Unnamed

Kudzu is one in the infinite line of the Glademother's gouge, sprung full-formed when She clawed the earth. It is burrowing, churning, shaping. It is eruption, apocalyptic in its growth. It is one shard of one word of one motion of Her great truth, and it fights until this truth is rooted: the Labyrinth stands, the Labyrinth spreads, forever.

Kudzu are ancient defensive constructs used to hold and defend vulnerable areas of the Labyrinth. When activated, they generate sub-constructs, extensions of the Kudzu equipped with physical and magical weaponry. Each construct is more similar to a finger than a soldier, and will fight in perfect unity until the Kudzu is expended or the enemy wiped out. Rarely, a construct is generated with no link to the Kudzu. These are evacuated, protected, and nurtured; in time, they will develop a mind of their own, and become a new Kudzu. These unrooted ones may root to defend a clan, or else may choose to live a more draconic life.

Kudzu are complicated symbioses of plants, fungi, magical energies, and (regionally) insects. These parts lock together as an aerial ecosystem that charge the taproot with nutrients and magical energy. There are two symbiotic arrangements: the "roots" community generates thicker tissues, secondary storage organs, and constructs with greater physical power at the cost of slower growth. The "shoots" community expands more rapidly and creates faster, more flexible constructs, as well as more palatable leaves for supporting a clan, but is more vulnerable to external conditions. The two arrangements are blended in varying concentrations by the Kudzu.



var. Awake (Steady defender)

A naturally-occurring variant of slumbering kudzu, these constructs are comparatively alert, active participants in draconic life. They grow alongside their chosen clan, waxing and waning with them, though they do benefit from druidic care. The acts of creation and combat are slower and far more controlled than those of their primal cousins, allowing them to use only a portion of their power at a time. This comes at the cost of their speed and strength, and makes them best suited to areas that see consistent low conflict. Their personalities tend to be more varied and pronounced than those of slumbering kudzu; while many hold a similar familial affection for all Gladekeeper's creations, others are solemn, thoughtful creatures to be approached with respect. Still others are well-meaning but hideously stubborn, appointing themselves protectors of a clan without ever consulting the dragons involved. Others still will learn from the dragons around them, becoming reflections of the clan (for better or worse).



Kudzu Subunit A var. Awake

The hatchling sat, as she often did, on one of the root-covered mounds marking Kudzu's taproot. A future druid, it had figured, albeit a lax one. Mostly she rolled around in the dirt and made flower crowns which, educational concerns or no, Kudzu could only approve of.

The hatchling beckoned, and Kudzu obediently lowered the head of one of its avatar-constructs. Another, my dear? At least, this was what it wanted to say; its vinewrought vocal chords produced something more like "ahhh-huhhh-hrrrr". The hatchling nodded and slipped another flower crown onto the stack adorning kudzu. One slipped over one of its eyes. "vrrrrrr-heeee-guuuuuuh". It modeled the crown for her, and the hatchling clapped.

It wondered sometimes where her parents were. Wherever the little thing went at night, it was outside the range of its constructs. It carried her up to the point where its movements grew dangerously sluggish, forcing the enchantments on its eyes to focus as far into the jungle murk as it could. It had developed some strong opinions on her parents, none particularly kind. For one, her lunch was almost always the same three or four things! No, that wouldn't do. It sent her back with the sweetest berries, the juiciest bugs, whole slabs of venison if they caught her fancy. Not to mention the atrocious state of her magical knowledge. How was she to defend herself, should something happen to her on the trek from Kudzu's grove to...wherever? It didn't sleep, but it'd still have laid awake at night worrying. So it taught her some of its own repertoire. She really liked breathcasting which, again, it could only approve of.

It was radiating this pride when it noticed a sizeable bruise on her side. It lowered one of its noses to it and asked, gentle but firm, "whhhuuu? hhhw?" She glanced at it.

"Dorit saw I was onna hammock, and wanted onna hammock, and I was like "NO!". So she pushed me off and yeah." Kudzu drew itself up to its full height, alarmed. It hadn't realized she was involved in violent territorial disputes. What kind of kudzu was it, to lounge here in the woods while she fought? It opened a construct's mouth, its throat blazing with light.

