I'm back! XD How have you all been? I hope you have been looking forward to seeing an update for this. Well, here it is! ;) Enjoy!
23
Recap: Ichigo didn't notice it, but Tenebris did. {Ichi, he's got something up his nose.} He looked to see what she was talking about, but before could he felt woozy. He noticed Tenebris feeling the same way.
'What is going on?' Ichigo decided to voice his thoughts.
"Oh, I'm using this." Akio pulled out a small flower with yellow, green, and pink petals. "The effect takes a bit of time when there is only a small opening, but when it takes hold your body feels more relaxed. Now it will be so much easier to drag you both to where we need to go. Oh, and the effect will last long enough for me to get to where we need to be." Their insane brother/cousin knocked Ichigo's soul out of his body and grabbed them both. He dragged them out through the window and flash-stepped to who knew where.
By the time the pollen wore off, Ichigo, Tenebris, and Akio stood before a mountain. Ichigo looked up to see if he could see the top of the mountain, but he couldn't. All he saw was that the mountain passed the clouds and was out of sight.
"Where are we?" asked Ichigo, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer to that.
"This is where the poisonous, man-eating plant grows," said Akio with a wide smile.
"There is nothing here," said Tenebris with narrowed, annoyed eyes.
"That's because the plant is under this mountain. Now let's go get a seed from it!" Akio said excitedly and began walking toward the mountain, only to pause and look around in confusion. "Um...where is the way in?"
"He wants us to go into the mountain, and underground…?" Ichigo heard Tenebris say next to him, sounding nervous. He looked over and spotted small quakes in her wings, and saw fear in her eyes. Ichigo felt pity for her. She always hated going into caves and the underground. She told him that she feared the cave would trap her inside, and she won't be able to dig her way out.
"Found it!" Akio called out in triumph. Tenebirs whined, very much like a scared puppy. So Ichigo patted her wing and walked forward. He wasn't sure if she was going to follow or not, but if she didn't, he wouldn't blame her.
Ichigo got to where Akio stood in front of a small opening in the mountain that was covered by vines. The blond stood there smugly.
"So this is the way in?" asked Ichigo, looking through the opening.
"Yes, they did say that the cave that leads in and to the plant is small and hidden. Well, this is small and it was hidden," said Akio.
"Great, not only do I have to go in there, but now I have to go through a hole I'm not sure I'm going to fit through." Ichigo turned to see that Tenebris had followed him, but she was staring at the opening like it was going to eat her.
"Tenebris, you could just make the hole bigger so you could fit," said Akio. "After all, the inside is wider."
Tenebris growled but did not show teeth. Ichigo wondered how long that would last. Tenebris lifted a paw, held it above the hole, and a glow could be seen from underneath. Rock and dirt loosened and fell to the ground, making the opening big enough for anyone to go through comfortably.
Tenebris snapped her head around to face Akio and hissed, "If we get trapped in there, I'll kill you myself."
"If we got trapped, you could just use shadow travel to get back out," Akio pointed out.
"I wouldn't leave Ichigo behind. You know what it feels like when I shadow travel with someone without coating them in darkness first," she said.
Ichigo shivered at her words. He had that happen before, and it felt like the world around him was ending and caving in, starting with the bright blue sky falling around him, and trees, grass, and the air all wrapping around him like a snake.
Akio rolled his eyes at Ichigo's soul sister, and entered the cave, telling them to hurry up. Ichigo let Tenebris go in next and he followed right behind her. Once inside the cave, Ichigo asked where they needed to go next.
"The book didn't say, just that it was best to follow the smell of water. That was why I needed Tenebris on this adventure."
Tenebris sighed, "Figures… Well right now it's a straight path, so I don't need to sniff anything out yet."
"You're right. Let's go!" Akio began walking again while humming a happy tune. Ichigo shook his head and followed while Tenebris growled nervously.
When they got to their first crossroads they counted three ways they could go. Akio asked Tenebris which way had the scent of water, and so she sniffed down each path.
"They all smell like water," she grumbled.
"I figured, but which way smells the strongest of it?"
