Chapter 11 Pansy #4
Ren shrugged. “Only because their previous owner preferred swinging them at any animal who made the mistake of stepping into his garden. Nature forbid anything so much as breathe on that man’s prized tulips, which, for the record, I also took.”
“Was he misusing them too?”
“On a more conceptual level, yes. But I admit I was mostly being petty with that one. In any case,” Ren continued, with a haphazard flick of their wrist, “the point I’m trying to make is that taking something that would otherwise languish in someone else’s hands isn’t necessarily wrong – at least, from a goblin’s perspective. ”
“So, I’m turning into a goblin, then, am I?” Pansy asked with a soft huff of a laugh. “Great. Councilor Millwood will love that.”
“Well, I do. So, who cares what that busybody thinks? Her opinions are shit, anyway.”
Pansy’s heart didn’t so much as skip a beat as fly right off the rails.
It zigged then zagged, soared then plummeted, the pattern it stamped into her breastbone about as coherent as the jumble of words careening across her consciousness.
Ren loved that? About her? Even just repeating the words sent a fresh surge of lightning arcing through her already frenzied pulse.
Calm, Pansy. Calm, she told herself, muscles tightening against her own tittering nerves, the rush of heat across her skin.
Saying that they loved something about her wasn’t the same as saying they loved her; the gap between those two sentences was wide enough to accommodate even a behemoth’s impressive girth. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
Except, she already had. Now all she could do was damage-control.
A few deep breaths later and her pulse had settled into something far more manageable, the buzz beneath her skin no longer a few bolts shy of launching her into the stratosphere. “I didn’t know you could swear,” she mumbled finally.
Ren rolled their eyes. “Of course I can swear. In fact, if you’d like, I can do it right to Councilor Millwood’s face.”
“Oh, gods.” Pansy choked and quickly shook her head. “No. Don’t do that. That would be a terrible idea. Hilarious. But also terrible.”
“Suit yourself,” they said with a shrug. “But the offer remains open if you should change your mind.”
“Thank you, Ren. I – I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about this whole mess, my own shortcomings as a friend included.”
“You know, when a goblin hurts a friend, a gift usually goes a long way to making amends.”
Pansy made a thoughtful sound, her mind turning yet again to the Cold Flower Ren had shown her earlier. “That’s actually a very good idea.”
“Yes, I know,” Ren said, their lips peeling back into self-satisfied smirk. “I’m full of them.”
Pansy scoffed. “No one likes a person with a big head.” The fact that she’d said this with a smile had undoubtedly lessened the impact of her words, as evidenced by the nonchalance with which Ren received them – namely, another shrug.
Still, they were absolutely correct: a gift would help her apologize to Blossom, and in the realm of “Gifts for Blossom” the Cold Flower was pretty much perfect.
But would it be all right for her even to ask Ren for some?
She’d already asked them for so much, to the point where it seemed wrong to impose on them yet again.
Pansy hesitated, her lower lip catching between her teeth, bringing with it the taste of copper and salt.
Her uncertainty painted in blood across her tongue.
“You can ask, you know,” Ren said, their voice cutting through the silence that had settled between them. “I won’t assume the worst. I didn’t say it earlier, but I’ve never considered you to be a burden, Pansy.”
“I really do think that Blossom would be interested in that Cold Flower you just showed me,” Pansy began, her cheeks heating anew.
“Do you think, perhaps, that you could spare some? Or I could pay you for it? I’m not really sure what’s the best way to do this.
” Did goblins even use coin? she wondered.
Maybe. They had their own markets, after all.
“Unfortunately,” Ren said, slowly enunciating the word in a way that made Pansy’s stomach drop, “that was the last of my Cold Flower. But there are several merchants who sell it at the Goblin Market. I can take you to them next time the market opens.”
Relief swept through Pansy’s body, erasing all traces of the sinking feeling from before. “When does it open?” she asked.
“No idea,” they replied, easy as could be. “It’s not exactly on a precise schedule. But I’ll keep an eye out for the signs.”
Well, that was… Not exactly disappointing, but inconvenient, perhaps?
The feeling must have shown on Pansy’s face because Ren continued after a beat, “For what it’s worth, I don’t think we’ll be waiting long. It’s about time for it to come around again. On that note, I think I have a solution to your other problem, too.”
Pansy blinked. “What other problem.”
“The pumpkin,” they replied, rolling their eyes. “Or did you already give up on winning that competition of yours?”
“Of course not!”
“Good,” Ren said, giving a nod of approval. “So, a pumpkin will continue to grow as long as you leave it on the vine. But that takes time, and it sounds like we’re a bit short on that.”
Pansy frowned. “I thought you said you had a solution. It sounds to me like you’re just telling me winning is impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible with a little bit of goblin…” They paused, a wicked grin slicing across their face. “… ingenuity.”
“Magic?” Pansy asked, eyes widening. Should she be worried about this?
Her stomach tightened, the prospect of getting involved with goblin magic plunging her back into that dark well of distrust that decades’ worth of oft-parroted stereotype had excavated around her heart.
But so much of what she’d been told about goblins had already been proved wrong, so why not this too?
Ren shook their head. “No. Just a growth potion. Think of it like a fertilizer. An especially powerful fertilizer.”
Oh. Well, if they put it that way. The tension pulsating across Pansy’s shoulders abruptly unraveled, released along with the breath that had knotted beneath her diaphragm. “That sounds fine,” she agreed. Surely, everyone entering the competition would have used some type of fertilizer.
“Great.” They grinned. “Just leave everything to me.”