I Am A Carnivorous Plant

Magic rushed through my roots faster than it ever had before, almost surprising me with the power behind it. Just as I’d wanted, sharp and strong vines pierced through the ground with almost explosive force and speed, piercing in and out of the wolf-dragon’s paws like they were sewing him onto the ground. It was amazing to see the speed and effectiveness of the vines, thin and strong, yet pliable; Even the mansion-sized wolf-dragon, who suddenly howled in pain, was barely able to move his feet under their hold.

 

Um… Yeah, that’s what I wanted to have happen, but wowww was that way better than I expected it to be!

 

Like okay, maybe I was just in a super frantic rush when I grew those lilies earlier to get rid of mom’s evil no good bad bad bad nuke tree, but like… Yup, now that I’m thinking about it, that was also explosively more effective than the first time I’d tried to grow some of my lilies, huh? I’d just chalked it all up to it being how it’s supposed to be when I finally grew them, you know? I mean, it was my first time seeing it really work, so I just kinda believed that that was the natural way it did things. Healing people wasn’t any different, so I don’t think it’s just naturally my ‘powers as a magical plant’ leveling up, right…?

 

Is it… Is it just when I grow things that’s so crazy powerful now?

I know I watched mom do some pretty crazy things, but I kinda thought that that was just her being the rightful owner of the body, you know?

 

Agh, whatever, I’ll test it out later! For now, we deal with this dog!

 

I’m sure getting his paws sewn into the ground hurt or whatever, but since my growing powers did an extremely good job, there was much less blood, screaming, and resistance than I expected there to be! This makes things wayyyy easier for me to explain later once we’ve finally settled this whole stupid misunderstanding!

 

Alright Mr Avatar, you just keep sitting comfortably there and watch while pretty lil’ Mellily fixes everything!

 

I had Shui carefully bring the injured people closer to me again. Making sure that I had his attention, I patted the wolf-dragon’s head and tried to match my (non-existent) eye-level to his, to show that I was serious.

 

=Look. You’re gonna wanna see this, Mr Avatar.=

 

A loud, intimidating noise came out of his mouth in response, like he was growling at me. Honestly, it’s really impressive how loud he managed to make it, considering how tightly I had his mouth clamped shut. Makes me wonder if it really was a growl or a howl or something. Heck, he could have actually finally been speaking to me this time for all I knew.

 

But I don’t care! This time I’m gonna be the one who doesn’t listen! I don’t need to hear a single thing he has to say until after I prove my innocence!

 

Once again I leaned my head down over one of the injured people and aimed the dew of a lily at their wounds. I could feel the wolf-dragon desperately trying to fight against me again, even with his paws sewn down like they were. The super small bit that he could open his mouth was starting to glow too, which was slightly worrying to me; It looked like maybe he was gonna do some kind of magical beam through his mouth at me or something in desperation. But with his mouth forced closed like that, wouldn’t he just hurt himself…? Ah well, he’s the protector of these people, so he probably is willing to sacrifice himself or something for them. Wowww, how noble~. But really it’ll be a pain in the ass if I have to heal that on top of your paw-wounds, so maybe can you not, Mr Avatar?

 

Ugh okay, lemme just hurry this up I guess so he doesn’t do anything stupid!

 

I gave up on trying to carefully aim for the wounds, just figuring that my super powerful healing magic would take care of whatever, so long as it touched them anyways. It was gonna be super wasteful probably, but screw it, you know? If it works it works; A bit of my resources going to waste is nothing in comparison to me righting wrongs and fixing things!

 

The glimmering bits of dew fell like a sparse rain onto their targets, quickly healing them of their wounds, and easing the pained looks that covered their faces. It didn’t take long for the people I’d healed to regain consciousness and get up from the ground, looking around in confusion for a while. It was great to see how effective my treatments were. Heck, if this whole ‘L’Lan’e’frea, savior of the forest!’ thing doesn’t pan out, then maybe I could copy mom’s magic trick and pretend to live as a ‘human’ doctor somewhere while I go into hiding! I’m sure I’d make a killing, what with how effective my treatments would be!

 

Yeah, but you see, I don’t look very human right now, now do I? So obviously everyone who woke up immediately ran away once they laid eyes on the big repulsive looking plant-kaiju who’d saved them. Really, it was completely to be expected.

 

Still totally hurt to see, though!

I miss my old body before mom messed it up, man~!

Maybe I still scared people, but at least I was pretty while I did it~!!!

Ah… If a plant could cry…

If only I could pretend that this healing dew were my tears~.

 

…Alright, enough of being dramatic! Wolf-dragon! Mr Avatar! Did you see that? Did you see what I did there for those people? Wasn’t it amazing? Didn’t I change your mind? Don’t you wanna stop fighting and let me save everyone now?!

