Moth and Flame [Dew x Reader] {Complete}

Chapter 23 - Happy little trees

Tw: violent little trees

"______~~" the forest beamed around you.

"Mm... I need to... to help my friend, I have to save Papa."

"Noooo, rest~~ you've done enough~~~"

"If he goes.... I have to leave... I don't want to go..."

"You would go to the dark place again? Where our roots no longer reach you?"

"I don't like that place."

"We don't like that place..."

You heard a long, deep snarl by your head.

"I hate that place most," Henry, your demon plant, snapped. "The short one also needs us, and I like the short one."

Through the system, you caught a glimpse of Sodo from below. He was bigger than you, you were angry at him, he'd tried to burn you. You wanted to snap, you wanted to bite him. But he was speaking to you... apologising. Telling you that it would be okay—because it had to be. He was crying. Then you felt soothing water, and you relaxed. He kept coming back to you, though it was clear he had no idea what he was doing. He had a book you recognised from your greenhouse. He was getting frustrated with it, pacing and yelling. Then he was on his knees praying... he stayed there for some time. You wanted to tell him what you needed, but he couldn't hear you. He wasn't a bad guy.

"I like the short one too," you admitted; whether you wanted to or not, the forest saw a part of him from you, too.

"We don't like his fire... but we can learn to like him as you do." The forest was really trying, like a parent who silently disapproves.

"He does water as well?" you tried to offer.

"We... suppose he does..." It was a hard sell. "We see him now... he is..."

And you saw him with the rest of his kin. They were fighting the other packs—they were already wounded. Your awareness flickered about, and you saw a large, lumpy figure in the dark cavern beneath the abbey. Its face was pulled in anguish; it had an unfortunate resemblance to Terzo, with his makeup. It was dead; the roots were already feasting upon it.

In the fields, there lay a naked drooping ram, head parted from the body—finally, the woman behind the glass, the beautiful one in the crypt...her face was changed. Skin that was once deep and beautiful had faded to white, and her upper lip was moustached. Hair falling out in clumps. It had not been a body but a porcelain doll—there was nothing to feast on. Wait... Sunny, Cumulus and Aether still fought on. As Aether's quintessence magic surged, the doll shattered. Icor pooled and dripped beneath through the cracks in the tiles. The roots reached.

You felt all three of the brothers in the ichor that dripped.

Alpha cut Sodo deep in the cut; his blood hit the sand. You felt him groan as he slumped to the ground. His fire went out. Still, his heartbeat against the soil—the other kin didn't seem to be going for the fatality. They all fell, one by one—outnumbered. You tasted each of their lifeblood.

"I need to get to them."

"There is... There is more than enough here ~" The forest and the roses gathered, and roots lashed at your wrists.

"Save the Papa~" the plants whispered.

"Yes~ save the Papa~" the roses trilled.

***

You felt the memory of Terzo's body beside you.

You woke to a snuffling and a great glob of drool. You frowned. Well, that wasn't sexy Terzo—he was the one with the spitting kink.

It was darker than expected as your eyes peeled open. Or at least, as the sun had begun to go down, the roses had grown up around you, taking over statues that dared linger too close and skewering too curious cherubs. The three Papas had made the forest grow thick and strong.

Henry snuffled you again, and it took a while for you to register it was him because he was fucking huge. He had eaten. His mouth was bloodied, and you saw the unfortunate aftermath of what happened when a saggy, naked lamb met a wood chipper between his teeth.

"Wow, hey, sweetheart!" He nuzzled you again. "Gross, I love it, thank you!" You looked around. "And thank you for taking care of me." You spoke to the trees, the bushes and the roses, and they all rustled in appreciation.

"Do you know where my short ghoul is now?" you asked the wood and watched the trees all rustle, bending toward the west—the cathedral, then. You had thought that may be the case. "Thank you," you said again.

You stretched and stood expecting to feel heavy but spun up, feeling light. You looked down and stitched into the wound of your chest were the knitted vines of wild roses. A single black rose sat on your lapel as if pinned but was, in fact, growing out of you where the meat hook had been. Metal. You felt all your teeth in your mouth with your tongue, and swelling had faded from your face.

"Alright bud, looks like we are going to the cathedral—that's, of course, if you want to come?" You straightened your scarlet cassock as best you could and flipped your hood back up over your horns where it had holes for them.

He made something like a happy seal noise and dropped his head beneath your legs to help flip you onto his back. You had done much by Henry's side but had never rode him into battle. As he sped passed and whacked stone angels with his whip tail, you realised there was no other way to go.