Roots and Oxygen

Chapter 24 - Verdurous Pothos Legends

Sage crawled to the bathroom door. He peeked at the plant still sitting on the wooden bedroom floor. His room was as still as the paintings on his walls. Nothing moved, especially the plant. He said he was going to sleep. Does this mean he only sleeps in plant form?

Sage tucked legs underneath him and sat on the floor for almost an hour. He had lost all concept of time when he was stuck in his own deep thoughts. That plant is Taro. His body shuddered while he struggled to make that connection, despite seeing Taro change with his own eyes.

Sage stayed in the doorway of his bathroom long after he lost feeling in his legs. He stared at the plant until his eyes closed uncontrollably. His stomach still felt delicate. Sage didn't want to be sick anywhere other than his toilet because he didn't want to ask someone else to clean it, and he certainly wouldn't clean it himself.

His head kept drooping and the sharp twang in his neck jumped him awake each time. When moonlight streamed into his bedroom, Sage rubbed his eyes that darted to the plant, but it was no longer in the middle of the room. He froze until he spotted it on his bedside table. The vines hung down over the wooden drawers, almost touching the floor.

Silently, Sage struggled to his feet. His bones ached and the feeling of thousands of pins burdened the souls of his feet as he hobbled to his bed. His eyes never left the plant, not even after he slid off his shoes and buried himself under the duvet without changing into his nightwear.

He stared until he was too exhausted to stay awake, but he didn't sleep for long. He woke again at dawn. Birds chirped by his window and the sky was a dark blue, only just hiding the stars.

Sage rubbed his eyes and buried himself further into the warmth. He fell asleep in jeans and the restriction of movement pulled uncomfortably when he tried to curl into a ball.

He took his blissful empty head for granted. Taro Vinea corrupted his thoughts before he was awake for even a minute. He turned to see the plant in its purple pot still on the bedside table. Has it been there all night? Sage had allowed his Valet to sleep in his room. He had allowed it the day he convinced his gardener to let him nurse it back to health.

He leapt out of bed and paced, wearing yesterday's clothes. A further five minutes passed before he returned to his bed, sitting next to the bedside table. Sage glared at the plant, expecting it to move now that he was close, but it didn't.

Sage hadn't watered it and before thinking, he stuck a finger into the soil to see if it was damp. Then he wondered if Taro would feel that, and yanked it out, whispering an apology. Sage sighed and shook his head. "I'm saying sorry to a plant."

As if the plant had heard him, the vine closest to Sage's knee wobbled. The leaves opened and closed gently. That's not just a plant, that's Taro Vinea. Sage moved away, anxiously tugging at his shirt. "I-I'm getting a bath and then..." I'm talking to a plant. "And then I'll um... I'll get you some water?"

Sage didn't know what to expect, but he expected a response. Instead, the Devil's Ivy plant sat motionless in its pot, like all plants did.

After his bath, and changing into fresh blue jeans and a brown knitted jumper, Sage left the room to get water from the kitchen. He saw only bodyguards on his journey through the cold castle. Thankfully, the bodyguards only curtly nodded and whispered that the Silver Vine was moving downstairs.

They made no attempt to talk to the Prince. Sage would have been lost for words if they did. All he could think about was Taro, and the plant, and how Taro was the plant.

Sage expected his Valet to have transformed back when he returned to his bedroom, but the plant was where he had left it, for once.

Sage built the courage to water it. The soil had been dry when he touched it, and despite how strange the situation was, Sage couldn't let the plant deteriorate.