Milro was excited as they departed in the King Barbardo. Spigot's protests in Yamul's office had her concerned at first, but he was quiet once they got underway. The people of the Seed Kingdom were good and hardworking. Whatever problems he had with them; she was sure they would be happy to hear they were offering aid.
However, as they traveled southwest, paralleling the Ottawa River through the heart of the Drop Kingdom towards its headwaters, she began to conceptualize what they were headed for. It was not the people of the Seed Kingdom that concerned her, it was herself. This was not like the Princess Parties of five years ago where she was competing against the other princesses in contests of feminine graces. She was going to meet with the king of another country as the representative of her entire kingdom. Even if it was just to offer aid, she felt the world coming down on her shoulders at the thought of it. Could she handle the pressure, say what she wanted to say since she could easily get tongue-tied when said pressure was on her?
Whenever Milro felt overwhelmed, she turned to the world of art. When she traveled, she always brought sketchbooks and pencils which included a full set of colored ones. She never knew when inspiration could strike, or when she would need the release.
Landscapes were her forte, but the thought of putting pencil to paper for one only made her think of just how huge the Drop Kingdom was. She was familiar with the urban and suburban setting of Saginaw City and the neighboring Lakes Area where they had boarded the King Barbardo. Thinking about it, she had not spent much time in the other places of her kingdom. If anything, she had probably spent more time in the capitals of the other kingdoms than many places of her own.
And there was so much of it. The Drop Kingdom was home to so many different environments and peoples. There were the vast croplands of the Ottawa Valley, the industrial townships of Dexter Province with its kelp forests and Triton settlements offshore, the prairies at the border with the Jewelry Kingdom and the Windmill Kingdom, the Snow Mountains and the forests on their north slopes, Sinker Swamp with its many lakes and bayous. And each environment had formed its own culture and or even multiple cultures. The Drop Kingdom was home to more sapient races than any combination of three other kingdoms.
Her mother had said she should expand her horizons, and there was a lot of expand into. Perhaps too much. It was all so big and complicated that it was hard to think of her ever being called its ruler. Even being a representative of it for a single diplomatic mission was unnerving.
She decided to work on something of a more manageable scale, like a sketch of a person. Her current subject was Lady Nicole Dupré, Sophie's lady-in-waiting. She sat in a chair with her legs crossed, one of Milro's more patient models as she made her sketch. Sophie watched with an amused grin as Milro did her work, telling Nicole she had not been drawn until Milro did it.
Milro had often been complimented on her art. She was not sure if her work was deserving of such praise. She figured her work was good, but art was a hobby and an escape for her first and foremost. She continued her work, taking in Nicole's features and recreating them on the pad.
Nicole was a couple years older and Milro and Sophie: late teens but not yet 20. The fair-skinned half-Doggle woman kept her long, blond hair in a pony tail held by a purple ribbon tied in a large bow while the locks of her bangs ended in upward curls common with Windmill Kingdom woman—and men for that matter. Though, what had Milro's attention was her choice of attire.
The uniform itself was not unusual. It was standard for a Windmill Kingdom female worker—functional yet cute. Milro had been fascinated by the uniforms the kingdom workers wore. They had barely changed in the generations with their cottagecore peasant look, and were as iconic the kingdom sigils. She had sketched and even painted many Cloud Generation Service engineers, and this was a chance to make a sketch of the Windmill Kingdom's take on it.
The various kingdoms of the Wonder Planet followed a general design in the uniforms for their public workers. Female workers wore a long-sleeved dress with buttons going down the front to the waistline, a dark-colored mantelet with snap pockets on the front of either shoulder, a medallion bearing the kingdom's sigil attached where the mantelet came to a point over her chest, and a pair of ballet flats with bows on the toe boxes over usually white stockings. The main differences were in color and border patterns of the hem, cuffs, and above the waist pockets. The dress buttoned up the front with white buttons through a dark-colored placket. In the case of the Windmill Kingdom, that was purple and dark purple with a wave border pattern and the French horn–like design for their sigil.
Though, the Windmill Kingdom—as well as her own Drop Kingdom—had some little details in common to them that set them apart from the others. The shawl was held closed at the base of the neck by a white ribbon tied in a bow rather than the drawstrings of the other kingdoms. The skirt was also a bit shorter, midi rather than maxi length, showing the ruffled hem of the petticoat worn underneath as well as letting the wearer's ankle-length bloomers to peek out into view. Milro noticed this design choice in particular because it reminded her of her mother's formal attire doing the same.
