I was an Alraune, a plant monster girl.
Winter had arrived, and as is the fate of all plants, I feared I might soon undergo defoliation. So many flowers and plants were simply withering away. If my own flowers were to scatter their lives to the winter winds, wouldn't I automatically wither with them? I would fall to the ground and return to the earth.
Ugh, I hated that thought. It was far too terrifying.
Even if I was a plant, I was still a monster; surely I had more stamina than a common flower. I wanted to believe I could survive the winter without withering.
If I were something like a conifer, I wouldn't lose my leaves, but I wasn't a coniferous tree. If I were a cedar or a pine, I might have stood a chance, but those guys were gymnosperms. I, however, was an angiosperm. While that didn't strictly dictate whether one was deciduous or evergreen, I certainly didn't feel like I was kin to cedars or pines.
If anything, my closest relatives were eggplants. I was a woman of the Solanaceae family.
Regardless, I had to find a way to keep my leaves through the winter. To do that, I needed a massive amount of nutrition. However, the wild animals remained deep in hiding, and I had already devoured every rogue monster in the area.
I was at my wit's end.
I wished I had been born as a plant species naturally resistant to the cold. I honestly didn't know which way the Alraune leaned. Perhaps being a monster meant I wouldn't undergo defoliation, but I couldn't be sure. I wasn't willing to take that gamble. If I just let nature take its course and suddenly began to rot, I wouldn't be able to handle it mentally. I wanted to extend my life by any means necessary.
I would have felt so much better if I had proof that I was winter-hardy. Barring that, my only option was to become a plant that could survive the frost.
Think, Iris. Think.
—That was it.
If I ate a flower that possessed cold resistance, I could surely survive the winter. Since I had the ability to absorb the traits of the plants I predated, the threat of defoliation would vanish.
The problem was that there wasn't a single flower blooming in my vicinity. To have the cold resistance I needed, it had to be a flower that bloomed in the dead of winter. A withered flower wouldn't do. Only a plant that could flourish despite the freezing temperatures would possess the traits I required.
If only I could walk, I could have gone searching for one. But life wasn't that simple. After all, I was a plant.
"Oh, hello, White Bird."
I truly envied it. White birds were lucky; they could soar through the forest as they pleased.
Wait, the White Bird was right here! When I had held that "music lesson" for it the other day, I got the impression it understood a few of my words. Perhaps my wish could actually reach it.
"Bird... I have... a favor... to ask."
Even though I spoke in the freezing air, no white mist escaped my lips. It was a cold reminder that I was no longer human.
"Bring... me... a flower."
Help me, White Bird. You're my only hope.
I was only guessing that it understood me, but I had to try. I followed up my words with a series of frantic gestures, making it clear I wanted a flower. Without a single chirp, the White Bird took flight and disappeared.
Any flower blooming now would surely be hardy. If it were something like rosemary or a Christmas Rose, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Oh, God, Goddess... White Bird-sama. Please, grant my wish.
The following day, a miracle occurred. The White Bird returned with a flower in its beak. It was a white, elegant blossom that looked quite high-class. It bore a striking resemblance to a Christmas Rose.
If it was a relative of the Christmas Rose from my previous world, then this flower possessed incredible cold resistance. Some varieties could withstand temperatures down to minus fifteen degrees Celsius. If I could gain that strength, I would have nothing left to fear from the winter.
"Well then, time to eat."
Chomp.
There. With that, I should have been able to endure the frost. I already felt as though I was growing accustomed to the chill. I had likely obtained the resistance I sought. I had been "selectively bred" once again.
"Thank you, White Bird."
I was so grateful the Christmas Rose had evolved to be so hardy. Thanks to it, I felt like I could finally survive until spring.
Come to think of it, while this world didn't have Christmas, my old world did. It was winter now. Back in Japan, it might have been right in the middle of the holiday season—a time to spend with a lover. How I yearned for that.
My former fiancé, the Hero, had been stolen away by that trashy junior of mine, the Apprentice Saint. We never got the chance to huddle together against the cold. Those two newlyweds were probably flirting so much they were sweating, oblivious to the temperature. They were living in luxury in the castle, drinking warm soup by a fireplace before sharing the heat of their bodies.
While they were smiling and touching one another, why did I have to be alone, half-naked in a freezing forest, lamenting my malnutrition? The disparity was absurd. It was fundamentally wrong.
Now that I had overcome the cold, my mind was wandering into unpleasant places. My throat felt parched. I wanted water.
But I didn't want my words to be misunderstood. I said I wanted water, but I never asked for it in its frozen form.
Tiny white crystals began to dance down from the sky. It had started to snow. I supposed it wasn't all bad; once it melted, it would provide moisture. As long as the ground got wet again, I didn't care.
"The snow... it’s delicious...!"
No, it might have been tasty, but this was bad. The volume was insane. Was this a high-altitude blizzard? The world was already turning into a blank sheet of silver. My bulb was already buried, disappearing beneath the drifts. It felt like a "once-in-a-century" blizzard.
Piling snow was a death sentence for me. I was going to wither from the sheer cold.
I tried to use my vines to shovel the snow, but there was a limit to what I could do. I couldn't move it fast enough, and more snow cascaded from the heavens like a waterfall. As the hours passed, the depth only increased. Even with cold resistance, being buried alive in a snowdrift was more than I could handle.
Someone, anyone... I needed a yukizuri—a support frame to protect me from the weight.
And it wasn't just the cold. If my pistil ended up buried, I would freeze solid inside the drift. Worse, the sunlight required for photosynthesis wouldn't reach me. I would be cut off from oxygen and carbon dioxide. Suffocated by the snow, I would be unable to breathe or generate energy.
If that happened, cold resistance wouldn't matter. I would wither and die.
If it snowed on an animal, it could just crawl out and walk away. If a creature could move, it could find shelter. But I lacked the one thing almost every other living being possessed: mobility. I was trapped, destined to be swallowed by the white.
Why? Why did I have to be a plant? Why couldn't I move?
I’d had enough. I had cursed this plant body countless times, but never with such despair. Just because I couldn't walk, I was going to be claimed by the snow.
I see. I was going to die here, alone in the cold. It was a fitting end for someone as lonely as me.
God, I missed the touch of another person. I wanted warmth. My body and my soul were so, so lonely...
The snow had reached the height of my chest. My vines were frozen stiff; they wouldn't move an inch. I closed my eyes in resignation.
My new life as a plant... it had been unexpectedly short.
Hachi-san, we finally reunited, but I don't think we'll see each other again.
Tanuki Elder, I wanted to protect the Ponpokos like you asked, but I can't do it anymore.
White Bird, thank you for finding that flower. It went to waste. I'm sorry.
Ah, no. I couldn't take it. There wasn't enough light, and it was so cold. I was so sleepy, and my mind was turning as white as the world around me.
"Goodnight, everyone..."