Blaze walks around his office, sighing as he looks at the statue in front of him. He shakes his head as he looks at the two large curved horns protruding from the top of the statue’s head. He then walks around, looking at the thin barbed tail. “You stupid girl, why did you not tell me you progressed this far?” Blaze asks to the unmoving statue. “You almost look like your mother this far transformed. What… am I going to do.” Blaze wipes away a few tears that flow from his eyes as he remembers a painful memory. He continues to pace back and forth in his office till he throws up his hands in surrender. “This can only end one of two ways, either she is corrupted or she can control herself, waiting doesn’t change the end result.”

Blaze reluctantly raises his hand, pausing momentarily to sigh before reaching and touching the statue’s shoulder. When he touches it grey and brown particles start to fall off the statue slowly. The particles start to gather at the foot of the statue, at first forming a long rod, as more fall off it starts to form into a large hammer. When the hammer finishes forming, Amy suddenly collapses onto the floor, her horns and tail remain.

Blaze picks up the newly reformed hammer and grabs his flaming hammer in preparation for what may come shortly. He stands there, tears randomly falling down his cheek as he waits. His tears start to dry up as Amy rolls over on the hard stone floor, gripping her head as she lets out a groan.

“My fucking head.” Amy mutters as she holds her eyes closed, continuing to lay there. She eventually opens her eyes and looks up at the ceiling. “This isn’t my room.” Amy looks around and notices Blaze standing there with his maces in a defensive pose. “Hey you old goat what did you do to me?”

Blaze narrows his eyes before sighing and putting his maces down. “How long have you been this far… progressed.”

“What do you… Shit!” Amy yelps in surprise as her tail flicks and hits the hard stone floor as she gets agitated. She then reaches up and feels the two horns. Her eyes grow wide in fear as she looks over at Blaze. “Please don’t kill me!”

“I’m not going to kill you, you stupid woman.” Blaze steps forward and thumps Amy on her head. “Well I would of if you weren’t in control.”

“But… I’m a demon…” Amy says with her mouth slightly ajar.

“I have known you were a demon since you were just a baby… But what I didn’t know is that you were like… this… Why did you hide it from me?”

“Because that is something that you totally just bring up!” Amy says sarcastically. “Yeah, just go to lunch and go hey Blaze, fun fact I grew a tail and horns last night. And wait… how did you know I have been a demon since I was a baby?”

Blaze freezes for a moment, a hint of fear in his eyes. “B… because before your parents… no... That… That’s not what is important, are you able to control yourself, because you did a horrible job at it last night.”

Amy reaches up and touches her horns, pausing for a moment she infuses mana into a spell and shadows cover her tail and horns. They start to shimmer slightly before they both disappear. “I’m… I’m sorry.” Amy says sullenly. “I just thought he would be a good person to test my strength out on, and I was standing there just getting more and more excited. After a bit I felt like I was getting drunk on the feelings, especially when I started to drain him. I… guess at that point I just lost myself.” Amy shudders remembering the moment.

Blaze narrows his eyes again as he watches Amy shudder. “Well… how are you feeling now?”

“Like a tree fell on me after a night of debauchery.”

Blaze just rolls his eyes as he picks his maces back up. “Well for a few days you aren’t allowed to leave this office. “

“But!” Amy tries to make a protest.

“No buts! I need to make sure that you are in full control of yourself! That will also give me time to figure out something so you don’t lose control like that again.”

“But what if I get hungry!”

“I will bring you food.”

“Yeah… food…” Amy says coughing randomly.

Blaze rolls his eyes again. “You can wait a few days.” Blaze throws his maces over his shoulder and walks out the room. “I will be back in a few hours with some dinner.” Blaze says as the stone door closes behind him.

-Road between the cursed mountain and Flemmington-

“Halt!” Day captain Vincent yells as he watches a tree ent run out from the carts by itself. The men happily stop their near constant march to this point. Vincent pauses as he watches the ent take a defensive stance. He lifts up his visor to get a better look. “Viele is that you?” He asks hopeing that they have found the one they were looking for. He grins as the ent relaxes.

“Are… you… from… Flemmington?” Viele asks, a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Of course you silly ent! Where is your master hiding at? Is she okay?” Vincent asks as he looks around.

“Ssssshe… needssss… help…” Viele says as he turns around and runs to the carts by the tree.

“Men, we found her, get the healer out and let’s secure the area.” Vincent yells out as the men separate, quickly surrounding the area in a defensive perimeter. Vincent hops off his horse and follows to where Viele ran off to. Vincent walks into near the tree, looking around he sees a large number of cages in the camp. He sees Viele staring at the back of a cart. As he walks up to the cart he sees Astrid.

“Do you know what is wrong with her?” Vincent asks as he watches Astrid breathing shallowly.

