Forbidden Forest - (Tsubori/UNLM)

Keiliegh gasped for air when Kinoso cut the vine and freed her. She grabbed her slingshot and looked at Kinoso distracting the other tendrils. The vines were weaker… so what about…? She looked at the blue vines holding the flower up. “Leronah, the vines up there! Help me aim!” The fairy did as told, hovering near the vines on top to help Keiliegh hit all of them. The Kokiri then started spamming chill seeds, two per vine, circling around the flower.

Eventually though, the vines divided between Kinoso and Keiligh, making her quickly run, taking shots only when she could. Slow as it was, a cracking noise was eventually heard as the flower fell, bringing Kalle Demos to the ground. The petals split open, sending a small wave of spores that made Keiliegh feel a little lightheaded. Regardless, the Baba was now visible, and she ran up onto the petals, slashing at the thing with her katars. Why they weren’t cutting through it was beyond her.

The flower fell as soon as the vines were severed, and the petals opened up to reveal the baba inside. Perfect, he thought as he began to charge towards the center of the flower. The vines stopped coming, so there was nothing to stop him. Keiliegh was already hacking away at the baba. It was wobbling around, so it could mitigate as much damage as it was receiving, but it was still writhing about in pain. Kinoso brought down a powerful swing onto the baba. As they swung about their weapons onto the defenseless part of the flower, he started noticing a strange orange powder infiltrating the air around them.

Then his arms felt foreign to him. Every swing made his arms feel more and more autonomous, and then his vision started feeling affected too. He looked up and then realized that the vines were starting to attach to the ceiling again. "We gotta get out!" he yelled to Keiliegh as he dashed away from the center. When his foot was on the edge of the petal, the flower closed into a bud again, launching him into the air. He caught onto the thin vines suspending the monster. A thicker was launched from the ground to knock him off, and he jumped off just as the thick barbs grazed his leg. He landed on the top of the flower, and used his sword to deflect away a large vine. It was weird. He wasn't consciously trying to deflect away the attacks, but his body seemed to act accordingly anyway. He sneezed, sending an odd sensation through his body, but then saw the orange powder expelled from his nose. He jumped out of the way of an vine that attempted to stab him and fought as hard as his mind would let him to keep his balance on top of the flower. This was the only chance he would get to cut down the thinner vines.

Keiliegh continued hacking, but hadn’t realized that in being the first one into the flower, she’d subjected herself to even more of the spores. After slamming the baba around a bit, she staggered to follow Kinoso, but her mind moved faster than her legs would and she was trapped inside when the flower closed. She held her katars defensively as it flooded the inside with more spores. Letting out a soft scream, she… thought she could taste lime… No way. Now wasn’t the time though. She focused on the vines sent down to get her. She hacked and slashed through them, trying to kill it before she was even more badly effected by the spores. All she could see was the blurs of the vines and Leronah, marking the baba for her.

She got closer, slashing it a few times until she felt her arm resist. It had been grabbed by a vine and pulled back, giving her only one hand to defend herself with. She still cut through as many as she could, eventually dropping her katar and pulling back her slingshot with her teeth, shooting Kalle Demos with a chill seed. This not only froze all the tentacles inside, but also outside briefly. He spores had become too much though, and the girl had grown airheaded and damn near blind. With a silly high grin, she passed out, slipping out of the vine’s frozen grip.

Suddenly the vines slowed to a stop. Kinoso looked around to see what Keiliegh did and then noticed that she was nowhere to be found, outside the flower at least. If she was in the flower, she did something right. The small kokiri took the opportunity to run around the top of the flower and cut down the vines. With the vines frozen in place, it was too easy, but he didn't realize that the vine's incapacitated state was only temporary, and so he didn't see that the vines were starting move again when he had cut down half of the vines. Though he may not have seen this due to the fact that his vision was telling him that the thicker vines were simply waving around in place. Whenever he swung his sword, he could briefly ten or so blades in the path.

There was one left, but the plant made sure he wouldn't get anywhere close to it. While Kinoso was running, he felt something funny in his left calf, tripped, and fell forth onto his stomach. He looked back and first noticed something red running down his leg, and then noticed that there was something green in his leg that wasn't supposed to be there. Finally, he pieced together that one of the vines had impaled his leg and pinned him down. The last vine he needed to cut was just out of his reach, and the other support vines were beginning to grow back. So as a last resort, he threw his longsword at the last vine, and the desperate move worked.

The flower fell and opened, throwing Kinoso off. He landed hard onto the ground; his sword wasn't too far. Groaning, he got up, not fully aware of how much pain his body was experiencing. He picked up his sword and limped to the center of the flower. He saw Keiliegh's body laying next to the baba, but despite Leronah whacking her face and screaming at her to get up, the kokiri girl slept soundly. He realized that he needed to finish off the baba quickly, or else who knew what a bunch of tentacles would do to a sleeping, Kokiri girl?

