Emily’s POV
I really wonder if it might have been better just to go with Laurel and the others. I have to think that they are having more success at getting Faun and Mist back than I am at getting this pot clean. Would it be impertinent of me to ask Mother Earth, I mean Terra, just to make a new pot?
I can somewhat sympathize with what Istan went through now from always calling Laurel Forest Mother. Though Terra did not cover my mouth with dirt as I have seen Laurel do to Istan with her plants more times that I can count, she did give me a disappointed look every time I slipped up and called her Mother Earth.
Right now Terra and Flood were talking but their conversation seemed to be on such a different time scale that it was hard to understand. The land is not moving, is it? I really can’t think it is. How come I never feel anything outside of a few small shakes? And even after those everything seems to go back to normal. I have heard Laurel say that she is millions of years old but I can not understand all that this means after my measly 300 years.
“What are you doing over there?” Terra’s voice called me out of my thoughts as my arms mindlessly scraped at the bottom of the pot. “Whatever it is does not sound good.”
“Sorry about that,” I apologized to them. “Our breakfast this morning got a little burnt. I am trying to get the cake off the bottom so that we can use the pot again.”
“Wouldn’t it be faster to just use your powers to get it off?” Flood was clearly puzzled why I was doing manual labor when I, at least in part, was a spirit like them.
“Mothe- I mean Terra, had said not to use our powers?” I was a little surprised by the suggestion. Even more surprised that Terra nodded her head in agreement with Flood, she did not seem like the type not to follow her own advice.
“I guess you might not have been able to feel it. But Tide has started to use her powers. I can’t think you using a tiny bit of power to clean the burnt stuff off is going to cause any issues.” Terra’s response brought joy to my eyes. I was not going to have to keep scrubbing this pot until I can’t even lift up my arms any more! But that light quickly faded. How was my ability to make plants grow a little faster going to help clean the bottom of the pot?
What do I do now? I don’t want to look like a fool and ask her how I am supposed to use my powers. But I will look like an even bigger fool if I sit here. After frowning for a minute, I decided I had no choice. “How am I supposed to use my powers on this char?”
“It came from a plant, didn’t it?” Terra looked at me puzzled.
She was right, but could it really be that simple? Well what else was there to it but to send out my power and try?
Nothing. I concentrated as hard as I could for any response from the remains in the pot but felt nothing. “I don’t think this is going to work. The grains are already dead.”
“I guess that would make sense, Laurel can not control soil,” Terra mumbled to herself looking at the pot.
“Would that make it something you could control then?” Flood asked. “It was plants, and plants decay into dirt.”
“I… Um…. I am not sure,” Terra hesitated. “I think it is too small for me to even try. Especially not with all the people around.” She finished looking at the village barely visible through the trees up the far bank of the river.
I had a hard time seeing how those people could ever be too close for cleaning a pot. I would never be able to stretch my powers to the river, not even to mention across it and up the opposite side. But from all I heard from Laurel, Terra was not one to be pushed so I let it be.
“Maybe you could help?” I looked at Flood, coming up with an idea.
“There is no way my powers will work on that. There is no water left in that black stuff.” She looked at the cake almost as if it was an affront to her.
“That is the whole problem. Things get softer as they absorb water. I wonder if you would be able to force water into this crust to help loosen it up.”
She gave me a very skeptical look but formed a fist sized ball of water in the air and sent it into the pot. There was no visible movement to the water. But it did not take long until a dirty brown color started to seep into the water. My eyes opened even wider as small chunks started to float off the bottom of the pot. If only I could find a way to bottle this cleaning power and sell it with my medicine, I would never have to worry about money again.
Though I guess it would be Flood getting the money since she was doing all the work. I also do not think that she would like to be placed in a barrel, much less a bottle. Pushing that random thought out of my mind I now needed to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my day. How on earth do I go about talking to Terra and Flood for such a long time? I am just a baby compared to them. And I have only ever talked to Terra for a few minutes in the past. I hated scrubbing the pot but it gave me an excuse to stay out of the conversation. Now that was gone and it's not like I could really sweep the floors like at home.
Who knew it would be so much fun to write about cleaning a pot. So much so that the battle with maximus has to wait.