Oer and Under

Tal opened his mouth.

Closed it without saying anything.

Opened it again.

"I mean... maybe??" He scowled so fiercely at the jungle ahead of him that a curious sentient vine in their path hastily curled up and away and let the little procession pass by unhindered. "An' maybe your parents are lucky to still have even one o' you. Fuck." The last was said mostly under his breath, a little helpless at having the kid running verbal circles around him while his parents were on opposite sides of the continent doing Ludo-knew-what.

The river was a relief and Tal came to a halt on a sandy patch of bank. Boreal was just leaning forward with her jaws open wide enough to snag a mouthful of fronds when Tal turned around to check on the saplingtreelet and glared at her. "Iguana!" He reminded her with a jab of his finger in the air as she sloooooowly settled back on her haunches and closed her mouth, looking as innocent as a dragon could be. Tal huffed and went to lift the walking palm out with all of the care he reserved for his most fragile packages. He settled it onto a loamy spot near the water - but not too near. It was a walking palm, not a swimming palm - and gave it a final pat.

"Huh?" he looked back over his shoulder and then reluctantly made space. "Oh... sure. Yeah. Though I dunno if it counts as native t'here since it just got here."

the earth has music for those who listen

"Oh! Well... I'm a dream come true, so I imagine if they'd wanted more of me they could have added that," Mateo says, entirely reasonably, because how else are two demigods meant to make a baby when there's no surrogate or appropriate parts?

He pauses when they reach the river, naturally, and jumps a bit at the barked exclamation from Tal. "Iguana...?" he echoes, before digging in his pockets for the promised jerky and offering some out to Boreal with a bright smile.

"It's native now, though!" he says, digging around in his back for a notebook and a pencil. "It'll grow up big and strong and maybe it'll even have babies of its own." Shuffling up to plop down on the riverbank, he starts making rough sketches of the walking palm, even as it tries to make a slow escape from them.

"That's, uh..." Tal reached up to rub his temples, feeling an intense pounding right behind his eyes. "Pretty sure every - well, most. A lot? - a lot of kids are what their parents wanted..." But it was more of a despairing mumble now. If the kid didn't know about the birds and the penises, Tal wasn't about to enlighten him. Never mind that the courier was the one who didn't understand the situation.

The river's shore was a bittersweet moment. Sure, he'd be free to get back to Halo now, but he hoped the little guy would be alright out here in this big jungle all alone...

The walking palm, not Mateo, of course.

"That's what Frey's gonna turn her into if she eats Their new plant," he explained automatically to the kid's question, even as Boreal was finally safely distracted by a meaty treat. She padded over to the child and took the tidbit delicately with sharp teeth revealed in her boxy muzzle, tossing it up and snapping her jaws on it with relish.

Hands were shoved deep into his pockets to keep his fingers from tapping too obviously on his legs as he watched his little pal begin to amble away. Stupid, cute plant, with its creepy, kind of adorable little rootfeets... "Huh. Guess so. Only you an' me'll know otherwise," Tal was forced to admit. Then he slanted a suspicious glance at the kid. Was he trying to make the courier feel better...?

the earth has music for those who listen

"Oh, well - yes," Mateo agrees, grinning over his shoulder at Tal. "But my dads couldn't have kids themselves, so they made me in a dream. And then Ludo made the dream come true!" Is he helping? He feels like he's helping. After a few more quick sketches of the walking palm (he has to be quick otherwise it'll get away!) and a bright smile to Boreal in her jerky-munching endeavours, Mateo puts his notebook away again.

"I think you'd make a good iguana," he tells the dragon as he shifts to get back to his feet, brushing the dirt from his pants and completely missing the suspicion from the courier. "Hey, maybe you can come back next year and visit it? I bet it'll be much bigger, then. It might remember you!"

Well, butter Tal's butt and call him a biscuit. The courier's mouth opened once and then closed. His nose wrinkled as he tried to pick out one sane thing in that sequence of events and he opened his mouth again...

And snapped it shut before breaking into a fit of coughing, spitting out the bug that had obliviously bumbled into it while he'd been trying to find the right words to...

To...

"I uh... y'know what? You win, kid. I give up. Anythin' you say." Weak from all the psychic damage he'd been taking in the conversation, Tal put both hands up to his face and scrubbed helplessly. A more glib man might have made a quip about Mateo having a literal godfather, but the courier was no Jigano and he just looked morosely after his former charge as the palm very slowly wandered further away from them.

At Mateo's words of encouragement, however, he perked up a little. "Hm? Oh... yeah. Yeah, I hope so. It should be th'only one that answers to 'Petunia,' at least." Because what else would he have named a walking tree?

the earth has music for those who listen

Busy casting a small wave after the walking palm, Mateo is (naturally) more than happy to have his new aquaintance agree with anything he has to say. Indeed, after ensuring that his notebook and all of his other bits and pieces are in order within his Bag of Holding, he shifts it on his shoulder and turns to smile back at Tal. "Petunia is a good name," he decides. "Especially for a plant that isn't a petunia."

Digging in his pockets for some more jerky for Boreal, Mateo tosses the snack up for the dragon to enjoy before promptly beginning to meander away and back into the dense foliage. "Thanks for letting me walk with you for a while, and for letting me sketch your Petunia!" he calls. "If you're ever in Stormbreak, maybe we'll see each other again?"

Weak to flattery, Tal rallied a little at the compliment and almost flashed Mateo a grin at his agreement with the name. Petunia was a good name, dammit! A perfectly respectable name for a tree! Bush? Ambitious herb?

Sapling.

Mateo's well-timed distraction of a second round of jerky kept Boreal from trying to sneak after the Forbidden Chew Toy. She jumped to catch the flipped treat and then flopped down on the edge of the river to lick it a few times before swallowing it whole.

"Yeah... Hope y'get a good grade for her," Tal called back, brain still whirling with everything the kid had said. It had sounded pretty far-fetched but he'd met a couple of demigods or three and was making deliveries for for Frey so maybe it was all true? "I make deliveries there sometimes, maybe I'll see ya around."

Shaking his head and still wondering if maybe he hadn't hallucinated half the conversation, Tal whistled Boreal back to his side and began the long trek home to Halo.

~Fin~