The cave to the north looks cool and inviting...

Although the sky is unnaturally dark and overcast, the heat here is still sweltering. After considering your options, you decide that the best way to deal with the heat is to get out of it. The only shelter in sight is the cave to the north, so you begin your short walk to it in the hopes that it will be cooler.

The cave is set into a hill, and is easily forty feet wide and at least twenty feet tall. As you enter the cave, you find it to be pleasantly cool, and relatively deep. The heat is no longer unbearable, but it is still uncomfortable, so you decide to head deeper into the cavern.

 The cave narrows as it goes, but eventually levels out at about five feet wide and around seven feet high. It goes straight for a while, then leads unexpectedly down. You judge you are probably a good thirty feet below the surface. You debate going back, but you decide that it warrants more exploration. A couple minutes later, after a turn and a steep decline, the passage opens into a massive chamber, the sides of which is lined with what you can only describe as rainbow colored diamonds. Strangest of all, however, is the pulsating plantlike bubble in the center. Your curiosity gets the better of you, and you walk over to it slowly. Then you touch it, and it touches you.

You jump backwards in surprise with a squeak as the plant's tendril jerks back inside of its bubble. There is a sound of rubbing leaves, and the top of the bubble, probably five feet above your head, begins to open, splitting open along an X-shaped top. A massive vine shoots out of the top, followed by hundreds of others in varying sizes. Then it stops moving, and stays very still. You instantly picture a lion, poised to strike. That's exactly what this thing is doing; it's waiting for you to make a move.