“Very well, on your mark.” Silas nods at her. Sanora nods back and takes a few breaths. She steadies her grip and after a final breath she storms out of the hallway. She runs right at the plant, avoiding as many of the tendrils as she can before the first one grazes her, and the monster’s attention snaps to her. She wastes no time, the flames already coming to life in her hand. She throws the fireball at the tendrils darting at her. It burns straight through several of them before detonating in a bright explosion. All of the monster’s tendrils writhe and whip around in silent agony, trying to grab or hit Sanora and splashing areound in the shallow water. But she has already retreated into the safe zone that the tendrils can’t reach. Tiktaq’to and Silas on the other hand have snuck up behind the monster and are right at its core. Silas is the first to strike. His curved blade sinks deep into the plant. But he is too slow to dodge the vine whipping at him. It hits him square in the chest and flings him through the room. He rolls a bit before catching himself on his feet. Tiktaq’to unleashes a high pitched battlesqueal and clumsily swings the black sword at the plantcore. It glides through as it the plant was soft butter. But Sanora notices something else. She feels an odd ripple in the magic energy around the blade...
The movements of the vines rapidly decline until they all drop into the water lifelessly. Tiktaq’to managed to finish it.
“Is it dead?” Sanora calls out through the room.
“I- I think so.” She hears Tiktaq’to call back. Sword still in her hands she slowly makes her way around to him. She looks at the wounds and finally sees what happened. There are three big gashes. The one Silas made, and where Tiktaq’to has hit it a second wound runs down the monster's corpse in parallel.
“Seems we were lucky this time.” Tiktaq’to sighs in relief, sheathing his sword again.
“You mean with the sword?”
“Yes,” he nods. “we already gave monsters extra limbs on accident. But some effects are just too good to stop using it at all.” The chameleon man says, scratching his head.
“Glad its over.” Silas walks up to them seeming fine again.
“Hey, take it easy, that hit looked pretty hard.” Sanora says worried but Silas just chuckles at her.
“I’m our healer remember? I’m as healthy as a horse again.” He smiles at her.
“Really? That’s awesome.” Sanora says astonished, looking at Silas as he flexes an arm.
“Hey guys, take a look a this!” Tiktaq’to suddenly calls out from the core of the plant. Silas and Sanora take a look as well. The wounds are deep and have spread open far as the plant’s corpse has slacked down.
“Are those seeds?” Sanora looks at the three pea sized, white orbs. They are sitting on the plants flesh, sickly, green lines running over them like veins.
“Looks like it. But they look odd, sick almost.” Silas reaches down and takes on of them. He scraps off some of the green growth.
“I think we can learn a lot more from them. Tiktaq, we should take them along.”
Tiktaq’to nods at Silas and takes out another one. Sanora sticks her hand in the slimy corpse to take the last one for herself. She looks it for a second before pocketing it.
“Guess that’s it. Satisfied with the finds?” Sanora looks at the adventurers.
“Very much so, this is exactly what he hoped to find here. Let us take another look around before we head up.” Silas says.
They take another look through the cavern, and when they find no more moving vines they decide to head back up. Its already afternoon when the group climbs out of the well. Sanora is the first, extending a helping hand to the others. Tiktaq’to refuses though, saying his claws might dig into her hand.
“That was quite something. Better tell Bawarag right away. Bet you a silver he’s still at the inn.” Sanora laughs.
“I could use dinner, skipped two meals today after all.” Silas adds and Tiktaq’to’s stomach growls in agreement.
“Guess it’s decided then.” Sanora chuckles and they make their way back to the weary traveler. Sure enough, Bawarag is still at the same table. He perks up as they enter and immediately starts to grin.
“Hey lass, how’d it go?” He waves them over.
“Quite well, or rather not. Guess on how you view it.” She takes out the piece of vine from her satchel and tosses it to Bawarag. He looks at it, furrowing his eyebrows. It is not moving anymore, but he still seems concerned.
“That’s a monster part.” He mumbles. “So there really was something down there huh?”
