I Am A Carnivorous Plant

This new yellow attacker’s speed was insanely fast, and having taken all of us by surprise, there was totally no way that either I or the other plant would have been able to react in time to it. It was smaller than the pangolin by almost half, and looked softer and fuzzier too, but it used its speed to navigate the briars of vines that the vine plant had put up to protect it, managing to squirm its body between the gaps with perfect accuracy while still avoiding the dagger-like thorns that grew off of them, making its way to the squirming mass that seemed to encase the vine plant’s body, and slamming into it like a bullet.

 

I immediately took off towards the two of them as fast as I could, giving Shui orders to finish off the pangolin as I left. I could see the yellow thing, a rabbit with an oddly sleek body like an otter's, struggling against the center of the vine plant’s mass, repeatedly ripping into it with both its teeth and claws. Its face, paws, and arms were covered in blood from the litany of incredible thorns that protected the outside of the plant, and the rest of its body was also beginning to get covered in streaks of red from the vine plant’s retaliatory whipping attacks. Still, it never stopped working at the plant, and the look of determination that it had on its face was almost enough to move my non-existent heart.

 

But I’m sorry, admirable rabbit; I can’t let you kill my sibling like that!

 

My tendrils reached out, impaling and ripping away the rabbit, and threw it down onto the ground. It spit out the patch of plant fibers that were still stuck in its teeth, and struggled against my tentacles that were keeping it held down, fighting desperately as it hissed like some kind of cat at both me and the vine plant. There was murder in its eyes as it looked at us. Still, its wounds from the suicidal attack it did against the vine plant were great, and I could see that some of the dagger sized thorns had managed to puncture into the poor rabbit’s neck, causing it to bleed greatly. Seems to me like the vine plant was probably the worst match up that the rabbit could have gone for; It honestly probably would have died all on its own, even without me intervening like this, really. Why did it sacrifice itself like this so futilely? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

 

The dying rabbit struggled for a small bit longer as I watched it in confusion trying to understand it, and then all of a sudden its form began to change. Its yellow fur retreated away, revealing sliced up and bleeding patches of skin, and its car-sized body shrunk, losing the parts of it that I had been impaling, and slowly turning into the form of a woman. I wasn’t prepared for anything like that happening, of course, so I once again failed to react in time to the rabbit eared woman’s attack, and a shortsword that she’d had at her hip went flying past me, weaving itself between what still managed to remain of the vine plant’s protections, and digging itself into the center of the plant’s main body that was peeking through the gaps.

 

At the same time that the rabbit-woman collapsed and stopped moving, the vine plant did the same. Its surrounding vines began to curl and shrivel up at high speeds, disappearing into dust only a few seconds later, and revealing a small, child sized body made out of many many leaves. And from the ears, I could see that its body was obviously in the form of an elf. It was almost like I was in a trance when I saw it, and I left the rabbit-woman behind immediately and came closer to the vine plant’s body to get a better view.

 

It looked strangely like Chireelia to me. I don’t know, I haven’t seen a ton of women elves, in fact I think I’ve only seen two, really. Still, I can’t help thinking this thing looks so much like her… Or maybe I was just thinking that because she was the one who taught me about how corpse plants made from elves keep their ears. Maybe I wouldn’t have ever noticed that this was once an elf if that conversation had never happened.

 

After a few short moments of staring at my fading fellow plant, a loud bellow echoed in the distance, and I could feel the constant drain on my nutrients coming from Shui suddenly end. Loud thumping filled the area as the pangolin, which looked like it was on the verge of death, stiltedly made its way over to me. Its face was mutilated and half dissolved, and I could see various spots near its neck where Shui must have been trying to drill through but didn't quite finish the job, along with many many wounds that both the thorns and Shui’s bush babies must have caused to it all over its body. In a way, the thing looked like a freaking zombie. I really don’t know how it was still moving. Still, it leaned its body down, looking like it was going to do one last desperate charge at me, no matter what.

 

I moved in a defensive way, preparing myself to catch and finish the pangolin off, when suddenly it bellowed again in the most heartbroken sounding way, and veered off to the side, headed towards the dying rabbit-woman. Its tattered and slightly melted sloth-paws reached out towards her, as if to grab her up and bring her to safety. Honestly, I don’t even think I registered in the thing’s sight, it was just so focused on rescuing her.

 

So, before the pangolin could make it, I dashed back over and snatched the rabbit-woman up!

 

Maybe the rabbit looks like a woman right now, but these two yellow animals are the exact reason that I came here! They’re part of the ‘Pack’ that Lily told me about, and if I eat them, I’ll get even crazier amounts stronger than when I ate all of those Aqua Cores! I came all this way to the Wind territory just to do this exact thing and get strong enough to save the forest! I’d be crazy to just let the pangolin rescue the rabbit and run off together! It’d be completely crazy of me!!! I can’t just let all this effort of mine go to waste! I can’t let these two go! I-! I… Ah…

 

…Ah fuck.

