Sunday - October 28th, 2121:
Another two hours of travel passed in silence. I told myself that Flora's just a child, and even if the other children from the camp were more mature, it didn't mean she had to be the same.
I held the piece of bark close to my visor and looked at the map the Caretaker gave me. Beyond this stretch of 'desert' was a winding valley and the area where the destination should be. Having Flora with me was very useful. Without her creature giving us a ride, this journey would have taken days.
"Watch out!" Flora suddenly cried out as her plant creature lunged to the side with a massive stride.
From the flattened depths, a long-winding centipede crawled out with a purplish carapace, rows of teeth, and dozens of human arms lining its torso as a replacement for legs. It stabbed out from the ground and lurched upward with a biting motion that caught nothing but air.
As the plant creature landed, it rolled, tossing Flora and me onto the ground. I felt the world spin momentarily but picked myself up as I could hear the centipede hissing. I saw Flora lying motionless and went to her. Blood dripped from the back of her head, and next to her was a blood-splattered ground that proved to be far rougher than the sandy desert I thought it was.
Just great! Useless, useless, unbelievable! Leave her!
"Dammit!" I muttered as the creature behind thrashed and slithered toward us. I picked Flora up and held her close in one arm while scanning the area for anything I could use to escape. All around us was emptiness, but I saw that the creature she summoned turned rigid and slumped to the side, its limbs sticking out like hardened branches. The centipede hissed and lunged its ugly face at me.
Just throw her at the creature and run. You're a coward, so act like it.
"Shut up!" I snarled at the hissing centipede as I grabbed at the hardened branch of our fallen ride and bent it with all the strength I could muster, snapping it off. As the centipede came close, I stabbed the branch forward, jabbing it into one of its eyes, causing it to thrash and hiss uncontrollably.
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Green blood seeped out from its eyeball as it grimaced in my direction with a thick bloodlust.
I was out of ideas. Stab it again? It didn't seem to be that effective the first time around. Run? Could I outpace a creature of that size— on its home ground? That seemed unlikely. I ripped off another branch and held it out in front of me—as ineffective as it may be, I have to try.
At some point, Flora had awoken because as the creature came rushing forth again, it froze in place as a series of deeply buried roots outstretched from the ground and wrapped around its long body. I looked down, and her eyes glowed a subtle green, her expression strained as the plant elements on her face bristled against her face.
"Run," Flora forced out as the centipede struggled to break free of the roots that bound it.
I jolted with Flora in my arms and raced across the sandy desert toward the valley. I saw from the corner of my vision that the girl's eyes remained glowing and flickering as she kept the beast at bay. But as we pulled away from it, I could hear the thrashing echo loudly. I turned briefly and saw the rough sand bursting left and right as the creature burrowed in and out of the ground.
"Can you get us another ride?" I asked Flora, who looked at me with a sharp glare that wasn't very childlike.
"When I'm out of the desert, I can."
I didn't respond and continued running. It made sense. There weren't many floral elements around the desert that Flora could use, and it might interfere with her attempts at blocking the centipede. After a while, I saw the end of the desert nearing before my eyes as it transitioned into a narrow valley. The closer we got to it, the quieter the centipede hissed behind us. It was as if the valley was a forbidden ground to it, and any invasion would go against its instinct.
The two of us entered the valley and pushed forward just enough that we couldn't see the desert behind us. "Do you need to rest a bit? How's your head?" I asked Flora, who was panting quietly in my arms.
"It hurts," She said in a muffled voice. "It'll heal fast, but a rest would help. Are you not tired?"
"I am," I said without much thought. After all, I've been running left and right since I awoke on this estranged Earth. "The creature isn't coming into the valley, so we can afford to rest. Can you still feel if any other lifeforms approach us?"
"Yes," Flora replied, and her eyes glowed as a series of small vines sprouted all across the valley's walls, swaying gently. "If anything comes, they'll let me know."
"Alright, that sounds good. We rest for a while and then head out."