Mibbet was miserable, itchy burning nastiness was consuming her every moment, but she couldn’t stop fighting, as when you do that the individuals you are fighting are more than happy to lend you a painful hand. She swung at another plant thing while trying to scratch as many bits as humanly possible. Admittedly that was far less than she would have liked, but at that point she’d take what she could get.

Errol on the other hand was a tad more used to such a situation due to the neverending prank wars in his house, so was coping quite respectably with the situation considering it made him want to peel his skin off and wash it before putting it back on. That not being an option however he was doing his best to avoid contact. Which given his eyes and nose were running like a waterfall he was actually doing admirably.

Elvira of course was doing quite well, score one for team keeping the enemy at the far end of a very long stick. That said she was having quite a bit of trouble keeping the plant things down, plants tending to not really respond to injury and all. The way they kept getting back up was just salt in the wound........ wait.... SALT.

“Rosalind, you got your backpack with you? Try the salt.”

“What, condiment them to death?” Mibbet asked, the effects of seasoning on plants being somewhat unknown to our resident insectivore.”I don’t think I wanna eat these things.”

“Don’t eat, SALT THE LAND” Elvira replied. Having a repertoire of precisely one option Mibbet didn’t take too long to decide, and tried to get back to her pack. The enemy didn’t make that easy though, and as you’d imagine the damned salt had settled at the very bottom of her pack. (It always winds up there, it is a rule.) So she had something of a struggle before finally scattering the salt on the plant beasts.

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She was so close to victory now, at long last it was contained, it had taken her most of the damn dungeons existing lifetime. But at long last it was contained and at her mercy. But now what to do? Should she make the humans pay for doing this? Hmmm that was tempting, all that power she could truly drive them out, make it so nothing could ever defile her woods again. No greedy log takers, no endless farming taking, and taking, and taking, and taking, ALWAYS ENDLESSLY TAKING, and never giving more than a token. Maybe she should take the power. Feed on the dungeon and with it regrow the forests. It was wrong, and almost a human mindset but it tempted her so much. Inside her head the dungeon promised so many things, power, beauty, a new beginning for the forest.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But no she would not take it, she would not be like the humans, it wasn’t right. At that moment it felt like something else seized her mind, as she extended her claws towards the core, just one little grab and.

At that moment a searing agony fired through her mind, she felt the plants she had created cry out, they were dying, their roots were withering. She hated it, but she could not silence it, she would not. Even those almost mindless husks deserved that much from her. She brought them into this world, and she would stay with them as they faded, as a queen should.

Wait, a queen? What was she doing? All the power in the world should not matter one whit to her compared to her children outside. They had been working so hard to reach her, and she had just shut them out, all to contain a damn dungeon. When the idea of using it entered her mind she had no clue. But it had been a terrible idea. She had better things to do, those paths between groves needed tending to or animals wouldn’t use them.

At that moment she didn’t care one whit about the stupid dungeon core, or the power that it held, all she cared about was getting back to the surface, her children needed her. Oh but the core was still here, and if she left it be it would grow one way or the other. So she reached out once more, and crushed it. Now it would never tempt anybody ever again.

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There was a rumble, then a creak, then a crack. Mibbet listened, she was underground, when you are underground and the ground you are under starts making new and interesting noises it has a way of grabbing your attention. Especially if said place is a dungeon or ancient tomb. Those places have a tendency to collapse in much the same way as they do anything else. WITH AS MUCH DRAMA AS POSSIBLE.

So with a quick glance to make sure the plant things were going to keep their tendrils to themselves Mibbet swept up her gear, gestured to the others, then started running for the exit as fast as her legs could carry her. They dodged through twists and turns, trying to avoid the rocks fall everybody dies scenario as much as possible, as they headed towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course as you would expect in such a scenario somebody tripped, in this case Elvira, who was going to be seriously embarrassed later when she learned that she had done the damsel in distress thing, then been saved by a knight in shining armour (Sir Leeroy definitely did not fit the traditional mould for that, but he did save her ass.) Then because her ankle had been turned in the aforementioned stumble, adding insult to injury she was literally Princess carried. If anybody ever talked about this in future they would definitely pay. Elvira would see to that personally, and with extreme prejudice.

Luckily dungeons as previously mentioned are massive drama queens, so they would start collapsing from the core and going outwards, so that bought them some time, but it was going to be close.