Chapter Text
For every tree, stream, and mountain, there is a nymph bound to it.
No structure of nature can live without its nymph, as no nymph can live without her life force. Consequently, that also meant that everyone and their mothers knew that the way to control a nymph was to control her life force. Whether it be by force or trickery, there were many reasons why one would want to hold a nymph hostage.
The most common reason would be to indenture them into servitude. This was the warning that was passed down through generations and driven into the heads of every nymph since she was a wee seedling. If you were careless and failed to be diligent in watching over your life source, or got distracted and wandered a little too far off, you would be captured and forced into the service of a god or exceptionally powerful mortal.
It was ridiculously easy for gods, with nymph servants being commonplace in nearly every immortal household. But for mortals, it was considered one of the ultimate shows of power to have a nature spirit under your command. If that exceptionally powerful mortal king was simply vain, he would want a nymph servant just to show off to his court as a symbol of power. However, if that exceptionally powerful mortal king was connivingly ambitious, he would want a nymph for her power, especially if she herself was the exceptionally powerful guardian of a great domain.
And Maomao, did not like the sound of either option one bit.
Most would consider Maomao quite an odd little nymph. Unlike the majority of nature spirits who tended to live in groups for safety as well as company and sisterhood, she was unusually solitary for a nymph. Like all dryads, she had the ability to control plant growth, but unlike other dryads, her powers tended to naturally gravitate towards more… unconventional directions.
While most dryads had their trees, or shrubs, or fields, Maomao seemed to have a natural affinity for poisonous plants, and not just one specific species either. Ever since she was a little seedling, hemlock, jimsonweed, and stinging nettle would sprout at her feet. The other nymphs in the Verdigris Grove had learned quickly to keep their distance if they didn’t want a swollen hand or stinging rash. Her thing with poisonous plants already made them skittish, but when they realized just how powerful her abilities were, they became terrified.
It was honestly only a matter of time before the matriarch of their grove (otherwise known as Granny) kicked her out despite the protest of her older “sisters”, but whatever the case, she preferred living with the old medicine god anyway.
Banished from the heavens by the Emperor of the gods after rumors about his involvement with the “death” of his first wife and and firstborn son, Luomen, the god of medicines and healing, was forced to reside in the mortal realm, although Maomao suspected he preferred it here anyway.
Not long after his fall from grace, he came across the Verdigris Grove where a huge commotion had broken out between the nymphs there. Specifically over one particular, peculiar, young nymph girl who had accidentally poisoned the local stream yet again while learning to control her strange abilities. Many of the nymphs who had grown seriously ill from the poisoned water declared that this was the last straw and demanded the “monstrous” little girl out of their grove, while the three most powerful of the nymphs, known as “the three princesses” were fighting tooth and nail on the girl’s behalf, all the while the grove’s elder madame seemed to be at her wits end.
This was when Luomen arrived and cleared the stream of the poison. He healed the sick nymphs and offered to look after the girl himself, teaching her how to control her powers and helping to make sure they wouldn’t do any further harm to the best of his abilities.
There was a collective sigh of relief across the grove. The three princesses were sad to see their little “seedling sister” go, but ultimately agreed that it was for the best that Maomao live with someone who could help her control something that they themselves didn’t understand. The elder madam meanwhile, couldn’t be happier with the stream cleanse, healings, and being rid of one less little destructive asset, all for the price of none! She was always one for running her grove as efficiently and beneficially as possible.
If that sounded cold or harsh, Maomao couldn’t care less. She was also grateful that it happened. She liked her life here. Luomen was a good mentor who not only taught her how to better control her powers, but how to hone her talent as well. He was one of the rare few to not look at her with fear or disgust, and instead opened her eyes to how poisons and medicines were simply two sides of the same coin. Here, she was free to explore and experiment with her poisonous plants without the fear and judgment of others. They were secluded enough that she was unlikely to harm anyone else, or catch the attention of anyone else.
Specifically one god in particular.
