"Your kin stumbles across a strange corridor of Sinweed, thick with pollen that seems to hang like a red haze in the air. It makes breathing harder and harder as they move through the path, their chest straining to keep them supplied with the oxygen they sorely need. The pollen is sickly sweet and fills the world, making their body warm and their senses hazy. It becomes tempting the further they go to simply lay down just for a time, just to rest their eyes. Do they push through, or do they stop to rest? If they stop to rest, they are beset by twisted nightmares of kin contorted out of all recognition, primal fear, and sharp bared teeth in the darkness."
Neither Nor wasn’t sure what they were doing participating in this. Ok that wasn’t entirely true. The maze was far too tempting for a kin who thought themselves far more clever than those around them. Of course Neither Nor would make it through the maze, even with the sinweed potentially clouding their senses (which of course Neither Nor also believed themselves to have a strong enough will to overcome or reason out any side effects of the pollen.)The first few yards were not of note as far as Neither Nor was concerned. Dark, uncomfortably prickly, and with that scent leaving what felt like a film inside his throat. They said this maze was hard. Neither Nor believed it was likely only fear that made it difficult for others. Without admitting why though they chose each tunneled path by how few bones each one contained. That was just common sense yes?
Crawling through one such tunnel Neither Nor came to their feet in a surprisingly open space, though their vision was clouded by the pollen that hung in the air, eddying but never seeming to actually drift towards the ground. They pressed forward breathing raggedly… surely they weren’t this out of shape? It couldn’t be. Neither Nor shook their head trying to clear the red fog that swirled both around them and inside them.
They stopped, knees shaking and shook their head again, hard. They had to get out of this haze. They just… needed to catch their breath first. Like smoke maybe, if they crouched low they could get to some fresher air. Neither Nor took the mental permission to drop to the ground, his limbs feeling less like sturdy flesh and bone and more like the water filled vines that sagged from the lowest tree limbs. Neither Nor closed their eyes. Just briefly. Just enough to get their head straight.
Their head. The head that twisted upside down the moment their eyes were closed, cranked back over their shoulders by some invisible force as their eyes shot open only to stare into the tentacled face of what may have been a kin in one life. It’s mouth opened impossibly wide and filled with too many teeth and suckered tentacles dripping with saliva. Eyes flashed as a pair of legs, jointed in ways Neither Nor couldn’t name, closed around Neither Nor’s neck.
The kimeti found air enough in their lungs to scream, regaining feeling in their legs and racing, tumbling and clumsy, through the end of the corridor. Their attacker nowhere to be seen.