“Quite a rough start to your grove, isn’t it?”
Meli glared at the other Dryad, though there was no heat in her gaze. She could tell by his tone that he was only trying to lighten her mood. She could appreciate the attempt, even if it was doomed to failure. Heavy storm clouds had rolled in over her and they weren’t likely to break anytime soon.
She was such an idiot.
“At least I have a grove,” Meli grumbled darkly.
They continued to walk forward, side by side, for a few paces. Eventually, Meli noticed that the obnoxiously gregarious man hadn’t said anything in response to her. When she glanced at his face, she saw that he was staring at her, one eyebrow raised.
“Ah, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” she rushed out as she abruptly realized her error. “I’m not judging you for not having your own grove yet, I meant that at least I still have some roots left to regrow for my grove, which is better than not having any at all. Not that it’s a problem that you don’t have any roots yet! No, I mean, not that I’m saying you don’t have any roots, it’s just that you don’t have a grove. I mean, you do have a grove you can go back to, I just meant you haven’t started on your own grove yet like I have—Shepherd blight my fucking tongue!”
Meli glared at the ground like it had just insulted her flowers while Tegwyn let out a deep belly laugh. He continued to laugh for a while, to the point where she was starting to turn her ire from herself onto the man. It was just at the point that she had decided that maybe she was right to insult the man’s grove or lack thereof, that Tegwyn clapped a hand to her shoulder.
“My friend, you have a gift.”
“What gift?” Meli scowled at the smiling man.
“A gift for twisting your own good intentions into thorns,” he explained with mirth in his eyes. “You are a good person, in spite of your best efforts. I am glad that Jadis has forgiven you.”
Meli’s scowl only deepened as she regarded the southern-born Dryad. He was, she was half-certain, messing with her branches. His teasing reminded her strongly of her brother, which only made Meli’s mood worsen since thoughts of her older sibling only reminded her of the family and grove she had left behind. Shaking the unwelcome memories away, she focused on the latter half of Tegwyn’s statement.
“Why do you say she has forgiven me? I attacked that… her… the mother of her child. I would not forgive me in so short a time.”
“Ah, yes, but you are not Jadis,” Tegwyn nodded sagely.
When Meli let the claws on her fingers slowly grow out, he held up a hand to forestall her anger.
“I have been around Jadis for some months now. Our relationship is barely a sprout compared to the towering trees I have grown with my friends and family back at my grove in Weigrun. However, I have seen the leaves she wears boldly and without shame. Jadis is a passionate person, both in head and in heart. That leads her to taking swift and decisive actions, sometimes to her benefit, sometimes not. She is brave and forthright, and she seeks to protect those whom she loves with the fierceness of a dragon. More importantly, however, she has one of those traits that so many of us lack. She is an excellent judge of character. How else do you think she was able to find so many companions of such excellent worth? Not that she doesn’t make mistakes, mind you. She is not infallible. But I would trust her judgement when it comes to another person’s intentions more than I would my own.”
“That is… very high praise,” Meli responded to Tegwyn’s explanation thoughtfully. “I did not think ‘character judgement’ was something Lyssandria was known for.”
“I don’t believe it is,” the man shrugged. “Her talents are her own.”
“Well, I don’t know if you’re right,” Meli shook her head. “But I hope you are. I don’t want to be on the bad side of someone that has personally spoken with Villthyrial.”
Even as she spoke the words, Meli felt a surge of approval inside of her chest. She recognized the feeling immediately for what it was, despite having rarely felt it before. The emotion had come from Villthyrial, the sensation not unlike the caress of the sun on her leaves on a warm summer’s day. She marveled for a moment, surprised that her god would speak to her now when he had been silent for so long.
“You felt that too?” Tegwyn asked, his expression having turned into a soft smile.
Meli nodded, her words catching in her throat. She had almost forgotten what it felt like to bask in the warmth of her wild god, and she felt her emotions were overwhelmed for a moment. While she took a few minutes to calm her heart, she and Tegwyn stood together along the edge of the open meadow, comfortably silent.
“Ah, it seems the sleepy village of Cold Brook has more visitors. A busy few days for them.”
Meli frowned, pulled out of her reverie by Tegwyn’s comment. Looking in the direction of his gaze, she saw what had caught his attention.
