She looked out her window, and sighed dramatically to herself. One of the down sides to living alone, was having to take care of the outdoor maintenance yourself. Candice hated gardening with a passion. She had better things to do with her day than crawl around in the dirt, getting all manner of crap under her nails, not to mention the bugs one encounters without warning. Shuddering with the thought, she pulled on some heavy duty gloves, grabbed her box of hand tools, and strode out into the sunlight.
"May as well start here!" she muttered, looking at a big ugly plant she had never seen before.
It was at least four foot tall, with long strands for branches, that almost looked like vines, only they didn't grow very far out from the plant itself. The leaves were soft, and felt like feathers to touch. They looked delicate and easy to break, but when she tried to snap a branch off, she couldn't get it. Glaring at it, determined it wouldn't beat her, she reached for her gardening shears, and prepared to snip the branch off.
Suddenly the plant appeared to move!
Candice let out a surprised squeal, thinking there was some type of bug or rodent about to jump out at her. She jumped back, and landed on her butt, her feet up in the air, close to the plant.
She watched in horrified awe, as the plant's branches became suddenly alive, and moved towards her slowly, like a snake. They slithered over the ground, till they reached her feet, and stopped, as if trying to decide what to do. One of the branches came towards her, and began to tickle the sole of her bare foot, along the line where the toes meet the pad. She giggled involuntarily at the touch, and then tried to pull her foot back, away from the plant. Another branch shot forward in that instant, and wrapped itself firmly round her ankle. Not enough to hurt, but enough to let her know that she wasn't allowed to go anywhere. The first branch then continued to use the feathery leaves to tickle her foot, sliding over the line of her toes, down the sides of her foot, and up the middle of her soles. She was soon laughing hysterically, gasping for breath and trying to yell at it to stop all at the same time. Since she was distracted by the vine tickling her foot, she hadn't been paying attention to the rest of the plant, and didn't notice that another vine had wrapped itself around her other ankle, till she tried to move away. Trying to slither backwards on her butt, using her hands to pull herself back, she realized she was firmly held in place by the plant.
When she noticed more threatening vines coming out of it, she held still, fearing that to struggle more, would mean her hands would be tied. All she could do is sit and watch, and laugh, as the vines continued to tickle her feet. She began to relax, as nothing really bad had happened, and she thought that if she stopped struggling, it would give up and release her.
However, she was sorely mistaken.