Summary: In an effort to keep the girl out of mischief, Steelmind gives Wildsong a project assignment to create a new plant, that he thought should provide a challenge but still be well within her abilities as a creative grower. She had to create a list of things the new plant included...and he forgot to set limits.

Housing Project

Now that the Morning Glories, Moonflowers and Wild Roses were tamed, Wildsong looked to them for her project. All were vines and that's what she needed for the largest portions of her selected project: Non-Ekele Above Earth Housing as well as Under-Earthside Housing. She was also using her Wallvine, intending to use what she'd learned creating it, with the roses...it wasn't really that difficult of an assignment. She just had to change their growth patterns a bit.

She started with a container grown wild rose...the tame kind that Firesong had so dramatically altered, harvesting and then speaking to it's seeds, not the plant itself as she carried them off to an as yet undeveloped portion of the Vale. A word to the hertasi by Steelmind a few days earlier (to warn them about Wildsong's assignment since they just might hurt him this time if something else unexpected popped up) had set their youngsters to clearing the ground and getting it ready for whatever odd thing she'd gotten started. As asked for, there were quite a few social pools meant for swimming and playing, not soaking, streams and several stone arches had been erected around the edges of the clearing. There was only one hill and there were the soaking pools. These were hot enough to soak away aches, but not so hot that you couldn't stay for a few hours with your friends before you wanted to cool off. Here, the topmost pool wasn't the usual near scalding one that people expected...instead, it had hertasi warning signs all over it. 'COLD! PROVIDES WATER TO THIS GARDEN! NOT FOR SOAKING!'

She had first planted on the perimeter of the cleared area and the roses grew quickly as their kind did...but these weren't growing like any kind of rose that anyone had ever seen or heard of before. First, there was a single trunk that thickened as it grew until it reached a height as tall as the tallest tree in the Vale...then it sent out strange looking vines that stood straight out from the parent trunk, growing that way until they met the side vines from the next tree or touched the stone of the arches.

The arches they simply followed upward and over, tangling with the vines of whatever tree was on the other side while it did the same. When they met other vines from other Tree Roses, they first grafted themselves together to form a single, thick vine, then sent more, smaller vines both straight up and straight down. The downward branches buried themselves in the ground and grew roots, both for supports that thickened in order to support the weight of the vines above it and to feed the plant. Upward growing vines, again, met, tangled with and became one with whatever downward growing vines were there, though the ones in free air didn't get so huge as those which became ground supports. The blooms were pink, yellow, white, red and black...but only the black ones would seed. The other colors were long lasting blooms because they did not...they held deep wells of nectar that they refilled daily for about a month, each, before withering. These were intended to be natural hummingbird feeders. Only one breed of hummingbird would feed from the low growing black roses, which only bloomed within two feet of the ground so that the hertasi could easily harvest the rose hips when they had matured.

These things were explained to one adult hertasi as each phase began. "The breed of hummingbird that will feed from and pollinate the black roses hasn't been developed yet, so for now, unless insects get into them, I don't really expect many hips from them. Still, best keep an eye out. I only planted ten seeds, you know. One pair for each of the five arches provided as entrances. The thorns are much smaller and will be shed once the plants are fully mature. At that point, there's no need for thorns, though right now they're using them more to hook onto each other than as a defense. The sharp ends dig into other vines and become roots that grow lengthwise inside it to provide much stronger, permanent anchors."

The hertasi she had reported to shivered, looking at the prickly walls that were forming around the ten acres or so...the parameter was, of course, much, much larger. For just ten seeds to cover such a large area was something only Wildsong would do...no one else would think of it, much less try it.

***Two Weeks Later***

Firesong entered the area behind the morose hertasi, casting his eyes over the project wall as well as the pools and other bits of green and color that were grouped here and there, a dash of sparking blue low between many showing where a shallow stream brought water to the plantings. "Steelmind bit off a bit more than he could chew with this assignment of his, didn't he?"

"Yes, I think so..." The troubled hertasi then repeated everything the mage's ward had told him. "He didn't give Wildsong any limits. So far, though, she's still focused."

