*Author's Note: Thanks for all the positive feedback on the latest installment. For those of you just joining the Botany series, try reading For the Love of Botany, and For the Love of Botany: Revolutions prior to Futures. They are essentially the prequels and may help fill in some of the stranger details existing in this fantastic world.
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The next morning Ariana awoke to the peaceful tranquility of the rushing waterfall. She felt fully refreshed from what had been a long and arduous journey. In a few places, there was still signs of the leonine's assault, but most wounds were healing quickly and would not impair her movement. She took a few moments to think in the water as her roots retracted into her body and she broke free from the ground.
There were so many things to do and so little time to do them. She had officially been blamed by the ruling government for the Givers going to root and becoming unresponsive from the society that depended on them. They had all migrated suddenly to a wide open tract of land in the middle of the capital and within twenty four hours they were lifeless shells of the formerly animated sexual partners that they had been. The rulers of the land had quickly sought out wise women and lore keepers to try and discover the cause of the shift. Nothing could be done and as the population grew more restless the ruling council became more and more concerned that a rebellion would soon commence. So they blamed the most likely candidate for the rebellion's leader and symbol- Ariana. She had never been active politically, being content to live out her life in peace. Her uniqueness was enough of a bother for her and she had no intention of putting herself out in front of others. But, by many, she was considered a symbol of the past and the future and the promise of the next stage of evolution. There was a sacred aspect to how the remaining Seeded viewed her. That is what made her the target. Several respectable witnesses told tales of witchcraft and her wandering amongst the large frozen stalks of Givers in what was now being called Givers' Grove. All of it was lies and sensationalism, but the superstitious and distraught population came to believe that she was the issue and as long as she remained free she could continue to exert her control over the Givers. So they had sought to arrest her.
Ariana had decided to flee because she knew what would come after her arrest provided no movement from the giant Givers. They would try sacrificing her, and then when that produced no results, the civilization would collapse and men would once again seek to subvert women and revenge themselves during their vulnerability. She knew that as long as she was free she could seek to cure the Givers' malady and set things right.
Ariana was still a young woman and was unsure of what to do next. Had her mother been alive she would have provided a wealth of information that had been lost after the Rebirth. Ariana tried racking her mind for some minute piece of the puzzle that would provide her with her next step. It came in the memory of one of her mother's young Acolytes. The Acolytes were women who clung to the royal family religiously and provided immeasurable assistance in times of need. Despite Ariana's mother and grandmother's repeated attempts to dispel any ritual worship of their lineage, they could produce no change. The Acolytes would do daily tasks, serve as bodyguards, act as political allies, and functioned as a close knit family. Most of the Acolytes had died off in the Rebellion, as Ariana's mother and family had been a target for the men and their allies in the city. But one, who had lost her mother to the rebels, had survived and continued to serve in the traditional way after the Rebirth.
The woman had been but a girl of six years following the Rebirth and would now be twenty-seven. Ariana remembered her name to be Jessica. Ariana knew that based on her age, Jessica would be completing her Breeding cycle soon. There was the possibility that word of her pursuit had not yet reached the Breeding facilities. News and messages had to travel over a long distance by foot to reach the isolated and heavily fortified Breeding facility. As far as Ariana could tell, any messenger would only be a day or so ahead of her, and if she hurried she would likely be able to beat them to the caverns which housed the Seeded undergoing their Breeding.
It had only taken Ariana a minute to process this information and she burst from the water quickly, her strong slender form arcing through the jungle undergrowth in a manner immune to the snaking tendrils of brush and the hardened lassos of root. For the next twenty-four hours she would run until she finally caught sight of the Divide, a long narrow cavern which was the only pathway into the Breeding caverns. There beside the road and hidden within the brush she would rest for several hours, hoping to rebuild her energy reserves in case she was wrong.
Her rest would be interrupted by the eerie sense that something was coming. She woke quickly and moved to the roadside. Not far from where she crouched she saw the nude sprinting form of a woman crest the hill. Her body was thin and long, perfectly built for the long distant sprints which were required of an official messenger. In her hand she bore a red plume of feather, a symbol of the people she represented and those who sought to condemn the first of the Reborn. Ariana appreciated the beauty of the tanned legs of the woman as they swept lightly over the soft soil covered pathway. The muscles in her body tensed and released in a practiced timing that evidenced the lifelong commitment one made to the messenger career.
Ariana was only given a moment to evaluate and act. There was a chance that this was the messenger she sought to beat and that chance was enough to risk everything. In an equally practiced movement, Ariana leapt through the air, one elbow hammering the messenger in the back of the head and the other arm looping beneath her chin and yanking her into the underbrush. The attack was quick and decisive and nearly perfect in its execution. The messenger was unconscious by the time she hit the ground and the only alteration to the planned course of flight had come from the forward momentum the runner had going for her. The result had been that both women had crashed into a heavy wooded thicket which tore at their skin. Ariana was the more durable of the two, and the marks were barely perceptible. The messenger was bleeding from many little marks and would obvious have significant discomfort when she awoke.