Chapter Text
Tony didn’t know how it happened. One moment he was walking on a narrow muddy path, map in hand, and the next one he was sliding down the bank into an ankle-deep puddle. The water soaked into his clothes, and though the coolness felt nice in the August heat, he didn’t appreciate how the problem got dealt with.
He pushed himself up slightly, coming eye-to-eye with a green frog sitting on a piece of wood. It croaked and jumped down on a yellowish paper, then disappeared under the surface.
Shit.
Tony scrambled forward and yanked the map out, staring at the damage. The ink that previously marked villages, roads and paths were now all blotchy and unreadable. The paper slowly tearing itself in half threw more salt to the injury.
“Great,” he grumbled under his breath, standing up. He didn’t make it two steps before his foot caught on a root hidden by a layer of mud, sending him sprawling. Putting his arms in front of him managed to break the fall, but it didn’t stop him from getting a mouthful of water. Tony sputtered, cursing his decision to come to this butt-of-the-kingdom region.
All because of some damn plant.
Voices could be heard somewhere in the distance, growing louder and clearer as their owners approached. It didn’t take long until their owners, three teenage boys, came in view.
“Hey,” Tony called out, making them stop. “Can you help me out of here?”
“Oh, of course, of course,” the largest of the group Tony presumed to be the leader said, and reached for a nearby fallen branch. He picked it up and promptly dropped it into the water, the splash hitting Tony right in the face. “Oops.”
The other two boys burst out laughing.
“Sorry, there’s nothing here I can use to pull you out with.”
That tone made Tony’s jaw lock. He’s heard it countless times while dealing with posh snobs, and he will no doubt keep hearing it until the day he died.
The leader moved again, the other two falling in step behind him like a pair of trained lapdogs. “Let’s keep looking. He couldn’t have gotten far.”
Oh, if only they knew who he was. He could have all three of them publicly punished-
But that would be counterproductive, since he was trying to lie low. Come on, Tony, Pepper’s voice echoed in his mind, breathe in, and out.
“Sir?” a meek voice from somewhere above asked. Tony looked up and sure enough, there was another boy sitting in a tree, hidden by leaves. “Are you all right?”
Great, one more person to witness this absolute disgrace. “Yes, I’m peachy. Just enjoying some puddle beautifying treatment.”
The kid grimaced in sympathy, then began to climb down with practiced ease. He jumped across the rocks until he reached Tony and offered his hand.
Tony measured him up and down. He didn’t look threatening. Though, the looks can be deceiving; he’d had that lesson drilled into his head since he could remember. And it was a lesson that saved his life more than once.
Still, he didn’t detect any malicious intent from this one. He accepted the hand and let himself be pulled up to his feet.
“Over here,” the boy said and scooted a bit back. When Tony had one foot securely on the rock, he jumped with ease over the rest until he was back at the tree. Tony wouldn’t be surprised if the root that tripped him up earlier was from that one.
Wet socks squelched in his boots as Tony made it to safety, wasting no time in taking off his satchel to rummage through it to check if anything damageable got damaged. Both his journal and the pocket plant atlas remained, thankfully, intact.
“Don’t mind Flash and the others. They’re like that with everyone.”
Tony put his things back into the satchel. “Was that why you were hiding in that tree?”
The boy shrugged, which was kind of an answer on its own. Instead of replying, he countered Tony with his own question. “What are you doing all the way out here in the woods? Did you get lost on your way to town?”
Tony looked over the boy again, this time trying to judge his potential usefulness. He was practically still a child, but it appeared he was way more familiar with the area than Tony was.
Maybe it was worth a shot?
“I’m looking for a plant called Dleidl.”
“Hmm,” the kid tapped his chin in thought before shaking his head. “Never heard of it, sorry.”
Tony deflated.
“But… maybe I could help if I saw what it looked like?” he threw a hesitant yet curious glance at the satchel. “I’m sorry, I saw you had some sort of atlas with you.”
Sighing, he reached into his sack and took out the atlas, flipping through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He pointed to the plant with an oval bulb and thick bush of thin leaves arching at the top. At the end of each leaf was hanging a small hard flower in a shape of a pale blue teardrop.
Out of the twenty-one regions in the whole kingdom, Dleidl grew only in four of them. It needed a muddy soil with a perfect ratio of clay, silt and sand, along with other minerals and chemical components.
A great deal of thought went into choosing where Tony should go search for it. Things such as insurgents, conflicts and restlessness of local population played a major role in it.
Despite its name, Queens region was nothing special. It was located near the northern borders, which put it away from most of the important events and conflicts. The landscape was quite hilly, making it barely self-sustainable compared to some of the bread baskets in the valley regions down south.
Up here, pure wheat was a luxury. That alone was pretty telling.
It had its own value though. This and neighboring region supplied the kingdom with most of the traveling tinkers selling and repairing metal utensils.
There was also barely any crime. Mostly because there was almost nothing to steal.
Overall, Queens was peaceful. Which was the reason Tony picked it.
And it wasn’t like he traveled here all alone! No, Rhodey was accompanying him. He was just staying behind in a nearby inn so Tony could go and enjoy some quiet alone time in the nature.
“Oh, that’s teary tassel!” the kid exclaimed. “Yeah, I can show you where it grows. There’s plenty of it.”
Tony’s jaw nearly dropped. “Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” the boy replied airily. He turned his back to Tony and motioned for him to follow. “Come on. It’s only about a fifteen-minute walk.”
Tony couldn’t believe his luck. Was he actually only dreaming? This seemed too good to be true. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school or something?”
