We stood frozen in place while the dryad turned to look at us, those hollowed out eyes staring directly at Jesson. With a sickening wet noise the roots slipped free from out of Bell's body, while the dryad took a single step in our direction and emitted a high-pitched whine. The dryad nearby the alarm tower paused, turned slowly and then started to walk toward us as well.

Jesson's reaction was a simple one, he slammed the door shut and almost crushed my head in the process. "Careful!" I yelled out to him while staggering away from the shut door. "Next time warn me before you do that."

Jesson's breathing was fast, his eyes wide and he looked at me with such fear obvious on his face that I felt bad for yelling. "What are we going to do?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

"We can't stay here anymore," I declared, even as I felt a slight wrench and stumbled. My hand went to my head, it cradled the right side as a small ache spread outward. "Dammit Taryn..."

"Agreed, but we're going to need to be careful," Rudicus said as he backed away from the door and wall. His sword was gripped in his right hand, and his gaze had drifted to me. "Are you going to be fine?"

"Yeah, he left pretty fast for some reason," I told him, as I rubbed at my right temple. "What's the plan?"

"First we'll have to clear the dryads that are out there," Rudicus said, his gaze never wandered away from me. "Then check on Nala and Braddicus, and hopefully we can get to the horses and make a run for it."

"General, why aren't they here yet?" Jesson asked, his voice still trembled with fear. "Didn't that guy who was in Liliana say they can pass through wood?"

It was a question that made both of us pause and look to the walls, then slowly scan the entire house. "They can't be that slow can they?" I wondered.

"Jesson at the ready!" Rudicus barked, before he stomped over to the door and flung it open. Jesson lifted his sword up and braced himself, expecting some horrid event to happen.

For a moment I expected that the dryad would be right there, waiting to grab him and pull him away. Instead what greeted him was a clear view of the grass outside, and no type of wooden monsters lurked anywhere. "Bell's missing!" Jesson noticed first, though he made no move to walk out of the house.

Rudicus waited a few seconds and then bravely stepped out first, his sword at the ready while he began to steadily walk toward where Bell had fallen. He paused, kicking gently at some reddened grass, and then turned all the way around. "It's clear!" he called out to us, though he never once relaxed. "Jesson, check the tower!"

The scared legionnaire managed to recuperate enough to follow through on the order, though he hesitated in taking his first steps out of the house. Once nothing grabbed ahold of him he ran full tilt to the alarm tower, and then banged on the door loudly. "Nala is it clear in there!" he yelled out.

When the door opened Nala stood framed within the doorway, her long dagger grasped tightly in one hand. It visibly shook while her eyes had a look of terror, and even from a distance it was easy to see how heavily she was breathing. When she saw the three of us she relaxed, though not enough to stop shuddering in fear.

While I walked out of the house, a slow steady pace, I cast my gaze everywhere. To the left there were the smoldering ruins of some of the houses we had burnt down, while to the right was the destroyed gate of Oakvale along with the pile of corpses. Nowhere could I see any dryad, yet that didn't mean they weren't close.

"Where's Bell?" Nala asked while her eyes started to tear up. "She heard something out there and went to look. Then out of nowhere she slammed the door shut while yelling!"

"Bell's gone," Rudicus told her, his jaw clenching ever so slightly. "We need to evacuate immediately, get Braddicus as ready as you can. I don't care if he'll die, if he stays we all die!"

Nala's attempt to argue against moving Braddicus was instantly cut down before she could even speak, and she could only turn away and go about her duty. Focus on the task at hand, don't let the emotions get to you. It was an easy thing to say but to some people it was in no way as simple as that.

"Jesson, get the horses!" Rudicus barked at him, a hint of anger in his voice. "We're going to ride as hard and fast as we can to the nearest town."

Jesson mutely walked to the horses, while he had been happy to see Nala was alive the reminder of Bell cut into him. The horses were still visible, hooked up to a post near the alarm tower, and each horse showed no sign of fear over what had befallen us. When Jesson reached them he talked to them gently, then slowly began to untie their reins.

