I was dreaming.


I was dreaming of myself back as a human, walking on my own two feet.


I was spending the winter in the castle.
By my side was the Hero, the prince, and my fiancé.

I was sitting on a bench. He came and sat next to me, gently holding my left hand in his.


Ah, this is happiness.
Is there anything more blissful than this? No, surely not.

My Hero, you know… I was having a nightmare.

I was reborn as a plant in the forest, left all alone forever.
And then in winter, a heavy snowfall trapped me in ice, and I nearly withered away.

That life… it’s not right.
I don’t think I could ever bear it.

So, stay by my side forever, okay?
It’s a promise, my Hero.


Suddenly, the warmth of his hand disappeared from mine.

In its place, something warm spurted out.

When I came to, the room was stained red with blood.
I looked at my left hand, wondering what had happened. And I found that it was gone.

The Hero was holding my hand.
My left arm, severed.

Sensing a presence, I turned around.

There stood my junior apprentice.

In her hand, she held a scythe conjured from wind magic.

She was recognized by the kingdom for her talent, someone with a promising future.
That’s why I’d taken care to mentor her.

I had taught her all the light magic I knew.
I knew her chest was larger than mine, and that the Hero’s gaze occasionally lingered on them, but I had swallowed my feelings and guided her kindly.


So why… why did she cut off my arm?

Blood spurted from where my left arm had been.
I quickly casted a healing spell and restored it.

When I tried to stand and run, my legs were gone.
My junior had cut them off.

I tried to use recovery magic, but it wouldn’t work.

Why?
My arm could regenerate, but why not my legs?

I can’t even move from this bench.


Then, I raised my right hand to retaliate with magic, but it wouldn’t lift.
My right arm, too, was severed by my junior.

I screamed and cried.

Then my newly-regenerated left arm was cut off again.


I couldn’t do anything.
What am I supposed to do?
Help me, Hero.

I looked at him pleadingly, only to see him embracing my junior.

The two were pressed tightly together, like lovers.

That’s right. I had been abandoned.
Betrayed.

I glanced at the floor.

Where my legs should have been was a flower crown.
Below it laid a bulb, roots stretching into the soil.

My body had transformed into a pistil, with countless vines growing like arms I could manipulate freely.

Oh, I remember now.
I had become a plant monster.



——Flutter.

My bud opened.


A sharp, piercing scent, like standing on a barren snowfield, filled the air.

The forest was blanketed in snow.

Right, I had been buried under it.

But why had the bud, which should have been frozen solid, opened? I looked around.

All the snow around me was gone.

What was happening?
The last thing I remembered was snow covering me entirely.

Yet here I was, in a hole where the snow had vanished.
It was as if someone had cleared it to save me.

But if so… who?

No footprints. No signs that anyone had come.

Maybe the snow disappeared on its own.
That’s strange… could that really happen?

If I had body heat, maybe I melted it myself.
There are plants that can do that.


Maybe I had received the goddess’s blessing.
As a saint, I had mastered light magic that only women blessed by the goddess could use, so perhaps I was already under her protection.


The snow vanished without my noticing.
Following the withered tree nearby, this was the second of the forest’s seven mysteries I had witnessed.


——Thud.

Just as I was straining my mind, desperate to unravel the forest’s mystery, something came falling from above my head.


It was a flower that looked like a monk sitting in meditation.
Deep, murky red, with a cluster of small flowers at the center, the flower was rare and unusual.

Looking up, a bird flew overhead.
A white bird.

It must have been keeping my previous request in mind.
Such a dutiful little bird.

But I was grateful.
After all, the flower resembled a skunk cabbage.

If it really was a skunk cabbage, it made sense that it could bloom in such heavy snow.
With it, maybe I could survive this blizzard.


Skunk cabbages are unusual.

They generate heat themselves, melting the snow.

During winter, if the snow buries them, they can’t bloom.

So they learned to produce heat, melting the snow around them.

A skunk cabbage can generate about twenty degrees of warmth under the snow.
It keeps generating heat like that, slowly melting the surrounding snow.

That’s how it manages to flower earlier than anyone else, blooming in the snow where it has no competition.

That’s the skunk cabbage.
It should have existed in Japan as well.

If the skunk cabbages in this world have the same trait, I could inherit that ability.

No hesitation needed.

Crunch.


I could feel something changing inside of me.

Focusing on the warmth I wanted, the surrounding snow began to melt little by little.


Even though I was a plant, steam began to rise from me.
In the bitter cold below freezing, my very existence had become as warm as spring.


Even if more snow keeps falling, it won’t be a problem.
I can just melt all of it and turn it into water!

The cold is no longer my enemy.
Even the snow has lost its power over me.

I had conquered this harsh, bitter winter!

The melting snow seeped into my roots.

Ahhhhh, the water tastes so good.


I have to thank the white bird.

After giving me the Christmas rose, it came back to give me another flower to use against the winter cold.

Surely the bird didn’t clear the snow itself.

I know it can’t, but I had to wonder. After all, it had helped me many times before.

The white bird is truly my savior.
Thank you. I won’t eat you, not after all you’ve done.


There was another person I should thank.
The mysterious snow clearer.

Who saved me from the snow?

There’s no footprints as far as I can see.

This feels like the trick of a fox.
Or even a prank by a mischievous fairy.


Maybe it was Santa, since it’s winter and Christmas is close.

He rides reindeer through the sky, so no he wouldn’t leave any footprints. Somehow it all makes sense..
The gift of a little snow-clearing for a lonely flower like me.

Well… there probably isn’t a Santa in this world.
Not that I can say he existed in my previous world either.

Since it happened while  I was unconscious, I won’t be able to verify the truth.
If there were at least some footprints, I could make a guess, but with nothing at all, I can’t even imagine what happened.
Well, at least I have plenty of time. I can just pass the hours by slowly thinking through the truth.

After all, winter no longer scares me.


Anyhow, I was saved.
To my unknown helper, wherever you are, whoever you are, thank you.

As I bowed my head, I saw something small peeked out of the snow.

I brushed the snow aside with my vines.
And there it stood, a pale green sprout from beneath the snow.


A new sprout had pushed up from the ground..


I felt certain that spring was approaching.


I tried clearing the snow in a few other spots as well.

Everywhere, newborn plants were sprouting.
New life awakening, letting out its first cries.

The long winter was finally coming to an end.


A season of paradise  for living things.



Spring was coming soon.

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you for reading.

Next time: Hosting the Forest Ball

TL’s Note

The japanese name for skunk cabbages (座禅草) translate to “sitting monk grass”, a reference to the flower’s appearance.