Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 200: [Snakeroot]

[River's Cove discovered: Reward 100 exp.]

We had been getting those occasional messages as we traveled; the System filling in our maps with the names of areas keeping us updated as to our progress. At times, these notices were accompanied by a prompt asking if we'd like to change the name, and while most of the names made no real sense, we decided to leave them alone.

I didn't understand what esoteric or subjective reasoning System used to define boundaries between one area and the next. Flora and fauna often were identical when we crossed over those invisible boundaries that divided the planet into regions. We were given the option of claiming areas as we passed, but we weren't sure what that meant or how that would affect our goal in claiming the planet for the Tuatha de Danaan.

If it was like claiming land that transpired on Talahm, a claim that established your rights to Fief, it would mean we were the de facto rulers of the area we claimed. But there was a possibility that as you claimed the land, the land claimed you. On Talahm, Nymphs experienced those types of bindings. They were free to travel, to move around the planet at large until they claimed a section of water as theirs. From that point, they were shackled, forever required to remain and protect those waters.

I had sent a message to King Teigh, explaining the situation, and he had agreed that it was best not to experiment, that was something that could be investigated once our mission was completed. He did promise that each of us would be given Kingdom approval to claim land and establishing territory, but only after we had found and conquered a Dungeon.

River's Cove, unlike some of the more esoteric areas that we had traveled past, made sense. The land coincided with the name System had supplied. A river, small, hardly more than a few hundred feet across, meandered past a cove that had formed. A place where the river had overflowed its banks and slowly, over time, had worn away the land until an area that was ideally suited to base a dock.

The inlet was well protected, the river tamed, its course diverted as it entered the cove. Where water met land, reeds and grasses grew, their bounty undisturbed by civilization and progress. The cove would make an ideal place to build a ship's launching site, and I experienced a sense of regret as I acknowledged that the Sidhe would change these vistas of unspoiled nature, progress was inevitable.

"The ley-line followed the river's path," Sieph informed us. "My equipment shows it has carved channels deep underground.

"That is normal, by following the river's path it absorbs the magic and natural energies, the ebb, and flow of rapids and currents."

Ley-lines worked by collecting power, cleansing, and condensing natural occurrences, to gather the gift of nature's bounty and temper and transform those events into magic. The magic then flowed along ley-line channels or accumulated in pockets forming nodes, the excess magic saturating the surrounding area.

Rivers, canyons, metal seams, lava chutes. The natural life and movement of a planet empowered those ley-lines and created deep metaphysical rifts and currents. It was a well-documented phenomenon, long understood by the Sidhe.

We had been killing [Toadstool]'s and [Horvee] hives ever since we found that first one, but they had slowly given way. We had encountered fewer and fewer, with no apparent reason. There were no other animals that might have been thinning their numbers, natural enemies that controlled their population by predation.

The inlet that had formed along the water's edge was large enough that the water flowed slowly. Plants, much like water lilies. The plant was well suited to grow in this cove, a place where still water and little chance of disturbance would support the fragile sprawling colony of interconnected leaves. But that fragility was an illusion, and the plant had the same kind of protections and adaptions the [Toadstool] enjoyed.

There were differences. The fronds, feelers, and roots of this plant were the main point of defense and attack. There was no symbiotic relationship with another species. And unlike the fake stem and flower the [Toadstool]'s sported, this was not an animal pretending to be a plant, rather a plant that had been given life. It had adapted to entangle and trap anything that came within reach of those fronds and feelers.

We watched in amazement as a cricket-like insect, about the size of a person's head, approached the water's edge, unaware of any danger. Once it came within reach of the feelers and fronds, the plant struck, grasping the insect and holding it for leaves to snap closed.

I was able to identify the plant as [Snakeroot], as I watched in amazement as the roots that had anchored the plant, slowing freed themselves from the silt of the river's bottom and moving to a different location. By moving, it allowed another plant to take its place. The insect never saw the attack coming, it never had a chance to defend or escape.

The name seemed propos. One second the insect was drinking oblivious to danger, the next the plant system snapped shut. The [Snakeroot] struck, coiled tension released, its movement and attack, mimicking the striking motion of coiled snakes, the action so fast the insect had time for one last sound before the plant constricted and claimed its life.

We continued to watch as the carcass, or the slowly suffocating animal was dragged beneath the water's surface. Its movement made with an efficiency of motion. Once it rooted in a new location, it began the process of leaching nutrients from the insect as it decomposed.

"Have you ever come across a plant like this?" I asked Thutmose.

"Not exactly," he answered. "We have plants that we call [Ent]'s. They can grow to be enormous. They are harmless for the most part, but if threatened, they can uproot themselves and attack. Because they don't have the ability to see, they track prey by using vibration created from movement as well as scents carried through the air.

"As long as you leave them alone, they are happy with the piece of forest or land they have claimed as their own. It takes something momentous to get them to move if not attacked. Fire and flood are the most common reasons they decide to migrate to new areas.

"A migrating [Ent] can cause real harm though. Because they don't care about a home or business, that is might be located on a parcel of land, they find suitable. They have been known to destroy even the most fortified building. Our people have learned that [Ent] 's gravitated towards areas that are high in nitrogen, and now prepare plots of land when migration is noticed," he explained.

"There is nothing even close to something like this on Talahm," Sieph said. "We have plants and crops that we have adapted, changed so that they can produce greater yields, even plants that can produce metal as the husk of seed kernels. But they don't get up and move, expecting to find a better area to grow in."

"I wonder if that might not be an idea to consider," I suggested to Sieph. "If we could hybridize this plant with some of the strains we have created?"

"For what purpose?" she wondered.

"Imagine if we scattered seedstock in a dungeon, one where resources are hard to reach. Wouldn't it be interesting to watch as the plants germinate and migrate to areas that are better suited to gather and synthesize the metals we are looking for?" I offered as an example.

"That might work," she agreed. "And in those Dungeons, we consider dead or barren, maybe they would find pockets of metal that our scouts and explorers have missed.

"It shouldn't be too hard to hybridize," she said as she approached an exposed root that belonged to one of the [Snakeroot] and claimed a sample.

I gathered my own sample, deciding I would leave it for King Teigh within the [Ring of Hidden Depths] along with a note explaining its properties and the discussion Sieph and I had had. I wasn't sure anything would come of it, but there was no harm in making the suggestion.

We did notice the [Snakeroot] hadn't reacted to our pilfering. Either we were too large for it to bother with, or it didn't like the 'taste' of Sidhe flesh. We spent a few moments trying to force a reaction, but no matter we disturbed the plant, it refused to respond.

Even Sieph, as diminutive, as she was, was ignored.

She would have been a bit of a mouthful to swallow I reasoned, Knocker was probably all gristle and bone.