The headgear was unique to the Windmill Kingdom—a purple, puffy, mobcap-style bonnet rather than the bandanna other female kingdom workers wore. It was probably because a bandana would not be comfortable or even functional with those long and fluffy ears coming out the sides of their head.
Nicole's attire was thoroughly normal for the uniform design of a worker, but… "Can I ask you something, Lady Dupré?" Milro asked, looking up from her just about completed sketch.
"Of course, Princess Milro," Nicole replied. "And, please, call me Nicole."
"Why do you wear a worker's uniform, Lady Nicole?" Milro asked, complying with her request. "It's not what I expect for a courtier's dress." The only thing suggesting she was of a royal court were the white gloves she wore that seemed out of place with the otherwise working-class outfit.
"Nicole moonlights for the Ministry of Windmill Operations," Sophie answered before Nicole could get a word out.
"I—uh—I wouldn't put it that way," Nicole said, breaking her pose for a moment before regaining her composure. "Queen Elena made me her liaison to the Ministry. I also help their crew in the castle with minor tasks: organize things in the archives, run reports—you know, little things I can do that won't interfere with my other duties in the Queen's Court."
She uncrossed her legs and brushed her hand down the dress to straighten it. "It's also really comfortable, especially in less-than-ideal weather." She rubbed her upper arms as she drew her body in and shivered. "Forgive me for saying this, Princess, but your kingdom is positively frigid. It's supposed to be spring."
Sophie turned to Nicole with an empathetic smile. "You grew up next to the Flame Kingdom. Saginaw City is about as far from there as you can get."
"What's it like to be Sophie's lady-in-waiting?" Milro asked.
"Let's just say there's never a dull moment," Nicole said.
"This is her first trip abroad," Sophie added. She turned to Nicole. "And you get to double dip as we're headed to the Seed Kingdom too."
"Like I said, never a dull moment," Nicole said. "And, of course, it's while they're experiencing a flood. I love weather, but maybe our next trip could be to the Flame Kingdom or the Moon Kingdom."
Milro could not help but smile. She made some last finishing touches and showed Nicole her sketch. "How does it look?"
"Wow!" Nicole took the sketchbook and looked it over. "That's incredible. You were that detailed in so little time?"
Milro's cheeks got warm with embarrassment. "Well, it's just a quick sketch and not all that detailed. I mean, I haven't colored it yet." Her ears flicked at the sound of the door opening. She turned to it along with Sophie and Nicole.
The door pivoted in from Bonnie Hofer pushing it. The cyan lesser Doggle had long hair on her head curled into several tight ringlets both over her forehead and down the back and sides of her head. A pink ribbon was tied in a large bow at the end of her long tail. Typically, Milro associated the tail ribbon look the feline Nyamals of the Sunny Kingdom, but the ribbons at the base of the ears typical of Doggle girls would be crowded by her bonnet.
The canine engineer held her hands together in front of her skirt and bowed. "Pardon the interruption, Your Majesties and M'lady, but we're approaching the Seed Kingdom."
Milro swallowed. She followed Sophie and Nicole to the door. They made their way to the main deck—Nicole picking up a large, black umbrella resting next to the door. The King Barbardo had a broad deck directly under its spiral-shaped envelope. They went to the railing and focused ahead.
The fabric of their dresses and Sophie and Nicole's ears flapped in the stiff wind from their forward speed, even though they had been slowing from their cruising speed. Looking ahead, it was easy to see why they were reducing speed.
Clouds could evolve in different ways after leaving the cloud towers, driven by forces in the atmosphere Milro would not even pretend to fully understand. The most well-known was the cumulus humilis growing through the cumulus mediocris and congestus phases into cumulonimbus thunderheads and delivering pouring rain and lightning until they rained out their water and leaving behind its anvil to become cirrus or other high-level clouds. However, clouds could remain low to the ground to form sheets-like stratus, or fields of stratocumulus, or clouds could just evaporate into atmospheric moisture for future clouds to feed on and fuel their own growth.
On this particular day, the clouds had risen into the mid-levels of the troposphere where they flattened and spread into an almost quilt-like canopy at first. However, as they were approaching the Seed Kingdom, that quilt continued to lose their lumpy features and gaps to congeal into a light gray sheet. Now, ahead of them, it began to thicken and darken. Shafts of rain spilled from the incline and the land below it got progressively darker.