“Ssssshe…. Asssssleep… won’t… wake up…” Viele says as he pokes Astrid with his finger to prove his point.

“She is breathing so she is still alive. Hey, healer! Get over here faster!” Vincent yells as he watches Jasmine jump down from her cart.

“I’m coming!” Jasmine yells as she starts to sprint over to Viele and Vincent. She stops and looks at the unconscious Astrid. She quickly checks Astrid’s pulse. “Her pulse is weak, and her breathing is shallow.” She turns to Viele. “Tell me everything you know.”

“SSSSShe… assssleep… won’t… wake up…” Viele then goes to poke Astrid again but gets stopped by Vincent.

“Okay, we got it.” Vincent says as he pushes Viele’s hand away.

“Any other information?” Jasmine asks as she stares at Viele.

“N… no…” Viele says hesitantly.

“Uh huh…” Jasmine says in disbelief.

“So… do you have an idea how to make her better?” Vincent asks as he glances at Jasmine.

“It is hard to tell, we should get her back to Flemmington fast. She is already on a cart so I say hook up the horses and head back.” Jasmine says as she waves a hand over Astrid, white particles falling from her hand as she does.

“To the next point, these wagons and this camp, where are the people who were in the camp.” Vincent asks as he looks at the devourer puppy wagging its’ tail as it stares at Vincent.

“They… were… errr… not here… think… they ran away…” Viele lies as he looks at Vincent inspecting the camp.

“Uh huh… Then they won’t mind if we release these animals back into the wild.” Vincent says as he pulls out his sword and slices at the cage holding the devourer puppy. The puppy quickly jumps back before looking at the now open cage confused. It slowly takes a step towards the opening, staring at the imposing human that stands at the front of it. It then bounds out of the cage and it runs to what is left of the two larger devourers. It then stops in front of them and lets out a sad howl.

“I guess those were its’ parents.” Vincent says as he shakes his head. “Men! Release the animals, any of the violent or dangerous ones just weaken the locks and let them sit here. Gather all the horses and any valuables, throw them onto the carts and let’s get back to Flemmington. Not only did we find the person we needed to find, we also got a bonus for it!”

The men cheer happily as they split up, half stay on lookout, the other half prepare the camp to leave.

Vincent chuckles as he turns, as he does he notices something in the tree, on a lower branch is a bird, eyeing everything angrily. “Hmmmmm…” Vincent ponders as he looks at the bird which usually would fly away at the first sign of anything humanoid. He then notices a semi glowing brand on one of its’ wings, it was a brand he recognized. “So, it was them huh… Hey men, look around and make sure there aren’t any people around.” He then grabs a nearby spear from the side of a crate, he lifts it up and throws the spear at the bird. The bird sees the spear hurtle towards it, forcing it to jump into the air with a loud screech. It flies a few circles around the tree a few times before flying south.

“Sir, what was that about?” A man in leather armor asks as he walks up to Vincent.

“Nothing important. Is everything ready to go?” Vincent asks as he looks at the man.

“We are ready, we found several crates of armor, a large amount of skins, various rare animal parts, and even some expensive equipment. But sir.” The man says as he rubs his hands together nervously.

“Yes?”

“No one would ever leave all this stuff on their own free will.”

“I know, something is off, we should leave sooner rather than later.” Vincent says as he walks back towards Astrid and Viele. When he reaches them he stands on top of a cart. “Men! We are leaving as soon as you finish getting the horses attached to the carts. One guard to one cart, the rest are on perimeter guard. You have one minute to get into position.” Vincent then jumps down and walks over to his horse, as he gets on the horse he hears some groaning behind him. He turns the horse around to see Viele holding his stomach. “Are you okay? Jasmine?”

“I’m… Okay…” Viele says as he straitens back up, a look of pain on his face. He then quickly gets into the cart with Jasmine and Astrid.

“Err… okay.. never mind then, Jasmine.” Vincent says to Jasmine as she looks up from tending to Astrid.

“I’m trying to work here.” Jasmine says, annoyed at the distraction.

“I’m sorry, sheesh.” Vincent says as he turns his horse back around, watching as his men finish getting in position.

“Okay men, let’s move out.” Vincent says as he kicks his horse and it jolts forward, heading back to Flemmington. As the group starts to move, there is a small howling noise coming from behind. Vincent turns his head to see the devourer pup running towards him. The outside perimeter men go to stop the pup but Vincent waves at them to stop. The pup runs past the men and runs up to Vincent, letting out little yelps. “What are you doing?” Vincent asks as he watches the pup walk behind and to the side of Vincent’s horse. The pup just barks in response, causing Vincent to sigh. “Well if you get tired we are leaving you behind.”

Jasmine sighs and sits down in the cart as they travel down the road. She looks over at Viele, crossing her arms. “So… Viele… tell me the truth, what happened here? I was told that she was supposed to see her parents.”

