Chapter 705/04/2008 09:53:00
"B-blood," Boq stuttered.
"Yes indeed. You recall the flytrap in the entrance hall; the one that's been featured on TV for the past couple of weeks, Audrey II? I can only get the aloe if Audrey II is fed, and that's where Elphaba, here, comes in!"
"What are you gonna do? Kill people!?"
"Honestly Boq," said Elphaba, "you really are slow sometimes. No, I'm not going to kill people. Before we came here, I located a spell in the Grimmerie that can turn water into blood. I think this world has actually seen this spell happen, but it was long ago, thousands of years ago."
Elphaba had found the spell a few hours before; It wasn't that complicated, but it took a lot of energy to perform. The giant basin had been put in front of Audrey II and Elphaba was preparing for the spell. She placed the book on the ground and did a quick incantation that filled it to the brim with water. She flipped through the pages and found the spell. She crouched low to the ground, placed her finger tips in the water, and over and over repeated the words "salasso anima da pioggia".
Boq looked at the water to see that a bright red streak was flowing out of her finger tips, twisting and turning in the water, and growing as well. As the Tin Man shifted his glance to Audrey II, he quickly noticed it tilt its gigantic trap down towards the basin, like it was staring at it. As the red streak grew, turning most of the water into blood, the plant's jaw slowly opened, revealing several rows of pointed teeth, dripping with a wet solution. Some of the liquid dripped from the plant's mouth, and as it touched the floor, it immediately burned through it. Though this was very interesting, moving plants were nothing new to him, or Oz more so. Towards the end of the incantation, the plant began to outstretch its neck toward the blood-filled basin, but as it did, Boq could clearly distinguish some sort of growth underneath Audrey II's leafy mane. That had to be the parasite!
As Elphaba muttered the last words of the spell, the plant plunged it's head right into the basin, slurping up all of the blood. When it had finished, it picked it's head out of basin, but just a Seymour reached for parasite to retrieve the aloe, Audrey II snapped it's jaw, almost snapping off Seymour's hand. It let out a guttural growl as it glared at Seymour. "Uh…I think we should retrieve the aloe tomorrow. You know, when there's more of it."
As they all filed out of the room, Boq turned to see the plant was looking straight at him. All of the others had left, so it was just him and Audrey II in the entrance hall. "You, boy, are a threat to me," said the plant in a deep, melodic voice. At that, the plant extended one of it's huge vines, wrapping it around Boq many times, and just about as he let out a scream, wrapped the end of the tentacle around his metallic jaw. "Hmn. I man made of tin. Yeah, you could be a serious problem". With that, he sprayed a red smog from him his trap, and Boq went unconscious immediately. The last thing he heard was Audrey II's maniacal laugh.