Conscious, Conscientious

Vivid flowers, of all possible colors and shapes, surrounded Deon and Skrili.

They stood together in silent awe, in the center of a spacious, silvery cave. Deon couldn’t grasp how bright it was, or how this dazzling display of flowers thrived, despite the lack of sunlight.

The distant sounds of the quiet yet busy Nightwood villagers had vanished once they set foot in the cave.

After they asked a local for directions to this place earlier, it seemed all eyes were on them the whole way there. Their task sounded simple enough before that moment—but now, Deon had grown a bit nervous.

Pick a flower, Deon remembered as they stood there quietly. THIS is Skip’s final test?

~

Skip’s training had gone opposite to Deon’s prediction for their final week together. By now, he figured he shouldn’t be surprised.

It was, by far, their most straightforward—and perhaps even easiest—week of them all. At least, that was the case on a mental level: aside from their daily visits to the cliff, Skip had no more Fiction Country shenanigans or mind games left for them.

Though to Deon and Skrili’s grievance, the vision never went away, or changed, since that first day they saw it together.

It kept promising their failure, and Lammy’s demise as a result.

But it had become a powerful reminder—perhaps even strangely therapeutic—to stand side by side and face down their shared fear together.

As far as Deon was concerned, they’d never let it come true. Not when he knew Skrili had his back, and he had hers.

But the rest of Skip’s final week for them mostly entailed physical training and team techniques. Every day, they spent grueling hours working out, drilling team attacks, discussing strategies, and honing their consciousness abilities.

Deon’s favorite of these was Skip’s penultimate assignment: for Deon and Skrili to come up with their own team special, without any guidance.

In fact, Skip didn’t even allow himself to be present whenever they worked on it over the final few days. He wanted it to remain secret to the world, until its debut, to everyone—including him.

Deon couldn’t stop obsessing over what he and Skrili had ended up crafting.

He couldn’t wait to unveil it.

While he felt they were succeeding on that end, there was still a major task they weren’t even close to achieving, with time rapidly running out:

Skip’s deal.

Deon had no leads: he couldn’t possibly figure out what Skip’s type was. The cunning trainer always seemed extra careful to never rely on powers, even when his teachings involved his own physical efforts.

It kept Deon’s mind spinning. They had to figure it out. Something seemed mysterious about Skip—or rather, everything did. He needed to find out what Skip saw at the cliff, and what the largest tree at the Caves of Insecurity meant.

And per their agreement, guessing Skip’s type was the only key to this knowledge.

Every night up in their tree, Deon and Skrili had fallen into the habit of sitting back and spending at least an hour scrolling through the full list of known consciousness types on their TeamTrack, debating if any seemed suspiciously close.

But even still, Skip had left not a single hint. Oddly, they couldn’t even find any history of him in the Consciousness League.

However, while at least an hour of each night in the soft tree branches went to waste with their fruitless wonderings, the remainder was always the most calming, refreshing part of the day.

Instead of splitting up after their investigative research, Deon tended to stay up in Skrili’s area of the tree.

Sometimes, they would talk into the night, trading teases, before drifting off. But most other times, they were largely silent—staring into the brilliant starry sky, and simply sharing each other’s company.

As each day came to a close, bringing them closer and closer to Skip’s final assessment, Deon felt all his emotions heighten; the anticipation of whether they could pass, the curiosity of their future as a team…

…And most of all: the gratitude that he was able to learn so much about Skrili, and himself, in this strange little place he’d never forget.

Before he knew it, the final morning of Legend Training greeted them, finding the duo together in the pillowy treetop. Deon felt they could take on the whole Multiverse.

They awoke ready for whatever test awaited, one last time, and headed for Skip’s cabin.

~

“No fighting or trials, or anything strenuous today, really,” declared Skip, a glow in his smile. “It’s gonna be a super easy one!”

“WHAT?!?! BUT IT’S THE LAST DAY!!!” Deon protested.

“That it is, Deon!”

“Are…are you plotting something?” probed Skrili.

“That I’m not, Skrili!”

“Wait a second—what about our secret team special?” Deon reminded him. “Don’t you need to, like, approve that?”

“Nope! It’s your secret!”

Deon and Skrili exchanged annoyed glances.

“Alright, here me out,” Skip insisted, raising a pointed finger. “Regardless of the team I’m training, when we reach the last day, I always have them do the same thing. It’s your turn now. It’s time…for your final test.”

Deon’s ears perked.

“Everything we’ve done together has led you to this task. And depending on how you handle it, that will communicate to me whether or not you’ve learned this month’s crucial lessons,” Skip elaborated. “If you succeed, you pass my Legend Training.”