The King Barbardo descended as it approached to avoid the cloud itself, but the rain eventually formed a solid curtain ahead. Nicole opened the umbrella which spread over all three of them. As the light faded, the occasional sound of a raindrop hitting the canvas above them became more frequent until it was a steady patter.
The change in the air was immediate. With the Blessing of the Sun well hidden, the air became soggy and raw. Unlike the chill up in Saginaw City and Peanut Lake that tickled at one's body heat, this air tore at it in a constant assault to rip it away.
The rain also changed how the world looked. The greens and browns of the landscape below seemed to be washed out like water spilling over a palette. The clouds were a dark gray blanket hanging above everything. Features in the distance were little more than ghostly silhouettes against the gray.
Then there were the actual land features. Fields were lakes of muddy brown water and streams were swollen and turbulent to the point Milro could see the waves froth from even at their altitude. Population centers were sparse in this northern region, but the few that were there sat behind levees covered and heightened by sandbags in a desperate attempt to keep the raging water back. Any of them could suffer the same fate of the village from the previous night.
It was all too much for Milro. She knew it was bad going in, but actually seeing it was just overwhelming. Her heart ached at the thought of what it had to have been like for the people of the Seed Kingdom to endure this for a week. She folded her ears over and leaned against the railing. She felt a weight rest gently on her shoulder. She turned to see Sophie resting her hand there and looking to her with a reassuring smile.
"Don't forget this is why we're here," Sophie said.
Milro nodded. That was the other side of her responsibility. In representing her kingdom, she was bringing behind her something much larger than herself. Still, she felt empathy weighing on her at the sight of what was happening to this kingdom.
"Princesses, Lady Dupré," the voice of Otto Jäger, their pilot, came from the speakers, "please return inside. Master Chief wants to return to cruising speed."
"We'll be right in, Otto," Nicole yelled in the general direction of the bridge. "Besides, what's point in catching a cold before we meet King Rex."
They followed her inside, staying under the protection of the umbrella until they were out of the rain. Milro looked back at the dull grayness and steady rain hitting the deck. She had a hard time thinking of seeing this for a week.
Spigot watched as the Seed Kingdom passed under them from the bridge of the King Barbardo. The flooding, the grayness, it was as bad as he imagined it. It was everything he was intent on staying as far away from as possible. Yet, he was headed right for the heart of it.
Eventually, they came to the Hickory River, the middle and largest of the river valleys running west to east through the northern and central Seed Kingdom. It was as swollen as the others, lashing against the earthen levees and makeshift reinforcements of sandbags trying to constrict it.
Sitting on a hill overlooking clusters of tiny buildings was the Mother Tree. The massive tree, more than a hundred meters tall with a trunk at least half that in width was the source of all the Wonder Planet's plant life and served as the Seed Kingdom's seat of power. That was their destination, and Spigot was filled with both relief they could get this over with and dread that the time had come to face what waited for them.
On the bridge were Otto, keeping the helm steady, and Alex Ljungqvist, their navigator, measuring out their course on a map. The pilot was a brown-furred greater Doggle with a thin mustache that seemed right out of those old war plane movies. The young man stood tall and proud, more like a military man than the civilian aviator he was. Alex, on the other hand, was very much a civilian in his look and demeanor. The sky blue lesser Doggle also had facial hair in the form of a white goatee hanging from his chin.
"Where do you want to land, Master Chief?" Alex asked, marking the glass over the map with a grease pencil.
"Just look for a sign stating 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here,'" Spigot stated dully, "preferably written in blood."
The mustachioed pilot and goateed navigator glanced to Spigot. Spigot flicked his hand forward. "Land next to the Mother Tree. That way we won't have far to run when this inevitably goes south."
Milro watched through the window as the massive, heart-shaped leaves of the Mother Tree's canopy rose compared to their view. They slowed as the trunk appeared from the bottom, nothing but a wall of brown bark. Milro braced herself for their landing but the ship came to a rest with barely a jolt or sound.
"We have landed in the Seed Kingdom," Otto's voice came over the speaker. "You may depart when ready."
Sophie stood up and turned to Nicole. "Well, let's go. I'm sure King Rex will want to see us as soon as possible since he's so impatient."
Nicole watched Sophie head for the door and then turned to Milro. "Has she always been this…unfiltered?"
