Chapter 13

I went through peanut butter withdrawal while writing this, so I apologise if the writing kind of dies halfway through. Also sorry I'm like a week late for uploading! School starting up again is not fun.

Acacia thrashed wildly as vines tightened around her, binding her limbs to her torso and choking her like a boa constrictor.

AIR AIR AIR CAN'T BREATHE DYING

She turned to her left, a new wave of panic rising in her as she saw Swallowtail succumb to the plant, thick tendrils pulling her into the sea of vines.

Acacia wriggled her claws, trying to slice through the vines which were now showing their thorns when she remembered what she was taught in the lower school, the one rule that they'd drilled into each dragonets head until they muttered it in their sleep: If you ever get eaten by a carnivorous plant, just play dead. It'll think you're a stick and drop you.

The LeafWing went limp, praying that the plant couldn't feel her heart hammering away at her ribcage. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, and Acacia grew tense.

Please work please work please work

Slowly, the thorny tendrils pulled themselves away, and the others loosened their grip. Acacia breathed a sigh of relief.

Then they fell away.

Acacia could only let out a muffled shriek as she sank into the forest of vines. The stench thickened as she got deeper and deeper, all light vanishing until only darkness remained.

Acacia hit something with a thump, stopping her fall.

Well that didn't work.

She lay there stunned for who knew how long until she noticed the vines around her were shaking. The LeafWing hauled herself up just in time to see her friend land on the ground beside her.

"Oof," Swallowtail groaned as her head was caught by her friend's outstretched chartreuse wing.

Carefully, Acacia lowered her friend's head to the ground so she was lying down, wincing at the effort of using a dislocated wing.

"Swallowtail?" Acacia inquired gently once her companion was safely on the ground. There was no reply.

Upon closer examination, the LeafWing deduced that Swallowtail was unconscious; when she would wake up, she didn't know. If she does, Acacia thought but tried to not think about. They must have fallen at least fifty feet, and Swallowtail didn't have the benefit of wings or consciousness.

She couldn't lose another friend. Not now.

Acacia shivered. That feeling again, of being watched. The plant really gave her the creeps. What was it, anyway? She didn't recognise it from four years of living in a jungle full of sentient plants. That reminded her: she hadn't been home in a week. She shuddered. How could have so much happened in a week? It felt like it'd been a year since she'd last been in the safety of the SapWing village. Since she'd seen her family.

A silent tear was shed that moment, one and no more.

"A crying LeafWing," taunted the plant. "How original."

Acacia froze. "What do you want?"

"What do you think? All I need now is a few more puppets, LeafWing, and the continent will be mine."

"I'm not scared of you," Acacia growled. That was a lie, fear was already starting to bubble up in her stomach and digging its roots in.

"Now, now," the plant tutted. "Bragging won't get you anywhere with us, sapling."

"What do you mean, us?"

"Come on. Did you really think I was working alone?"

The ground below them began to shift, alive with wriggling vines. Acacia barely had time to latch onto Swallowtail before the floor snagged their ankles. She thrashed as ceiling vines dragged them up, and new tendrils peeled them apart, forming thick cocoons that were carried towards the center of the net.

The heart of the plant was a massive green bulb, a squishy tree-sized monstrosity covered in vines. Here the ground beneath the vines was smooth stone that seemed too perfect to be natural.

They came to a stop near the centre, thorns getting dangerously close to their hearts and eyes. Another cocoon hung nearby, forming a triangle of cocoons. She fleeting wondered who it was, and then the top peeled back to reveal a face.

It was Whitespeck, grinning demonically with a vine growing out of his neck wound and glazed white eyes shining.

She was bubbling with fear from tail to snout now. She felt more scared then she'd ever felt before.

This is where we're going to die.

I'm so sorry.

Those eyes haunted her as a toxin worked its way into her system and her mind clouded with darkness.