nsfwords | Story: Against All Oddities (Reply)

This was inspired by a prompt from

ysabetwordsmith during the March 2023 Crowdfunding Creative Jam of "Against All Oddities," and the "Crocuses" square of my 2023 March Is... Bingo Card. At 318 words it is set in The Earthen series.

Against All Oddities

Dezydery deeply Desired to have a child. But her Desire hadn’t been enough to help life quicken within her petals the last two years she’d tried. She’d chosen Bendek to father her child the first year, because she’d thought it would be grand to have a child that was Blessed like their father. For her second attempt, she’d chosen Gnegon, because perhaps his Watchful eye upon the growing youngling would produce better results. This year she planned to approach Feliks, because it seemed like she’d need to be Lucky to have any younglings of her own.

First, however, she approached Zotia. She’d decided to gather some Wise council before getting started with the pollination. Zotia took Dezydery deep into the warren, to the dark storerooms where the Earthen kept their precious cures and curses. She had Dezydery perch on a stool against the wall, out of the way, but close at hand for questions. Many embarrassing questions! But by the end of her interrogation, Zotia believed she’d diagnosed the problem Dezydery was having conceiving younglings. It didn’t seem to be a problem with the fathers, since both Bendek and Gnegon had fertilized catkins successfully before. Apparently, the problem was with the interior parts of Dezy’s own flowers. Mortifying.

But Zotia had a clever, if expensive, solution. There was a potent Earthen cure that required the stigmas of seven Saffron Crocuses. The storeroom only had four on hand. So Dezydery would need to spend the upcoming Autumn Gather keeping a sharp eye out for the rare and elusive blooms. She’d miss this Spring’s chance to attempt fertilization, but it would be worth it in just one years’ time if she could find the ingredients for her cure.

Zotia also agreed that choosing Feliks as the father was a Wise choice. To beat the odds against Dezydery’s odd condition, it couldn’t hurt to be both very prepared and very Lucky.