"Oh dear, well...if she's still focused, we're still safe, I guess. I think I'll put some limits in place. Still, before I can do that, what have we got? Just ten plants? And the seeding flowers intended for birds we don't have yet...so that puts another chore on my doorstep. Better than them breeding like they did when they first got here, though. Plus, we don't need hips on plants that produce several hundred seeds...per hip...mass planting roses that massive and which grow that fast."

"True." The hertasi answered with a sharp nod, dread clear in its tone. 'She's planning out her water sources first and actually consulting us this time, which, while startling was welcome. Now, most of the area contained by the Wall is harmless...she lets us do our jobs about putting things in place, consults on colors involved and then tells us that every here needs to be edible. Not all of it by the same type of person, mind, but each area needs to be edible in some way, flowers, foliage, vegetable or fruit. Everything needs to be useful, she says. Even the roses of the Wall have edible petals she told us, we tested them. They are quite good as seasonings for white meats, pork or poultry, mostly though the green and the pink ones do well on fish."

"Well, that makes sense...she's never planted or grown anything that doesn't produce something useful...and most of what she's favored has been food."

"She told us to think of it as a wandering cold buffet...nipping off fruit or something as you walk if you're late for something and haven't time to eat. She wants this housing area to have a fix for that tendency. Of course, we hertasi will also be harvesting what's not right along the trails and that makes this area another nice resource for the Vale food stocks in general. Which is good. Now, getting back to the Wall Roses..."

"Yes. Parent stock is the yellows...apparently she talks to the seeds of plants, gets their agreement to grow the way she wants them to, then just tweaks or directs them as they go at it after planting...unless it's a breed she already knows..."

"Like the Glories, the Runners and those Moonflowers."

"Yes...in cases like those, she just tosses the seeds down and keeps walking."

"Brat."

"Hmm. Not really. She's just very young and like any very young thing, thinking isn't hugely important for her. She's only just about to turn seven, after all. But she does have a reason that makes sense, she wants Steelmind and I to work on them in their wild state, so that we don't forget to do something when they're being domesticated. Given the stubbornness and the adaptive nature of those plants, this was a good idea. I think she knew exactly what it would take to tame them and was well aware they weren't domestic enough to Seedtalk with."

"Seven...keep forgetting that when she gets up to things that usually require at least a ten year old. So, talks to the seeds does she?"

"Yes. Works quite well for her, as far as I can tell."

"Yes. Too well, sometimes."

Once the Wall had full formed it's superstructure, it ceased to grow except to fill in the gaps with flowering vines so that the enclosed area was private. Next came the two normal Trees, she just wanted them for a shaded resting area. They served as an isolated part of the general landscaping though she put in a wide variety of trees of other kinds, from those with long, thin trunks that branched out into huge canopies far overhead intended for the nests of birds of prey, to those with colorful barks that had little in the way of leaves and were intended for weaver birds to place their colonies. The hertasi put out brightly colored grasses and strong string for them to weave homes that would last because they made such lovely ornamental homes in the Brightbark trees.

The Brightbarks had in half rings, oddly shaped planters carved out of natural stone around the bases so that the roots of the non-seeding, male roses she'd selected for this wouldn't produce runners. The inner portion of the stone planters were smooth and symmetrical, they outer edges were wildly varied, with bumps, ridges and the occasional large hole through which bare earth could be seen. Those holes were filled in and bush roses were added.

These didn't send out any runners because of an underground precaution she'd taken and were also non-seeding, though they were good candidates for cuttings. She spoke to the plants and asked them to bloom in a variety of colors not usually available in roses...including a full range of blues and slate grays...and to set their seed to continue in that color or color range. She had a few that put out blooms in the entire range of 'warm' or 'cool' colors. Even within the same flower, there was a range of ten or so shades while the parent plant itself had a few hundred main 'shades'.

Seeds from these, she had told the hertasi she was showing them to, could be used as trade items to other Vales once Firesong and Steelmind had done the fine-tuning of the plant to make sure it was stable enough to set reliable seeds that would produce the desired result in the plant that grew.