The leg was slowing him down. In his mind, he was moving a lot faster than he actually was. As he neared the baba, he also limped into a cloud of the funny orange powder. The world was twisting itself in a sadistic way, and music started playing in Kinoso's head. He tried closing his eyes to gain control of his senses, but opening them back up again made the sensation worse. Fighting through it all, he raised his sword up high to strike at the heart of the monster. He brought the blade down onto the baba, who had taken enough of a beating previously, and drove the blade down the center.

Kinoso didn't know that flowers could scream in their own way, but when he heard the eerie screech, he knew that the monster was dying. If the scream didn't say so, then the flower's convulsions were. The flowerbed was moving violently, thinking that doing so would absolve the baba the terrible wound that it had sustained. The monster's violent movements shook Kinoso off his feet, and then it threw him and Keiliegh off.

Kalle Demos rapidly writhed its petals, a few tendrils dying and twisting as well. When the baba in the middle thrust itself up and burst, the flower's middle jumped up a little and then sunk to the ground, the thing laying flat, almost exactly as they'd seen it when they'd walked in. The one difference needing that the tips of each petal was curled inward, and it was assumed that the rest would die shortly soon. 

Keiliegh faded back into consciousness, but everything was still slow and blurry. All she could make out was Kinoso sitting next to her. She clomped him as usual, but this time with a shocking twist. "Muuuah!" She said, kissing him and falling off of her friend. 

"Wait. Limes! I knew I knew I thought I tasted lime." She staggered over to the flower and cut off some planty flesh from it, Leronah still speechless next to Kinoso about what she'd done. 

"........Oh WOW." The fairy said dryly. "Not only did she survive all this crap, but she gets high and kisses him? Weirdest day ever. Of all time."

The kiss surprised him. He had seen people do it, but never at the privilege, or curse in some cases, to experience one. "Wow," was all he could muster from his mouth. He looked at her with a strange sense of confusion, though he wasn't sure if that was from the kiss or the orange spores. As Keiliegh was picking through dying plant's petals, Kinoso walked over to her, knelt next to her, and planted a kiss of his own on her lips. This one lasted a bit longer.

A beam of light shot upward from the center of the monster and the room. It took Kinoso by surprise, but his attention went back to the girl he was kissing. "Well," he said to her, "we're in no hurry to get out," before kissing her again.

Le'ip turned away in disgust, "Really guys? Of all the places to do this." She floated to the beam of light. "I'm getting out of here, I'll meet you on the other side. Come on Leronah," she said before disappearing into the light.

Keiliegh was taken by surprised when Kinoso gave her his own kisses, but she giggled and let him, even kissing back for the last one. Leronah then dashed between their faces, making Keiliegh jump back. "Ah more spores! Nope. Not spore. Leronah." She muttered out. 

"Okay, stoners. You're gonna go through that light. And get yourselves checked by a doctor. There's more spore than air in you right now, so... We don't want side effects. You can make out later. Or not. I personally like the second option." 

Keiliegh sighed, wobbling over to the light and tugging Kinoso with her. When she stepped inside, she felt herself lift up and before she knew it, they were on a hill overlooking the town they'd left from earlier. Minus one captain, crew and ship. Keiliegh yet again tugged Kinoso towards the town, letting him lean on her shoulder. "Let's go! I can't believe we're alive! We've gotta see a doctor! Your leg isn't looking so good..."

And there they were, standing on the hill overlooking the port they had left from. Or maybe it was the spores still messing with his mind. He looked around, and noticed that everything was as they had left. He heard Keiliegh say something to him, something about his leg. He responded by looking at his leg, which was bleeding pretty badly, but it didn't hurt too much. Kinoso said something back, something about him being fine. Finally, they started down the hill, with Kinoso leaning on Keiliegh's shoulder. The spores' effect was starting to wear off, and reality seemed to become clearer. Though this meant that the painful sensation his leg was producing was also coming back. "AAHHH!" he screamed as he put a little too much pressure on the bad leg.

He looked back and saw no light, like everything was just a dream. And yet, there was the pain, the memories of the dungeon, and a Kokiri assisting him with walking. As they slowly made their way to the town center, all he could say, looking back at that huge adventure, was, "What just happened?"

Keiliegh looked at Kinoso concernedly when he yelled in pain. "Kino..." She made sure to let him lean much more on her on their way to the town. When Kinoso asked it. That big question, she simply laughed. "I really have no clue! All I know is that I'm covered in weird purple goop, water, blood, and spores, and you've got a hole in your leg. Something about a boat too."

"And don't forget the two of you making out. I'm not going to let you forget that one, Kokiri Harrelson."

"Leronah!" Keiliegh blushed at the comment, but smirked. She had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time she got to see Kinoso, her old friend.

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THE END


HOLY CRAP.​