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Leaf hadn't intended to end up in the city, but the faint scent of trees had attracted her. And if there was a chance of finding some sort of green on the ship, she was interested in it. She missed proper landscape-there was always the sensorium, but she still didn't entirely trust it. This, at least, smelled like it was permanent, and not something that would fade away.

She made her way through the scab cautiously, her ears splayed out and her hackles up as she tried to ignore the buildings looming overhead. As the scent of trees got stronger, she picked up her pace, finally breaking into a lope in hopes of finding natural shelter faster. But once she found it, she skidded to a halt, eyeballing it warily.

The entwined trees of the temple smelled as they should, that was true. But seeing them entwined to form something made her uneasy. Leaf stepped closer to the temple entrance, then stopped just outside it, peering in and flicking her ears back and forth uncertainly.

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Bella's wandering around down in the city, as she's wont to do when she wants to stretch her legs. She's not fond of cities, but the lack of humanity down here and the absence of the usual stink makes it much more hospitable.

"Hello One-Leaf-Ear!" Bella barks, wagging as she approaches. She keeps her head lower, Leaf is a more senior Ahroun than she is and as such ranks higher.

Leaf jerks her head up alarm briefly at the greeting bark-she had been so engrossed in staring down the temple she had forgotten to pay much attention to her surroundings. Her ears prick forward briefly, giving a small wag in return. Company is always welcomed when eyeballing strange things that may or may not need to be shredded. "Hello, Bella."

She glances back to the temple for a moment, snorting a bit as she snuffs in its direction again. "Do you know anything about this part of the scab? Or these trees?"

Bella flicks an ear off to the side, sniffing in the direction of the temple now. She hasn't really explored it, the shaped trees put her off.

"I do not know," she says, focusing on it now. "I do not like this place. Trees should not bend like this."

"The scab is clean, though."

Leaf walks towards the temple slowly-her steps are stiff-legged and cautious. She shifts up to hispo as she does so, her hackles rising a little.

"The scab may be clean, but I do not know what to think of this. It reminds me of the Weaver. I do not like it, either." Her lips curl back a little as she continues to stare at it, exposing a few teeth.

Bella tilts her head to one side thoughtfully.

"But the Weaver does not like trees, does it?" she asks. Bella's kind of... her thoughts on spirits are all confused around and her understanding of the Triat is basic. This combined with having been on the ship for several months during which it hasn't been hammered in means that it's getting sketchier all the time.

"The Weaver likes the scabs. It...makes everything too neat, too..." Leaf snorts again. She's not a Theurge, and it's not like Talons talk about the Weaver much, aside from how to lash out and destroy Weaver things. "It makes things unnatural. And it encroaches constantly, replacing wild things with more scab. But this is making something wild into something orderly."

She pauses, then adds, "Perhaps the Weaver is becoming creative in its madness."

"Is it still alive, then?" Bella's been doubtful about this since the "your world is dead and gone" news. She approaches the temple warily, but without as much suspicion or aggression as Leaf. She's gotten used to regarding things with more polite curiosity.

"If that is what the Weaver is like then I think I understand. It would make trees into shapes to be neat. Like buildings." She curls her lip.

"I do not know. It may be, or it may not be. I am not a Theurge, and I do not known how much even one of their auspice would know in this case."

Bella's comment, however, gets a chuff of agreement. "Yes. If it did not lead to their destruction, it would change them, I think."

Then Leaf suddenly lashes out at the temple, slashing her fangs against the closest tree and leaping back just to see what it does.

Bella watches as the tree remains distinctly inanimate.

"I am not sure but I do not think it will attack," she says helpfully.

Bella approaches the tree, sniff sniff sniffing at it.

It smells... familiar yet strange. It's a tree alright, but it's not a kind she's ever encountered.

It's so quiet down here. That's another thing that gets her. No birds, no small animals, and unless other crew members are down here? No people either.

She looks up at the temple. At the way it is built.

"I think it is like the human caern."

That's her way of thinking of the Vatican.

Leaf growls to herself as she watches the tree, finally stepping closer again once she's fairly certain that it's not going to burst its roots out of the ground and chase after her.