Only when the other Vales had a suitable stock of these Rainbow bush roses, were the hertasi to use them for outside trading...and then the trading would be done here at the Vale where they had originated. All other Vales were limited to using the occasional cutting or small rose plant as a special award to outsiders, from the Vale as a whole. "This will increase their value and limit their availability. This makes them more valuable as well since it guarantees they will be rare and very hard to find. Of course, I will be putting a few into the Palace greenhouses but since they were developed from wild yellows, they must stay in pots for many generations until we know they are not going to run away."

This came as something of a shock. "But...these aren't potted!"

"Yes, they are. There's a huge stone bowl under the ones you can see, if you brush aside the soil here..." She pointed and waited while the hertasi searched for and found the edges of the unseen pot. "They won't be running. As long as the top edge is left clear of the ground, which I know I mentioned...wonder why your fellows covered it? Did they want Rainbows running off? These are bush roses, not climbers, so if they wanted them all over the trees for a prank, I don't think it's going to work."

"Kids! Our youngsters did this work. Adults know what these plants can do and would not have given the roots any play like this. I'll get them started exposing those edges along with a few adults as minders. The work group isn't as well trained as I thought. No wonder you had them done in red marble. Root containment edge-wall, that is."

"Good thing there's another one over there, huh?" She pointed to the ring of red marble benching that surrounded the miniature rose garden. "Top edge of a much larger marble bowl under everything in this bit...even the trees. Anywhere I've included things that Steelmind and Firesong don't trust yet, there's a marble or granite bench bowl under it. Besides, I thought that you hertasi might want to plant some things yourselves in this new area, so I left the area between each inner bowl's edge-wall and the bench wall around it unplanted."

"Those will need cushions." The hertasi replied, relief heavy in it's tone. "And yes, we have had some notions we'd like to express. Thank you, this was considerate."

"I'm not careless you know, I just like driving Firesong and Steelmind a little crazy. But don't tell them I said that. Now...if the hertasi were interested in working with me quietly on some of my experiments...as long as you understand that from time to time I'm going to let something loose just to drive those two...insane for a short period of time..."

The little hertasi started laughing, it couldn't help it. "Why, you little..."

"Firesong is a know it all and Steelmind said he took me on cuz he was bored." She told it.

"Really? Well, I can't really argue the point about Firesong, because you are correct. He's far less of one these days, though. As for Steelmind, if he told you that, well...he deserves it." The hertasi spoke decisively. That was no way to welcome a new apprentice!

"So, since one of the things Steelmind told me was one of my duties, is that I am supposed to keep him from getting bored..." She grinned wickedly down at the hertasi, "How am I doing, at keeping him busy, do you think?"

It took the hertasi escort a very long time to stop laughing long enough to answer her question...and in doing so, confirming she was doing an excellent job at keeping her master busy.

"Just so you know, there's a root system under Steelmind's workshop that should be reaching maturity soon...odd plant, that. It won't show above ground until the root system is fully mature. And there's two more sprouting today...two I've seen and all three were planted the same day. More should sprout next week. I talked to the seeds and they promised to grow four times bigger, each, than any of their kind ever have and set their own seeds to do the same, in their turn."

"There's only one plant I know of...a Tauai Generation Home tree...that grows like that. No Vale has had a new one sprouted in it, in hundreds of years. Wildsong, this is a priceless thing...there are enough now for new seeds to form. One only needs one female, though two or three are smarter, but each female tree needs dozens of males to keep the seeds from getting too inbred."

"Yep." She grinned and told her new cohort where the rest were planted and when she expected to see the trunks emerge...and then gave him a covered bucket she'd been holding, it was full of mature, viable tauai seeds. "I put the only female tree-seed I planted under Steelmind's workshop for it's safety...he'll want to monitor that one himself anyway." She grinned, pointing at the bucket with her chin. "Those are the rest of the girls. Plant four or five, then make sure the other vales get at least two, each, with whatever males are sent."

"Wonderful. There's no need to move the existing Vales anymore and many need more ekele trees."

"Two or three girls and fifty boys, to each Vale, then. Housing is an issue and each tree can hold many, many ekeles."

