Red Clover

Raspberry TreeBlossom had always liked watering plants in Jamaa, finding last of some extinct succulent in Sarepia and inspecting the weird cactuses in Appondale. She'd always chuckle when others asked her what she found so special in some basic plant life.

You see, it isn't easy flowering plants.

Plants are a basic need for every creature, insects, humans and ecological matters. They're the producers in the food chain and without them, nothing would exist. Raspberry tries her hardest accustom herself to the wants of bees and other living beings, but it gets annoying really quickly. On sunny days when she waters the sunflowers, the bees always come and disrupt the calmness and silence. When she picks red carnation petals, she's most likely to be stung by a bumblebee. All of these things can really mess up her schedule if you think about it.

One day, while showering her most dearest achieved plants, her mother decides to confront her about something she'd found a day before.

"Raspberry?", her mother asked, "have you somehow obtained honey in the last few days?"

She blinked confusedly at her mother. Knewing she trusted her with her life, it felt odd to have her ask Raspberry something like this.

"No? Why?"

"Well, I was chatting with the bees as usual this morning and they described to me in detail a small pastel pink arctic wolf snooping around their tree home. The exact same day, they found a few grams of hard-worked honey gone from the catacombs that were the inners of their hive."

Raspberry's jaw hung open, as it was a vague description of her. She had a few delicate purple swirls around her coat and a potted flower hat hanging loose on her head with no sense of gravity. She couldn't confirm it was her though, since she'd never steal something from some bees. She wasn't selfish like that.

With a wave of nervousness, Raspberry stuttered out a few distorted words which her mom made out to be an explanation that she didn't do anything. Her mom, concerned, left Raspberry alone to let her continue her watering schedule, even if it would be over in a few hours.

Raspberry woke up to a buzzing sound outside of her window. It was past midnight and the moon outside shun dimly, revealing a big shadow of a supposed bee clinging onto the glass on her window. Her ears arose and her eyes quickly caught a glance of the small insect that was trying to treat itself into her small cottage. Another buzzing sound followed, more aggressive than the other, but the bee on the window did not produce any movement. It stood there silently as they stared into eachothers eyes.

The faint noise got louder and louder as Raspberry finally realized what it was.

Her head turned back to see a swarm of angry bees standing on her rooms doorstep.

She panicked and screamed, the little insects soaring into the sky, right into her direction. Some landed into the insides of her mouth and down her throat, some poked her eyes with their stingers, some grasped onto her skin and in a matter of seconds ate it like hungry little infants. Raspberry choked on air- no, she choked on the bees populating her asophagus, coughing up limbs and antennas of presumably dead bees stuck in her windpipe that landed on her blanket, beneath her oppressively shaking legs. She shook her arms, leaving some bees up in the sky and others hanging onto her flesh like leeches. She felt like she was going blind as she felt the little creatures crawl up her nose and inches behind her lacrimal duct, gnawing away at the exposed macula.

The waves of immense pain were too much for her lack of iron in her blood and she passed out.

Raspberry's mother was awakened by the melody of the nearby birds that sang the morning song everyday. The west shined with the fresh rays of sunlight beaming into the window and reflected off her eyes as the dusk settled and the sun rose up into the sky.

She sighed, going into the kitchen.

It was Friday, Raspberry's favourite day, so she decided to make her favourite meal; cherries.

She felt the irony of the fact that her name was Raspberry but her favourite snack was cherries, as she assorted cherries with other fruits.

Even through the beautiful smell of cherries and the fruit life she had made for Raspberry, she couldn't bare the gas-like smell that flew through the air like waves on a restless beach. She hadn't seen Raspberry either that day, so she decided to call out her name. Every time she explored her small cottage, the smell grew more unbearable and disgusting until she finally found the source to the horrible stench.

Raspberry's room.

Slowly opening the door to not disturb her, she peeked inside to see a gruesome sight.

Raspberry's body was almost mauled completely. Her muscles were teared and her flesh was exposed, having already gone rotten. There were signs of a struggle, as there were pawmarks on each side of her bed that were carved from blood. A pool of crimson liquid flooded her bed, as she looked up at her face. It was if someone had teared half of her skull off, some pieces remaining here and there, and some were overcome with insects of all sorts. Green bottte flies were hanging out in her innards, laying larvae which ate into the decaying skin of her dear daughter's corpse.

She gasped, but it wasn't in genuine surprise.

She knew Raspberry should not have lied to her.

She knew that as her mother, taking her animal-talking powers too far to simultaneously and in some way kill her daughter.

Knowing that she snitched on her daughter stealing some honey, she carried her remains in a push cart made for transporting plants. She came across a hill unknown to her, yet so familiar. Carrying her daughter, she dig up a small and tight grave, pouring the last of her into it and silently shuffling the gravel back onto the dead body.

Watering her daughter's grave, she smiled as she grew multiple limbs, her eyes mutated into one and her body mutated into a circular shape, painted in pure black.

A small red clover grew out of the stem of her grave.

The hill was full of red clovers.