A/N: So I did a lot of thinking after watching epic and I started wondering about Dagda's mother, who he apparently took after. So then I did some more thinking and this came about. Don't hate me.
"I…I was just wondering and I didn't want to ask him for obvious reasons, but um…how did Nod's dad…you know…"
"Die?" asked Ronin, turning to the girl sitting by the waterfall with the strange helmet on that helped them communicate. She winced. "Don't beat yourself up, you didn't squish him." But that did little to comfort her. "His name was Daimyo. Good commander, great fighter, even better friend. Great father too. But he was dedicated and went with me to the front more often than he should with such a young kid." The older leafman sighed. "Daimyo was one of the first to realize that the Boggans were trying to expand their territory. They were pretty subtle about it in those days, Mandragora and Caladium, Mandrake's parents, they knew how close a watch we kept on them. All our landmarks went untouched, but the spaces in between were being ravaged."
"And you went to fight?" she asked.
"Yes. Daimyo was the one who actually killed Mandragora, no one knows whose arrow hit Caladium." He heaved a sigh. "But of course, when we killed their king, they wanted revenge. Mandrake went after him, but I held him back. Daimyo…" another sigh, this one sadder than before. "Mandrake had a mate. Her name was Solanum. Daughter of Bulbifera and Virosa, those two were some of the toughest opponents we've ever had. She was no different. Solanum attacked Daimyo, didn't even give us a body to bring back."
"Solanum…I've heard that before. It's in one of my dad's books. It's a type of poisonous plant, Nightshades."
"Figures. Ask Nod about her, he's the one who knows all the stories. When you've faced off with her, you try to forget."
"And is she…is she still out there?"
"No. The Leafmen killed her long ago." He huffed a laugh. "Didn't pass any of her fighting traits to her son at least. You never met Dagda, he died the same day that…that Queen Tara passed. Dagda lacked any of the sheer brutality that Mandrake had, and none of the viciousness of Solanum. He was just as big as her. Always made for an easy target. Only took a while to actually hit him, his bird was too agile most of the time."
"You know, there's a song my mother used to sing when she was cooking. She was never a very good singer, but she liked that one. I never learned most of the words, but I remember that it had the line 'the female of the species is more deadly than the male.' I guess Solanum reminds me of that." Ronin looked up at her, a pensive look on his face, before he mounted Point and pulled on his helmet.
"Nod should be here soon. Soon as he and his group are done patrolling. Don't ask him about his father, but ask all you want about Solanum." And he was gone, leaving MK there, sitting on the rock, waiting for her two-inch halfway-boyfriend. She knew that she shouldn't be prodding into Nod's past, but after hearing all sorts of references made to his mysterious father, she had gotten curious.
"Hey!" greeted Nod, leaping down before her. She smiled. "Hi. So, has Mub been following you around again?"
"If you're asking if he still thinks you're in love with him, that would be a yes."
"Well I didn't kiss him goodbye, did I?" Nod blushed even as he nodded. "So Ronin's been telling me some war stories."
"What? He never tells anyone any of them, not even Bellis can get any out of him!"
"Well maybe you just don't have the right way of asking. Told me about Solanum."
"Seriously? Oh man I've heard a lot of rumors and stories about her. Story goes that when Mandrake was courting her, he used to kill people and bring her their bodies, ripped off frog legs as gifts."
"That's…that's pretty gross."
"So's Mub." MK couldn't help but snort a laugh at that.
"Is it true though? Did he really kill people to court her?" Nod shrugged.
"I don't know, this was back before Tara was Queen, back when it was still Nepomorpha. I wasn't even alive. I was still a kid when Mandragora and Caladium were killed, Solanum wasn't alive much longer after that. That's why Mandrake only had the one kid. You know about Dagda, right?"
"Ronin mentioned him. Now come on, I've been sitting on this rock for long enough and my dad wants to talk to you about flying hummingbirds and how you balance that with food for them and all that." She held out her hand, which he hopped into, and deposited him in her pocket, heading back to her house.
Boggans stayed as chew toys for Ozzy, MK decided. Thinking about them courting each other with corpses and frog legs was just too weird. And now she was really hoping that slugs and Leafmen were in no way the same.
A/N: Yeah, about the names. "Daimyo" is the name for a samurai's master, and once that man dies, the samurai becomes "Ronin", one without a master (anyone hear of the 47 Ronin?). Mandragora is the plant genus that "Mandrake" is a bastardization of. Caladium is a type of poisonous plant. Solanum is the genus name for nightshade. Bulbifera and Virosa are the scientific names for water hemlock and cowbane respectively, both also poisonous.
Yeah, I know that the new queen is a dandelion, but the name Taraxacum doesn't sound as nice as Bellis, the name for the common daisy. Nepomorpha is the name for a water bug, the type that skid along the surface.