Citizen 698 Lavanda

It was another calm, gentle morning. The sunlight refracted through the ocean and shone gently into the Dome, its soft greeting cueing the place’s diurnal animals to wake up, and leaving the nocturnal ones to wander home and sleep.

Along these first sounds of dawn, a large beast shifted on an equally large bed, eyes shutting further before an escaped yawn woke her up fully. She blinked a few times and stretched as she got off the bed. Some Rexals hated waking up at dawn— most, she’d come to learn— but Lavanda adored watching dawn come to morning over a warm cup of tea every day, sometimes being lucky enough to catch sight of the wildlife that would soon be safely hidden in the grass and trees and burrows. Yes, Lavanda loved the dawn.

This dawn was a special one, too. Once she’d watered her small farm and gotten lunch ready, Lavanda would go out to the forest to gather new ingredients for making jam and tea for the rest of the month. Lavanda wasn’t a very social Rexal— she was big, and strong, and her dark armor and golden eyes were certainly intimidating to some, so she tended to withdraw in fear of scaring others. So instead, Lavanda resorted to baking and cooking to win others’ hearts, and it worked: Lavanda would make jams, pies, and teas, and others would come by to trade or buy, bonding with her over the delicious smells and tastes, and ignoring an appearance that would usually be scary, if it weren’t surrounded by pastries.

And so Lavanda had a freshly brewed cup of tea by the windowsill of her home, prepared a small picnic basket with cheese, meats, and olives, secured her gathering pouch around her chest, and left for the woods.

•••

She knew these woods well; they were a small, temperate forest that began a few kilometers away from her home, where the wildlife was calm, but not inoffensive. Deer and owls inhabited it mostly, but she had had an encounter or two with wild boars and even wolves in the thicker parts of the woods. Because of this, Rexals that were more accustomed to civilization and manners didn’t dare step in, but Lavanda lived close enough to it that it had been an important part of her childhood. Now that she was big and strong, not much in the woods could scare her.

At the entrance to the forest, Lavanda stopped her stroll and took a small list out of her chest pouch to take a look. “We’re restocking mints, blueberries, lavender,…” She looked back up at the woods. “And hopefully we can find some truffles. Wouldn’t want to fight another boar for a handful.”

With an unamused smile at the memory, Lavanda tucked the note back in her pouch, and began strolling into the forest.

The morning light was brighter by then, and birdsong could be heard clearly atop the trees. It made Lavanda smile, but she kept walking, she could sit down and enjoy the scenery for lunchtime.

Her first stop was the lavender bushes. The plants grew tall and thick in this forest, around the first trees where the light was strong and the canopy thin. They grew in abundance around this time of the year, so Lavanda was able to generously fill the first third of her pouch with leaves and flowers before she moved on to find the mints.

Mints and blueberries were no concern either; they grew a bit further into the forest, where light shade could protect them, but not cover them, and Lavanda gathered enough of each, and her pouch started to gain weight.

By the time the sun reached its peak, and the Dome was warm, Lavanda had reached a forest clearing she knew well. On an old, fallen log, she placed a blanket she had brought in her basket, and laid out her lunch. A ladybug and a bird joined her to wander and peck curiously around her food, but Lavanda enjoyed the company, and shared joyously.

Once lunch was over, she allowed herself a few minutes to rest and bask in the gentle forestal breeze, as she often did. Afternoon was beginning to wane, but Lavanda knew she had enough time before the boars started to wake up.

“Alright birdie” she let out with a smile, “I have to go now, I’m afraid.” And she grabbed the blanket gently, tucking it back into the basket as the bird flew away.

The path to the heart of the forest was trickier. The few Rexals that ventured this forest would usually find what they wanted under the lighter canopy, and had no need to go into its depths, so the tree roots and the dirt mounds were untamed and unpredictable, and Lavanda had to watch her step.

As she neared the tallest trees, where the canopy was thick and the ground dark— where she knew she’d sure find the truffles on her list— Lavanda heard a grunt and a squeal. A cry for help, and the wrathful huffing of a boar. Usually, Lavanda would high tail out of the forest at the distant sound of an angered boar: they were mean and territorial, and their tusks could leave bad scars. But the victim’s cries were more like screams— intelligible— and Lavanda knew it wasn’t a dispute among wildlife, a fellow Rexal was in need.

And so Lavanda quickly left her pouch and her basket in a tree hollow, and started running towards the sounds of fight and despair. The trees grew closely together at times, and it made Lavanda’s race challenging, her broad shoulders tackling into tree bark and branches from time to time, accidentally bulldozing her precious forest with the strong plating of her armored body.

After a few minutes, Lavanda skid to a stop right before a clearing she hadn’t been to in a long time for one reason alone: an old, large wild boar lived in that clearing, and she knew it well— her curiosity had almost costed her her life as a young Rexal that day.

The boar’s now grey hairs stood on end, shining under what little light shone through the trees. Instinctively, Lavanda crouched to hide beneath the overgrowth. Her pupils dilated with panic, and her chest began rising and falling quickly. Suddenly, Lavanda was a kid again, clawing desperately at a tree as a giant boar ran at full speed in her direction, its territory clearly trespassed. Her hands had been too full of truffles to climb the tree quickly, and the tackle the boar gave her sent her flying back to the center of the clearing, the boar’s deadly hooves digging into the dirt as it readied itself for a final blow.

The scream of an unknown voice snapped her out of the memory. Lavanda blinked tears away as her eyes focused on the present: a Rexal half her age ( and half her size ) was being cornered into a tree, just as she had been. But this time Lavanda knew better.

Letting anger fuel her, Lavanda flexed her arms and launched herself into the clearing, charging across it and into her old foe. With one heavy headbutt, Lavanda sent the boar to the ground, and positioned herself in front of the youngling. She heard them gasp in fear, but they seemed to quickly realize she was there to help, and stayed put.

The youngling was a trespasser just as she had been, she assumed. She wouldn’t hurt the boar unless necessary, but she still stood her ground; otherwise, she didn’t know what the boar would do.

As the boar stood back up, Lavanda glowered, widening her stance and lowering her head to display her neck plates, and letting her magic glow brighter, pink coloring the ground around her.

It was a sight to behold, but the boar was stubborn. It gave a half-grunt half-huff, letting hot, wrathful breath out of its nostrils, and clawed at the ground again, ready to attack.

Lavanda snarled at it. She had hoped she didn’t need to fight. She turned her head to the Rexal quickly and let out a ‘get out of here, now!’ Just to turn in time to use her head plating to stop the boar’s tackle.

She grinded her fangs together in pain, but didn’t give in. She was stronger now, much stronger, and she had a life to save. She stepped forward, putting more weight and countering the boar’s strength.

Once she began feeling the boar tire, she whipped her head upwards, sending the beast skyborne for a second before it hit the ground hard.

The creature tried standing up again to blister at Lavanda, but she gave it a roar and took another menacing step forward, and the old animal decided it had been enough.

Lavanda took a moment to catch her breath once the boar was safely hidden inside its burrow. The adrenaline rush began to wear off rather quickly, and she felt a sting and the scent of blood on her cheek— surely the boar’s tusk. She reached for the wound with a paw, and as she looked to the ground, she spotted what she had been looking for: a freshly unearthed truffle, right where she had clawed at to keep the boar from pushing her away.

With a tired chuckle, Lavanda picked the truffle and headed back to the forest, grabbing her things, and helping the poor kid find their way back home.