( done for the October cdc prompt of "beast", since Worm is scaring the shit outta some people lmao )

It had only been a little while since Wormwood had acquired his newest form, a little plant monster made up of several different animals and staggeringly young considering the age of his other two forms. Even so, he found himself in the form very often recently, since he wanted to get used to moving around in it and "break it in", so to speak. He wasn't really sure if such a small creature would ever actually be a useful form, but you never knew, and he'd rather be over prepared rather than underprepared, right? So, the now very small male found himself wandering around camp in his new form, his little turtle feet carrying him along as the leaf on his head bounced along over his back. He found that in this new form, he actually loved the weather of the swamp, and even flourished in it. The humidity of the swamp sank into his fur and the leaf and buds of his tiny body, and the sunlight that was able to reach down through the thickly clustered trees was what was really amazing. It felt great when he laid down against the ground, just letting the sun sink into the large leaf upon his head and feeling like it was filling him up with energy. He found that he enjoyed traveling around the territory a lot more in his "chikprita" hybrid form, since he felt far more comfortable, and then he could shift into whatever other form he needed when he reached his destination, full of energy and raring to go. The only problem with that was that the legs of this new form were very small, and it was hard to travel long distances quickly in it, especially when compared to him flying in his winged lion form.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though this new method of traveling around in his little form would soon bring him trouble. As he moved into camp, trotting along on his little legs, Wormwood didn't notice the approach of two older apprentices, thinking that Wormwood was just some weird little hybrid child, rather than the strong lion guardsman he actually was. One of the older children – a canine, a doberman from the looks of it – moving up to him, slamming a paw into Wormwood's shoulder and knocking him onto his side, "Hey, doesn't Tanglewood have some kinda no freaks policy? We do, right?" The doberman glanced back at his buddy, a smaller feline apprentice, who just smirked cruelly and nodded, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we do have a policy. Wanna teach it to this kid?" Really, it would have made the most sense for Wormwood to just shift into his lion form and tell the kids off, snarling at them for bullying another that turned out to be one of their guardsman, but his young childish form made it so that he wasn't thinking straight, and he shouted in fear as he scrambled backward away from them, slamming his feet down, "G-Get away from me, I don't wanna fight!" As he slammed his turtle feet against the earth, the dirt beneath the two older apprentices shifted and cracked, and vines sprang forth from the ground, wrapping tightly around their legs and squeezing so hard that it hurt as the ground beneath them continued to shift and crumble inward.

The two bullies began to shout and struggle in fear, their words a jumble, but Wormwood could hear the doberman screech in terror at him, thrashing his legs, "L-Let go of us, you beast! We promise we won't pick on you again! Please!" As soon as he heard the panic in the cabinet's voice, Wormwood stopped what he had inadvertently started, the earth finally settling again and the vines receding away from the apprentices. Worm quickly began to squeak out in his newly softened voice, his one eye wide, "I'm... I'm sorry! I don't know what happened, over never done that before..." However, before he could even finish his apologies, the two bullying apprentices had already bolted off, leaving him sitting there by himself with a frown on his face. He looked down at the cracked and strangled earth and formerly thrashing vines in front of him and sighed, mumbling softly as he looked down at his own feet, "I've never... done that before... what was that?" He hadn't thought that this form was that useful up to this point, but evidently it did have some hidden away secret power that his other forms didn't have – earth elementals. He could already feel the faintest of headaches beginning to form from the use of the strong power as he stared down at the disrupted earth, trying to figure out what he had just done.