Mythara

Chapter 10

"Brogan!" Ione screamed. 

Brogan struggled with all his might against the tree who now had a vice-like grip on him. He could barely move any part of his body, and his arm started to go numb as a tingling feeling crept over him. The spinning, deadly-sharp blade was now at least a foot away from his face. He heard the high-pitched whine of the weapon rotating through the air. 

The weapon was similar to one of those old fashioned electrical saws, except that from it's axel were two of the tree's branches, parallel to each other. The branches joined together into a thicker branch which connected to the tree and, as the strange machine neared dangerously close to Brogan's face, the thicker branch seemed to grow out of the tree some more.

"Agh!" Brogan cried out in frustration.

This was it. He was going to die.

He wondered what it was like to die. He felt...sad that he couldn't have died a better death. Sure, this was honorable? But he was not able to fight back. It wasn't fair! This was cowardice of whoever was behind this all. It could not have been the tree. Then again, tree's were genetically enhanced....

Brogan decided, his mind strangely calm, that the last resort was to spit at it. And he did. Then he watched in utter astonishment at what happened next.

The blade suddenly recoiled, as if it were a live thing. A small wisp of smoke spiralled into the air. Then, the blade slowly began to disentigrate. It shivered and quavered. Brogan's spit had created a hole in the contraption and the hole was getting larger. A gently rain of ashes dropped to the ground, creating a small, black mound of what was previously the blade. 

"Brogan! Our spit is acidic!" cried Ione from above. 

Brogan heard the sound of violent spitting and shouts of joy. He sighed in relief, releasing some of the tension. 

Puh! he spat, a glob of wet saliva landed on the thickest of his unusual bonds and created a hole which spread. Ione dropped down onto the ground beside him just as the last of the branches dissentegrated. Instead of spreading to the tree, it stopped at the base of the branch.

Ione threw her arms around Brogan's neck. 

"I thought you were going to die!" she said.

"But I didn't," Brogan answered. He grinned at her in relief.

"No, you didn't." Ione let go of Brogan. "You sure you aren't hurt? At all?"

He looked down at himself and shook his head. "You?"

"Nope."

They stood there in silence.

"What do you think that was?" Ione asked, her dark eyebrows furrowed together.

"I-I..." Brogan struggled for an answer. "I don't know. Do you think this tree is actually a machine?" 

"No," Ione answered immediately. 

Brogan glanced at her oddly. "What do you mean, no?"

"I have X-ray vision!" She shouted excitedly, clasping her hands together.

"What? How can you have it and I don't?" Brogan asked indignantly. 

Ione gently turned him back to the tree. "Look, and focus. Think about the tree's guts."

"But a tree doesn't have guts!" Brogan said.

"Oh, well, what the tree is made out of then!" 

"But I don't know what the tree is made out of!" 

"Are you really that dumb?"

Brogan glared at her.

"Just think of the tree!" she cried exasperatedly.

Brogan shut his eyes and focused on the tree. The tree...tree...tree...tree. And he saw.

"Wow."

"Yup! A tree does have guts!"

Brogan focused on the image in front of him, his eyes still closed. The image was in perfect color, yet it was sort of like the imagine of a large molecule scientists would study. It was in perfect 3D! He could spin the tree around in his mind, turn it upside down, and see into it. It was filled with a whole bunch of hollow holes or 'guts'. 

"Ione, they're just squirrel holes," Brogan sighed. 

"Whatever! They look like organs!" Ione laughed. 

"So," Brogan did a quick re-cap. "We just got attacked by a tree-well, whatever that thing was. We found out we have acidic spit, that we have X-ray vision, and..." he paused.

"And our Ewynne and Sphynx have been captured by the man."