CHANGED

Sande woke up feeling refreshed but he was not very okay. There were like a thousand voices in his head telling him to wake up. Different ranges of unfamiliar voices. So when his eyes open to find giant pumpkins , cabbage, carrots, potatoes and capsicums staring right at him, he pissed himself.

He trembled so much you would think he could phase right through air. And there was a yelp when the pumpkin tried to touch him. Never in his life had he imagined he would ever lose him mind. He hated that now he was imagining his crops being like people.

He again wished to be close to his family.

"Just take a long deep breath. You need it. " The pumpkin said softly in a very friendly tone.

Of course he couldn't just right away take in advice from a talking pumpkin. But he looked around and all of them gave friendly encouraging smiles so he found himself taking that calming breath.

And it felt so refreshing. So he closed his eyes and took a couple more. That cleared his mind. He wasn't panicked or shaking no more. He had completely calmed. But he still thought the talking vegetables should back away from him a little.

When he opened his eyes, they were still staring at him but not as close as before. They had backed away.

'Strange! ' Sande thought.

He got himself into a staring contest with his 'crops ' . While all the others were serious, the pumpkin looked like it was trying to prevent a huge grin from breaking.

Sande thought the pumpkin looked ridiculous because it looked like a huge white pear wearing a green wig.

"Hey, I don't look ridiculous. I look flawless. See, " It turns around. " They call me Bumpkin. You know, because I have a sweet bum. "The pumpkin wiggles the backside a little.

Truth be told, from the deep contours down the pumpkin's body, it looked like it had a bum alright. Sande gets confused and wondered if he said that out loud.

"No one calls him that. He gave himself the nickname. I would call him Boykin if I ever was interested to talk to him. " A potato says looking annoyed with the pumpkin.

"Now don't be mean Potee! " The pumpkin complains.

'So he's a boy! ' Sande concludes in his mind.

"Please stop talking in your head. " Some capsicum whines.

Sande looks at the three green, yellow and red capsicums. He couldn't stop himself on time wondering why the vegetables weren't attacking him. The vegetables groan in frustration. Both his hands fly to his mouth as if he could prevent any words from coming out. When the pumpkin shakes it's head in disapproval, Sande's hands go to his head.

The pumpkin wishes to face palm. But doesn't have the hands to. The carrots snicker but sober up when the capsicums and the pumpkin glare at them. The cabbage bursts out laughing. They all roll their eyes at it.

The potato moves forward a little and stops at a safe distance. She smiles at Sande lightly.

"When you think things in your head it's like a command to us that we must follow. " She looks back at the others uneasy, "But, uh... it's makes us feel a strong need to be rebellious. " She explained.

Sande nods in agreement and was about to think how cool that is when he remembered he shouldn't. So he gives them an innocent smile.

"So, why are you like this? " He asks.

"The grasshoppers !" Pumpkin muttered in distaste.

Sande is confused.

"Grasshoppers? " He asks unsure of himself.

"He means the aliens. " The red capsicum said irritated at the pumpkin.

'Aliens! ' Sande wondered what that meant.

When his gaze was back on his vegetables, they all seemed angry. He gets startled a little. Without much thought he commanded them not to attack him in his head.

Immediately regretting his decision when the crops start attacking each other. Even those far from him seem to be at it. The plantains in their fragment, the Napier grass and the Lucerne in their respective fragments looked like soldiers in a battle field. Soldiers with the same uniform fighting each other.

"Okay stop! I need more time to figure all this out. Stop fighting each other! " Sande yells now standing.

The crops freeze amid their attacks. I guess what they didn't know is that when Sande shouts they listen more. And so now Sande knew how to get them to listen.

"Ease. " He says calmly and the crops go back to their docile states.

"We don't have much time for you to learn how to control us. " Potato says sighing.

"What do you mean? " Sande asks confused.

"Your family... " the green capsicum trails off.

Sande looks confused.

"You do know, your family has been kidnapped right? " Pumpkin asks slowly and when met with a more confused stare, he continues, "The green things with weird walking style and many ugly tails... " Potato cuts him off.

"Tentacles. Eight tentacles. " She corrects.

Pumpkin smiles stiffly at potato then turns to Sande.

"The grasshoppers abducted people. Including your family. There was this door that opened out of nowhere... " Pumpkin explains but cut off again.

"A portal that took them to their space ship. It hasn't come back in two days but I think they will come back because we killed one of theirs... " Potato explains and a carrot cuts her off.

"It was epic. We fought a strange looking grasshopper. " He chirps happily and pumpkin smiles in pride.

Probably glad he convinced someone they were grasshoppers.

Another carrot speaks, "They can't breathe this air on earth. So I unscrewed his helmet... " Another carrot hits it with the leafy part on their heads.

"You mean we, unscrewed the helmet. " She snaps then an excitement passes across her eyes, "You should have seen it breathing like a fish out of water. It was drowning in air like this. "

All the carrots start acting like they are drowning in air. Sande didn't understand most of what they were all talking about but he found that funny . So he let out a hearty laugh. Which he realized he hasn't had in a very long time.

"We'll be needing you to lead us to the rescue mission when they come back. That alien reported hostility to the others and gave them our location before we killed it. " Potato explains.

Sande looks confused again.

"How am I supposed to lead you? I don't know anything. " Sande exclaims.

"We can only listen to you. Not each other and most certainly not ourselves. So go take a bath at least and put on some clothes. Then come we'll talk more about this. " Pumpkin says with an encouraging smile.