Dampest Dungeon: Flower Bed

She relaxed as the plant constricted around her, holding her tightly in place. Clasped thusly, there was no danger of her falling out of the plant or becoming unbalanced. After spending months in this position, she was as comfortable here as she used to be in her human body.

Turning around, she offered a hand towards Allium. The other plant woman was of a more slender build than her, and had been unable to get out of the pool herself the last time they had visited together.

Allium nodded her head, her sunflower dipping towards Maria, and took her hand. With a force of brute strength, she pulled the other plant from the water, setting her down gently next to her.

Taking her by the hand, she urged her forward, knowing that her desire to give birth to the seeds would only become more urgent with time. Allium made a low honking sound, which Maria knew was equivalent to her laughter. She was finding her distress amusing!

She frowned, tugging at her arm. This was no laughing matter! Birthing cramps were severe, and once she was in the throes of them, it would be hard to get her into the proper position. It wouldn't be impossible, mind you... when the human half of the plant was incapacitated, the plant's instincts would take over.

She had personal experience with that when she had foolishly allowed herself to become dehydrated. Her plant had taken her to the fertile field and rooted her in place for hours next to the aqueduct, a sufficiently long time to teach her a lesson.

Still, there was no reason to let it get to that point. She honked back, annoyed, as the two of them made for the elevator. There was already another plant girl waiting patiently, the elevator's button glowing.

Maria honked a few notes in greeting, and the other plant girl turned slightly, the royal purple flowers sprouting from her breasts bobbing from the motion. The plant woman's body relaxed as she returned the greeting, nodding her head.

Maria hummed excitedly. This was one of the newer girls, who had been captured in the last few months, Lucy. There hadn't been much opportunity to get to know her better, but she knew that she had experienced a particularly rough transition.

Letting go of Allium, her plant plodded over to Lucy. She leaned her head over, the tips of their flowers rubbing against each other. A faint hiss of gas exploded from the tips in greeting.

Maria lifted up her communication tendrils, wiggling them back and forth to see if Lucy was receptive. When the girl nodded, she gave the command, and they rushed over to hook themselves in. A similar, familiar sensation happened at her ears, linking them together.

"How are you doing?" asked Maria breezily, watching as the elevator door clanked open.

Lucy swayed, shrinking in on herself as the three of them shuffled into the elevator. "I don't know," she said softly, shivering slightly. "I don't think I fit in very well here."

Maria touched her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "None of us do. We've been stolen from all over, jammed into plants, and forced to bear their young. I was angry about that for a long time until I adjusted."

"You don't understand," said Lucy, her transmitted voice stressed. "I'm jealous of you two," she whispered. "I see how close you are, and I despair that I'll ever find something similar."

"Ah," replied Maria, becoming quiet, considering.

She couldn't exactly fix this woman's interpersonal skills. If she had none before becoming a plant hybrid, that wasn't likely to change after a plant had swallowed her whole and turned her into its seed bed. Especially when they were usually limited to one on one conversations outside of making simple noises.

However, there was something she could do. "I think you're feeling isolated because you don't know any of us very well. How about I introduce you to some of the other girls? I'm sure some of them feel the same way."

"I'd... like that," said Lucy quietly.

"Fine!" declared Maria cheerily. "Let's start now!"

She reached out, resting her other hand on Allium's shoulder. "This is my lover, Allium. She could be a great ally if you want to make friends. We simply need to bring her into our conversation. You may not have tried this before, but we can have a three way conversation if we split up our communication tendrils. Like this!"

She popped a single tendril out of Lucy's ear, the vine wobbling in the air as she transferred it over to Allium, plugging it into her left ear. "Send one of your tendrils to Allium's other ear, and Allium can plug into both of us."

Lucy did as was requested, Allium humming as she did the same. "Who are you, little flower?" Allium asked. "My lover seems determined to make friends."

"My name is... Lucy," the flustered woman replied. "I used to be a housekeeper for a rich family."

"Oh?" remarked Allium. "Many of us come from all walks of life before we were converted. If I may ask, why or how did you come down to the fourth level?"

"I'm not much of a dungeon delver, but I find it unusually quiet down here," replied the meek woman. "Sometimes I received a lot of abuse from the family I was serving, and when I couldn't take it any more, I would come down to the third level to let off some steam."

"Eventually, I decided to come down one more level to view the gardens, and was accosted by a plant." She sighed. "The gas I was hit with was incredibly potent. It only took a few seconds for me to go down."

