Artist's commentary
A Simple Quest
[font="Courier]"One vial. That's all I'll need."
[/font]
"Just one?"
"That's it. Promise."
A sigh, followed by the rolling of Haila's eyes. "And you want me to give you my sword because...?"
"We need to trust that you can do a job without relying on your ability to kill something, as exceptional as it may be." The gnome removed his glasses and rubbed his eyelids, clearly tired. "Look, all you need to do is go into the forest for a couple hours. Maybe one whole night, if you're unlucky. Just look for the signs of its lair - they're described in that book I gave you. Be careful not to get snared by it, and you'll be fine. Get the sap, and I'll hire you."
After a long moment of hesitation, Haila finally nodded. "Fine. But this job had better be worth it."
----
A thought that was repeated time after time, for the next several hours. It was repeated when Haila tripped over a tree root and stubbed her toe on the way into the forest; repeated when she barely skimmed through the chapter on the Wrangler, the plant-creature whose sap she was supposed to collect; and it was repeated when she found herself entrapped in its clutches, having failed to notice the small clues to the monster's presence due to her carelessness and frustration.
Feeling a sharp pain just before she'd lost her strength confirmed to Haila that this thing had drugged her somehow - not that she'd remember, having dropped the book when the monster dragged her off - but that didn't absolve her rising unease at the arousal her body was clearly trying to convince her of. Fighting against her primal instincts, she opened her eyes to check on her right hand - and there it still was, the tendril that she'd managed to grab onto and squeeze with her waning strength, in her grip not moving, though Haila was no longer sure if it was truly unable to or simply toying with her, ready to leap out of her hand at any second.
The half-elf's eyes closed again as she tried to focus on anything other than the tentacles ravishing her body, or her labored breathing and whines of lust that resulted therein. And through this she managed to realize,
[font="Courier]'At least I'll have plenty of sap.'[/font]
[font="Courier]-Commission work for [color=#222222][size=100][font=arial,]RejectedSonnet[/font][/size][/color][/font]