He stood studying the situation intently for several minutes, but nothing really leaped out at him. He glanced back at Sorcha, but she stood impassively, waiting and watching.
He debated climbing back up and asking what he was supposed to do, but he had a pretty strong feeling that wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He’d save it as his last resort.
The pattern tugging at his awareness was maddening. So close to the surface, yet eluding him like a word on the tip of the tongue that just won’t come out.
The surface. He glanced back at the edge of the pond, but couldn’t see anything from his vantage point. He shuddered. He was going to have to get closer.
He started to edge over toward where the milling bugs gathered, keeping an eye on the water’s edge and doing his best to keep his eye on the water’s surface.
Sure enough, as he got closer, he began to see specks floating on and just under the surface. They were tiny little grains, only visible in clusters, and as he got closer still, his suspicions were confirmed. There were a large number of the odd flowers laying scattered across the bottom of the pond.
Must’ve fallen in, and with the pollen floating up so close to shore on the surface, the bugs can smell it. Wonder why they can’t just go get them though … some sort of water aversion I guess, he thought.
Which means maybe I can help them!
For whatever reason, the insect … people, couldn’t or wouldn’t enter the water. Which made it a perfectly nice place for Brandon to be. He edged around a little farther out from their section of the shore, stripped down to his underwear, and waded out to where he’d seen the scattered flowers.
Holding his breath, he dived down for a better look at the flowers that had sunk to the bottom. He estimated there were a couple dozen of them. He figured they should be relatively easy to retrieve; the pond bottom was smooth and flat, with no places for wayward blossoms to hide.
Of course he had no idea if they’d actually have any interest in or use for the soaked flowers, but this was his best guess as to what Sorcha intended for him to do. He’d collect the lost ones and try to clear the floating pollen that seemed to be confusing the one group, and see how they reacted.