"I wonder what this one does..." Hivoo muttered, picking up an oddly-shaped herb and holding it up for the other two to see. Woodland hadn't seen it in real life before- she had been told the herb was a domestic variant of a species found only in Rekes. It had an odd shape- the leaves reminding her a tad of a pickaxe.

"Hmmm. Not sure, really. What do you think, Levi?" Woodland asked, looking at the large Tark'ee. The other two Xunari were supposed to head back to their own colonies today, but somehow had been roped into doing yet another task. As the three had been chatting and eating breakfast before heading out, Scale had come up to their table and asked- or rather demanded- Woodland to clean up the herb storage.

Leviathan looked at the little plant, squinting with suspicion. "Doubt it is important. It's tiny, and I haven't seen anything like it before. If it were important, it would be everywhere."

Shrugging, Woodland put the little plant back on one of the greenhouse's shelves. She supposed that Leviathan's line of thinking wasn't entirely wrong, but she had spent ages now collecting odd herbs from across the planet- she wasn't about to throw out a rare specimen like this.

She  looked at the small, oddly-shaped herb Hivoo had picked up. Something about the plant tugged at her curiosity. "I wonder what this tastes like," she muttered, half to herself.

Hivoo, who had been leaning against one of the big greenhouse windows,  perked up at the suggestion. "You want to eat it? You’re brave." the other Tsabhua joked.

Leviathan let out a low chuckle. "Brave, or foolish. I wouldn’t risk it. Most herbs like that are either medicinal or poisonous. There’s rarely an in-between."

Woodland shrugged, inspecting it again. Its leaves had a faint, sweet smell, though it wasn’t strong enough to make a guess about its taste. "It doesn’t seem dangerous," she said thoughtfully, rubbing the leaves between her fingers. "Maybe it’s just something people don’t use much because it’s rare."

"Or," Hivoo chimed in with a grin, "it tastes so terrible no one wants to eat it."

Leviathan watched them with amusement. "Only one way to find out, I suppose."

Woodland hesitated for a moment, then broke off a small piece of the leaf. "It’s worth a try. If it’s awful, I’ll just spit it out." With that, she popped the leaf into her mouth.

At first, there was nothing—just the soft texture of the herb between her teeth. Then the flavour hit her. Woodland’s face twisted as the taste spread across her tongue, an overpowering bitterness mixed with an odd, metallic tang that made her gag.

She immediately spit it out, coughing and grimacing. "Oh—ugh! That’s disgusting!" she sputtered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Hivoo burst out laughing. "I told you! You just had to find out for yourself, didn’t you?"

Leviathan, her deep voice rumbling with amusement, shook her head. "Nobody to blame for this but yourself."

Woodland gagged again, trying to get the lingering taste out of her mouth. "It’s worse than I imagined. Like… bitter dirt mixed with iron and rotten lemons."

Hivoo, curious but cautious, stepped closer and plucked a small piece of the herb. "It can’t be that bad," she said with a playful smirk. She tossed the tiny bit into her mouth.

The smirk disappeared almost instantly.

Hivoo’s face contorted as the taste assaulted her tongue. "Oh—blegh!" She spat the piece out into the dirt, gagging dramatically. "What _is_ that? It tastes like—like old socks dipped in acid!"

Leviathan watched them both with an amused shake of her head. "I tried to warn you two. It's rare that something that looks so strange is worth tasting."

Woodland still had her mouth twisted in distaste as she searched her pack for some water to wash out the lingering bitterness. "That’s definitely one for the 'do not eat' list," she muttered, taking a swig and offering the bottle to Hivoo, who accepted it gratefully.

"How does something so small taste so horrible?" Hivoo groaned between gulps of water, emptying the bottle and tossing it back to Woodland. "That’s just unfair!"

Leviathan leaned in, inspecting the herb with mock seriousness. "I’m beginning to think it might be useful after all. If we ever need to keep someone out of our supplies, we’ll just sprinkle this on top. That’ll teach ‘em."

"Never again," Hivoo muttered, wiping her mouth. "Let's head back and get something sweet to wash the taste away."

As they left the greenhouse, Woodland shot one last look at the offending herb. "You know, that thing might be worse than Scale on a bad day."

With the greenhouse—and the terrible herb—behind them, the three of them made their way toward the colony, eager to leave the strange taste and the morning’s odd task behind.