The Variegated Strangler

Gerhardt fished in his pocket for his knife but the vines grabbed his hand. He managed to get two fingers on the knife and fling it towards his other hand. Luckily he was not bad with his left hand and managed to open the blade and start sawing away at the vines. Tendrils slapped his face and grabbed his hand but he slashed back. It pulled his feet into the mud. He kicked and shouted and slashed with his pocketknife.

Behind him the water exploded. A wave hit the bank, uncovering little Bettina’s buried face. She coughed and spluttered. Something sailed over Gerhardt’s head and landed on the bank with a thud. It was Annabelle! She jumped up and stomped on vines, shouting Italian curses.

Then there was an earthquake. At least that’s what Gerhardt thought when he found his eyeballs shaking. It was a roar, a deafening roar. Enormous brown hands plunged deep into the mud and tore out vines and children alike. Gerhardt flew onto dry ground and Bettina landed beside him.

The yeti was awake at last. It tore at the vines, pulling out great clumps from the mud. The tendrils whipped wildly at its face, wrapped its arms and legs, but to no avail.

The yeti ripped at the vines until they flopped into the water, lifeless. The creature roared again and again, attacking the other bank. The children were never sure, after, if the yeti wanted to save them or just wanted to kill the vines, but there they all were, sore, shaken, coughing, and covered in mud.

The yeti roared again and leapt for the cave mouth. The vines overhanging it parted like a curtain to avoid its wrath. With a splash the creature disappeared into the darkness.

Annabelle started after it but Gerhardt grabbed her.

“Let it calm down,” he said.

She nodded, but tears streamed down her face. She knelt to help Bettina, slapping her back as she spit out the last of the mud.

“I know. It’s a wild animal again now. That’s how it should be.”

Mirabelle, Claire, and Adolphus were on the opposite bank. After some minutes shouted discussion they agreed to walk downstream on their respective sides until they could safely cross to one another. They used sticks to poke into the bank to retrieve Bettina’s shoes, but they all agreed not to go into the water until they could see through to the bottom.

They rested a bit, surrounded by the remains of the plant that had tried to kill them. Mirabelle pocketed a sample of the vine, for her hands were still shaking too much to sketch it properly. Then she realized her observation book was floating downstream. She ran to catch it, fishing it out with a stick, though Claire was frantic lest she fall afoul of more killer vine. She did not.

The twins then inventoried their pockets, shouting across the river to tally their supplies. They had lost the hammer, the tweezers, 3 of their 7 spanners, and the cricket cage was crushed. They had already eaten the apple and all the cookies, but joyously discovered that their cheese tin was waterproof (but saved the cheeses for later).

As they walked they had time to observe their surroundings. Adolphus was fascinated by the purple-white sky and stumbled frequently, as he never looked down. Claire scowled whenever she looked up, and Annabelle declared that she couldn’t bear to look at it. The constant swirling motion made her sick all over again. They tried and tried to agree on a scientific explanation for the color and motion, but the closest they cam was “maybe some sort of bizarre volcanic effect?” and left it at that.

The ground was much more reassuring. The river cut through a forest of tall trees and scrubby underbrush. The trees looked to be deciduous, that is they had leaves rather than needles, but none of the children, not even Claire who was a natural classifier, nor Gerhardt who paid more attention to Mother’s greenhouse lessons than anyone else, could name a single species.

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This story began with On Grandmothers. The previous episode is Ambush and the next is In a Strange Land.