Years ago, dad told me to come with him to Cairo for three months since he has work to do there. He told me that it'll be a chance for my body to adjust to desert heat.
I didn't go. My excuse was my body always, always adapting to whatever climate I was in.
Wrong move. I should have gone with him. And now I was cooked.
My sweat poured down my face like my pores had given up trying to keep it together. My shirt was already long gone, stuffed in my backpack which was now soaking up everything like a giant, gross sponge. Even my boxers felt like they were trying to drown me from the inside.
"This is how I die," I muttered to Barry, who was already slumping on my shoulder. "I'll die before I could even find a rare cactus in this hellfire place.
Blaze wasn't looking great either. His razor leafy tail drooped. His blade claws clicked on the dry ground, but there was no sass in his stride. Even his murder-vibes were on low battery.
My mouth felt like it had been sandpapered. Just when I thought I'd collapse face-first into the blazing red sand and let the sun take me, I heard it.
"Get back! I actually spit fire!"
I blinked. Did the heat fry my brain?
Another voice, tiny, but sharp.
"You think I'm bluffing? Come closer and I'll barbecue your leaves off!"
Curious despite the heatstroke, I dropped to my knees and crawled slowly behind a blood-red bush. My arms trembled. Even lifting my head felt like an Olympic event.
And that's when I saw it.
A small, sunflower-like plant stood its ground in the middle of the cracked, red sand. Its petals were blood-red. Flames flickered gently around its leaves, and its tiny body quivered with fury. Three snake-like vine creatures hissed and slithered around it, their barbed leaf-tongues flicking hungrily.
The flower spat fire. Literal fire, a small fireball, One of the vines caught a fireball to the face and screeched, curling back.
I gawked.
[Appraisal]
Name: SandFlower
Type: Fire Class Flora
Traits: Spits fire, intelligent, highly
[Bota Watch Note]
Remark: Offensive plant.
Grade: Very Rare
Really? This tiny plant, smaller than Barry and Blad is a fire type flora? My instincts kicked in. I gripped Blade's tail, ready to nudge him forward.
And then I hesitated.
Do I really want to throw myself and my half-dead team into this?
We're in the middle of a boiling desert, half-dehydrated, low on stamina, and about ten hours from the nearest idea of safety.
Helping that plant could get us killed.
But if we don't…
I watched as Sandflower launched another fireball. The second vine dodged it and started circling.
"…Tch."
I hate this part of me. The part that cares.
"I mean, it's just a plant," I muttered. "Not my problem if nature's eating nature, right?"
The third vine struck.
Sandflower tripped, falling backward, its ember-petals flaring in panic.
My fists clenched.
"…Dammit."
I looked at Blaze, who already understood.
"Let's do something stupid," I sighed.
Before I could finish weighing the pros and cons of dying a noble idiot's death or staying hidden like a sensible coward, Blaze made the decision for me.
With a blur of motion, my chaos-fueled, razor-leafed, attention-deficient feline plant exploded from the bush like a living ninja set to "murder."
"Wait—BLADE—!"
It's too late.
One of his tail-whips slammed into a vine-snake mid-lunge, cleaving through the leafy body like a hot knife through lettuce. The severed piece flopped to the ground, wriggled, then burst into plant-guts that sizzled on the sand.
The other two hissed like deflated tires.
Blaze didn't care. He was in the zone.
He leapt, his claws flashing. One tail whipped behind him, another curled around the second snakeplant's neck, if you could even call that bendy part a neck, and yanked.
The thing screeched, snapping at him, but Blaze just cackled.
Yes. Cackled.
Where did he even learn to cackle!?
I scrambled to my feet and almost fell flat on my face. The sun still wanted me dead. My legs wobbled like an uncooked jelly that's been dropped in sand and forgotten about.
"Barry, hang in there."
Barry glowed brighter on my shoulder, enough to say he's still fine.
"Alright, plan B," I muttered. "Let Blade be plan A."
The final vine hissed and lunged for Blaze's flank. It got close, too close.
"Blade! Left!"
Blade swerved and countered with a triple-tail slap. Razor petals shredded the attacker into glitter confetti.
The sand smelled like scorched weeds and a salad bar fire.
Panting, Blade landed next to the little sunflower.
"Y-you… you're not with them?" the tiny voice asked, flickering nervously.
"Nope," I said, stumbling into view. "I'm with him. Which, honestly, is sometimes worse."
The sandflower blinked its ember eyes. "He fights like crazy. Well, as an ambush-hunter type flora.. "
I nodded.
