I Am A Carnivorous Plant

It took longer than I would have liked to get out of the lake. My poor little fragile petals felt like they would be plucked off by the weight of the water once I finally made it out of there. Or at least, what was left of my petals. I had always thought deer were so cute, who knew they were actually such horrific menaces?! All things that want to eat me will no longer be seen as cute through my (nonexistent) eyes from this moment forth!

 

…Ah, I’m a real wreck. Everything on my right side feels weak and loose, and I’m worried about my main stem. At least my digestive sac didn’t burst, or maybe it would be impossible to recover. Or even worse, if my seed was hurt… I couldn’t say how I knew it, maybe it was just instinct, but I knew that my seed was ‘me’. I still had it, of course, connected to my stem and roots and buried deep underneath all these petals and leaves. Maybe I could say it was my brain or my heart? Or maybe it was what was holding on to my ‘soul’. I was once a human somewhere else before, didn’t it make sense that my soul was now in this plant if ‘I’ became ‘it’? No matter what happened to the rest of me, if I wanted to continue living as the beautiful carnivorous plant that I was destined to be, I need to keep my seed safe. At least that dumb deer stomping on me hadn’t cracked it or anything, likely because of the extra cushioning from my leaves and petals. But thinking that it could have happened terrifies me far more than the fact that a part of me managed to get eaten!

 

Ugh. Why was this lake so dangerous? Even in the water I wasn’t safe! Aaaaah, and everything was so perfect, too! The plans to make my home there were going to have to get shelved until I was at least strong enough to slaughter a herd of deer. Or I guess until I was at least strong enough to escape from them, if I had to lower my standards.

 

I re-examined my condition a few times to try and reassure myself. I might be in tatters, but at least I’m a plant. It’s not like losing a limb as a human; This can all grow back if I take good care of myself. I’m a little worried about the singed tentacles, but worse comes to worst, I can find a way to cut them off to allow for a cleaner regrowth. I still have all the tentacles on my left side functioning just fine, and although the remaining ones on the right are sluggish and weak, they can still be used for some things, I’m sure. I’ll try and play it safe for now, hunt more birds when it’s dark, and hopefully heal up quickly.

 

But first let’s get away from this stupid deadly lake!

 

My roots were completely fine although terribly waterlogged, so I managed to walk deeper into the forest with some slightly wobbly steps. I admit I felt really really imbalanced since my right side was suddenly much lighter than my left, but that was just something that I would have to live with for now. I at least wouldn’t stumble or fall, since my roots were still as strong as they were before the whole deer debacle.

 

Eventually as the light began to dim, I came across a swarm of flies zipping around a fresh corpse. It seemed a bunny had been recently killed by some kind of predator that liked bunnies. Some of its flesh and organs were missing, so the predator must have already eaten its fill. It must have been a few hours, by the way the body was starting to decay.

 

I won’t say no to a free meal at all!

What a shame that I’ll have to give up all of these flies though; They could have made for a good snack.

 

Ah.

Wait.

This is the perfect chance!

Let’s just get a little bit closer and run a test, shall we?

 

I got as close as I could to the bunny without worrying the flies, and set in my roots. My mouth opened up and the bitter gas began to flow out of it. I paid close attention to the flies, crossing my tentacles that the experiment would be a success. The moment my gas reached the swarm they all let out a loud buzz, and less than a second later the entire group of them dropped to the forest floor.

 

It works! I really am poisonous! Or maybe it should be that I’m venomous? But isn’t it poisonous when we’re talking about a gas? Ah well, who cares? I’m poisonous! I can totally put this to use against my prey, right? I even bagged this neat little swarm as an appetizer! What a strong little plant I am, I-

 

Oh.

Oh no.

Does this mean I really could have avoided the incident with those deers if I’d been putting out my gas while I rested?

I’m sure they’re not immune to poisonous gas.

Even the frogs I’d been trying to hold back for wouldn’t have been safe against this, right?

That means… That means I made that whole horrible ordeal happen to myself...?

I had all the tools to make it not happen, and I simply didn’t use them.

I am a fool. A foolish foolish fool.

 

Ah… No, I mustn’t be too hard on myself.

It was a learning experience!

That’s what journeys are!

I’m new to all of this, don’t judge me please!

Now I know, okay?!

I promise to put it to good use from here on out to make up for it! Promise!

 

Anyways, these flies and this rabbit aren’t gonna eat themselves. At least I still have the tentacles on my left side, or else I wouldn’t have been able to eat the flies or the rabbit very easily. The disassembly of the rabbit will still be hard even with all 5 of my left tentacles. It’d be like tearing something apart with only one hand, wouldn’t it? Welp, I was left-handed in my previous life, so I should be pretty dexterous with them, right?

 

No sense in worrying about it, eating awaits!

Bon Appetit!

 

~~~

 

The rabbit took a while to eat, just as I’d suspected, and by the time I managed to finish it, it was already quite late into the night. I was feeling too annoyed with how limited my movements were at the moment to even think about going bird hunting right now. Besides, I was already pretty full from eating the remaining 70% of the rabbit that had been left for me on top of my pre-dinner flies, so I didn’t really need to go out looking for any more food. Instead I found a nice small area, away from any possible prying eyes, to go focus on my recovery in. I planted my roots and remained perfectly still. People typically healed best while they were sleeping, right? Are plants very terribly different? I can’t imagine it’s easier for me to heal while I’m roaming around.

 

The first thing that I’d like to recover is the other side of my tentacles. I wiggled them weakly as I thought about them. How inconvenient it was to only have my left side at my disposal! I suppose if I had lost one of my arms or hands in my previous life I would have been even more frustrated trying to do tasks, since most things in life required a bit of precision or cooperation from both hands. Yes, although I find my leaves and petals to be absolutely lovely, I definitely need the tendrils back first for convenience’s sake.

 

As I continued to weakly wiggle my singed tentacles, I grew more and more frustrated by my lack of control over them. A few hours had gone by, but since I was impatient and couldn’t immediately perceive the healing that I was hoping would happen taking place, my frustration could only grow and grow. Eventually I grew so very frustrated that I wagged the tendrils violently and shouted (on the inside) with all my heart that I wanted my stupid tendrils to grow back already!

 

And crazily enough, they suddenly did.

 

It was like I could feel some weird sensation happening inside of me. There was an odd tingle in my seed that flowed to my digestive sac, and suddenly my left side gave off a faint glow. My singed tendrils quickly repaired themselves and turned back to their original shapes, and the remaining three that had been broken off had slowly re-sprouted and grew back to perfection after just a few minutes or so!

 

…This is absolutely crazy...

Am I magic?!

This is amazing!

I’m such an amazing plant!

A magical plant!

A wonderful plant!!!