Buffy smiled, following the signal. The ball of light was a welcome sight. It meant that Willow was aware of Buffy's presence. It was an act of communication. More than that, it was a connection between the witch who'd sent it and the Slayer who followed it. As Buffy alternated between sprinting and walking, she concentrated upon this incandescent sphere, which was her only link to her friend. She vowed anew to herself that she would rescue Willow, no matter how great the cost, and she knew that the cost might be much higher than her having allowed Giles to fuck her in the ass in order to make Anya's inter-dimensional transportation spell work and bring her here from her mentor's apartment in Sunnydale. No matter. Whatever the price, even if it were to be her own life, Buffy would pay it if need be to save her best friend.
Buffy followed the light sphere to the top of a grassy rise. As she descended the knoll, the grass before her shifted, and something rose out of its midst, something green and grassy, like the plain itself-something huge, of a vaguely humanoid shape. Buffy had no idea what it might be, but she knew what she and her friends back home would unhesitatingly call it-a monster. That was all right with Buffy, though, since, after all, she was a monster slayer.
As the risen entity lunged toward her, Buffy glimpsed its face and form more clearly; involuntarily, she shivered. Matted vines, resembling thick, green dreadlocks, hung from the top of the thing's head. Its eyes were opaque and white, like the pods of a milkweed plant. Thick grass formed a dense beard and a heavy mustache upon the creature's verdant face, and large, thick leaves formed its ears. Its lips were roots, twisted into an elliptical shape; when they parted, she saw large, jagged teeth, of granite, inside its black, cavernous mouth. Shaggy grass draped its powerful chest and belly. The legs were of densely packed earth, in which thick vines formed veins and arteries that carried whatever vital fluid circulated through the monster's impossible, grotesque body instead of blood.