"General, I think we'll need to take a different route out of town," I told him. "That pile of corpses will slow us to a crawl if we try to go through it, and they've already ambushed Jesson once on his way to the town."

"It's not like we have much choice in the matter though, it's either through that hole or nowhere," Rudicus responded, he planted the tip of his sword in the ground and glared at me. "Or do you have more secrets you want to share?"

"You saw me cut that sundrake's head nearly in half right? I'm going to do that to the southern wall, then we can skip out and keep heading south," I told him.

Rudicus paused, then nodded his head. "There's a river down there and if we follow it for a short bit to the west we'll reach one of the other towns that went quiet, a fishing town."

"Exactly, we'll boat our way down the river to the next safe town, plus if we're using a boat it means Braddicus can rest up."

"General!" Jesson called out as he led the horses over to us, before he lifted up a hand and pointed at our transportation. "We don't have enough for everyone, there's only four!"

Rudicus looked at the horses with a hint of shock, even though Jesson had lost one horse we still should have plenty due to Bell dying. "Did they do that?" he murmured, then shook his head. "Then I'll stay, Jesson you'll have to take charge."

"Wait!" I cried out with one hand lifted up. "I can probably keep up with you guys on horseback."

Rudicus slowly turned his head to look at me, then frowned again. "I'll refrain from asking how you can do that," he said. "Go clear us a hole, we'll load up and then head out."

A quick salute was my response to him before I walked in the direction of the burnt houses. The pathway through to the southern edge of the town was still clear, and so in a matter of minutes I had stepped up to the wooden wall that served as a barrier for Oakvale. A glance to the left and the right relieved me of the belief that the dryad might have been waiting for me there.

A slow deep breath was how I started it, my concentration focused and I could feel the blood pumping faster with every second. Snapping my fingers the Shatterblade was brought to bear, converted into a long and thin blade. The noises around me slowed, the air flow itself grew to a crawl and then I swung the blade out in a flash of strikes. Each sliced deeply into the wall, yet the wooden structure showed no sign of collapse.

"Alright then!" I half-yelled, before the Shatterblade shifted once form once again. The weapon I grasped was the war hammer from my previous fight with the Plague, and as I swung it at the wall I took a step forward, attempting to add a bit of weight and momentum to the attack.

The result was devastating, the entire wall exploded outward away from Oakvale and caused a few trees to be knocked over in the process. The slicing from before had left cuts all up and down the wall, making it easy to shatter the wood into shards and chunks. For a while I stood there and smiled at what I had done, before the sound of horse hoofs pounding at the ground came to my ears.

"Lets go!" Rudicus bellowed as he rode in advance of everyone, his body leaned forward in an attempt to add to the speed of his steed. Braddicus came next, his face pale and his one arm wrapped about his chest. Nala was right behind him, she had only her dagger and had left her bow behind.

Jesson was the last to arrive and his eyes were a bit wider than they should have been. "Move it! They're right on my tail!" he yelled to me.

As if in response to what he had said the weird shriek of the dryads came from the center of the town, far more than a single source could be heard. It was without regret that I turned and bolted after the legionnaires, not casting a glance over my shoulder for fear of what I might see.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

The next few hours were filled with dread, as no matter how fast I ran the sound of the dryads haunted my ears. Jesson had said they were slow, but if they had given Alise trouble that seemed unlikely. If anything they were probably holding back, though why they would do that I wasn't sure.

A little after four hours of running we reached the river, a wide and deep body of water that raged loudly. The noise of the dryads had ceased a short while before then, and so Rudicus called for a halt so we could let the horses rest. Riding them too hard for too long would kill them, and once they died the dryads would devour us easily enough.

"Are you doing alright?" Braddicus asked, even as he weakly smiled toward me.

Nala had helped him down from the horse and laid him out on the ground, all of which had brought cries of pain from him. He had yet to cough up any blood but his pale skin and beaten body made him look half-dead. At least one of his cuts had reopened, the bandages around his body had started to turn red once again.

Attempting to answer Braddicus taught me quickly that I was not alright, so all I could do was flash a thumbs up at him. My belief that I could keep up with the horses had been right but it also drained me, if not for the rest period I would've collapsed less than an hour later.

