Airich spent a lot of time looking at flowers. In fact, that was his specialty: he was a horticulturist, an herbologist when they were magical plants, a gardner when they required attention. Airich had come from a beautiful world which was now somewhat in disrepair, and would probably not return to it any time soon. (but maybe he'll find his way?)

Because he was a unicorn, he was often asked to help out with healings or in the infirmary but that wasn't his calling at all. It was true that he could purify water with but a wave of his split-hooved hand, or cure poisoned blood or wounds with the touch of his horn, and even fix blindness with the tears from his big blue eyes. However, he'd never learned most other creatures anatomy, he didn't like the sight of blood, and he fainted at the presence of a needle!

Since the arrival of the many dragons, hydra and other such creatures to the ship Caledrus, Airich had noticed that they'd attached several dragon-sized hyperspacial additions so that the dragons didn't have to share too much space together. With a bit of a wistful sigh, he coaxed a weed from the garden's plot, and watched as three of the dragons raced overhead in the big flight area.

"What's the matter, Airich?" Asked a voice, startling the unicorn-kin. He turned to see Woodstock with a pair of smaller creatures near her.

"Nothing, I just... well, it would be nice to have a bigger space to plant, somewhere I could keep samples from the worlds we visit, you know. A garden," Airich said softly, "but I don't really have a dragon or anything, so I can't see any reason to give me something like that. I'm just a hitch hiker after all."

Woodstock laughed, startling him again."But so am I, Airich," she put two of her hands on his shoulders."We'll get you set up with something right away. I can flip us to the Magrathea construction zone and we'll be able to choose what sort of space you have."

He blinked, twice, and then shook his ears up. "You... you mean I can have a garden?"

"Of course you can!" Woodstock said. She looked at the pair of creatures beside her, and nodded. "I was actually coming to see whether you'd be interested in hosting an Egyptan, as well. If you've got any need for an assistant, I suppose."

He looked at the smallish canine creatures, with their multiple tails and four wings, cute feathery antennae. They seemed polite, pleasant, a bit quiet - maybe they were speaking to her with their minds, he hadn't heard anything.

"I would enjoy the company," he said.

***

So within the week, not only had Airich gotten the plans together for his new garden area, he took on a coccoon from the pair of Egyptans that were wandering the ship, and placed it carefully in the room where he lived.

By the time that the Magratheans had fixed up his 'planet', the coccoon was rocking wildly and seemed like it would open any minute. Airich had decided he'd move into the hyperspace field with a connection to his dorm, because it was warm, bright and filled with the smells of fresh flowers.

A pair of hills, a bit of a plateau, dipping down into a shady valley with a simple stream in it, a meadow, and a pond were what he had asked for. All in terms of the most basic flora - he informed the construction crew that he had lots of plants he wanted to fill it up with himself. So they left most of it bare, with fresh healthy dirt of different types to plant the various sorts of plants that Airich described.

"He's good, can we keep him?" Asked one of the Magratheans, "he'd make a great planet builder. Consider the offer open," he said to the unicorn who blushed and looked away. It was hardly a profession he'd ever considered before, but ... maybe some day - he was immortal, and so were they, apparently, so he had time to think about it.

And once he got back to the dorm - the coccoon was hatched! A beautiful little Egyptan cub sat proudly in the shreds of its coccoon, it played a bit with the strands of it before noticing that Airich had arrived.

"Hello!" She said, it was clearly a she, "I like how you smell - what's through there?" She looked past him at the door to the hyperspace world.

"Oh - well, thank you, and... This is my new garden, but it doesn't have anything much in it just yet. Would you like to help me plant some things?" He held out a bag which had half a dozen cuttings and handfuls of seeds.

"I would! My name is Rosa, by the way." She fluttered her little wings.

"It is nice to meet you Rosa, come along!" Airich was happy, this would be a very nice companionship indeed!

Egyptan: Rosa
Gender: Female
Tribe: Prismic Flower
Colors: rainbow, with flower like patterns; delicate gradient on nose, belly, paws, back stripes and tail tips
Abilities: plant oriented, particularly with leaves and flowers that give off scents; can keep seedlings, seeds, even cuttings or accidental broken branches alive long enough to replant or fuse them; Verbal Speech, modest empathy with Airich; winged flight
Skills: gardening of all types, recognizes different plants, and can judge their health and needs
Mate: none so far
Offspring: none so far
Parentage and Siblings: unsure (records are ... hazy, at best for other people's customs)
Art By: Infinity

***

Airich and Rosa had been tending their garden zone for a few days, when the Caledrus was sent into Improbability drive. They noticed a strange change of atmosphere, before the ship stopped moving and they came to rest wherever it was the ship needed to be.

"That was quick," Airich commented, continuing to dig at a deep weed. Then he looked up to see Rosa standing with her wings in a protective mantle. But she seemed to be protecting... him?