Viele pauses for a moment as Jasmine stares at him. “Massster…. Her parentsssss… died… We had… to escape… forest… under attack… entire time…” Viele says, telling her only parts of what happened.

Jasmine’s eyes grow wide for a moment. “I want you to tell me everything that happened, every exact detail.”

“But”

“Do you want to protect your master? I can only help her if you tell me every single detail, one detail being left out will be endangering her life.” Jasmine says, tapping her finger nails on the wooden cart.

“But…” Viele pauses, remembering everything that happened at the camp earlier. “I will tell… everything that… I can…” Viele says, defeated. “Assssss long… assssss you promissssse… to help… masssssster…”

“I promise I will help Astrid with all my power.” Jasmine says as she sits, waiting for Viele.

“Okay… I… will… tell all.” Viele says as he starts to tell Jasmine from the very beginning what happened.

Astrid slowly opens her eyes, she blinks several times but only sees darkness. “Hello?” As soon as she opens her mouth she gets transported out of the blackness and finds herself in an unfamiliar landscape. She scans the rolling green hills for anything that would tell her where she is, but all she sees is green grass. “What in Gaia’s name is happening?” She says as she continues to look around.

She takes a step forward on the green grass, when her foot touches the grass the scenery around her changes. The grass quickly withers and dies, and where the grass once stood, mass amounts of pitch black brambles erupt from the ground. The brambles quickly grow up around her, as she tries to escape from them a thorny vine quickly wraps around her neck, choking her. “Please…save…me…” Astrid tries to cry out with what little breath she has left. As she gets to the point of passing out she feels a warm hand on her cheek and the vine around her neck disappears. Astrid opens her eyes to see a familiar face. “Thank… you…” Astrid says as she catches her breath.

“Don’t worry about it, it is what I am here for. Now let’s return to our correct places.” The woman touches her forehead to Astrid’s, causing everything to go back to darkness.

“Time to wake up.”

-Flemmington-

“Are you nighttime guards idiots? Get this gate open faster!” Vincent yells to the guards as they open the gate. “We have an injured person that needs to get some medical attention!”

“We are going sir!” The two guards say as they push the gate. When the gate finally opens the guards march into Flemmington, wagons in tow.

“I… I can’t… believe everything you just told me… Do you understand what this means?” Jasmine nearly yells but catches herself as the guards walk by her wagon. She moves closer to Viele and starts to whisper. “She is a demon! She is dangerous! Astrid… I don’t know how this happened and she looks normal but this is all pointing towards her becoming a demon! These black scales on her chest, they aren’t normal, they weren’t there last time I examined her!”

“Massssster…. Issss sssstill… massssster…” Viele says, concerned by Jasmine’s words.

“No, she isn’t! I have never seen a demon that had control! They are crazed beasts! Sure, I have seen an intelligent one before but all it did was use that intelligence to hunt helpless civilians!” Jasmine yells the last sentence, drawing glances from the nearby guards. Jasmine blushes and lets out a cough as she sees the guards glance at her.

“Don’t worry mam, we don’t get paid enough to pay attention to business like this.” A nearby guard says as he continues to walk.

Viele starts to stare daggers at Jasmine. “What…. Are… you going… to do… you promisssed… to help… masssster…”

“I…” Jasmine says, not sure what to say. After a moment she finally looks talks. “I have an idea… Blaze… In his younger days, he was a renown demon hunter, if anyone would know it would be him.”

“He… would… know how… to help… massssster?” Viele asks expectantly.

“Possibly, I don’t know for sure though.” Jasmine says, staring at Astrid. “Damn it!” Jasmine says as the wagon reaches the gates of Flemmington academy. She then holds a hand to her forehead as she watches Blaze walk out of the gate, followed closely behind by Shortclaw.

“Is she all right? Where is she?” Shortclaw asks as he runs towards the wagons.

“She is just fine, she is just tired and asleep after everything so please be quiet.” Jasmine says with a smile as she hops out of the cart.

“Where is she?” Shortclaw asks excitedly.

“She is in the back of the wagon, don’t wake her though. I will be back in a moment, I need to talk to Blaze about the trip.” Jasmine tells Shortclaw as she walks past him.

Blaze raises an eyebrow as Jasmine walks up to him. “Is she okay? What happened?”

“I… to be honest do not know.” Jasmine says as she glances back towards Shortclaw, looking at him talking to Viele. “I’m not sure how to tell you this… but Astrid… She is a demon.”

“There is no way she is a demon. I would have noticed if she was a demon.” Blaze says with a chuckle.

“No… she wasn’t one before she left. But according to Viele, they were attacked, and she was stabbed by some sort of bandit type person. After that she was thrown into a pool of miasma. After a bit she was apparently thrown out of the miasma and she somehow survived that but in a coma. Then on the way back they were attacked again and she came out of her coma. She then proceeded to attack and kill a group of slavers before going back to sleep. And besides that, she…”

“She has what?” Vincent asks as he sneaks up to Jasmine and Blaze, close behind him is the devourer puppy nipping at his heels hungrily.

