Ch: 1, Mother…? And child.
(Countdown: thirty-eight days left)
A massive tank filled to the brim with fluid hung suspended fifty feet above the ground,
connected thoroughly to the ceiling. Within the tank floated a large green bundle the size of a truck
that pulsed like that of a heart. Two broad vines, obviously providing the plant's nourishment,
grew upwards from the top of it until they vanished in the ceiling. The plant itself was made of two
thick slabs of green flesh, and they were closed tightly together, like a two-chambered heart.
But within the giant plant was something most dear to it.
(Yes, this plant has a mind. A simple one, but all the same.)
The reason it itself beat, why it existed in the first place. And it would continue doing its job,
even if that something, or someone, were almost ready to depart. It was to see its life-job through.
The plant called 'Cor Matris Veneris' pulsed on as it always did. As it did so, it thought about its precious one.
(Cor Matris Veneris means 'Mother's Heart Venus' in Latin.)
(Flashback, nineteen years and three hundred and twenty seven days earlier)
The basketball sized plant beat on vigorously in its insignificant jar suspended to the ceiling.
Cor didn't know why it existed and so simply lived and beat. That was what it lived for, until one day.
It could sense someone approaching it. Then its abode, the jar, was moving rather harshly.
Cor felt its two vines being cut agonizingly from the ceiling, and it couldn't breath without the
specialized oxygen tank attached to its vines above it. The water it stayed moist and safe in
poured out somewhere, and it was laid down gently on a cold hard surface.
With the way its body was hollow and rather soft, it flattened like a deflated balloon. Cor could hear something.
"We need to hurry. The embryo will die if we can't get this finished fast enough."
"So we just place it in this hollow? And attach this little vine to its umbilical? Like that?"
"Exactly. All right, let's go. Close it back up and get it into the new tank."
Cor was closed back up then. It was quickly carried off somewhere, but it couldn't pay attention to that anymore.
There was something inside of it. Something dieing. And so it pulsed desperately,
trying to get air to itself and its newfound precious. It was startled when it was put gently into water again,
and it immediately puffed out once again as the beautiful liquid refilled it.
Its two aching vines were lifted up and put into the ceiling again, and then reattached to the specialized oxygen machine.
Oxygen poured through its body and its friend's own in turn. It beat heartily once again, but it waited for movement.
Surely enough, it felt tiny flutters within itself, and it knew that its precious was okay.
That was the day it found a true reason to live.
(End Flashback)
Cor was startled back to reality when a strong kick hit its insides.
It beat on, realizing once again that its precious was finally beginning to fill its hollow up.
Not much longer, and Cor knew that it and its reason to live would be taken apart by the other presences.
It knew what had happened with the other plants like itself and their precious ones.
The duos would die early together, the precious would die or the plant would die,
killing the precious as well. But if the two survived together long enough, the two would forcefully be taken apart.
Cor would die, but it knew that the precious would live. That's how its life would end. It would die so that the precious would live.
That's all it knew, and it accepted its melancholy fate.
(Within Cor)
She kicked the plant's belly in annoyance, as she hated it when Cor had flashbacks.
Though the two didn't know how to speak with one another, they could send one another their emotions.
Cor sent her the sensation of faint repentance and a strong feeling of surprise.
She had startled it when she kicked it and it was telling her that it was sorry for upsetting her.
She curled herself back into a comfortable position. It was getting harder for her to move inside of it.
Cor felt claustrophobia coming from its precious, reminding it of how short a time it had left with her.
She felt overwhelming mourning emit from the plant, a common feeling lately that bewildered her.
The plant then felt curiosity and sympathy from precious. That's right, she didn't know.
They would be torn apart and Cor would die. It probably would tell her if it could, but it could only send feelings to its precious.
So it sent a powerful wave of never-ending love to her, with a hint of sadness still there. She floated quietly, thinking about the odd behavior.
Unable to understand, she forgot about it and sent back a wave of affection just as strong, with a faint aftertaste of confusion.
Cor wished so much that it knew how to speak to precious. If it could, it would tell her these words.
"My precious, do not fear.
For you, things will soon be clear.
My precious, do not cry.
When you realize that my end is nigh.
My precious, do not mourn.
I will still be with you in the morn.
My precious, my love will never end.
But your life will just begin.
My precious, I will hold you.
You are my only few.
…
I will always love you…
My precious."