And what became of Zekke?

Very muffled yells came from somewhere close to the ceiling of the greenhouse. After Alex's tiff with the grabby vines, he had been the next victim despite his attempts to immobilize the plants using spells to get out of their way.

But the plants, awakened and roused by the encounter with Jaren and Alex, were in no mood to be subdued and before he knew it, he was being suspended and dangled and waved around upside down in midair by several plants as a vine wrapped around his mouth kept him from yelling.

He HATED being hung upside down and right now, he was close to freaking out. Even worse, the plants seemed to have a horrendous sense of humour as one of their vines started snaking out to poke at him under his arms and in his ribs in a ticklish fashion.

"Mmmmrrrpphhh!!!" His mufled cries continued.

Aiming at the plants, he concentrated on trying to cast a spell without speaking and fervently wished he had practiced more on this. Between panicking and being tickled, this was just not working fast anytime too soon.