A piercing shriek introduced the ear-splitting eruption, the sudden gulf of heat absurd. The creature’s own heat had become its downfall. How ironic. The material in that pouch had been highly combustible. Hard to come by… unfortunately.<br/><br/>Out on the rolling skyline, miles away, random passersby’s would be able to see a lance-like ray of orange-white light shoot up into the all-consuming night. There had been meteor strikes with less force behind them. An instant later, there was a blinding flash, like sheet-lightning, a massive ball of varicoloured fire belching outward. It flattened, then a column of incandescent gas mounted to overtake everything it came in contact with. Twisting, writhing, changing shape in vivid patterns, darkening, it drifted across the sodden mud-bed of the graveyard to eventually slither into the surrounding aches.<br/><br/>Since ancient times, the dust of mandrake root had been used in recipes as an aphrodisiac and as an aid for impotency, to induce visions and free the spirit, to calm nerves and to sedate patients in severe pain. It was widely known for its many deliberate uses and the euphoria and sexual tension it caused was used across the land by experienced alchemists for a wide variety of reasons. Interesting side note, she thought to herself; ointments created from its roots seem to assist rheumatisms. A word of caution however, Mandragora are poisonous, containing tropane alkaloids such as hyoscyamine and atropine. At higher doses, it caused delirium, madness and even death. It could linger within the body for weeks on end, leaving the afflicted in a never-ending, sex-laden, hazy landscape of fluffy clouds and insatiable desires.<br/><br/>Compassion extended like bridges within the crew, bridges that would soon burn if they didn’t escape the chaotic array of purplish puffy shapes amid the ocean semi-cooked meat that puddled in the centre of the graveyard. Stray limbs and dead flesh - once fine creatures of the forest, bent by foul inventions, splayed like rag dolls on the morning dew.<br/><br/>Already, the world was aquiver. Shaking, blurred at the edges. A single whiff was enough to bow down to the effects of the mist and Elisa had personally suffered it in an instant. She resigned herself to the rescue with an apathetic puff as the echoing boom of the explosion rang in her ears.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“We should…we should get out of here at once…”</span>she surmised with a smoky, shaking voice, into the obscured field unaware of everyone’s whereabouts.