"More or less," Milro replied. Sophie never seemed to grasp concepts like insults, sarcasm, hyperbole, damning with faint phrase, or most subtext that would go behind the words spoken. In a way, she showed how silly those things could be, but it meant that she would repeat things that could be taken as negative without meaning it so. To her, King Rex being impatient was just a simple fact—and was all too true of the Seed Kingdom's ruler—and not something meant as hurtful.
Nicole followed Sophie out of the room. However, just as Milro was going to head for the door, she stopped. She looked down at the chain between the watch resting in her pocket and the clip attaching it to her bodice. It was a symbol of entering into womanhood, her mother had told her.
Milro took the watch out and undid its clip. She did not feel like a woman just yet, at least not as she was at the moment. "Once this is a success," she said to the watch, "then I'll deserve to wear you." She set the watch and its chain down gently on the table.
"Come on, Milro!" Sophie shouted from outside.
"Coming." Milro headed for door where Sophie waited.
Milro and Sophie waited until Nicole opened the umbrella outside the door to step out onto the wing. Milro made her steps carefully on the rain slicked wing until both feet were on the grass.
Along with returning to the soggy raw air, Milro got the sense of what this was like at ground level. It was just as depressing as from the air, if not more so. The clouds blocked the Blessing of the Sun to the point it was as dim as twilight. The grass at their feet sat in almost a centimeter of standing water because the soil had long since taken in all it could absorb and the water could only run off so fast. Rain often left a fresh scent because it dragged suspended aerosols from the atmosphere, but that had been long ago leaving the air smelling stale and infiltrated by the sour odor of mildew and mold taking advantage of nothing being allowed to get dry. The Seed Kingdom was literally rotting under the constant rain.
The doors in the trunk of the Mother Tree opened and a colorful group of tiny figures came out. Seed People were humanoids, but only came to an average adult height of about ten centimeters. The group of almost a dozen came to them, and Milro realized it was the 11 Seed Princesses wearing raincoats the color of their hair. Ichele, wearing royal blue, was in the lead. Milro put on a brave face as they came to her and Sophie.
"Milro, Sophie," Ichele, wearing a royal blue raincoat said.
"Welcome to the Seed Kingdom," all 11 said in perfect unison.
"Thank you," Sophie said. "And those raincoats are adorable. Your work, Saya?"
Saya, in purple, blushed. "Guilty as charged. When it rains, make raincoats; I say."
"If only her skills could mend broken levees," Ichele said, her voice carrying an air of fatigue and maybe even developing hopelessness.
"That's why we're here," Milro replied. "We've come to—"
She was cut off by a voice that snapped, "Why are you here, Spigot?"
Milro turned back to the wing and saw Spigot at the bottom of it. He hunched at the outburst and muttered, "Oh hell no." She followed his glare to a group of Seed Kingdom workers, a mix of Seed People and mole-like Molmo. Their green and brown uniforms were splashed with mud, and their angry—that was the best description of their sharp scowls and piercing glares—faces were exaggerated by dark circles under their eyes.
The Molmo in the front, a man in his forties or fifties and wearing the sharpest scowl of them, had his hands planted firmly on his hips. "Can't you see our skies are dark enough without you here?"
"Who's that?" Sophie asked as Spigot stomped to them.
"Satan," Spigot stated.
Sophie held her ear and cocked her head in confusion. "Really. I'd think he'd be taller and a lot scarier looking."
Spigot rolled his eyes and groaned. "Princess Milro, Princess Sophie, meet my equal and opposite number here in the Seed Kingdom: Head Administrator Ulysses Axe of Land Use."
"Well?" Axe asked.
"It wasn't my idea to come down here, Axe," Spigot said. "Queen Yamul conscripted me to escort those two." He pointed back to Milro and Sophie with his thumb.
"Pleased to meet you, Mister Axe," Milro said.
"So, why did you drag Spigot down here?" Axe asked, not bothering to hide is irritation in his voice or his expression.
Milro was taken aback. "Oh, uh, you see," she fumbled over her words as she tried to regain herself.
"We're here to offer disaster aid to your kingdom on behalf of ours," Sophie answered.
"Uh, yes, that's it," Milro said.
"And the sooner we do, the sooner we're gone," Spigot grumbled. "So, shut you're your yap for once and take us to King Rex so we can get this over with."
Spigot and Axe glared at one another for a second or two. Axe finally turned towards the door. "Follow me." He stormed towards the doors with Spigot several steps behind and just as forceful in his movement.
