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“Ari?” Grandmother said.
“Yes, come in. We’re finished here.”
“Hi, Grandma!” Pan said, giving her a little hug as he left my office.
“Ari,” she said again. “I have to ask about Istil.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“It’s been a month since he moved in.”
“Mmhm.”
“I do appreciate having him around, he’s very helpful in the garden. But… I didn’t expect he would start to bring the garden indoors. Some of the plants are infiltrating the other rooms. There are roots in the hallway. It’s becoming like a jungle inside, and I’m worried it may damage the ancestral framework.”
“I’ll speak to him,” I said.
“Thank you.”
Istil had been slowly transforming his room as part of his nesting ritual. Some dragons cleaned, others built dens, and he’d been creating a forest. Admittedly, it’d happened so gradually, I’d grown accustomed to seeing it. Or maybe I’d willingly ignored it. I knew better than to interfere with an omega in nesting.
No choice now.
Vines were growing out from beneath Istil’s door. Vines. They definitely had not been there yesterday. I noticed a small spiraling tendril with a tiny red flower poking through the keyhole.
“Istil?” I said. “Are you in there?”
“No!” he shouted.
“Yes, you are,” I said.
“No, I’m not! It’s not ready!”
“Istil, we need to talk. Open the door, please.”
I reached for the door handle and the little vines curled back. Then the door flew open and Istil grabbed me by the collar and pulled me inside.
I’d not seen the inside of his room for a while—he usually came to mine—and I was shocked. It wasn’t just a few plants sprouting from cracks in the floorboards like I’d seen before. A whole fucking tree had burst through the floor and was reaching out the open window. Plants and vines covered every inch of the room.
“This is…not how things were the last time,” I said.
“Like I said, it’s not ready,” he said, dismayed. “Dammit, Ari. I’m losing my mind over this.”
“Istil,” I said, ducking under a branch and dangling vines. “When you said you wanted to decorate, I didn’t know this is what you meant. I know you’re a forest dragon, but this is…”
He stared at me. “Too much? I knew I shouldn’t have grown this one here.”
“You can’t just tear up the house like this.”
“Tear it up?! I’ve been building a home for our baby, and you’re saying I’m tearing things up?”
“You have a tree growing through the floor!”
“Where else is it going to grow?”
“Outside, perhaps?”
The plants around me all seemed to shudder and turn toward me.
