The first emotion I felt was panic, on my arm was the clear sign that the Plague had gripped ahold of me. Taryn was nowhere nearby and in front of me were legionnaires who normally murdered the infected without a second thought, even if the infected were their friends or family. Rudicus took a step toward me, both hand gripped the handle of his sword as he lifted it up.

"Wait wait!" I cried out to him, lifting up my right hand and motioning for him to stop. I took a step backward, and looked once again at the dark mark on my arm. "Just...give me a few seconds here."

My skin had yet to grow pale, my eyes were still blue and so it was that Rudicus paused for a moment. He frowned toward me, though he kept his sword lifted in case I tried to attack him or make a run for it. "Do you really want to be a Plague that badly?"

The last time it had happened I really did slowly fall into liking it, though that was due to the persuasion of Nixi. She was like a drug that forced herself on you, and yet this time even though the mark was visible no sign of Nixi had shown. I turned slowly to look around, my head tilted as I tried to listen to anything and everything.

Her voice never came, her touch never appeared, her body never showed itself. Somewhere in the distance I could almost hear something, as though a cry for attention which sought my love and gaze desperately. A familiar voice sounded even closer, a whisper in the ear which made me shiver. Without thinking my right hand went to the arm, to the marking on it and slowly slid along the bumpy textured black mark.

My fingers dug into the flesh, the nails cutting out a slight flow of blood. Rudicus could only gape in confusion while Nala squeaked out a half-cry of horror while watching. My fingers pinched together and gripped hold of that black vine on my arm and then began to rip it away, piece by piece in a slow painful tear. Blood continued to squeeze out of the new wound as I ripped away the root of evil from my arm, teeth clenched tight while pain roared from the injury that was created.

"What are you doing!" Rudicus yelled at me, though he made no move forward to strike. All he could do was watch on with wide eyes.

When all of the black vine was torn free from my flesh I threw it to the ground, and then stomped on it over and over again while yelling loudly. There were no words specifically used, it was merely my hatred toward Nixi which fueled the shouting. After almost a whole minute of this I stopped, breath ragged while I tried to recover my composure.

"Mind if I borrow some bandages?" I asked of Rudicus, while I gripped the bleeding arm with my right hand. "I'd rather not bleed to death."

Rudicus gaped at me, he had never in his entire life seen someone tear the Plague from their body. The mere fact that I had done so refused to even make sense, it wasn't possible to remove an infection like that. Yet I had done it, or at least seemed to have done it. "Nala...bandage her up, but she's not coming inside," Rudicus told the legionnaire.

Nala's approach to me was hesitant, her hands shook while she slowly started to wrap the bandages around my arm. Her eyes constantly looked from the injured arm to my face, as though she expected to see pure white eyes at any second. "Don't worry, I've dealt with worse," I told her in an attempt to comfort her.

Nala tried her best to smile at me, though it was a smile ruined by the fear in her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want us to kill you since you're infected?" she asked, before she started to work on the other injuries on my body. The bite marks, the cuts and the various abrasions were all carefully attended to by her.

"I'm not infected," was all I could say in response, before I sighed loudly and looked up at the sky. "General, mind if I go wipe off in one of the houses? I think there's still some water barrels left aren't there?"

"You can go if you want, but you're not allowed inside the tower without my express permission," Rudicus told me. His sword was still drawn, though he held it low at his side. "Rest up, we still have a few days before reinforcements show and if you're still you by then...well, it'd be nice if that happened. Oh, if I see you trying to leave the town I'll have Nala shoot you full of arrows."

Nala pulled away as she finished the first aid, and I nodded to her in thanks. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. If the Plague shows up again you'd probably end up dying," I said with a smile.

Without waiting for his response I turned toward the burnt down houses of the village. The large fire that had consumed the mayors home had spread over half of the wooden structures and devoured them, leaving only a handful to pick from. A single floor house that was off to the side was the one I opted on, when Rudicus and I had scouted the village it had looked cozy enough.

An hour later my dirty clothes were stripped and I once more cleaned myself off, while the morning light of the sun filtered in from outside. Inside that small little abandoned house I could only look in the mirror of the bedroom and stare at my face, at that sliver of crimson in my eye. "This is going to be a long wait," I murmured to myself, before stepping over to the bed and throwing myself into it.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

The tea was warm and gentle, it had a slight flavor of lemon to it which almost made it sour. The tint of sweetness from the drizzle of sugar that had been added to it helped to offset that, and along with the light pastries on the dish the overall meal was delicious. The air was fresh and the sun shone bright in the sky, while the grass around the table and chair rustled in the breeze.

"Is your arm doing alright?" Taryn asked from the side, he was in the middle of swinging that pure white sword over and over again with his right hand.

"I'll live, though it's definitely worse than last time," I told him, while fiddling with the cup. There was no real need to drink from it, if Taryn was here then I already knew exactly what was going on. "Why did the mark appear? I thought you said she couldn't infect me again."

