NOTE: This was written in June, 2014. It was one of many plot bunnies that popped out while I was writing Red which as of now (February 14, 2016) is still being written. Yeah.
Anyway, I stored it in my hard drive. Promptly forgot about it. Then I rediscovered it and made a few edits and I'm posting it here so I can get rid of it. I hope you like it. Or what's left of it.
It was hardly human to say the least but it did stand on two legs like they all did. It had arms that dangled down to its sides much like how any man normally would when standing upright. Still, its posture was akin to that of a primal beast. Not that the obvious said it all.
In a nutshell, what Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière had summoned was a humanoid creature covered in head to toe with thick foliage if not composed entirely of it. Her hand had frozen in place, clutching the wand high up in the air as though her run at the Springtime Summoning Ritual was still ongoing. She looked at its head, or rather, the mess of leaves and grass that sheltered it.
Strange. She was supposed to summon some kind of animal or beast—a mythical being or some other from another realm—to serve as her familiar; to guard her, protect her, serve her like any obedient sentient animal. Looking at the…thing…that occupied the archaic circle on the ground… Louise had not the faintest idea of what exactly she had summoned.
It hunched its head, eliciting cautionary reactions from the audience of students and familiars around the Vestri court. Even Tabitha's mighty blue dragon bucked and let loose a low growl.
Louise had already dropped her hands to her sides, glancing back at her mentor. To her surprise, Professor Jean Colbert was on guard, adopting a defensive stance akin to that of a trained combatant. Really, there were so many secrets in this Academy alone to fill its own library with.
She gulped. The whispers began. She knew that behind her back, everyone was already talking about the strange creature that the Zero had called forth. Louise smirked dryly. Evidently, she had just proven that she was not a Zero by successfully pulling off the most defining ritual of magehood, certifying her as a legitimate mage. She just hoped that her familiar would follow through with that.
She was still nervous as the depths though, that was for sure.
"Mademoiselle Vallière," Colbert urged, "I suggest you step back."
The order startled not only the pink-haired student but even the rest of those present in the Vestri court.
"P-professor?" Louise stuttered.
Jean breathed. He sensed something off about this individual. As though its very own appearance wasn't enough to disturb anyone within sight, the aura it generated… The taste of blood. Oh, no. No! Can't be. He had presided over countless Springtime Summoning Rituals since his tenure here at the Academy. None of them yielded something of this intensity.
"Madamoiselle Vallière, please get behind me this instant." His denotable staff remained poised towards it. It has been years since he lifted his powers against another human being. If this was a human being…
"B-but…what about…t-the…"
The creature reacted faster than anyone would have thought. It moved. Albeit, it moved in a way that was completely unexpected of it: it compressed into the ground, shrouding the chalk mark circle in foliage as dried shrubs of grass suddenly sprouted from the earth, a living blight moving towards where Louise stood.
Colbert held back on his instinct to cast fire tails at it. Instead, he watched with fearful curiosity as the creature slowly emerged from the patch of bustling shrubbery that surrounded the ground on which Louise stood, covering her school shoes in its…extensions.
For Louise, this was the most frightening experience in her whole life so far. The creature towered over her—she could swear it was twice as tall as the Professor—its anonymous face hidden under a mass of flora which by now she could tell was dead.
The thought came: what is this that was made up of dead life that moved? Simple, really: necromantic.
"Oh…Founder…"
The thing breathed. By the Founder, she could hear it breath! It was disturbing!
"Mademoiselle Vallière!"
"H-hey, uh, Zero!"
"Louise!"
She didn't know what exactly she was thinking at that point. With a thoughtless push, she grabbed its locks, closed her eyes shut, and smothered her face into the mass of dry darkness that was its face. Her cheeks felt nothing but the leaves but she sure as hell felt something soft meet her lips.
Some students had to admit that it did take a lot of gall to do what she did. If Kirche's salamander was dazzlingly impressive and Tabitha's dragon majestically awe-inspiring, then Louise by far took the cake for having the most frightening even to the staff all the way up to Headmaster Osmond…mainly because no one among them knew what exactly La Vallière had summoned.
And so, immediately after completing the final clause of the ritual, the creature recoiled, releasing a bone-chilling mix of what sounded like a low groan and a high hiss. For Louise…
Well, she fainted as soon as she let go.
The clinical ward of the Tristain Academy of Magic was occupied by a single patient and her indiscernible guardian. A few daring souls stood idle by the corner by the entrance, none of whom dared to approach the bed on which Louise was soundlessly unawake.
The "Grassman" as the students began to call him towered over her. Bound to serve her as her familiar, he was now under forceful contractual obligation to protect his new master. Colbert could barely place it as the reason for why he stood unmoving, looking down on the pink-haired student.
