Chapter 111: Root Cause
Simon dropped the stone immediately lest it attach to his other hand, too, and he scrambled away to the other side of the fountain. For a moment, it was lost in the murky water, but as soon as the cloud of his blood dissipated, he finally understood what it was.
It wasn’t a stone, he thought plaintively. It was a seed!
Suddenly, a variety of questions were answered. He now knew where the sewers were and why the level with the ruins had been missing. It was because those carnivorous plants weren't there anymore. They were here with him, and they were growing.
Already it had latched the bottom off the fountain, and its roots had begun to fan out, digging into the stone just as easily as they had dug into his hand. As he watched, transfixed, a stalk began to grow out of the top of the thing, and as soon as it was free from the water’s surface, leaves began to unfurl.
Simon flailed back in a panic as that stalk shot upward and began to branch out. It wasn’t that he was concerned that it might hurt him. It was too small for that. The rate that it was growing at was shocking, though, and in another few minutes, it might be able to grow flowers or sprout teeth. He wasn’t sure.
Simon staggered out of the fountain completely naked and ran across the hot stones to where he’d left his sword propped up, and drew it immediately. Once he had it in hand he immediately slashed off the top of the creeping vine, and then reversed his grip and brought it down hard on the nodule of the seed, splitting it in two.
For a moment, that seemed like it would be enough. The thing's insane level of growth stopped, and the debris just floated there. After a few seconds, though, two new shoots started to spring up. One from each side of the seed.
“Mother. Fucker,” Simon cursed.
Fire was the obvious answer, but that was unlikely to be very effective underwater as it was. So, instead, he tried cold. He didn’t know if being frozen solid would be enough to kill something like this, but it should at least give him some breathing room to think.