Guitar Strings and Flower Petals

Track Record

Willow had seen many strange and unusual things in her Herbology classes. She'd witnessed monstrous flowers unleash spores of madness at people, who got whipped up into a frenzy. She'd witnessed a plant give a student visions of the universe's inevitable end, and apparent inevitable rebirth. She'd even seen some flowers that... Didn't actually do anything special, but just looked nice.

And sometimes, she wasn't a hundred-percent sure she could trust the ones that just looked nice, on the off-chance they had some sort of cosmic horror lurking underneath the petals.

It wouldn't be the first time she'd been tricked by nice-looking things. Or by plants, either.

When she was little, she remembered that it had taken her a while to get used to the idea of an Osteo-Rose not trying to bite her, or eat flies, or have teeth or do much of anything, really. When she did get used to it though, she had assumed that a Plaque-Moonflower also didn't do anything because it also looked pretty, until it bore it's alarmingly person-looking teeth and tried to bite her when she got too close. After that, she made it a point to just be that little bit more careful when it came to plants that weren't obviously magical or self-aware to some degree. At least until she knew what sort of plant it was.

Botany on the Isles was... An experience, to say the least.

Still, even in spite of all the weirdness that came with Plant Magic, and the dangers and surprises that followed, Willow still found herself being at least briefly surprised by the sight of Bo, a Healing Track student, enthusiastically speaking with Mr. Barkhide, one of her Plant-Track teachers, when she first stepped into her morning class.

"...so, things should be back to normal soon! Can't give an exact date yet, buuuuut...!"

"Oh, that is delightful news!" Mr. Barkhide all but cheered, clapping his impish and green hands together and ever so slightly bouncing on the spot atop his desk - Were they basically any other teacher, standing atop a desk would have looked rather odd, but it was basically the only way that someone as short as Mr. Barkside was could meet Bo in the eye. "What a relief! To be quite honest, I was growing somewhat worried about her! Still, I am happy to hear she'll be okay."

As far as teachers at Hexside went, Mr. Barkside was one of the better ones, in that he had a kind and nurturing nature rather than a strictly 'throw them into the fire, wish them luck, and hope they learn something' nature that a number of other teachers had. Willow was quite fond of him.

Still, she attempted to make her way past them and into her seat as quickly as she could. It was the first thing in the morning, and Willow had barely slept, thanks to her plants waking her at every hour of the night with their needs to feed. The sooner she was off her feet, the happier she would be.

"Thank you for informing me of this, young lady. Please, do tell her everything that happened will be taken into consideration when it comes to her final grade. I wouldn't want her to fret over that while she's recovering."

"I think she'll be relieved to hear that, sir."

"I must also - Oh, Miss Park!" Barkhide raised a tiny hand and waved to Willow just before she had managed to take her seat. "Perfect timing - I've just received some excellent news!"

Willow felt herself blush slightly at being so blatantly called out while she was half-in and half-out of her chair. Quickly, she decided to stand upright, and act as though she wasn't feeling particularly socially awkward all of the sudden. "O-Oh? Yes, Mr. Barkside?"

The teacher tilted his head towards the Healing Track student. "Miss Bo? Would you like to tell her?"

Bo nodded, and turned to Willow. "So, Amelia went through some surgery yesterday. It took a while, but we got the rest of the plant gunk out of her system - She's still resting up, but she's doing a whole lot better."