Diem Dark plodded along the edges of the Breach, wary of committing either to the eerily still dark water to her left, or the fog-thicked forest to her right. The former could hold any number of deadly plunges into deep water, or monsters--like alligators!--beneath. Plus, the whole corruption thing... she could feel the faint thrum of its chaos below. And the latter, well... the black, claw-branched trees grasped ominously at the air. So she splashed along, now and then casting out a spark of magic and a hopeful glance at the swamp.
Her familiar, Bitey, had faded off and she'd failed to summon him, but she knew he'd get a kick out of erupting from the swamp like a monster once she actually managed. Admittedly he was only a tiny baby (probably fake, magical manifestation) of a gator, but he was cute and she liked it when he was happy. Or-... seemed happy.
Whatever.
Her thoughts returned to her previous attempts to remember... something.
She lifted a foot from the muck, grimacing at the goop now clotted to the hems of her robe, and edged a little toward solid land.
It was some faint memory, some promise of spookiness and fun, that clung to her as if from another life. It had been prompted, stirred to the surface, by the whisper of skittering leaves and the drifting fog and the chill in the air.
The jack o' lanterns had sort of helped, too.
It was denser here, the vines a constant struggle and push. Although there were many, at least each fell away easily and yielded without effort.
Until one didn't.
There wasn't any warning or distinguishing feature that would mark this particular vine as different from any of the others, but as soon as this lone traveler, oh, this very alone, very vulnerable wanderer passed right through its reach, it moved. It suddenly made to curl tight around her arm where she had just been brushing past. It was just the one, this single vine that was suddenly tightening around her, but who knew how many others here would soon, and suddenly, be animating.
Diem ducked under the thickening vines, still muttering absently to herself (what the hell had it been called?!) when suddenly--one... fell?
She jerked her skull-like face to blink at it, and then--
Instinct kicked in and she jolted back. Adrenaline rush, sudden horror, the whole package: the cave suddenly felt much darker and more claustrophobic than before, yet paradoxically terrifyingly large.
Time seemed to slow for a moment, and she peered up, hoping to have a moment to get her bearings and to act before the... the whatever-it-was... uh, did whatever-it-was-doing.
Whatever it was, it was probably gonna be bad.
The whole mass moved - not all the vines in the jungle, but many of them. A perfect camouflage. The central mass, the tendrils there so thick, the sky could not be seen behind them, began to unfurl around what could only be described as the front of this creature. The vines fell away and a head was at last revealed - skeletal- thin, unrecognizable but vaguely insect-like. Three mandibles opened (two on the side, one massive one that lifted above) and the jaws in the center, dripping with saliva, let out a satisfied hiss as it slowly began to descend towards its captured meal.
Time slowed, seemingly curled into wisplike languidity by the force of magic. Not really slowed, but the unfurling tendrils were drifting like smoke, instead of the jolting ferocity they were probably really displaying.
That turned into a panicked moment to realize that she was probably screwed.
Then--time caught up. She was already reaching for other magic in the same vein, yelling a mental message to this creature at the same time she yelped the words aloud. That wasn't to say she wasn't also fighting, but her wrenching attempts to pull free would probably not help her all that much.
Where the vocalization sounded indignant, almost a demand, the mental one was a terrified plea.
More vines whipped towards Diem, lashing anywhere possible to hold her immobile, and perhaps now she would begin to feel the faint prickling sensation. Minuscule barbs, alone not painful, but noticeable as they seemed to have been hidden under the first layer of the vines. It would start with a sense of weakness. It would grow into fatigue. She did not have long before it grew more severe. A venom? A spell? Or some horrid twist of nature and magic that drained the life from her body?
It had stopped descending, watching its prey as it was further entangled in its web.
This was not constructive, but terror was setting in. What had she been thinking?! That a jaunt through a haunted forest in autumn would be fun? Well, it WASN'T! And the brief thought that shot through her mind was along those lines:
It wasn't really a coherent thought, though. Mostly she was down to instinct, any thought of 'magic' well off the table. A wisp wasn't gonna cut it, but maybe her claws could? (Literally?)
Not that she thought that through. It was more a flailing, as the thing yanked her limbs with FRIGHTENING efficiency. A perfect efficiency, she noted in the back of her mind, and that seemingly unrelated thought came with a thrill of additional alarm. As if all the rest--being snagged and hoisted by a giant skeletal vine-monster--wasn't alarming enough.
Back to Diem's panic, though: she twisted her feet, kicking with claws at the very vines that held her legs, turning her head to snap with a beak, wriggling with her fingers to try and get a grip on literally anything. It wasn't coordinated, and the monster was holding her pretty damn securely and WHATEVER the barbs were that were hitting all exposed skin, well, that was yet another alarm-cherry on top of the "oh shit" sundae being crammed into her maw right now.
But maybe she could at least create an opening to use.
Sure, she'd felt vines tear. Maybe that opening WAS something she could use. But, like, also? There were needles, and these vines were WAY too tight and she was pretty sure the giant eldritch carrion-plant monster wouldn't kindly loosen that crushing grip if she asked nicely.
She found her body too weak to really DO much, which was frankly awful. So she tried to call on her magic, but that--didn't come.
The horror-thing that looked like decayed tendons and bloodied flesh and withered skull gave no sign of paying her any attention, bar continuing to try and (she assumed) eat her.
She'd just... chrysalize, right? That's how it worked? -If she failed?
Plus, she'd miss the rest of the spooky season.
There was a moment in which it paused. All the movements suddenly slowed and its head seemed to tilt away briefly, as if it were waiting or...listening. And, distantly, if Diem listened carefully too, if she even could in her weakened state, she would hear something like a deep, resonating echo emanating through the sky. The slightest increase in the breeze through the trees.
The creature suddenly lurched forward, as many tendrils as it could spare suddenly lashing forward, trying to end its hunt as quickly as possible. It ripped Diem forward, and perhaps that was the last straw for her before it ended, before darkness took her consciousness. But as the head struck forward to finish the job, as the fangs opened and both jaws widened to deliver the killing blow, its timer ran out.
It seemed to come out of nowhere, dropping in from the sky, only visible when its looming form completely covered what little light shone from the starlit sky. Gigantic bat-like wings flared, sending a shockwave of wind blasting down in to the trees, swiftly throwing and even breaking many of the vine-like tendrils right off of the beast and into the surrounding branches.
A gigantic head reached forward and, swift as lightning, snapped over the beast's body. The face was turtle-like, ridged and scaled and tangled with plant-like patterns. There were no eyes on this beast, at least no eyes visible, only the huge, sharp-toothed maw that was currently crunching right through the hunting monster's form and ripping it from the trees.
A horrible, high-pitched screech sheared through the jungle as the vines were broken and snapped off. With one giant bite, the creature that had been terrorizing Diem Dark just moments before was no more, its last remains falling lifelessly to the forest floor while the gigantic dragon-beast finished its descent, wings pulling it back as its two legs crashed into the forest floor and kicked off once again. The force of the wind it created was an incredible torrent in itself, and in a few moments, it was gone and the forest became deathly quiet.
The remaining pieces of the vines, and Diem, were left to drop to the forest floor as everything grew still and silent once again.