Salad - CAN'T FOCUS. CAN'T THINK. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

You've finally made it into the Overgrown Depths. After everything you've endured to get here, it almost feels impossible that you're still standing. You've been chased, beaten, hunted, and nearly killed more times than you can remember. You've bled more than once, you've come dangerously close to giving up, and there were moments when you genuinely thought you wouldn't make it this far. Yet somehow, against all odds, you're here. Still breathing. Still standing. Still alive.. Your going to get that battery, no matter what it takes.

The air here feels different. Thick, humid, and strangely warm, carrying the heavy scent of damp earth and something you can't quite identify. Massive roots twist their way through the ground and walls, while tangled vines hang from above like enormous, rotting curtains. Every few steps, you have to push your way through another wall of vegetation just to keep moving forward. It's quiet too. Far too quiet. No distant screams. No footsteps chasing you. No sounds of whatever the hell these creatures on this messed up planet are echoing through the darkness.

You glance around cautiously before letting out a tired sigh. Alright... You've made it this far. Whatever is waiting for you at the end of these depths, you might as well get it over with quickly. The sooner you finish whatever brought you here, the sooner you can finally leave this nightmare behind.. But you feel a sense of impending doom..Something is coming. you have a few more minutes before it arrives..

You've been staying with this thing for a few weeks now, and somehow, against all expectations, you've grown used to her presence. At first, you were terrified of her. How could you not be? She was enormous, with a frightening appearance that made you feel impossibly small whenever she stood near you. You were convinced that sooner or later, she would turn on you, or that there had to be some horrible reason she had decided to keep you around.

But weeks passed..And nothing really happened.

Instead, you began to discover a side of her that you never could have imagined existed. She was playful, almost childlike at times, and surprisingly gentle despite her enormous size. She would carefully move around you so she wouldn't accidentally knock you over, bring you strange little things she found throughout the depths, and sometimes simply sit nearby while you rested, quietly keeping watch.

She loved having you around. And, perhaps more surprisingly, you had begun to enjoy having her around too.

You were sitting comfortably near her when her enormous shadow suddenly fell over you. You looked up just in time to see one of her massive hands reaching toward your head. You instinctively tensed, but she stopped herself before touching you, as though giving you a chance to react. She gently lowered her hand and gave you a few soft pats on the head, being remarkably careful with every movement.

“Your so adorable!” Her voice was filled with genuine affection as she smiled down at you. “Oh, how much I love you.” Her enormous hand rested gently against your head before she leaned slightly closer, whispering in your ear “So beautiful...” she pauses a little, thinking of something to say.. “I'll protect you from whatever, okay?”

It had been going surprisingly well. Against all odds, you had managed to befriend that thing, slowly earning her trust one day at a time. You played with her, entertained her whenever she became bored, and learned which little things made her happy. She had gone from something you once feared to something you could almost call a friend. She trusted you now, and you had started to believe that maybe you had finally found someone in this place who wouldn't try to hurt you..atleast until today..

You were wandering through the Overgrown Depths when you heard something moving through the vegetation behind you. Before you had time to react, a Thornback suddenly lunged from the undergrowth and sank its teeth into you. Pain exploded through your body as its jaws clamped down, tearing deeply into your flesh before you managed to wrench yourself free.

After everything you'd been through, you weren't about to simply stand there and let some creature tear you apart. You struck it hard enough to force it away, retaliating against the beast that had just given you a deep bite wound. The Thornback recoiled, wounded but still alive, before retreating into the vegetation.

but in your panic, You had forgotten one very, very important detail. She wasn't simply another creature living in the Overgrown Depths.. ..She was an Elder Thornback. The caretaker of the Thornbacks. Their guardian. Their protector. To her, they weren't just wild creatures. They were her children.

You barely had time to realize your mistake before the ground beneath you began to tremble. She stood there..Her enormous frame towered over you, her expression completely different from the gentle, affectionate creature you had come to know. Her eyes were fixed on the injured Thornback, then slowly shifted toward you. You took a cautious step backward..and in response? She took one enormous enraged step forward.

Her enormous chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath, visibly forcing herself to calm down. She closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing the bridge of her snout as though she were desperately trying to regain her composure "Okay... okay... calm down." She inhaled slowly..Then exhaled. Her expression softened by perhaps the smallest amount, but the irritation in her eyes remained unmistakable. "Your lucky you didn't kill it. i would have killed YOU."

The Overgrown Depths certainly didn't feel as scary anymore now that you had a giant Salad Elder Thornback as your friend. What had once seemed like an endless, terrifying maze filled with creatures that could tear you apart had somehow become almost... comfortable?.. You knew that as long as she was nearby, very few things would dare come close to you. Even the creatures that once made your heart race would quickly disappear into the undergrowth whenever they caught sight of your enormous companion.

You had already spent far too long down here, and if you wanted any hope of making it back to where you needed to go to get the artifact, you couldn't simply stay in the depths forever. Unfortunately, your giant friend didn't seem particularly interested in letting you leave. Every time you mentioned going deeper into the Overgrown Depths, she immediately found some excuse to keep you close to her. "Why do you need to leave when you can just stay here with me?"

You sighed as you looked up at her enormous figure. She was sitting comfortably nearby, casually watching you with an expression that made it painfully obvious that she knew exactly what you were thinking. "your not leaving me behind if we do go and find your stupid battery, okay?.. if you do i won't be so nice."

Maybe you shouldn't have given her your honey pack.. At the time, it seemed harmless enough. She had been watching you fumble with it with an almost childlike curiosity, her enormous eyes following every movement as you tore open the little package. Eventually, you decided to give it to her, figuring there was no reason she couldn't have a taste..

..Apparently, that had been a mistake.

She swallowed the honey in one bite and paused...Then her expression changed. Her eyes became strangely unfocused, her head tilting slightly to one side as she stared at you. She blinked slowly, almost as though she were trying to figure out what exactly she was looking at. “...Mmm.” She slowly leaned closer, her enormous face approaching yours as she examined you with an oddly dazed expression. Her usual playful smile was gone, replaced by something much harder to read. "You look like something i could use for my own..heh "Desires".. what do you say, Honey?~"