(Author's Notes: This was one of RSBI's St. Patrick's Day fics for 2003.)
It's All Gone Green
By Relm
It was day like any one, calm, quiet and peaceful. The trees whispered slightly as faint wisps of wind gently caressed their branches. Aside from that the forest was mostly silent. Well except from the wild rumblings of a certain blond swordsmen's stomach.
"I'm so hungry!" Gourry complained. He had gotten lost and separated from Lina and Amelia yet again and they had the all food supplies with them. Gourry had long since been forbidden to carry the food supplies after the many times he had resorted to snack on their food secretly after hunger attacks leaving them with nothing to eat for dinner or meals thereafter. So that left Gourry high and dry without a single scrap of food to eat and separated from Lina and Amelia to boot.
Though Gourry was in a peaceful forest that had lots of vegetation, not a heck of a lot of it was edible. Or at least Gourry couldn't see anything that he considered edible. There were lots of trees, but no animals. And there weren't any rivers or streams nearby that he could see.
"I'm going to die of starvation! Can't I find at least one thing to eat?" Gourry cried out and was bopped on the head with something. Dazed, he searched for the thing that had hit his noggin. What he found was a strange round purple thing that looked like it could be fruit. He was too hungry to care if it was safe for him to eat so his bit right into it. A symphony of flavours danced in his mouth and put him in pure bliss. It was fruit after all and delicious and he was hungry so within seconds the once round fruit was reduced to nothing more than a mere pit. Gourry's gaze traveled upwards as he looked upon the tree that had blessed him with this wonderful purple treasure. There were more of them! Fruit was hanging everywhere on the high branches. Ripe, juicy fruit that were so large that they looked as if the branches supporting their weight would snap at any moment by the sheer weight of this bountiful food.
Gourry nearly jumped for joy as his prayers had been answered. Now all he had to do was get this blissful fruit from its foreboding branches.
At first Gourry tried shaking the tree, because after all the branches did look as if they would snap at any moment. But alas they held vigilant and no fruit fell from above.
Gourry frowned. He was really getting desperate. The branches were way too high up to climb. It would be way too crazy to even attempt to climb, but remember Gourry is desperate. So with sword in hand Gourry began his assent.
People always say don't look down when high up. Well Gourry was far too focused on getting the fruit that he didn't even think of the height at all. Which was probably good because if he fell at this height he'd probably break his neck.
Gourry climbed as high and as far as he could. Any further and the branches would be too thin to support his weight. First he tried shaking the branches, but still no fruit fell to the ground.
Glaring Gourry took his sword and started wildly whacking the branches. Fruit didn't fall to the ground, the long branches themselves snapped and fell. Gourry kept whacking till a third of the trees branches were on the ground. Once that was done he got down from the tree at a dangerously fast speed. Food, that was all he was thinking about.
As soon as his feet touched the ground Gourry scrambled over to the fallen branches. In a crazed fit of hunger Gourry ripped fruit from the branches savagely and stuffed the purple food in his mouth inhaling them whole.
Such disregard for nature. No respect at all.
Gourry was unaware of the ominous voice. His mind was far too focused on eating.
You will be punished.
...
Gourry woke up later unsure of what had happened. The last think he could remember was that he was eating. He didn't even remember passing out.
'What happened?' Gourry got up and looked around. The forest looked very different then he last remembered.
Before he was on a trail with many trees, now he found himself surrounded by dense bushes.
'What's going on…?' Gourry thought. He went to try and push past the bushes but as soon as he tried to step forward he fell flat on his face.
'Huh?' Gourry pushed himself up and was shocked when he looked at himself. He was green and didn't have legs. And his arms were also green and instead of hands he had leafs. 'AHHHHHHHH! WHAT'S GOING ON? WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?' Gourry tried to scream out, but he couldn't get out a word. It was hard to talk when you didn't have a mouth to talk with.
'I can't talk! And I've been turned into a plant! What am I going to do?' Gourry mentally whined looking around frantically. 'I know! Lina! She always knows what to do!' He beamed after coming to that realization. 'But I've been trying to find her for hours! And now I'm a plant that can't even walk or talk! How am I supposed to find her?'
True it was a bad situation for Gourry but he wasn't about to give up. Even though he lacked legs somewhat he found he could still hop to some degree. It would be very slow to get around but at least he could move.
Gourry hopped his way through the bushes and smacked right into something very large. Dazed Gourry looked up to see that he rammed into a very large very purple roundish sort of thing. 'What is that?' Gourry got up and gave it a closer inspection. It was cracked on one side and was oozing out a dark purple juicy type liquid. 'This is the fruit I was eating! I shrunk? Why is this happening to me?' Gourry thought miserably. He hopped on though.
...
Lina was annoyed. Instead of continuing on traveling to the next town, she and Amelia were stuck looking for Gourry yet again. The big idiot got separated from them. 'If he's not eating all the damn food he's getting lost! That idiot is too much trouble!' Lina mentally grumbled.
"Mister Gourry? Mister Gourry where are you?" Amelia called out.
"Gourry where the heck are you, you stupid jellyfish?" Lina screamed.
...
Gourry's ears perked up. 'That's Lina and Amelia! I'm close!' Gourry began a mad hop towards Lina and Amelia's voices. But his tiny stem body wouldn't let him go very far with each hop.
He was about ready to collapse when he finally got to them.
"Mister Gourry? Can you hear me? Mister - huh? What's this?"
Gourry looked up and saw a very large hand coming towards him. His first instinct was to scream and run away. But he a) couldn't speak and b) was too tired to move.
"Hey Miss Lina look! I found a four leaf clover!" Amelia exclaimed showing the little plant for Lina to see.
Gourry felt himself being moved around very fast. The sudden movement made him quite dizzy. When the world finally stopped spinning around him he found himself held right in front of a very large, very scary Lina.
"Hey you're right! Say Amelia can I see it?" Lina asked in a greedy voice already reaching for it.
"No way Miss Lina! If I let you see it you'll never give it back!" Amelia exclaimed moving the clover out of Lina's reach.
"Oh come on Amelia I'll it back." Lina's voice was very sugary.
"No it's mine and I'm going to make a wish!" Amelia declared holding the clover tightly in her hands. Gourry felt himself be squeezed. It felt like his head was going to pop. 'Owww!'
"But Amelia you'll make a stupid wish! Let me do it, I'll wish for something good!" Lina tried to grab for the clover.
"No you'll just wish for food or money!" Amelia dodged Lina.
"What's wrong with food and money?"
'Too dizzy… too much pain…' Gourry thought as his little body was being thrown around.
Amelia and Lina started to all out fight now. Lina trying to get the four-leaf clover and Amelia trying to keep it away from her.
'Make the pain stop…' Gourry tried to plead to them but they couldn't hear him.
"It's mine Miss Lina! Go find your own!" Amelia pushed Lina away.
"Come on Amelia! Didn't your father teach you to share?" Lina grabbed at the clover and managed to get her hands on it. But Amelia pulled away and all Lina got was three out of the four leafs of the clover.
"Miss Lina you broke it!" Amelia started to wine.
Gourry on the other hand would have been screaming bloody murder if he had use of his voice. The pain was unbearable.
...
"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Gourry woke up screaming. He immediately looked at himself. He wasn't green and he wasn't a plant. 'It was all a very bad dream…' Gourry sighed in relief and went to get himself something to drink. He went to a nearby river and scoped up a handful of water to drink but then let it drip through his fingers. "AHHHHH! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?" Gourry screamed. Indeed, most of his hair was gone. "!"
That will teach him, heh heh…