While Nala removed Braddicus old bandages and then applied new ones Rudicus walked up to me. He gripped my arm tightly and dragged me toward the waters edge, though not so close that we could fall in. "You've impressed me, taking down that wall and keeping up with a Legion bred horse were something I thought only your father could do."

My body shuddered as I gasped in some air, and then I cleared my throat and tried to speak. "Easy as cake," was my response, though the words came out slowly.

"So easy that you're about to collapse," Rudicus pointed out, before he pointed at the river. "Until we get a boat and get on this I can't afford to lose a fighter like you, so we need to make a decision here and now."

"We're not abandoning anyone!" I managed to declare, louder than I wanted to since both Nala and Jesson turned to look. Braddicus on the other hand merely gave a sad smile, as he fully knew who would be the one left behind.

Rudicus cuffed me on the back of the head for that outburst, before he started to walk over toward his horse. His voice when he spoke was louder than necessary, mostly since everyone needed to know. "You're riding with Braddicus, we're slowing our pace down a little. We still have a full day of running before we hit the town."

After an hour Rudicus called out for us all to mount up. I was first up on the horse, and then Braddicus was placed in front of me as though he was a babe I had to cradle in my arms. "I'm in your care it seems," he groaned out in between spasms of pain.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't fall," I told him, before reaching past him to grab hold of the reins. "Lets go!"

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

Rivers Edge. The furthest out fishing village in the entire empire, it was so far out that it was viewed as technically outside the borders. Because of that the Legion were never deployed there, most didn't even know it existed due to how unimportant it was. Any slavers who tried to make use of the absent legionnaires were greeted by a deadly militia.

When we reached the town Rudicus took the lead, as he rode his horse into the middle of the village and cried out in a loud voice. While we sat there and waited no other sounds came save for the light noise of wind chimes, a door that creaked in the breeze and a few cats meowing. Somewhere a dog began to bark loudly, then it went quiet.

All in all it was a creepy place, there were no signs of people and nothing to indicate that there had been a struggle. If it had been the dryads they had come in quietly and easily, snapped up the townsfolk and then left without mussing up anything. Rudicus could only shake his head in sadness at the absence of life.

We rode the horses to the docks and then clambered down, while Jesson was sent to secure a boat capable of carrying us down the river. Nala and I helped Braddicus down, and then laid him carefully on the dock. He no longer cried out in pain, either due to having grown accustomed to it or simply not having the energy.

Once more Nala had to change bandages, though her face looked grim while she did it. "Don't worry, we'll be safely out of here soon," she promised him, though our hope for such an outcome was minimal.

As Nala cared for Braddicus I walked over to Rudicus and joined him in watching out for the dryads. He glared in every direction, his distaste for our adventure so far was quite obvious. "So, are you going to explain why you can talk with someone who's weeks away?" Rudicus asked, his tone unfriendly.

With a snap of my fingers I brought the Shatterblade back out, into the form of a longsword. I thrust the blade into the wood of the docks and then leaned against the handle. "It all started in Vicna. You know about Vicna, right?"

"Yes, an unusually large amount of Plague showed up and did damage to the town. The Legion dispatched your father along with reinforcements for their garrison."

The thought of my father made me sigh a little, there were times when I actually wished he was with me. Sadly those were usually the times when I was in most need of someone who could murder people. "I lied at the dinner party," I admitted to him. "I wasn't able to get away from the Plague in time."

For the first time since I had walked over to Rudicus he turned and looked at me, one eyebrow raised upward. "Yet you still stand here."

"Taryn was with me, we fought over two-hundred Plague according to him," I said, before I shook my head a little. "Honestly I can't remember how many I killed, it was one long stream of butchering and being bitten and clawed and fighting for my life. In the end I was infected, and Taryn managed to remove the infection."

Rudicus' right hand came to grip my shoulder tightly, while he leaned in a little. "How! Nobody has ever cured the Plague, how could some unknown man do that!" he almost screamed in my face, the eagerness of wanting to know overriding his anger and fear.

