Claws of time

Chapter 4- Cottonmouth

The forest was thick with lots of vegetation, we had found plenty of vines but Oak, the LeafWing, assured us that we would be able to identify it just by look. "I don't have very powerful leaf speak like some of the other LeafWings, however I still have it. And I can also tell you that I can identify it not only by look, but by the way the plant feels and thinks." I hummed, "Interesting, what does it look like?" "Well, where we found it, it had a dark red stem with green veins in the middle, the leaves however were a dark green with red veins, and there are white flowers between each jagged leaf, it stretched out through that whole patch where we found it in thick vines and tendrils." "Wow, that does sound like a weird looking plant..." Glowworm chimed in, I nodded in agreement. "And you said you can...feel and hear it... think? What do you mean by that?" Oak thought about how to explain it for a moment, "Well, with leaf speak you can feel plants, and hear what they're thinking. This plant wanted to grow, just like every other plant, but it was different because I could tell it wanted to grow in order to take over." "Creepy..." Glowworm said with a shiver. "No kidding!" I said in agreement, "That's weird, I don't think there was anything like that over on Pyrrhia..." Oak nodded, "Definitely not. Now, heads up, we're approaching the spot where we found it."we all landed on the forest floor, approaching an ominous clearing. As we got closer though, I noticed exactly what Oak had described to be the plant. "Is that it?" I asked, pointing to the dark red vines everywhere. Oak nodded, "Yeah, that's it." Glowworm started off in his own direction, following something. "Glowworm, what are you doing?" I called to him. "I'm following it... it looks like a trail going over here." Oak and I chased after him. The vines led down into a cave, which was almost pitch black the farther you went down into it. "Here let me get us some light." Glowworm said making glowing flame silk appear from his wrists. "Are you sure we should follow it?" Oak asked nervously. "I agree, Glowworm, we don't know what's down there, and we barely know what this plant is capable of. I don't think we should follow it quite yet." Glowworm shrugged, "And we'll never know about it if we don't investigate it!" He said as he ducked into the cave. I groaned out of annoyance, "Well, I'm not letting him go down there to get himself killed. You don't have to come with us, but you are more than welcome if you do." I said to Oak, while ducking into the cave after Glowworm. Oak shook his head, "No... I'm following too I guess..." As we were all cramped into the small cave, we looked around the walls where they were covered thickly with the plant's vines.
We kept going farther and farther down into the cave until we hit a ravine where we could actually spread our wings and fly through. We kept following the vines through the ravine until it took us to a smaller section that branched off into another hallway. "This place is huge." Oak exclaimed. "Yeah... but we must continue on, I have a feeling we're close." Oak stopped for a moment, "You're not wrong, the feeling of the vines is growing stronger." Oak said, looking a little shaken up. "Are you alright?" I asked, nudging my wing with theirs. "Yeah... I just don't like listening to that plant, it gives me weird vibes." "I can imagine. I can't even feel the plant's emotions or whatever, and I'm creeped out by it." I said with a shiver. "Well come on, let's catch up." Oak said running forwards to catch up with Glowworm. We kept walking for what felt like forever until we finally reached an abyss. "Oh great, now we have to deal with a mysterious abyss and evil plants! What else do we have to deal with?" Glowworm said frustratedly. "Don't jinx us!" Oak said playfully, hitting Glowworms shoulder. "So... what do we do about the mysterious abyss over here?" Glowworm gestured to the gaping hole in the cave's ground, "Any suggestions are good suggestions." "Except diving headfirst into it blindly!" Oak added. "Actually..." Glowworm looked over his shoulder, into the abyss. "Oh no... you gave him an idea!" I said to Oak. Glowworm took a running head start and dived into the abyss. "You're an idiot!" Oak called to him, but there was no response. A few seconds later however, a brighter light appeared as Glowworm flew back up to us, "Get down here now, I think I found it!" he said with excitement and anxiety. Oak took a deep breath, "I guess it's all or nothing, huh?" I nodded, "I guess." We both dived into the abyss after Glowworm, and eventually flew down to a room covered floor to ceiling with those vines. "By all the moons..." I gasped. In the back of the room there was another dragon, it looked up at us and hissed, "Who are you three?" Glowworm retorted back to them, "Who are you?" The dragon lashed their tail, "I asked you first." "Well we're not saying." Glowworm stated. The other dragon snorted, "So be it, I'll just get it from your memories." she put her talons down on the vines, and they started rising towards us, reaching out and trying to drag us down. "We have to get out of here!" Oak called frantically. We all dashed for the exit and narrowly made it out. "Who was that?" Oak asked, "They looked like a LeafWing, but as if they also had parts from the tribes back on Pyrrhia." Glowworm shrugged, "I don't know and I don't care right now, I want out of here!" I stopped for a moment, "I can't