She sniffed again and pointed to two pathways on the left. "They are the strongest, but I don't know which way."
Akio nodded. "Well, we'll know which one it really is once we check them out. The way down should have a guardian of sorts."
"That means there's going to be fighting…" said Ichigo.
"Yup, now you know why I brought you, Ichi!"
"Why couldn't you fight them?" asked Tenebris, who was looking at Akio from the corner of her eye.
"Because they are most likely immune to poisons."
"Well, there was a hint of something green down this way," Tenebris said while pointing down the right of the two pathways.
"Okay, we'll check out that one first then," said Ichigo. The three walked the path in the middle and the deeper they went the darker it got. Akio pulled out a flashlight that Ichigo knew was his. "Where and when did you get that?" he asked.
"I grabbed it before I let you know I was there at your house. I had a feeling we were going to need it," Akio replied.
"Aren't the batteries almost dead in that one, though?" asked Tenebris, sounding both worried and hopeful.
"Oh, no need to worry. I changed the batteries already. So it's good as new!" Tenebris huffed at the answer.
{You were hoping we would turn back, weren't you?} Ichigo asked telepathically.
{Yes.}
Ichigo gave her a reassuring smile and then noticed something up ahead. "Hey, what's that?" he asked.
They got closer when none of them could tell. They were only a few feet away from it when they figured out what it was. It was a plant with a purple stem and a green mouth with shark-like teeth.
Just as the process of teeth entered their minds, they quickly backed away, and at the same time, the plant snapped at them with clicking teeth.
"Whoa!" Ichigo and Tenebris shouted when the plant almost ate their faces off.
Ichigo went to grab his zanpakuto to kill it, only to grasp air. He turned his head slightly to see where his sword was only to not see one on his back.
"Wow King, what did I miss?" Ichigo snapped his head around to see Shiro standing over the chopped-up plant and holding the sword over his shoulder while it dripped sap.
"Where have you been?" Ichigo demanded.
"I asked the question first, but I'll answer since mine will be quicker. I was takin' a nap when all the noise woke me up."
"What noise?" asked Tenebris. "There was hardly anything that made much noise. That plant only made clicking sounds."
"There was a clap of thunder in King's world. Normally it only happens when he's almost killed." Shiro then turned back to Ichigo. "Now answer my question: what did I miss?"
Ichigo sighed, "Akio kidnapped Tenebris and I to find the plant he wants to add to his collection." He then noticed Akio walk over the dead plant that Shiro just killed and enter the cave behind it. "You mean to tell me it isn't the plant you're looking for?"
Akio turned to Ichigo with a 'are you stupid?' look. "No, I said the man-eater I'm looking for is under the mountain. We're still on ground level," he said. "Now come on. Shiro, you're more than welcome to help."
Shiro grinned and began to follow Akio. Ichigo rolled his eyes and fell into steps with the two other males, but Tenebris walked up close to Shiro with fluffed out wings.
"If you make this place cave in on us, I'll tear you to ribbons and feed you to these plants," she said, but Ichigo thought there was more she wished to say. But she liked Shiro, so her threats never got too bad.
They reached the bottom of the incline, and just as Akio took another step forward, another plant tried to eat him. Tenebris killed it with a fire breath; however, the glow from the flames allowed everyone to see that there were more plants than they could count all around them, and they all looked poisonous and man-eating.
"I just saw 8 plants that can kill just by smelling them from further down that way. Good thing I brought masks," said Akio, pulling out face masks and safety goggles from his pack.
"What are the goggles for?" Ichigo asked.
"Incase one of the plants tries to spit sap into your eyes. You will go blind if that happens," Akio explained.
Ichigo sighed in dismay but placed the mask and goggles on anyway.
"Wait, what about feathers?" asked Shiro, who noticed that Tenebris wasn't given any protection except for the goggles.
Tenebris answered the question herself, "I'm immune to all poisons thanks to my poison ability. You should know that Shiro."
"Oh, right, I forgot…"
"Let's just keep moving so we can get out of here," said Ichigo.