“Nothing important.” Jasmine blurts out.

“Uh huh. So… my men have Astrid on a stretcher, where should we be bringing her?” Vincent asks as he taps his foot until the devourer puppy pounces on it and gnaws on the small metal plates covering his leather boots.

“Take her to the white stone building near the entrance, we will join you soon. Don’t let Viele or Shortclaw in yet though, tell them they can see her shortly. Also, I don’t think you should let your pet in either.” Blaze says as he looks at the puppy.

“Well… Viele disappeared about a minute ago, so don’t have to worry about him. As for the pup and Shortclaw I will make sure they stay out the building and are good boys.” Vincent says as he turns around and walks back to the wagons.

“Now what were you saying?” Blaze asks, causing Jasmine to jump, startled as she was staring at Vincent walk towards the wagons.

“Oh… sorry… she has black scales growing from her chest.”

Blaze’s eyes grow slightly. “Wait… did you say scales? Are you sure it wasn’t some sort of hard fur?”

“I’m pretty sure I can tell the difference between fur and scales.” Jasmine says sarcastically.

“I’m sorry, you don’t need to be snippy.” Blaze says as he rubs his chin, watching the guards carrying the stretcher.

“So, what are we going to do? You are the expert on this.”

“First thing, this conversation never happened, you know nothing of any of this, okay?” Blaze says as he glances over to Jasmine.

Jasmine nods. “But what about when she wakes up?”

“We don’t know if she has been corrupted and lost her mind, what we should do is give him a chance to wake up. We need to prepare in case she has lost control, hopefully it won’t come to that though.” Blaze says as he starts walking towards the medical building, followed closely behind by Jasmine.

-Outside Flemmington-

“Are we sure it is a good idea to leave her alone with the humans?” A voice in Viele’s head says as he sprints down the road in his guardian form.

“I… think… ssssshe… will be… okay… Blaze… wouldn’t hurt… her…” Viele replies back as he sprints full speed down the road.

“Guys, am I the only one noticing this?” A feminine voice says.

“Notice what?” A high pitched overly cheerful voice says, causing several voices to groan.

“We told you not to talk about him.” Another voice says.

“Yeah Viele, the new guy, I don’t think I like him.” Another random voice says.

“Hessss… usssefull… I promissssse…” Viele says with a groan, remembering the voice appearing on their way to Flemmington.

“Yes!!!! I am useful for my friends!!!!” The voice rattles in Viele’s head cheerfully.

“Why can’t I kill it!” The female voice says yells.

“Sssstop… fighting… we… are going… to help masssster… get rid of… onessss who hurt her…” Viele roars out.

“Okay… sorry… sheesh.” Several voices say in near unison.

“I think he needs a hug.” The cheerful voice says.

“In Gaia’s name, nothing wants you to hug you! I have seen many things in my life but you are the worlds creepiest looking creature!” The feminine voice yells.

“Aww… Are you sure you don’t need a hug?” The high pitch voice asks.

“Here, how about this, you don’t talk till we get there and I will let you hug me.” A deep voice says.

“Yayyyy!” The high pitch voice says.

“Thank Gaia!” Several voices say in unison.

“Now that one problem is taken care of, what is the plan?”

“I… don’t… know… find out… when we get… there…” Viele says as he sees flicker of lights in the distance. “We…. May… be getting close… to the village…”

Viele picks up speed, kicking up dirt and stone with each powerful stride, getting closer and closer to his prey. After another hour of running he finally reaches what looks like a small village. He hides beside a nearby tree and shifts into his tree ent form, he then scans over the village as it is lit up by the moon's pale light. The village seems to be made up of around thirty or so small wooden homes, most of them seem like they will fall apart at any moment. In the center of the town is a large stone building that gives the impression of a fortress, on the top of its’ walls are several armored guards carrying torches. Other than those guards the only other signs of life that the town gives are several lights coming from the cracks in the walls of a handful of the homes. He then scans around the edges of the village. Other than where the road enters and exits the village, it seems to be surrounded by nothing but trees. “They… musssst be here…” Viele says as he starts walking into the town.

“We shouldn’t try to sneak around, we should walk around like we belong there. If someone stops us we can say we are going to our master. That way if someone starts asking us questions we are less suspicious” A deep voice says in Viele’s head.

“For a giant creature of mass murder, you are pretty intelligent.” A female voice says.

“I will take that as a compliment.” The deep voice says.

“SSSounds… good… they… are probably… at the inn…” Viele says as he walks past several buildings.

Several humans glance at Viele as he walks through the town, they quickly get out of his way and whisper to each other as they watch him. He catches parts of their conversations.