But just thinking about that one god was always enough to put her in a foul mood, so instead, Maomao focused her attention on the field of white snakeroot she was currently cultivating. She had been working on this particular batch for weeks now and was sure that this time, it was nearly perfect. As the tiny white buds started to bloom, Maomao smiled. She harvested an armful of the largest ones and made her way back to an old hut that no one in a millenia would’ve guessed belonged to a god. Yes, even though he was banished, there was technically nothing stopping Luomen from living in his own grand mansion or palace anywhere in the mortal realm. He was still a god after all. But after the whole fiasco that led him to be banished in the first place, a humble hut in the middle of the woods was more than enough for him.
And as for Maomao, it was more than enough for her too. It was isolated. It was inconspicuous. It was normal. It was perfect.
“The white snakeroot is ready,” Maomao announced as she stepped inside, “and I made sure to balance out the chemical composition this time!”
White snakeroot was a highly poisonous perennial herb, but it was also useful for treating snakebites, reducing fevers, and reviving unconscious patients. This plant had become Maomao’s latest project, experimenting with its toxic properties and slightly modifying them with her powers to see if she could maximize its potency and potential usefulness.
Luomen smiled as she handed him the deadly bundle.
“Thank you, Maomao. You’ve been working hard on your experiments. Are you sure you aren’t overdoing it?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve been careful. These ones were grown away from the forest, to the west of Mount Crescent.” This time, she made sure the neighbors had nothing to complain about!
Though I still don’t see how it’s my fault if some haughty tree nymphs can’t handle a bit of odor when the satyrs they flirt with are the ones who aren’t looking where they’re trampling and causing the smell in the first place!
Luomen took a white snakeroot stalk and examined it closely. “Your abilities have grown tremendously,” he murmured appreciatively. “Make sure they don’t attract the wrong attention.” he looked at her pointedly, and Maomao knew why.
Nymph abductions had been on the rise lately, and it was no secret that the ones with strange or unusual abilities made favorable targets. But abduction into servitude wasn’t what she was afraid of. Maomao had a slightly different reason for hiding the extent of her abilities, especially from one infamous monocled war god in particular. In her case, it was best to not give him, or anyone else for that matter, any reason to believe she was anything more than a simple nymph.
Yes, that’s what she was; just an ordinary nymph whose nature magic was just a little… off-kilter, that’s all. Maomao frowned slightly at the white snakeroot, taking a stalk and turning it between her fingers.
“I’m going to go check on the rest of them,” she declared as she left the hut, with Luomen giving a nod and tossing another “be careful” after her.
She arrived back at the base of Mount Crescent on the west side. The white snakeroot was thriving beautifully. Maomao knelt down and started picking out the stray weeds in between them, humming contently until she picked up faint rustle in the bushes behind her.
Whirling around, she braced herself, stance ready to command her snakeroot fields to strangle the unpleasant visitor that was sure to poke his unpleasant fox-like face into hers.
He’d left her alone for an unusually long while now, which while she wouldn’t complain about, put her on edge.
She waited.
A dreadful one… two… three… four… seconds past by until-
“Maomaooo! Surprise!”
The familiar face of a bubbly little stream naiad popped up from her hiding place. Maomao gave a great sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders, smiling back. “Hello Xiaolan, you scared me.”
“Xiaolan scared you?”
Another face, belonging to a certain bug-obsessed mountain oread, popped up beside her. “Xiaolan couldn’t scare a beetle if she tried! But speaking of beetles, I have some fantastic news to share!”
Shisui’s face lit up in that glow that both her friends knew all too well when she was about to gush about one of the many, many, many, insect colonies and invertebrates that lived in her cave systems.
“My blind cave beetle population has reached record numbers this year!” Shisui exclaimed. “I was down there all week, you know, taking a census of my inhabitants, and we’ve grown steadily by at least 15% in the last decade!” She beamed proudly as if she were the mother herself.
Maomao raised an eyebrow, “only a week?”
Suddenly, Shuisui snapped her fingers as if just remembering something important, which considering that it was able to snap her out of her beetle-gushing glee, it probably was.
