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Thomas' excitement at the opportunity quickly turned into panic as pain ripped through his hand. He grimaced and flinched, but made sure to do no more than that. He had already created an image of himself for the people around him -- someone who was calm and in control. Breaking that now would do no good.

So instead he swallowed his panic and slammed his fist into the ground, in an attempt to rattle off whatever was latched onto him. It didn't work, and before he could try again, [i]another[/i] creature in the cocoon made it's presence known, in the best way possible. Through the holes, Thomas could see a long, slender animal -- the one that was biting him -- being attacked by a furry one. He felt the pressure come off his hand, and immediately grabbed the knife.

He spent no time inspecting his hand as he pulled it out of the hole, instead unsheathing the knife and spinning around in one motion. He leaped at the root, landing and sliding on his knees. It was quickly moving up the girl's leg.

He slammed the knife down onto the root once, causing it to flinch. His hand gripped the knife tightly, and he felt the vibrations from the impact. He briefly thought about how much his injury should be hurting, though he felt no pain at the moment.

Another violent, undisciplined swing was brought down onto the root, and it let go of the girl, quickly receding into the shadows.

Thomas had no time to catch his breath, however. Behind him, he heard loud snapping and cracking. He felt something land heavily on his back, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see that the strange cocoon of roots was [i]alive[/i] and open like a hungry maw. It snapped down around the eldest of the group, swallowing him whole.

Thomas fully turned around by slowly rolling off his knees and landing onto his rear. He stared in a muted horror as the jaw of roots closed around the man and muffled his pained screams. The sounds that came from inside were awful -- Thomas imagination ran wild, creating images to match the gruesome noises.

Now vaguely aware of the rodent on his back, Thomas clutched his forehead with his injured hand in disbelief. Blood dripped off of it onto his brow and into his hair.

The strange warmth brought him back to his senses. He jerked his hand away from his face, quickly wiping off the blood with his sleeve. As the other boy tried to coax the thing that shook on his back, Thomas stared at his hand.

It hurt. And every movement made it hurt more.

[i]In control. Be in control.[/i] He pushed aside the pain, picking the knife -- which he had dropped at some point during the older man's death -- up off the ground with his good hand. He tentatively held the sheath with his injured hand, sliding the knife back in.

He craned his neck awkwardly to get a better look at the rodent on his back. It must have been the thing that had attacked the snake, as it was covered in blood and clearly shaken up.

"Helpful little guy you are," he said to it, before addressing the girl and boy. "You two all right?"

He eyed the cocoon. "I can't say I think staying here is the best of ideas. We should leave."