"Yep. That's our Blade."
"Oh? His name is Blade? Why didn't you name him Razor instead."
"Yep."
"Cool. I want a name too."
I blinked.
"Come one, give me a name."
Voices. I heard it!
I'm actually hearing a voice
It took me a full ten seconds, maybe fifteen, before my brain caught up.
Hold on. Wait a minute.
The plant was talking.
Not in a telepathic hum.
Not in weird mental images. No.
It was actually speaking. In English.
"Did you say you wanted a name too?" I croaked, blinking through sweat.
The red sandflower flinched, its tiny leaf-arms raising like a guilty raccoon caught mid-cookie theft.
"W-Was that rude? I just meant…I just want to-"
"I-I…you're a talking plant," I said, pointing like I'd discovered the secret of the universe. "You're a literal talking plant."
"Of course I talk," the flower huffed. "I'm a Sandflower. A rare desert-blooming species gifted with speech."
I just stared.
I had been sweating my soul out, nearly passed out, and now I was having a full-blown conversation with a baby-sized fire-sunflower, well sandflower.
Blade, unbothered, casually flicked a green slimy-smeared leaf off his paw and sat down to groom himself. Razor tail still twitching.
Barry gave a little sparkle on my shoulder, like, "Wow, you just noticed?"
"Nope. Nope nope nope," I said, dropping to sit beside a smoldering vine corpse. "I've cracked. This is it. Sun's melted my last brain cell. I'm gonna start naming clouds next."
The Sandflower hopped slightly, its roots pulling free and padding forward with singed grace.
"Well, if you're gonna pass out, at least do it somewhere with shade," it said dryly. "And maybe don't sit on a fire-ash patch. That's basically butt spice."
I shifted. Fast.
"Ow."
Blade snorted.
"…So you're saying you spit fire, but only when startled, threatened, or offended?"
"Exactly," said Sandflower with a firm nod of his tiny red petals. "So unless you want scorched eyebrows, don't wear stripes with plaid. Ever again."
I stared down at my sun-faded boxer waistband peeking out from my pants. "I didn't know boxers counted."
"They always count."
Blade flicked one of his tails at me like he agreed, while Barry gave a faint warning blink, probably trying to say "Please stop talking, he's going to combust."
We sat in the slowly cooling patch of scorched ground left by the snake-vine thing Blade had shredded earlier. I took a long drink from my Suckapore pod, still amazed that a portable water-vacuum plant was a real thing I now owned.
"So," I said, wiping sweat off my brow with the least dirty side of my shirt. "Have you ever heard of a plant called… Inferncacti?"
Sandflower stiffened.
Then his little leafy arms folded.
"Maybe I have. Maybe I haven't."
I narrowed my eyes. "Seriously?"
He tilted his flower head.
"You want that info? Fine. I'll trade you."
I blinked. "Trade? I don't have fire-proof snacks or wait, do you want Blade's tail or something?"
Blade growled. A vine tail whipped dangerously close to my nose.
"No," Sandflower said with a little offended huff. "I want to go with you."
I stared.
"Wait. You want to be part of the squad?"
Sandflower puffed up with a tiny 'hmph'.
"I've been alone out here for ages. Fire plants don't really hang out unless you count burning each other for fun. And now I'm food for monsters and bored out of my petals. You and your squad look strong though, especially that assassin plant."
"...So you want me to adopt you?"
"Temporary contract," he said, sternly. "Like a probationary minion. You get directions to Inferncacti. I get safety, food, and a name."
"Wait, you don't have a name?"
"I'm just a sandbloom," he said dramatically. "It sucks but you named your plants. I want one too."
Barry buzzed in sympathy.
"…Alright," I said, slowly standing up and adjusting my now-sand-filled boxer line. "I'll take you with me."
He lit up, literally. A warm puff of harmless sparks shot from his petals.
"Really?! I mean, cool. Fine. Whatever. I accept."
"How about Burn? Since you're related to fire."
The sandflower paused as if he was thinking.
"Yes, I like that! Thank you "
I reached out, unsure if I was supposed to shake a leaf or something, but he just hopped onto my other shoulder, opposite Barry.
Great.
Now I had a flashlight, a razor cat, and a fire flower.
"Alright, you can join as Burn. So where's the Inferncacti?"
He pointed a tiny leaf south, past the bramble canyon.
"Hope you're ready," he said ominously. "Because the Thornknight Bramble guards that place like a dragon guards treasure… and he doesn't like visitors."