“Oh! That reminds me why we came here in the first place! The reason I was able to take a census of my blind cave beetles so quickly was because of a certain number nerd who stopped by. For some reason, he offered to help for free.”
At that, Maomao narrowed her eyes. “What did he want?”
“That’s what I wanted to know!” the mountain nymph exclaimed, “and I asked him such, but all he responded was ‘My, are acts of charity such a crime now? What else does a bored immortal have to do nowadays?’ I wanted to reply that there were probably a dozen other better things a god like him should be doing, but now I was curious. What did he want? So, I allowed him to help me on the condition that he only help me count my beetles and not try any funny business. He tried to act all offended and claimed he wouldn’t dream of such a thing, especially towards a friend of his honored younger sister.”
Maomao couldn’t help but shudder in disgust. That weasel wasn’t even born immortal! It was only sheer luck that the freak had happened to take notice of his alleged extraordinary intelligence and talent with numbers and had decided that apparently such “giftedness” couldn’t be wasted in a finite mere mortal. Ever since then, the bastard has been following the freak around like a tail, acting as his minion and right hand as well as an extra thorn in Maomao’s side (and not the fun poisonous kind either).
Really, she had no idea where he found the guts to act so pompous, going around claiming that they were related when he was basically adopted. Apparently, he never learned his lesson after centuries of toe-crushing. Maybe it was time to take some more drastic measures to shut him up. She eyed her snakeroot thoughtfully.
I could use another test subject, and he is immortal so it’s not like it’ll actually harm him.
“But did he actually do anything though?” Xiaolan probed, invested in the tea as always.
“No, actually,” Shisui replied. “He surprisingly was quite helpful, but…” she turned her eyes to Maomao. “He did ask some questions specifically about you.”
“What kind of questions?”
Shisui shrugged. “Not anything too direct, just around the realm of ‘So my sister, what’s she been up to lately? You know anything about her latest projects? She just turned 700, hasn’t she? Almost a millenia, time sure does fly. Don’t you think it’s about time she should be thinking about the direction of her life?’ In case you were wondering, I told him that I haven’t seen you in weeks, so no, I didn’t know what you were up to or what you were working on, and it was none of my business what ‘direction’ you thought about your life, whatever that means. But whatever the case, I just have a feeling that he and the freak are scheming up a move, so I just wanted to give you a heads up.”
Xiaolan nodded. “Yeah, a few days earlier, he actually came up to my stream and asked some similar questions, so I think something is definitely brewing here.”
Maomao gritted her teeth. The grass withered in a small circle around her feet. For 700 years that monocled freak has been on her tail, and for 700 years she had evaded him. She didn’t care about whatever he had to offer or taking up her “rightful place”. She didn’t care about the circumstances of her birth or what that might imply about her identity if she thought about it hard enough.
She honestly didn’t even know what the infamously feared god of strategic warfare could possibly want with someone like her. She was just a random nymph, a dryad, end of story. A slightly unusual dryad if anyone bothered to pay close enough attention, but a dryad nonetheless. Just a dryad.
“Thanks for the tip guys, I’ll be on the look out.”
“No problem!” Xiaolan chirped. “Hey Shisui, we’ve been gone for quite a while now. We really should be getting back home.”
“Yeah, would be a shame if I returned to find some random god or crazy mortal somehow managed to place an enchanted capstone on my summit and enslave me for years.” Shisui joked, rolling her eyes.
Xiaolan puffed her cheeks. “Shisui, I’m serious! It’s getting late!”
The mischievous oread sighed. “Fine, fine. Bye Maomao! Catch you later!”
And with that, the two nymphs vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving Maomao shaking her head affectionately at their antics.
It was getting late actually. The sun was disappearing over the horizon as a thin silver crescent started to rise in the distance.
Hmm, I should probably be heading back too, Maomao thought to herself. She really did have a bad habit of losing track of time.
But just as she was about to turn around and head back to Luomen’s hut, something grabbed her from behind and her world faded to darkness.