Chapter 26: Acheflower
| Acheflower Every world has parasites. While most tend to think of biting insects and organism-indwelling worms when considering this category, plants also experience leeches of sorts, freeloaders or synergistic feeders that profit from the life force of another organism without killing it outright. The Acheflower is one such botanical parasite. Too delicate and energy-greedy to survive on its own, it targets the Swamp Ache as a larger-surface-area, deeper-root-structured well of nutrients and moisture from which to draw. The flower that results from this theft is a much higher energy organism, one that holds secrets and defenses of its own that allow it to thrive while propagating tree to tree in the hostile swamp.
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“Gah!” Tulland yelled despite himself as the entire flower seemed to dissipate in his hand, expelling itself outward in a puff of yellow powder. He sprung back from it almost as fast as the buff, but only almost. A bit of the powder got into his eyes and nose, where it immediately started burning like fire.
And then, suddenly, the world got a lot more colorful. He turned on the System communication channel.
“Hey, System.” Tulland said. “Why is it a rainbow?”