She had been skittish ever since she had entered the realm, her nerves jittery from excitement. Years and months had come to this, leading up to this very moment. All of her long hours in the evenings, travels between to continents, to even places largely unknown. Myouga had gone through much in order to get here, and was now sitting upon a chair in the library of the Crestere Palace. Swinging her legs to shake off the nervousness in waiting, she pulled out a small folded piece of paper with a list of things she had planned to say once she met the goddess. Sure, she had been confident of her work back home in Ataiyo but what would the Mother think? Her initial plan was to visit Tar Eisalae first to deliver her surprise, but seeing as that temple belonged to the Matron's husband it wouldn't be any different than visiting this one herself.

Angela was the goddess of life, and had a fondness for plants and animals alike. Surely this sort of thing would please her. But sometimes creators were not too keen on seeing their creations tampered with, as the arcanist recalled past experiences with former colleagues. Regardless, she would put on her best smile, and give it to her with sincerity. She couldn't make herself feel sad before she even had the chance to say anything. Slapping her cheeks lightly with her hands, she took a deep breath and psyched herself up. It would be a great gift, probably the best gift she would ever receive–at least for this year. Instead of jewels, perfume, or flowers she had brought something even better. And if the goddess didn't like the first one, she could always give her another in a different color. She focused on the positive, and waited.

The clergy had given her strange looks as she carried her gift with her inside the temple. When they asked her to take off the cover of the box she refused, no matter how hard they tried to convince her. She answered their questions about the box as vaguely as possible, as to avoid them from spoiling the contents when they informed their lady of a visitor. At most she could only tell them it wasn't anything dangerous. It was a surprise after all, and she couldn't have them ruin it. When they pressed her further for more information she puffed her face into a pout and remained tight-lipped. This earned her looks of concern and suspicion as she went to the library with her present, but she didn't mind. The box was sitting on the floor beside her, three feet in height and a foot wide. Wrapped in the most colorful cotton cloth she could find after spending weeks browsing the market in Nisshoki, she had the ends tied in a bow. Every now and then the box would wiggle, as the contents inside moved but as long as it didn't fall over she let it be. 

"A gift, for you–Sculptor of Life, Mother, and Queen." She recited to herself softly, practicing her opening introduction. 

Angela was actually in the middle of trying to teach her second youngest some healing artes. “Iva, you have to be more gentle. If you are harsh you could end up hurting those you are actually trying to help.” The red headed goddess stared at her daughter and smiled. The rambunctious redhead stared back up at her mother with a frown.

“I don’t understand… Am I not being gentle enough?” Iva looked down at the man she was attempting to heal and Angela chuckled a bit.

“You don’t slap someone to wake them up.” Angela shook her head and Iva looked up at her and grimaced a bit.

“But I seen you do that…” Iva replied and Angela grimaced back and laughed.

“Do as I say and not as I do. Generally, a healer would use something like smelling salts to wake someone up.” Angela moved the bottle over to Iva and the ten-year-old poked at the bottle and wrinkled her nose. “For people like us, we have an enhanced smell but for humans, they can only smell it once you put it up near their noses.” Angela demonstrated and Iva nodded a bit.

A clergy member came into the clinic and interrupted them. Iva got a wrinkled expression on her face as she knew what that meant. “My lady there is a visitor for you. She is in the library.”

Angela sighed a bit and smiled at her daughter. “We’ll continue later. I promise.” She punched her youngest daughter’s cheek and Iva smiled up at her before running off. “Thank you.” Angela bowed her head at her clergy member before leaving the clinic for the library.

Once she opened the door she could hear the words coming from the mouth of her visitor. A smile crossed her lips as she crossed the threshold into the library. “Greeting Friend,” Angela waved as soon as the visitor took a look at her. Angela was in a gorgeous green dress with gold trim. It was a halter style dress that also had off-shoulder long sleeves. Her red hair was pulled back on the sides and left to run down her back.

“Welcome to the Awakening Gardens… May I ask what brings you here to my humble home?”

Startled by the sudden appearance of the goddess, Myouga threw up her hands in surprise. Seeing who it was, she quickly scuttled behind the box and hoisted it up in front of her. As the box blocked her face, she leaned to the side peering from behind. The unexpected interruption threw all of the prior prepared lines out of her ears as she stammered to explain with too many thoughts coming in at once. "Oh, Goddess Angela! T-this is–I came–um, a gift! A gift for you!" The little arcanist held the box higher as to emphasize her point and purpose for coming here. She had a silly little grin plastered on her face like a puppy who was overeager at expressing happiness.

