A Bushel of Frooties

Cotton was wandering about his farm admiring his crops, clucklings, and crowds of mini moos when he noticed something from the corner of his eye. The weeds he had just spent all morning plucking from the ground were back again! Every time he plucked them, they grew back. And every time they grew back, they inched closer and closer to his garden. At this rate, the weeds were going to completely take over his garden and ruin all of his crops. Suddenly, Cotton heard a loud shriek in the distance. It startled him so much he tripped and nearly fell flat on his face! He looked in the direction of the piercing shriek and noticed it was coming from Dahlia’s farm! Cotton rushed over as quickly as he could to help out his friend.

As Cotton sprinted towards Dahlia’s crops, he noticed a bushel of Frooties engulfing the entire farm, but he could not see Dahlia anywhere in sight. Cotton had sweat dripping from his brow and was panting from the run over, but he couldn’t stop until he had found Dahlia. He tried to squeeze through the hoard of Frooties, but they wouldn’t budge. Thinking quickly, Cotton backed up, prepared himself, and went into a full sprint before skidding beneath the Frooties before him! As the plume of dust cleared from the air, he saw Dahlia, safe and sound. Although, upon further inspection when the dust had cleared completely, he noticed Dahlia was trying her absolute hardest to pull a carrot from the mouth of a Frootie! Cotton gave a sigh of relief, followed by a chuckle that slowly turned into a raucous laugh. Dahlia finally noticed Cotton was there and lost her grip, causing her to fall backwards into an empty plot. “Ow! … Cotton? When did you get here?” “I heard a shriek and had to know if you were okay or not,” replied Cotton who spoke through soft chuckles. He stretched a hand out to Dahlia who accepted the help back onto her feet. Dahlia gave a humongous sigh as she looked around her with stress clearly written across her face.

“We have to do something about this, Cotton! Oh, I know! I have some extra crops that I can use to distract them from my field. But it won’t be enough. Once they run out of things to eat here, they’re sure to eat everything in Green Acres! I have to go tell everyone to bring their extra vegetables over to keep them from ruining everyone’s hard work. Stay here and keep them from leaving the area, Cotton. I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

And with that, Dahlia was gone. Cotton didn’t know where to begin with containing all of these Frooties, but he had to figure out something as quickly as possible before they ran out of greens to munch on in the garden. He looked around the area and picked some weeds from the surrounding area to give to the Frooties until Dahlia returned. As the pile of weeds built up, he noticed one Frootie in particular had grown curious about what Cotton was doing and wandered over to him. The Frootie had been staring at him from the side his blind eye is on, so when Cotton turned to pick some weeds from that side, he accidentally threw all of the weeds he was holding into the air and let out a big yelp! The Frootie didn’t seem surprised at all by the loud yell though and instead it proceeded to grab the weeds out of the air to munch on. Cotton was relieved to see that the weeds would be an okay substitute while waiting for help from everyone. When the Frootie finished eating the plant it caught from mid-air, it looked directly at Cotton and walked closer to him. Cotton grabbed onto his tail for fear a very unfortunate mistake would happen. “No no! This isn’t food! This is me! Please don’t eat me,” begged Cotton as he backed up from the Frootie. But the Frootie just licked his face before going into full gallop around him. It seemed really happy to have gotten all those weeds from him! Perhaps these Frooties were friendlier than he had initially thought.

Cotton picked up all of the weeds he had dropped and placed them in a trail, one after the other, to lure the Frootie to his garden. The Frootie was happy to chomp on each and every one. Finally, Cotton had lured it to the thicket of weeds that Cotton had been desperately trying to get rid of for weeks. Thankfully, it all went according to plan and the Frootie worked through the bushel of weeds with no trouble whatsoever! Even when some new weeds had suddenly sprouted from the ground, the Frootie ate them up in a flash. Before he knew it, the weeds were gone completely and his garden was saved from the dandelion menace! Cotton pranced up to the Frootie and gave it a big, ol’ hug! “Thank you so much, big guy! You saved my garden!” Cotton scratched under the Frootie’s chin and behind its ear as a thank you and he could swear it practically purred! Cotton was so excited to share his findings with Dahlia. Wait… Dahlia! He had abandoned the other Frooties at Dahlia’s garden! Hopefully they haven’t moved yet. Cotton began to run towards her garden when suddenly the Frootie ran up behind him and scooped him up! The Frootie ran back to the others and came to a gentle stop when they had arrived. The Frooties were still in the same place -- phew! Just then, Dahlia came running up with armfuls of brussel sprouts and peppers. “Cotton! I’m here, I’m back! I’ve got it all under con...trol…? Woah, are you riding a Frootie?! I didn’t know you could do that,” Dahlia cheered excitedly. She scampered over to the pile of weeds a few Frooties were snacking on and dropped the vegetables she had been carrying on top. “There are more Midveilers on their way with produce, now. But wow! I guess that one really likes you, Cotton! Thank you so much for your help today.” Cotton smiled at Dahlia and was about to speak when the Frootie zoomed from beneath him towards the freshly laid out produce that Dahlia had brought. Dahlia and Cotton laughed, and as a group of farmers approached with produce in-hand, everyone gathered around and told the wild stories about their farming mishaps and their run-ins with the local wildlife.

The End

Word Count: 1,095