“Somehow… I imagined it to look different. Like. Not bigger… just… less like all of—” Bean hesitated, then made a huge, all-encompassing gesture. “This.” Then a small, disbelieving grin stole onto her lips. “Does it look like a— like an overlarge broccoli to you, too?” She turned to Inai, expecting at least something of a reaction—after all, she’d been the one with the idea to come here.
The dragon remained silent, though, utterly motionless next to her.
She frowned, looking back at the tree. In a way, it was majestic. Wide, glowing in that almost ethereal sunset… the colours were truly spectacular. But, a broccoli?
“I can’t believe that we travelled this far only for it to look like a broccoli! Inai! Tell me you didn’t know. Tell me you didn’t drag me all the way across the world to show me the— and I quote!— the most majestic and magical tree in the entire universe only… only for it to look like a fucking broccoli!”
Inai finally turned to face her, and only now did Bean realize that she’d been holding down laughter. Now it broke out, like an unstoppable flood, so loud and rasping that it made her teeth chatter, and even the rocks beneath their feet rumbled.
“I did know”, Inai gasped when she finally calmed down enough to speak. It was truly nothing short of a transcending experience to hear—and feel!—a dragon laugh with obvious mirth.
”—and I’ve been waiting for this moment—totally worth it, man—”
“Damnation”, Bean heard herself say as she sat down on the rocky ridge, almost disappearing in all of her layers of clothes. “Well.”
When Inai finally calmed down, she prodded Bean gently with her snout. “So, what now?”, she asked. The humour in her voice made Bean grind her teeth, but even she couldn’t really stay mad at Inai for long.
“Uhh—”, she said, thinking. “I mean. You’re absolutely right. It is a truly magnificent tree. But you were lying, right? It can’t be the gate to the netherworld, right? It can’t be a broccoli. That— no, I can’t believe that.”
Inai grinned, showing off every single one of her glistening white teeth. Bean shivered, instinctively glad that Inai was, in fact, her best friend. Most of the time.
“I didn’t lie to you”, she said mischievously. “And you know the best thing? It doesn’t just look like a broccoli. It tastes like one, too. Every single soul has to pass through a gate of broccoli, even if they hated broccoli in life.”
Bean didn’t have an answer to that.
“Well”, she finally said, “Can— can we go through, too? Or is it a gate for the dead only?”
Inai hesitated. “I think… I think it’s only for them. I’m sorry.”
Bean sighed. “Figures.” Then she perked up. “Well. I wanna see it up front! Let’s cook some brokkoli tonight, eh?” And Inai just laughed, but she let Bean climb onto her back, and together the two flew toward the giant broccoli.
“Where to next?”, Bean asked as they flew away, “Is there maybe a gigantic—I don’t even know. I mean, we do have a few weeks left before we have to go back to school, right? Man, I am hungry…”
Making Art Everyday Day 5 - Broccoli