As she came closer the box teetered a bit while she skittered across the floor. Setting the present down before the goddess, Myouga stepped back with her hands clasped together in anticipation of the divine's reaction. Inside the box was the first of her alchemical fusion experiments combining plants and goldfish. She had used green leaves from the Laeto Rainforest that were broader than a man's palm and longer than a man's foot. They were waxy, and a vibrant green as most tropical plants were. The goldfish which had been used was a white-and-orange Oranda with a bright crimson wen on its head. Once the wrapping cloth was untied, the panels of the box would unfold to reveal a plant under three feet with a tall central stalk with wide, heart-shaped leaves. The 'flower' was quite literally a massive Oranda goldfish nearly two feet long from mouth to tail fin, and it wobbled a little when the fish portion looked around. It already came in a simple terracotta pot with a matching dish.

"Um, this is something that I've been working on for a long time now. I've always wondered why people couldn't have a plant as a pet, or a pet as a plant…so I combined them! Ta-da! My very first pet-plant! I thought that since goldfish already live in water, they should be fine as plants too…" Nervously she fidgeted with her right foot as she added, "If you don't like the color, I have some other ones. I have some in red, yellow, blue, and purple."

The goddess was amused by the newest visitor to her temple. She peeked at the box and watched as Myouga held it up for the Mother to take it. “Please calm down. There is no need to be so nervous. There have been many visitors to come bring gifts to me. Sometimes they bring the simplest thing… Like a hand woven blanket or a new dress. I’ve even had a simple button given to me.” She winked at Myouga as she tried to calm the woman down.

The grin that the woman had was contagious as she reached for the box and took it gently. She held the box in her hand as she tilted her head and slowly undid the present. She pushed it back and stared at the plant goldfish. It reminded her so much of the gemstone fish that were in her library. She looked up at Myouga and smiled with glee. “Is this your work? This is very good. I am an alchemist too, you see.”

“This is very, very nice.” She said again as she confirmed her thoughts as Myouga spoke. “I like all and any colors. After all, it is my job to make sure the world is as colorful as it can be. You did wonderfully.” Summoning a table by her she set the gift down as she looked up to her gift. “You must tell me how you went about doing this… You’ll pardon me for being so curious. It has been over a thousand years since I attended the Auzial Academy for the Gifted. I studied Herbalism and Alchemy as the top of my class. I’ve designed many things that the people of Revaliir use so my curiosity can get the best of me.”

Just hearing that the goddess liked her gift made the arcanist's feet do a little happy dance out of sheer joy. Most people would've looked at it either in confusion, revulsion, or be at a loss for words. And to have a goddess ask her–an average mage, about how she had made this alchemical fusion happen? Myouga felt as if she had died and gone to the celestial realm, only to be resurrected back into the world again. The best part was that Angela said she would've been happy with any color, which was even better!  She had to pinch herself to bring back her focus to the Mother's question regarding her methods. Calming herself down as to not trip over her words or accidentally bite her tongue, she explained the steps she had taken to create her unorthodox chimera.

"Oh, it took me several months of trial and error just to get a specimen that lasted for more than a few minutes. My method was a modified setup of transmutation circles linked together by runes and magical crystals. I first experimented with different plant sizes and varieties of fish, which ended…badly. Sometimes I got an indistinguishable mass of fins and foliage, other times I got a swimming plant which wasn't what I wanted. Then I tried fusing a goldfish with a sunflower and it worked! At first I wasn't sure about the flower being replaced by the fish, but after a while it was easier on the eyes. The sunflower's stem was the perfect width to support the fish's weight, with the body being perfectly aligned so it wouldn't snap when the wind blew. After I figured out the way to make it work, I added some plants with the most unique coloration to change the pigmentation of the stems and leaves." She had to pause to take a breath before concluding the results of her experimentation.

"I can give you a diagram of how I set the transmutation circles! So far I've only done fusions with two major circles linked together. Also it requires a bit of space, but the process is over after a few minutes. I've learned that keeping the fish in a bowl before starting the rite ensures a higher success rate and less mishaps." She eagerly took out a quill and parchment to copy down the runes and symbols she used in her most recent attempt. As to not offend the deity with her poor drawing skills, she drew arrows labeling where the reagents, catalysts, and basic components were placed in the scheme. When she was done, she presented it to Angela. "Here it is! Um, just a little warning…sometimes the goldfish plants can be a little loud. I'm more than happy to give you all the other color combinations I have back home, but I'm still working on making a quieter variant of these. I'm not sure how, but they can scream."