After An Apple's Death

VI. The Flower & The Voice

So. I had found the first ingredient. I needed the second one now, and luckily I remembered what it was. I don't know why, the Apple probably reminded me.
He was pretty stupid. First bluffing that I could take his stem, and then just saying "hahaha no you can't I was just kidding"? That's just plainly rude. I would never ever do that. Of course some of my old friends would, they were always much less civilized than me.

The second ingredient was a petal of an Apple flower. I tried to remember the lessons that Mr. Apletre had given us on Apple flowers, and I remembered that he had used one of the young Apples in the class, that had fallen off too soon, as an example. He had said that like Aelpl, the name of the Apple, everyone falls off a Tree. We grow on a Tree and the flower comes before us.

Pplae had summed everything up in one question:
"So basically, picking an Apple flower is like killing an unborn Apple?"

Mr. Apletre had been very troubled. Hesitantly, he said:
"Yes...but...you need to consider that it is not a fully formed Apple yet."

Mr. Apletre was a very nice Apple, but could quickly get angry if angered. His favourite swear was 'dammit'.

"But...Sir, you said that Apples lived inside the middle of flowers and when the flower dies, the Apple grows," Pplae had replied. It was something that could and would anger Mr. Apletre.

"Dammit, Pplae! What do you not understand?!"

Pplae had huddled together the best he could on a corner of the room and didn't say anything.

I remembered that Mr. Apletre also said the flower to be the ingredient that usually prevents Apples from doing the ritual too often. The stem is quite easy to get in our world. Killing is forbidden, but we often find the heart and skin of eaten Apples outside our structure, and we can simply cut the stem off.

The flower, on the other hand, is hard to get, as Apples are definitely not tall enough to reach the Tree branch where a flower grows. We need to either stand one on top of each other, or to build some kind of structure to reach the branch. Both these options are complicated.

I looked around me. Was there any way I could get a flower?
Then I thought about the creature that just passed me. It was tall, maybe even tall enough to reach the branch of a Tree. Luckily there were a lot of Trees around me.
I tried to find the creature, walking around for a bit.

"Where the hell could that thing even be?" I wondered.

I sat myself down under a Tree and decided to wait. A creature would surely come at some point.

And I was right, as I always am. A creature came by, and it had a little creature with it as well.

"Oh, une pomme!" The little creature exclaimed. It saw me, and looked at me like it wanted to eat me. Which it probably wanted to do.
[Oh, an apple!]

"Ne la mange pas, elle pourrait être mauvaise," the tall creature said warningly. The small creature looked disappointed.
[Don't eat it, it could be spoiled]

What? What were they saying? How did that work? I thought the Apple language was the only one in the universe! And I prided myself in knowing every single language of the universe! I guess I can't pride myself anymore. Hmmmmm.

"Je peux avoir une fleur, alors?"
[Can I have a flower, then?]

The tall creature nodded.
"Oui tu peux, je vais t'en chercher une."
[Yes you can, I'll go get one for you.]

And to my surprise, the tall creature walked over to the Tree I was sitting under, and picked a flower.

A flower! It had a flower! I manipulated it into picking a flower! I'm amazing.
Now I just needed to get it to let go of the flower.

I watched the two creatures. The small one twirled around, and it looked a lot more graceful that when I did. The tall one looked to the smaller, and had a look of pride on their face.

"Laisse ta fleur ici, Emma, nous allons explorer la plaine."
[Leave your flower here, Emma, we are going to explore the plains.]

The small creature walked over to the brown thing that the tall one had put there when it went picking the flower. It put the flower down - it put the flower down. It put the freaking flower down - and walked back. The two creatures then ran off, squealing in joy, all while I was still sitting there not saying anything.

When they were far away, I sneaked to the flower. It was really there. It wasn't a dream. I had gotten two huge creatures that could have eaten me to pick a flower for me.

Now you have the flower, you're powerful. Go kill them, a voice in my head whispered.

Kill them? Why kill them?

Go. Go kill them. Go. You need to. You need to. YOU NEED TO, the voice screamed.

"I...I can't," I whispered, shaking.

I took the flower and placed it carefully in my back pocket, where I had also put the stem. Not many Apples know this, but all Apples have a back pocket. It's quite useful for a quest like this one.

Kill. Kill. Kill, the voice repeated.

I won't, I replied to the voice in my head.

Oh really? Don't you remember that time, just a few Hours ago, that you enjoyed killing that small Apple? Hmm?

You're not me. Get out of my head. I hate you.

Listen carefully, Appel, and you might just realize something. The voice emphasized the word 'Appel' and spoke my name like it was an insult.

Against my wishes, I listened.

You have my voice, I realized. It was like I was talking to myself.

I don't just have your voice. If I was living, I would look like you.

But...you don't have my personality. He or she didn't. I didn't like killing. They did.

I do have your personality, Appel. You just don't know it yet.

*************
A/N
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Hey people!
Hmmm...Appel now has a voice in his head?! This is getting crazier by the sentence!
The music is Plummet by tiasu. It's so bloody frickin amazing.
If you enjoyed this chapter, please do consider leaving a vote :)
Thank you so much for reading!

Enjoy your life & don't die,
~Fourminette