-”You’re a bastard.”

“It needs to be done. Just think how happy Marie will be when we give her all this wood.”

-”Phrasing, and ew.”

I can tell Lynn is both silently judging us, but also confused by our behavior. I think she remembers that she’s supposed to be afraid of Lauren, but that idea is conflicting with the actual conversation she had with her when they were both too high on endorphins to care. It’s not much of a surprise that Lauren’s transition from ‘don’t talk to me, I’ll kill you’ to just an annoying fuck sometimes is messing with people. She doesn’t seem to care that much about what people think, at least on the outside, but I still remember how hurt she sounded when she talked about everyone hating her.

Things will get better, it’ll just take time. Time that I genuinely hope we have.

The three of us all have fairly high Dexterity, so we manage a steady run from The Barrows towards the forest. Marie and Tom, who had done the journey before, told us that we’d either have to cross the river (which they advised against), swim across a massive lake (which I advise against), or run around said lake in order to reach the forest. It’s all highly inconvenient, and the trip could be shortened by almost three miles if we had a bridge, but we can’t spare Marie long enough for her to craft one until the base is fortified. It’s a good idea for later, but for now, we’re running the long way, and it’s… actually quite refreshing. It feels so nice to be able to stretch my legs and just… run. I still have to keep on the lookout for Carnine, but they aren’t common this far from their camp and, frankly, that’s a lot less important to me than the feeling of my legs pushing me along at ridiculous speeds. It’s almost enough to make me laugh, honestly. I could have trained my whole life, and maybe at my peak I would have been good enough to run this fast… but even then, I doubt it would have felt this good. Earning something is great, but getting something substantial for free is also great. My legs barely burn at all, and every once in a while I pop Fortify for a few seconds just to experience the thrill of hurtling forward even faster. The best part is that doing so doesn’t exhaust me. For a moment, I burn Energy instead of Stamina, or something like that, and Energy burns way brighter. Of course, Energy recovers more slowly, but not that much slower, so I can almost juggle them. If I can get effective enough at toggling Fortify, I might be able to fight at my peak for far longer than most people, just from the sheer resource volume of having two bars.

For now? I get a nice burst of speed every once in a while. Lauren sees it as a competition (which she’s losing) and Lynn seems annoyed, but fuck it and fuck them. I love this feeling.

The lake is fairly normal, with almost crystal clear water. The river we had the old campsite next to forks after going East for about 10 miles, with the North side emptying into this lake, and the South side disappearing into the forest. In between divergent rivers is a bit more grassy plain, and a lot of water vapor covers that area, almost like a cloud. I can still see through it fairly easily, but it’s a bit of an obstruction. It looks like a pretty good place to build a fortification, honestly, just from the natural difficulty of accessing it across the rivers, and the optical covering of the mist. That said, it comes with the encroaching lake as a threat. The level of the water has risen so quickly that green grass still waves silently in the pool, having not even been submerged long enough to die. The lake is already huge, but with almost half of a massive river feeding directly into it, this whole area may well become aquatic over time. We might have to do something about that.

Concerns for later.

We finally approach the forest. Well, I say ‘finally’, but the run probably took us around half an hour. I love the effects of a high Endurance.

The forest starts off with a some sparse, small trees, before rapidly forming a canopy so dense that almost no light penetrates to the forest floor. I shudder slightly, imagining trying to go in there and not get lost immediately. I’ve never been so glad for a map… but somehow, I doubt it would be enough. Regardless, I’m not here to stare at trees. After determining there aren’t any obvious threats, we fan out and start collecting any loose wood we can. Ideally, we would have thick tree trunks to bring back, but that’s mostly because they’d be more substantial and easier to hold onto than a bunch of twigs. I make a point to keep an eye on Lauren and Lynn, but it’s difficult to hunt for dead wood at the same time. I relax more and more as time passes, and we amass a pile of logs of varying sizes.

I brush the sweat off my face, finding satisfaction in the results of our efforts. “I think this is enough, let’s go.” I say, to no one in particular.

Because there’s nobody around. “Lauren? … Lynn?”

The tree line… empty. The fields? Nothing… where are they? I literally just saw them.

“Kaythe?”

*click, clack clack.” (Forest, did not leave.)

“Fuck.”

My feet move before my mind even tells them to.

“LAUREN? LYNN!” No reply. Why did they go so deep? The light fades quickly as I advance. Where? Where! WH- *clack*(there.) I don’t see where Kaythe means, but I intuitively understand what he meant. Two huddled masses next to a jagged, dead tree. One still moves slightly, the other does not. Neither make any noise at all as I rush toward them. All at once, it feels like I pass through a barrier, but just for sound. The ambient forest sounds fall away, replaced by screaming. The sound shocks me so much that I miss a step and stumble before getting to them. I steady myself on the dead tree, look down, and finally see what the problem is.

They’re covered in an interlocking webbing of roots, through which I can just make out a panicked eye staring back at me. Their agonized screams reverberate in this strangely isolated space, and it’s impossible to tell which voice could possibly be making which. I don’t want to know.

My hand starts to hurt, and resists my efforts to pull it from the tree. I don’t feel anything binding me… roots? When-

I finally realize it’s the fucking tree that’s attacking, and I rip my hand out of the roots that don’t even register to me as touching my body. It has some kind of numbing? But it’s clearly interacting with pain receptors as well… to feel that over your entire body? There’s no time.

I desperately claw away at the motionless form, but the roots are strong, and my numb hand isn’t responding well. I can’t chop them away without hitting them, so I fortify my body and keep tearing. What the fuck is attacking them?! No, fuck this. My attempts at freeing the motionless body, who I can now identify as Lynn, leaves large tracks of blood as my fingernails accidentally catch her clothes and skin. I try to tear her away from the ground, but the roots hold onto her skin, tearing it slightly as I wrench her away. There’s so much blood. She doesn’t even move, despite what must be horrifyingly painful injuries. At least she’s stopped screaming, but… that could mean she’s really bad off. Not good. I can’t put her down without endangering her again, but I really need both hands to carry Laure- *CLACK*(Tree!) What? Right! Kill it first, save them later.

Lauren has stopped struggling, but a small wisp of smoke emanates from the depths of the roots. I take a moment to be sure, but Kaythe is right; the tree I was leaning on isn’t dead, it’s alive. I drop Lynn to the ground and rip my sword from its sheath. With fortify still coursing through my body, I hack and slash at the tree with everything I have, taking full advantage of my magical blade to rip through the dense wood, which also starts screaming and retreating into the ground. It vibrates quickly back and forth, sinking rapidly even as I hack nearly clean through it. As it disappears below the surface, I slam my sword point first down through the top of it.

One set of screaming stops, leaving just one.

I pull back on my sword, trying to dislodge it, but the blade is stuck fast within the body of the tree monster.

[Congratulations! You have defeated a Treant! +35 Power!]

What… the fuck.