Taryn paused in the middle of a swing, then faced me while planting the tip of the sword against the ground. "She can never touch you is what I said, I never said she couldn't try. What she did to you was like standing on the other side of a window and looking into someones house. Spying on what you're doing, trying to figure out what your plans are is the most she can do now."

The mere thought of Nixi staring in the window at me made me shudder, though I tried to chase that unpleasant feeling away by gulping down the tea in one go. "Were you the one who guided my hand then?" I asked him.

"Yes," was Taryn's simple response. "I'm sorry but it was the easiest way to remove her presence. If you let her linger near you then she'll know where you are and what you're up to."

"The next time don't you dare force me to do something like that!" I yelled at him. "It was almost as bad as when She took control of me and treated me like a toy!"

Taryn could only look away from me, a hint of shame on his face. "I'm sorry. I promise I won't do that again unless you ask for my help."

While glaring at Taryn I threw myself back into the chair and crossed my arms over my chest. Somewhere off in the distance I could hear a noise like someone knocking on a door. "Also why are you showing up like this? Are you pulling me into your dreams or something?"

The response from Taryn was one that I hadn't anticipated in the slightest, he stared at me with a confused expression. "What do you mean? You mean you don't realize it?"

The knocking sound sounded, closer and louder, as I glared at Taryn. "What do mean realize it?"

"I'm not the one pul-" was all Taryn could say before the knocking noise drowned him out.

My eyes snapped open to the sound of someone beating on the door to the house I was in. It was a frantic, loud repetition which made me instantly leap out of the bed. With no clothes on I grabbed the sheet on top of the bed and wrapped it around myself, before walking to the door and flinging it open. "What?"

It was Nala, she held her bow in one hand while the other was still half-raised as though ready to continue knocking. The eyes she had looked a bit frantic, afraid and dots of sweat were visible on her. "Oh thank god, I thought you were dead or turned," she admitted while she stepped back quick from the door. "General Rudicus wants your presence at the tower, Jesson is back already."

"I'll be right there," I told her before closing the door.

When I dropped the sheet it was obvious to me that I required clothing, and given that it was a house that meant stealing some. The dressers were filled with men's clothes, large and loose which made for an easy fit on my body. A belt I found was cinched around my waist to help hold the pants up, while I stole a fresh pair of boots.

The loose fit boots and the obnoxiously ill-sized clothes made me look a bit silly as I walked out of the house, though there was little choice given the situation. Nala would not have an infinite supply of clothes I could ruin, and I didn't want to spend hours looting through all the houses for clothes which did fit.

Outside the smell of burnt wood had finally started to dissipate, while wind had begun to swell from the south-west and carry away the stench of the dead Plague. The ones who had assaulted the alarm tower had been moved to somewhere else, though I wasn't sure who had done the moving. The gateway remained a vision of hell with the corpses everywhere, guts and limbs oozing with rotten blood.

While I walked toward the alarm tower it was easy to make out the figures of Rudicus, Bell, Nala and Jesson as they talked back and forth. Jesson's arms were a bit more animated than I might have expected, his face contorted into one of fear. Every few words he would pause for a split moment to look over his shoulder toward the gateway, then return to talking to Rudicus.

"That's close enough," Rudicus told me when I walked up to the group. He nodded toward Jesson, and then opened up one hand waved it in the general direction of the forest. "Jesson here says he was ambushed on the way to the east, some sort of monster he had never seen before."

"It wasn't a monster, it was the tree," Jesson stated in a clear voice, before he glanced toward the hole in the wall again. "The wood itself separated away and tried to grab ahold of me. It got my horse, I had to run back here on foot while it chased after me."

My mind worked fast as I tried to figure out what he was talking about, but the mental lexicon of monsters I had acquired was still pretty abysmal. Most of my information derived from creatures found primarily in the center of the empire and had been gained via the Legion. A glance at Rudicus and he shook his head, he didn't know what Jesson was talking about either.

For a moment we could only stand there, scared by that unknown which had apparently hunted after Jesson. If it was a creature that came from the trees, from the wood then it might be the reason why the entire town had gone quiet without warning. An entity that could slip into a wooden house and grab people before they knew it.

"This is bad, if we don't know what it is then how can we fight it? And why the hell are there things like sundrakes and armies of Plague and this new monster here!" Jesson cried out, before he slumped to the ground.

"When will reinforcements be dispatched if we don't report back in?" Bell asked as she turned to Rudicus. During the earlier fight her absence was due to standing guard over the injured Braddicus, though given her concussion she needed to avoid fighting. A strong enough blow would possibly kill her, or worsen her condition to the point of near death.

"We can't expect something like that for at least two months," he told us before he let loose a long and ragged sigh. "I figured this wouldn't be an easy mission since three towns went quiet, but this is beyond anything I could've expected."

"I might have a way to figure out what's going on," I admitted quietly, there was no distinct urge to try what I was about to do. "But you have to promise to keep this a secret from others. That includes Sciroco."

"Very well, I think we can agree to promise that, so long as your idea isn't turning into Plague or killing ourselves," Rudicus told me honestly. "What's the plan?"