"What's wrong, Rosa?" Airich said but the Egyptan merely hissed. Then Airich looked over her and saw a patch of bright yellow which hadn't been there before. "We've picked something up?"

"Yes," growled Rosa. "But I do not know what it is... and it is on our flower patch!"

The creature stirred, first a long, long tail rose and fell, then a wing showed itself, and finally two great blue eyes opened and shook sleep off with a lot of blinking.

I did not expect to wake in a strange place, her mental voice told the pair, I am sorry - where is this again? You fall asleep in a poppy patch and wake up somewhere new... happens every time...

Airich and Rosa looked at one another, and Rosa lowered her wings. "Well, we never expect some of the things that happen around here, you can't expect them, they're all infinitely improbable." Airich chuckled. "I'm Airich, this is Rosa the Egyptan, and who might you be?"

I am Chentanua Saman, and it looks like I've come to the right place at least, I hadn't planned on it, but... She looked around and her antennae lifted up bobbing to smell the flowers. It is lovely here, and - oh! She spied a huge flower with its nectar collecting in a bulbous area near the ground. That looks delicious, may I drink?

"Well normally," Airich said as she moved gracefully off to drink the heavy sweet nectar, "that plant is a bit carniverous but it's mostly to much... smaller prey. I think you might be able to safely drink from it."

"But we have to remember to feed it, if she does that," Rosa commented. She was still a little put off - this dragon-like butterfly thing was in her garden now! She knew what was coming next.

I can help here, if you need another gardener for this place, Chentanua said. I can protect with spores too, in case there is an invader.

"What kind of spores?" Asked Airich, curious.

From my wings, I can release a paralyzation spore. But I do not see any invaders just now. I do not think you need a demonstration, since you are both the owners of this place.

That seemed to surprise Rosa, who wanted to continue mistrusting the creature, but frankly was impressed by her gentle and sweet nature. "Well we do sometimes get some visitors who are unwelcome," Rosa said. "Remember the frat boys?"

There was that time only two days ago that what appeared to be a herd of drunken frat-boys from a nexus university stumbled in and started stomping around in the fresh dirt and budding flowers.

"Yeah, we could have used a bit of your spore action then, huh?" Airich chuckled again. "I think you'll be welcome to stay, but you probably want to introduce yourself to the rest of the ship in the meantime, get used to some of the weird things that happen here."

At that, Chentanua tilted her head. This is ... a ship?

Airich explained. "Yes, the Caledrus, a scientific exploration craft and hitch-hiker's paradise. And since we've picked you up like this, it's clearly a sign that you belong here." Rosa continued to garden, while Airich took the new dragoness on a trip around their starship. He had to explain a few things, how they got to one place via 'all' places, and how sometimes they flew normally and others they went haphazardly through improbability.

It is too much to understand. But I do understand plants and protection, so I will concentrate on the garden.

Rosa was growing quickly, and Chen seemed more and more at home both in the garden as well as on the ship in general. She enjoyed the company of Airich and Rosa best, though it seemed she was a little lonely at times. She was an oddity, not quite a dragon, not quite a... anything particular. Too small to be around some of the full size dragons but much too large to be considered just a flitter.

But then...

They discovered that during a venture through Improbability, yet another spare passenger was picked up. This time, though, since it was finite Improbability, and not Infinite, it was much easier to determine where he was from.

It was the Valley of the Sky, on a distant planet that had some number of intelligent species on it, in fact, some of those were attempting to develop a parallel species to their dwindling native Saa on it. Emulating these things was quickly moving into an artform.

But it also provided a lot of little dragon-creatures which weren't interested in remaining with the Project. One of which, turned out to be Tkhor Setlai. He settled into the ship like it was his own from the start, and when he came upon the Garden area he felt immediately at home.

When Chentanua and Rosa encountered him, he was nestling himself among the brightly colored and extremely rare 5-petaled Rrenusian Vampire Plants, compacting their little ground tendrils so they gave off tiny complaints of being stifled.

You ought not to sit there, Chentanua said, her antennae waving in the faint breeze she felt near the newcomer. The plants are sensitive.

So am I, he bespoke, a bit of ire in his mental voice. Chentanua sized him up. He was nowhere near her height, and was delicately built. She shook her wings a little and dropped a shimmering batch of spores into his direction.

However, the surprise came when a small breeze picked them up and sent them ineffectually around him. He was asleep now, but naturally so, not because of Chen's paralysis spores. Huffed, she stalked off to find Rosa and Airich.

What will we do with him? He is crushing the Vampire plants!

"Well, we could ... pick him up and move him," Airich suggested. "I can do that, let me talk to him."

Please do, Chen sighed. She was wondering whether this newcomer would mature or remain like he was...

