When I opened my bud, it was already morning.

Right in front of me was the little witch, tangled up in my vines.


“Good morning, Alraune.”

It seemed the little witch couldn’t get herself free from my vines.
They were wrapped all around her. It was a complete mess.

Without realizing it, I must have ended up capturing the little witch.


Well, she was soft and warm, so I guess I treated her like a body pillow in my sleep.
Though really, since she was holding onto me too, it feels like we were both using each other as pillows.


When I tried to move my vines, the little witch let out an embarrassed sound.

“That tickles…”

“I’m… sorry.”


What should I do?
The vines are tangled together so tightly that it doesn’t look like I can undo them easily.

Isn’t this situation… kind of bad?
I took a moment to calm myself and looked over the state we were in.

A plant monster tying up a girl with its vines in the middle of the forest…
This is bad. From the outside, I must look like some awful monster attacking a little girl!

And to make things worse, I also look like a little girl myself.
What would people even think if they saw this?!


To resolve this critical situation, I started carefully loosening the vines, as if I was solving a puzzle.

Every time the vines squirmed and shifted, a cry escaped from the little witch’s lips.
She seemed to be holding back laughter, struggling with the ticklish sensation.

At the same time, I noticed sweat beginning to bead on the little witch’s skin.

Worried I’d made her too hot, I hurried to adjust the vines.
But that only made the little witch squirm even more, sweat trickling down her forehead.

Even so, I patiently continued undoing the tightly coiled vines, little by little.

As she slipped free, the little witch slowly became visible.
Somehow, it felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t.

I glanced at the little witch’s clothes, hanging on a nearby tree branch.
That’s all she has. Which means… yeah.


No, it’s fine. There’s nothing suspicious about this at all.
I’m just untangling the vines wrapped around the little witch.
Nothing more, nothing less.

Besides, my mental age is older than hers.
As an older sister taking care of her little sister, this kind of situation is bound to happen, right?

I never had a little sister in my previous life, so I’m not really sure.
Alright, big sister’s going to do her best!


But that determination didn’t last long.

“Ah, this… might be… impossible.”

There, before my eyes, was a knot so bizarre and complicated that I couldn’t even imagine how it ended up like this.
Big sister has failed……

It looks like there’s no way I can untangle this any further on my own…


“Sorry, I… can’t untangle it.”

“Well, guess it can’t be helped. Let’s just spend the day like this.”


Unlike me, who was completely dejected, the little witch didn’t seem bothered at all.

That’s not so much being open-minded as it is being way too carefree.

I mean, we’re supposed to go about our day like this, tangled up together?
The little witch… all wrapped up in vines?!


“If I think of Alraune’s vines as clothes, then there’s no problem.”

She looks like she was born in the forest… is this really okay?

What’s more, the little witch hasn’t tried to undo the vines herself even once.
She’s just been quietly watching what I do. I wonder why.

Well, I guess there was nothing else we could do now.
Maybe if we moved around, the vines would loosen on their own. Until then, I suppose we’ll just spend our time stuck together like this.


──Huh?


I just realized it now, but it seems that while I was sleeping, I’d been drooling nectar from my mouth.
How embarrassing…

Drooling in my sleep at my age is so unladylike.
Then again, I look like a little girl, so maybe it doesn’t really matter.


But still… what is this feeling?
My mouth feels a little off.

I can’t quite put it into words, but it feels different from how I usually wake up.
After all, even over the past year, I’ve hardly ever woken up while drooling.

As I pondered this, my eyes fell on the little witch, sucking on her finger.


She usually seems so composed, but I guess even the little witch has her childish habits.

If a ten-year-old little witch can’t stop sucking her finger, then me drooling a little is nothing to worry about.
Yes, let’s go with that.


While waiting for the little witch, who for some reason was meticulously licking her finger, I made an apple for her breakfast.

Strangely enough, this morning the little witch didn’t ask for any nectar.

I’m grateful the little witch hasn’t gone crazy for nectar.
Leave being a perverts to that boy and Bear Papa. I already have enough.


“Here’s your breakfast, Alraune.”