protect us though, we didn't come all this way for nothing." The other two looked at me skeptically, "Just trust me." I said holding out my talons. The other two took my talons in theirs and I whispered an enchantment to protect us all from any danger we were going to face. "We should be safe to go back." I said walking to the room as the other two followed behind. We went back into the room, as we did the dragon tried trapping us with the vines again, but failed because of my enchantment. They growled with anger, "Why won't this work?" they lashed their tail again. "What is this stuff? And who are you?" Glowworm said demandingly. "As if I'd tell you!" They bared their teeth and hissed again. There was a weird high pitched squeaking noise, and the dragon turned towards it, "Or what Cottonmouth!" they replied angrily to the squeaks. Glowworm, Oak, and I all looked at each other with confusion. "Oh right, you three are so lucky you can't understand this annoying human!" The weird dragon said, rolling their eyes. As they said this, a scavenger appeared from a room behind the strange dragon. "This is Cottonmouth, the oh so feared and powerful mastermind behind the Breath of Evil." they said with a very sarcastic tone. "And I'm the 'experiment' dragon, according to him, but I could so easily just eat him on the spot if I felt like it. My name is Lizard." I looked at Lizard and back to Cottonmouth, how was a dragon and a scavenger controlling a plant? "Alright, I told you our amazingly awesome and thrilling entry, now tell me yours." Oak and Glowworm looked at me nervously. "I'm Shiver, that's Glowworm, and that's Oak." I said pointing to each of them, "And we're here to figure out what's been causing the animals to act weird." Lizard laughed, "Well you found it, congrats." she did a slow clap, "And let me guess, you three are going to heroically save the day, and get rid of us?" Lizard said sarcastically. "I mean we can!" Glowworm said menacingly, flame silk starting to grow from his wrists, but Oak reminded him that he couldn't burn them. "Oh no, whatever shall we do Cottonmouth, they want to put an end to us!" Lizard said dramatically. Cottonmouth squeaked again, "Yes I am aware that could be the end of us and your 'precious' plan." Lizard retorted, annoyed. Oak whispered to me, "I think that if we did... kill them... it would kill the plant too, or at least weaken it. Let me try something." Oak closed his eyes and started focusing really hard. I noticed in the background behind Lizard and Cottonmouth a vine rising up slowly. The vine crept closer to the two, but they didn't notice due to the two arguing back and forth about something. Soon, the vine grabbed the two and tied them together. Lizard yelped in surprise and immediately combated with their own leaf speak, undoing the vines quickly. "Oh three moons, they have stronger leaf speak than me." Oak exclaimed. "Not if I can do something about it." I controlled the vines with my magic and eventually had it wrap around them, and spear them straight through the head. Oak and Glowworm all gasped, "I can't believe you just did that!" they both exclaimed. The vines that were growing in the room started withering away, eventually killing the plant, until it was just a small flowering bud again. "I wonder if that happened everywhere?" Glowworm asked. I shrugged, "Let's find out."
After finally flying all the way back, the two dragons I had previously trapped seemed to have returned to normal, so I freed them, and other dragons around reported that the animals were finally acting normal again. Glowworm, Oak and the two dragons I freed, Branch and Emerald, also said they hadn't seen any traces of the plant since. "I think you actually just almost single handedly saved the whole continent." Glowworm said happily, "I say almost single handedly because you know you couldn't have done it without me, I mean I was great down there, all heroic and stuff! Remember when I fought the plant like this?" Glowworm started throwing fake punches. We both laughed, "Well we really couldn't have done it without you, you were our torch!" Glowworm, thought about it for a moment, "Oh, I guess you're right! See I am important!" We both laughed again. Queen Weevil flew over to us, "Well IceWing, what was your name again?" "Shiver, your majesty." She nodded, "Right, Shiver, thank you for finding out what was causing all of these issues, I'm sorry I misjudged you beforehand." I bowed my head, "You're welcome. I would do anything to help protect your tribe, and the LeafWings as well. But I just want to clear one thing, I don't want to be treated like some kind of hero, I just want to be treated normally." "I can do that." Queen Weevil said. "Don't expect this kind of humble modesty from me!" Glowworm interjected, "I want monuments, and statues, and the hand to the throne and all kinds of riches!" He said jokingly. "In your dreams Glowworm, aren't you supposed to be helping the construction crew build some homes?" Queen Weevil asked. "But I just saved two tribes! Shouldn't I get a vacation?" Glowworm protested. Weevil shook her head, "No, but you should go save Emerald from accidently falling over because the wood beams are too heavy to carry alone. I might give you a break then." Glowworm sighed, "Yes your majesty." He went over and helped Emerald with the wood beam. I decided to go back to my home. I could write an interesting story about this that might help in the future in case The breath of evil ever came back.