“Genny, dinner for three please! Boy let me tell you.” Sanora starts and takes a seat.
Soon later dinner arrives for all of them while Sanora gives Bawarag a rundown of the events from the well.
“…and then we found the seeds in there and that’s pretty much it.” Sanora finishes, stuffing a piece of cheese along with some bread in her mouth.
“Even I have never heard of a monster like that. It makes sense that your employer wants to write this beastiary. The village owes you, and so do I. Do tell me if there is anything you want.” Bawarag tells the visitors. Silas and Tiktaq’to have to think about Bawarag’s offer for a moment.
“That depends, what can you offer in terms of magic?” Tiktaq’to asks him with an anticipating smile.
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Bawarag closes his eyes, his finger drumming on the table until he snaps them. With a glow a book appears in his hand. Its thik, the leather well worn and Sanora immediately recognizes the-
“Grimoire!” Tiktaq’to says delighted.
“You are willing to give this to us?” Silas says with wide eyes, looking at the book.
“It’s just gathering dust, and it has no meaning to me so you can have it if you want.” Bawarag nods.
“Deal!” Tiktaq’to says with a wide grin, showing off his pointy teeth. Bawarag snickers and hands him the book.
“Thank you sir Bawarag, I’m most certain this will be a great aid for the future.” Silas says.
“I have to thank you for eradicating this thing living under our feet, and of course for keeping our lass safe.” Bawarag says and a grin spreads on his face.
“Let me guess, its time for a drink.” Sanora sighs and Bawarag cheers-“Genny, bring a round!”, raising his arms.
They all drinktogether, talking about whatever nonsense comes to mind. Tiktaq’to and Silas tell a story about finding a criminal who was building an army of monsters, saying something about a lutebear. But it drowns all in the sounds of laughter and the crackling of the fire, getting lost in this evening. Night soon rolls around. Tiktaq’to and Silas bid their farewells, heading out despite the advanced hour.
“Are you sure you want to travel at night?” Sanora looks up at Tiktaq’to sitting on his large carriage.
“Don’t worry yourself, we will be fine, and our comrade should already be waiting for us in deepvalley.”
“Well, if can’t stop you, then I wish you a safe journey at least. Farewell, i hope we meet again soon.”
“So do I Sanora, it was a pleasure meeting you.” The chameleon tips his pointy head.
“We’re ready.” Silas calls out from inside the carriage.
“Well then, stay safe.” Tiktaq’to smiles at her before giving the reigns a gentle whip. Slowly they roll out into the night, Silas waving at her from the back of the carriage. Sanora waves back until disappear into the darkness. Sanora closes the gate, the guard already having gone home.
She sets in the wooden beam, shutting it for good and looks up at the starry sky. The countless stars shine as bright as every night, the dark forest illuminated only by their faint light. She could stand there forever and gaze up into the dotted sky, but she shivers as a cold wind bites her cheeks and decides to head home. As beautiful as the forest is during the day, as eerie it is overnight. Sanora is a brave woman and has a steady hand, but the moaning of the trees and the howling of wind in the dark forest around her make her skip more than a few steps.
After a few minutes she finally reaches her house and immediately locks the door as she gets in, breathing a sigh of relief. Walking to the bedroom she starts getting undressed, lazily tossing her stuff onto a chair. She doesn’t bother dressing for bed and just falls into it in her tunic and underpants. But over the day the house has grown cold and its only now that she realizes: she has no firewood in the house, and the last thing she wants is going outside to fetch some from the stack. She rolls into the blanket and decides to just sleep in the cold. A smile spreads on her lips as she thinks back to the adventure she had today, and with those thoughts she falls asleep, rolled tight into her blanket.