Milro swallowed, the anxiety bubbling up again. "I thought people would be happier to hear aid is coming."
"We are," Ichele said. "Axe and Spigot just have a…complicated history going back to the Crisis of the Sunny Kingdom."
"Don't worry, Milro," Sophie said. "You've got this."
Sophie walked forward. "Come! Time waits for no princess!" Nicole followed her to keep her under the umbrella. Milro had to stay with them to stay under it as well.
"Don't remind me," Milro murmured.
Sophie stopped at the door and bowed, sweeping her hands forward as if to welcome Milro in. Milro had to duck to enter and Sophie followed her.
Nicole stopped at the door to collapse the umbrella and shake the rain off. She turned to the door just in time for it to shut in her face. She looked down at the tiny Seed Person guard standing next to the door.
The guard looked up at her with his arms crossed and what she figured was a scowl. "It'll be crowded enough in there-dané," he said.
"But I'm Princess Sophie's—" Nicole started to say, but the guard was clearly disinterested. She could only plant her fists on her hips and heave an exasperated sigh. "Well, this is a heck of a note."
The hallway was carved out of the very trunk wood of the Mother Tree—dim with the soft, blue glow of luminescent mushrooms as the only source of light. The air was dry, especially compared to the sogginess of the outside, and surrounded them with the earthy smell of wood. Milro and Sophie had to stoop and braced their hands against the walls as the ceiling was only about a meter and half high. Sophie took off her crown to make it so she did not need to bend over as much. Milro's smaller hat was less of a bother, fortunately. The hall was not just short but narrow, their skirts brushing against the walls.
"This is amazing," Sophie said. "I feel like a giant in here."
They were effectively giants in the Seed Kingdom. Adjusting for differences in proportions, Seed People were about 1/20 the size of normal humans.
Milro looked down to Spigot and Axe walking abreast. The brims of their hats hid their faces, so she could only guess what was going through their minds. Ahead, pale yellow light poured from the room at the end of the hallway. They came to the threshold and Milro could finally stand at her full height with the ceiling high above where a metal ring held candles casting their pale light. Sophie placed her crown on her head and straightened it.
Milro examined the throne room. It was carved out of the wood like the hallway, but the candles above provided more illumination. Seed People and Molmo stood around the edges of the large room and Milro noticed a balcony filled with Seed People near her at about the height of her knees.
Ichele and her sisters headed for a group of chairs to the side of a platform holding the throne. Joiner, in dark blue hopped onto the platform and spun around with her hands in the air. "First," she declared.
"This wasn't a race, Joiner," Ichele said as she and the others stepped up to their chairs with upholstery corresponding to their hair color as well.
Nursya, in red, turned back to Shiyon, in light purple, lagging behind. She held up her skirt as she watched her feet squirm with every step. "That doesn't mean you can dawdle, Shiyon!" Nursya snapped.
Shiyon heaved a sigh and let go of her skirt to walk normally. "Fine."
The 11 Princesses took their seats.
King Rex emerged from behind the curtain to sit on his throne. The king of the Seed Kingdom was clad in a gray sweatshirt with a hood and something green on the left breast Milro figured was the Seed Kingdom's emblem. Though, once seated, he took his tall crown that was resting beside his throne to place on his head and picked up his staff. That was King Rex, he had to keep up appearances.
Trumpets sounded a fanfare. "Presenting their royal highnesses," a herald announced once the trumpets ceased, "Princess Milro of the Drop Kingdom and Princess Sophie of the Windmill Kingdom."
Milro and Sophie curtsied at the announcement of their names to cheers and applause.
Spigot took off his hat and bowed.
"And Master Chief Engineer Jerome Spigot of the Cloud Generation Service," the herald added half-heartedly. The cheers and applause stopped immediately with only a random "You suck" to be heard. Spigot looked up with a sour expression at this and returned his hat to his head.
"Greetings, Princesses-dané," King Rex said, stroking his gray mustache. He cocked his head and lowered his eyebrows quizzically. "What brings you to my kingdom-dané?"
Milro swallowed a small lump forming in her throat. Her first diplomatic mission had begun. "King Rex, we've come on behalf of our kingdoms to offer aid in light your worsening flood disaster."
"That would be appreciated-dane," Rex said. "What aid specifically-dané?"