The little witch pulled out some grass from among the clothes hanging out to dry.

Apparently, she gathered it in the forest yesterday while I was lost.
She knows about my Plant Generation ability, so it really helps when she collects plants I’ve never eaten before.

What could this be? It looks a bit like sundew.

Back when I was a high school girl, I remembered seeing a similar plant in a plant encyclopedia.
Sundews are carnivorous plants, just like me.

Anyway, since she went to the trouble of bringing it for me, I’ll dig in.
I took a bite of the sundew-like plant while watching the little witch.


The little witch stuffed my apple into her mouth, munching away.

An apple and nectar alone clearly aren’t enough for her diet.
I have to figure out a way to give her something more nourishing!


“Let’s… go look for… food.”

“We have apples and nectar, so it’s fine.”

“That’s… not enough.”


I know because I hugged her body yesterday.
The little witch is way too thin.

She’s at the age where she should be eating a lot. She needs better food.
Big sister is worried.


“What kind of food are we looking for?”

Fruit and nectar alone are way too unbalanced nutritionally.

If I’m looking for something else I can easily get in the forest… well, protein is the obvious choice.
Nothing beats meat, after all.

“Catch animals… eat meat.”

“For example, like that one?”

“…That one?”


The little witch pointed deep into the trees.

When I followed her gaze, I saw it.
A single, huge frog.


A giant frog with mottled patterns.
A frog-type monster, a Flutfrosch.

Judging by the patterns, it looks like the same frog I saw by the river yesterday.

The frog prince who saved me from the river.
I never thought he’d come to see me again on his own.


“Just when we were finally having a nice moment together, a frog has to ruin it…”

The little witch stared at the frog warily.

Come to think of it, she didn’t know that this frog might have helped me out at the river.

Making an effort to speak, I explained to the little witch that this frog may have saved me back then.


“This frog touched my Alraune…”

Huh… somehow the little witch’s expression just got sharper.

Why?
Instead of gratitude toward the frog, she seems to be feeling hostility for some reason.


The frog approached.

The giant frog closed in, its face completely expressionless.

It was kind of scary.

If he’s a prince, I wish he’d be a little gentler.
But there’s no sign of that at all.
If anything, he’s more like a robot, regarding us with nothing more than the cold, emotionless eyes of a predator.


Just a few steps away from us, the frog’s mouth snapped open.
Then its tongue shot out.


It all happened in an instant.

Before I realized it, I was caught by the frog’s tongue.

Hyeeeeh!?


“Alraune!?”

I could hear the little witch’s panic in her voice.

After all, right now the little witch and I are practically one and the same.
We’re both at the mercy of that tongue.


And then it hit me.
Mr. Frog was no prince.

It was just a wild monster frog with a voracious appetite.


Both the little witch and I were completely smeared in frog spit.


The little witch had it worse, though.
She was already tangled in my vines, and now the frog’s tongue had wrapped around her as well.

She’d been captured twice over.

Thick, sticky frog slime dripped down from its tongue.
Ugh, this feels so gross.

Worse still, the frog’s massive, gaping mouth was right in front of us, making it even more unbearable.
Since I was stuck in my flowerpot bucket, I had no roots in the ground, so it could easily drag me along.


That’s when I noticed something strange.

Inside the frog’s mouth, there was something that looked like a blue flower blooming.

Why is there a flower inside its mouth…?

Maybe this frog eats plants.
If that’s the case, am I its prey…?


A herbivorous frog, huh.
And it likes its flowers alive, no less.

Then does that mean… I might be exactly the kind of flower this frog likes?

If I were still in my large form like before, a frog like this would have been easy to deal with.

But right now, I’m a little girl.
Rather than eating, I’m clearly on the side that gets eaten.

N-no.


I don’t want to be eaten by a frog, nooooo!!

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you very much for reading.
If you thought this story was interesting or felt that I’m doing my best, I’d be really happy if you could support it with a bookmark or five stars. Your support is a huge motivation for me to keep writing.

Next Time: Everyone Covered in Slime


TL’s Note:

A sundew (genus Drosera), species Drosera tokaiensis.