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A strange wiggling plant caught Lizel’s attention. It waved slowly in the air as if brushed by a breeze that wasn’t there, covered in droplets of what looked like water caught on pale green hairs. It looked like one of the herbs he had read about, useful as medicine.
Lizel leaned a hand near the crack in the wall that the plant was growing out of, peering into the space wondering how deep the plant went into the wall. The plant twisted clumsily towards his arm.
“Heat-seeking?” Lizel murmured aloud, a hand coming to his chin in thought.
The plant bumped against his glove. Then, with sudden speed it shot out in all directions, each leaf going rigid and straight, broad leaves squishing into something more like tentacles.
“Whoa!” Lizel stepped back quickly. Most of the leaves hadn’t touched him at all, but a few had bumped into his arm. He felt a stinging pain against his thumb and one spot of his arm and one more stabbed into his chest. That was likely not good.
The plant was moving more violently now, and growing, slithering out of the wall. It was significantly larger than it first appeared. Lizel stepped backwards, turning to run--he should find Gil--this plant was likely actually a mimic monster. He had read about them. They were poisonous.
A tentacle wrapped around Lizel’s leg. He shot it clean through before it could catch a grip on him, but there were five more just behind it. Lizel moved backwards, focusing two pistols on the tentacles approaching his feet and another towards what was hopefully the main body. The core needed to be destroyed to get all of the limbs to stop, but it was likely hidden within the wall. Lizel focused one pistol to get a stronger shot, but when he did he lost focus on the other two keeping the tentacles at bay.
The mimic, Lizel knew, was poisonous. He had certainly been injected twice by the monster earlier. It was a fast-acting paralyzer, so any moment now, he would begin to lose control. Lizel felt the numbness spreading up his arm, a soft tingle like being rubbed with a wool blanket in winter. Then the tentacles caught his ankle. Lizel didn’t so much feel them grab him as take note of the scene in front of him suddenly dropping to a much lower angle. His remaining pistol shot off just before he was tripped, blasting the base of the mimic coming out of the wall.
With the blast, the tentacles jerked and coiled in what Lizel hoped were death throes. Unfortunately, a few were still wrapped around his legs, yanking him closer to the smoking remains of monster and wall.
Something else yanked him back by the collar of his coat. Lizel looked up and returned Gil’s glare with a smile. “Ah. Gil.”
“What the hell did you get into?”
“A mimic, I believe.”
“Nice work killing it.”
“Yes, unfortunately,” Lizel started as Gil hauled him upright, “I was stung by it.” And it was apparently taking proper hold, as his legs were not listening to him at all.
Gil moved them a few steps back, kicking the now limp mimic tentacles away, and lowered Lizel back to the ground propped against his chest. “Where?”
“My thumb, my arm, and my chest,” Lizel said, forced to use particular concentration to lift the correct limb.
Gil yanked Lizel’s glove off and grabbed his hand to look at the red welt that had appeared. Then he brought it up to his mouth.
Lizel tried to make a questioning noise, but his tongue wouldn’t quite work. He felt Gil’s teeth scrape against his skin as he sucked on the welt before turning to spit. He pulled up the sleeve of Lizel’s coat and shirt and did the same to the sting on his arm.
Oh dear, Lizel thought, and then something much ruder as Gil pulled his shirt open and bent to suck the final wound on his chest.
After spitting in the dirt once more, Gil reached into his pouch and pulled out a bottle of alcohol. He washed his mouth with that before finally explaining. “Stingers,” he said shortly. “Came out pretty easily, but it’ll take time for the poison to run its course.”
He shifted Lizel closer to his chest so he could hold him and the alcohol with the same arm, reaching into his pack again with his other hand and withdrawing a handkerchief. He poured the alcohol onto it and dabbed at each welt left by the mimic’s stings.
Lizel tried to say “thank you” and managed half the words and a headache.
Gil gave him a surprisingly soft look. “That bad, huh. It’ll be an hour before you get back enough feeling to talk, and probably another hour before you can move your body.”
He put the alcohol and cloth away as he spoke, then shifted Lizel once more, wrapping an arm under his knees and picking him up as if he weighed nothing. Just to test if he could, Lizel called up his gun. It appeared as promptly as ever.
“Useful to have a weapon you don’t have to hold,” Gil commented.
They weren’t too far into the labyrinth, so it was possible they would not run into any monsters, but with Gil’s hands full carrying Lizel it was better to be on alert. Two monsters did pop up and were easily taken care of with one blast each. Gil didn’t say a word until they exited the labyrinth.
“It should be safe now. Only weak monsters show up around here. You can rest until the poison wears off.”
Lizel still couldn’t talk. Now that Gil had assured him they were safe, he was finding it hard to even keep his head up. He let his concentration relax so that his gun disappeared, and without really meaning to Lizel dropped his head onto Gil’s shoulder.
It would be easier if he could sleep, but Lizel felt wide awake. He just couldn’t move or speak. It had taken around forty minutes to leave the labyrinth, so he still had around twenty minutes before he would even be able to speak. Seven minutes or so were spent with Gil continuing to walk until he found a suitable place and set Lizel on the ground. He kept one arm around Lizel’s shoulder as he reached a hand into his space magic pouch. He pulled out a blanket and, keeping it folded up, set it down as a makeshift pillow. Then Gil sat himself next to Lizel with his sword propped against his knee to sit lookout.
At least the weather was nice.
Lizel closed his eyes and enjoyed the gentle breeze and warm sunshine. Eventually, he began to test if the paralysis was fading yet.
“Hey!”
Lizel had only been experimenting for a few minutes when Gil grabbed his chin. “Don’t bite. Just because you can’t feel it doesn’t mean you aren’t hurting yourself.”
A moment later, he pinched Lizel’s cheek. “It might be wearing off if you can pout.”
Lizel’s tongue still felt thick and heavy, but he managed to say, “Bored.”
Gil sighed heavily. “You have books, don’t you?”
Lizel gave him a curious look, or tried to, while Gil fished a hand into Lizel’s space magic pouch. He couldn’t hold the books up to read while paralyzed, so what good were his books?
“Don’t complain if you’ve already read it,” Gil said. And then he began to read aloud. He didn’t use a particular voice or anything. It was obvious he wasn’t used to reading aloud.
Lizel smiled, or tried to. He closed his eyes and focused on Gil’s voice. The next hour passed much more quickly.