“Isn’t this the third strange personish thing to show up?”

“Yeah, that army of beastkin, then that one group that had that one-armed guy babbling about elves, and now a tree ent.”

“The one-armed guy should be our target.” A female voice says in Viele’s head.

Viele nods as his nose starts to get assaulted by a vast amount of smells, ranging from weak alcohol to the smell of overcooked meat. “The inn… musssst be nearby…” Viele quickly circles around the fort while trying not to draw attention from the fort guards. He then notices a stone and wood building near the edge of the village that was too large to be a home. The building was three stories tall with a stone chimney on the side, smoke was billowing out the chimney as Viele was assaulted by the smell of now burning meat. “They… musssst… be here…” Viele mutters as he walks up to the front of the inn, looking up at the sign made out of decaying wood that hung over the door. “The… booze housssssse.” Viele says as he reads the sign.

“With a village of this size, they should be here.” A deep voice says, a hint of happiness can be heard coming from the words.

“Yesss… they… ssssshould…” Viele says as reaches for the door of the inn, slowly opening the door and walking in. When he goes through the door the room he enters is a large room filled with light brown tables, at the tables is mostly beastkins in full armor, with random humans huddled at different tables. On the opposite side of the room is a large wooden bar with a tall and bulky human male pouring drinks into clay mugs. The entire room of people glances at Viele as he takes a few steps in, several beastkin slowly reaching for their weapons. Viele pauses for a moment as he scans the room looking for a human that looked familiar.

“This place is dangerous.” The various voices in Viele’s head keeps warning.

“Ssssshussssh.” Viele mutters as he realizes none of the humans look familiar. “Bartender… would know where… they are…” He says before he walks up to the bar. When he reaches the bar the bartender just looks at him in disgust.

“I… am looking… for my massssster…” Viele says to the bartender.

“Well I’m not your master, and I don’t serve anyone or anything unless they have coin. So, unless you have coin you can get out.” The bartender says as he taps the wooden bar top.

“My… massssster… isssss… with… the… rexdevilsssss… I was told… ssssupossssed to meet masssster…. Here…” Viele says as he leans towards the bartender.

“I don’t know no rexdevils, so unless you got coin you can leave.” The bartender says as he leans towards Viele, towering over him threateningly.

Viele stares at the human and lets out a sigh, looking around at the armed beastkin in the room and several humans all looking at him. “I… guesssss… you are right… human…” Viele says, he then turns and starts walking towards the door.

“Hey you, walking tree creature.” A deep and powerful voice says from behind him as he reaches the door. Viele turns towards the voice to see a large black beastkin standing there with a large grin on his face.

“You said your master is with the rexdevils?” The beastkin asks.

“Yessss…” Viele lies, a glint of hope on his face at the turn of events.

“Well, this is a first, a tree ent just lied right to my face.” The beastkin laughs out.

“I…” Viele tries to talk but gets caught off guard by a set of claws extending from the beastkin’s gauntlets and are now an inch away from his face.

“Now, Mr. tree ent, the next lie that comes out of your mouth will end up with you being turned to shreds. Do we understand?” The beastkin asks, his grin gets bigger showing his sharp fangs.

“Yesss… I underssssstand.” Viele says as the voices in his head all scream out that this beastkin is very dangerous.

“Good!” The beastkin says as he retracts the claws and takes a sip from his mug. “Now… why are you searching for these rexdevils, if you tell me the truth I may even give you some good information.”

Viele pauses for a moment as he thinks, several voices arguing on what to do. Viele finally decides. “They hurt… my massssster…”

“Oh really now?” The beastkin says as he raises an eyebrow. “Going to get revenge for you master eh?”

Viele nods slowly.

“Then I will help you!” The bearskin says, he raises his hand up and stops several beastkin at the table from speaking as they open their mouths as if to protest. “Ignore them, but the people you are looking for are in the big third floor bedroom. Good luck though, since you are greatly outnumbered.” The beastkin reaches over and grabs his mug and takes a sip from it.

“Thank… you…” Viele says as he turns around and walks out the front door.

When Viele leaves the building a large orange beastkin finally speaks up. “Wraithclaw, why did you help that tree ent?”

Wraithclaw starts to chuckle. “It smelt like my son, and also had the scent of a female on it. More than likely it’s his future wife’s familiar.”

The other beastkin start to whisper to each other after they hear the news.

“More than likely it will die which, if she is already heavily injured the shock of losing her familiar may end her. But if it somehow manages to survive and kill off their entire group I may have to look at this a little differently.” Wraithclaw says before he takes another drink.

Viele walks around the building inspecting it.

“What is the plan?”

“We… will usssssse… our new friend…” Viele says to the voices.

“Yay!!! I am a friend!” The high pitched over cheerful voice says.

“Noooooo… it was so quiet!” A female voice says.

