“What’s Witch’s Weep?” Indi inquired.

“It’s a plant, the same plant we saw upstairs. I didn’t remember what it was. I’m used to seeing pictures of its roots and no flowers. They don’t bloom often...” Amanda trailed off looking even more worried.

Indi glanced down at the vines with a puzzled nervous look. “It seems okay now. It’s not moving.” But she still hadn’t forgotten about the one upstairs that had grabbed her, and there were a lot of vines in this room. “Maybe we should keep moving?”

“Can’t you just burn it?” Cat asked.

Amanda shook her head. “You can’t kill Witch’s Weep with fire, or magic. If we use any magic near it it will react.”

“React how?” Zephyr asked, as he inched further away from the vines around the edge of the room.

“Like it did upstairs when it tried to grab Indi. And me just then in the water.”

“It’s not moving now,” Cat observed.

“We’re not using magic,” Coal replied.

“You must have a ton of items on you.”

Coal shook his head. “Nothing active.”

“No permanent defensive spells?” Cat raised a curious eyebrow.

Coal looked back at her like he knew what she was trying to get at, what information she was only too glad to glean.

They eyed each other for a little while and then Cat frowned. “We weren’t using magic upstairs when it grabbed Indi.”

“I don’t think that was our magic,” Amanda said.

“The house?” Coal raised an eyebrow in question.

She seemed to be lost in thought. Finally she looked up at Coal. “You didn’t know what it was before?”

He shook his head. “Not until I saw it moving towards the fire. I didn’t actually remember the name until you said it.”

“So, if the house’s magic can make it attack...” Cat trailed off, not feeling the need to finish.

Amanda glanced at the only other exit in the room and then over to a small window, big enough to fit a child, or Kass, but no one else. The vines seemed to come from the door. The only way forwards.

“What’s it do if it gets you?” Zephyr asked, fearing the answer.

“It wasn’t the house,” she said suddenly. “We were closer there. I think it grows up, through the floor. The nearer we get to it’s trunk the easier it’s going to be for it to attack us. But they’re still slow. You could dodge them...”

“I can definitely dodge them,” Zephyr replied.

“No. Not with magic you can’t. They feed off magic. As we get closer they’ll move but it’ll be slow. But any magic, gives them more strength and speed at an exponential rate. Significantly more energy. I think they can still move fast out here if they want but it takes a lot of energy so they’re not likely to, and when they do they’ll rest for a bit afterward, I don’t know. I’ve never seen one this big. They usually only last a few years. The one that grabbed Indi was slow but that one in the water...”

“You used magic,” Coal reminded her.

“And if they get us?” Zephyr asked again.

“You won’t die immediately,” Coal replied. “It usually takes a few weeks.”

He frowned as if he was unsure but Amanda nodded in confirmation.

She continued the explanation. “They won’t hurt you as such. They’ll get their roots in you and just drain you.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What?!” Zephyr widened his eyes. “They get their roots in you?” That sounded too horrific for an acceptable use of the word ‘just.’

“What I mean is, they drain your magic and your energy. You basically die of starvation. The roots don’t hurt you themselves and they keep you hydrated. They share a sort of isotonic fluid but they don’t feed you or provide you with enough nutrients, so eventually you waste away.”

The look on Zephyr’s face said that hadn’t made him feel any better at all.

Amanda glanced to Cat. “What happens if Sirius and Kass are in the dreamworld and that plant is nearby?”

“I dunno, you’re the plant expert,” Cat replied.

“They wouldn’t be the ones dreamwalking,” Coal replied, but he said it slowly and with some question in his tone.

Amanda eyed the plant leading further in, then glanced back the way they had come. With a nod she followed the vines. “Alright, let’s go.”

This time Coal didn’t hang around at the back. He followed immediately after Amanda. “You know if we get close, it’s probably going to go for you.”

Amanda didn’t glance back. “Let it come,” she replied in a threatening tone.

