Aiko and the Vine

Hedge Wizard Aiko was born in the isolated yet majestic land of Yureinochi, located in the mountain valley to the northeast of the Lake of Lanterns. This is a land of magic and spirits, a land of the Fey. Aiko’s people, the Yureikin are all feyfolk, who many years ago split from the main home of the Feyfolk, located in well, you guessed it, the great forests of the Fey.

Yureinochi is known as “The Land of Spirits”. For it is there that the Yureikin live in close harmony and alliance with spirits of all kinds which would find themselves quite unwelcome in other places. The Yureikin have great empathy for these spirits and protect them, and in return the spirits help the Yureikin tend and protect their land.

Mt. Kirama is a mountain of the sun and light. To the east, across the tributary rivers that feed into the Lake of Lanterns like a mountain of the moon, Mt. Kageyama. Upon the peak of this mountain, the Yureikin have constructed their most sacred temple, the Shenyuan Si, also known as The Temple of the Abyss. For within this Temple lies exactly that, entrance to a dark abyss filled with the souls and spirits of the dead who have been unable to fully pass in death from the physical plane of the universe. Within this abyss, they can rest in some form of peace. This temple is lit by an eternal flame which acts as a beacon for lost souls to guide them to this safe resting place as well as a ward against souls who might try to escape the abyss to cause havoc in the realms of mortals.

Tending to this temple, its flame, and the spirits of the abyss are among the most sacred duties of the Yureikin.

As a Yureikin, as feyfolk, Aiko has a close connection to the spirit world like all her kin. But unlike the majority of her kin, Aiko was also called, or perhaps we can say found, by magic. Although the Feyfolk are a magical people, their strength in magic is found as a community, and rarely do individual Feyfolk possess strong affinities for magic and become wizards, although it does happen.

Aiko was born in the village of Reikōmura, a most idyllic town nestled near the northeastern shore of the Lake of Lanterns. It is a peaceful village that serves as the main gathering point of the Yureikin, though many also live in seclusion or small enclaves within the vast bamboo forests that grow in all directions before ending at the mountain range that rings the land of Yureinochi to the north and east.

As a child, Aiko felt a strong affinity with the spirits of plants. She could feel the whispers that their chemical reactions carried upon the winds. It was the sweetest scent to her. She could feel the love they released when she tended to them. She could fear their fear, their feelings of rejection, of disappointment when others pricked themselves upon their thorns. She understood them.

Soon Aiko outgrew the space of her mother’s garden, and her curiosity outgrew the village of Reikōmura. The other children of Reikōmura were feyfolk like her, but they were normal children in many ways - more interested in playing games with each other than immersing themselves deep within the spirit of nature. But Aiko was not like them, the bamboo forests were waiting for her.

She began to explore these forests and all the different plants that grew wild and free away from the confines of cultivation. Her parents forbade this because while the bamboo forests were beautiful, they were also full of spirits, and danger. The spirits that the Yureikin allowed to live in their spirits were considered allies, malevolent spirits were not allowed to leave the abyss, but the Yureikin also knew that many spirits were mischievous, and could not be fully trusted. However, Aiko trusted fully in the spirits of plants. She went to the forests anyway, and eventually, her parents accepted that this was who their daughter was. Their only condition was that she returned home by sunset every night, to this she agreed.

At eight years of age, Aiko was quite the intrepid forest explorer and budding botanist. On one excursion she found a vine that seemed to go on forever. It was fascinating to her. She couldn’t classify this vine like any of the others she’d ever seen, it seemed to change and transform by the foot. Sometimes it would sprout beautiful flowers, other times it would sprout murderous-looking thorns. Aiko kept following it, but it wouldn’t end.

It was a blast of thunder and lightning that woke her to the realization it had grown dark and the sun had almost fully set. There was no way she was going to make it home before dark. She remembered her father’s words “If you ever get lost in the forests, find shelter immediately, for the darkness of the spirits come out at night, and there is no spirit that cannot wrestle with the temptation of the soul of an innocent for the taking.”

Aiko grew full of fear as rain splattered down from the canopy above and the bamboo shoots swayed violently in the wind. She heard a sharp crack as lightning struck again and she began to run. But it was dark, she had nothing to follow except the vine. She took hold of it and ran along its path.

It was then she felt a presence ominous and foreboding and the air grew cold, almost frigid. She ran faster, but she felt something closing in. It was after her and she did not know what it wanted, but she knew that she didn’t want to be alone with it.

She shivered, lost in the rain, and then somehow, she could move no longer. She felt dark invisible tendrils wrap around her and then a ghastly voice carrying on the wind, “Hello child.”

Aiko was full of fear. She felt something pulling her away, and all she could do was grasp the vine tight and try to hang on. But this thing was strong, and she was just a little girl. She couldn’t hold on any longer.