It all comes down to this, Deon thought with a gulp.

“Your final task of my training,” Skip told them, “is to pick a flower.”

Deon slapped his hand against his face. “I knew it. I knew it was gonna be something weird again…What, is the flower gonna try to eat us if we don’t learn the power of friendship?”

“No,” denied Skrili evenly. “It’ll probably make us heighten our deepest desires or something in order to pick it. Gross.”

They both groaned.

“Alright—you guys are pupils, not critics!” Skip snapped. “And no—it’s not gonna be anything wild or complex. I want you two to walk to Nightwood Village. When you get there, ask a local about the Flower Cavern; they’ll show you the way. Inside, there will be hundreds of flowers—all totally unique.”

His eyes peered at them seriously. “Your mission is to find the one that symbolizes what it means to be a consciousness team,” he shared. “You both have to agree on one flower.”

One in hundreds, huh? Not great chances…Deon realized.

“Bring back your choice. If you pick the right flower, you pass the Legend Training.”

Deon and Skrili stood tensely after Skip laid it out for them and fell silent. After all of this, it seemed so simple…too simple—especially given his usual antics.

“The instructions are pretty straightforward,” Skip noted. “I don’t have to say it again, do I? Get going, guys! Oh—and don’t forget to wear your Nightwood Village robes!”

~

No matter how many times Deon stared at the brilliant natural assortment all around him, none of the flowers stood out for any particular, symbolic reason.

He figured he’d sense some sort of powerful sensation, especially considering how Fiction Country usually worked. But these were just ordinary, pretty flowers.

The only aura he felt came from Skrili—the usual radiance she emitted, potent with the complexity of who she was: all the strength, heartache, and tenderness.

Between that and her graceful appearance, adorned in her silky robe, Deon had a hard time focusing on the flowers more than her. He watched as she approached a particular blossom rising up from the silver, glittery wall.

“Wait…this one has two stems,” she observed, “but only one bud.”

“Could that be it?” Deon wondered. “Maybe it’s like a ‘team is one unit’ sort of thing, like Skip always talks about.”

“Oh…no…they all have two stems…” Skrili realized.

Deon quickly found it was true when he stepped closer to the wall. While some flowers had one bud, some two, and others even more, they all had that the same feature in common: their roots rose into two defined stems.

He tried peering deeper as his eyes perused the cave wall. Clearly, the defining feature of the correct flower had to be something else.

“Oh hey—this one kinda looks like that fish I was talking about last night,” Deon pointed out. “The one Lammy and I found while we were canoeing one time.”

“Right. The fish. Definitely…” came Skrili’s obviously forced reply.

“Don’t even. You fell asleep like a minute into that story,” Deon accused.

“It was boring.”

“Ouch…could’ve told me to stop, then…” Deon grumbled.

Skrili paused. “But…I didn’t want you to stop…” she muttered, her eyes set on the flowers.

Huh? thought Deon.

“I…” Skrili started. But abruptly, she raised her hand to another seemingly random flower. “Um…maybe this is the one? No, probably not…”

Deon couldn’t tell if she’d even looked at the flower at all. Her eyes were hidden behind her blue bangs, and her words sounded uneven, like she hadn’t thought before speaking—probably for the first time in her life, he was willing to bet.

She bit her lip. For some reason, Deon felt the urge to step closer and start searching the same area as her. He watched as she fell silent, choosing instead to begin brushing her hand through the flowers.

“Yeah…that probably isn’t it,” Deon agreed, despite not knowing which flower she’d even pointed out.

He began combing through the many pedals as well, now by her side. While his eyes blankly scanned through all the colors and shapes, his mind seemed to retain none of it.

Briefly, their hands brushed against each other. Her skin felt soft.

But it always was, wasn’t it?

When he carried her out of the rain in Tailpiece after their fight with Pang and Phillip, when she, loopy from the healing process, touched his chest in Gloat Center, and when they woke up together in the tree several days ago…

…And then again a couple days after…

And wait…that happened again last night, too.

It always felt this way, didn’t it? Was that why he was standing so close to her now?

No…it’s because it’ll be easier to pick out a flower together this way, he told himself.

Their hands brushed each other again in their search.

Suddenly, Skrili’s lingered on his. Or his did on hers.

“Listen…” Skrili uttered, turning her head away, “I…I really thought I would wake up alone the next morning, after that night I told you everything.”

Her hand pulsed.

“Hearing your voice…helps me fall asleep lately,” she let out.

Deon felt weightless.

“Useful for something, huh?” he mustered with a quick laugh.

Suddenly Skrili turned to him, leaned forward, and pressed her forehead against his chest.

