lichen sniffed the air, on edge- and for good reason.
"stay back" he commanded. heather nodded, as she could smell him too, and pricked the tufts of her tail towards the sky. lichen gave a deep growl; he would usually ignore the rogue males and maybe give them some food, but with heather around he felt like he had to protect her and was certainly not letting her near a creature like the one that stood before them.
heather, however, felt something different. she knew that he *had* to be sick, because her entire time on this island she had been taunted by sneezing and when she met lichen she thought he was sick. so obviously the rogue was going for the healing fruit just to stay alive, but she had stolen it from him to heal some of her own wounds. she felt so horrible for walking in and taking this rogue's home, and convinced lichen to leave him be. maybe we could come back here soon, she thought. it was the nice thing to do.
they lived on the other side of the tree for a few days, gathering berries whilst lichen taught his heir all the lessons he had learnt, but heather was never fully listening. something disturbed her. and after a while she had had enough- she snuck off in the middle of the night to find the rogue male again.
when lichen woke up and saw that heather had left, he feared the worst. he ran into the grass and found her completely hopeless, searching everywhere.
"what are you doing?" he asked. he wasn't angry; just curious.
heather sighed. "you know what im doing." she lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. "im looking for him."
lichen nodded. "I see." . he didn't know what to do or say, he just hoped that someone- anyone- would help him whilst they both slept. and when they both went to sleep, he felt something in his dreams.. it was adam. he knew he was there, and he was overjoyed to feel him there. there was silence for a few moments before the mythic creature adam spoke.
"you know she's in love with him, yes?" he didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one. "I know too.. and obviously.. we must let her find him. you dont need to protect her, even though I am thankful. she is my family. she knows what to do. and yes, I am sure. by the morning, go and help her find him. this is her story; help her be the star."
that was all he needed to know.
after like 30 days of searching (that I had to console away because lichen was gonna die o.o), she found him.