The kid chuckled. “Nope. The harvest season is over, and school doesn’t start for another three weeks. So, that gives me plenty of free time.”
Ah, that made sense. “Very well then. Lead the way.”
“I’m Peter, by the way.”
“Tony,” he added after a brief pause.
“You’re not from here, are you, Mr. Tony?” the kid stated as he waddled his way through a wide body of mud spanning in front of them, filled with tassels of thin green leaves with teardrops at the end.
Tony stopped spreading his wet socks on a heated boulder, hiding his sudden apprehension behind a neutral mask he’s perfected over the years of formal gatherings. Has he misjudged the boy? Did he figure out Tony’s identity?
“How did you know?” he probed carefully.
“Your clothes.” After a moment, Peter turned around and elaborated further, “they appear plain, but they’re very well-made. And your shoes,” he added, “they’re too new.”
The kid was right. Tony got these only a few days ago, right after he ditched his whole entourage, sans Rhodey. From what he saw of this place, barely anyone here had new shoes; and if they did, they were nowhere near the quality of his own.
Poor region.
“Good eye,” he said and sunk his feet into the mud. It clung to the middle of his calves, but it didn’t stop him from getting his hands on those damn plants.
“What does a man like you do here, looking for teary tassel? If-if you don’t mind me asking, of course.”
Tony wrapped his hand around the base of the tassel and pulled. A muffled sound of something tearing could be heard before the bulb came free. “I need it for research, to see if the roots can have any useful application beside those already known.”
The kid perked up at that. “Are you a scientist?”
“Among… among other things, yes.”
“Whoa,” he sighed, starry-eyed. “Well, from what I know, the roots don’t have any medical use, but maybe you’ll figure out something new. Now, mouse’s tail, on the other hand. Or sunset drop, when you combine it with…”
And that’s how they spent the next hour. The kid droned on about various plants and their medical uses while they picked Dleidl, stuffing it into two canvas bags Tony brought along until they were full.
“You really know your stuff, huh, kid?” Tony asked, despite having no idea what half of the plants Peter was referring to were. It must’ve been some local dialect.
“Yeah!” he exclaimed, “I read every book we have in library!” The kid deflated a bit, his smile turning sheepish. “Though, I guess it’s nothing groundbreaking, considering we have only five books on the topic.”
Oh.
“But Mr. Harrington has been teaching me some theory! After school. He’s really smart.”
That piqued Tony’s interest. “Harrington? As in Roger Harrington? As in about this high, brown hair and glasses?”
Peter titled his head to the side. “Do you know him?”
So here’s he been all this time. Shortly after the accident where he’d lost one of his students, Roger left without a word, and nobody had seen him since. A pity, really. But if he was giving him extra lessons instead some local herbalist, then…
“Is he teaching the extra stuff to anyone else?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so. At least not that I know of.”
“Are you Gifted?”
In response, Peter pressed his thumb and pointer finger together and dragged them in a straight line, leaving a shimmering golden thread behind.
Well, that was certainly surprising.
The Gifted were a group of people with the ability to manipulate energy, whether it was their own or someone else’s. They made up about two percent of the kingdom’s population, but it manifested strong enough to be utilized to a useful level only in about a quarter of them.
And this kid in front of him was one of the few people.
A true rarity.
Usually, the Gifted operated within one of the three subgroups – strife force, which served as an umbrella term and further divided into offense division and defense division, and healing arts. It took a great deal of effort and time to become proficient in a single subgroup, but of course, when it came to strife force, there were some who honed their talents to such lengths they became proficient in the other division. The members of Tony’s elite guards, the Avengers, could be used as an example.
“Do you want to expand your power?”
“Yep.”
“In which direction? Offense? Defense?”
The kid shook his head. “Healing arts.”
Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “Healing arts,” he repeated.
Huh. For most people, strife force was their goal. Especially the offense division. As much as healing arts were respected, they weren’t all that sought after, mainly because they weren’t as flashy and offered no opportunity to master anything else by proxy. It also required a whole lot of different set of education and training.
Though, with Roger giving him extra lessons, Tony supposed it made sense. The man’s field of expertise didn’t lay in battle.
Tony was intrigued.
There was potential; the kid had a good basic control, but that alone wasn’t enough if it wasn’t being utilized. And since Harrington, like Tony, wasn’t Gifted and could only teach him theory…
“Have you ever considered studying at Queen Maria’s University?”
Amusement twinkled in Peter’s eyes. He snorted. “You’re so hilarious, Mr. Tony.”
Tony frowned, baffled. He wasn’t aware of telling any jokes. Studying at the University was a big prestige; being taught by the best of the best opened countless doors of opportunities. “Why?”
“Come on. Me?”
“Yes, you.” What was so hard about it to understand?
“Please. That school is only for people born into money. It would be nice, sure,” he said in a small voice before raising it again, “but let’s be realistic. What chance do I have of getting in? Or even getting close to it. It’s so far away!”
Oh. That… was a good point.
“I imagined it though,” Peter admitted a moment later, looking dreamily into the distance, “what it would like to be to study there. It’s one of those impossible things you think about when you want to escape the reality and keep your spirits up.”
“You shouldn’t be so certain about what is or isn’t possible.”
Peter chuckled, shaking his head. “You really are funny.”
Silence filled the air once again, both Tony and the kid wandering in their own thoughts. That was, until the kid shattered it with a single question.
“Hey, do you have any place where you can distill those roots?”
“Huh?”
“The roots. The flowers will last weeks but the roots won’t last a day after being plucked.”
“Say what now?!”