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

Bell and Nala had both returned to the tower, Nala to make sure that Braddicus was fine and Bell to help stand guard over the both of them. We had decided to leave nobody alone after learning about the new threat which was on the way, though when it would strike we had no clue.

Jesson, Rudicus and I had retired to the house which had become my own personal apartment. Inside there was a small table with a few chairs, and so we had seated ourselves at it while Jesson raided the cupboards for food. He placed a few pieces of bread on the table along with a type of jam, though Rudicus served me the food.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Rudicus asked, it was not the first time and the question had begun to annoy me.

"No, I'm not, but we don't have many other options here do we?"

"Jesson, keep your sword at the ready and stay back," Rudicus ordered him, while he also pulled out his sword and placed it on the table in front of him.

While Jesson pulled his weapon out and leaned against the wooden wall, I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. Focus was important, concentrate on what was needed and let nothing else distract yourself. It was the first time I had ever tried to do this, and it would hopefully not be required again.

When my eyes opened again Rudicus flinched, while Jesson gasped in shock. Unbeknownst to me both of my eyes were now a crimson red, rather than simply the left one. The world itself felt odd, as though my body was not exactly in the room that it was but somewhere else. "Are you sure you want to be doing this?" my voice asked myself, a question that made Rudicus raise an eyebrow.

"I'm sure, we need your help," I told myself, though it was not myself but Taryn. "Are you willing to give it?"

"Since Nixi is playing games with you guys it seems I have no choice," Taryn stated with my voice. "Is this that young general guy who Shorty mentioned?"

"I'm General Rudicus, yes, and by Shorty you must mean that fellow who was at the Rose families dinner?" Rudicus inquired, he kept hold of his sword though his body had relaxed ever so slightly.

"Yeah that's who Taryn is talking about," I told him, before I leaned back in my chair. "Taryn we're under attack by a wood creature that ambushed Jesson. Any idea what it could be?"

"You're asking me to identify a monster that I haven't seen, and you simply describe it as a creature?" my voice asked, with a hint of scorn in it. "I need details on what it looked like at the least."

Jesson cleared his throat before he spoke up. "It was about five feet tall and thin, but with arms and legs like a regular person. It tore itself out of a tree like it was part of the trunk itself, and had holes in what I think is the head that reminded me of hollowed out eye sockets and a circular mouth. Fast, but not fast enough to catch me when I ran away on foot."

"Mm, don't recognize that one but Alise might, give me a second," Taryn said, before I felt a slight twist. Rudicus' head tilted to the side, before he pointed at his right eye.

"Your one eye went from blue to red and now it's blue again, is that a side effect of this?" he inquired.

The fact that it was my right eye gave me a bit of a shock, I knew that my left tended to turn red during fights but the right had remained normal. Before I could voice anything I felt a mental knock, as though someone wanted to be let in through a door. The only way I could describe the sensation was that I had a door in my head, one which I opened and in came Taryn. My right eye twitched a little, and then I felt his presence again.

"Alise says she recognizes what it is, though you should be running right now," Taryn told us with my voice. To hear my voice saying words that I didn't choose to speak was a feeling that made me skin crawl.

"Alise? What are these things?" Rudicus almost demanded of Taryn. "We can't run either, we have a man too wounded to be taken anywhere!"

"Alise is the woman who helped train Taryn and I," I explained to Rudicus, before I felt him mentally push me out of the way. "They're Dryads, they originate from the jungle wilds to the far south. The last time Alise fought them she almost died, they're way too dangerous."

"They?" Jesson voiced from the spot near the wall. "How many exactly?"

"Apparently they travel in broods of about six or seven," Taryn said. "Alise said they look like wood but they're actually flesh and blood beneath the armored exterior, however the shell they wear is as hard as steel."

"What about the way they came out of the tree? Would they have been able to take people away without anyone knowing?" Rudicus asked, as he started to stand up. The sword he had lain on the table was raised and sheathed back at his side, he no longer worried about the plan I had offered to him. "Plus your combat capabilities."

"They're able to pass through any wood like it doesn't even exist, and they can latch onto trees for sustenance until something with meat walks by," Taryn told us. He cleared his throat, his tone almost growing apologetic. "Their combat capability is beyond anything you can handle. If you stand and fight you will die."

From outside we could clearly hear a scream, the voice recognizable as Bell. Without caring what Rudicus or Jesson thought I stood up from the chair and started to walk to the door, though Jesson was first out of it. The sight he saw made him recoil, he stepped back inside and lifted his sword up defensively.

"What do we do now?" he whispered, while I peeked out the door to see what had spooked him. Rudicus stepped up behind me and also peered out the door, so the fact that his breath caught in his throat was clearly audible to me.

Outside in the middle of the grass rested Bell, her body bloody and her armor torn away. From out of her body came the roots of a small tree that grew upward toward the sky, a wooden construct that had an oddly familiar shape. The alarm tower in the distance had a leafless tree that had somehow sprouted outside the door, one branch uplifted as though trying to knock on the door.

As we looked out the wooden shape shifted, and the humanoid body twisted to stare at us with hollowed out eyes.