FFM14: To War!
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." Merci scoffed as she turned the page. "They really have no idea, do they?"
"Evidently not." Deceit gave Freddy another packet of fertilizer. The plant crept away with its (his) prize, and watched as Deceit passed the remaining box to Merci.
He knew where it would go. First, Merci would count the packets, to be sure all of them were accounted for. Then, one of them would take the container back down to the kitchens, where Etna would store them. In a locked cabinet. That Deceit had reinforced with cement and rebar after his last raid on the kitchen. It did not help that Merci was allowed to practice magic again- after being grounded for months. The kitchen knives still weren't the same, and the sudden temper tantrums turned unwilling target practice kept Freddy from the kitchens altogether.
Today, that was going to change. Freddy quickly absorbed the fertilizer with greed, and began his trek to the other side of the house. As a mutated plant, most movement was awkward and poorly synchronized. Stairs were never an option because of that. Freddy had tried once- once, and ended up potted for over a week during recovery. He hated pots, especially the terracotta ones. Instead, vines stabbed at the button for the dumbwaiter. There were several installed through the establishment, mainly to aid beings like himself.
He began to plot, during the ride downstairs and the subsequent trek to the kitchens. Etna would ultimately be in the area, cooking enough to feed an army and probably half a small country as well. Somehow, he needed to get past her and successfully pick a lock, and escape before the knives noticed.
It did not occur to Freddy that ultimately, he was pitted against inanimate objects in his mission to free the fertilizer for mutations like him everywhere. But mainly him. Freddy was a very greedy creation.
Etna, as he soon discovered, was in the greenhouse across the breezeway, arguing with Newt about how purple potatoes were actually a thing whether he liked it or not- and he just needed to stop whining about it and pick the damned beans or she'd stick him with shelling them too. Freddy took the opening and slipped into the kitchen, taking his time and sliding across the floor as quietly as possible. Sure, he was leaving the world's biggest soil trail over what appeared to be newly mopped tile, but he was on a mission!
A mission that required him to glance towards the tops of the counters every so often, hoping to whatever deity recognized him (Gaia, maybe? He was a plant, after all.) that the knives wouldn't notice him. Finally, the cabinet was in sight! And directly underneath it, all of the knife blocks. Freddy hated his luck. He would go for it, however, just much more carefully than before. He wound vines in and around the cabinetry handles, and slowly, Freddy pulled himself up onto the counter. Vines wound around the fertilizer cabinet's handle while Freddy's attention remained fixed on the knives. One false move and he would be done for.
Lucky for him, it was not the knives to foil his plans this time around, but rather a pair of apple green hands grasping him by the main stem, and pulling him off the counter. Etna only hummed as she waltzed over to a corner, with Freddy in tow.
"You need to stay off the counters, Freddy. Deceit will be unhappy if you get into another fight with the cutlery again." She murmured, placing him in a terracotta pot. Freddy's leaves ruffled with irritation, and he stayed put.
Over on the counter, one of the knives had shot up out of the block and balanced precariously on the edge of the counter, as if in warning. Freddy curled in on himself, and leaves ruffled in frustration. One day, he would win. One day.
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