She could see it, her foe, but she couldn’t comprehend it.
Around her, vegetation continued rushing by as the thing carried her away.
The things, rather.
Roots.
Many, many roots.
Large, sinewy, black roots.
They’d wrapped around her completely, and with amazing speed.
She could see it, but her mind refused to acknowledge it—because it was impossible.
Heck, the fastest growing plant on Earth was bamboo, but compared to bamboo, these roots…these roots were like putting Usain Bolt against a toddler in a race.
Even as she struggled and fear made her heart hammer against her chest, she knew she wasn’t getting out of the plant’s grasp.
Her life flashed before her eyes.
This was how it was going to end?
Of all the ways to die?
She had no idea how long she’d been moving or how far she’d been pulled away.
It felt like ages but it could be less than a minute. She couldn’t know for sure. The terror of the situation alone had distorted time.
Kerena gulped as she attempted to control her breathing.
She could only assume that she’d tripped some kind of mechanism that made the plant latch on to her—kind of like tickling the hairs on a sundew or Venus flytrap—and that thought only made her freak out even more.
She could only hope the plant would release her soon, but there was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It wasn’t acting like any plant she’d ever encountered…it seemed sentient—as if it was taking her to a specific location—and that thought chilled her to the bone.
The light of the sun seemed to dim as the movement of the roots slowed down and Kerena realized it was taking her to a dense area where the vegetation was a lot thicker.
She could hear her pulse in her ears as her breaths came ragged through her nostrils.
Please, God, don’t make this be some sort of carnivorous plant.
Please.
Gravity suddenly tilted and she was going down, down, then all movements stopped.
Kerena’s heart hammered against her chest.
Nothing happened.
There was no sound, no movement, nothing.
If she wasn’t still caught in the grasp of the plant, she’d have thought she’d imagined it pulling her across the terrain.
“—reh-nah!” The sound came from the device on her wrist.
It was still there and her heart rate picked up when she realized that it hadn’t fallen off during the journey.
Ajos.
He was still out there somewhere.
A glimmer of hope made her heart flutter but there was no way for her to access the device so she could answer him.
She couldn’t move.
“Keh—” The signal cut out. “—nah!”
Tears formed in her eyes.
She was on her back and she could barely see the sky above through the canopy.
It was so dim where she was, she could hardly see and that only made her anxiety rise.
Her only consolation was that there seemed to be no movement from the plant and, for now, she was going to look at that as a good thing.
Moments passed with no other sound. Minutes went by.
And then there was movement.
It started with the roots around her neck loosening and she only noticed this because she was suddenly able to breathe easier.
Then, the root covering her mouth loosened too.
Kerena held her breath, not daring to move lest the roots tighten around her again.
“Keh-reh—” Ajos’ voice cut in again and hope flared within her once more. “—please, say some—”
His voice still sounded strained and she wasn’t sure if it was his fever or because he was freaking out that she’d been taken away.
More of the roots loosened, slipping away from her body and Kerena’s pulse quickened.
If just a few more loosened, she could probably wriggle away.
The next few minutes of waiting felt like whole eons, but as soon as she felt the roots loosen from around her, Kerena pressed her hands down, spinning slowly so she could position herself to scramble backward.
She bit her lip hard, her breath making her nose burn with the pressure of her breathing, as she prayed that the roots didn’t latch on to her once more.
They were so thick and fibrous underneath her, it made her skin crawl.
With one heave, she pushed away using her hands. The movement launched her forward like a dive and she scrambled out of the plant’s grasp.
But she didn’t make it far.
As soon as she managed to leave the nestle of roots, she went down again.
Her breath caught in her throat as she realized one of her legs was still caught in the plant's grasp.
In horror, she looked back, her gaze darting over the roots for any movement. But there was none.
It was like she was staring at any regular plant and the eeriness only made her more frantic inside.
Her gaze fell to the leg that was still caught within the plant’s grasp and that’s when she noticed something.
The roots surrounding her leg were different from the others—a difference that would have been hard to miss.
All along her leg, growing from the root itself, were a set of gorgeous purple flowers—the likes of which she’d never seen before.
“Keh-reh-nah!” Ajos shouted once more. He was running so fast, the vegetation around him moved like a blur.
“Keh-reh-nah!”
Qef it.
Either his comms weren’t working, hers weren’t, or the “source” he was carrying was interfering with the signal.
He glanced down at it—a glowing white orb. He had no idea what it was.
The orb glistened along his side, shining a light from its strange surface. It was so small, it fit in his palm.
The size had surprised him, but he was sure it was the thing they sought.
When he’d found it in the engine room of the ship, it had been encased in a sort of metallic shield that fell away as soon as he’d touched it.
His nefre had been burning and he’d found a satchel and slipped the thing inside just before he’d communicated with Keh-reh-nah.
The strange orb rested in the satchel hung over his shoulder now, bouncing against
