Ar'Kendrithyst

Jane had only been gone for two days, but Erick was already missing her. He needed to send her a care package. It didn’t take long to figure out what to send her: Jane had wanted potatoes for a while, therefore, Erick wanted potatoes.

It was a simple want, but there was a fundamental problem.

Potatoes grew underground and you had to kill the plant to harvest the potato. Potatoes, as they were, were simply not a good crop for standard Spur farming practices, where the best veggies they could [Grow] were the ones telekinetically picked off of a vine, or a tree, and then the vine or tree could regrow more food from the same spot.

There was a lot more to farming in Spur than that, but thanks to [Exalted Storm Aura], most of the problems these days came from inefficient harvest methods, storage, distribution, the rest of the logistical train, and [Grow] fatigue. [Grow] fatigue was the only complaint that made it up the chain from farmer to farmer, to Council, to Erick, though.

When Erick showed genuine concern over [Grow] fatigue, everyone just laughed it off.

‘[Grow] fatigue is your biggest problem? Nice, buddy. I’ve got cats eating all my chickens’.

The newcomers to Spur’s farms would have said, instead, ‘Nice, buddy. I’ve got monster worms eating all my farmhands.’

The whole thing was reminiscent of the ‘first world problems’ meme that went through the kids at school a few years ago, back on Earth. But, still, Erick didn’t want to add an inefficient plant to Spur’s farms; he wanted potatoes to be popular enough so Jane could order fries in a restaurant, and he wanted them to be hardy, with as little fatigue as possible.

So, he improvised with one of the hardiest type of plants the Farmer’s Council knew: vines.

Luckily, his [Exalted Storm Aura] beans were perfect for this plan.

Erick stood at the edge of a freshly tilled garden plot on the back side of his house. The successes went in the front yard; the failures and the experiments started in this field. He had tilled this secondary field under several times by now, cleaning up past mistakes. The land was ready for Erick’s potato experiment.

He held a white and silver bean in one hand, and concentrated...

Starchy, solid till you cook them. Bland, but takes well to flavor. White flesh, thin edible skin—

[Grow]!

Erick shoved the bean into the ground. A few moments passed.

Green tendrils slipped up out of the ground, moving along the soil, leaves uncurling in the afternoon light. Growth slowed. Erick Handy Aura’d a sprinkler of platinum water into his hands, then turned that off and slowly showered water onto the green plant as he activated [Growth Aura]. The vine grew, flowing across the new garden in three separate paths, leaves blooming wide, buds forming here and there in the sunlight.

Big white flowers bloomed then curled up, and something other than a bean pod grew.

Pale green, bulbous, getting big and then bigger.

The green bulb settled, then stopped growing after it was the size of two fists, but the rest of the vine kept growing across loose soil, plunging roots into the ground. Erick sprinkled platinum water from his sprinkler over the whole length; The plant soaked it up. More green not-potatoes bloomed here and there. Soon, he had a full crop. He turned off [Growth Aura] and set the sprinkler bucket down to the side of the garden.

Erick plucked a not-potato with his Handy Aura and lifted the fruit to his face. It was the right size and shape, if a bit big, but it was green. Pretty good for his first attempt. Lemons had taken several iterations away from Spice-Lady Ratchet’s not-limes to get right.

Erick pried into the not-potato with his Handy Aura. He pushed into it—

It crunched open like snapping a carrot; the inside was solid.

No seeds, no beans.

Good, good. Green flesh though? Thin skin… It even had the tiny potato eyes here and there. It looked good, except it was green. But how did it taste? Ah. Getting too far ahead.

[Cleanse].

No thick air. Good. Good. No toxins.

Erick tossed the demolished not-potato into a large compost pile at the back of the house, under a [Scent Ward] Al had helped Erick add to his repertoire.