A trio of wagons were making their way along the road that led to the village. It was somewhat past midday and the skies were clear, so it was easy to make out the details. There were some guards riding on horses next to the wagons, eight total, and there was a man or woman driving each wagon, but that was nothing unusual. Meli had seen such caravans in the past. While she generally ignored the village, she knew that merchants and traders came along the road once or twice a month.
“I believe I shall go visit with them,” Tegwyn said as he began walking towards the small settlement. “Eir was kind enough to leave some coins with me. I can use this opportunity to practice my trading skills.”
“Must you?” Meli said as she hesitated to follow the older Dryad. “Haven’t you already spent enough time in those… cities, as is? I don’t know how you can stand the walls…”
“Cold Brook is hardly a city,” he began to say, but Meli shook her head and cut him off.
“I know that! It’s just, those walls. They feel so… unnatural.”
“I admit I agree,” Tegwyn shrugged then smiled at her. “However, when I think of them as just strangely shaped cave walls, I find it is much easier to bear them. Besides, there are other things to recommend such places that I feel make them worth the minor discomfort.”
“Hm, I’m sure you do,” Meli gave the man a look. “The woman who makes the cheese—”
“Vera.”
“Yes, Vera,” Meli resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m sure she’s very nice, but are you really interested in someone so… fleshy?”
“I never thought that I would be,” Tegwyn laughed. “However, be it the fault of Lyssandria or my own heart, love has struck me in the most unexpected of ways. Why, I would—”
Tegwyn’s words were interrupted as a distant scream echoed across the meadow. Both he and Meli immediately turned to look in the direction of the sound, and what they saw made Meli freeze in shock.
While they had been talking, the merchant wagons had pulled up to the front gates of Cold Brook. Two of the villagers had come out of the walls to greet them, as had the old man Meli thought was the leader of the settlement. She didn’t know what had been said between the two groups, she was too far away to hear anything but the loudest of shouts, but she saw that one of the guards had drawn his horse up close to the trio of villagers. The guard had a sword in his hand and, to Meli’s horror, had thrust the steel weapon into the chest of the old mayor.
In the next moment, Meli saw the two guards next to the old man react. One immediately tried to pull the reeling old man away and back towards the gates, while the other thrust his spear at the face of the guard. The guard barely moved as he parried the attack and, instead of counterattacking himself, the man’s horse reached out and grabbed the villager’s arm with his teeth.
The horse yanked the man forward, tossing him down onto the ground. The strength on display was unsurprising to Meli. She knew horses were powerful animals that could toss small creatures like humans around if they found the nerve to do so. But this horse’s calm was unnatural. Without bucking or rearing, the horse stomped its hooves down on the man’s back, crushing him into the dirt.
“Demons!”
Meli blanched, startling into action as she both heard and felt the anger in Tegwyn’s voice. Briefly turning her attention away from the horrific scene, she saw the man transform, changing and growing his shape into that of a gigantic goat. A part of her recognized the form as that of a magic beast she had heard of living in the southern mountains, but her brain was still catching up with the surprise of the unexpected attack.
It wasn’t until Tegwyn charged forward, his hooves digging up the dirt beneath him, that Meli came to her senses. While neither of her classes offered her a true animal transformation skill like the other Dryad possessed, she was still able to grow out her claws. Doing so, Meli wasted no more time and dashed after Tegwyn, easily catching up due to her far greater speed.
In the few seconds it had taken the two to react, the pretense of the false caravan had fallen apart. Both the guards and the horses they rode on had charged in through the gates after the fleeing villagers, and Meli could already hear the screams of the people inside of the village. One of the wagons had lurched forward and the two aurochs pulling it had wedged the vehicle in between the gate doors, preventing them from closing. The drivers had leapt off of their wagons and pulled open the back doors of their wagons, unleashing waves of twisted Demons, many of which Meli had never seen before.
The Cindermen, though, Meli recognized.
“Grah!” Tegwyn let out a wordless roar as he charged headlong into the side of the rearmost wagon.
The Dryad’s huge goat body slammed into the wooden vehicle, crushing the wagon’s driver who had not yet reached the back of his wagon. The force of his ramming attack not only turned the man into red paste, but it also caused the whole wagon to flip onto its side with a tremendous crash. The two aurochs that were harnessed to the wagon were sent rolling along with it, flailing around as they struggled to free themselves from their bindings.
