Taika's eyes shot open.

Today was the day. The eighteenth of January--they were going back to Canolapra. Which meant a thirteenish hour road trip. Which meant Taika needed to cook the breakfast she prepared the night before.

Meal prep was a thing Taika recently toyed around with, but had mixed feelings on the practice. She enjoyed cooking, yes, but sometimes it was nice to just heat up a pre-prepared meal. Either way, she wanted to sleep a bit longer before their long journey; so she opted to get most of the labor out of the way the night prior, to save herself those scant few moments of precious sleep.

It took only her departure from the comfort of bed for the other three to begin their own morning routines.

Rebecca and Shouri knew better than to allow Pacifica first dibs on the bathroom. After they were suitably ready to tackle the day Pacifica got in the shower for her daily play.

The two non-cooking, non-showering members of the party focused on double checking their travel bags, making sure they had everything bundled up and ready to go. The weather was supposed to get bad in the evening--another reason to leave as early as they did.

While they worked, the local news station played the weather report. "And the winds will get going more so going overnight tonight into tomorrow morning, with a wind advisory starting up at eleven tonight for most of our area. A winter weather advisory has been issued for the north eastern part of our viewing area. Heavy snowfall is expected with amounts totaling upwards of…" The rest of the broadcast trailed off as all the inhabitants already knew this having heard a very similar report last night before bed.

"I think that's everything," said Shouri, checking a list on his tuner.

"Besides bathroom stuff," Rebecca pointed out.

"Well obviously," chuckled the Maestro.

Breakfast was served after not too much longer, and Pacifica finished her power shower to also partake in breakfast. While Taika and Pacifica ate, Rebecca gathered their bathroom supplies for the upcoming trip (bitching the entire time about the humid bathroom), while Shouri took care of the dishes.

A nice, peaceful morning to begin their road trip.

It was still dark out as the group loaded the car. Back and forth they darted from the warmth of their comfy cozy room into cold of the Dallivan winter. Finally, the three Resonators piled into the car themselves and got the heat pumping (much to Pacifica's relief). The day prior they had swapped the van out for a standard four-door sedan, so Rebecca called first driving shift.

That just left Shouri to address his vice-guildmaster before they truly hit the road.

"Alright Ems, remember--"

"Don't let the place burn down, keep the knuckleheads in line, I got it I got it, can I go back to sleep? It's like five…" the princess said through a (failed) stifled yawn.

"Yeah, be back in a week."

"Mhm, I wish your desire's end," she said, waving with the seasonal farewell.

Valedictory tasks completed, Shouri hopped into the front passenger's seat and they were off.

"So, I got the wheel until noon?" Rebecca asked for clarification.

"Yeah, figured we'd stop somewhere to eat lunch, then I can take it until we get to Canolapra," he replied.

"Cool."

The car went silent as Pacifica busied herself with her mobile game dailies, while Taika read books as usual.

Thankfully, given the early hour, the roads through the city were barren. The only company they found besides the scant few cars sharing the roadways were the still illuminated street lights that streaked by as they passed.

But for now, everything was calm and quiet.

"Tunecast," Shouri and Rebecca said in unison. With a nod of confirmation, Shouri began browsing for a suitable topic to backdrop their drive.

"How about this one hosted by a zalavan?" Shouri asked, shooting a glance to his driving partner.

"Oh? That sounds good to me, throw it on."

"Heyo Resonate-os and Maestr-os! It's YO girl Man-GO! If this is your first episode well, I'm a zalavan fruit-bearer, and I'm your guide to the plant kingdom!"

"Today we have some interesting stuff, but I've gotten a bunch of requests to talk about me, and I tell you I looked and looked and looked and there wasn't a thing! Not a berry, not a blade, not a single crumb of a seed! And I tell ya--that's a cryin' shame!"

"So let's do a creature feature on little ol' me! Let's talk zalavan!"

"Zalavan are nature element Mirage class Resonators hailing from… well that's a secret my little seedlings!"

