Category: Garden

Rylee moved through the battlefield like a reaper, sowing discord and chaos with every step. The Conclave members were clearly marked by a large symbol of a robot sewn onto their clothing, making her job a simple one. Using the seeds she’d taken from the warehouse, she used them to distract her enemies, like throwing pocket sand into their eyes but with seeds instead.

While the Conclave members were distracted by her seed attacks, Rylee sprung forward with her own vicious blows, or created openings for Resistance members to fight back. The hybrid tea rose seeds seemed to be particularly effective, spreading further and wider than the others. Rylee never would have suspected that plant seeds would be so effective as a weapon, but here she was, decimating the Conclave forces with something that most would assume is only a minor annoyance. 

When this was all over, Rylee was going to buy seeds online more often. She’d store a heap of them in her house, just in case she ever needed a pinch to get herself out of a tight situation.

The Resistance members fought well. In fact, it seemed as if they had been bolstered by Rylee’s arrival. Perhaps they’d be able to drive back their foes after all. She supposed it made sense. They’d probably thought this would be the end, that nobody would come to help them. The Conclave forces were going to overwhelm them and this would all be for nothing.

But then Rylee came along, fighting like a demon. Reinforcements of one, but one was all they needed to be inspired. Fighting with seeds turned out to be genius. Even when the Conclave members managed to get their arms up in time to block the seeds from their eyes, they still managed to find the gaps in their clothes, becoming an annoyance as the battle continued. 

Perhaps they were going to get out of this. Perhaps they would win this day.

The sun had begun to set by the time the girls reached the centre of the maze. Amira’s legs felt like lead, dragging slowly along the grass and kicking up dirt with every step. Ro hadn’t fared much better; her dark brown hair had sprung loose from its coils and stuck to her face in a sweaty, matted nest. For the first section of their journey, the silence in the air had been calming, like the maze had wanted to lure them in further. Now that they were in the centre, and had been for several hours, the humidity clung to them like a thick, oppressive fog. Ro nudged Amira, motioning languidly to a collection of pink roses growing along the southern edge of the maze wall.

“There are hybrid roses in there,” Ro said. Out of breath, Amira only nodded. There were certainly a number of hybrid tea varieties nestled in the collection, but her experienced eye could tell the wall was bursting mainly with an impressive pink floribunda rose bush, its scent clinging dense and sweet over their noses. Floribunda roses were something Amira had only ever seen in books — they were far too expensive to be a regular sight in her poor little village. She slipped a pair of garden scissors from her satchel and carefully pruned away the outer edge of the bunch. While these varieties were neither sturdy enough to use as a weapon, nor potent enough to be crushed up and used in magic rituals, each had its uses. The sticky pollen within floribunda roses could form an adhesive, and when it came time for David Austin roses season, the colourful blooms could be woven into fabric and used to fashion beautiful clothes.

Beside her, Ro nibbled the edge of a hybrid tea rose. “Tangy,” she said thoughtfully. Glancing down, Amira noticed that Ro had already collected a number of roses and divided them into neat little piles on the grass. However, while most of the varieties were obvious to someone as experienced as Amira, a small pile on the edge caught her attention.