“All… of you… quiet…” Viele says as he shifts into his spore carrier form, the tips of his spiderlike legs touch the hard wood of the wall and several hair like roots spread out onto the wood, giving him the ability to grip the wall. Once he gets used to the new movements he starts to scuttle up the wall. He quickly reaches the top of the roof, he then scuttles around seeing if there is some sort of opening he can use. “We… need to make… our own…” Viele opens up his mouth and starts to heave, after a few heaves he throws up a green acid. After a few moments, the acid starts to eat away at the wood roof. Viele vomits up acid several more times till a hole big enough for him to get through appears.

“Are you ready?” A voice asks as Viele stares at the hole.

“Assss… ready… assss can be…” Viele says right before he slips into the hole. He looks down to see wooden beams below him, and below that is a large amount of beds, all filled with people. The entire room is lit up slightly by a candle on a table in the corner. Beside the table is a human that seemed to have fallen asleep in a chair. Viele’s anger flares up when he sees the man, it was the bald man named Tiny that was friends with Shawn, the man who injured his master.

Viele holds back his anger and shuffles along the ceiling. When he reaches the center of the room full of sleeping humans he starts to release a large amount of light blue spores from the mushroom like appendage on his back, quickly covering the entire room. When Viele thinks he has coated the room enough with the spores he stops and eyes the humans for a few moments, making sure the humans breathe in plenty of the spores. “Thossssse… ssssporessss… ssshould make sssssure… they ssssleep.” He then starts releasing a multitude of bright green spores. “They… sssshall… die… painlessly… better… than they… deserved…” Viele says as he liberally releases the green poisonous spores upon the sleeping humans.

Downstairs Sken downs another mug of ale, trying to drowned out the memory of what happened to him and his men at the hands of two elves.

“Sir…” Jason says as he watches Sken drinking.

“Shut up Jason, and you too Shawq.” Sken says angrily.

“I didn’t say anything.” A man in a brown shirt and pants says as he sits there.

“Sir, I think there is something strange about that ent that came in earlier wants, he apparently pissed off the bartender, but he became sort of friendly with the strange black beastkin.” Jason says as he looks over to the beastkin. He quickly looks away when the beastkin looks back with a toothy grin.

“Leave the fucking beastkin alone, we don’t have the man power right now to fight much of anything, and I can’t even fight properly with one arm. Those fucking elves!” Sken yells as he slams his mug on the table, causing the mug to break.

“Sir, I think we really need to go back to our room, we can get up early in the morning and make our way back to the ship.” Jason says as he watches what little alcohol was left in the now broken mug spill out on the table.

Sken tosses the broken mug and draws his sword with his remaining arm and points it at Jason. “Don’t ever tell me what we should do ever again… But.. we should go, rest would be good for me right now.” Sken says as he sheaths his sword. Sken turns to Shawq. “Shawq, get your ass up those stairs and tell the men we are coming up, I want guards assigned before I make it up there.”

Shawq quickly jumps up at Sken’s command, sprinting to the stairs, making his way up to their room.

“Hey men! Get your asses up! Captain and co-captain are heading up the stairs!” Shawq yells as he swings the door open and walks into the room. “What in Gaia’s name!” Shawq screams as he sees the room covered in blue and green spores and all the men laying about unmoving. He then looks up at the source of the spores.

“M…m…Monster!” Shawq screams as he sees Viele on the ceiling.

Viele gets startled as the man walks in, unsure of what to do, he lets the instincts of the spore carrier take over and he flings himself at Shawq’s face. When he lands on Shawq’s face he wraps his spiderlike legs around Shawq's head. As Shawq starts to make muffled screams Viele starts to vomit acid in his victim’s face.

“Yay! We finally hugged someone!” The cheerful voice says excitedly.

Shawq runs around, flinging his arms as the acid splashes onto his face.

Viele releases himself from Shawq’s face, scuttering away as he watches Shawq fall to the ground with a loud thud.

“Monster? Jason hurry your ass up! Something is attacking my men!” A nearby voice can be heard.

Viele gets ready to escape but the words cause him to stop. He quickly switches to his guardian form as he realizes he still has targets left, the boards underneath him begin to creak as he prepares to charge. He waits till he sees a human open the door, the man is in black leather armor, his face is covered in scars and he seems to be missing an arm. Viele lets out a roar upon seeing the man and charges, when he gets close to the man he jumps to the side, barely dodging the charging Viele. Viele continues his charge headfirst, slamming into the wood wall, creating a large hole in the wall as he goes through it. Viele looks down at the ground as he plummets strait to the hard ground, he quickly switches to his Ivy form and lands gracefully on the ground, he then looks up at the hole that he just made. Out of it jumps two humans, one in the garb of an earth mage, the other is the man in black armor.

