(An: speech:"bla" thought:'bla' {action})

‘Fuck’ I thought as I held my breath behind a crumbling pillar. I had hoped this leafy monstrosity would leave me alone but no~ my party mates had to light a torch even though we were exploring some overgrown catacombs. Now their dead.  Dicks, they left me behind…

(http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/arcana/1066_overgrowntomb2.jpg)

Anyways, how this sort of thing came to be is a tedious story so I’ll start here:

If the satellites still worked you would no longer see the beautiful earth with the twinkling of electricity as I had once seen in an old ‘text book’ as my grandfather called them. The world is covered in 78% plants due to a disaster known as the Root Burst. The Root Burst happened 257 years after China launched its nukes.

The cause behind this is unknown but it caused all the other nations to fire their nukes as well. Thus for a period of 257 years the earth was made barren with the few uninhabited islands left unscathed. It is hypothesized that those islands launched spores that then mutated due to the radiation but that’s just theory.

Those ‘spores’ triggered the Root Burst in which vast forests sprouted with a new set of flora and fauna. My job is to make notes on new species discovered, but if you can’t tell it isn’t the safest job.

This green leafy monstrosity is known as a Vengevine (http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o418/moonsteak/Magic%20Art/Vengevine.jpg) the only entry of it states “Leave but a shred of root and it will return, bursting with vigor.” And that like most plants it is weak to fire.

My group had been tasked with gathering info on it. We normally don’t do dangerous scouts like this but… one of the guys, Jared, spent the group funds and our personal funds on his drinking habb- addiction. Thus here we are, Jared dead, Mike impaled, Jennie beheaded, and Jenny crushed. With me cowering for my life.

I take a shallow breath as I slowly inch around the pillar I am hiding behind, carful of where I step and to keep the pillar in-between me and the Vengevine.

Well while I am in mortal peril let me introduce myself. I am a 16 years old named Hector. Yup no last name. It’s a cultural thing. When we come of age, 19 cycles, the elders who raised us (typically two) choose a last name. The first name is a combination of our biological parents, my parents are Hellen (mom) and Victor (dad). Hence Hector, cool huh?

Anyways since the nuclear fallout humans have survived in shelters, those that managed to survive outside mutated. Never met one but I hear some have pointy ears, others are short and stout, some even having animal traits, and even some that can meld into trees. Those are just rumors though. Man would I like to see one of them, maybe they can even talk to animals and trees. How awesome would that be?

In my excitement I step on a stick, but no sound is made… I exhale as I think ‘close one’… I peek around the corner and notice the bright yellow multitude of eyes staring at me as one thought courses through my head: ‘please be gentle’.

The Vengevine lashes a vine out to hit me and I doge totally skillfully looking like a unicorn running along a rainbow… not, I barely tumble out of the way and bash my head pretty badly on a rock. In a daze I don’t see the green blur that hit me all I feel is a searing pain and a lack of sensation in my right forearm. Looking at my forearm that flopped to the floor with a wet thud in disbelief followed by horror.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I grab my fore arm and try to put it back where it belongs. It seems to work for a few seconds but then falls to the floor again. Now I am getting slightly dizzy, maybe it is due to the red liquid that is pumping out of my arm. No time to ponder this as the Vengevine finally is before me. Heh, I still got a trick. I pull out my trusty lighter and flick it on.

The Vengevine backs away in fear? Nonetheless it backs away, giving me the chance to go from my kneeling position to a crouching one. I lunge at the Vengevine, making sure it feels the heat of the flame. However it seems to not want me to leave alive. As evidence of this fact its arm is holding me up and I feel as if all the blood in my body has stopped. Which it has, the thing impaled me through the chest and tore out my heart.

I smile as the flames consume the lower torso of the Vengevine and say while looking in its eyes: “If you wanted my heart that badly, maybe you should have confessed to me in a cute way.”

Then everything slowly fades to black.

…

..

.

I sit in this blackness for a while. Just contemplating my life but this weird vibration keeps bothering me… I turn to look at the source and I see a green orb floating there. Huh, weird. But like all weird things I MUST INVESTIGATE!!!

I approach this ball and circle around it. I then proceed to move my hand below it and above it… trying to figure out how it is floating there. After a thorough no-touchy investigation I deduce that the orb of light seems to gravitate to my hand a bit when I put my hand near it. After an antagonizing minute of me being under an excruciating annoyance called curiosity, I, against my nonexistent better judgement, touch the orb.

A telepathic massage seems to emerge in this dark zone.

Testing for compatibility… … … … … …

Followed by another

Compatibility confirmed…

Connecting to the Yggdrasil system….

And another

Yggdrasil system assessed…

Executing Merge.exe

And finally

Merge.exe has completed, forced resuscitation in 3…2…1…

With a gasp I awoke, panting heavily, and sweating profusely… I wipe my face with my right hand… my right hand… my right hand… I look at my right hand and it looks like a slimmer Vengevine hand and forearm with a few vines wrapping around the elbow only to embed into the skin below the bicep.

Wait how am I alive… I look at the place where the Vengevine impaled me and boy do I get a sight…

I no longer have a hole in my chest… instead I find I have a slab of rough leaves that cover my right pectoral muscle…. Wait if I have leaves then I can EAT SUNLIGHT!?!?!? What does sunlight taste like? Let’s find out.

… After 30 minutes of walking I am finally outside… to my disappointment sunlight doesn’t taste like anything… however is seems to make me feel better and energize me a bit.

I set up camp, basically me lying down in a clearing with the sun shining down on me… today has been emotionally tiring… I slowly cry myself to sleep and mourn the loss of my friends…