Efflorescence

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. That was until Felix Wingstrom came to New Havensfield, setting up a flower shop at the corner of Mulberry Street and Newmen Lane.

The flower shop was a repurposed general store whose owners sold it to Felix when they had decided it was time to retire. On the outside of the two story shop, the humble building had white trimmings and peeling mint green paint that exposed the brick underneath. In a giant display window were always beautiful floral arrangements for the latest season or holiday. A sign on the window read, “Felix’s Flowers.” The first floor of the building could best be described as controlled chaos; tables were practically piled with vases of flowers and vines were allowed to freely cover almost every inch of the walls. There were hanging baskets of ivy geraniums and colorful shelves lined with stuffed toys and scented candles.

The second floor of the building became Felix’s cramped living space, only having basic amenities. There was a small, well lit kitchen that vaguely smelled of fish, he was after all a pescatarian like most other amphibious dragons. He had a small dining room table but didn’t own any chairs as most dragons, including himself, are too big and long to sit in them correctly.

The bedroom was an absolute mess, books, papers, and other unidentifiable trash were scattered everywhere. Only his bed and desk were clean.

Despite the fact that he was the only dragon living in New Havensfield, the people of the town accepted him quickly. It wasn’t too rare for a dragon to live amongst people in this day and age. Once dragons learned the concept of a salary, many left their days of wanton destruction– finding it easier to earn money than steal it from the corpses of innocent villagers. Felix himself was indeed much more interested in his craft than growing a hoard of gold in a distant lair. There were several dragons that found themselves using their various talents to work in factories or start up their own businesses as well.

While Felix’s flower shop was the only one in town, having a monopoly in the floral industry of a small town did not make one rich by any stretch of the imagination. Living in a valley with little floral diversity also meant that he had to order most of his flowers from the neighboring towns and cities, though he did grow flowers in the greenhouse behind his shop with varying degrees of success.

Nevertheless, he was proud of his little flower shop. But after five years, Felix was becoming restless from the predictableness of town life. “Well that’s not very accurate,” he thought, “I can’t be finding this place boring so soon. Maybe I’m worried that my work is stagnating, yeah that’s it. I’m probably feeling uninspired because I’m finding myself unable to create my magnum opus. But why should I worry so much about that? Some florists have to work their entire lives before they’re able to create their version of the ultimate arrangement. It could take me longer! I just have to stop worrying and-” His thoughts were interrupted when a knight, clad in shiny armor, marched up to the counter. Felix nodded towards his employee to finish sweeping as he went behind the counter to assist the knight.

“I HAVE COME HERE TO ACQUIRE ONE OF YOUR FINEST BOUQUETS TO GIVE TO A MOST DESERVING MAIDEN!!”

The boisterous knight looked up at Felix. Despite being very slim and short, for dragon standards, Felix still towered imposingly over most people at a whopping 7 feet tall. He looked the knight up and down, it was obvious from the tone of the man’s voice and his giant grin that despite the glass-shatteringly loud volume in which he spoke, he was trying to be polite.

“Well sir knight… you’re going to have to be more specific on what kind of bouquet you want. Off the top of my head I can think of a round bouquet, cascading, crescent, tussy mussy–bit of a funny name that is–or–”

“JUST,” the knight sheepishly pointed to the shelf on his left, “give me a bouquet from the shelf over there, please.”

Felix gave him a smile and handed him a bouquet sleeve filled with pink roses. “That’ll be five geodes sir knight.”

The knight stood up straight and reached for satchel, “THANK YOU DRAGON, YOUR KINDNESS WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. IF YOU SHALL EVER NEED MY HELP THEN PLEASE SEND A CARRIER PIGEON TO THE NEAREST ROYAL OUTPOST! ASK FOR SIR TRISTAN THE STRONG! THAT IS MY NAME IN CASE YOU WERE CONFUSED!”

The knight happily marched out of the shop and onto the street while Felix sighed with relief. “Are all royal knights that strange?”

The rest of Felix’s day was fairly normal. His employee, Jess, finished cleaning and they closed up shop. From his bedroom window, Felix watched the sun set before going over to his desk. The desk was clear, save for kerosene light and an old leather bound field book from an old adventurer. Inside were notes on flowers from all over the land– from the driest deserts of the West to the most frigid tundras of the East. He opened up the book to where he had left off the night before. The particular flower on this page interested him the most… the speckled frost lily. It was an extremely rare specimen, so rare in fact that this was the only other book Felix was able to get his claws on that even mentioned this flower.

“The speckled frost lily is said to grow in the Frostbite Caves to the East, guarded by the ancient wyrms. The bioluminescence emanating from the frost lily’s spots give the flower a phantasmal appearance, it is the perfect center-piece of an arrangement for any brave adventurer willing to find it.”

“See that’s the thing, the book makes it sound soooo simple to get but there’s a reason no one else is going out after this plant. It’s too dangerous to go out and get alone!” He looked angrily at the floor until he noticed one of his sketches. It was of an idea for a floral design. While the design itself was most certainly different compared to his previous works, the most fascinating part of the design was the speckled frost lilies at the center.

Felix grabbed a quill and a blank piece of paper from a drawer and began to write out a letter. He smiled, “If I’m going to get this flower for my magnum opus then I’m going to need some assistance.”