“Are you the creature that killed my men?” The man in black yells angrily as he swings his sword and assumes a charging position.

“You… can sssssay… that…” Viele says as his hands form into long blades.

“What the hell is a dryad doing in town?” A nearby civilian yells.

“Get the guards from the fort!” Another civilian yells.

“So, dryad, you thought you just kill off my men like that and get away?” Sken yells.

“They… were part… of the rexdevilssss… I am here… to kill them off… for hurting… massssster…” Viele yells as he starts to spring forward.

“Wait… we only killed those fucking elves… and we killed their familiar! Wait, the daughter that the men were talking about, shit! Are you the reason Shawn never returned?” Sken yells as he charges Viele, stones start flying above Sken’s head, flying at Viele at high speed.

“You fucking monster!” Jason yells as he fires rock after rock at Viele.

“Oh…. You are angry?” Viele asks as he slices the rocks with his blades before his blades collide with Sken’s sword. His grin turns into a frown as the blades get punctured by Sken’s sword, the tip of Sken’s continues till it goes into Viele’s shoulder.

Sken grins as he thinks his sword injures Viele, but his face turns into one of confusion as he watches the arm suddenly detach and fall to the ground. He stops his charge and watches as the arm bursts into snakes and climbs back onto the dryad, reforming into a new arm. “What in Gaia’s name!”

“Sir, we need to hurry, the guards are probably coming!” Jason yells as he continues to fire more rocks at Viele, only for them to get cut down by his newly formed blades.

“Don’t make it too fast, I am enjoying the show!” Wraithclaw yells as he stands off at a distance.

Jason looks over and notices a large amount of beastkin and humans had already gathered around, quickly forming a circle around the people fighting. Jason grunts in displeasure as he looks at them. “Shit.”

“Jason, stop paying attention to them, we need to kill off this strange dryad and see if any of the men are still alive!” Sken yells.

Viele swings his blades and slices more of the stones being fired by Jason while dodging randomly created stone spikes that erupt from the ground. “Your… weapon… isssss dangerousssss… issss that what you ussssed to kill masssster’ssss… parentssss?” Viele asks as he jumps and slashes at Sken, as his blades get close to their target a large stone wall appears in front of him. Viele slams into the wall hard, before he can properly react the tip of Sken’s sword penetrates the wall and it stabs Viele’s chest, causing intense pain as one of the snakes making up his body get heavily injured. Viele lets out a roar as he jumps away from the wall, when he does the wall disintegrates into dust.

“Looks like that hurt! You are not as strong as those elves where, and my men and I turned them both to ash. I will be doing the same to you! Once I am done with you, I will go finish off your master! My men said she was from Flemmington right? Can’t be that many elves there, I may even play with her and make her my toy before I kill her. It won’t bring my arm back, but it will make me feel better when I break her till she begs me for death.” Sken says with a grin.

Viele’s eyes grow wide as he hears the words from Sken, he remains there unmoving even as several guards come rushing from the stone fort.

“Hey you trash, get out of the way!” A guard yells as he pushes his way past a few beastkin and humans.

“Hey you trash! What are you doing here fighting, and wait, why is there a dryad in town?” The guard yells as he walks towards Viele and Sken.

The guard suddenly freezes as he feels a large furry hand on his shoulder. “Who the fuck!” The guard yells as he turns around, behind him stands Wraithclaw, a giant grin on his face.

“It is in your best interest that you let us watch the show. You never know, if it suddenly gets interrupted you and the rest of your coworkers may all have an accident.” Wraithclaw says as he towers over the human.

The guard stammers as he looks around to find help from his fellow guards that came with him but only sees well-armed beastkin, all staring at him. “I… I… well… I guess for the good of the people I will er… allow this fight… errr I mean entertainment… to continue.” The guard then turns and quickly runs back towards the stone fortress.

“Now that the guard problem is gone, continue the entertainment!” Wraithclaw roars out.

Viele continues standing there unmoving, even as spikes spiral out of the ground and stab deep into his body. Finally, he speaks. “I… don’t care… thosssse wordssss… I will ssssshow him… fear... for ssssaying… thosssse wordsssss…” Viele says as he looks up at Sken.

Sken laughs as he hears the words from Viele. “You, show me fear? You won’t be alive long enough to beg for your life!” Sken yells as he charges at Viele.

Viele lets out a roar as his body rapidly expands, snakes then start erupting from his body and growing right in front of the crowd of people.

“Men, back down, we are about to see something interesting.” Wraithclaw yells as he gains some distance between him and the fight.

The humans start to run in fear as the dryad suddenly turns into a large wiggling mass of snakes. The snakes then quickly gather take on the form of a large monster. Green armor starts to wrap around the creature and two large scythes form where its’ hands once where. A hissing noise can be heard from the hood that now covers the creature’s head.

