The wolf-dragon stared at me for a while, obviously struggling with something. When his eyes finally looked at me with reluctant determination, I released my tendrils that were holding his mouth shut, and gestured for him to talk.

  “...What kind of a deal are you suggesting?”

  =Hoho, I’m gd you asked!=

  I pulled back a bit, putting a little space between the two of us and doing my best to look as trustworthy and convincing as this ugly, rotten-looking version of my body was capable of.

  =See, I’ll fix all the problems with food and stuff for you, and all that you have to do is make sure no one from your side ever decides to stir up trouble over here again! It’s a win-win for both sides, really~!=

  The wolf-dragon eyed me up, clearly trying to judge my trustworthiness. I totally understand, really. I’d probably do the same thing if I were in his position, really.

  Just wish I didn’t look like such a hideous monster while he was doing it, you know?

  “...You believe you would be able to do such a thing? Vast deserts cover our nds, and the areas where growing is viable are quite limited-”

  =Yeah yeah, I know, it’s all arid and sucky, I got it. It sucks for living in, sure, but hey, why don’t you give this a look for a sec for me?=

  I pnted a few of my roots into the ground, quickly sprouting a small assortment of pnts in an empty space nearby. Shrubs and trees, vines and cacti, all patchworked the area. It was a bit hard to fit them all, but I managed, don’t you worry!

  =This is only a few of the edible pnts that I could grow in those deserts of yours. Each one of them is chosen with the heat in mind, and some of them can even be used to repce a bit of water in your day to day lives.=

  I started pointing with my tentacles, showing off pnt after pnt that I’d grown. Prickly Pears, Agave, Guava trees, Wheat. The wolf-dragon, Pack members, and even the onlookers looked especially impressed when I whipped open the pomegranates and showed off the sparkly jewel-like berries inside. The looks on their faces made me feel like I was a devil from hades sent to entice them or something~!

  I’d even included grapes amongst the many treats I’d grown. Don’t get me wrong, they were still totally a good pick in a super hot climate, and they also typically had a lot of water in them, so that was good too. But I felt a little bit sneaky including them in after giving so many grapes to Fen’s vilge. I wonder how those guys are doing right now? It’s been a while, did the lizard guys ever end up picking on them again? Are the grape trees doing well? Do they like them?

  “Yes… If what you say is true and all of these pnts will grow in our nds, then… Hmm… Yes, that would indeed alleviate much of our food concerns, so long as enough of them were grown.”

  Oh right, I was in the middle of negotiations!

  Focus, Mellily!

  Don’t mess everything you’ve worked for up!

  =Yup! I can grow however many that you might need, so long as I can put them close enough to a few water sources. And if you let me grow enough trees in your nds, it’ll help fight against droughts too, as well as giving you guys plenty of protection from the sun and wind, hopefully!=

  “I see… You make a very compelling argument. It’s almost impossible to refuse. But…”

  =But?=

  Mr Avatar, why are you looking at me so doubtfully like that? What, did I do something bad again somehow?

  “...How can we trust you not to turn on us? How can we know this isn’t all a clever ruse disguised as help?”

  Ohhh, I see. It’s not that I did anything, but that I have the potential to do things. I guess standing in the middle of the town that I (well, that mom) destroyed kind of makes it hard to believe that I won’t do it again, even if that is the whole entire damn purpose of this deal that I’m making with him!!!

  Ah, but what else can I do but be reasonable?

  As a new kind and caring champion of justice and anti-war, I have to at least pretend to be reasonable sometimes!

  =Okay yeah, I get your point. I’m too big and scary, and that can be concerning, okay. But I’d like to remind you, I’m not doing this to ‘help’, I’m doing this as a transaction, okay? Like I said, I’m making a deal here with you, not just blindly offering my services. Understood?=

  The wolf-dragon’s eyes scrunched behind his fur for a moment when I said I was ‘big and scary’, but luckily he eventually nodded his head like a true responsible leader.

  “Hrmm… Yes, I see. However-”

  =Great! Then how about this? Trig!=

  Trig, who’d been busy this entire time still salvaging the wreckage of buildings like a good boy, immediately stopped what he was doing and marched over at my call. The two Pack members visibly flinched when he started approaching, but that’s to be expected, right? Really, can’t bme ‘em after all the fighting I’m sure that they had to do against him.

  Oh well, he’s the best of my three minions for this job, so I’m sorry but you’re just gonna have to suck it up for the good of your people, guys!

  =This guy here’s Trig! I may be too scary to go to your nds, but he should be okay, right?=

  The wolf-dragon looked Trig over at first and seemed like he was about to say yes. But then, when his eyes caught sight of the two displeased-looking Pack members a bit away, his gaze immediately turned apprehensive.

  “I apologize, but I still think it would be quite difficult to trust this pnt.”

  Whaaat? But Trig is really the best choice here! I have no clue how well my thorny-minion grows anything else but thorn-vines, and Shui isn’t really built for growing that many things!

  =What’s the problem? I’m sure an Avatar like you could take down Trig no problem!=

  “Hrmm… You’re correct, but in the process others might-”

  =Ugh, fine then!=

  Compromise compromise, that’s all you keep making me do for you, Mr Avatar! At this point maybe I should have just eaten everyone here and gotten things over with, even if it would have totally haunted me ter! At least that would have been nice and swift, compared to all this!

  One of my tentacles whipped out and smacked down onto Trig. With how big I was now, it was easy for my beefy tentacles to completely ftten the previously tall-looking Trig. And from the spot where I smooshed him into the dirt, a new, younger Trig immediately grew; One that was only two-thirds his previous size.

  If he’s just a teenager like this he shouldn’t be too scary, right?

  I’m pretty sure he should still be able to grow things decently well at this size…

  =Here, is this better?=

  I could feel the gaze of everyone around me looking at me in surprise and awe. …Hindsight being what it is, I now realize how absolutely crazy what I just did must look to everyone. It’s probably obvious that I’m the leader of the pnt-side group (what with how big I am and how I order the others around), but I guess it’s not as readily apparent that these minions are just my summons, and not actually, like, living autonomous beings. Probably looks absolutely bonkers that I just carelessly killed one of my own. Bet the fact that he grew back even smaller is also pretty crazy.

  Uhhh, let’s just move things along so that people stop looking at me like the callous freak that I am, okay?

  =Ahem. If it’s like this he’s not as menacing, right? Now even your Pack members should be able to take Trig down if he ends up doing anything bad, right?=

  Say I’m right and move this conversation along for me already! Please!!!

  “...Yes, I believe you're right. It should be perfectly fine to take him along.”

  Phew! Crisis finally averted! Thank you, Mr Avatar, for finally making these talks of ours move along!

  =Great! Take him along with you and make him grow things wherever you want for about a week or two. Don’t be shy, he should be able to grow whatever it is that you think you need.=

  Well, so long as I make sure to stock up on enough food while he’s away, that is~!

  =You can feel free to kill him if he does anything to hurt you guys or anything like that, so don’t worry, I won’t get mad. Oh, but don’t kill him too soon like idiots if his job’s not done. …But definitely do make sure to kill him once he’s finished everything for you guys, okay? Promise me.=

  Don’t want Trig leeching away my resources just chilling around in the Wind Territory for no reason. I’m not really sure that I have a good long-distance way to make him return to the earth or whatever and stop draining me, so it’s best if they just kill him off when they’re done for sure.

  Uh… Wait, why is everybody looking at me like I’m a monster again…?

  _____

  AN: Oh man, life is really kicking my ass right now @.@ Everything's just busy busy busy all the time. Sorry for the slow updates!