Draiss summoned his mount again, stored the rope that was the anchor for his personal dimension, and leapt up to the saddle, before leaning forward, and saying, "Would you like to know what my options were when I spotted you being attacked by the assassin vine were? The first one was turn and walk away. Not acceptable, mind you, but still an option.<br/><br/>My second one was to use an attack spell, which includes fireball, lightning bolt, chain lightning, or spells of similar nature. The problem with those is that I might have started a forest fire. I am not a ranger or druid, so I don't know if that was a real concern, but I thought it better to take my fourth option.<br/><br/>Third was wading into combat with the creature. I am a magic user, not a melee combatant, so we both would have been in trouble at that point.<br/><br/>Fourth was to use that corpse to distract the vine. Which is the option I choose. I did not ask to learn the spell animate dead, but my magic choose to reveal itself in that form, therefore, I use it. Maybe as a druid, you get the luxury of choosing which spells you get from your god, goddess, or aspect that you worship, but I am not that fortunate. I make do with what I have, and if that is a problem for you, then I will<em><strong>ATTEMPT</strong></em>to avoid using it again. But if push comes to shove again, I will use that spell again. Better to animate a corpse for a few minutes then to become one."<br/><br/>He leaned forward, his expression blank as he leaned over the saddle-horn, waiting for her retort.