Tamlin's account of what had happened to him prior to the Rift was uninteresting and didn't provide Otem's mind with any new information about whether or not it was possible to get back home. Still, she supposed that it's asn't entirely Tamlin's fault. So with a gentle rise and fall of her slender shoulders, she let him off the hook. "There was black smoke that gradually started to choke everything out ... if you didn't move, it either killed you...or I suppose in your case, forced you along with it. And then everyone was shoved into the Rift." In Otem's mind she saw her mother bursting apart into a cloud of pure white light. The memory made her heart sag in her small chest, and she tried to stifle the whimper that wanted to leave her lips.
Luckily it turned into a gag which wasn't something she needed to hide. "What-" Otem spluttered, her eyes darting from the shrivelling plants to the dead animals scattered all around. "Why-" She tried again, but it seemed as though the smell of the dead had found their way to her eyes, which were now watering. Otem half reared, wings splayed as if she could somehow get fresh air if only she was a little taller. "Tamlin!" She scolded, ears back as she landed with a soft thud. Focusing on one of the closest corpses, Otem began to grow a thick layer of grass to cover it. She then moved on to a second and a third, gradually trying to blanket the rotting things with layers of grass which would take their nutrients from what was left on the corpses.
Now that Otem had a minute or two to think, it made sense that with Tamlin's garden there would have to be his necessary sacrifice. But couldn't he have killed them elsewhere? Or at least buried them?
"How can you even stand that smell?" She whined, holding her wings to her nose to try and filter the air.
"Hey that one-" Otem mumbled, catching sight of something which almost looked like a weed, but definitely wasn't. She remembered it from a visit to the Edge. It could heal once it decided to bloom - which it only did during the full moon. "-I remember that one." She said, offering Tamlin a rare genuine smile.
Solanis
