Timosh thought they had made progress. The plants in his pots were growing. They were growing big. Thick stems, fat leaves, and the fruit was huge.
The deep green fruits of the phanti fruit were turgid, the skin splitting and the juice trickling out of it. Timosh even reached out a tentacle, tasting it. The liquid was viscous, more so than normal, but it still tasted sweet.
Their eye watched the plants, ignoring the strange smell and the way the nearby plants were rotting. The willow tree was tilting, their branches getting lower and lower. Timosh moved the pots, and watched as the plants suddenly deflated.
Mushy green material slopped all over them, overfilling the rim and dripped into the soft ground below. Timosh picked up one of the fruit, and it started to break apart. Desperate to know if it was even a partial success they stuffed the fruit into their beak and bit down.
Yes, it was still sweet and much larger than normal.
Timosh didn’t realize what exactly had made the fruit swell. Their body also started to swell. Nothing they tried to transform into could stop it, even turning into a Stampfer. Their body just kept swelling, until finally their body split, insides spilling out into the rotting grass below.
Word count: 214
