The rock beast gave a quick, yelping growl in delighted surprise when Ghent made a dive for his weapon. More importantly, toward [i]it.[/i] It hunkered down and pounced at his apparent challenge. Its tongues lashed out ahead of it for the foolish arm it anticipated reaching for the staff.
	Its surprised glee turned into a furious growl as it skid to the ground, its prey lost to the beast in Ghent's rush for to the river. 
	Meanwhile, Elayra slid to a stop on the damp ground, mud and grass stains streaking her back. Ignoring the sting of the slide, she hopped to her feet. She ran toward Ghent, ready to help him. But he’d somehow managed to hold his own, even beating her to the punchline of making for the stream.
	She altered her path to join him in the race for the burbling water. 
	Behind Ghent, the leaner rock beast let out a grinding growl and leapt after the boy. Its tongues unfurled from its mouth again, what broken bits of thorns it suffered already regrown. The vines shot forward at calf-height, aiming to trip him before he reached the water. Both lashed out at different areas in an attempt at predicting where the boy would zag to next.
	“Ghent! Behin—!”
	Her words cut off in a strangled gasp as her own monster’s tongue wrapped around her neck. It tugged, hard, making her stumble back She half-turned and raised her dagger to cut the beast’s tongue. 
	The monster hurtled toward her in a lumbering, uneven gait. Its tongues, twisted together to form a single thick rope, reeled into its mouth as it neared like a fishing line. The rocks of its mostly missing leg tumbled after it in a dusty cloud to reform the missing limb.
	Doubting she could sever the thick tongue in time, she gripped it with her free hand to give herself more slack, thorns biting into her palm. At the last possible second, she tossed herself from the monster’s direct path.
	Its eyes glowed brighter in fear as it hurtled to the water rather than into its target.
	Elayra rasped a gasp, tumbling forward and nearly dropping her knife as the beast tried to use its hold on her as an anchor to keep itself from the stream. But it was too little, too late.
	The beast’s front foot caught on a tree root hidden beneath the earth. It tumbled head-over-heals with a loud, terrified screech, the sound a sharp stone scraping against a chalkboard. It fell into the water with a hissing splash like hot coals doused in a bucket of water.
	Before she could free herself, the now short leash of its tongue dragged Elayra into the water behind it. The deeper center of the stream swallowed them whole.