For weeks Gux plodded around the house, carrying the potted plant everywhere. He ate with it, he bathed with it (not in the water, though, as he learned after the first day when he’d gotten warned he’d drown it), he even talked to it when he had time. He didn’t talk to it in the same language Lily spoke; he wasn’t very good at that one. He instead talked to it in gnoll. It was a very growly, yipping language, and while Lily was a little scared the first time she heard it, the way he smiled and playfully kicked his feet while speaking really made her smile too.
One day, while Gux was sleeping, Lily walked over to the plant. Her hands waved with green, and she spoke to it quietly. “So, what is it that he’s been saying? Do you speak his language?”
The plant laughed a little, the sound a bit like rustling leaves. “Oh, no, but he’s teaching me! He started off by telling me all about it, and I have been picking it up… I haven’t had much else to do. If you didn’t use magic, I’d probably not really understand you. Gnoll is a very cool language.”
She tilted her head at that. “And he’s really treating you well? No growling or anything bad? Not even roughhousing?”
“Once you told him what he shouldn’t do, he was very careful! I love Gux! He’s the best!”
She smiled, patting the sprout on its little new bud. “You’re adorable. I hope you grow up big and strong.”
“With him and you watching me, I will.” Its leaves shuddered happily, then she removed the spell, the plant falling silent once more. However, she leaned back in her chair, looking around her abode and thinking about what the plant had said… She needed to learn a little more about Gux.
When he woke the next morning, he noticed two things immediately: The plant was gone, and so was Lily. She’d sometimes leave during the day, but she always told him she would, and when she’d be back… and most of the time she’d find him sitting on the doorstep, waiting and whining a little. Gux hopped out of bed, running into the main room and finding the little plant there. “There you are!” he said in his growling language. “I was worried about you! Do you know where Lily went? I don’t see a note or anything…” He searched the house, but there was no note, causing him to whimper and whine. Where could she have gone?
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter… I’m not going to worry about it. Now, how about some food?” He got up, going over to the pantry… but there was no food there. He looked around, hoping something would’ve grown, but… It was out of season. He’d learned about seasons and growing from Lily, and she grew most of her food with her magic. Without her…
He felt that pang in his stomach, that gnawing hunger starting to arrive. He moved frantically, running around the cottage searching for anything: some berries, a carrot… He looked for just a moment at his plant before shaking his head. He couldn’t do that… He went outside, looking through the groves, but there were only bare leaves. By now, he could almost hear a voice in the back of his mind, telling him to eat, to feed… to hunt.
He shook his head, holding his plant close to his chest. “I don’t want to hunt… I don’t want to hurt anything ever again. I won’t!” He stepped backwards as he yelled out, and one extra step made him slip and fall into the water. Immediately he held up the plant above it, blinking with surprise… and coming eye to eye with a small fish in the lake. He growled at it, his eyesight going red, and he snapped his teeth. He watched it swim away, and would’ve reached for it, had his plant not been held in his hands.
He stopped, seeing for the first time fear in the eyes of an animal near the house. He stood up in the shallow water, making that whimpering, crying noise as he backed out of it… He couldn’t keep like this. Already he could feel the hunt creeping up on him… that call for real food… He focused on the plant, holding it to his chest. “What should I do?”
It was… more of a feeling than anything else, but he felt comfort from the plant… a warmth that it was giving him. He looked at it, eyes going wide, as it waved in the breeze… A tiny little budding flower growing on it. He watched it, but it froze there… it would be days before it would even start to become a fruit. But… he wasn’t going to let his hunger win.
He held the potted plant in his paws, focusing on it. Slowly the hunger growled up from inside him, working its way through his chest… he could feel it behind his eyes, the drool forming on his teeth. However, right then, he shut his eyes, and instead of seeing some view of violence like he usually did when the hunger got too great, he saw Lily in the garden, waving her hands and magically summoning up some fruit for them.
He opened his eyes, nodding to himself as he did the motions as well. It came naturally, and soon his paws were glowing a slightly golden green, like the color of grass on the plains, before his plant’s flower grew, blossoming into a small cluster of white, speckled pineberries. He quickly grabbed one, placing it in his mouth. It didn’t have that powerful, hunger ending effect of the berries he’d had that first day, but it was still something he’d grown himself.
He hugged the plant close, making that same whimpering, whining sound, but… A happy version. Soon, it swapped to full laughter, feeling those dark voices slipping away as he ate another berry happily, then two more, all while singing little songs to his plant. They were, unfortunately, war songs, as those were really all gnolls were taught, but he tried to change the lyrics to be friendly.
He ate the plant down to one berry, and then he stopped… he had two options. He could eat it, then try to magically force more… or he could keep it there to show Lily he’d made a plant bear fruit. And, once more, he was hungry… but he waited, leaving his plant in a sunny spot outside. “Thank you, my friend. You saved me today.” He then went around, trying his spell on a few things, wanting to see what it could do, grinning from ear to ear.
By the time Lily returned, it was late at night, but she found Gux asleep in the living room, covered in all sorts of flowers, most of which were kind of smashed and bent from his paws as he tried to bend and braid them. He snored loudly, but had a content smile on his face, as well as the juices from many a fruit, the remains of some of which were still on the ground around him. On the table, though, was the pineberry, with a freshly grown lily beneath it. She took it gently, placing it in her hair, a bright smile on her face as she magically wove the flowers around him into a bed for the evening.
She then picked up the plant, weaving her magic through it. “So… He did all of this?”
“Uh huh! And he’s the nicest! He didn’t make any plant do more than it needed to, and thanked each and every one of them! You don’t even always thank them anymore, they said... He even hugged me close and cried the first time I fruited for him… He’s just the sweetest! He named me Berry.” Berry beamed with happiness, an impressive feat for a potted bush.
Lily shook her head, almost disbelieving. “There’s no way he can be that nice… He must have done something wrong…” The way the village had spoken about him… The arguments she’d had before being allowed to do research…
Berry thought long and hard. “Well… he did scare a fish when he got very hungry, after tripping into the water. But he even apologized to the fish and fed it one of my berries! It didn’t want it, but… It’s the thought that counts.”
Lily removed the magic, sighing to herself. She had a lot on her mind, but this surprise was a wonderful one… Still, before she went to bed, she popped the pineberry in her mouth. The burst of flavor made her smile brightly, and the sweetness to it… It erased any doubt in her mind.
“Tomorrow, we begin for real.”
