Characters

Venus Flytrap

The Desert Turtusk

While a sea of dry grasses may represent death for a land, to the suspecting eye it can reflect the beauty of Venus’s complexion. As she arrived to the scorched land on her giant tortusk, she playfully allowed the barren winds to blow her hair in unpredictable patterns. Then with one jolt of her neck, she would let it fall into forms only fit for a Goddess! And as the wind blew harder, she let it slowly falter back to freedom. As the sun reached its peak, she finally stepped down from her Tortusk!

            Venus closed her eyes, waiting for the true spirit of the land to appear beneath her lids. When it whispered to her its journey toward death, she offered it life. Her lungs filled with the spirits air! Her tears blended with the spirits thirst. And a lone cloud slowly motioned its way by.  She stayed down on her left knee; her right foot to the ground. Both of her hands spread out completely, with seeds beginning to produce within her palms.  Her hair gently kissed the ground enriching the soil beneath it. And once Venus finally opened her eyes, she softly blew her breath against her palms, leaving the infinite production of seeds to leave her over flowing hands, and grace its newfound earth with its presence.

After thirty minutes in her peaceful trance, Venus stood up and turned toward her Tortusk.  “Come my friend,” she said. The Tortusk approached. Venus motioned her traveling companion toward the surface of the earth, and it proceeded to get on one knee. They were now as face-to-face as they could possibly be.  With another jolt, Venus flung her hair back into a Goddesses form. She pulled the pendant from her necklace and placed it on the Tortusk’s forehead, and the animal stood back up. It was an Estarian compass; used as a form of mind control. And with this, the Tortusk began to stamp across the massive land, burying each seed 3 inches deep into the surface.

The creation of new life stirred an odd emotion in Venus.  While she felt happiness for the rebirth, she couldn’t help but to mourn all that had been lost. She felt a fresh tear begin to form; a tear made of spring water; a thirst-quenching tear; a tear that a man would fight a thousand year war over; a tear meant for paradise! And as it rolled from her cheek to her chin, it fell only to be caught by her fingertip. Venus kissed her fingertip, letting the moistness to be absorbed in her lips. She turned and looked upwards at the lone cloud and blew it a kiss.  The cloud returned the favor by releasing one raindrop that would pause in mid air before Venus.  She stared at it seeking its vision, while other clouds began to roll in. And the lands first rainstorm in years had finally occurred. Venus finally stuck out her hand, and her raindrop splashed!

Her Tortusk was done its work, and returned to Venus. She removed the compass and kissed its forehead. “It is almost time to go,” she said.  She looked across the land and found what she was looking for. It was a baby Venus Fly Trap. Venus walked towards it and knelt down. She kissed it and spoke softly, “You will be my eyes for this land.” Then she calmly hopped on the back of her Tortusk, and left for her next mission.

            The land was covered with a dark quiet rainstorm. Life was beginning to regenerate itself. Though much couldn’t be seen, the feeling of birth had filled the atmosphere, leaving death to have no choice, but vanish. Yet, one dead leaf stay lay there unaffected by the wind. The rain soaked it to the point that its stiffness began to cave in.  And finally it lay, like a soggy umbrella, over a fang.

The End

Producers Notes - Posted by Stephen Knox

Venus Flytrap was probably one of the first characters from the 7 Mages universe that I ever illustrated, so we have a ton of wild stories about her. Below she can be seen walking a wooly tortusk through the snow lands of Canas Troi. The Estarians wear glowing white face paint with elvish patterns on it while training younger tortusks. This keeps the animals at ease, because it resembles the spirit of the forest, who they have an instinctive love for. Most species of tortusk have hollow tusks that can project jet streams of water at various temperatures and pressures, which makes them ideal for large scale cultivation.

All tortusks are from the family “Tortoisidae” who all have have 6 limbs. Some close cousins to the tortusk have evolved into winged creatures, such as the tortle dove, where the two middle legs are actually wings. New Earth is such a strange place.