“Let’s…never split up, alright?”

He’d never needed to think less for the right reply. But even still, he remained wordless for a moment, with Skrili’s face buried against him. When he finally uttered his agreement, it came softly, but definitively:

“Deal.”

“Also…your robe smells kind of weird,” Skrili added.

“Then get your nose out of it, you punk.”

When Skrili lifted her head and met his eyes, all remaining clarity faded. A sudden thought crossed his mind:

What would happen if he pulled her just a little closer?

Her eyes widened a bit. He felt the air between them move when she took in a surprised breath.

“I think that’s the one,” said Skrili.

As Deon’s foggy vision improved, he realized her eyes were focused just past him, now.

He turned to follow her gaze, and instantly, he knew she was right:

They found the flower. That one had to be it.

~

“This one has to be it, huh?” Skip repeated back to them curiously. “And uh…exactly how long did it take to get that thing out of there?”

Deon and Skrili stood before him in his front yard, each carefully cradling a heap of roots mixed in with a massive grayish stem. Dirt was still trickling off the plant onto their spectacular but now slightly mucky robes, even after their long walk all the way back from Nightwood Village.

Between them, the gray stems from each pile met in the middle and blended together in a tight twist, which fused entirely at the bud. At the top, they presented a combination of two styles of pedals: thin, sharp, purple ones, and between each of those, wider, bright orange ones.

Similar purple pedals dangled from the stem Skrili held, while orange ones hung from Deon’s.

Deon and Skrili struggled to hold it up for proper display. The plant as a whole was awkward and messy. It was far from the daintiest, prettiest flower in the cave. But the big mixed bloom between the teammates demanded attention to its odd, wild beauty.

“It took a while,” Skrili admitted simply.

Skip nodded slowly as he analyzed it. “Alright, alright…” he emitted. “It’s a weird one, for sure.”

“But…this is totally it, right?” Deon asked confidently.

“Nope.”

“NOPE?!?!!?”

Deon took a hasty step forward. “Wait—do we get another chance? Do we at least have until the end of the day, or something?”

“That was your only chance.”

“YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!! AFTER ALL THAT!!”

“Sorry, guys. But—”

“This is the one.”

Skip stopped, and he and Deon looked to Skrili. There was fire in her gaze.

“This is what it means to be a team.”

“But I just said—”

“I don’t care. This is the right flower.”

When Skrili’s eyes turned to Deon’s intensely, her self-assurance flooded into him. They’d talked about it. They knew this was it.

“She’s right, Skip,” Deon said flatly.

Skip let out a sigh and placed his hands in his suit jacket. “What makes you think that?” he entertained them reluctantly. “It’s just a weird flower.”

“This past month, we learned becoming a strong team isn’t always pretty,” Skrili shared. “It’s…weird, like you said.”

“Yeah—you made us hang out with our worst fears, and then talk about them constantly…not to mention taking us where trees tried to eat me because of Skrili’s insecurities!” Deon added accusingly. “That was whack, you know!”

“But it was what we needed,” Skrili chimed in.

“Yeah…that changed everything,” Deon admitted. “And these two stems are kinda ugly, so…it made us think of that. Then there are the roots…”

“The flower was hanging from the ceiling. When we followed the two stems, they each led to completely opposite sides of the cave, where they went into the ground,” Skrili elaborated.

“And?” inquired Skip.

Skrili glanced at her teammate. “Deon and I come from completely different worlds. Our roots are totally opposite, just like the flower. But even though the stems come from all the way across the cave, they manage to meet in the middle and twist together into one display.”

“Just like us,” Deon said. “We wanted to make it work, so we did. Like, we’re learning from our differences, and that helps us create something totally unique. And I mean—look at this thing! It looks like it’s supposed to be two separate flowers, but it’s way cooler as one!”

“It’s almost wrong, but that’s what makes it work,” Skrili agreed. “Through commitment, and exposing itself to the other half, it became something special.”

“You taught us that, Skip,” Deon guaranteed. “So…come on, man. Can’t you change your mind? I mean, you’re right: it’s a weird flower. But…”

“We’re a weird flower,” he and Skrili both said emphatically.

Skip stared at them. Deon thought he’d gotten used to this methodical gaze, but it made him as uncertain as always. Skip stared at them the exact same way when he was deciding whether or not to train them on day one.

“What do you think…?” Deon asked queasily.

“That was a nice Ted Talk,” Skip replied. “Sorry—Normal Country joke.”

But the desperation and insistence in his pupils’ eyes seemed to soften him. He let out another sigh, but this time with a smile. Skip cocked his head.