She considers Bella's thoughts for a moment, her ears splaying out. "Then whatever humans tended it still did something that should not have been done. But...they made an attempt to do better," she concedes. "The trees are alive, rather than being replaced entirely."

"Maybe it isn't human," Bella adds. "There are a lot of things here that are not human. They smell strange."

This is on her mind, because she's been hunting down Sangheili warriors and Gargoyles and other fun things lately.

"I am happy that the trees are alive," she adds.

"So am I," Leaf agrees, then steps towards the entrance once more, poking her head and sniffing at the air thoughtfully.

"I do not smell anything, human or not. But it is possible non-humans made it, I suppose. Do you think there are any signs of who made it inside?"

"Maybe," says Bella. "But if it is writing I do not know how to know what it means," she adds with a chuffing noise.

"There should be no danger but if there, is we are Ahrouns of the Red Talons and a Get of Fenris."

So, logically, there's nothing they can't figure out how to tear to shreds.

"If humans did not make it, we not be able to read it, no matter what. But I cannot read, either. We would need to find one of the Gnawers."

Bella's latter comment gets a chuff of agreement, and Leaf steps forward, making her way into the temple. She moves carefully, swinging her head around and sniffing as she watches the light filter down. Who knows what hides in the shadows?

Bella hesitates, then also shifts up to Hispo. She wants to be ready if anything bad happens.

It's kind of creepy, honestly. Even if this place is built of trees. They're too close together to remind her of her old home in the forest, the trees there never made walls.

But she can't help it, despite the oddness of this place, Bella's curious.

Leaf has no set path through the temple as she moves along-instead, she wanders, pausing to investigate the sides, occasionally scraping at the bark with her hispo form's claws.

"I do not smell anything but the trees. I wonder if animals and other plants used to live here, and they were left behind."

"I think the ship killed everything that lived here," Bella remembers. "To kill the bugs."

She pokes her head around a corner.

And sneezes.

"Oh!"

Evidently, she's found something.

"What?" Leaf's ears prick up and she lopes over to where Bella is, baring her teeth a little again. "What is it?"

"Look."

Bella moves over. There's an opening in the temple's roof, allowing the city's artificial sunlight to filter in through the leaves.

In the center of the room is something almost like an altar, constructed of living foliage.

In the center is an orange flower, larger than a wolf, sprawling in the dappled sun.

They can smell it now that they're this close. The lack of even a breeze has kept its sickly sweet scent from permeating to the rest of the temple.

Leaf growls to herself as she walks forward, her hackles rising higher. The sniffing doesn't tell her much-all she can smell is that sickly-sweet odor.

"Have you ever seen a flower like this before?"

She circles around the altar, eyeballing it warily and attempting to keep her feet clear of any vines-just in case.

"No. Flowers do not get this big in my forest," she says. Bella circles around the flower. She gives up on trying to pick out any important scents in the overpowering cover of the flower.

"Do you think it is very important? It looks important from where it grows."

"Most likely," she agrees, stepping closer to the altar and shifting her weight from foot to foot uneasily as she does so. She's still leery of staying still for too long around the thing.

"The plants it is on remind me of the trees, but the flower itself grows like it is wild."

"Maybe it is a holy thing," says Bella. "Maybe it has a spirit."

She's tempted to touch it, but this seems like a bad idea...

"Wait for me. I have a plan."

And with that? Off she runs!

Leaf pins her ears back momentarily as Bella runs off, but she listens anyway, turning her attention back to the plant to watch it suspiciously as she waits.

The plant is deeeefinitely alive. It has a sort of presence. Like something older and wiser... just... not very animate.

Bella returns in a matter of minutes, carrying a familiar object in her big Hispo teeth.

The axe. The big one.

She shifts her grip nearer the blade and nudges the flower. Slightly.

It... doesn't do anything.

Huh.

"Prod it again," Leaf offers, circling around again to get a view of the plant from the other side. Perhaps it would look more active from a different angle.

"Perhaps it did not feel it before."

Bella acknowledges with a subtle movement. She's a wolf, a wolf is not hampered by carrying a blade in her mouth!

She nudges the plant more sharply, closer to the base...

