[h3][color=lightblue]TEAM RUTABAGA[/color][/h3]
[i][b]BOOM[/b][/i]

Meryn flinched back at the sudden burst of light, an arm coming up to shield her eyes. She squinted as her vision slowly returned – only to look on in horror at the monster crawling up from the ground. The sunlight glinting off its emerald scales rippled with every movement as it slithered up from the depths of whatever portal Spook had just had them open. Tar black tongues flicked in and out between blades of teeth. A clawed hand wrenched itself up and smashed down onto solid ground. The creature – whatever the hell it was – was [i]climbing out[/i].

Meryn's aches and pains, her worries, her very thoughts, all seemed to vanish in the face of the three headed monster. For the second time that day, her breath left her. She barely registered Spook, the [i]conniving lunatic[/i], beckoning her forward, along with Lux and the swordsman. Like hell she was doing anything that crackpot told her now. Had this been what he'd wanted them for? To summon some devil-spawn hydra?

Then the monster seemed to register the people who'd summoned it. Meryn didn't have time to think. All she registered was the way it hissed dangerously at Lily, how it snapped its deadly jaws at Emma. The next thing she knew, a sharp, high whistle rang through the air, and a bandage, sticky with drying blood and a blue salve, was flying at it. The bandage landed with a wet [i]splat[/i] on the nose closest to Emma. Time seemed to freeze as the monster processed what exactly had just happened. Then the three heads all turned to Meryn. 

And she fully grasped how much of an [i]idiot[/i] she was.

The Emma-head breathed in a long drag, the bandage pulling around the outline of the razor thin nostril. Then it blew out, and the bandage flew to the ground. Meryn pressed her lips together and raised a single, crimson hand. It was trembling. Six golden eyes narrowed to slits at her. Tongues flicked in and out, tasting the air. The monster renewed its struggle to free itself from the portal, eyes still on her. Taking a step back, Meryn felt her head spin with so many thoughts, she couldn't keep track of them all (though the spinning could've been due to the shallow, frenzied way she was breathing). Most of her thoughts revolved around how incredibly stupid she was. Others were about how she wanted to drop Spook off a cliff, and the rest were centered on the rest of the people there. They'd be alright, right? Meryn had no idea how magic worked – if the people touching the circle could just stop touching it in the middle of the spell, or if there'd be some kind of blowback or damage to them. Was that why Spook hadn't done it himself? She was pretty sure even injured, she had the best chance of outmaneuvering this thing. And there were people with swords here, yeah? Could they hack it to pieces if she could distract it long enough?

Gods above and below, this had been a terrible move. She was probably dead already.

Meryn took another step back as the monster tore another leg free and slammed it onto the forest floor.