Chapter 54: A Great Feast

Thump.

Melsa dropped the stem of an owata on the desk; she’d brought it home from the Eastern Empire for reference. It made such a hard, dull sound that for aplant-type monster, it didn’t seem plantlike in the slightest.

William picked up the stem and carefully looked it over. “It’s hard, but super light... Maybe the stem here is structured a bit like bamboo?” William knew as much about owatas as he knew about other monsters he’d read about in books, but he’d never seen one in real life. Now, he could see for himself that the insides of the stems were hollow and sectioned off.

“I was only able to bring back the stem, but the leaves and seeds are apparently both hardand heavy.” Once the yellow flowers Melsa saw in the Eastern Empire were finished blooming, the seeds and leaves would form and grow heavier with each passing day. Because the stem was segmented, it would steadily bend, but it wouldn’t break.

“Wow! I can hardly believe these sturdy stalks can bend! Those seeds and leaves must be pretty darn heavy!” Emma said. She tried to flex the stalk herself, but it wouldn’t give at all.

“And you said theylaunch the seeds, right?” George shuddered, thinking that if something like that were to land on you, you’d be squashed flat. Once the seeds had grown enough to sprout, the leaves (which were there as weights) would all fall off and the stalk, which would have bent as far as it could, would pop back up at full force like a spring. This motion would send the seeds flying as if from a catapult, and they were weighty enough that, with such force, they would destroy anything that might get in th