“What!!!” Sken yells as he sees the creature form in front of him. He turns and runs towards Jason. “Jason, stop gawking and fire spells at it! No way in hell are we going to be able to fight that thing!”

Jason snaps out of his confusion and starts to summon a large stone golem. “This will keep it busy and give us time to escape!” Jason yells, too afraid to attempt to fight the creature of nightmare in front of him.

The golem’s body creaks as dirt and stone get pulled from the ground and take on a large humanoid form.

“Keep that creature busy while we escape!” Jason yells at the golem as he turns around to run.

The golem raises its’ fists and swings at Viele, one of the fists slamming into Viele’s head. Viele stands there, unmoving as the golem pulls its’ fist back to punch again. “You… who hurt… massssster… and family… there will…. Be no essssscape… I will… protect masssster!!!” Viele raises his two large scythes and slashes at the golem. The golem lifts up its’ arms to defend itself but the scythes just slice through the arms, continuing through the entirety of the golem. Viele then takes a step to the side and starts to chase down his prey as the golem crumbles to dust behind him.

Jason feels a chill go down his spine as he feels the connection to his golem vanish. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” He screams as he sprints full speed towards the nearby forest, followed closely behind by Sken.

“Your golem was fucking useless!” Sken screams.

“It was a good golem! That monster was too strong, we should of never came here, we should of never went after those elves!” Jason screams as tears roll down his face, casting stone barriers behind him as fast as he can, trying to slow down Viele as much as he can.

They quickly run into the woods, the ground shaking as the stone barriers get destroyed one by one by Viele’s powerful strikes.

“Please Gaia, save us!” Sken cries out as they get deeper into the woods, jumping over fallen trees and large roots.

“Gaia won’t save you… but we may, if you give me what I want.” A voice whispers in Sken’s ear.

“Shit shit shit! I am hearing voices!” Sken yells as he starts to hear trees fall over behind him, as Viele gets closer and closer each second.

“No! I heard a voice too!” Jason yells.

“I am not a voice in your head, I am offering you your life, in return of a few things I want.” The voice says again.

“Anything! Anything at all! Just save me!” Sken yells back to the voice.

“If you try to go back on the deal you will not be alive much longer.” The voice replies back.

“I understand just hurry it’s nearly here!”

“Good!” The voice says.

Sken and Jason both hang their mouths open in disbelief as several beastkin suddenly surround them both and grab them. Several seconds later they are standing beside a nearby road. They can hear trees crashing and screeching noises but it is far off in the distance.

“Thank, thank you for saving me!” Sken says as he falls to his knees, looking around as he does he notices there is a very large group of beastkin surrounding him. He then looks forward and sees the familiar large black beastkin. “Wait, aren’t you the beastkin that was talking to that ent in the inn? And the one egging on the fight with that monster? Are you with that monster!?” Sken yells as he tries to reach for his sword with his remaining arm. Before he can touch it, several blades get placed against his back and neck.

“First thing I want from you, is that sword.” Wraithclaw says with a grin.

A beastkin slaps Sken’s hand away from the sword and grabs it, taking it out of its’ sheath and bringing it to Wraithclaw. Wraithclaw takes the sword and swings it around grinning happily.

“Is that all you want from me?” Sken asks with a scowl on his face.

“Oh no no no, for what I just did you owe me so much more.” Wraithclaw says as he moves closer to Sken. “I want you to tell me all about these elves from Flemmington, every single detail. And if you lie to me I will make sure that you wished we let you die to the beast.”

“I will tell you everything!” Sken says as he starts to tremble.

“Where… are they!” Viele growls out as he slashes at the nearby trees, toppling them with his scythes. He was following his prey but their scent ended where he now stands. “They can’t… jusssst vanissssh!”

“We need to get out of this form!” Several voices yell at Viele, trying to get him under control.

“I mussssst… not let them… go… they… hurt masssster!” Viele yells.

“But doing this won’t help! Shift back into your tree ent form before you run out of energy and pass out again!”

Viele lets out one last furious roar and shifts back into his tree ent form, his body quickly shrinking and reforming into a tree ent. When he moves, his entire body cries out in pain.

“Hey we aren’t passing out like last time!” A feminine voice exclaims happily.

“But we have no energy left, might as well go sleep.” The high pitch cheerful voice says.

“Shhhhhhhhh.” The feminine voice says.

“Awwww.”

“Everyone… quiet… need to find… the two humansssss.” Viele says angrily as he starts to stumble around the woods. “I will find… you!”

“Viele, we can’t sense them anymore. They are gone.”

Viele pauses for a moment as he takes a step and his knees buckle. “I musssst… protect massss…” Viele says as he falls to his knees, his vision slowly fading.

“Oh nope, we are still passing out.” The feminine voice says.

Viele sits on his knees as his consciousness fades out. The last thing he sees before darkness overtakes him is black fur and blue and red armor.