Kenna kicked the dirt, squeezed her hands until her fingernails bent. She could feel the warm blood on them, even though it was washed off days ago. Brook sat on a rock and watched her calmly.
Kenna opened her mouth to say something, closed it, and started over. "Do you think we were right to kill all those people?"
Brook didn't answer for a moment. "We were right to teach the Lii to fear us."
"But were we right to kill? We went there to get revenge, and ended up slaughtering everyone and then took their stuff."
Brook smiled humorlessly. "There's your answer."
Kenna kicked a tuff of grass and tried to wedge it out of the ground.
"Brook...come here. Look at this." Kenna knelt by the tuff and felt her friend join her. Kenna shoved the grass higher and higher out of the ground. The grass had shriveled up and died, and the dirt around it was a crumbly and dry. Kenna lifted it higher.
"Wow, there are some roots on this thing," she commented.
She kept pulling, and the dead, stringy roots kept coming. Soon she was holding the pile above her head, and she had still not found the end. Brook grabbed the roots and yanked them out. The two girls pulled and pulled, and the roots kept getting larger, heavier.
Hours had gone by in blissful concentration before Kenna looked up. The green sun was gone from the sky, replaced with mounds of stars. Kenna straightened and popped her back. Brook continued to pull — the roots were the width of her thumb now.
Kenna heard a rustling in the surrounding bushes. She looked in the direction of camp, feeling a worried tingle on her spine.
It's nothing. Just an animal.
Except, in the two weeks of camping here, Kenna had never heard an animal come so close to the green-blue trees that lined this part of the river.
There was the rustle again.
"Brook...."
"I think I'm reaching the end, Kenna."
"Brook."
Brook stood up, her back popping even louder than Kenna's had. "What is it?"
"I think somethings watching —"
One of the roots shot forward and wrapped around Kenna's ankle. She panicked and tried to shake it off, but its viselike grip made her topple to the ground. The vine rippled, almost as if it were lined with muscles. As if it was thinking. Slowly, the roots in the ground started rising, except they had all weaved into one large root the size of Kenna's torso. The roots middle section arched up like a cat, and Kenna could guess all too well what was going to happen next.
"Brook!"
Her friend was only a second to late. Kenna was flung into the air, and her knee made a snapping noise; certainly dislocated. Her adrenaline level was so high, she could not feel the pain.
Higher and higher into the sky she went. Kenna thought she would be able to touch the stars. Feeling dreamy, and a bit oxygen deprived, Kenna reached a hand out and tried to grasp a big red orb in the sky.
For a second, she laid still, floating in the air, and then she began a decent even more speedy than her accent. The dreamy feeling was gone, and a curling scream forced its way up her throat. Her body turned itself around. She could see the camp below her getting nearer...and nearer....
A thick vine sprouted from the ground and shot towards her. It smoothly wrapped itself around her waist and hurdled back towards the ground. When they were close enough for Kenna to focus on the surprised, stupid faces of the people below, the vine loosened its tight grip.
Kenna clawed at it. "No, no, no!"
The vine buckled in the center, hit the ground, and Kenna rolled out of the vine, barely feeling the impact of the hard floor. Something warm licked up her right arm, but she was too concentrated on not throwing up to care.
The sound of a million shoes on gravel came towards her, and screeched to a halt. One set of footsteps continued forward, and Kenna tried to get up. The person pushed her down, and forcefully patted her hot arm. When the person released her, Kenna rose to her hands and knees, threw up, groaned, and threw up again. She waved a hand, fishing for something to help her stand. She met the person's hand, and they hoisted her up.
"There you go, princess," Ethan said.
"My knee," she murmured. "My arm." Her arm was on fire, and so was her knee. She was on fire. "I'm on fire."
"You were on fire," Ethan corrected. You rolled right up next to the fire, right after...after...."
"The grass threw me, Ethan. I think my knee is broken."
Ethan hoisted her up bridal-style and Kenna groaned in pain. A moment later, he laid her down on the grass.
"No grass, no grass," Kenna protested. She opened her mouth to protest some more, but Ethan put his hand over it.
"Hush."
"Where is she?" Brook yelled.
"Over here!" Ethan replied.
Brook ran over and knelt down next to Kenna.
"I was on fire," Kenna murmured.
"Are you okay?"
"No. Adrenaline's wearing off." As if on cue: "Owwww."
|Good evening, humans| a voice whispered from inside Kenna's head. It was so loud that if made Kenna's skull pound.
"Who is that?" Rina shouted. Kenna could hear her unsheathe her knife.
|Who am I? If you just missed my little show, than your species is dumber than I previously thought. How disappointing.|
"That's not seriously the plant, is it?" RJ groaned.
"Quiet, Rudolph," Banner said. "What are you hear for?"
The thing laughed. Kenna pressed her hands against her ears, thinking her brains would blow out her head.
|Join me for a walk. It seems we have a lot to talk about.|