Morning comes as usual. Sanora has just gotten up and is sitting at the table eating some dry meat she got from Borg and Genny. She already has a solid plan for today: gather some firewood in her forest for the small oven in the bedroom. She finishes the meat and grabs her sword before heading out. A few steps out of her house and she is already in the forest. Luckily there is plenty of deadwood and brushwood lying about so she starts gathering away. She picks up the thicker branches on the ground, stacking them under her left arm. One of the many sticks is a bit overgrown by grass and small roots. But it’s a nice stick, so she slides her hand under it to grab it and yank it out. A sudden sting running through her hand makes her pull back again. She curses under her breath, only catching a glimpse of a small red and black centipede making its escape from the piece of wood into the grass. She looks at the red spot on her hand. The pain has already subsided, her hand only feels a bit hot if anything. Shrugging it off she tears out the stick and adds it to her collection before going on about her gathering.
She looks at the pile of wood she has gathered and decides it's time head back. It’s not as much as she would like it to be, but she has started to feel dizzy a bit after the insect had stung her. but she just puts it off as nothing and heads back, at least until her vision starts to spin. She drags herself through the forest, leaning against trees occasionally to not fall. By the time she reaches the clearing again she can’t even walk straight anymore. Her heart is beating fast, and she is sweating. She sees the house as nothing more than a blur, her ears are starting to ring too.
“This is bad.” She mumbles, trying to focus on getting back.
“Sanora?” she hears a voice in the ringing and someone steps into her vision.
“You alright?”
Sanora manages to shake her head before her legs give in. She doesn’t even notice the arms catching her. Not only her head feels like it’s on fire, but her crotch does too.
“Sanora? Gods what happened?” Amni’s voice is full of concern as she holds the barely conscious girl. She heaves her in her arms and carries her back into her house. She carefully lays her into the bed.
“Talk to me lass, what happened to you?”
But all Amni gets as an answer is gibberish, something about a centipede. Sanora is breathing hard and sweating profusely, her forehead feels like a stovetop.
“We need to get this fever down. Hold on I’ll get a wet cloth.” Amni squeezes Sanora’s hand quickly before rushing out of the room. She rummages through the few belongings Sanora has until she finds a rag and a bucket. Wasting no time, she flies to the river to fill the bucket with cold water and straight back to Sanora. She is still in bed, her face scrunched up in pain.
“Poor girl.” Amni says concerned and lays the cold cloth on Sanora’s forehead. She had given it some thought, and at some point it had clicked. The insect that had stung Sanora was commonly known as a redback centipede. The female’s stings are harmless if hurtful, and so are the male’s. But there is a key difference is the venom. The males have a pretty aggressive mating technique, injecting the females with a strong aphrodisiac to make them more willing.
‘Yet another cruel play of nature those bugs.’ Amni thinks with a sigh.
The poison isn’t harmful, but it causes problems in another way, and they are slowly starting to show as Sanora’s hands start to wander towards her lower regions.
“Hey hey girl, stop. Bad.” Amni lightly flicks the feverish girl on the forehead. She opens her hazy eyes, looking right at Amni.
“Ohhhhh Amni is here.” She says with a smile and lays her had on the gargoyle's cheek.
“Your cheeks are so cool, and so smooth.” She giggles.
“And your eyes, they are so pretty.” Sanora looks right into Amni’s eyes.
“Gods you’re burning hot.” Amni takes the hand out of her face and is about to soak the cloth again, but Sanora grabs her by the collar, pulling Amni down to her. Goosebumps rise all over Amni’s skin as Sanora whisper the words into her ear.
“Sleep with me Amni.”
Amni swallows.
“Come on, stop talking nonsense.” She tries to laugh it off, but Sanora slides her arm around Amni.
“It’s not nonsense. I like you a lot Amni. Please, I want it.” Sanora practically moans into Amni’s ear, and she can already feel a tingle of anticipation and lust shoot through her body. She looks at the girl on the bed, her skin glistening with sweat, her hazy and lustful eyes looking right into her own, her face so close Amni can feel the hot breath on her lips.
“Sanora, what are you talking about.” Amni swallows as Sanora slowly pulls her down into the bed, closer and closer towards her face.
“Please, stop being my big sister just for this night…”