"That's pretty common," agreed Maria. "Even the most fit of us weren't able to put up much of a fight."

"Yes," breathed Lucy. "I suppose they've replaced me by now. I wasn't very useful anyway."

Allium punched her in the shoulder, breaking her out of her self imposed pity party. "Who cares!" she declared. "We're all equally useful here. You should be happy that you've been changed into a seed bed!"

Maria detected a hint of bravado with that statement. "Do you have some dark part you're hiding?" she asked Allium, her flower bobbing gently. "Something you're running away from?"

Allium cleared her real throat. "No, nothing in particular."

Maria rolled her eyes. She knew that was a complete lie, but if the woman wasn't willing to talk about it yet, there was nothing she could do. She'd have to keep working to break down her barriers.

The elevator dinged, the doors sliding open. Linked together, their three plants stepped out as a unit, navigating the hallways on autopilot.

"Anyway," Maria said, changing the topic. "What I've been meaning to say is this - you don't have to go it alone. We're all one big family now, having one thing in common - our relationship with our plants. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask. It's not like we have anything to do with our days except gossip among ourselves. And fuck each other."

Lucy suddenly straightened up. "I want to try that!" she declared, then immediately clammed up, pressing a hand over her O shaped mouth in embarrassment.

Maria chuckled. "I bet you do! However, we aren't currently looking for another partner."

When Allium failed to say anything for a moment, she turned to stare at her lover. "Right?" she asked sharply.

Allium looked back at her innocently. "Oh yes, of course, my dear, I'm completely with you on that."

Maria touched her shoulder lightly. "I'm a jealous woman. Promise me you won't bed someone else without my permission."

Allium looked upwards, her cheeks blushing purple. "You didn't!" exclaimed Maria, outraged.

Sudden uncontrollable high pitched laughter coming from Lucy distracted her from digging further. "You two!" she exclaimed, her breath huffing through her mouth hole. "You're acting like a married couple!"

Maria turned her glare on Lucy, who visibly shrank. "What?" she asked. "It's cute!"

Maria rolled her eyes again, amusement tugging at her heart. She turned back to Allium. "We are going to have words about this later, dear."

Allium hummed a few bars, acting innocent. Maria stared daggers at her for a few moments, but she couldn't stay angry at her lover for long. She didn't own the other woman, though in some ways she certainly wished she could.

She sighed internally. She couldn't change Allium. She could only accept her as she was. Besides, they had reached the field, and she was looking forward to her afternoon sunning session. She refused to be bothered while enjoying herself.

She lifted her arms, encompassing the sunny field. "If you both seriously want to get funky with each other, sort it out among yourselves," she declared imperiously. "I'm going to relax."

To lend her words some gravitas, she retrieved her communication tendrils, storing them behind her back. Shuffling forward onto the field, she nodded at a few of the other plant girls.

Sighing in pleasure, she stepped into a ray of sunlight and looked up, adjusting her flower and body so that they would catch the warming light just so.

She had discovered that she no longer felt hunger as she used to. The plant's photosynthesis appeared to be sufficient to cover both of their needs.

Her belly flexed as the plant fed more liquid into her chest from the pod sitting on her back. The purple fluid the plant generated was some kind of miraculous nectar, feeding both her and the bees the nutrition they needed to survive. In return, the plant used her fertile body to reproduce more of itself.

Overall, it was a surprisingly efficient system, though she had no idea how its life cycle had evolved. She wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of black magic involved, but she had no proof. The dungeon was a strange place.

What she did know was that her transformation had made sunlight taste wonderful. Not only did her body feel pleasantly warm all over, but her saliva also tasted sweet while she was absorbing the rays of light.

Swallowing the tasty liquid, she moaned with pleasure. If it was up to her, she'd sit here and enjoy herself the entire afternoon, slaking her thirst with the sun generated juice.

However, her enjoyment was curtailed by the rustling of limbs and the load honking of some of the other plants. Were they being attacked?

Shaking her head to break herself out of her reverie, she looked over at the edge of the field. There was a human there! She squinted and gasped. She recognized this human! It was her friend from above, Sam, with a gathering of honking plant girls gathering around her.

Seeing the danger, she ordered her plant forward with all speed. Her friend was reeling, hit with a cloud of blue gas. If she did nothing, it was inevitable that she would be captured and processed by one of the plants.

She couldn't let that happen! Sam was their only link to the world above. She couldn't allow them to destroy this opportunity!

