Livia, Emilie, Pippy, Krey, the Blackhoods, Taku, Lindli, Orlando, Halhul, and a handful of both other rangers and goblin hoplites arrived together on one side of a glade that was used for meetings such as this one. Most of them remained concealed in the overgrowth on the outer edge… and, on the other side, emerged just a single figure: Emerelda.

“Alright,” Taku whispered. “You will all wait here. If things go well enough, I will not need to call upon any of you… but if I do, and only if I do, then I will signal you to come rushing in.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Livia nodded. “Hopefully Tecal will get here in time if that happens.”

Glades like this one were not common in the jungle, opening up to the sky above. However, it provided the perfect stage for the convening of this meeting… a meeting Taku finally felt prepared to have now that he had a fighting force waiting in the wings. He emerged into the clearing, and approached the chief of the jungle’s gnomi slowly, and with arms outstretched.

“Emerelda!” He called out. “I’ve come to talk!”

“As have I,” Emerelda toned, “not that I believe there is much to talk about.”

“The rangers and the elementals have always been able to strike a balance of harmony in their shared demesnes,” Taku preached. “I see no reason why we can’t do it here, now.”

“I have grown accustomed to tolerating you and yours, ranger,” Emerelda hissed, “but the child… the child… that I cannot abide. Nor these interloping children of an outside land. Surely, you must see that I am right.”

“What I see is nature running its course, and a new era beginning for our jungle… an era that would depose you of power.”

“What’re you implying? That I would jeopardise the wellbeing of Montar for my own sake?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Then I will not entertain your foolishness any longer! This has gone on long enough, and I can see there is no convincing you!”

“I had hoped it wouldn’t need to come to this,” Taku murmured.

“As had I,” Emerelda replied. “I’d hoped those new arrivals would perhaps talk some sense into you, but I see you’ve just gone and convinced them of the madness you should’ve by now forgotten.”

“Is it madness to seek peace?”

“It is madness to believe a child of mortal parentage could ever safeguard the future of our demesne! If you truly seek peace, Taku, then bring me the abomination so that we can be rid of it.”

“You accuse me of madness, and yet still talk of murdering an infant.” Taku sighed. “Then it is hopeless; there is only one course left to us.”

“So it would seem,” Emerelda resigned.

Taku returned to his side of the clearing, and simply shook his head. Lindli nodded, and with a grimace, raised two fingers over her head as a signal. As human and goblin both emerged to totally surround the clearing, ready to loose arrows and cast spells at the gnomi, four other gnomi sprang from the earth and took up an orbital formation around their chief, readying their own magics. Lindli took her whip from her belt and cracked it once, a sparking ripple of green aura crackling up its length. Taku leapt up into the trees with bow in hand. Livia, Pippy, and Krey drew their weapons, and Emilie clutched her rosary. Battle began.

Not that things had a chance to truly unfold this way. With impeccable timing, as if knowing the exact moment the battle would begin, Gavisht arrived… on Emerelda’s side of the clearing. Not only that, but beneath him stomped the earth-shaking force of a mighty beast, towering almost as tall as the trees and effortlessly knocking them over as it approached. It let out a mighty roar, and the fighting ceased in its presence: the tyrannodon. “I apologise for being late,” he called down to Emerelda. “I had unexpected company.” He picked up Tecal’s body and chucked her off the side, Lindli, Orlando, and Halhul all diving to catch her. They quickly took her to the edge of the clearing, and then rejoined the fight, defeating the last of Emerelda’s allies. Just in time, too, for they now had a new target that needed their collective attention.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Emerelda chimed, floating up to join him upon the beast’s back.

Taku leapt from tree to tree, and his eyes met with Gavisht’s. “What have you done?!” He loosed an arrow at the shaman, two additional arrows of focused mana loosing at the same time, raining down on the shaman and the raging monster he’d brought.

“I have served the jungle, Taku,” Gavisht replied calmly. “As should you. End this, and I will quell the beast.”

Taku didn’t hesitate. He jumped from his tree and descended upon the shaman, tackling him from the tyrannodon’s back and hurling both of them to the ground. Gavisht was not close to being the fighter that Taku was, and so the ranger had no trouble drawing his mikata and plunging it into the treacherous bastard’s heart, making short work of him. His pet, however, was another matter, and before its bladed trunk could cleave him in two, he bound away and back up into the trees.

Lindli began picking up momentum, spinning and dancing with her whip, sending ripples of warbling green across the tyrannodon’s near-impenetrable hide. Though each strike seemed to addle it for a moment, it was quick to recover each time, shrugging off arrows and spells from all around.

“Come on, friends!” Pippy cried, mace held high. “It’s time to show ‘em our new dance!” She flew into action with the Blackhoods at her sides, and they joined the symphony of power being directed at the terrible beast, and while this combined effort seemed to hurt it a bit, it was still not enough.

Livia had drawn Veridis, had struck down some of Emerelda’s lesser elemental servants… but had not yet joined the fight against the tyrannodon. “This aura…” she had felt it only once before. This thing, this monster… it gives off the same feelings as it did… the myrewyrm. Memories came flooding back, old emotions she’d buried before arriving in this world, old deeds she’d tried to forget and run away from. It was like all of that had caught back up with her, had come to kill her. She almost felt like throwing Veridis away and surrendering herself to her fate. Everywhere I go, I’m always dragging people into trouble…

She looked over as a motion in the trees caught her eye. It was Taku, darting toward the tyrannodon with his blade drawn… but he was swatted out of the air, and before he could get back to his feet, was impaled by the bladed trunk. The first ranger of Montar Jungle, dead, just like that.

“Livia!” Emilie cried. “I implore you! You must tap into your true power!”

