[ Story Prompt: Erythros ] Ferocious Flora

Great… This is just great.

They finally figured out where these freakish birds came from, and then they got separated yet again, absolutely terrific. Erythros was just about at his limit with this whole stupid ordeal.

After recovering from falling deathly ill by the mysterious and invasive greenery growing around the island the pachycephalosaurus called home, Erythros and its trusted comrade, Shatterdome, had made the decision to end this nightmare once and for all.

The duo had finally learned the source of the creeping plant-life infecting their land. Skittish and bird-like dinosaurs called oviraptors were the cause of these hazardous plants, they were to blame. Through cruel and brutal interrogation methods, they forced answers out of the little fiends. Each one of them confessed that they had come from underground, man-made passageways. A couple days after scouring the commonly frequented, yet decaying facilities, they found an interesting and unusual tunnel.

It was through this underground passage that Shatter and Eryth realized they weren’t on land anymore, not even under the earth. The underpass they had been traversing along in was lined with reinforced glass, wide and domed, revealing the endless, deep blue. This wasn’t the sky they were used to, they were underwater. This realization had made Erythros hyperventilate with panic, but their desire to find a way to end this secretive mission those oviraptors were in on, pushed the two forward. They were going to burn it all down.

The entrance they emerged into on the other side was swallowed by a jungle, overrun in thick, alien plantation. Unique types of vines tangled along and around wires, even covering the floors and cielings. Strange, colorful and even bioluminescent varieties of fungus and lichen, growing in small crevices. 

And then it all led to where he was now, split-up from its companion and lost in some environment that was alien to him. They must have split up at one point as they both were awestruck by this new and unfamiliar scenery that the two had found themselves in. 

“S-Shatter?!” Eryth hesitantly called out, its voice a bit shaky. She felt something stir inside her that he hadn’t allowed in a long time, fear. He was afraid he was potentially letting her presence known to someone, or something out there that it didn’t know, but she desperately needed her best friend to hear him and find him. “Shatter, where are you?!”

A moment of silence, and no answer. Dammit.

Standing around and hollering wasn’t going to help. It wasn’t going to get him anywhere, he needed to move quickly.

The scarred, pale red pachycephalosaurid would continue to step around the anomalous undergrowth, listening to peculiar, distant bellows and roars. Eryth carefully stepped over creepers and shrubs, cautiously ducking and swerving his domed head past branches with unusual leaves. It was never this methodical and slow in any kind of situation, its method of handling things was always quick, mindless and with brutality. But now? Now she stepped with tension in every limb.

Then, a sudden, echoing yowl from an unknown animal, somewhat nearby, made Erythros stop in his tracks. The unexpected sound had startled her. Her eyes darted all over the place, in search of the unseen beast. Her eyes scanned every shifting shadow, but he couldn’t find a thing.

But it wasn’t the sound, the unseen creature in his vicinity that got him, it was the vine. He didn’t have enough time to react to the creeping vine that was wrapping around its leg. It had slithered up without warning.

In the blink of an eye, Eryth was now dangling above the grass-grown ground, upside down. “GAH-!” She yelped in surprise, whipping side to side in the air. In his panicked and fear ridden state, she thrashed wildly, teeth gnashing, body twisting.

The pachy thought it was at last getting somewhere, when his flailing got him to swing towards a part of the vine holding onto him, giving her a chance to catch it in her jaws, and bit hard. But then, another vine appeared, swiftly slithering and coiling around Eryth’s neck. Ignoring the sharp-spiked wolf collar stabbing through a small portion of itself, the second vine would tighten its grip. It squeezed his airway closed.

Erythros couldn’t scream, couldn’t breathe. He still fought, it wasn’t enough.

The vines wasted no time in redirecting his writhing body above a large leaf, which lifted and revealed a deep cavity underneath it, containing translucent, glimmering liquid at the bottom. This damned thing was a giant pitcher plant, twice her size, easily. But it wasn’t a passive, immobile trap. It was an active, ambush hunter. Eryth could feel its heartbeat increasing, beating faster and faster as his head inched closer and closer to the chamber of the carnivorous plant. He needed air, it was getting dark…

There was a deep yet muted splash as the pachycephalosaurid was dropped in. Eryth flailed to the surface, gagging and gasping. The vines no longer kept his windpipe closed. He heaved itself upright, leaning against the slick inner wall for a moment. The disgustingly warm fluid clung to her skin and fur like oil, and it would be a little while before it’d begin to sting.

Erythros snarled, and immediately began her assault. It rammed the sides with her head. Slammed into the curving walls with every ounce of fury. Tried climbing, but the slippery, hairy texture made it near-impossible to get out. He bit down on the plant flesh. Nothing gave. Not enough. Not fast enough.

It tried the wolf collar. Making the metal spikes jab into the wall, forming little punctures, but not enough to weaken it, not enough to tear it. The plant was made for prey. It had evolved for this.

Erythros after some time just ceased all attempts, having exhausted himself. Helplessly looking up at the roof of the plant, she did not want to die a slow death here, eaten alive by the digestive soup. But how long, how many minutes has she been stuck here? His body was beginning to make him itch, it was beginning to burn.

He shouted, voice cracking. “HELP! HELP ME!”

“SHATTERDOME! HEEELP! I’M HERE! GET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKIN’ THING!”

Again and again. Screaming, kicking, biting, thrashing. He wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. She wasn’t going to die like this, the burning was getting worse, he couldn’t, he COULDN’T-

Then, a sudden flash of motion, with a slam as loud as thunder. The entire plant lurched. Outside, a pitch-black blur slammed into the pitcher’s outer wall with immense strength and speed, it was Shatterdome. The pachycephalosaurus with the colors of the night sky, decorating her scales, roared with each charge; hitting the plant in a brutal rush. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t pause, her best friend was in there.

“ERYYYYTH!” she bellowed.

“SHATTER…!” Eryth answered back. Feeling a sense of relief and hope, it could feel tears swelling up from its eyes. Reinvigorated with the presence of her friend, he’d continue to slam against the pitcher plant at the same spot where Shatter was slamming into, the two taking turns in their assault. They struck, again, and again.

And finally, an audible crack. The side burst open, a wave of acid fluid gushed out, and Erythros with it. The pachy’s limbs trembled and felt heavy, the adrenaline finally giving way to actual exhaustion. The fluid clung to her skin like glue, still burning, though even worse than before.

Shatterdome didn’t waste time moving over. “Eryth. ERYTH, HEY. Stay with me!” She shouted, quickly shouldering her friend up. “C’mon, move, MOVE!”

“H-hey to you, too, Shatter…” Eryth smiled weakly. His pitiful laugh was cut off with a series of coughs.

“Shut up, don’t talk! There’s water. I saw a pond, just past that root tangle. We’re getting this thing cleaned off you.”

Together, they staggered forward, Erythros barely able to keep pace. Each breath stung and burned, but the will to live pushed him onward. The vines hissed behind them, curling back from the now ruined plant.

Eryth needed the enzymes rinsed off of him before it could take any ounce of rest. But he didn’t care about that right now, she already felt relieved, safe and alive, thanks to her best friend.