piece of the wild

Melita

Eating fire is your ambition
to swallow the flame down

“Yeah,” of course it had. It’d been up against the Honeybee. And Jack and Harper too, but she and Ludo had done the most damage. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other things like it.” Caido as a whole seemed to enjoy keeping monsters and mayhem within its sanctions at any opportunity; and the fact that most of them barely batted an eye was probably through trauma, growth, and a shrug of the shoulders as they became used to the bedlam.

The temptation to lead Talyson into slaughter wasn’t lost on her; but the notions of more people wandering into this midst, unaware of the danger, left her torn. The youth wrinkled her nose, tilting her head, studying another crawling leaflet managing to meander its way across the ground, before smacking her staff on top of it. “We could post something on the notice board.”

to be lit up from within, vein by vein
to be the sun

The courier nodded glumly at her assessment, holding out his knife and watching a perfectly lovely red flower snap closed around the blade. It gnawed angrily at the steel as he carefully kept his fingers out of the way of the teeth that had been hidden under the edges of its petals. "There always are," he agreed with the faint grimace of a man who had grown up on a world that seemed to chain catastrophes together like pearls on a string.

He was blissfully unaware of her desire to lead him to his untimely demise. Lifting his knife until the flower pulled free of the ground, he shook it until the petaled carnivore slid loose. It landed on its roots, tall and spindly, and hissed at him before spidering away back into the jungle with a strange, writhing gate that left Tal feeling a little queasy. "Yeah, that sounds good t'me." Hopefully someone in charge would see the notice and do something like... posting signs around the edge of the island? Or something? But at least it wouldn't be their problem anymore. "Feel bad for any birds that try t'roost in here, though," he added with a grimace, looking up into the shadowed canopy with a wrinkled nose. "'Cept maybe Gore Crows."

Melita

Eating fire is your ambition
to swallow the flame down

“They probably figure it out quickly.” And stay away – or learn their lesson in another harsher, blunter way. That was the thing with a majority of these lands – they didn’t suffer fools gladly. Ignorance wasn’t bliss. And it was so easy, so simple, to fall apart at the seams from some notion, nuance, or creature lurking within the depths.

Keeping those thoughts to herself, the youth twisted the end of her staff deeper into the ground, watching as the vine gnarled and thrashed under her brutal ministrations, before unfurling from her crouch. “Well, no need to stay here then.” They’d probably seen and heard enough to leave warnings, and though the potential to strand the fool here was tempting, it could easily be rendered another day. Shrugging her shoulders and lifting her armament off the plant, watching it slink back to where it came from, the Honeybee turned around rapidly.

to be lit up from within, vein by vein
to be the sun

Survival of the fittest or... something. Still, Tal sighed as he looked upwards as if half-expecting to see an innocent avian landing on the death traps that constituted the entirety of the island that he'd seen so far. Almost absently he kicked out at a root that was trying to sneakily coil around his boot and then stomped on it when it dodged and tried to lash back.

It wriggled like a snake and he brought his attention back down with a grimace. "Y'can say that again." His agreement was fervent as he skipped back, watching the crushed root twitch and try to crawl after them in spite of its flattened state.

He turned with a shake of his head and fell in beside the Honeybee girl, brightening at the prospect of heading back to Haulani together. "Say, can I buy you a drink when we get back to town?"

No, no he could not, as it turned out. But at least Boreal enjoyed her time with Fangorn, and he was able to present the preying orchid to his customer.

And nobody died!

~The End~