As they walked the vines got thicker. Other doors and hallways branched off to the side, some into darkness, some lit by smatterings of daylight that had found it’s way in through cracks or small high windows. At one point, the floor above had caved in and they had to clamber over rotten wood.

Cat glanced up and saw the inside of a tower they hadn’t seen before. Indi paused to look longer until Zephyr pushed her gently from behind with a whisper to “Keep going.”

“How do you know which way to go?” Cat asked as they passed another intersection. Amanda had made several decisive choices already and the truth was even Cat wasn’t sure if they were still going the right way.

Amanda seemed to be following the larger vines. She paused at another junction. To their left, an almost empty concrete basement room let in enough light for them to see by. “I don’t know, call it gut instinct.” She turned left.

They seemed to have gone past the flooded part of the house by now at least. Unfortunately not all of the flooring was concrete, at least half was wood, and it looked like it had seen better days. Cat eyed the floor warily and tried not to put her feet down too hard.

“You think the plant took them?” Cat asked.

Amanda took another turn, this time through a corridor so tight she had to turn sideways. “It makes sense doesn’t it?”

Coal paused and gestured gentlemanly for Cat to follow through next.

Cat barely paid him any attention. “I suppose. It could have been the dreamweaver too though.” She glanced at the thick vine that ran along the ceiling above her. She wondered how close they were. It couldn’t be far now.

Indi and Zephyr followed through after her. Once they were through Coal paused and eyed the narrow squeeze. He didn’t want to go through that. He paced two steps forward and then back again. He took a deep breath. No one had noticed that he hadn’t followed yet. It was only a small gap though. He could see where it widened into a room on the other side. He took another deep breath and manned up. He sucked in his chest and squeezed through quick as he could, only breathing once he was on the other side again.

Indi did turn and give him a brief puzzled look but a moment later she was distracted by other things in the room.

“There’s like three lawnmowers in here,” Zephyr remarked. “How do you suppose they even get them out to mow the lawn?”

Cat rolled her eyes. “I don’t think anybody mows a lawn that big with mowers that small... is that a boat under there?!”

“Where?” Indi asked.

“The pile in the middle that’s got everything else stacked on it.”

“Ooooh.”

“How did they get that in here?” Zephyr asked.

“How do they get it out’s the better question,” Cat replied.

“Magic!” Indi grinned. Then noticing that Amanda was already leaving the room she added “Uh guys,” then she followed behind through want looked like a half walled up door. They had to step over a few concrete blocks built into the bottom of the doorway.

“What power did the old lady who owned this place have anyway?” Cat asked as she followed Indi.

“I dunno.”

As Coal made to leave the room after them his eye caught something to the right. Something shiny. A knife. The blade had strange carvings on it, ones he couldn’t quite make out. Possibly a rune of some sort, or a makers mark. But it wasn’t the blade that was of most interest to Coal, it was the handle. It was carved in the shape of a daffodil. A sharp daffodil. Stella’s words from earlier came back to him, and he grabbed the knife, stashing it in his pocket. He felt a little guilty. He’d taken two things from the house now. This house was obviously booby trapped to some extent, and almost every thing here probably had some sort of consequence or curse attached to it. Sure, he had come here partly for treasure, but he was also well aware that he was risking not just his own life, but the lives of everyone here by touching things.

But Stella’s words had been so exact that he couldn’t help himself. Sure it could have been a warning, but he didn’t think so. It did no good to double question Stella. Her visions usually led to the more probable path, so if his first instinct was to take, it was probably a good one to go with.

They rounded another corner, and found that Amanda had stopped. It was a large room covered in wooden floorboards and coated in what looked like giant spider’s webs.

“Watch where you step,” Amanda warned as she started forward slowly.

Cat paused to peer more closely at one of the webs. They were huge, spanning from half way up the wall to the same length along the floor, and thick like vines...

The closer Cat got the less they looked like webs, and the more they looked like roots, roots growing out of the walls. Then she noticed something else in amongst the roots. “Hey, I think there’s a person in here!”