As the first pulse of dust began to drift away another one followed in quick succession along with some wood fragments as the head of the creature sprang into view. It was larger than any of the onlookers, and a wicked set of flashing white teeth snapped and ground as the hideous thing tried to find out what was causing all the pain.
The little group cowered back, too petrified to move, let alone run, and watched in horror as the dark muddy grey creature extruded itself from the hole in the branch in a cloud of dust spores and shattered bark fragments. The dust drifted away slowly and just below the fearsome head where the long neck broadened out to form the main body, a pair of tentacle like arms protruded, each equipped with a set of razor sharp curved claws.
The creature, fully six times in length compared to any one of them, and twice as thick, curled and writhed on the branch surface, ripping out large chunks of bark as it tried to destroy anything within its reach, finally sliding over the edge to begin its long drop to the forest floor below.
The high pitched scream emitted by the creature caused the group to clap their hands over their ears to try and shut out the hideous sound, as the creature fell writhing in agony, bouncing off the branches below. The sounds grew fainter as the moments passed, and silence eventually returning to the forest glade.
‘Well,’ said Moss, ‘that wasn’t too bad, was it?’ but there was a slight tremble in his voice.
The Greater Sun’s light dimmed slightly as it filtered down through the leafy canopy above, and the little group, still a bit shaken at the turn of events, headed for Mec’s tree cave to shelter from the coming storm.
High above them the lightning crackled and spluttered while enormous quantities of rain crashed down on the upper layers of the forest. As the huge drops hit the leaves and branches they broke up into smaller ones, so by the time they had filtered down to Mec’s cave, they were no larger than small grapes. This sudden flood washed all the remaining fungus dust from the main branch.
As quickly as the storm had come, it went, and the Greater Sun sent it’s bright light down through the foliage to illuminate the soaking wet branches, turning all colours a shade darker as they absorbed the water.
The little party in the tree cave tucked in to a meal of fruits and pods supplied by Mec, and by the time they had finished, the forest had soaked up all the extra moisture, and only a few wisps of rising mist were left to show what had happened.
‘Let’s go see what the creature’s home is like, it should be safe enough now.’ said Mec, and they all trooped out and along the now dry main branch towards the hole, now minus its trapdoor. Moss was the first to lean over the gaping cavity in the branch, Kel holding his feet in case he slipped in.
‘It’s huge, and I can see a tunnel going back along the main branch for quite a distance.’
‘It should be safe enough to go down and have a good look around, but be careful.’ said Mec, passing a length of vine to the others around the hole. One end was fastened to a nearby side branch, and Moss and Kel slid down into the hole, with knife tipped staves at the ready.
The two disappeared for a few moments, and then called up to the others on the rim of the hole.
‘It looks as if there is a natural hole running back along the branch for as far as we can see, and the creature has left teeth marks where it has enlarged some sections in order to get this far. The main chamber has been cut out and enlarged by the look of it, as there are teeth marks all around the sides ... Hang on, Moss has seen something.’
Moments later Moss was looking up from the bottom of the chamber at Mec with a worried look on his face.
‘Where the natural tunnel in the branch carries on towards your cave, there seems to be a small side cave, and in that are some large round things, like the eggs some of the flying lizards lay.’
‘All right,’ Mec called back, ‘I’ll just go back to my cave to get something, and I’ll come down to have a look.’
He hurried off, to return moments later with his light making kit and a long thin knife. Sliding down the vine a lot faster than he intended to, he joined the others in the chamber and added a pinch of the two dried powders to the water in the transparent insect case of the light maker.
Moments later a soft glow of pale blue light lit up the chamber, getting brighter as Mec stirred it up with a stick.
‘Now let’s see what you’ve found, lead the way Moss and don’t touch anything, there may still be a little of the fungus powder down here where the rain didn’t reach.’
They stopped, open mouthed at what they saw. The creature had indeed laid a collection of eggs in a small cave-like opening at the side of the tunnel, and some of them were jerking about as if they might well be on the point of releasing their contents.
‘We’ll have to roll the eggs out into the main tunnel, so that when we open them the contents will flow away from the main chamber. Whatever you do, don’t get any of the fluid from the eggs on yourselves,
