𝐢𝐝𝐲𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐜 | 𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐩𝐧

𝟐𝟓| 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬? 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤

   "𝐃𝐨𝐧...? 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐚...? 𝐆𝐮𝐲𝐬?" Y/n called, cupping her hands around her mouth in attempts to project her voice louder. No... It's impossible for them to just disappear. They must be nearby. Stay calm and think. Just where- Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of her stomach dropping. The last thing she saw was Emma, Ray, Thoma, and Eugene getting wrapped up in the same vines as her.

   "Where are we?" She heard Emma ask, "it's so dark."

   Y/n slowly got up, walking in no particular direction when she bumped into someone.

   "Y/n!" She recognized the voice as Chris'

   "Chris! Are you okay?"

   "Yeah!"

   She held him and crouched down, calling for her friends, "Ray! Thoma! Where are you! Are you okay?

   "Agh! A bug!" She heard Thoma yell, "you hear that? We're fine!" Her eyes began adjusting to the darkness and she spotted Ray, Thoma, and Emma not too far away.

   "Are we underground?" Emma asked.

   Ray answered, "Most likely."

   "Ew, ew!" Thoma shouted, "a bug!"

   "Could it be that everyone else is also down here?"

   "Let's search." They only walked a little ways before spotting a lightsource.

   Eugene tugged Emma towards it, "Gilda!"

   "It's Emma!"

   The groups reunited and Y/n checked over them, "is everyone alright? Is anyone hurt?" They all shook their heads and smiled, "Thank god you're all okay."

   "What is this place..?" Ray muttered, looking around at the strange environment. It looked like they were in some sort of cave system with roots and bugs around every corner. It was nothing like above ground, "I don't remember reading anything about this... What happened to the world?"

   Emma looked around, "there's no light coming from above. Shouldn't there be at least a hole from where we fell? There's so many more dangers in this world than I had anticipated. We need to find Mr. Minerva as soon as possible. Let's focus on getting out of here," She reached for a vine and it snapped with the smallest tug. "No good, the roots are too weak to climb. It looks like it'll be too difficult to find a way back outside from here. Let's look for a different exit for now!"

   Gilda watched her siblings as they played, "they look like they're having so much fun! They've all forgotten that they're tired. It's so much warmer here than above ground. Maybe this was for the better after all, since we'll be hidden from our enemies as well!"

   "No," Ray said, "I really think we should get out of here as soon as possible. We have no idea what's waiting for us at the end of this path... We have nowhere to run if we're attacked by anybody or anything... and also.. This forest is weird, this underground too.."

   "Why is there such an opening here?" Emma asked no one in particular as they found a spacious area. It was covered in flowers and looked really peaceful.

   "It's so pretty! The flowers are glowing. They smell good too!" Children cheered.

   Don put his hand on a tree, "so this is the dead end, huh... hey, it looks like we'll be able to climb from here! I'll go check it out first!"

   "We'll leave it to you!" Emma shouted before hearing a scream. It came from Nat, "what's the matter?!"

   "Look! Up there!" he pointed and everyone looked up to find the empty corpses of animals who got themselves trapped in there."

   Y/n gasped, "so that how... Emma, Ray.. We're in big trouble."

   "This place in the forest is.." Ray mumbled.

   In the corner of her eye, she spotted threatening vines come down towards Jemima and Alicia, "girls! Run!" She shouted before sprinting towards them and shoving them out of the way. Everyone ran into a wall and looked at their surroundings. The exit was covered with roots.

   "No way! We've been surrounded! When did the roots block our route!? This is most likely where the tree feeds. The trees around here live off the nutrients of live animals."

   "Live animals?!" Everyone shouted, "a plant that lives off killing animals? No way! You've gotta be kidding me!"

   "It dropped us off here and lured us to its feeding ground. That;s why there was such a huge hole and only one path."

   "In other words, we've all fallen for its trap!" Anna exclaimed.

   Y/n focused, "that's why there weren't any animals or beasts nearby."

   "Everyone, get close together! Whatever you do, Don't stray!" Ray yelled. So this was the outside world... Not just demons or beasts. The entire ecosystem is our enemy right now! This is bad. We're too underinformed. We know nothing of this place. Of the world, in fact.

   "What should we do? Burn the tree?" Don asked.

   "No, that's too dangerous. We'd probably die before the fire kills the tree. Smoke could lead the enemy right to us."

   "Then what should we even... Y/n, what should we do?! Y/n?"

   The girl in question was focused, she quickly rummaged through her back, "I've read about this! Ray has too! Remember? This thing is "The Snake of the Something Something"! Don't you remember?"

   "What are you talking about?!"

   She pulled out a book, "The Adventures of Ugo", to be precise, "Minerva's books! They really do serve as guides!"

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𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫

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