Submission (#6185) Approved

If Sienna could frown while she brushed away the branches in her way, she would have.
She wasn’t the biggest fan of going out looking for strange objects, but when she had heard about new plant life suddenly growing, she had to get a look for herself. Her home was filled with as many exotic plant species as she could find, and the thought that a new addition to her collection could be just a simple walk away was enthralling.
She didn’t even care about the rumors she’d heard. Rumors spread all around Terrah like wildfire - one day she’d hear about a gigantic monster in a lake, the next, she’d hear about fairies causing mischief in the woods. She was sure that these rumors were just the same as all the others. That meaning… entirely false.
She hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary on her walk so far, though. Thistle had sworn up and down that they’d seen a few, and she liked to think that she trusted Thistle’s judgment out of anyone, but now she was just wondering if Thistle was worse at identifying uncommon flora than she thought they were.
She was just about to huff, give up spectacularly, and turn around, but then she spotted something… strange.
The smaller flora in this clearing weren’t growing towards the light - in fact, they were growing far more in the shaded areas. That wasn’t normal or natural at all. If these plants weren’t taking in sunlight, did that mean they were getting most of their nutrients from somewhere else?
She crouched down to examine them. These plants didn’t seem carnivorous, either - that would have been her first guess as to an alternate nutrition source. Plants that grew in areas without much sun usually evolved methods to eat insects so they could survive without as much sunlight - it was the easiest alternative nutrition source in shaded areas.
She couldn’t quite figure out what these plants were getting their energy from… which meant these were probably what she was looking for. She hadn’t seen anything similar growing within the area.
Very carefully, she dug around the dirt, so that she could pull up a clump of the plants with their root systems still intact. This way, she could replant them as soon as she got home, and try studying them further.
She had a small pep in her step as she made her way back. Looks like her little adventure wouldn’t go to waste after all.