 

But his (hard to see, really, through all fur and his sleek design) eyes didn’t look very convinced.

If anything, he just kinda looked confused and distrusting.

He’d stopped tugging, that’s for sure, but there was still a distinct feeling that, given the chance, he wouldn’t hesitate to attack me again.

 

Oh I see, I see~. You’re not that easy, huh Mr Avatar? That’s okay, it’s to be expected, what with the obviously incriminating scenery around us and everything. Honestly, I’d be surprised if that was enough to win him over right away anyways! Alright then, if that’s how it is, I guess I’ll just have to do more until I finally make you see the truth! I have plenty more convincing tricks up my sleeve!

 

Shui brought me the people he’d been rescuing in waves, and I just kept healing ‘em up! Thankfully it was less messy and wasteful too, since the wolf-dragon stopped fighting me so much. In between the healing sessions I made sure to point out Trig’s equally valiant efforts with the buildings, so that they wouldn’t go unnoticed to my captive little puppy. And as the signs of aggression seemed to dim enough from the wolf-dragon’s body language, I decided it was time for the true show of trust to start; The cherry on top, you might say!

 

The two Pack members, who’d been struggling on the brink of death for farrr too concerningly long during this whole charade, were brought in front of me!

 

Okay so don’t get me wrong, this may have been one whole big show that I put on to get them to trust me, but I didn’t trust them not to attack me, you know? So I played it safe and wrapped them both in a niiice little cocoon of vines, just so they wouldn’t spring up and attack me to free their leader once they were all healed up and everything. I don’t think it’s something that you could blame me for, right? I’m just being cautious, just like these kinds of talks call for!

 

But yeah, I guess the wolf-dragon didn’t appreciate it very much, judging from how he began to thrash again once he saw it.

 

=Hey! Calm down for a moment, here! I’m not trying to do anything bad to them! Stop moving around so I can help them already!=

 

For the first time, my words actually seemed to get through to him. It took a moment, but the wolf-dragon’s thrashing slowed down, ending up in just an intense, glaring stare instead. It took a lot out of me to resist patting him on the head and saying ‘good boy’ to him, seeing that. Yeahhh, I’m sure that would have screwed things up royally for me if I did it, huh? These peace talks of mine would be in complete shambles! Shambles I say!

 

...Let’s just hurry up and heal these two already!

 

My magical little lilies did their job, and the dewdrops twinkled down onto them, healing the snake and the… goat, I think? Maybe? Well whatever, they both got very very healed, and as the light of life started coming back to their eyes, I could feel the wolf-dragon in my tentacles begin to shake. It was easy to see that he was starting to get emotional over watching his comrades being revived like this. Really, it made me want to give up my hold on him and let him rush over so that he could check on them. Maybe if it were me before this whole mess with mom taking over, I would have totally done it, too.

 

No… Let’s be real; If it were me before the mom fiasco, maybe these two would have already been eaten. Heck, maybe I would have just killed and eaten the Avatar here, too. I’m sure with the freaky new powers that mom showed me during her rampage, I would have probably won the fight by now between him and me.

 

It’s amazing how strong you can get while trampling on the lives of others.

 

Slowly, my tentacles loosened around the wolf-dragon’s mouth, just enough for me to feel safe while also (presumably) being enough to let him talk. Or, well, at least I hoped that he would be able to talk. Hell, I’d even accept dog-whimpers at this point, so long as it was in some sort of response!

 

=So are you finally gonna listen to me now? Can you believe me that I’m not trying to fight you, and that I'm only trying to help?=

 

The wolf-dragon’s eyes scanned over me with apprehension for a long time, occasionally flicking over to his two trapped Pack members nearby. I gave him plenty of time to think things through, knowing how craaazy all of this must have seemed to him. Really, I'm sure it required plenty of mental gymnastics to finally understand.

 

“...But you are the one who attacked this town. You are the one who killed many of our towns and people. You are the one who killed many of my Pack… Why should I trust you?”

 

The voice was gravel-ly and strained, either because it was coming from the throat of a dog or because his mouth still wasn’t able to fully open yet. And, you know, his words were 100% true, and equally just as damning for sure. But to me, who’d been desperately trying to win him over for the past hour or so, they sounded like music to my ears!!!

 

Finally!

Progress, sweet progress!

 

…Now what can I possibly say back that would win him over?

I uh… I don’t think I really thought this part through…

_____

AN: Hey, folks! I'm freaking dying from how busy my life is suddenly getting, so I need to slow down a bit on how often I'm releasing these. I'm already not somebody who's good with a structured routine, and now that's getting eeeven more difficult! So yeah, gonna be a bit erratic with the posting for a lil while until I can get stuff a bit more under control, sorry!

Thank you as always for reading!