"Oh, well, uh, um," Milro fumbled over her words as she tried to remember what her mother had told her. There was a lot of terminology she could not help but simplify in her mind. "Money, and people, and uh…um…stuff?"
Spigot cleared this throat. "What Princess Milro is trying to say is financial aid for property and economic losses; supplies, equipment, and personnel for search and rescue, medical care, temporary housing, food and other essentially; ex cetera, ex cetera. Your standard disaster aid package."
"This that what you meant to say, Princess Milro-dané?" Rex asked.
"Uh, yes, it is," Milro said. A part of her wished she had been able to say it herself. "We will also provide the materials, equipment, and supplies to help rebuild and reinforce your levee system. We can begin as soon as this afternoon, with your permission of course, Your Majesty." She punctuated with a curtsy.
"The Windmill Kingdom will provide similar resources and personnel," Sophie added.
"As I said, your assistance will be appreciated-dané," Rex said. "We are assessing the loss of property and life-dané, and I accept your offer with my and my kingdom's sincerest gratitude-dané."
The crowd burst into cheers. "See, Milro." Sophie patted Milro on her back gently. "You got this."
Milro felt a weight come off her shoulders. This was going easily, even if she needed assistance from Spigot on getting what she wanted to say out. She was pondering what would be next when a voice broke through the cheering and applause, "What about our fields?!" Everything fell silent.
Milro looked down to the balcony next to her skirt. Spigot's murmur of "Look out" reached her ears. She felt that weight slam back down on her.
Standing in the middle of the crowd—with all eyes on her—was an older Seed woman with wiry, gray hair and a tanned, weathered face. She glared up at Milro with her wild eyes and her mouth clenched in a grimace of crooked teeth. "This is planting season, but because the rain won't stop, we're putting our family and friends in the ground instead of this year's crops."
Despite the woman being a tiny fraction of Milro's size, the princess shrank from her seemingly out of instinct. The woman jabbed her finger in the air toward her, taking her more aback. "You want to really help us, how about you stop drenching us day in and day out?"
"But…" Milro started to say.
"It's not the Drop Kingdom's fault," Sophie said before Milro could get more words out.
The woman planted her fists on her hips. "Not entirely." She looked to the others in the balcony, bending her mouth into a mocking grin. "The Drop Kingdom might make the clouds—" she side-eyed Milro and Sophie "—but they're carried here by the wind from the Windmill Kingdom."
"And here we go," Spigot exhaled.
Axe pointed to the balcony. "She has a point, though. We wouldn't be in this mess if you did your job and delivered rain normally."
Spigot stepped into Axe's space. "And you know as much as anyone here we have no direct control over where and when that precipitation occurs."
He stepped further towards Axe, his bulky muzzle pushing into Axe's narrow snout. "Though, you always prefer to deflect blame on us. We both know who's really responsible for this tragedy."
Axe leaned into Spigot. "And what do you mean by that?"
Spigot leaned into Axe and pointed at the door. "You piled dirt on your river banks and called them levees. It's a miracle they didn't fail sooner." He jabbed his finger into Axe's chest. "Your piss poor engineering killed those people, not our clouds."
Axe leaned into Spigot again, much farther this time. "We didn't need those levees until you started dumping excess snow on the Meridian Mountains, worsening our flood season."
Spigot leaned into him even further. "The weather not being exactly what you want doesn't absolve you of your bad decisions. It wasn't true during the Crisis of the Sunny Kingdom, and it's not true now."
"Master Chief, please," Milro pleaded, worrying this was getting out of hand.
"Enough talk, stop the rain NOW!" someone yelled from the crowd.
"YEAH!" a chorus responded. It was probably too late to worry.
Milro looked at the crowd as hundreds of enraged eyes focused on her. Fists pumped into the air, and the angry chanting of "Stop the rain" reverberated through the room.
Milro took a step back from the crowd into something. It was Sophie who she was back-to-back with. The half-Doggle turned to her with uncharacteristic worry in her eyes and held her ear against it her chin more for comfort. "I guess you don't have this."
Milro was starting to wonder if she never had it. One heckler was all it took for it to all fall apart, and now everything was spiraling out of control.
Rex jumped from his throne and slammed the butt of his staff down repeatedly. "Enough of that-dane! You will all come to order-dane!" However, the chanting did not skip a beat, drowning him out.
Milro looked to Ichele who could only shrug in response. If Rex could not control this crowd, there was nothing she or her sisters could do.
