I wrench at the blade, only managing to pull the body slightly back towards the surface, and to make things even better, I’m forced to let Fortify deactivate so I don’t pass out. I disregard my sword for the moment and start freeing Lauren, which is much easier now that the ‘Treant’ is dead. The roots have all stiffened and died, making them much easier to break. They also don’t stick to the skin as well.

“Lauren? Are you alright? St- hey! Stop that! I’m try- gah!”

Lauren tries to move as more of her emerges from the roots, but the movements are sloppy and haphazard, requiring me to dodge several times as she inadvertently (I think) swipes at me.

I give up, she can free herself.

-”Flllk yow.”

“What.”

“O Fllls grslf.”

She’s clearly trying to talk, but it’s like her mouth isn’t working. I choose to interpret it as ‘thank you’ and ‘I feel great’.

“Are you poisoned?” I glance over at Lynn, who is still unmoving. More important.

“Hold on, I need to check on her.” Crap, I don’t have the Energy for this.

She’s breathing, and her heart still beats… but even pressing the smallest amount of Energy against her elicits a ridiculous response from her natural defences, forcing me to back off. I frown at her rapidly darting eye. “I guess if you like being poisoned, I’ll leave you to it.” Maybe she doesn’t realize she’s blocking me… it’s not like I’ve explained it to everyone. Oh well.

~”Unnnnnh.”

“Unnh yourself.”

I try once again to wiggle my sword out, but it’s stuck fast in the stump. I cringe, activate Fortify just for a moment, and rip the whole stump out of the ground before deactivating it again. It’s heavy as shit, but I guess this is what I’m carrying back, like it or not. I place it down, and sit, content to wait until my Energy comes back or a threat shows itself.

The second one will end poorly, as I only have my stick, but…

Sitting in a dark forest, sword impaled in a dead parasitic tree, surrounded by two paralyzed women… that just about sums up my life.

---

Lauren recovers first, primarily because she isn’t maintaining a fucking wall to block my Energy from healing her, and she wordlessly tries to light the tree on fire. Emphasis on ‘tries’. She becomes so frustrated when the bottle of her fire poison does nothing more than lightly soak the tree, that she spikes the glass container against it, shattering it and making me wince at the waste. She even proceeds to stab it a few times, which probably should have activated the poison’s fire effects... It makes me wonder what the poison actually triggers on.

Lauren goes to sit down, and I nudge her and indicate the sunlight in the distance. Her eyes don’t seem focussed, but she moves to comply. I haul my sword/stump combination onto my shoulder and grab one of Lynn’s arms while Lauren silently bears most of the weight. It’s an effort, but we manage to get back into the brightly lit fields, and I swear I’ve never been so happy to see the sun.

I used to go hiking a bit, back before we all appeared in a game, and I loved walking around in forests. This forest? The sounds are all wrong. Different. The trees are gnarled and curvy, like they’d been around forever, and I definitely saw a few more of those ‘totally a dead tree’ trees on the way out. It should have seemed odd that there were random, rotted looking trees lying around, but to think they were hostile monsters? I shake my head in agitation as I leave Lauren to tending Lynn and keep trying to get the damn log off my sword. If we’re attacked, and I can’t defend myself because of a fucking log monster, I’m going to find my way to hell and kill that tree bastard again.

“Should we just carry her back? I’m not sure how safe it is to wait out here, and she’s not letting me heal her.”

Lauren scowls at me. -”Do you want to carry all that wood back yourself? We need her or this trip was almost pointless.” Her voice sounds terrible and guttural, which… isn’t surprising. The screams…

“Are… you ok?”

She just shakes her head.

“I’m sorry… I… I should have been quicker. It was my f-”

-”Shut up. Just shut up. Your fault? You just have to be the hero, don’t you? You have to be there and lead everyone to safety, because you’re the best, is that it?!”

“What? No, I-”

-”You’re so arrogant that you claim responsibility for my mistake! Who the hell do you think you are?”

I open my mouth to say something, anything to calm her down, but she raises a hand to stop me.

-”Just… stop. I know. It’s shock. Makes people lash out, and I’m fucked up and irrational right now, and whatever. I don’t care.” Her face contorts in rage.

-“It… tripped me, I just thought I’d fallen, but I should know better by now. I don’t trip, I’m too stable, but I tripped. When I fell, I was wrapped up in those… horrible roots, and first there was pain, but then there was nothing! I couldn’t feel anything, but I knew, I saw my Health draining, felt my life leaving me, and I struggled and fought but NOTHING WORKED.”

I don’t say anything in response. I can’t. I’m part of the problem.

...Maybe I could…? I carefully walk towards her and hold out my hand, eyebrow quirked with an unspoken question. Lauren turns away. -”Just give me some fucking Energy that takes the feeling away, right? You have a solution to everything, don’t you?” The words are laced with caustic anger. She realizes how she sounds too late.

-“Ah… fuck. I’m sorry, Anthony, I didn’t mean… I don’t… I need to feel this, is all. I need to feel this pain and remember it so next time I don’t need to be saved. I’m not a fucking princess, I don’t need to be saved! …But I do, and I hate that. It’s not your fault, you were just… there. Just the person who happened to be in the right place to help… but you’re always that person. If I fail, will you ever not catch me? Or anyone else? Do my risks mean anything? With Nate, I never cared to ask these questions, but n-... I mean… I’m asking them now, okay? And I feel like I should be able to answer more of them with ‘yes’.”

I fail to control my reaction when Lauren starts to imply what happened to Nate, like she fucking forgot we weren’t alone. God damnit. Lynn… I really hope you weren’t paying attention…

But she’s on the ground, numb and seemingly partially paralyzed… what else would she be doing besides listening? Maybe she won’t piece it together?

Fuck. I really don’t need more problems in the works. I really hope she ignores it.

“You’re coming back from a really bad place. It’s okay to need someone to pick you up for a while afterwards.”

-”Damnit but does it have to be you?”

“…Oh.” My eyes sting for a moment. I’d thought we were closer than that, but I guess even a few days filled with life or death situations doesn’t make real friendships.

Lauren looks at me, suddenly furious, looks at her hands for a moment, throws them down and walks away.

A piece of me wants to check on her. I don’t.

Lynn doesn’t seem to be improving quickly, and I’m now entirely done with being here.

“Lynn, please relax, I’m going to help you if you let me. We need to get out of here.”

I know no response will be forthcoming, so I touch her hand and push again. Wisps of dark Energy flow in, but I’m fully recovered in terms of my own pool, so they present no obstacle. Her body, much like Lauren’s, is covered in a light yellow glow, but unlike Lauren, the yellow glow seems to have suffused her muscles as well, almost like it’s following neurons…

That explains the paralysis. I bathe the areas in green until the glow winks away, and rapidly remove most of my Energy, leaving a small contingent of green behind to mop up any small issues.

Lynn shudders slightly, and carefully starts to move.

~”Th...anks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

~”Did…? nevermind.”