Fenter the Rath'ani Chaos Mage returns to his room to check on his plant, "Junior", which he had received from "Uncle Agnes" – the alien plant-like visitor on the sky island of Fetiss. The plant has grown to enormous size, taking up part of the room, and a large pod in its center replaces the smiling "flower" that used to be there.

Fenter tries mixing together some fertilizers he got, in order to feed Junior, first testing the concoction on a vermite that was chewing on his tail. As he touches Junior, the pod splits open, and Fenter panics at the notion that he has hurt his "progeny". The pod opens up, revealing a fuzzy green ball inside … which unrolls, as a little green Rath'ani that looks a whole lot like Fenter at about, oh, four years of age or so. The little raccoon's eyes happen to change colors just the way that Fenter's do. Fenter, however, is not green.

Fenter tries putting two and two together, and ponders whether this might indeed be "Junior". He puts some old clothes on the little raccoon, then heads out in the hallway to find a mage to help him figure out what's going on. He runs into Iona, a Jupani Earth Mage, who agrees to examine the raccoon. After a ritual, she determines that the little raccoon is indeed a plant-based life-form, even though he looks like a Rath'ani … and she tries to help figure out how to care for the strange tyke.

Fenter, meanwhile, is left with the burden of trying to cope with the responsibility of raising a little green raccoon!