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[quote=Thomas]Whipping back around towards the cocoon, he hastily plunged his hand through one of the holes, aiming to grab the knife and cut the root.[/quote]

Just as Thomas' hand clasped around the sheathed knife, a rodent inside the cocoon began to squeak and screech in alarm.

[i]hkssssssss[/i]

A snake had been lying in wait within the darkness of the cocoon. At the very moment that Thomas had found the knife with his fingers, the snake lashed out and sank its fangs into the side of his palm.

It immediately let go when the rodent attacked the snake, and there was a flurry and tumult of biting and thrashing among the bones, while Thomas retrieved the knife and his bloody hand.

The sheath was of red velvet, nearly new, with gold-embroidered flowers curled around it. The hilt was silver and wrapped in neat black leather -- and the blade itself was etched with ornate geometric designs. But of course, there was no time now to examine it. The offending root had curled halfway up Quin's leg, squeezing almost tight enough to break it.

With Thomas' effort, one fierce blow of the knife against the root barely caused a chip in the solid bark -- but the root jerked fiercely as if bitten, and it yanked Quin's feet out from under her, throwing her onto her back. With one more strike of the knife, the root suddenly let go and slunk back into the shadows.

But while this was happening -- while Thomas and Quin were thus distracted -- there was a sound of rumbling and cracking, and a smell of turned soil: the cocoon of roots very suddenly snapped open wide like hungry jaws, the tips of the roots like teeth, displaying for Kituo's plain view the chalky skeleton dressed in silk, with a bleeding dead snake in its lap.

The ghastly image paused for a brief moment, and then -- just as Quin had been freed -- the jaws of the roots surged forward with a sound like thunder and crashed down again, devouring Tubal whole.

The minstrel had disappeared, and the roots roiled and turned and sealed together to the sound of squelching, cracking, and muffled screams.

The little rodent had leaped out just in time, and now clung to Thomas' back just behind his shoulder, shaking and matted with blood.