Hydrangea

Special effects, stagehand, and unofficial cook of Toxic Melancholia "What can you even do?" "Catch me if you can, clumsy!" "Tone-deaf! You don't belong here."

Hydrangea snapped out of it, her mind coming back to her small home and the pot of boiling herbs that would be her dinner. She breathed in, calming herself down. It was fine, she had left them behind like they had wished. The Bogsneak then sniffed and scrunched up her nose. She'd been zoning out like an idiot and now her dinner was definitely overcooked. She taste-tested it gingerly, then grimaced. Much too soggy and bleached of all flavor. She didn't particularly want to remake everything though, so she'd just have to put up with it.

She then flinched, hearing voices outside her den. Hydrangea groaned, that kind of quick and excitable speech could only be a Spiral. Or maybe even multiple Spirals. Had more dragons come to bother her? She found that after an unpleasant encounter with a Pearlcatcher, her name has somehow spread far and wide as the 'Carmine Devil'. The Bogsneak hadn't meant to lash out, she just wanted to be left alone for once. It was no use dwelling on the past though.

Hydrangea peeked her head carefully out of her lair so as not to reveal herself. She had made a humble home hidden among the banks of the Driftwood Drags in an attempt to be as low key and secluded as possible, though obviously, that hadn't panned out. As she followed the sound of voices, she found two Spirals chatting to one another. One was wearing an immaculate performer's outfit and talking chipperly to the other, who was a bit more toned down and had a lyre made of bones that he was fiddling with. From their eyes, the first was a shadow dragon, and the second an arcane dragon. The arcane dragon would be easy enough to scare off, but the shadow dragon would probably prove to be more troublesome.

Hydrangea shrank back into her home, though some of their inane chatter still pierced through the walls. She tried to ignore them and look for the ingredients she needed. What were they even talking about? Spirals seemed to never run out of topics.

"Eh, the murdery part isn't what you should focus on! I mean, if they lived to tell the tale, that means they were fine, right?"

Orchid cactus and sugary prickleaf for a sting. Cindermint. No, cindershroom would be better. A little bit of Starfall Blossom. Siltvine to stimulate everything to work. Hydrangea sorted through her jars and jars of plants; some half-filled, some labeled, some cracked, but most of them empty. She knew she should refill them, that the sorry state of her collection could be mended, but she found more and more as the days passed that she didn't want to go outside. She was scared to. The Bogsneak frowned, when had that happened? Had she really become such a coward?

"Also, there's stories where she can create storms and blind you but without magic- Like, magic magic! Wouldn't that be cool to see?"

Goodness gracious Windsinger, those Spirals were loud. Well, one of them, she thinks it was the shadow dragon since the arcane dragon looked more like the quiet artsy type. The rumors were also getting more out of hand too. Hydrangea had just made a few concoctions to scare away trespassers and now she was being called a mage? It's not that hard if you just took some time to study plants and how they interacted with each other. In fact, she was just about done with a new concoction, an exploding but harmless bomb of sorts. It would sting a bit and look flashy, but it wouldn't actually cause any harm.

"Are you sure this will work?" "Of course!"

Hydrangea stopped against her will as a quiet, somber tune started to play. Sharp notes plucked with careful claws. She felt her heart stir, it had been a long time since she had heard music. So long. Even though she had loved it. The Bogsneak looked out of her den, feelings of hate and melancholy mixing together. She no longer loved music, she couldn't. She grit her teeth.

"Stop that incessant noise," She hissed, lurching out of the swamps "What have you come here for?!"

The arcane dragon continued playing, though he did squirm to hide slightly behind his friend.

"She looks angry, she looks angry! I don't want to be buried in the murk," He yelped, his claws flying over the strings a bit more frantically.

"Calm down, it still worked. I told you it'd work. You didn't believe me, did you?" The shadow dragon huffed, then turning to Hydrangea as she stomped up to him.

"I said, state what you came here for," She huffed.

"Oh! Right. I'm Charlie, that's my friend Lagoon. We're gonna be a traveling uh- performance? Circus? Band? Kinda like a- well basically, we think it'd be super cool if you joined us!" The shadow dragon said with a wide smile.

"Me?" Hydrangea asked, a bit taken aback, "I can't, I'm not..."

"Sure you can! You can do your magic and I can do my tricks and Lagoon can do his music thing and we can go around and it'll be great! I've always wanted to travel. I mean, isn't it exciting? To be free from any clan or place and just go wherever you want? You agree, don't you?" Charlie babbled, not even giving time for her to reply.

"He's probably not going to leave you alone until you say yes, that's just Charlie. But it's not that bad, since you get to see a lot of new things and stretch your wings and such," Lagoon said, poking his head from behind Charlie, "We can help move stuff and find food too?"

"I- fine," Hydrangea huffed, "I'm not doing any tricks though! I'll teach you how and you’ll have to gather your own materials.”