"Very true, especially these since you got them to agree to grow bigger trees. So the drain hole you placed in the center of Steelmind's workshop floor...you said then it was a by-product of a present."

"Yep. His workshop will be on the top platform branch of one of the most massive female trees in the Vale by the end of this half-week. They grow excellently once they show above ground. So I suppose it's as well his workshop is set well away from the rest of the Vale's important plantings and structures. I mean, I know a few of the food sources will be taken out, but you'll notice I've already replaced those...and multiplied them."

"Yes, yes they do grow both fast and well." The grinning hertasi agreed. "And yes, it's a very good thing that you did, yes, yes...already saw to the replacements for those few fields, true...you have better crops in here than the ones we're going to lose when that trees sprouts anyway." He nearly crowed with laughter...now that he was in on the joke, it was funny. "Well, good! That means we hertasi can enjoy the Grow Show instead of scrambling to replace or stabilize things."

"That's why I chose this area too...that pair of widely spaced, fenced off areas in the center...one is mine and the other for my Guardian and his mate. And the other fenced off areas dotted around, in here, too. But Steelmind has the only female tree-seed..."

"The ones having nothing in or near them...except a highly nutritious water source?"

"Yup...anyway, I had a trunk starting to show in both of the center areas this morning. Give the trees a good month or so and they'll be fully grown except for normal spring additions. And I saw a bulge in Steelmind's floor last night...I've already moved everything out of there, by the way. That room will be long gone by noon the way those trunks expand."

"True, if not earlier."

"It's nearly mid-morning..." She paused and cocked her head at the sound of a yell...which sounded like shock and horror.

"The tree won't harm anything except the one room and will put support branches under the rest of the structure along with smaller ones around the outside to make sure it stays in one piece. The rest of the shop is intact. Why is he yelling like that, I wonder?"

"No idea." Her new partner lied to her, for it had a pretty good idea exactly why Steelmind was 'yelling like that', grinning diabolically as he rattled out a code to the others of his kind with his vibrating tail. The humans of the Vales had never figured out how hertasi found out complex things so quickly. This kid was going to be fun, now that the hertasi had finally been told what was actually going on with her...

"Adults are so weird." Came the tart reply.

"Well, the human ones are, perhaps."

Saplings were growing in groups, in sets of eight or so with a mature tree in the center, all being force grown to the size Wildsong needed. This time, though, she used a bit of magic to call the tips together and get them to braid their tips together before adding the vine-weaving to hold them in place. The trees were the main supports for the walls of each home. The center tree was given a spiral stair and inside a month looked much like Wildsong's dwelling...but there were no large trees above them and each had a few lesser or greater fire-flowers in full bloom in it's topmost bowl garden.

As the garden expanded...and the Tauai trees matured, Firesong calmed more and more. Steelmind had recovered from the discovery of his 'gift' and was directing his tree to grow the way he wanted it to grow, just as he was doing for the one she'd planted for himself and Silverfox. He was still unaware that the hertasi had been told what the girl was doing and why she was doing it...or that they were actively abetting her in her 'projects' now.

Steelmind was a great many things, just now...bored however, wasn't one of them. Frantic, maybe...certainly busily harried, oh yes...way too many things to do and not enough time to do them as he did, after all, require sleep, rest and food.

Steelmind had his hands more than full because the girl had told him, with an air of excitement after the tree has sprouted, that she made sure his Tree was female, claiming she thought he'd want to look after the Seeding Tree himself, which he did, actually, but every hummingbird and fruit eating bat for leagues were now converging on the Vale. He had understood and agreed with her reasoning, his Gift was the best one suited to seeing to it that the Seeding Tree grew up healthy and maintaining the quite valuable tree's health. Two more had been hertasi planted nearby, one on either side of his sprouted one, and he was responsible for the trio.

The hummingbirds headed for the flowers of the male, bees pollinated both gender of trees and the hungry bats went for Steelmind's female...the problem was that most of the bats went outside the shields to eat the fruit they had harvested, then discarding the seeds out there. This required the Vale to expand their shields so that the trees sprouted inside the Vale. This gave them several clusters of new Home Trees in odd areas, expanding outward from the original shieldwall...and they had to do this at least twice a year since every time they expanded the shields, the bats found another roost to drop seeds from. The Vale was getting rather huge.

