Light flickered softly across the floor of the mossy grove as it did at the start of every morning. It slowly became more abrasive as the morning sun began its journey through the sky, beaming away at the sleeping members of the colony. Feeling this especially strongly, Arden groaned, light plastering itself across her face. Waking up was always the hardest part of the day. The silver tsab was always grumpy in the morning. It was quite the disadvantage to her passion, which was plants. She’d heard others in the botany field loved to wake up with the dawn, even singing as they checked on their plants and got to work for the day. Meanwhile, it typically took everything Arden had not to strangle her two young helpers in the morning. 

This morning, said helpers were already awake. Arden popped an eye open, glancing across the way at Lairi and Harkley, cheerfully talking together, and much to Arden’s displeasure, making their way steadily closer to her. She estimated she had about 10 more seconds of laying in peace before the youngsters would force her to rise and shine. She shut her one eye, taking every last second she could get.

She was wrong. She got 8 seconds. The young male nudged Arden’s horn with a hand. “Are you awake?” He said in a flat tone. Arden grunted and slowly raised her head. The spotty male sneered at her. “We saw your eye open. You can’t get out of taking us to look for seeds. You promised!” Harkley was unfortunately impatient. Lairi was not much better. Almost as soon as the silver male was done, she hopped forward in a small circle around the adult tsab. “Eggy wants to come with us today. He can come right?! We can get extra seeds with an extra nose.” 

Arden picked herself up, shut her eyes for half a second, mentally asking for strength and patience. She then put on a smile. “Of course he can come. So long as he’s ready to go right after breakfast.” Lairi broke into a big smile, hopping around even more enthusiastically and thanking Arden before rushing off to find Eglann. Harkley followed close on her heels, not wanting to be left out of anything. Arden breathed out a sigh of relief and trudged from her sleeping chamber, into the common grounds, seeking breakfast. Her last moment of peace before the day’s excursion. 

….

Happier with a full belly, Arden lead the way through the dense spore and undergrowth filled land of L’Hatzif that Tsidal called home. Behind her trailed the three whelps. Eyes bright and noses on the hunt for certain plants. Lairi walked a bit smugly between the boys, Eglann and Harkley, as she’d had a stroke of luck at the very start of their trek. Arden had a list of plants to look for, which they would gather seeds from to take back to the main camp area where Arden had a substantial garden. It was a routine excursion but one of the more traditionally interesting parts of the botanist’s job. 

Lairi had spotted a newly growing red bloomdrop. One of the birds or critters that roamed the area likely transferred a seed nearby the camp, which had finally grown enough to produce its striking red bloom that it was named for. It was fairly difficult to cultivate the bloomdrops in the swampy areas of L’Hatzif so it was a particularly good find. Arden was proud of how the whelps were all developing their observational skills. 

Continuing on through the dense growth, a particular thistle bush caught the eye of the experienced botanist. She stopped and Eglann, having not noticed this, walked straight into her, pushing her dangerously close to the thistles. “Be careful!” The silver female barked at the belemoid. He wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes as if to protest that request, before he spotted the thistle bush in front of them. At the sight, the belemoid’s ears drooped down and he looked a little bashful. “Sorry” he muttered. 

Arden decided to use it as a teachable moment. “It’s okay. But when you’re all out and about, traveling this section of the land, as well as every other, make sure you keep watch on ALL of your surroundings. Not paying attention is the easiest way to get hurt and no one wants that. You’ve all done well keeping a lookout though. Now, can you tell me anything about this thistle bush?” 

Harkley opened his mouth immediately, trying to beat Lairi. “It’s thorny! We could use it as a defensive barrier around camp. We should collect its seeds!” His ears twitched as he talked, clearly spouting the words as soon as they popped in his brain. Arden nodded though. “That’s a good point. I like the thinking. We will collect the seeds, and perhaps even grow some around camp. Can anyone tell me what kind of bush this is and why we would want to collect the seeds besides as a defense mechanism?”

Arden waited, giving the whelps all time to think. Harkley growled softly, hating not knowing the answer. Lairi looked contemplative but came up blank. Arden didn’t expect Eglann to have an answer. The tsabs were her students, learning all about botany and the art of plant care. As far as Arden knew, the young belemoid was still struggling with what he wanted to do in the group- what his passion might be. Perhaps he would take a liking to botany though and she’d have a third whelp to teach. 

Much to Arden’s happy surprise, Eglann was the one who finally voiced an idea. “Perhaps it grows fruit and not just thistles?” Arden beamed at the belemoid. “You’re absolutely right Eglann! If you all come closer, though don't poke yourselves; the thistles are very sharp and will sting, you can see green berries growing under and behind the thistles themselves. This is a Grellinn bush. It has natural camouflage with the color of its berries as well as the excellent defense of the thistles. It’s not a L’Hatzif native though. This would be what we call an invasive species. We can certainly use it for our camp. The berries are tasty and are said to have some healing properties. I’m not as knowledgeable as perhaps Maztik or Rozwel may be on the healing aspects of the plant, but I definitely think it would be beneficial to have the seeds of this plant.”

Carefully Arden showed the three whelps how best to extract the berries from their precarious position, as the berries held the seeds of the bush. The four of them plucked the bush clean in no time. “Will the bush be okay without its berries?” Lairi asked, concretely as Arden turned to move on. Harkley scoffed at her. “Of course it will. It doesn’t need berries to live.” Eglann chimed in with a small “Yeah!” Not about to miss out. Arden shook her head softly. Harkley was always so quick to assume he knew everything. Sometimes he was right, but it still irked the older tsab on occasion. 

“Yes the bush will be perfectly fine. It will grow more berries, and in fact, we may want to keep a careful eye on it. The thing about invasive species is that they can take over the resources that native plants need to survive. Should the Grellinn bush begin spreading or choking out the plants around it, you all may get a lesson in biocontrol.” All three of the whelp’s heads shot up at that word. Arden knew it sounded exciting and cool. She hoped they wouldn’t quickly be bored when they realized how much work it really was. 

“For now we need not worry about it though. Come on, let’s continue. We have more plants to be on the lookout for.” Eglann, Lairi, and Harkley filed back into line behind Arden as their little party resumed its mission of the day.