“Follow me,” he said.

When they began walking, Deon was certain he was taking them into his house. But instead, he led them past the wooden building, and past the white and black boulders it was built into. He stepped beyond a tree, just behind the towering stones, and waved for them to follow.

They’d never been back here before.

Deon and Skrili joined Skip in a quaint yet plentiful garden, bursting with just as many colors as the Flower Cavern. In the slightly shadowy sunlight, they were even more radiant here.

Skip stood at the end of one of the rows, where a bit of empty soil lay.

“Welcome,” he said.

“What’s…all this?” Deon wondered.

Skip raised his hand to the display. “These,” he said, “are the right flowers.”

“WHAT THE—THEN WHY DID YOU SEND US ALL THE WAY TO NIGHTWOOD VILLAGE?!?!” Deon boomed.

“Because these are the right flowers for all the other teams I’ve trained and passed,” Skip revealed. “Yours was waiting for you in the that cave, just like these were for them.”

He stepped towards them, and beckoned for their large flower with his fingers. Deon and Skrili let him take it, and watched as he struggled to lug it over to the patch of empty soil.

“I didn’t care about which flower you came back with—although, you could’ve picked a nicer one for my garden,” Skip told them. “It’s what you had to say about your flower—why you thought it symbolized being a team—that’s what proved to me what you learned from the training.”

Crouching down, he began digging a small hole with his bare hands, unconcerned about his suit jacket.

“Wait…” Deon slowly realized.

“So…so we pass?” Skrili inquired carefully.

Skip raised his head to them. “With flying, orange and purple colors,” he said, “you pass my Legend Training.”

“YEAAAHHH!!!!!!!”

Automatically, Deon dove at Skrili and squeezed her in a hug. She was startled at first, but ultimately wrapped her arms around him, too, and even let a laugh escape.

“…Is what I would say.”

Immediately, Deon and Skrili released each other.

“EH?!”

“WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE THIS TIME?!” Deon demanded, and though it took minimal effort, Skrili had to hold him back from charging Skip full-on.

“Uh…yeah…I guess it’s finally time to come clean,” Skip muttered to himself. He stood and faced them squarely, before raising a hand to the back of his reddening head. “To be honest, I already passed a team this month.”

“YOU WHAT?!?!”

“Yeah…it was just before you guys got here, actually,” admitted Skip. “Pang and Phillip showed up. Just like you guys, they challenged me outright. But they won.”

He turned to present the flower standing strong beside theirs. “I let them go pick a flower to celebrate! Nice, isn’t it?”

It was small and sharp, with deep red and black pedals. Deon would have expected no different.

“But…Pang never messaged me about it…” Skrili pointed out. “She would brag.”

“I uh…sorta asked them not to tell you guys,” Skip said.

“WHY?! We just spent a whole month on this for no reason!” Deon exclaimed.

“I was curious. I’d never invited a team before, only to have them split into two new teams that still wanted to train with me. That was intriguing. If you guys knew Pang and Phillip beat you here, you’d have no reason to come. I wanted to see how it would play out. Besides—I wanted something to do this month. No one’s ever beat me in the challenge before, so I wasn’t expecting that.”

Deon gritted his teeth. So he was just playing around with us this whole time, out of curiosity and boredom?!

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, you guys didn’t disappoint,” Skip added. “This was one of my favorite months of training. I’m so proud of you two.”

But his students didn’t have anything to say. They simply stood there in shock, as he casually returned to planting their flower in his garden of successful teams.

After a while, Deon tapped Skrili’s arm.

“Uh…so…what do we do now?”

In that moment, Skip stood, having completed his task. He slapped his hands together to brush them off the best he could.

“If you get another invite from a Legend Trainer, take it,” he said simply.

Then, they watched as he walked off and calmly left them alone in the garden.

Again, Deon and Skrili stood in sheer silence.

But then they both felt a buzz in their pockets. They obtained their TeamTracks to read the message.

“Hey there, Skrili Kay and Deon Stutter! Skip, here. I’d like to formally invite you to my Legend Training! The new month starts tomorrow and it’s first-come-first-serve, so get here early! I hope to see you here. I’ll send coordinates to my cabin!”

“What kind of game does he think he’s playing…?” Deon grumbled. “Is he really expecting us to start the training all over again like it never happened?”

“Wait…” Skrili uttered, her eyes hyper focused on her screen. “He doesn’t want us to go through the training again.”

“What do you mean? He just sent—”

“There’s another way to pass without starting over,” Skrili expounded.

Deon’s eyes widened upon the realization. “Oh…then he wants…”

Skrili nodded. “He wants us to challenge him to a fight again.”