[Yes, her. My name is Silverleaf, it is a pleasure to meet you. Please do not hurt me.]

“Wait like the tree?”

Bedora asked as the rest of the group sat back down and Silveleaf returned back to where she had originally been rooted.

[I chose to look like my namesake when it came time for my first budding.]

“Not many Kinrinde around here, I thought most of you stuck to the Amethyst Expanse.”

The Amethyst Expanse was a vast forest that was on the other side of the Videl Empire and Ogre Tribes. It was one of the few places left on the continent no one dared claim. It was also extremely dangerous, a land filled with outcasts that had rejected civilization elsewhere.

[Oh I left home years ago to travel the world. Eventually chose these hills as my home.]

“Why if I may ask.”

[Rude, but it was because of him.]

Poison dripped off the word him as the 50ft (15m) tall tree person settled back into her spot, gaze on the mountains to the east.

“Him?”

[Wither Willow. One of the foulest beings I’ve ever met, and to think he is from my own Grove.]

“Grove?”

[Curious little...human? Curious little thing aren’t you. Groves are where my kind are first seeded, and where we return for our first Budding, where we choose the form we’ll bear for the rest of our lives. Groves are pretty large, with a hundred or so seedlings in each one at any time.]

“Well, what did Wither Willow do exactly?”

Silverleaf sighed as she settled into her spot, roots magically spreading into the soil as she shrunk back into it. Only about two feet of her disappeared, leaving her a still truly massive being. Her thought-voice held strong feelings of sorrow and anger, hitting the entire team like a hammer.

[To start? He burned my Grove.]

Nissa looked completely aghast as the information filled their minds.

“But Kinrinde are pacifists!”

[Not entirely and...only most of us. We are the caretakers of the woods. Alongside Nymphs, Dryads, and Wild Goblins, we protect the wild places of the world from those that would destroy them without care. If you want to log in the Amethyst Expanse, you must stick to the younger trees, or get our permission first. Some of the trees in that forest are tens of thousands of years old. They say the Amethyst Expanse grew from around our Groves, and I’d say it’s true. The heart of my Grove was a beautiful Great Mother named Crystal Ebony, before she burned, she was fifty thousand years old. One of her eldest children, Purpleheart, has become the new Great Mother of that grove..]

Kahari threw another log onto the campfire, which made Silverleaf wince slightly. Her branches swayed as she raised her hands somewhat defensively.

“Sorry.”

[No need, we fear fire much the way the Naga fear the cold. It’s instinctive, just keep it under control and we’re fine. Where was I? Oh yes. Only most of us are pacifists, and that’s mostly if you aren’t threatening our charges. One in every thousand of us is called a Thorn, and they are the killers and guardians we sometimes need. The rest of us are appalled by bloodshed without cause. Hunting is part of the natural cycle, but murder over some bauble disgusts us. Every grove is guarded by ancient Thorns, at least a dozen strong if not more.]

Bedora moved the log she was sitting on so she could have a better view of Silverleaf as she talked. She still seemed somewhat nervous, but who wouldn’t when dealing with someone of such a vast size.

[Wither Willow is a young Thorn, only a few centuries old. He was once known as White Willow, after the river he had chosen to root by. He visited the grove often, both looking for a partner to make a seedling with, and to watch over the seedlings already there. His chances were low, most of us won’t partner even once before we’re at least six hundred. Over time his visits became less frequent, and the brilliant green of his leaves faded.]

Nissa frowned at this. She didn’t know a ton about Kinrinde, but fading leaves when they should be green was a sign of illness in normal trees.

“Was he sick?”

She asked as she looked up at Silverleaf.

[Sick of mind. Reports of strange undead, covered in vines and fungus, came to the grove. The ever watchful Thorns uprooted to stand guard, but the Creeping Carrion and Fungal Shamblers never came close to the grove. Instead they were killing everything around it. The birds, the squirrels, the little deer that would pass through. They all started to disappear.]

“Oh no…”

Nissa spoke quietly as the Kinrinde paused, seeming to know where this was going.

[At first we thought they had gotten him to, we even held a Wilting in his honor. Then one day, they swarmed us, and He was at their head. He was not the proud, healthy Kinrinde he had once been. His branches were bare, his bark blackened. Corpses, human corpses, hung from vines from his branches. They held weapons, bows and axes, while the rest of his forces began uprooting seedlings, and burning them. I was there, I heard their screams, their pain filled my head much as my emotions do yours.]

“By the Gods…”

Bedora shook her head, this story was terrible, she couldn’t imagine anyone willing to do such a thing. It’d be like killing babies in a nursery. No not like. It was literally killing babies and toddlers.

[The Thorns stood strong, but there were too many of them. Most of us fled, carrying what seedlings we could in our rush to get away. I didn’t run. I crushed the foul aberrations he had made underfoot, wrent them with claw, beat them with fist. There were to many, even the great Amber weapons of the Thorns couldn’t stem the tide. He marched through the grove, killing and burning all that stood in his way, Finally, he burnt the Great Mother, first of the grove. Her scream carried through the whole of the forest, every other grove heard it. She pulled herself free from the soil she had been rooted in for millenia. The Great Mothers of the Groves aren’t supposed to move once they root. They give us life, choose the seedlings to become Thorns, they are our start and our end. And he burned her.]

“How’d he manage that?”

[A Great Mother isn’t supposed to move, to uproot herself took a vast amount of energy. Great Mothers are massive, they are just too large to be walking and running. Something like that isn’t built to move, but move she did. She tried to crush him, but she...she was just to slow. Axes ate into her bark, fire climbed her sides. It took hours for her to die. I couldn’t bear to watch it, and with more of his abominations closing in, I fled with the last surviving seedlings I could find.]

