstretched arm. The ball grew to be over two times as big as a normal Aquorb, but Histen struggled to hold it and had to drop it right in front of him.

“Wow, that’s so cool! I haven’t even tried that spell yet! Good job!” Flay praised Histen. He didn’t think he’d be in a situation where he’d praise Histen, but he supposed he had a hand in helping him cast such a difficult spell.

Histen showed an expression of joy that Flay had never seen from him before.

“Um, thank you Flay, I’m gonna go home and show my parents this. See you later.” Histen waved as he ran back towards the village with a grin. Flay was surprised by Histen’s expression, but he seemed genuine, so he shrugged and accepted it for now. Right now there’s something else he’s concerned with.

During one of Flay’s trips to the forest, he noticed a plant near a dead tree with a flower bud growing next to it. When he approached the bud, it suddenly bloomed. Flay had identified plenty of plants in that forest before, but that one was unknown to him.

He recalled that the petals were rounded and white at the tips, and transitioned to a dark pink closer to the center. It had quite an fascinating colour, but he was more interested in what it was called.

“I left it alone last time, but… I think mom might like it.” He thought as he approached the area of the woods he first found it. When he spotted it, he crouched down and picked the flower from where it was sitting, but unbeknownst to him, it had started to glow faintly. It appeared as though the glow was being pulled away from the flower and towards Flay, who was oblivious to the current state of the flower.

As he left the forest, flower in hand, he felt himself very gradually becoming slower. The closer he got to home, the more the flower’s glow became faint. Suddenly, he felt some sense of something, which he couldn’t identify. It wasn’t a good feeling, though.

As he stepped into his house, he felt his hand weaken, as the flower landed on the floor. He looked down at the flower and noticed that the once pretty gradient it had had vanished. Now the petals were a sad gray, and the petals seemed lifeless.

Flay tried calling out to his mother, but the words wouldn’t come out. Before he could be confused by that, a pounding feeling filled his head, as he rubbed his forehead and attempted to take a step forwards, however he felt his consciousness fading. Did he perhaps make a mistake in picking that flower? He couldn’t answer that question though, but thankfully the sound of him hitting the floor alerted his mother to his presence.

When he came to, he felt the scene before him was familiar, though this time his mother wasn’t in the room. He felt his forehead and realized the pain from earlier that day had subsided. Wait, it looks like the morning sun is peeking through the window. Was he out for the whole night? He decided to get out of bed and make his way to the kitchen, to see his mother was sitting at the wooden table.

“Good morning mama.” He greeted her, as she smiled at him.

“Good morning my little troublemaker. You had us worried yesterday, I found you had fainted at the door, and next to you was a dead flower. Where did you get that?” Flay swallowed his saliva, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I found this pretty flower I’ve never seen before next to a dead tree in the forest… I wanted you to see it, since I didn’t know what it was, but then something made me feel sick before I fainted… Do you know what that flower was?” All she could do was chuckle to herself. She wasn’t unfamiliar with that flower, but she didn’t think he’d come across something like that as well. She wasn’t surprised considering the recent incident with the Drolive Fruit, now that she thought about it.

“I can’t remember the name of that flower, but it’s rather rare for it to die so soon after being picked. For now, you shouldn’t use magic until I remember anything about that flower, it could potentially be bad.” Not even the name of the flower was coming to mind, but she wouldn’t be shocked if its effects ended up having at least one positive effect like his previous encounter in the forest… Wait, the forest?

“By the way, for the time being, don’t go in the forest without your father, or a friend.” Flay was afraid of that, but he nodded and accepted the terms. It wasn’t fun to faint after coming across something in the woods.

“Mama, sorry we couldn’t have birthday celebrations like we usually do…” He apologized. He was looking forward to his birthday the week prior, and he ended up not being there for it. She patted his head in response.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in big trouble for finding that flower and missing your birthday celebrations, just try to be more careful in the future, understand?” She held her pinky out.

“Yes mother, I promise to be more careful.” He linked his pinky with hers, making a pinky promise.

“Good. Now wait here while I wake up your father and make breakfast. Once we permit it, you can return to your magic studies.” He nodded, and eagerly sat on his chair in anticipation for breakfast.

As the day went on, Glinst noticed that nothing seemed out of the ordinary with Flay. She decided that evening that she and Grif would have a discussion about that flower.

Glinst was searching around the bookshelf in her room for a book that she was given by someone. It was a book that had botanical information. She was certain it’d have information on that flower. As she took it from the shelf, it had collected a lot of dust, so she blew it off the front cover.

“Here it is! Now if I remember correctly, it should be on this page…” She flipped through the book and landed on the one she was looking for. As she sat on the bed and read the passages, her eyes gradually widened.

As it turned out, that flower was no ordinary flower. It responded to a very particular amount of magic power, and if it were enough, it would bestow its innate magical power and die in the process. There wasn’t anything written about negative side effects, but Glinst remained cautious about Flay using magic at the moment.

“Darling, I found out some stuff about that flower Flay came home with yesterday. Apparently it seems to have given Flay some kind of magical energy, but I don’t know what that is, so let’s have him wait to use magic for a while.” She voiced her concerns, though truthfully it didn’t worry her that much. After all, he seemed fine after eating that weird fruit. It didn’t hurt to be cautious about it, though.

“Hmm, I suppose waiting at least one more day wouldn’t hurt, would it? I’m kind of curious to see what that magical energy is, myself.” He said as he lied on his side in preparation to nap.

“Well, that aside, you have to hear this! Earlier today, Holli told me her son was finally able to cast Water Sphere! She mentioned that apparently Flay helped him figure it out. Isn’t that nice?” She recalled the talk she had with some of the other moms in the village.

“Oh, is that so? I noticed that Histen seemed to give Flay a hard time before he was able to cast magic, but I suppose this development isn’t so strange.” He said. She didn’t realize it until then, but Histen did seem like a bit of a bully, but maybe the two could make amends.

“Yes, that would be nice. I’m glad Flay is making friends now, but I can’t help but feel a slight unease about something…” She closed the book and placed it back on the bookshelf.

“What do you mean?” He asked, as he turned to face her with an eyebrow raised.

“Well, I just think it’s kind of curious how all it took for our little Flay to start making friends is the ability to cast magic… Doesn’t that bother you a bit?” She asked, with a small frown. He sat up on the bed and had a look of realization. That was kind of weird.

“W-well, you’re not wrong… But then again, have you ever noticed how the kids in the village only ever play using magic? I think that was part of the problem, to some extent at least.” He pointed out. Glinst looked down at the bed, thinking about his reasoning. It did make some sense in that light, but she still couldn’t shake that strange feeling of unease it gave her.

“Maybe you’re right. I think we should probably sleep on it.” She said while laying down on the unoccupied side of the bed.