Chapter 11: When removing brambles, take care of cuttings

The speaker was a twisted mass of bramble, but it was not attached to the greater body of the plant. A pair of green roses in the place of eyes stared at Dr. Bones. This twisted mass had four limbs, each ending in a mess of roots and it had a tail that was at least twice the length of its body.

Its thorny maw moved, and once more it spoke with a voice at odds with its appearance. The voice of a frail and fearful woman. As if she was about to burst into quiet tears.

“Stay. Please. Don’t leave me alone. Please stay. You stay.”

-Hmm, some kind of external agent? It isn’t aware. Running of the desire of its creator? It appears to be wholly separate from the main plant- Dr. Bones thought to himself.

Ignoring the shiver down his spine, Dr. Bones pulled out a jar and his jade clippers, he carefully advanced towards the bramble familiar. Yet as he did so, the familiar got up on its rear legs and displayed its belly to him, which in abruptly horrifying fashion split open into a cage that was clearly mean for Dr. Bones! It leapt at him, trying to trap him!

“Stay! YOU STAY!”

-Well that’s no way to get someone to keep you company-

As a dimensional doctor, Dr. Bones was trained in dealing with frisky patients, so he gently rolled out of the way. As he rolled, he slapped his jade clippers.

-Grow!- he commanded.

The shears swelled in size, as a dimensional doctor, having tools that can grow or shrink is much better than having different sizes. The clippers grew to such a size that the familiar was between the blades!

“You –”

*Snip*

The bramble familiar’s halves fell down, not even twitching. Dr. Bones carefully got up, dusting himself off and tapping the clippers.

-Return- he commanded.

As he was about to examine the remains, he leapt back! The halves were twitching. The front half grew a tail and moved about on it, the bottom half grew a thorny maw and a pair of roses blossomed on it.

“You!” “You!” they cried out in stereo.

Dr. Bones clutched his skull.

-I suppose I should have expected that- he complained, dodging the pair as they tried to catch him.

He felt a pain in his spirit as he watched the familiars rampage about, destroying what little remained of the records. He pulled out a bag of powder, herbicide!

This herbicide was made from worms! The Herbsweller worm can be found in a number of dimensions, and when it eats it causes plants to balloon up, which of course means more food for the worms. The key point is if left uneaten, the plants quickly rot away.

Trying not to get caught in the cages of the familiars, Dr. Bones sprinkled the herbicide on them. They started to swell straight away, which meant of course that they stopped moving. Delight welled up within Dr. Bones, but it would soon turn to dismay.

-Wait, they aren’t swelling how they should!-

Realising what was going to happen, Dr. Bones ran past them and dived to the side in the corridor outside. He was not a moment too soon as the familiars exploded into a mess of brambles that spilled out the door and blocked one side of the corridor!

“Stay”

“You, Stay”

“Lonely”

There were brambles behind him and in front were more of the bramble familiars! The splintering of stiff plant matter filled the air, and Dr. Bones unhappily observed as the mass, that had newly grown, formed a mouth like a cage!