His back pumped up and down slowly. That meant that he breathed. Odd. Not intrinsically odd. Just plain unusual.
He glanced behind him, seeing the maids and servants huddled behind him. The Professor sighed—always the meat shield. Goodness, these commoners. It just has to be me.
Colbert quickly composed himself. His previous hostility towards the Grassman had since dissipated, replaced instead by an admonitory curiosity. No harm done, no antagonism necessary…not yet.
With a deep breath, he mustered over to Louise's bed, noting in the copious amounts of vegetation entangled around her. Up close, it was like a vinous tree had grown itself around the two. Then again, it was dry to the touch, all the more so dead.
"Dead leaves?" he mouthed.
The Grassman turned around.
Colbert gulped. By the Founder… He had no face. Set against the backdrop of the setting sun shining through the window, it did little to obscure what was already obscured that is if there was anything to obscure. Regardless, the Grassman was the all in all very, very, very unnerving.
Jean nudged his way through to the edge of her bed. "May I?"
The Grassman stared at him. After a moment, it yielded, stepping aside with its ancient legs. The Professor caught a glimpse of a strong blue glow shimmering through the leaves around his arm. Interesting. He'd have to find a way to study that later.
Louise stirred.
"Mademoiselle Vallière?" He tapped her arm. "Louise?"
The pink-haired mage cracked open her eyes. She quickly raised her hand over them, shielding her pupils from the stinging rays piercing through the glass. Strange, why were there leaves everywhere? She can't be outside now, can she?
"Ah, you're awake! Thank the Founder, I thought you would have lapsed into something much worse."
"Professor?"
"Yes, it is me." He adjusted his posture around the creaky branches the coiled around the legs of the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"I… I don't…"
The Grassman tilted his head. It was enough to drive the final nail into her memory box. Louise jumped, registering the eerie peculiarity she was in. Most notably, she clutched tightly onto the robes of her teacher as she analyzed her…my familiar.
"Easy now, Mademoiselle Vallière, he has done nothing to harm you." Honestly, I hope not.
For Louise, what she merely dismissed to have been a terrible nightmare was actually a real terrible nightmare. Yes, she did summon something. Yes, she finished the ritual. Yes, she had bound it to serve her for all of her meager existence. Yes, it's all real. The problem was that she didn't expect her familiar to be a conglomeration of expired nature that resembled a golem and walked like a corpse.
But considering the amount of mort frondescence that was its element, she couldn't help but wonder: instead of summoning a familiar, did she rather create one out of the earth and give it life? Was she a necromancer then?
If she was, then that would end badly for her.
"Please tell me I'm not a necromancer," she mouthed absentmindedly.
"No! No, you're not, Mademoiselle Vallière," Colbert protested.
Louise gulped. "T-then what is that…thing?"
"I'm afraid I don't know."
Then it probably was a zombie. Animated from bits of earth that flaked off the trees and bushes. A manifestation of the dark arts.
"What are you?" Louise squeaked as she started to sob.
"Your classmates have, um, appropriated a name for your familiar. 'Grassman' is how they put it."
The pink-haired mage sniffled. "How creative…"
Louise could barely sleep that night. Even though she had severely exhausted herself from the day's events, she barely had the strength to force her eyes shut. The light of the dual moons revealed the reason for her insomnia.
The Grassman stood in the far corner of her dormitory. Watching. Breathing. Guarding. His 'aura' coated everything in an undergrowth of dead brown foliage transforming her quarters into a convoluted patch of dry autumn. The posts of her bed were wrapped in thick vines, sprouting branches stretched to her drawer.
The hay bales she had set up beside her bed in anticipation of an animalistic being had been devoured by the shrubs—she swore with her own eyes that they swayed in their own right. She had shut her windows awhile back, keeping the wind out.
Everything about the Grassman was purely bereft of life but it moved like it did. It couldn't be undead because it felt immune to the purification fumes that had often scented out of the alchemy rooms, Professor Colbert's office included.
The leaves were dead. The bushes were dead. The vines were dead. It wasn't dead in any way. Neither could it be undead. The odor wasn't there. Only the pine-scented smell of dry leaves. And tree sap. She could barely smell her own sweat without having her nose assaulted with the stinging maple.
Louise gulped. What did I just summon? Founder, why? Why did it have to be like this? I could have just settled for a dog, even a cockroach would be a modest gift. Her eyes, now heavy with the absence of much needed sleep, locked on the dark mass under its scalp of foliage. Who and what is the Grassman anyway?
She would be getting a close answer in the days to come.
ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: June 25, 2014
LAST EDITED: February 14, 2016