Icy leaves [D-rank Mission]

'Have you heard about the apple trees getting violent?'

Cat grinned. If it hadn't been for Alexandra's limitless curiosity she might have overlooked the possibility of doing this little job. In all honesty she hadn't heard about violent trees before. But having some control over her ice should be enough to deal with a tree. .. right? Right!

She really hoped that it would be.
Besides, what was she supposed to do? Cut it down?

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Catherina floated down the path towards the house she had to be at. Whether she would be able to solve this problem was yet to be seen, but the young Mage remained positive.

“Good day, miss?”

“De La Luna.”

“Miss de la Luna. Nice having you here. I hope that you'll be able to help us because we really need to gather the apples as soon as possible and the matter is urgent as might imagine. Rotting apples won't be of any good.”

Their conversation didn't last long, there was no need for that. Barely ten minutes later Catherina was already heading towards the garden. Her instructions were obvious; make sure that the apples get picked and the entrance to the orchard is free for other to do their job later on.

“Oh my..”

As her icy gaze fell upon the massive branches Catherina's eyebrow moved up. It was almost as if the tree had sensed her presence, moving its arms heavy with apples back and forth. Leaves fell towards the ground as the shaking became more violent. Perhaps.. this wouldn't be as easy to deal with as she had hoped for.


Words: 273/ 500

Baskets were dumped at the entrance of the orchard. There would come no good from them being smashed to a trillion little pieces, because, obviously, that's what the trees seemed to be planning to do to her. Dodging a thick branch Catherina jumped back, smoothly landing on the soft grass. This was ridiculous! Hundreds of apples were already rolling over the grass, covering the ground beneath the tree with a carpet of red.

This called for extremer measures!

Concentrating the black haired Mage felt her energy flow through her veins before pouring out of her skin and coming into contact with the air around her. Eyes mere slits of steely blue; Catherina grinned her toothy smile. Soon the ice burst from the palms of her hands, a large stream that crashed into the near by tree trunk, causing it to burst. Pieces fell towards the ground, both wood and ice as the latter crawled up the trunk, expanding towards the branches. She had to make sure that the apples didn't get damaged. It took quite some effort before the tree gave up the fight and remained frozen – literally.

Now that she knew how to deal with them, Catherina proceeded to slowly dig her icy claws into the branches and trunks of the violent trees that were left. This was draining work, but it worked, and that was the most important part. Gathering the apples really took a gap out of her afternoon. Hours later she dragged the baskets back to the house of the orchard owner. After a dozen trips the girl came to a stop and whipped off her forehead.

First and last time that I'm doing this sort of gardening.

“I highly doubt that the trees will be of any use the next season, or the one after that for that matter.”

She didn't hesitate; Catherina simply stated the facts.

“On the other side, you're free to enter the orchard again, and the apples from those 'possessed' trees are hereby plucked.”

A grin and a vague gesture towards the baskets full of fruits. In the end it all seemed to have pleased the man, who paid what he had promised to the young Mage and even asked whether she wanted to earn a bit extra by helping with the other, normal trees.

“No I can't stay for a lot longer, but thank you for the offer, it was nice doing business with you.”

With a bag full of freshly harvested apples, Cat made her way back to the centre of the town. She loved apples, though green ones, however, Alex was a sweet tooth, so these red ones wouldn't go to waste.


Words: 444 → 717/500 – mission completed