“What’s he doing this far out?”

[For the first time in twenty thousand years, the Kinrinde marched to war. Over a thousand Thorns marched that day. It’s the largest Briar we’ve mobilized since the last Cataclysm. They never found him, he fled the forest, but his creations were crushed. He even had a Creeping Carrion Dragon that they killed. We lost a lot of lives clearing the Expanse. I volunteered to follow him, and I’ve found his creatures here. They don’t come down from the mountains, and I can’t climb very well, so...I’m just trying to keep them at bay.]

“Great, so that’s something else to worry about. I’m sorry Silverleaf we’d help, but if he killed a Great Mother…”

[Yes, I do not think you could help at this time. I appreciate the thought though.]

“You could arrange a Quest with the Association , but you’d need a reward…”

Nissa sounded someone flat, and emotionless at this statement.

[Kinrinde don’t use money, but I’m sure I can arrange something given time. Unfortunately I do not fit in your cities and...I do not care to. They are cramped, and dead.]

“There’s a village of Naiads not far from here, I’m sure they’d be willing to send someone for you.”

[There is? Oh yes I should talk to them, I should probably root there if they let me. Naiad’s keep their homes so clean and pure. It would be much more pleasant than a lonely watch on a random hill.]

“Well we were planning to head that way in a week or so, no harm in going tomorrow if you want to come with us.”

[Yes please, I would like to have some company for a change.]

With that, the party settled in for the rest of the night. They continued to talk to Silverleaf for an hour or so, the Kinrinde obviously happy to have company. As the moon rose, they settled in for the night. While their plans had changed, they needed more sleep than if they were just hunting the next day. With the moon watching over them, they slept soundly safe beneath Silverleaf’s branches. Well, most of them slept soundly. Sometime in the middle of the night, Kahari was awoken by rustiling outside his tent.

Yawning as he emerged from his tent, Kahari kept his ears open for the bells to ring. It was in fact Silverleaf, rusting as she shifted where she was rooted.

[Oh I am sorry, I did not mean to wake.]

Kahari kept his voice low, moving to sit closer to her so she could hear him better without waking the others.

“Don’t worry too much, I’ve been a light sleeper for most of my life. Even lighter of late.”

[What is wrong little one? I can feel the fear and anger within you, though you may not show it.]

“I…”

[If you do not wish to talk about it, I will not force you.]

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it's that it’s...it’s hard.”

[I understand, it took me a decade to be able to speak of the burning of my Grove.]

“My hometown, my...my Grove as it were, was attacked not long ago.”

[That is terrible. People can be so cruel.]

“I lost my home, and my father. I’m only out here because of Nissa and Bedora, I probably would have died trying to get out here of my own accord.”

[And why are you here?]

“My sisters, Ayoko and Tanaya, survived the attack. Instead of killing them like they did so many others, they were taken. I’m trying to find them.”

[And is it working?]

“I know who has them, and I know where they’ll be, but...I can’t get them yet.”

[Why not?”]

“The people that took them, the Night Talons, number in the hundreds or thousands. Many of them are stronger than this entire party. I...I can’t get them back without the help of the Association.”

[That could not have been cheap. Apologies, I don’t understand money but I know tough problems take a lot of it.]

“I didn’t have to pay anything. The Association is going to war.”

[War. It must always be war, it is so wasteful. Still, if these people are burning your own Groves, I understand why.]

“If we don’t get there in time, my sisters will be killed. Something to do with blood magic.”

Kahari struggled with his words, tears filling his vision. He fought the sobs, mostly so he wouldn’t wake the others. Silverleaf’s massive hand patted him gently. More accurately, a single finger gently rubbed his back.

[Then you must find the strength to save them. Your heart holds the resolve, but your body still needs time. How long do you have?]

“Spring. First new moon of spring is when they’ll be killed if none of us make it in time.”

[Things move so fast for you little ones. Still, to have come this far. I believe you can make it.]

“Thanks Silverleaf.”

[Do not mention it. I know what you are going through, at least some of it. When the time comes, use this to let me know. I will do what I can to help you save those taken from your Grove.]

Sitting in Kahari’s hands was a branch from Silverleaf. Just touching it he could feel the steady pulse of magic, as if a heart was beating. Somehow he knew that when he was touching this, Silverleaf could hear him from anywhere. He carefully wrapped it in his cloak, the connection severing once it no longer touched his skin.

“Thank you.”

[If the Association is to help me, I will help them. I will not stand by and let Grove burners go unpunished. Wither Willow is content in his machinations on the mountain, I can spare some time to help stop these Night Talons. Now go get some rest little one, we have a long walk before use come sunrise.]

“Goodnight Silverleaf.”

Kahari returned to his tent, putting the branch safely into his Bag before the darkness of sleep overtook him once more. Only Nissa was awake to see a beam of redlight filter down from the moon and rest upon Silverleaf. For the first time since they’d met her, Silverleaf whispered aloud, voice sounding like wind through rustling leaves.

“Night Talons...so Wither Willow is involved in this after all.”

A voice responded, sounding almost musical.

“Then Fota may hold the answers to where he has hidden Rettia.”

“Hopefully we can find her before it is too late, my Goddess.”

“It is by no accident they chose that night of all nights. My vision is clouded at that time. When the boy summons you, I shall send you some Thorns and some of my Court to aide you.”

“I shall not fail you again, Detia.”

“You did not fail, not yet. My Sister is in danger, but killing a God is no easy feat. We have time yet, miss her as I do.”

“Thank you my Lady.”

“Do not fret. Get some rest, we both have much to do and little time to do it.”

The beam of light faded, and Nissa quietly returned to her tent, unnoticed by the Kinrinde. Silver leaf closed her eyes, she would rest till the first rays of dawn awoke her.