But then, the vine held onto her. It began curling around her wrists, then her chest, and thickening, growing stronger. She felt a tug of war between the plant, her lifeline, and whatever thing was out there. The vines continued to grow around her and Aiko screamed.

She began moving again, wrapped in a cocoon of vines from neck to toe. The vine dragged her along the forest floor, but as Aiko was dragged farther from the dark presence, she began to feel safe. The vines whisked her through the forest and she reached a glowing crag within a rock wall. The space was only big enough for a child to fit through, and protected from the rocks by the vine, Aiko was taken within. She felt water splash over her as she entered and realized she must have passed through a waterfall.

The vines began to loosen and recede and she sat up. The space cave space glowed with chroma crystals embedded and growing in the walls. Aiko panted, still shaking from her fright. And then she yelped and scurried back against the wall as she saw what grew within. In front of her grew a plant with a thick stem and a large bulb that opened like a mouth with jagged spikey protrusions lining the edges. Aiko was scared, but also curious. Her intrigue only grew when the plant began to speak to her.

“I hope you’re not afraid of me, I don’t want to hurt you,” it said to her.

“I-I’m not,” said Aiko fearfully, but as she spoke she began to feel calmer.

Aiko was freezing and shivering, she was quite a small child and it was cold and damp in the cave. Aiko and the plant spoke some more and her fear of it quickly left her. Despite it’s appearance, the plant didn’t seem threatening, it seemed lonely. It seemed sad, like it needed a friend.

She had many questions she wanted to ask, but she was too cold to think and couldn’t stop shivering.

The plant opened it’s mouth wide, down to the floor.

“Come inside me, I can keep you warm.” It was exactly the kind of thing a monstrous child-eating plant would say to convince a child to enter. But, Aiko was cold, and she trusted plants. Anyway if it wanted to eat her, it could have done that already. So she crawled inside.

It was warm, and the plant produced a sweet nectar for her to drink so she wouldn’t be hungry. It also gave her a seed. The plant told Aiko that this was a magical seed that she had been growing for quite a long time. The plant had many hopes and dreams of being loved, but these hopes were always crushed. So the plant hid away all these hopes and dreams in this seed. But now, the plant felt like it found someone who finally understood it. So she offered this seed to Aiko.

Aiko ate the seed, curled up in a ball, fell asleep, and had the most wondrous dreams. She felt magic enter her body, the magic of the plant, which now linked them in many ways. In her dreams, Aiko saw the potential of all the good that this plant could do in the world and all the people that it could help if they gave it a chance.

This plant was ancient and magical but had been misunderstood and feared. Wherever it grew people only saw its sharp edges and tried to cut it down. This upset the plant and it had been pushed to defend itself at times. Plants could lose their temper too. But anytime the plant had killed or devoured a human, it felt sad. It felt all the fear sadness and hate of that person. So the plant decided it had enough and slowly found its way here to this hiding place.

Aiko knew that this plant would be her friend for a long time. It had a soul just like a person and like any person who was hated and feared by all, it had grown to fear all people in turn. But Aiko was different. Aiko decided right there that she was going to show the world that this plant was good.

She named it “Megami no Hana”, the Goddess Plant, and decided she’d call it Mega for short.

When Aiko returned to the village the next morning her parents were frantic but glad to see her. They felt how she was covered in sap and began gathering a group to go hunt whatever had done this to her. Aiko screamed at them to stop and told them that the plant had saved her, not hurt her.

Aiko’s tears moved her parents and the other feyfolk and they agreed that maybe they were being a bit hasty. Nevertheless, Aiko’s parents forbid her from seeing the plant again. But, Aiko wouldn’t be deterred.

Aiko knew that if she kept sneaking away to see Mega eventually her parent’s fear would lead to them doing something bad. Maybe they’d follow her there, cause a scene, and somebody would get hurt. Aiko knew that she had to heal Mega’s heart from all the trauma of it’s past before it could help people.

In the days and weeks following Aiko didn’t need to return to Mega in person because she realized that they could communicate telepathically. She could see everything that Mega was seeing. Aiko was within Mega and Mega was within her. But, her parents noticed a change in Aiko too.

Aiko would go into the forest and commune with Mega, talking, and experiencing each other’s memories for hours. Aiko also felt magic growing within her. Mega had spent time in various magical laboratories or under the study of wizards in the past and was able to teach Aiko a few simple spells, but if Aiko was to learn how to truly augment her magic and use it to explore Mega’s potential, she would have to get some real training.

So one day, the time came for Aiko to leave Yureinochi. She packed some things, went and collected Mega from the cave and set off toward an ancient place called the Secret Tower to learn how to become a wizard. Mega knew the way there, more or less. They would find it together. Just a girl and her magical flesh eating plant.

Entered by: 0x9A86…1586