2025

It had been quite a while since Airich and his friends began cultivating the gardens for the Caledrus, but they had always supplied the entire ship with such delights that everyone knew Airich, Rosa, Tkhor, and Chen by nothing more than the wonderful scents as they passed through the wide halls of the starship. They'd visited a great many planets and each time they made landfall (or seadive, or an air sweep, or even a volcanic plunge) someone would bring back this plant or that seedling or even mosses gathered from hot caverns deep underground. Airich did go out himself, attended as he was by one or another or even all three of his beloved flighted friends.

Rosa was digging at a fresh mound of exotic dirt that she swore up and down there was 'something in there' - probably the size of a pebble or, y'know, a 'seed'. Her skills had been honed after years of diligent work, and Rosa was nothing if not a perfectionist. She had been the one to set up the color-and-scent coded directory in the main ship lobby, lining the walls with flowers or plants that could help lost folks regain their luggage or find friends in the big ship.

Tkhor had learned how to master his size shifting, though even at his biggest he was still hardly half Chentanua's height. They did however manage to make a good team, once he'd gotten over himself (after a few times trying to 'look her in the eye' and realizing that no, she was really that big, and eventually she surprised him with a puff of those spores - he couldn't resist them if he didn't catch them quickly. But that did make both of them cleverly work on how to zip through the halls during emergencies to help. Chen would produce a great shimmering volume of the spores, and then Tkhor would keep them balled up in a small current as he flew near the ceilings. They could then be dropped on invaders, dangerous creatures, or even rowdy party-goers if needed. The ship had proper security of course, but Tkhor could be there very quickly with teleportation...

Airich had gone with Woodstock to several worlds, one of which she claimed boldy 'she went to school at'. It was not a planet he'd expected, but then living on an Improbability driven ship came with unexpected everything. The world had two globes stuck together, a large ocean sloshing between them, and on one coastline, a school that hosted hundreds of aliens, monsters, heroes, and everyday people. Carramba High School.

"Oh they're adding a lot of things!" Woodstock flipped through some information. She was quite happy with this apparently. "Hey - hey, you ... should see about maybe doing some work with them." Two of her hands waggled pamphlets, and the other two were busy grasping at the unicorn Kin's own elbow to drag him closer. But even Rosa perked up with interest.

"A school? Do they have a garden?" She asked, as Airich was trying to form those same words. While he wasn't exactly super shy, she was almost always the first to react to things.

"It looks like they have a whole hedge maze and medicinal herb garden?" Airich opened the one pamphlet, appraising what he saw. "They also have hyperspace tunnel and portal devices for 'easy transportation to and from home dimensions'? That... would mean..."

That you could teach there and come home for dinner, Chentanua chuckled gently.

Or you could have a class right here, Tkhor perked up too, although then you'd just be trying to keep them from sleeping in the flower beds like you did me...

Though they did take a more serious look at the requirements and stipulations, it looked like this would be a fun thing for any of them to do. Plus, the Caledrus was going to be parked at this 'Twoarth' world frequently - they'd been taking on Zeddians and delivering them to new locations across the galaxy, and this was one of those.

Eventually Airich passed qualification exams for teaching, getting an 'effective degree' and all, so he picked up several periods for a class called Herbs and Veggies, and then took another direction with a career training course, Landscaping. He wasn't a good enough cook to teach some of the other types of classes, but definitely provided materials for them, as well as the Tincture Kitchen's herb garden and medicinal supply garden.

How long he'd be teaching was anyone's guess, as it seemed like Carramba had an odd time loop or delay leading to lots of people who'd 'just got there' graduating almost immediately, or instructors who were 'new arrivals' getting tenured and having loads of graduating classes the next time they looked up. They couldn't stop Airich and Rosa from tending the grounds, so while Airich was teaching indoors or in the greenhouse, Rosa would be off making sure that no rot was seeping through root systems, and that no allergens were going to be drifting through the air when the plants flowered...

The other place that the Caledrus had 'parked' numerous times in addition to Zed, was Zekira, and it was odd to anyone that remained on the ship with some travelers from there, that there were two 'Worlds Of' Zekira. One of them had dragons, and the other didn't, but they certainly seemed to blend together. However at least one person told the navigation staff that 'one is displaced deeply back in time'. Airich didn't bother himself about those details, he'd only set foot on the 'Dragon' version that happened to be that ancient one! And boy they were interested in him. They set him up with 'status exams' and while he passed most easily, he balked at a specific aspect of their culture, he would not keep 'Budak' - more than indentured servants, oh no. No thanks. He hired people once he'd gotten several offers of land and stipends, but he'd never quite be comfortable with how businesses there also dealt with owning other people. His long ears would always pin back in discomfort with that notion. He made it very clear that while his Status there was fine and well, he was not going to participate in that.