Those trees...the naturally planted ones would tangle into one massive, mixed gender tree, wild planted as they were, merging until they were indeed one...it was what his ancestors had bred them to do. This Vale, therefore, would be a family Vale as well as the Embassy to Valdemar. The hertasi were already redirecting the structures within to reflect this and word had gone out to the many overcrowded Vales of his people, as well. Oh no, Steelmind wasn't the least bit bored...exhausted, maybe.

People were already beginning to arrive...families...since hertasi had put enough ekeles in the new Generation Trees for about four hundred new households. He recalled just staring at her when she had implied there were more, but that many?

She did tell him there were over forty other Tauai trees developing in her garden, but that they'd be a good week behind the first ones...for the rest of the Vale's leadership which would expand as new groups got here and needed representatives. She also mentioned that Darian's had three male seeds, since he was a first generation wed to a healer and already had several children with her. The young Healing Mage had braided the emerging trunks as soon as they broke earth, removing the bark in places they touched and merging them into a single, swirling trunk. It was swirling a trio of branches, one from each tree, around each other as it matured and creating huge, flat-topped branches that could each hold the weight of several ekeles.

Next door to Firesong and Silverfox, Wildsong had an extra tree whose seed had grown it's branches grown into wide ramps leading to a cave-like growth every three or four hundred feet in height, intended for Fyr to nest in. Generation Trees were essentially bred to be fire-proof after all...and he was getting a bit to big to share sleeping space with, even if you didn't mind the way he kicked in his sleep...after all, he also rolled over a lot and if you were snuggled in tight, well...

Firesong sighed, wandering around the admittedly lovely garden, eying various plants put to unexpected uses with appreciation. He saw traditional hertasi plantings spotted here and there amid Wildsong's more flamboyant ones. He had to wonder just exactly what else his ward had in mind for him...but this time, at least, he knew better than to say anything.

He had been left alone with Wildsong for a few weeks while Steelmind went to take care of an issue in Haven...there was no real need to push his luck or give her ideas, now, was there?

Steelmind groaned as he approached the capital...wondering how Wildsong had managed to get a Rose Wall Barrier that hid the palace grounds from view installed this fast. It knew him though and obeyed his order to fashion tunnels anywhere there was a gate.

Alberich, Selenay, Myste, Elspeth and Talia stared in dumbfounded fascination at the rapidly maturing Rose Wall that now surrounded the palace...bristling with big, spiky thorns.

"At least, access to gates to city there are now. Developed this defense, who?"

"Wildsong...um, sorry...Darci."

"Your apprentice, is?"

"Yeah, that's why I came instead of Firesong."

"Ah."

Darkwind nodded. "Wildsong, eh? It's a good one for her." He agreed, looking to the side at the main garden where a single, male Tauai tree grew, dwarfing everything else in the garden. Hertasi were all over it since it was the new Tayladras Consulate...ekele were going up one every branch under the Haven Vale. He'd only just managed to get the Heartstone in here to put up weather spells to keep everything nice and warm inside the Capital City, all the year 'round. "Elspeth, love...when is her Companion going to be old enough to join her?"

"Not sure. Soon, I hope."

"She's got a bonded familiar...a young beast named Fyr. Not a bondbird, she's bonded to him just the same. Must say, he's a cute little thing."

Alberich nodded. All these folks had some creature they were bonded to. "Will manage, us. We always do."

"I hope you're right. Mind you, Fyr is as obedient as Wildsong, but like his girl, he tends to be very literal minded." He's almost to the first fledging stage. The Vale Gryphons have been helping, they're the only ones big enough to do it." Steelmind's words started a dreadful suspicion in Alberich's heart. He wasn't the only one.

"What manner of beast is her bonded?" The Weaponsmaster asked.

"She extracted a promise that I'd let her tell you herself...when you see her next."

"Introduced to a young dragon to be?"

"I'm afraid I can't say..."

"Nor deny it, do you."

"Not nice to lie outright to allies, is it? Surely you know this?"

***TBC***