Side Story: A day in the life of Fredrick the houseplant

Author’s note

Can’t believe I gave you 24 options and y’all really got together and said make him write from the perspective of a plant. It was a fun little challenge and I think I did my best at it but the result is way shorter than I like to release for anything I write so to make up for that I’m putting out an extra chapter saturday so hope you all look forward to that and the next poll will be out sometime this weekend as well. Anyway, get reading and I hope you enjoy it!

What does it mean to be happy?

It was a question that had no bearing on the life of a plant, it wasn’t how relevant to how they experienced the world when the little that they did feel could be summed up as either well or unwell, with pleasant being the most constant state for anything that grew within the earth, even for one that was being divided from the land by a pot.

It was a question that by all accounts should have had no relevance to Fredrick either, even the idea of being able to ponder it was bizarre, but then, it had left the typical route its kind was destined for the moment it was taken in by the other. Its companion, its friend, the only other mind it could interact with, helping it grow and doing its best in return.

How is that? All set up in a new pot, with newer stronger enchantments attached? Does it feel good?

It may not have understood what the words meant, let alone been able to understand the thoughts as words at all, but what it did know was the feelings behind it and how good they felt as it tried to return them.

The care it received was second to none and its growth reflected that, looking more and more like a small tree than the bush it was under the power of ever-strengthening enchantments, perfectly designed to give it the best environment it could, along with ensuring it’s health, on top of the rest it had received too. The soil it grew in was enriched with the byproducts of imprisoned gods, giving it resources that mortals would kill for, and its soul had received the most unusual thing for anything of its stature, the blessing of a god, even if small.

It was the sort of thing that was normally reserved for the beloved trees and flowers of nature gods before their worlds’ fell, not for anything as simple as the berry bush loved by an unusually impious apostle, but combining all of the gifts it kept receiving, along with the unusual stimulation that came from the presence of another mind, was propelling its growth far above anything else that could be considered its kind and let it slowly learn and take in from the world what it could.

Of course, lacking anything akin to sensory organs left that difficult, but not impossible. As it and its friend would poke and prod at each other with their feelings, it would learn the entire time, forced to face concepts outside of its frame of reference but enjoying it anyway.

Let’s see, from how you’re feeling, I really should move you a bit, shouldn’t I? The other said, producing a range of emotions that were hard to understand until Fredrick felt the change itself as more sunlight hit its leaves and water came to its roots, giving it a burst of joy and energy.

Ha, you like that, huh? I really should make sure I make you a rotating platform so you get the most sun you can. I’ll do that soon.

Again it couldn’t tell what the thoughts meant, but it did know what they were full of and made sure to respond in kind. Its friend was always doing its best for it so it tried to do its best in return, and with that feeling in its soul it exerted the bit of effort it could.

Along with the magic placed to help it, its own will forced it to take in more, absorbing the light and taking in water and nutrients from the ground around it, making its roots stretch farther into the new environment while its branches stretched out, too slow to see with the naked eye but at a speed that would put any typical plant to shame. The amount of will it could exert on itself was small yet ever-growing, just like the rest of it, and all of that growth was just a byproduct of what it really wanted.

There was one aspect of it that Fredrick knew its other loved, the small berries it was supposed to grow every few weeks, but under its constant work, those weeks had been brought down to mere days, with the size growing ever larger while the flavour of them deepened.

It was work. More work than a plant would ever do. Normally, they’d just exist, their bodies developing through instinct alone, but at a certain point, this had become the new normal for it. Using the tiny bit of power it had over itself for another.

It was a curious thing, or at least it seemed so once Fredrick had grown enough to be capable of that level of curiosity, but the answer to why was obvious enough with one parting touch to its leaves.

Its other, its friend, loved it deeply, and Fredrick gave back that love in return. Even when their minds didn’t touch, even in the smallest of gestures, it wanted that to be known.