Maybe I’m not as heartless as I think I am…

 

Look at how absolutely awful that pangolin looks! It looks like its whole world is going to end if I don’t let it save this rabbit-woman! …Is it love?! I bet it’s love! I bet these two are in love together! I bet the rabbit attacked so suicidally like that because it wanted to save its lover the pangolin, and the pangolin is doing its best to survive so that it can save the rabbit it loves! That's crazy sweet, really~! Ugh, I really can’t stand this~!!!

 

While I was agonizing over it all, the pangolin’s gaze slowly shifted. Its paws that were raised towards the rabbit-woman began to fist (as much as they could with how I’d slightly melted them) as if it was making its mind up about something, and I could see its head slightly turn in the direction of the vine plant’s body. Truth be told, although it dropped all dramatically like that and stopped moving a little bit ago, and although all of its vines were completely gone now, the plant was actually still just barely alive! The rabbit-woman’s shortsword totally must have damaged the vine plant’s seed, but apparently it wasn’t enough to just outright kill it. There was even a possibility that the vine plant might just live if nothing was done to it!

 

I guess the pangolin had decided that if they were both going to die anyways, then at least it wasn’t going to let the rabbit’s death be in vain.

 

Worried that the pangolin might just pull the same kind of trick that the rabbit did, I quickly summoned up Lily and rushed her over to protect the vine plant. The pangolin flinched, apparently not having expected even more corpse plants to appear to fight it, but it quickly regained its resolve. Looks like it still planned to do its best no matter what, which I found very admirable of it. Still, sometimes it would look over towards the rabbit with its melted yet still melancholic face, maybe feeling a moment of weakness. I bet it was still hopeful that it could make it out of there with its rabbit lover or whatever. It was all a bit too heartbreaking for me to watch… And very, very touching.

 

My stupid, sentimental mind began to churn at that moment, you see. I looked from the dying rabbit-woman in my arms, to the almost dead corpse plant that looked like Chireelia, and then finally to the swaying, agonized looking pangolin. The fact that the plant looked like Chireelia of course made me think of Til, and thinking of Til made me imagine the romantic little scenario of Til being the one in the pangolin’s shoes. Really, it would never happen, since I’m obviously so much stronger than him… But hey, aren’t I a woman, too, even if I am a plant? You can’t fault me if I have a little bit of a romantic in me sometimes! This may be a heartbreaking scene, but at its core, isn’t it kind of romantic for your lover to desperately try to rescue you like this, no matter what they have to sacrifice?! If anything, I'd say it's the pinnacle of love!

 

Yeah, imagining Til here was definitely the nail in the coffin…

 

Idunno… Ahhhh okay. Screw it. Maybe I’ll find some other animals from the Wind Spirit's ‘Pack’ to eat. It doesn’t have to be these ones, right…? I’ve gotten this strong already without eating a single one of them before, haven't I? So I guess I can be a little lenient this time…

 

Carefully, I came forward and offered the rabbit-woman to the pangolin. It was a confusing move, I’m sure, but the pangolin wasn’t gonna miss its chance I guess, because it immediately snatched her away from my outstretched tentacles and started hobbling itself off, all of this be damned. Really gotta commend the thing for acting as quickly as it did. Happy it wasn’t the type to let pride or duty get in the way of its love; Makes up for everything else a little to see, you know?

 

<You... Are you really just going to let them go like that?>

 

Lily’s voice woke me up from watching the pangolin stagger off into the distance.

 

Oh right, I completely forgot about her and the other corpse plant for a moment! Quick, if we don’t do something, then that plant is totally gonna die! I don’t have the time to be watching the cute couple run off into the sunset like this~! I’ve got my sibling’s life to save!!!

 

=Lily! This plant is going to die! Help me save her!=

 

<What?! That’s not important right now->

 

=What can we do? Can I give it nutrients somehow?! But I think it already ate all the bodies around us! Maybe if we hurry we can find some animals nearby to eat… Ah, but I don’t know how this thing eats at allllll!=

 

I’m pretty sure it needs to mulch up its food first before it eats it, if what I saw earlier means anything, right? I could maybe figure out a way to do that for it, if it really need it… But then what exactly did it do to eat after that?! Does it have a mouth somewhere, or maybe it eats more similarly to how Trig does? It could also be that it actually eats through its roots, like a real plant would…

 

=Lily, help me look for this thing’s mouth-=

 

<Are you being serious right now?!>

 

Out of nowhere, Lily unraveled her arms that she’d been furiously crossing, turning one of them into an almost lance-like shape and suddenly spearing it through the dying plants body, piercing exactly through the remnants of the plant’s seed, completely shattering it. The leafy body of the vine plant quickly poofed into ash, just like the treant once had all those months ago, right in front of me. The sound of the sword that had previously still been impaling it suddenly clattering onto the ground felt deafeningly loud to me.

 

_____

 

AN: Aaaaand we're back! Thank you for waiting~! So I had planned to premier some new cover art for this today, but something very sad happened to the artist's family, and so it's running a bit late. But I really like it, and it should be done sometime in the next few days, so look forward to it coming out soon!