Something a little darker for Halloween.
Art belongs to \r\n\t\t\t\t\t
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His post: https://inkbunny.net/s/3724761
Ciara belongs to me.
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Somehwere in an alternate universe:
The day the pods appeared in Viridis, everything changed. It was Ciara who found the first one, while on patrol along the border of her father's kingdom. Intrigued, she had it cut as a sample and brought it back home for study.
More appeared soon after. Reports of sightings came in from each of the Three Kingdoms. At first, they were simply a curiosity. Large, fleshy bulbs sprouting from the ground where none had been the day before. A few were cut open and examined but they apparently contained nothing but several cups of viscous fluid and a single long tendril that seemed to serve no purpose. Ciara couldn't shake the feeling they looked familiar somehow, but she had other things to do.
Whatever the growths were, they grew quickly. In a week, they grew all over the country, crowding out the native vegetation. In a month, almost all of the smaller towns were overwhelmed. In two, even the cities were covered. Ciara, under orders from the king, led an expedition to try to find where they came from, to stop them if possible.
That was when they hatched. The pods, now a meter tall and twice that around, split. Long, sinuous tentacles emerged, grabbing anyone within range. These unfortunate victims were quickly subdued and dragged into the pods, where no trace of them could be found. Half of the soldiers under Ciara's command were swallowed up in less than a half an hour. Furious, she swore revenge.
With each missing person, the bulbs grew more numerous but that, at first, seemed like a long awaited break. Each new pod was observed emerging from underground, with more and more of them concentrated around the mountains to the east. With so many fighters missing and the rest busy fighting the invaders back, Ciara went to the mountains alone.
There, she found the nest. An enormous pod, the size of a castle. It bristled with thorns and oozed its sticky sap from every pore.
There, Ciara fell. As she gathered kindling to build a fire, hoping to burn the creatures out, several of the tendrils grabbed her. She fought fiercely, but her strength was no match for theirs and she was dragged underground.
She never knew how long she was down there, or how long she lay unconscious. When she came to, she found herself stripped naked and pinned to the wall by sticky sap. Worse, the tentacles were toying with her, slithering over her and opening sharp-beaked mouths to run their tongues across her tender flesh. Then one rose from below, its bulbous tip pressing wetly between her legs...