"Ferns & Feathers" | Platonic O!Alliumduo |

Chapter 10: Storm-in Story

The dark clouds looming above the valley had become very heavy, which caused the awaited rainstorm to come full force. Fortunately, the temperatures hadn't dropped enough for the drops to freeze but it did keep everyone inside for the day, especially an aquaphobic hybrid prince and his feathered companion. Currently, the two of them were sitting in the avian boy's home in the living room. The blonde was sitting at the window as he coddled his prized chicken in his lap, watching the drops traveled down his window. The enderian was seated in front of him but was taking notes from a bundle of books on the floor. The duo was just enjoying each other's company, while also working on their secret plans.

"Tommy?" spoke Ranboo, looking up from his notes.

"Yeah?" replied Tommy, the feathers on his ears twitching upwards.

"In this book, it says something about flower girls and ring bears. It says flower girls are children who throw flower petals while following the bride and the bears bring the rings to the engaged people. Where the heck do we get bears in this climate" expressed Ranboo, lifting the book to face the avian.

Tommy turned around and leaned forward to look at the paragraph on the page. He lifted his brow before looking back up at the dark haired hybrid.

"Ring bearers, they are children who carry rings to the engaged. They aren't actual bears" smirked Tommy,

"Where do we get children? We don't know any children" remarked Ranboo, as he turned the book around.

"It doesn't have to be children. Niki said she went to a merling wedding for her friend once a few years ago and they had their sea turtle & dolphin as the flower girl and ring bearer" stated Tommy, as he moved to sit on the floor.

"Gotcha, wait- You asked Niki about wedding things?!" exclaimed Ranboo, distressed.

"Oh no, she told me this a long while back. It got brought up when I was helping her and Beau were relocating a bunch of baby sea turtles that had hatched in an underground river" assured Tommy, as started petting Hetta.

"Okay, you worried me" sighed Ranboo, pressing a hand to his chest.

"But, we don't need to get actual bears for ring bearers" he inquired, lifting his brows.

"Nope, but we can have someone else, like Hetta. She could be the ring bearer since she would eat the flowers if she was a flower girl" suggested Tommy, holding up his prized chicken.

"Then who would be the flower girl?" questioned Ranboo, tilting his head to the side.

"Um" hummed Tommy, as he looked around the room.

"We'll figure that later" he huffed, picking up one of the books on the floor.

"For now, we need to think of rings and cake" claimed Tommy, his eyes lighting up.

"Right, you did mention that partners give each other rings during the weddings' ' nodded Ranboo, as he picked up a different book.

"I got Wilbur to nab some things called 'nether stars' from Scott's house, so we could use them to add them to the rings" suggested Tommy, making a star shape with his hands.

"Nether stars? How to the heck did he get those?" questioned Ranboo, lifting a brow.

"Will said that The Captain gifted them to him so it must be a starborne thing" shrugged Tommy, as he continued looking through a book.

"I doubt it since Nether stars only come from withers" stated Ranboo, as he started flipping through his book.

"Withers? Like the skeletons?" asked Tommy, looking over at the enderian.

"No, withers. The flying three headed beast" informed Ranboo.

"Never seen one of those in the nether" Tommy remarked.

Ranboo sighed and placed his book next to him and picked up a different book. As he flipped through its pages, Tommy scooted over to him and leaned on to his shoulder to see into the book. The ender prince landed on a page with coal looking skeletons on it known as "wither skeletons". Though, on the opposite page, was something that looked like a wither skeleton but it had three skulls as heads that only had a ribcage & spin as a body.

"This is a wither. Humans were known to summon them when battling her Excellency and her kin when they visited the End. Her Excellency won obviously but withers were known to wander away from the main battle and end up terrorizing the citizens and destroying places in the End" explained Ranboo, pointing to creature on the page.

"I've never faced one personally but I do remember my mothers worrying about them coming close to attacking our estate since they could be seen tearing into town below but one of her Excellency's guards came to the rescue," he included, as he rested his head on Tommy's.

"Was it scary?" asked Tommy, quietly.

"A little, but I do remember one thing about the aftermath of those battles" replied Ranboo.

"When my mothers went down to aid the citizens in rebuilding, there were these little light purple objects tossed about that had a yellow center to them and shined brightly through the dark dust that covered them. They were nether stars that had been covered in the decayed powder from when the withers had been defeated. All of them were being collected by her Excellency's guards and taken to her castle to be placed in her treasury, so I couldn't get my hands on one of them" he described, as he closed the book.

"I didn't think there would be an opportunity for me to ever get one because how you acquire them is really dangerous" sighed Ranboo, as he crossed his arms.

"Well now you do and it shall be in our rings!!" cheered Tommy, throwing his arms around his friend to hug hum.

"Yeah, I guess so" murmured Ranboo, returning the hug with one arm.

"So, we shall have nether stars in our rings but what should our bands be made of? I think copper would be nice!" exclaimed the avian, his wings flapping wildly.

"What, no! Crying obsidian would look better with the stars" challenge Ranboo, scoffing.

"But it's hard to wield, why not something easy" whined Tommy, his head feather flopping down.

"Okay but copper would be unsavory since it would clash with the stars colors" stated Ranboo, tossing his head back.

"Then stone, it's very easy and it's a plain color that won't 'clash' with it" suggested Tommy, air quoting.

"Too basic, these rings have to look amazing" claimed Ranboo, doing a little jazz hands.

"Um..." muttered Tommy, as he looked around amongst the mess of books.

"Oh, gold and amethyst!" exclaimed the blonde, as he snatched up one of the books.

"You could have an amethyst ring since your whole thing is purple with smaller gold pieces" he started , holding the book open on the page with two stones on it.

"And you can have a golden one with amethyst around the star" finished Ranboo, hoping on the same page.

"Exactly!!" proclaimed Tommy, his wings shooting out.

This action had caused various papers and books to go flying and scattered around the floor. The enderian and avian sat wide eyed at the sudden mess, before the enderian face palmed while the avian tried to hide a laugh.

"Sorry" murmured Tommy, his ears flopping downwards.

"It's fine, but at least we have the rings in mind. You also said something about cake?" huffed Ranboo, looking up from his hands.

"Oh don't get me started" smiled Tommy, as he snatched up one of the scattered books.

Though he had already started as he leaned against Ranboo's arm as he rambled about the various types of cakes, all different styles and flavors, along with how to make them from scratch. It sounded like a lot of work but it seemed the best choice since carrying a large cake from the nearby village would be very suspicious. Tommy seemed very excited about baking the cake so Ranboo didn't want to dampen his friend's wish and agreed on helping with baking, even though he had little skill. This was going to be quite an experience.