Rushing in front of the other plants, she waved her tendrils wildly to get their attention, barking loudly through her open mouth.

The other plant girls looked at her with an open question in their eyes as she shooed off the empty plants that were looking for a new victim. She folded her arms around Sam's slender body, feeling sad as she looked at her dopey face framed by a whirlwind of red hair.

For a short moment, nobody moved. She held Sam softly while her friend breathed slowly, her eyes refocusing. Her face creased as she looked up at Maria. "Who?" she groaned, looking fearfully at the grouping of plant girls.

One of them stepped out in front of the others. Her shoulders relaxed. It was Allium. She should at least listen to reason.

Her communication tendrils flexed as she plugged one each into her friend and her lover. "Hello, Sam," she said with sympathy. "What are you doing down here?"

She felt communication tendrils slipping into her ears, but she ignored them, keeping her focus on her last friend from above.

"You..." stuttered Sam, her mouth gaping open. "You're dead!" she finally exclaimed.

"Who told you that?" asked Maria wryly. "Clearly, I am not, though... I am no longer in a form you recognize."

Sam breathed hard, pulling herself a small distance away from Maria. "I looked for you myself once or twice, but I was always scared off by these plants. Unfortunately, I got a little too close this time."

"Well, then, you've found me. What are you going to do now?" asked Maria, waiting patiently.

Sam's eyebrows narrowed, a tendril of her red hair bouncing next to her face. "I could ask the same of you. You're a monster now, aren't you?"

Maria sighed, knowing exactly what she must look like to her former friend. "Well, I suppose that's technically true."

"Technically? You can only talk to me through a freaking vine, Maria! That's hardly normal!"

Maria noted that her voice was becoming a bit hysterical and decided she needed to bring her down a few notches. "It was hardly my choice," she said wryly. "Calm down, we're not going to do anything to you."

"We're not?" asked Allium blandly.

Maria looked at her sharply. "We're not. Keep those plants away from her."

Sam blinked. "I can't hear what she's saying, but I doubt it's anything good. What do you want with me after all this time? I am happy to see you, but I can't help but feel nervous about consorting with... plants. If all you want is for me to keep your secret, I can do that. Our friendship is worth at least that much."

She looked around at the plants looming over her, swallowing heavily. "Are they going to take me, like they took you?"

Maria shook her head, waving her arms. "Not at all. I have something quite different in mind for you. We're lacking something that you can provide us. We need a liason to the surface. Someone to report on what's going on up above. We can't exactly show our faces. We're plants."

Sam shuddered. "I don't know if I can agree to that. I don't really know what that means."

Maria waddled her plant over to Sam, spreading her hands wide. "It's quite simple. You keep an eye on what's going on in town, and let us know if something that might affect us is happening. If they post a quest at the adventurer's guild, that sort of thing."

Fear flashed in her friend's eyes. "What if I say no?"

Allium shifted closer, her green tendrils wiggling in the air. "You won't say no," declared Maria. "Otherwise I'm going to let Allium have some fun with you."

Sam glanced at Allium. "Why is she named after an onion?"

Maria groaned. Her threats didn't appear to be working. "Will you do it, or won't you?"

A sudden, wide grin lit up Sam's face. "Of course I'll do it. Who do you take me for? I thought you were fucking dead, Maria. You know I'd do anything for you."

A pulse of relief shot through Maria's chest. She felt a sudden desire to hold the woman, to show her how human she could still be.

The seal over her chest popped loose, releasing her lower body from the grip of the plant. The plant's stem moved forward, setting her feet gently against the soil in front of her longtime friend. She reached out her arms and pulled Sam into a hug, completely ignoring the fact that she was entirely nude.

Sam didn't seem to care, her smile suddenly cracking as tears welled up in her eyes. "I never gave up hope," she sobbed. "I always thought you might still be out there somewhere."

Maria ran her hands up and down Sam's back, squeezing her tightly. "I'm here," she said, her eyes getting watery as well. "I won't leave you."

Allium's lower body settled down next to both of them, wrapping them in her arms. "She belongs to you," her lover said quietly. "And you belong to me. Everything is as it should be."

Maria cocked an eye at Allium. "Do I really? There had better be some reciprocity in that agreement."

Allium laughed, a loud honking sound, her body throbbing against both of them. Her laughter was infectious, the rest of them finding themselves laughing as well.

What a strange world. Perhaps this could work out, after all.