Flower harvest

Once again, the pride bun found himself ascending the gilded elevator to the enchanted cloud of the Heavenly Embassy, this time accompanied by Dove. As per usual with these trips to this small slice of heaven in the caverns of Burrowgatory, he was equip with his mirror shades to protect his eyes from the harsh artificial sunlight, and a nervous demeanour, very unlike his usual cocky attitude he adopted around the city. 

“So, the flowers are fully bloomed? Now we just pick them, and we're done?”

Dove gave a soft giggle. “Oh no, there's a little bit more to it than that. The bell chimed, and the polished white marble door opened. The two buns stepped out, and began the short walk over to the greenhouse. 

“What do you mean a bit more…” Zepp chuckled sheepishly, a million thoughts running through his mind. If this was more complicated than planting and tending the plants, that means there are more things that could potentially go wrong, that could ruin the batch of flowers and make them unusable. Dove seemed to pick up on his anxiousness, and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don't worry, it's not too difficult. I'll show you.” 

Before entering, they had him help collect just over half a dozen wicker baskets, and bring them inside. “Why do we need so many?”

“We need to separate the leaves, blossoms and stems of the plants from each other, and since there's two different types of plants being grown, they need to be sorted individually.”

Once inside, they placed the baskets on one of the workbenches next to the planters. The once tiny seeds were now large, beautiful flowers with soft, delicate iridescent blossoms, their white and rose gold petals shimmering under the light shining through the glass walls and ceiling. Their large, open leaves were a brilliant bright emerald green, the veins running through them golden in colour, resembling veins of ore streaking through rock. 

Dove collected two blades from the tool storage area. They handed one to Zepp. “We first need to cut the stem, just above the base of the plant. We’ll be able to see if it is able to regrow then, and harvest it again. If not, we'll just dig up the roots and plant a new set of seeds.”

While they were explaining, he watched as they took down one of the baskets from the workbench, placing it on the ground beside them. They carefully cut one of the flower stems with the knife, and placed it down into the wicker basket. They began humming softly to themself as they worked. After he watched them do a couple more plants, and he understood the method he needed to take, he picked up one of the other baskets, and kneeled down by the other planter. First setting up some music to play in his earbuds before he got to work. He caught onto one of the plants, and carefully sliced the base of a flower stem, lifting up the cut blossom. It was practically weightless, light bouncing off the soft, delicate petals, reflecting around the chamber. He gently placed the plant down into the basket, and moved onto cutting the next one. 

Dove finished harvesting the planter they were working through before Zepp had even cut half of the plants on his own. They lifted the basket, now almost overflowing with glittering rose gold blossoms and shining green leaves, onto the workbench, and knelt down next to him to help him. They seemed to get through about two or three plants in the time it took him to do one, he couldn't really understand how they seemed to do it so quickly, yet so gently. Soon, finally, both planters were finished, these silver and white blossoms all occupying the basket, with just the very end of the stem sticking up out of the bronze soil. 

“Leave that one here for the moment. We're going to separate the other basket first.”

They led him over to the workbench, and poured out the pink flowers onto the bench between them. “We need to separate the flowers into all their separate parts. It makes it easier to make the different types of ambrosia. Put the stems, leaves, petals and the rest of the head into separate baskets.”

He did as they said, first cutting the rose gold flower away from the rest of the plant. Zepp worked on separating the glimmering green leaves away from the stems, placing them into their respective baskets. Dove picked up the blossom, and began carefully removing the petals, starting at the base, and circled around until all of the delicate shimmering fibre was placed into the third wicker box. When only the head of the plant was left, they placed it down, picking up another plant. Meanwhile, Zepp noticed a drop of a thick golden liquid of some kind hanging over the severed end of the stem, before it eventually dripped down onto the work table. The cherubun seemed to notice him examining it for some time. “Oh, if you're able to, try not to lose too much of the sap. A couple of drops is okay, but we need to save as much as we can.”

The pride bun got flustered, turning away slightly from them. “Shit, shit, sorry, I'll be more careful.” He placed the now bare stem into its container. “Will make sure not to have that happen again.”

They placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it's fine, no big issue.” They wiped up the droplet with the other. “You're doing well, you can keep going as you are.”

A bit relieved, the two went back to their work. He watched their method for separating the petals before he attempted it himself, but soon they had completed this collection of flowers. They moved the baskets off of the workbench, and began to do the same to the silver blossoms. 

“Whats the reasoning for separating them like this?” He asked, as he carefully lifted some out onto the countertop. 

“The different parts of the plant are used for different things. The sap inside the stems is removed, the leaves grounded, and they are crafted into different types of medicine. The petals are used to flavour drinks, a bit similar to the way you make tea, I guess. The nectar inside the heads gets drained, and that is then brewed into ambrosia.”

“Ah, okay.”

Soon enough, they completed this batch also. Dove picked up two baskets, and asked Zepp to do the same, and they brought them out to a different building, one that they told him was the primary area they processed the plants. He returned for the remaining few baskets, while the cherubun went to search for Primrose, to alert him that they had finished. Once he had them all brought over, he waited outside the building for the two buns to return, task successfully completed.