Meli did not hesitate. At the same moment as Tegwyn rammed the wagon, she was attacking the Demons that were pouring out of the back of the second wagon. Her claws raked through fleshy bodies, drawing black blood as she swiped at anything and everything that looked vital. Most of the Demons were slow and small compared to her, unable to even react before she had clawed them and moved onto the next target. Two, however, which were as translucent as mist and possessed huge, scythe-like claws, moved with far greater speed. They weren’t as fast as her, but they attacked her relentlessly, forcing her back and making it impossible for her to gut the weaker Demons.
Then, the terrible roar of fire eclipsed all other noises.
Meli leapt back just in time to avoid being immolated by the spewing flames of a cinderman. The terrifying creature’s molten vomit doused the area where she had been only moments before in fires so hot that the ground itself began to burn. One of the Demons Meli had been fighting was partially caught in the flames, causing one of its legs to burst like an overripened fruit from the intense heat.
“Kill the Dryads!” a woman’s voice shouted. “Destroy them! Now!”
A woman who stood on top of the first wagon was the source. She had been the driver, and while her clothes looked simple and unassuming, her face was twisted into a visage of pure madness. Holding out her hands, Meli saw the woman fling her hands out towards her and Tegwyn. Fully expecting a spell to be cast on them, Meli dodged away, dashing into the open field to the south of the road.
The spell that came wasn’t targeted at her or Tegwyn, though. Instead, a dark red magic flowed into the Demons around the wagon that Meli had been fighting. The monstrous creations of darkness seemed to vibrate with renewed vigor as they charged after her with increased speed and ferocity.
“Run!” Tegwyn shouted at her. “To the east!”
Without thinking, Meli followed the other Dryad, fleeing the attacking Demons. She felt the heat of the cinderman on her back fade as they put distance between themselves and the small horde. One of the translucent Demons, the uninjured one, chased after them, but it was the only one to keep up. As soon as they had reached the stream that ran through village, Tegwyn spun around and attacked the chasing Demon.
It easily dodged his attempt, slicing his bark with reaving claws. However, that distraction was enough of an opportunity for Meli to strike. Slipping in behind the Demon, she got her claws around its neck and tore at the flesh there, ripping it apart and causing the appendage to flop to the ground. For such a creature, the loss of its head was not a lethal blow, but it was certainly a debilitating one. Before it could fully spin around to face her, Tegwyn crushed it beneath two hooves with a ground-shaking stomp.
“We need help!” Tegwyn shouted at Meli as he turned around and began sprinting again. “Go, run and alert the empire!”
“What?” Meli shouted back as she ran next to the goat. “I must stay here! I can help fight these Demons! I must defend my grove!”
“Your grove is not their target!” Tegwyn shouted back at her. “Those were not just Demons! Those were cultists on that wagon! They are here for Jadis and her family! They are here for Vera!”
“But I can—”
“I said go!” Tegwyn shouted at her, this time using his horns to knock against her side. “You are many times faster than I am! Go and get help! Jadis and Thea and all the others need to know what is happening! GO!”
Meli sprinted away, her head still spinning from the suddenness of the attack. She ran east, heading for the woods, not even sure where she was supposed to go. The empire? What part of the empire? Who could help them? Meli knew there were other villages just like Cold Brook around the edges of the forest, but none of them would be of any help. They were just as small and just as depleted of warriors. There might be mighty warriors in the cities, but Meli knew that most of those people had also gone to fight the Demons on the border. How many would still be around to help? How many would be fast enough to come back and help with what was happening in Cold Brook?
Looking over her shoulder, Meli saw Tegwyn charge into the stone house where Vera, the cheese maker lived. He had transformed back into his Dryad form, and she could just barely hear him shouting for his love. Meli had no idea if the human woman was in there, or if she was in the village. She hoped both for her and Tegwyn’s sake that she was not in the village.
With that thought, Meli realized who she needed to get. There was only one person she knew that was both powerful enough to fight all these Demons, as well as fast enough to reach Cold Brook in time. Casting every empowering spell she had, Meli turned to the northeast and sprinted with more speed than she had ever done before in her life.
She just had to hope she remembered the way to Brightstone.
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