Talking to the Plants
A/N This is ridiculous. And totally like a chapter from the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Los Angeles, the world without shrimp 2013
Owen ran around the backyard, a small truck in his hand and a gleeful expression on his face as he played. Fred watched him from the porch, Wednesday had just gone down for a nap so it was time she rested for the afternoon. She sat in her rocking chair and picked up the latest physics journal she'd been reading the night before. Time evaded her when she sat down to physics, string theory mostly consuming her time but other areas of universal expansion also took precedent.
The book took most of her attention until she heard the whisperings coming from the azalea bush next to her. The leaves were talking. Fred put down the book. She checked on Owen quickly before kneeling down beside the plants. "What are we talkin' about, ladies?" She asked politely and waited for their squeaked response. She often did this, because plants - especially azaleas - liked to gossip, so she had a dozen of them dotted around the porch. She had a way with plants, something she'd picked up in Pylea when she really started listening to the world around her. When the demons stopped talking to her like a person, she talked to the plants. Wesley didn't understand it, he never would. But he didn't begrudge it.
"There's something coming after us," the flower squealed, shaking its leaves as it huddled in fear. Plants were as alive as animals to Fred, who saw their every movement if she was paying close attention. The flowers then conferred and decided it was safe to let Fred in on the secret. She had been loyal to them and saw them which a lot of people didn't. Plants were so often ignored and trodden.
"What is?" Fred replied, folding her arms and scowling across the yard. This wasn't an issue about the neighbour's cat again, was it? Fred hoped not, when she'd gone round to speak with Mrs Turner, she hadn't recieved the warmest welcome. That woman thought cats were God's gift to the Earth and trying to convince her that the flowers were talking to her.
The flowers begun to squeak again, "we don't know, but we can feel the Earth moving. Gaia is not happy. Something is wrong. We can feel it in our roots."
Fred wanted to do something, she had to. If no one else was going to listen she had to be the one to protect them. From whatever demon was causing this. She stood up, straightening herself and walking out onto the grass, she clutched Owen to her and stared hard at the ground. With Illyria's powers she could feel the Earth moving, each turn now had an echo of the flowers' warning. She took Owen inside and called Wesley, they had to do something, warn someone. Something was coming. Something evil.