Professor Valmaris
Taenya was dismayed at the state of the gardens as they walked up to them. Barnaby was old to be sure, but this way no way to treat plants. She turned to Barnaby and looked at him disapprovingly, shaking her head.
"You don't listen to the plants do you?" She asked.
"Listen to them? Ma'am they're just plants. They don't talk."
"All living things speak, if you have the ears to listen." Taenya said, kneeling next to a seedling. Listening intently, she reached into her pocket and placed a few seeds into the ground. With a satisfied look on her face, the plants grew in mere seconds, ivy almost exploding out of the ground, entangling every plant in the garden as it spread.
"What are you doing?" Barnaby shouted, looking around.
"The plants aren't happy. I need to move them, and moving them by hand takes precious time. Ammangoan Ivy does the job for me, though." Taenya said, standing back up to face Barnaby. "No human gardener could ever care for a place this big."
Taenya stood and watched as the ivy uprooted entire trees and moved hundred of plants around to their whims. Students caught unaware yelped and dodged the trees as they lumbered around the grounds, given locomotion by the ivy. The ground quaked as a several hundred year old oak hauled itself out of the ground, and seemed to look around.
"Oh my. He's heard of the rest of The University, wants to visit it." Taenya said, chuckling slightly.
"He's what?" Barnaby asked, dumbfounded as he watched the old oak slowly walk away down the path towards the fire magic department's buildings.
"The plants understand when you speak. Thousands of students have sat under his boughs over the centuries, and he's listened to them all." Taenya said, beginning to follow the old oak as it lumbered down the path, the other trees bending to give way.
"Far be it from me to ask a silly question, but does the old oak have a name?" Barnaby asked, struggling to keep up with Taenya.
"A good question. A moment." Taenya said, and started to run to catch up to the oak tree. With a graceful leap, she landed in its boughs, and sat for nearly a minute, speaking quietly to the tree. She gently patted his trunk as she climbed back down, and rejoined Barnaby.
"Well?"
"He says names are for walkers." Taenya said, nodding her head sagely. Before Barnaby could reply, he spotted Lord Xilro and the Headmaster running up, their expressions priceless.
"Barnaby! What's going on? The plants all over the campus are in an uproar, they're all walking about!" Otto Ward the Headmaster asked.
"That's my fault. I planted too much ivy." Taenya answered sheepishly. "But you haven't been taking care of your gardens. The plants are quite upset at where they've been planted."
"Barnaby who is this woman?" Otto asked Barnaby, gesturing at Taenya.
"Well I came to apply for your creation magic professor job, but it seems you need a gardener far more." Taenya answered. "Gardens this big need a master of the craft. I'm not my mother, but I got at least 30 years on your man Barnaby here."
"An elven gardener?" Otto asked, turning to whisper with Lord Xilro, who looked intrigued as well.
"What are we going to do about the tree?" Barnaby asked, pointing at the old oak as it continued to walk away without them.
"Oh he'll be around. Just stay out of his way." Taenya said, waving at the tree, who to Barnaby's surprised, waved back.
---
"So what do you think?" Otto whispered to Xilro, while Taenya and Barnaby were preoccupied with the tree. "Is she who we need?"
"Sad feeling from soul. Need us more than we her." Xilro replied after a moment's thought, flicking his tongue. "Silver hair important."
"What are you two whispering about?" Taenya said, sneaking up behind them and putting an arm around both of their shoulders. "I know, you want to hire me, is that it?"
Otto and Xilro looked at each other for a long moment before Otto deigned to answer.
"In a word, yes. There's still the matter of an interview, however. Let's go to my office, all of us."
"Barnaby, come." Xilro said, offering his hand. Barnaby nodded, and Xilro picked him up with ease, placing him on his shoulders. Taenya watched curiously as Xilro casually leapt into the air and turned into a dragon, flapping his wings and disappearing from view very quickly.
"I know his name from somewhere, I swear I do." Taenya said, wracking her brain.
"Lord Xilro's?" Otto asked as they resumed walking.
"Yes, I heard or read a story about a dragon once, I'm sure of it, I'm sure he was the one in it!"