"Yeah! She was like wwhhrhghdgelfksghjgkdsfhjdfgjd and fell off the hammock and my teacher was like HOW DID YOU DO THAT and Dorit was like YEAH HOW so I showed her and my teacher was like NO but Dorit said it was cool so I made her give me the hammock forever to teach her." Kudzu nodded, fretful but deeply proud of her negotiation skills. And while the rest of the day passed in the usual happy distraction, that fretfulness continued, until it crystallized into shame, and then strategy.

Transplantation was...not trivial. Its taproot had grown nearly as deep and strong as that of its slumbering cousins. But it did have some advantages there, and over the next few days, it split itself off. More and more constructs, better, stronger, more energetically intensive. While much of its taproot's volume was the usual tissues, it was swollen with water and magic enough that, as it worked, it contracted. Eventually it could be wiggled free. And so it dragged all of itself into the filtered sun of the glade, wrapping its core in damp leaves to protect it. And when the hatchling returned, she was delighted to ride on its fore-construct, directing the parade...

The clan had been having a fairly normal day when kudzu emerged from the forest. Dozens, maybe hundreds of dragon-shaped constructs washed over and around them, damaging nothing but confusing everything, a cackling hatchling at the helm. They swarmed forwards and onwards at her direction, until they arrived at the hatchery.

"GIVE ME YOUR DUBLOONS!" cried the hatchling. "Nhhhrr." instructed Kudzu, though it was secretly quite proud.

A monster of a guardian burst out, roaring challenge at the construct, flanked by her coati husband. "Honey please you're going to make it so mad--" she paused her roar to headbutt him reassuringly, then returned to roaring. "YOOOOOOOOU! YOU'RE THE REASON THE HATCHLINGS ARE SHOOTING MAGIC BEAMS"

Kudzu reared up, its army of constructs slamming the ground in perfect, rumbling sync. In their unified counter-roar, shards of the construct's accusation. INSUFFICIENT! Your wards are insufficient! A hatchling bruised! Your lunches are inferior!

"INFERIOR?! They're NUTRITIOUS! Do you know how hard it is to look after dozens of hatchlings AT ONCE? Do you know how much they EAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

"you can understand that thing?" said her husband, to which she could only shoot a quick glance of yes, dear

"DUBLOONS!" shrieked the hatchling, which Kudzu took as a cue. "HOW DOES SHE WANDER TO ME?! WHO WATCHES THEM, NOT WONDERING WHERE SHE GOES! UNACCOMPANIED!"

"TO A FRIEND'S! Take it up with her parents! I don't see them around, do you?! All this, all the time, no thanks! What help do I GET?! EVERYONE WANTS IT BETTER, NO ONE HELPS"

"honey seriously there's like a hundred of them."

LIAR! GUARDIAN OF THE YOUNG! WHAT WOULD THE WORLD COME TO THAT YOU'D HAVE NO SUPPORT?!

"YOU'RE ASKING ME?! Sweet Mother, I had to fund our playset out of pocket!"

"DISGUSTING! FOUL! Are we not the nurturing flight? Have we forgotten our very roots?"

"Apparently! Parents these days! Don't understand that learning starts at home! Don't get me started on the administration--"

Then what of a construct? I had freed my taproot for this great charge--

"Gods, I could use any help I could get. But no more teaching them war magics."

Kudzu prepared to roar defiance, but she roared right back "THAT MEANS SHE'D BE THE ONE WITH THE MOST. Not that that's better."

It considered her words, shut its mouths, and nodded.

Her husband also nodded.

"Um."

His feathers fluffed a bit its attention found him, though he forced them down. "So that's...that, then? We'll prepare a planting-place-"

"i thought we were gettin dubloons" said the hatchling in a tiny and now rather worried voice, causing all three to startle. The teacher shot Kudzu a look (receiving a shrug in turn), said "parlay..?", and gave her a piece of treasure. She added a second, shinier one on promise to not beam weapon the other kids "even if they ask nicely, yes". Crisis averted, the hatchling toddled off to brag, and all was well enough.