"I agree," said Tenebris, who reared her head back and breathed huge bursts of fire at all the plants surrounding them. As they moved forward, Ichigo and Shiro chopped and sliced at the plants that Tenebris missed, or needed to cover her from as she sniffed the air to find water.
It took about ten minutes to find an opening within the cave. Inside was a huge, green lake that practically glowed.
"It almost looks like radiation," said Tenerbis. "Luckily I would have been able to smell it if it was."
"Could radiation be dangerous to us as spirits?" asked Ichigo.
"No, because we're dead, but I would avoid entering your body again for about a week if you were exposed to radiation," said Akio.
Ichigo nodded his head in thanks and then began to look around. "So where is this plant, and what does it look like?"
"It should be around here. As for what it looks like, it's huge and…" Before Akio could finish what he was saying, a giant serpent-looking creature shot out of the ground by the water with a roar. Its body was black, and its head was a dark, dull purple with black and dark green streaks and looked like a budding flower. There were vines wrapped around the thing's body and leaves aiming down at the base of its head, kind of like a lion's mane. "It looks like that," Akio finished saying while pointing to the crazy-looking plant serpent.
"That's a plant?!" Ichigo questioned in shock.
"Yeah...I can smell the sap from it," said Tenebris.
"So what do ya need us to do?" Shiro asked Akio, looking bored already.
"I need you to kill it, BUT only chop the head off. No burning it, you might destroy the seeds," instructed Akio.
Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. "That shouldn't be too hard. All we have to do is cut off the head. Shiro and I have our swords to do that with, and Tenebris can cut through almost anything with her wings," he said.
"Only because I wrap them in wind blades," muttered Tenebris, but Ichigo still heard her.
Shiro, still looking bored, lifted his zanpakuto and spun it in his hands. "Well, let's get this over with," he said, and then threw the sword in an arc at the serpent plant, only for it to duck under the attack and spit a huge ball of something green at them.
"Watch out!" shouted Akio. "That's acid!" All four of them jumped out of the way of the acid ball. Ichigo landed a little ways away from the rest of his group, he looked around to see where everyone was and saw that Akio was hiding behind a boulder, Shiro was starting to look excited, and Tenebris was flying up in the air.
"Anything else you want to warn us about, Akio?" Tenebris called down.
"Don't get any of the sap in your mouth. That's what the acid is made from," said Akio. "It's also said that this plant can fill the room with poisonous pollen if it's above ground for too long. If that's the case, then I suggest killing it quickly, or else we'll die a slow - like days slow - agonizing death."
"I'm startin' ta like this plant!" called out Shiro, who threw his zanpakuto for its head again.
Ichigo decided to send out a Getsuga Tensho at the base of the creature-like plant, and Tenebris dive-bombed it with wind cutters covering her wings.
The plant had roared in pain, but the sound was fading out throughout the walls. When the dust and mist from the water dissipated, the plant was dead, and the head, or flower, was rolling on the ground and quickly wilting away.
Akio quickly stepped up to the flower and started to tear through it with gloved hands. After a moment of tearing and digging, he pulled out an object that was the size of his hand and he looked at it with shining, happy eyes.
Ichigo walked up to him. "I'm guessing that's the seed," he said while looking down at the almond-shaped, golden green, item.
Akio nodded his head, clearly smiling widely behind his face mask.
"Great, then can we go? I think the ground might be shaking, and I think it might have something to do with our attacks. If that's the case, then this cave might fall on us," Tenebris said quickly and in one breath.
Akio pocketed the seed and nodded his head in agreement. "Let's get out of here. I want to plant this in my underground garden as soon as possible."
The four of them were just leaving the cave when the ground started to shake more violently than it had ever before.
TBC
If I was in a cave that was shaking, you wouldn't catch me dead in it.
Ichi: You sure don't like caves.
Enj/Dark: I like them, I just wouldn't go too deep into one.
Shiro: What if the entrance was blocked with you still inside?
Enj/Dark: Thanks for saying that… -_- Besides, the chances of me ever entering a cave are slim to none.
Ichi: I guess that's true. Please review! :)