PWOOMF!

There's a SURGE from the flower. It CONVULSES. A cloud of golden spores rises, settling on the wolves and the ground around them. Bella JUMPS back in alarm, managing not to drop her axe. She snarls, ready to pounce on the plant if it moves.

A massive sneeze dislodges the axe.

Leaf leaps backwards as well, surging up into crinos with a roar. She lets out a roar of fury at the plant, claws ready to strike...

..and stares as the spores just float down gently, without any attacking vines or pods suddenly showing up. She sneezes as well and attempts to shake the spores off, snarling to herself.

Bella shakes herself like, well, like a wolf with plant spores all over it.

The flower is rapidly shriveling where it sprawls, dying before their eyes.

Bella is stiff and silent, bristling like nobody's business, growling, and baring her teeth, but...

There's nothing to fight.

"I think we broke it."

Leaf shifts back down to hispo and drops to roll around on the ground, attempting to get the spores off. Mostly that just sends more spores flying in every direction, and as she gets to her feet again, she settles for shaking.

After a moment, she sniffs the air again. "It does not smell as if it released anything harmful."

Bella takes a whiff in and just ends up sneezing. She then tries again, less zealously.

"It does not."

She picks up her axe with surprising delicacy.

"I think we should leave."

She doesn't like looking at the shriveled flower. She feels like she's done something wrong.

Leaf pins her ears back briefly, then sneezes and turns away. "Yes. We have explored enough."

And by 'explored' she means 'destroyed'.

Leaf lopes out of the temple, moving out at a much more rapid pace now that she's reasonably sure it won't try to attack her. Once she's outside, she drops and rolls again.

Bella leaves a little more cautiously, still sort of hoping for a fight. There's more golden dust drifting out of other chambers. Other flowers, maybe? Green patches appear on the ground where it mingles. More starts settling in Bella's fur though, which finally prompts her to run.

She joins Leaf in trying to dislodge the worst of it.

Meanwhile, the plant temple is stiffening. Drying out. Dying, perhaps.

Except for the beginnings of green...

Leaf finishes rolling and gets to her feet, baring her teeth for a moment as she watches the temple shrivel. The beginnings of green, however, make her pause.

Slowly, her ears prick forward and her tail begins to wave a little. "Look!"

Bella does look. She's not sure what she's looking at, more than a little discouraged by the state of the plant temple. It is dying. She killed it. She poked it and it's dying and she killed it and it is bad bad bad.

But...

"Growth!"

This demands wolf sniffing!

"Yes!" Leaf bounds back over to the remains of the temple, sniffing madly. Green, and it's spreading! And there's no order to it, either.

That's what particularly makes her excited-the temple isn't reforming itself into its disconcerting shape. The green is simply growing on its own, with nothing constraining its growth.

Bella slowly, hesitantly, but surely starts to wag her tail.

"It is alive!"

This makes her feel much, much better. The trees that made it up are drying and creaking, they'll likely soon start falling. The temple seems to be going through a dramatically sped up cycle of death and rebirth. Vines are climbing the old trees and the new sprouts are growing larger and bolder.

It's slowing down after the initial surge, but definitely moving!

"We made it grow!" Bella concludes brightly.

And sneezes again. Dangit, it's going to take forever to get this fully out of her nose.

"And it is growing right this time," Leaf says, sounding more than a little pleased as her tail continues to wag. "There is nothing like the Weaver here now. It is as it should be."

She lets out a sneeze of her own and then looks up, eyeballing the other temples thoughtfully. "Perhaps it will spread to the other parts of the scab and break through."

"But they are stone," says Bella. She hates to be the downer, but this is true. "Stone does not grow."

"But at least this place is as it should be."

"We have done good!"

She's happy enough to conclude that.

"Plants can break through stone," Leaf says confidently. "It simply takes time. But yes, we have."

Her ears and tail up, she turns and begins trotting back through the city with a much more self-assured pace. "We should tell the Gnawers."

Bella follows her lead without even thinking about it. Leaf is boss wolf, Bella follows.

"Yes. They should see. We did good in the scab and the Gnawers would do well to learn from it."

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