With Spigot and Axe literally butting heads, she and Sophie seemed to be on an island in the midst of a turbulent sea of uncontrolled anger.
How would Mother handle this? Milro thought to herself.
She thought of Yamul being in this throne room, facing the angry crowd. She would slam the butt of her staff on the ground with the sound of thunder. Just as thunderous would be her statement "Nothing can be done about that!" All would fall silent and everyone would take their seats even though there were none.
"Nothing…" Milro tried to say, but her voice was barely a whisper she could barely hear.
The chanting continued, not skipping a beat. She looked to the balcony where the old woman was leading the others on.
Tears welled in Milro's eyes as hopelessness in the face of the situation around her. She was now imagining what her mother would say of her failing at something so basic. "Nothing…" Her voice cracked as a lump formed in her throat. "NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT THAT!" she forced out.
She suddenly felt the oddest sensation. An energy washed over her like spray from a crashing wave. The chanting seemed to fade with distance until it was nothing. A gold light enveloped her. She looked down and the pattern on the floor was expanding, more and more of it revealing itself out from under her skirt. She looked up and saw that the ornament at the top of Spigot's hat was at her eye level and then she had to look up to it. Spigot become huge compared to her—or, rather—she was getting tiny compared to him as she was shrinking.
Milro was so terrified she could not even scream as she shrank smaller and smaller. She was wondering if she was ever going to stop. Thankfully the shrinking ended with her standing at a little more than eight centimeters tall. She looked about at the massive throne room surrounding her.
"Milro!" Sophie called out.
Milro turned and saw Sophie running to her, as small as she was. "The world just got huge all of a sudden."
"Actually, Sophie," Milro said as Sophie reached her, "I think we're the ones who—"
"Fine then!" Spigot's voice boomed from overhead. Both Milro and Sophie flinched at the outburst.
Milro looked up at the blue and green mountains that were Spigot and Axe towering over them. "If you're going to be unreasonable, then you can deal with this yourself," Spigot said. He turned partway from Axe and gave him the side eye. "I gave this a chance, but I'm not going to waste my time with another Crisis of the Sunny Kingdom."
He turned the rest of the way and glared upward. "Princess Milro, we're leaving!"
However, he was staring at the empty space Milro and Sophie had occupied just seconds go. He furrowed his brow. "What the?" He looked from side to side. "Princess Milro? Princess Sophie?" He reached under his hat to scratch the side of his head. "Where did you two go?"
Milro hopped and waved her arms as she shouted, "We're down here!" as if it would help her voice reach Spigot.
Fortunately, Beavers had sensitive hearing, so Spigot responded by looking down. "Oh. There you are." He scowled. "As I was saying we're—"
His eyes suddenly popped wide open as if what he had seen must have finally processed. He looked down to them and pointed at them. "OH MY GOD!" he shouted, his deafening voice going hoarse from the force the words escaping him. Milro plastered her ears against her hair to shield them.
His eyes rolled back in his head as he teetered backward. Milro closed her eyes, tried to lay her ears even closer to her head, and braced herself for what was coming. A thundering crash resounded around her and the ground shook so violently she thought she would be knocked off her feet. Once it subsided, she hazarded opening one eye and the corresponding ear lifted up as well.
In front of her, Spigot was flat on his back and out cold, his limbs and tail sprawled out. "Um, Master Chief?" she asked.
Spigot's first sensation of returning to consciousness was the pungent odor of smelling salts irritating his nostrils. He opened his eyes slowly, being greeted by yellow fuzz with a mass of brown and green fuzz to one side. He groaned as the pain in the back of his head registered. His eyesight came into focus revealing the metal ring suspended from the ceiling and Axe holding a bottle of smelling salts.
Spigot used his arm to push Axe's hand and the smelling salts from his nose. "Get that crap out of my face." He sat up and moved his tail behind him. His head throbbed, compelling him to the rub the back of it as his mind cleared. "Oh God, what a nightmare. I went down to the Seed Kingdom, and Princess Milro shrunk down to the size of a—"
He stopped when his vision fell on Milro and Sophie standing in front of his feet, little more than eight centimeters tall. "Damn," he exhaled.
"Uh," Rex piped up, "perhaps we should discuss this in private-dané."
The trip to the observation tower at the top of the Mother Tree was a quiet one. Even Spigot and Axe barely looked to each other. However, Milro noticed how cavernous the halls were when they were so cramped when she was her normal size. Some castle staff stopped and stared at her and Sophie only to swiftly turn away when Rex shot them a glare.