"Hmm, this is a bit off the cuff, what else can I say? Hm hm hm hmmm. Oh! A zalavan's greatest ally is Sage Lanvi's blessings--the life granted by the union of her beautiful land and the life of Sage Luca; that is plants!"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Zalavan can use plants like other Resonators can use Rubato crystals, except rather than casting any spell from their arsenal a zalavan can cast spells of the school that plant carries."

"Now I probably can hear some of y'all out there whining, 'but Mango what does that even mean?!' Sit tight and let me learn ya about some fruits and veggies!"

"Peppers are spicy, right? Not surprising that they contain heat magic. Rice grows in rice paddies which have a lot of water, well rice seeds are full of liquid magic. How about mint then? A cool touch for your tongue, a cool touch for your enemies--ice magic baby!"

"Rather than breaking up our magic by elements, we break them up by the sixteen schools of magic. Hm? Whassat? What is a school? Oh goodness, let's break it down!"

"Magic has elements, right? You got the seven elements, healing, and shielding magic. That magic is further broken up into schools. Water is made up of liquid and ice, right? Solar is light and wind, and so on!"

"The only limiting factor for a zalavan is the physical supply of seeds and her knowledge of what is available to her. In that way, she is the Maestro to plants everywhere. The problem is you can run her out of seeds."

"What else can I say about little old us? Hmmm. Well, every zalavan can grow a native plant. If you've seen pics of me online, you probably think I have green hair--my hair is different from the rest of you. Zalavan have grass like hair--it helps with photosynthesis! In our grass we grow one plant--a fruit, flower, or both. Girls grow fruits and boys grow flowers!"

"I'm Mango and I grow mangoes! Mango magic is pretty sweet, as a drupe it casts a wide net on the magic spectrum, almost like null element Resonators. Depending on the cultivar our native plants are susceptible to different elements. I'm an Ice Cream Mango girl, so brr I'll hit'cha with that chilly ice magic--watch out!"

"While growing a plant in our grass, we gain spells of that school, so if you look at my tuner it'd show not only my nature spells, but also ice spells too, ain't that the coolest? (Pun totally intended by the way.)"

"We can also use up the fruits or flowers we grow on our heads as emergency magic, but in exchange if we have non-nature spells in our spell lists when we've used up all our plants, it goes poof! Sucks, right?"

"The best strategy if you have a zalavan on your team is don't let them burn up their growing plants unnecessarily. Also make sure they have plenty of seeds on hand. Zalavan are the trickiest Resonators on all of Riterra to use and are highly prized for a reason. Take care of her and she'll take care of you!"

Shouri cut off the audio before they could be advertised at. "Seeds to use magic huh? I wonder what the conversion rate is on that."

"I heard it is stupidly good," Rebecca replied. "Something absurd like one to two seeds per rank of spell. An average rubato crystal can cast anything up to ultimate spells, but thinking about the fact that she said they just have to have different seeds to cast whatever element they need, I figure a well-stocked zalavan can be a one Resonator army," Rebecca explained.

Shouri nodded slowly. "No wonder they're so rare."

"The downside to them," Rebecca continued. "Is while they're magically one of the strongest species on the whole planet, physically they're one of the weakest, only beaten out by like fairies."

"Oh?" Shouri shot a glance at the driving fox.

"Zalavan can't put on muscle to save their life. Or so I've heard. They're pretty uhh what's the word he used-?" Rebecca racked her brain for the answer. "Uhh, demure! That's it! They're really small, like a head smaller than even Taika as adults," the vixen pointed out.

"Che?" Taika looked up from her book, hearing her name mentioned.

"Oh wow, that's small," Shouri whistled. "So they pay for their insane potential by not being good physical fighters?"

"Pretty much. I've heard they have pretty bad physical endurance too, but it could be just a bad sample size, who knows really?" Rebecca said, suppressing the shrug she wanted to add in.

"Knowing our luck while we're out Emily's gonna call us and tell us a zalavan wants us to find them a home," Shouri shook his head.

"Careful, Sho, that kind of language excites the wish sage," Rebecca chuckled.

"Sahji can go fuck himself, he's probably already figuring out how to make exactly that happen regardless if I said anything or not," scoffed the Maestro.

"Tis the season," Pacifica giggled from the back.

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