Dealin' With The Devil

The Root Pack

Well, well. Look what we have here. A curious one, eh? Alright, whadaya want?

How we got our debt? Well, that's a bit of a story. Not sure someone like you'd up to it.

A-A-Are y-you s-s-sure? W-well, if, if you insist.

Picture a bright and sunny day. Sun is shining, flowers are blooming, a rainbow from the storm before. Perfect day for a group of veggies like us.

Now, believe it or not, we didn't use to be like the way we are now. In fact, we were the runts of the crop. The ones everyone expected to die off.

But nope! We stayed alive and growing. But anywho-

-after this particular storm, we all had one of the biggest growthspurts, rising all the way up to the top. Seeing the surface for the first time, why, it was beautiful.

Except for the fact that, well... Ev-every n-n-now and, and then, a fa-fa-fa-farmer would come in and pi-pick some of our fr-fr-friends. Their cries, their screams, wh-wh-why, it was the worst!

This happened for, uh, quite some time. And after a while, we got fed up. And that's when the three of us made a pact. No one was gonna be taking us from our home. No one.

Precisely. And that's why, despite the other folks, we're still here. Granted, we had to be pretty clever. Every time he came, we hid and listened. "No, no, please, no!", a potato, pumpkin, beet yelled. We would sigh, giving our fellows their final respects.

Like we said, this went on for a while, until finally, we were the only ones left. After that, the farmer stopped coming. We kept on growing, enjoying the sunlight and surface.

B-b-but...

Not long later, a fellow showed up. Wasn't the farmer though. Long, black skinny man, dressed in casual garments. He was just walking through; didn't seem to be making trouble.

Weepy and Moe dug themselves underground. I was following them until-

"What do we have here?", the man asked. He grabbed me by the leaves and pulled me up. "My my. I heard harvest was well this year." "Put me down you half-lugged-son-of-a-" "Easy there slugger. I mean no harm.", the man said. His voice was deep but gravelly. Stance was confident; he was hiding something.

"Now, I can imagine you boys have had been through a lot lately. Come on out, folks.", he called to the others.

We went out of the ground, stance suspicious. I didn't like the look of that guy. He loomed over us, planting Psycarrot back into the ground. "In fact, I'm here to help you out. You see, that ol' farmer was talking about how you three were the most stubborn in the whole garden. Never came out, he said. Now, spunk like that is admirable really." "What does that have to do with you?", I asked stubbornly. 

"Excellent question. You see, winter's coming soon. And I'm not sure if you guys, even this stubborn, are gonna be able to handle weather like that.", the man remarked. He made a point. "Oh-oh n-n-no!", Weepy cried. The man took sympathy and gently patted his head. "There there. You see, I know a way to make you boys even stronger than you are now. All you have to do is sign.", he said, piece of paper popping up next to his hand. He grabbed it, and rolled it onto the ground for us.

"S-s-should we d-do it?", I asked nervously. It was a contract, rolled to show nothing but the dotted line.

I grumbled, looking at the paper and the boys. Huffing, I popped out and signed with the tip for us. He gave a low chuckle, paper vanishing. "Pleasure doing business with you boys.", he said with a smoky poof.

As s-soon as h-h-he w-was g-gone, a l-l-loud thunder rolled. R-r-rain s-started pouring b-b-before we could ev-even think. It-it felt like Ac-acid.

Yeah, and apparently the garden was the only one who got the storm, as we later found out. But it only lasted for a few minutes before we felt the effects. When the sun came out, we were supersized. And had our own fighting mechanisms too.

At first, the three of us celebrated. Now surely no one would mess with us. But the celebration was cut short.

"Damn. We made a deal with the devil.", Psycarrot said in realization. "Which means..." "He's-he's got our souls!", Weepy cried out in fear. We all looked at each other, before silently coming to a decision. "Not for long."

So the three of us burrowed down into the Devil's office, with just enough time to steal back the contract. "Hey, wait!", he cried out in anger. Barely caught us though. Didn't even have a chance.

W-w-we made it b-back s-safe wi-with the con-contract.

Yeah, and that brings us here. Now, we told you everything. Any more questions? No?

Then git!