A cage elevator in the center of the trunk took them up into the top branches where a ramp led to the observation deck built around a branch sticking straight up out of the canopy. Before stepping out into the soggy grayness, Ichele handed them umbrellas.
Milro was thankful for the protection. Most of the raindrops falling were now approaching the size of golf balls compared to her with many even larger than that, exploding on impact. They were large enough Milro could see they were not "drop" shaped with a rounded bottom and coming to a point at the top like are often depicted. Rather, they were mostly spheres with some of the largest ones flattered on the bottom like a biscuit. What were tiny ripples at normal size when they hit the ground were now ring-shaped waves as big around as her skirt at least surrounding a pillar that reached knee higher or more before they collapsed. She could even feel the impact of the drops hitting her umbrella through its handle. A moderate, steady rain was a relentless bombardment at this size.
She turned to Ichele. She had to look up to do so since the Seed Princesses she had always pictured as so small was now at least a centimeter and a half taller than her—their eye level just above her head. The drops struck her raincoat, beading to run off, but she could see that the force of impact on the fabric. "How can you stand this?"
Ichele turned to her with a solemn expression. "Seed People try to stay inside as much as possible when it rains."
A particularly large raindrop landed right in front of Milro. She stopped and winced her eyes shut as it splashed her. She was afraid of being soaked, but the water beaded on her dress and ran off it, leaving nothing behind. She figured the weave of the fabric was now so small the water's surface tension prevented it from penetrating her clothes.
Finally, they reached the deck and Axe opened the door into the building for them to enter. Milro closed her umbrella and watched the fist-sized beads of water dislodge from it as she shook it off. While out of the meteorological onslaught, she could hear the pattering on the ceiling and see water run down the glass of the windows in drops.
The observation tower had the branch as its central support which could be confused for the trunk of a respectable tree. Around it was a platform with tables and chairs for Seed People. Pots sat on shelves and window sills. However, the unsettling feature were chairs suspended by vines meant for people from the other kingdoms which were gigantic, reminding Milro of just how small she and Sophie were now.
After Axe closed the door, Spigot massaged the bridge of his muzzle. "Okay, can someone please explain to me—" he jabbed his index finger down "—what the hell happened down there!"
Axe walked around him to face him. "Listen. I know her. Her son and his family were lost in the flood last night."
"For which she has my condolences," Spigot said. "However, I was specifically referring to the princesses suddenly being this big." He held his hands with one palm over the other with roughly eight centimeters of space between them.
"I'm afraid Milro and Sophie have been cursed by the Mother Tree-dané," Rex said.
"Cursed?" Milro asked at the same time as Sophie.
"You've got to be kidding me," Spigot said flatly.
Rex shook his head. "I wish I was-dané." He turned to a window at the grayness outside. "It's not just the rain, but the clouds-dané. They're so thick they block much of the energy from the Blessing of the Sun from reaching the Mother Tree-dané. She should've produced the spring seeds by now, but hasn't-dané. Without the Blessing of the Sun, she's weakened-dané."
Sophie gasped. "But no seeds means no flowers!"
Rex turned to face Milro and Sophie. "It means no knew plants if she doesn't get more sunlight soon-dané. So, when you said you wouldn't stop the rain, she was angered and cursed you-dané."
"Well, undo it!" Spigot demanded.
"It's not that simple-dané." Rex hopped onto the platform and walked to the branch. "The Mother Tree isn't like the soulless machines you work with up in the Drop Kingdom-dane. We can't just flip switches or turn dials to make her do what we want-dané." He placed his hand on the branch and looked up. "She's a titan-dané: one of the few lifeforms our ancestors found when they first arrived at the Wonder Planet-dané. She has a life and mind of her own-dané."
He turned to them again. "It was by her will she cursed you-dané. And it is only by her will she will lift that curse-dané."
"What do we have to do to convince her, Father?" Julia, in mint green, asked.
"She must be appeased-dané," Rex answered, focusing on Milro and Sophie. "That means ending the rain and bringing back the sun-dané."
Spigot groaned and massaged his muzzle. "I don't think you've heard me. When I say we can't do it, I mean we literally can't do it."
Rex shrugged. "Then I don't know what to tell you-dané. Other than start clothes shopping for the princesses-dané."
