“It was Jacob again,” reported Green when they welcomed Blue to their small hut. “Said the seedlings failed him again. I told him that he could save up a lot of money if he took his time instead of buying random bags of seeds.” They sigh. The little phantom does not like it if their advice gets ignored.

“Humans are so weird.” They continued. “It’s like they use their weaknesses to their own advantage: If they don’t feel like it, they will beg for help and act so pitiful you can’t help but help them. But once you give them just a tiny bit of reassurance, or something else they deeply needed, they’ll scurry off acting like they own the world.” Green accidentally spilled the tea they wanted to serve Blue.

Blue was always one quick to act. They grabbed some towels and helped their host clean up the temporary mess. “I think he’s just stubborn,” they remarked after making sure that Green had nothing else to say. “I mean – he has always been kind to us, even if he didn’t need help. -Or he’s just too preoccupied with this dream tree. People are not really that pleasant if they’re obsessed with something.”

“You’re right. He has always been a good student; constantly searching for rooms of improvement and striving for perfection. You’ve seen his flower field, haven’t you? Without his diligence, he won’t be able to make such a big business only selling flowers.”

Blue nodded. “And he has talent, yes. Maybe that’s the very reason why he now shifts his focus on trees: He might feel like he can’t improve anything about flower-growing anymore. Well, you know better about plants.”

With the spilled tea and all the following mess cleaned up, Green served the cake. “Being talented can make you dumb, right.” A loud clicking noise came out when Green cut their cake with too much force. They put the cutlery aside and sighed. “The thing is, Blue, before you transition to trees, you should at least have an idea about bushes. Or spider plants. Trees should be the last goal, not the second goal. But no! Almighty Jacob knows so much after he now has a steady means of income from flower-growing and -harvesting.” Without even realizing it, Green grabbed into the cake and bit into it. “Hmmmmmpff!”

“Hm, yea. Humans are weird in that regard. Always rushing when it comes to knowledge. I think only the wisest know not to hurry.” Blue sipped their tea. “Don’t be mad at Jacob, just be honest with him, and he’ll realize that he’s being dumb.”

“Honest at what? I always tell him everything!”

“That you’re tired of repeating the same thing over and over again and that he shouldn’t see you if he doesn’t have anything new to report other than that his new random bags of seeds failed him again. I’m sure he doesn’t know you freak out so much because of his dumbness.” Blue does not know the man as well as Green, but Jacob has visited them several times in the past for borrowing some books in their library. The place where the snow is blue is not a friendly place for humans though, and Jacob couldn’t visit them since the day he got the “blue cold” for visiting the place too often. But the little phantom likes him. He might be a bit quirky, but Blue knows that he is a good person.

Green, on the other hand, almost meets the man everyday. He first came to the phantom with little coin to his name and offered to help in the fields for some money. Green always wanted to help people, so they accepted, and also made sure Jacob has a means to survive by himself. They first taught him how to grow vegetables, then flowers. The man learned fast, and in a matter of months he already had the king request his harvest for big feasts. Now he focuses on flowers which people might process into perfumes, food, or simply arrange as decoration.

“Now he wants to grow fruits and spices, but you know the soil of this place. It’s almost impossible to grow something aside from oranges and apples. He wants bananas and mangos! And cinnamon!” Green squished their cake. Now there’s another mess.

“What about berries?”

“Well, he said they’re boring and not as profitable.”

“Then he has to infuse the seeds with magic?”

Green gulped down their tea. “That could be an alternative. Or infuse the soil with magic. Or the water. Or building a greenhouse with magic. -But he can’t do magic!!”

“Ah… No one to teach him?”

“Exactly. Magic is a weird thing for humans. They might have a strong affinity for magic, but they need a teacher in order to learn it effectively.”

Blue scratched their head. The closest magic school is about two days away where Green and Jacob live, so signing him up would be bad for his business unless he can entrust it to someone else. But that would not be a good idea if you were still short on people you can trust.

“What about Violet? Violet should be able to help him.” Although Blue finds them arrogant, Violet is very good with magic and spends most of their time doing and teaching magic for humans.

“Why are we trying to solve someone else’s problem!” Green almost screamed in frustration. “Why can’t I stop helping humans!”

“Well, as for me,” Blue sipped their tea, “I find humans fascinating, so I always wonder how someone would be, if they reached their full potential. Besides, Jacob is your friend, of course you want to help him. And I think you just like watching things grow in general. That is why you like your field so much, isn’t it?”

Green sighed. “You’re right. We could maybe summon Violet. But I don’t know if Jacob wants to learn magic at all.”

Blue shrugged. “Just ask him.”

That afternoon, the two little phantoms decided to come over to Jacob the Flower Grower to tell him about their idea with Violet.

“Well, that is a very generous offer, you both,” Jacob then said after they tried their best to be as persuasive as possible, “I can consider it. But before that, I want to show you something.”

He took Blue and Green to a small house in their garden. There were rows of small palettes, pots. “Green, I am very sorry that I was not being specific enough. Some seeds did grow into seedlings; what I meant by ‘failed’ was that only at most 5 of them turn out to be like this.” He brought them closer to the pots. There were indeed sprouts in them.

“I also found a method to pick out the good seeds quickly; that way I can recycle the bad ones to something else. Some even want to buy it for spices or something.” He turned to Green. For him, the phantom is just the size of a big dog. “Magic lessons would definitely help me out. I am sure that knowing magic can be of much benefit to me.”

“Huh, so you’re not that dumb!” Pouted Green. “Alright, that’s good. I thought you were just blindly throwing the seeds to the field and complained why you haven’t got a tree. But this is good progress, better than I expected from you.” Green showed some sign of relief. It is true that they have not paid much attention to their pupil for the past few months.

The man just laughed. “I did try that at first, and some even started to grow. But then I was being dumb and forgot that I planted some seeds in the first place. And sometimes I give the sprouts too much water or something. So, I am still dumb to a certain degree.” Jacob then turned to the blue phantom. “Blue, I think you need to lend me some more books about plants. Trial-and-error is getting exhausting.”

Blue also lit up. They always get happy when someone acknowledges their book collection. “Of course, I’ll bring them the next time I come to visit.”

Because the time has come for Blue to go back home. It is about time they went back to the place where the snow is blue and take care of the blue tree that stands in the middle of it. A visit to Green always gives  them a new perspective, a new insight. It does good to go out and see the world of a friend. It does better to experience it with them.