By the all seeing EYE
Groth thought he was making good progress chopping the tree down. “Real tree's will not move as much” he thought “ this should not take long!” Groth knew that his new friend Pas was somewhere inside of the behemoth vine creature, but having no practical experience with trees that moved about, he had no idea exactly where inside the creature Pas might be. He continued chopping at the base of the trunk as it hit him with it's branches. “Just make me madder, tree!” he shouted at it in between heavy blows . “Why dontcha eat someone yer own size, ya bully?” Fox rushed up on his right and took a perch on what remained of the center planter and began firing arrows as fast as his bowstring could reset. It didn't seem to be doing much real damage to the overgrown weed in Groth's opinion, but then again, Groth was not a strategy giant. He had two modes of combat: “crush while standing” and “crush while moving”. This was a “crush while standing” situation, he preferred those. The“crush while moving” mode implied enemies running away and that made him angry, and Groth was not typically the “angry giant” sort. He just wanted to crush and be left alone. To crush some more. And when all the crushing that could be done without walking was done, THEN he would walk and crush some more.
“Groth, we gotta knock this thing down quick,” Fox shouted , “Pas can't survive in its gut for long. Take it out!” Groth heeded Fox's words without looking over at him and redoubled his efforts while watching arrows sprout from the tree's face and trunk. The tree tried to lash out and grab Fox but Groth batted the vine away and then chopped it off at the shoulder. “Won't do that again!” he chuckled while going back to work on the trunk. Green sap was now covering the tiles around the base of the monster and Groth's axe had slung the slime all the way up to the ceiling panes in huge blots that stretched and dripped back down onto his head and back. The dripping made him a bit happy. He kept at it like a chore, like he was chopping wood for a fire back at his tribal home. “That's it Groth, I think it's gonna go!” shouted Fox over the ear splitting noise of both Groth's great axe working and the Tendriculous shrieking. With one last tremendous heave, the half-giant's enormous muscles coiled and then sprang the blade in a wide arc that sheared the base of the tree from its legs. The top half of the tree toppled over then crashed down onto the ornate tiles, crushing them into a cloud of dust.
Quickly Groth straddled the trunk and began cutting a vertical notch into it, careful to not score too deeply. It would not do to free Pas from the belly of this beast, only to find him dead of a giant axe wound. When the notch was deep and long enough, Groth leaned over and pushed his fingers from both hands into the gap, palms facing out. With a ferocious roar he corded his muscles and then pulled apart the trunk, ripping out a section large enough to see into the hollow of the tree. Fox stepped aside Groth and peered in.
All he could see was a spitting, steaming, acidic cocktail of bile and purple lifeblood. Then he spotted the fingertips of a human hand barely exposed. Fox motioned and Groth dumped the trunk onto its side spilling the reeking contents onto the floor of the arboretum. Along with the other fluids, Pas' lifeless body fell out and lay there rigid and with eyes wide open. A dagger was clenched in his other white knuckled fist. “By the heavens!” Fox exclaimed. “Nera! We need you here! Hurry” Groth just stood staring at Pas' face, frozen in a pose of excruciating pain, until Fox jolted him out of it. “Groth, Arin needs you over there. He is fighting that Black Assassin that attacked us on the trail. Please go help him.” Groth made a low growl and lumbered away, shaking the ground with each stride. Fox turned his attention back to Pas. “Hurry Nera.” he said in barely a whisper. It looked bad, really bad.
The After-Birth...........
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