The first tendril began to snake its way around her arm, winding the infinitely tiny tip about in her limp fingers before sliding its way smoothly along her palm and twisting about her wrist, looping smoothly around and around as it slowly moved towards her. She could see its rough, slightly translucent skin, but it felt as soft as water thanks to the thick layer of clear fluid that clung all over it, leaving a trail of the stuff on her skin wherever it touched. Lariana watched it in muted horror, only able to see it thanks to the fact that her head had rolled to its side when she'd collapsed here. Already she could feel the soft touches of the other tentacles as they snaked over her legs and other arm, moving about in a writing mass, a mass that was the alien creature's body.
Stumbling along the path at breakneck speed, Lariana ran. The flames radiated an intense heat that she could still feel on the back of her neck, despite the fact that she was some several hundred metres away now. She turned back over her shoulder as she ran, gazing in utter horror at the edge of the thick line of trees as the orange glow of the inferno roared among them. She turned back, but she was too late to miss the small dent in the ground. Feeling her foot plummet into it, she stumbled, regained her balance, then lost it again and toppled to the ground, her chest ramming into the dirt and forcing the air from her lungs. Regathering herself, she got up to run again, but not two steps later found herself dipping into another ditch. This one was deeper, and caught her leg. Thrashing it about frantically to free the grass root that must be looped over her boot, a sudden, frightened yelp escaped her lips as she felt a sting of pain in her ankle. Then, in an instant, the small 'ditch' she'd stepped into deepened, and she felt her weight driving her downwards into the earth.
The soft pink tendril that was only one of many of the creature's limbs snaked its way around her arm, climbing higher. It seemed to squash underneath her limp arm against the ground with ease, as if there were no solid bits anywhere inside the thing, despite Lariana being able to see the intricate network of coloured veins and sticks and whatever else this thing had inside it through the semi-transparent skin. Several long tubes of muted purple, blue, yellow and pink ran down the inside, clinging together, deep inside the tentacle's width, thicker and stronger than the others around them. They seemed to go all the way up to the tip, but where they came from or what they did, she had no clue. They seemed to pulse - but that was just the light, and her blurry vision. Right?
The limb worked around her arm, reaching her shoulder. She could feel it finding more body, the tiny little tip touching her gently as it felt her, like the elongated feelers of an insect moving back and forth. It had gone under her brown country fire service shirt through the sleeve, and now all she could see was the thickness of the alien limb as it slowly moved deeper into her personal space. If she hadn't been rendered completely immobile, save for her soft, shallow breathing, she'd have gasped as she felt the coolness of the slicked tentacle slipping across her chest, finding her breast in its way and sliding effortlessly around it. She felt it scoop underneath her bosom, then push itself through her cleavage, snaking across her chest as it sought god knows what. She could feel the cool wetness of its lubricated skin as it rubbed off between her tits, wetting her bra.
It moved upwards, and although she couldn't see it, she could feel it on her neck, sensing what was there, seemingly pausing to smell everything inside her. Apparently, it liked it. A moment later, it moved on, sliding quickly up her neck and onto her head, the limb wrapped under her breast thickening as the tip moved further away from where it had been. She could feel it, that tiny little end flicking about, touching her, moving over her skin as if it were an alien snake, smelling her, sensing her. Down her body, she could feel the other tentacles wrapping around her arms and legs, snaking up her body, albeit slower than this first one was, as if content to let their companion seek out their prize on her body.
Lariana rushed downwards, her body bouncing about on the uneven ground. She felt several stabs of pain as rough rocks and bits in the ground caught her skin, but she couldn't stop to check on them. She slid downwards for what felt like minutes, but was only really a few seconds. Then, as suddenly as she'd been dropped down here, the ground disappeared and she landed with a thud on a mound of topsoil that seemed to have dropped out of the hole she'd just come down. Looking about served her with a severely underwhelming amount of explanatory information, pitch black as it was. Sitting up with a loud groan as her cuts complained to her, she lifted her ankle as best she could and tried to see if she could make out the white skin in the middle of her pants and socks, but nothing was there in the blackness. With a groan, she looked back up, but the hole had been on an angle, and although it had probably saved her life, it also meant she couldn't see any light shining down. Besides, aside from the fire, it had been near night, and only the direct sun could shine any light this far down.
Standing with an effort, she began to limp about, looking for a wall to start her search for an exit, all the while doing her best not to let the insatiable panic she felt rising inside her take her over, threatening to send her into a terrified frenzy.
She could feel that tiny, snaking little end flicking about her face as she lie there, completely unable to do anything other than breathe. Even her eyelids had given up, freezing half way open, so that she constantly looked like she were extremely tired. It was enough to blur her vision, but not enough to block out the sight of that tentacle wrapped around her body.
Flinching in her mind, she felt the tiny, hair-like tip of that same tendril swing around and land on her forehead. She felt it working about, feeling her, moving about her multitude of little lumps and bumps and wrinkles. Then, that highly mobile little tip lifted, and the fibre-like tip came into sight - too much into sight, as the ultra-small tendrils landed
right on her eye.
She could
feel