Livia snapped out of her trance-like thoughts, looking over to where the voice had come from. Emilie, despite not knowing how to properly wield it, had drawn Trick of The Light and was hacking away at the tyrannodon’s leg, clumsily but full of energy. She braced herself with a green magic shield each time the beast would strike her, and each deflection she executed took more effort than the last. Krey was at her side, as ever, but his magicless defensive efforts just got him knocked to the ground, and each time he got back up, it was slower and with less vigour.

I can’t… Livia felt a growing pit in her stomach. “I can’t… I can’t do it.”

“I can’t hear you!” Emilie shouted back. “Get over here and help us! We need you!”

Livia was frozen. She felt her own thoughts turn against her, hearing her own voice in her mind as if it were someone else’s. Can’t… or won’t?

She did not have time to answer the question. Before she could act, a gale force wind nearly blew her over as a blur whizzed passed her from behind and charged at the tyrannodon; it was Tecal, Quetzalcoatl-Egi drawn and ready to swing. Her bellowing dragon’s roar drowned out all the sounds of battle, and everyone stopped and looked.

The aevischild screamed: “BEAR WITNESS!” leaping into the air on a current of magical flight, and launching herself at the head of the monster like a living missile. Without its shaman master to guide it, the tyrannodon was too distracted by the incessant bites of those at its feet to react to the one person now flying at it at near-imperceivable speeds. With a mighty slash, charged with all the mana she could muster, Tecal cleaved the beast clean in half… the resulting explosion of its destabilising form burning away the immediate edge of the glade, expanding its circumference by almost half a meter.

When the dust settled, only Tecal was standing, and all eyes were on her. With haggard, laboured breaths, her chest heaving, she stowed her weapon and addressed the crowd. “When no other can rise to the occasion, it is the duty of the archon to lead by example! Remember what you saw here today, the mark of true power, power that marks a true leader! When the time comes, I expect this debt repaid with your undying loyalty and service to me!” she raised a fist skyward. “Never forget my name: Tecal the Cyclone, daughter of the long line of Iltzin, aevischild of Tambur!”

The rangers and goblins who survived, after a moment of silence, slowly rose in a chorus of applause and whooping cheers. Phyrn’s chosen - all but Livia - also gradually joined in, reeling from the shock of what Tecal had just done. Livia, however, stared in horror, quivering in the presence of her power. Such terrible strength… such a familiar taste. She hated it, bitter and ferrous.

The celebration was cut short when Emerelda reappeared, surviving her monster’s destruction, and casting an arc of magic at Tecal. The draken deflected it, but was knocked off-balance. The elemental said nothing… but stood there among her enemies, awaiting some kind of action to be taken against her. Before anything like that could happen, though, a distant scream signalled the imminent arrival of another onto the scene.

“TAKU! GLEM! ANYONE! PLEASE, HELP!”

Glem’s ears perked up. “That voice! Sajni!”

The pink gnomi came sprinting into the glade, cradling her baby. “He’s sick… he’s dying! I cannot figure out why! I cannot stop it!”

Lindli, Glem, Emilie, and Livia ran to her aid. “What?!” The ranger gasped. Then her face twisted into a grimace. “Gavisht… he must’ve done this!” She turned on the spot. “Well, Emerelda? Did you order your little shaman puppet to poison the child?”

“I did,” Emerelda declared proudly. “And I ensured no measure of yours would be able to save the foul thing’s life. You may have bested my most powerful servant, but you will not resist my will. This is for the best… and, someday, I’m sure you’ll understand.”

The infant’s breaths were shallow and rapid, its eyes half-lidded…

An ethereal chime… a blossoming yellow-green glow in the earth… flowering into a chrysalis… which then burst to reveal a humanoid form. All gazed upon her, and knelt in reverence to Phyrn Yijiz, goddess of Berodyl. Without a word, she glided effortlessly over to Sajni, placed a fingertip on the child’s forehead… and after a few moments, it fell asleep, smiling and breathing with renewed strength. “There,” Phyrn smiled. “All better.” Then her smile faded as she turned to face Emerelda. “You…”

“My goddess!” Emerelda quavered, also kneeling before her.

“What have you done, Emerelda?”

“I have served the jungle, goddess… I have stopped a terrible thing.”

“What you’ve done is start a small war in a once-peaceful demesne!”

“It was necessary! You sent me your warriors to fight for me, did you not?!” she motioned to Phyrn’s chosen.

Phyrn looked around, taking in the scene around her… and then looked back to Emerelda. “You invoke my name to compel my chosen to inflict pain and suffering?! You have lost perspective in the haze of your misguided self-righteousness, Emerelda.”

“Please, goddess! I acted in what I believed to be the best interests of your land—”

“Since when have the best interests of my land relied on the murder of innocents?! Your lies will no longer be tolerated, nor shall your talk of mortalkind’s insolence when you yourself are guilty of that sin!” Phyrn took a breath. “Had this incident resulted in no deadly harm being done, I might’ve heeded your plea for mercy… but no. You have gotten good people killed today, Emerelda. You will join them in the clearing beyond.”

Emerelda’s last words were incoherent babble, fruitless in the face of Phyrn’s wrath. The goddess reeled both hands back behind her head and struck the elemental down with a blinding burst of yellow-green magic, leaving no trace behind. Never before had Phyrn of the Decakon had to smite one of her own faithful servants, and her heart ached with the hope that it would never need to happen again.

The disparity was resolved; the battle was over. Montar Jungle fell asleep once again, and its protectors returned to their nests. All that had happened would need time to settle… but first, sleep.

The sun set on the world, and sleep came eventually… but all lay in anticipation of the new dawn.