It Can Happen

It Can Happen
    I toss another rock into the licorice colored portal that split open my favorite sunning spot. The rock disappears with a muffled fhoomp as it passed the white part of the threshold. “C’mon!” I lament. “Go away.” I was getting hungry waiting in the shade. The thick canopy above obstructs almost all the light for quite a distance. My sunning spot was spared because a tremendous boulder buried below made all but the shallowest roots impossible to grab hold. Without a husband, I had to make do with sunlight just like my non-sentient cousins. I reach with a vine and limply toss one more rock. It disappeared with the same fhoomp the last 12 did. I shrug in defeat. “Fine, you win you dumb hole.” I gather up my base and uproot myself once more. I am about to leave when I sense two sets of footsteps rapidly approaching my spot.
    In a very, very tight lead is a human man. He rounds the treeline following a rough animal trail towards me. He’s in a ruined black coat and a messy, olive-white undershirt. He is sobbing inconsolably and running from the other pair of footsteps. I see Diane the Holstaur beat-red and bounding close behind the man. Her eyes set solely on the man, his eyes focused only on staying one step of her… and both of them headed straight for the red-white portal. Without thinking, I do my best impression of a jump. My roots strain as I lift myself into the path of the dainty man. He screams as I appear, stopping in his tracks and moves to turn left. Diane, lost in heat and overcome with lust, launches herself in a desperate tackle at the man, and unfortunately, me. We all tumble together in a tumult of bodies and with my last once of strength I bat both of them aside and fall right into the portal.
    I experienced the spell in an instant, its power wrapping me up tightly like a bear’s hug, and squeezing me out like a spent sunflower seed. I hit this new ground with a painful thud, then a skip, and then a new thud much like the first thud. I roll back on my leafy petals, groan, and dig my roots into this new ground. It’s dry and cracked like sandstone, but difficult to sift through. With a bit of effort I pull myself forward. I gasp. Stone towers reach higher than any tree I have seen. The sky is a strange hue of browns, greens, and reds. The portal is gone, but with my luck I figured that is a given. At least I feel some light, but even that tastes different. It was potent, yes, but I try to place what else I could compare it to. I imagine the sulfurous air of the Reaches, a chain of volcanoes east of my former home, and how invigorating the soil was. The air is like that here.
I feel new vibrations, a single, small biped softly stepping carefully nearby. I cast my eyes in its direction. “Is someone there?” A human girl, no older than twelve probably, steps out from behind a metal box larger than me. She’s dirty, her clothes are scraps of dull brown material, and her face pocked with small scars, dirt, and freckles. Her creamy brown skin is marred with cruel, brown rings. I use my human form to beckon her closer. “It’s okay cutie. Come here.” She inches forward slightly but holds that metal box with her rail-thin left hand. I see her holding a wicked looking piece of glass wrapped to a short metal stick in her right. It’s stained with crusty blood. She points it at me.
“Monster!” She weakly exclaims only to punctuate it with a cough. Specks of fresh red dot her hand. “Go away! This my turf.” She waves the knife around motioning to the dead towers. “My home. Go.”
I feel my heartstrings pull as she coughs again. Deep, hooting spasms rock her and she struggles to hold herself up. I skim the inside of my petals as I think. “Make me,” I sneer. “I think I live here now.” The little girl snarls and moves forward only a step as my longest vine snares her feet together and hangs her upside down like a dough-eyed hare. She takes a moment to realize what happened, but begins to wave that knife around. She passes the blade near me, but I realize she lacks the strength to even lift herself up. “Put. Me. Down.” She grunts as the glass blade only cuts the empty air between us.
I bring her closer. “What's your name cutie? I'm Josephine.” I recline in my bulb, allowing her to hang just outside.
“Please dont eat me, she pleads. I'm sorry. Please dont-,” she gushes as she begins to cry.
“Stop, stop. I I'm not going to eat you.” I reach for the knife with my human hand. She goes wide, and I'm able to catch her hand. I feel the strength she has fade as I take and throw it away. I bring her next my seat. I try to smile again.  “Hungry?” I offer a part of myself, a melon sized fuzzy orange fruit with a soft skin. “I'm told its tasty.”
I see her bony fingers quickly grab the fruit before she thinks I have the mind to rescind the offer. She bites into the top and takes a portion larger than her head. She mewls as she tries to catch the juice dripping from her mouth.
“You see, nothing to worry about. I'm just a lost plant lady is all.” the girl ignores me. I nudge her a bit. “And you are…”
“Nally.”
“I'm sure we'll get along famously.”