"I'm not allowed to say, but it's not happening again," I told him. "That's why I was able to tear the infection off of my arm, the Plague can't stick to me. Curing me caused a few side effects though, which I'm sure you've noticed."

"The abnormal strength for a young girl, the red eyes, the talking over long distances," Rudicus said, before he nodded his head and released my shoulder. "I won't force you to answer anything more. If you hadn't been here we would all be dead by now."

"General!" Jesson cried out from nearby, and as we turned we saw why he wanted Rudicus' attention.

Jesson stood on a mighty vessel that looked capable of carrying all of us, and perhaps one or two more people. It was designed for the rough rapids that the river would sometimes turn into, though it had been created to be rowed and as such required at least two people to move it upriver. Our plan was to head downriver, though, so we could simply let the river push us along.

"Alright! Good find Jesson!" Rudicus yelled, before he sheathed his sword and motioned toward Nala. "Braddicus and Nala, lets go! We're loading up and getting out of here. Leave your horse, we don't have room nor time to care for them anymore."

A shriek sounded from nearby and all of us turned to look at the source, at the wooden figure who stood not twenty feet from the docks. It was the size of a man with a thick body, thick arms and thick legs. The legs ended in stumps which had roots that thrived and flopped around, as though a tree had chosen to walk around using the roots to move it.

My grip tightened on the hilt of my longsword, and then I pulled it slowly from the wood of the dock. "Get to the boat, I'll meet you on it!" I hissed out to the others, before I lifted the tip of the blade up and pointed it toward the dryad. "Leave this to me!"

"You heard her! MOVE!" Rudicus bellowed as he roughly picked up Braddicus and dashed for the end of the dock. Nala was right on his heel, and while I stood between them and the dryad they all loudly clambered onto the boat. "Rope is free! We're moving, Liliana!"

When I began to turn toward the boat the dryad moved, and it was not in a way I had anticipated. The dryads are slow Jesson had said, and it made a little bit of sense given how wooden they seemed. Yet they were flesh and blood, the wood was merely a camouflage and armor.

Before I could recognize what had happened the dryad was already right next to me, one long wooden arm stretched out to grip ahold of me. From the end of it came worm-like tendrils, each one pointed and dripping with a liquid I couldn't recognize.

The sword came up and sliced off some of the tendrils, while the creature shrieked loud enough to make me wince. I staggered backward away from it, before tripping and falling to the wood planks rear first. The dryad had recoiled away from my blade, green liquid dripped from the cut stumps and began to drizzle onto the dock.

Once more it did that move where I could barely follow it, it reminded me of how Alise would seem to teleport about whenever she felt the urge to move rapidly. This time I was ready for it and rolled backward, while a hefty leg smashed down onto the planks of the dock and splintered them. The creature shrieked at me, and then stepped forward while outstretching more tendrils from the left arm.

When I rose up from the ground my sword was lifted up, and with a strong swing I tried to cleave the left arm of the dryad in half. The face I gave after that was one of shock, as it was the first time in a long while I had managed to barely dig into the exterior of my target. The blade had lodged into the arm, it drew more of that green liquid but for the most part looked to have caused no damage.

The dryad swung the left arm, knocking me away and dislodging the sword. Without warning the ground beneath me gave way, as I stepped off of the dock entirely and tumbled into the cold water of the river. When I rose up out of the water I spluttered, hand gripped tight around the hilt of my sword.

From the dock the dryad watched, as it continued to ooze slightly from the small wounds I had given it. The hollow eyes studied what happened as Rudicus and the others fished me out of the river, and then when all of us turned away for a second it vanished. Somewhere in the middle of Rivers Edge the sound of more than one dryad screamed out, as though warning us that the chase had not been given up.

While I gagged out some water and laid out on the deck of the boat Rudicus stood over me, and he grinned down as though he found something hilarious about this situation. "You're ruining your imitation of Sciroco," I told him, before I snapped my fingers and changed the Shatterblade back into my favored metal rings.

"At least I don't look like a drowned rat. Now stop resting and get up, we need to man the oars and move this bucket along faster."