Forests are connected in an amazing harmony of life. Fungi form a large interconnected colony underground and attach themselves to the roots of trees through tiny threads called mycelium. Through this bond, trees can help their other fellow trees connected to the same network communicate with each other in complex ways all by feeding a little energy into these fungi who give them nutrients right back. It’s like, the forest has its own natural form of the internet! If a Red Jacaranda tree is being harmed in some way, either by humans or fire or even some hungry insects, it can signal this to a Delonix tree yards away. Even trees right next to each other will avoid entangling each other’s crowns and bask in the sunlight together as a canopy, depending on each other like two best friends.

Some really close trees will even fuse themselves together. There's an unspoken partnership between them. Their root systems are so closely connected that when one dies, the other usually follows because of how much they rely on each other. It’s almost romantic. The beauty and wonder of nature simply cannot be understated. Trees are always there for each other. It’s not like they can escape each other, so it makes the most sense to form a friendship, right? That’s how I knew she would come for me. I called for her and she came, like a gallant knight rescuing her princess. My dear, sweet Alma.

Heloise's eyes lit up as she watched the bullet pierce the nuckelavee's neck, sending it stumbling to the ground. In its frenzy, its serpentine arms crashed into her, flinging her to the ground. Her energy spent, the form that was protecting her was slowly dissipating. The murky darkness dissolved from her eyes and the black tinge on her hair reverted back to its silky chiffon blonde. The living vines she had been controlling to defend her were withering and crumbling away.

“No! Heli!” cried a voice from a mound behind the trees. “I’m here!”

Another loud shot cracked through the air and bore into the demon’s head, causing it to convulse uncontrollably. A sharp cry of anger rang out from both its mouths, harmonizing into a dissonant clash of sounds. Mismatching high and low voices that expressed a new form of seething acrimony.

Alma watched the dangerous monstrosity from the scope of her rifle, analyzing several dozen ways her team could handle it. She knew nuckelavee were incredibly dangerous and she wondered why on Sarracas Heloise thought she could handle one alone. Alma, having never faced one in the caliginous flesh, couldn't fully commit to any immediate strategy. As she waited for an opening, a flash of blades caused her to momentarily shift her gaze. The Hecatian had jumped into the fray as the nuckelavee wailed its demonic battle cry to the limitless pink sky.

"Hwalín?!" cried Alma, the eye focusing through her scope widening in shock. She surveyed the increasingly tension-fraught situation.

The elf struck hard against its side with her twin blades, clashing against the sinewy black meat of its body. Her swords had barely sliced into the outer surface, causing her to leap back as the demon whirled around. It brought its arms together almost immediately into a deadly embrace of clashing flesh knives. Hearing the whistle of its sharp weapons slice the air around her, Hwalín barely managed to block both swords with a crossing of her arms, blade against blade. The feeling of the sharp, pulsating edges pushing against her curved swords was enough to make her gag.

"What is this bloody thing? Its anatomy is all kinds of wrong! I can barely stand to look at it." Her muscles tensed up as she pushed the demon's swords away, its arms wobbling erratically through the air, trying to regain momentum. Before it could right itself, Hwalín dove straight toward its body, both swords held in a piercing thrust and skewered the man-like torso clean through.

The demon’s upper head tensed up before dark green venomous gas spewed out slowly from between its bared teeth, wafting toward the red elf.

“GET AWAY!” yelled Alma and Heloise in unison, the witch struggling to hold herself up from the ground with just an elbow continued, “DON’T INHALE ITS GAS!”

The warning arrived slightly too late. Hwalín had hopped away at lightning speed at the witch’s words but not before a plume of the noxious fumes had reached her nose. The elf immediately dropped her weapons as she was forced to her knees, choking and coughing violently. Her throat burned from the vicious vapor, her hand clutching deep at her throat.

Another crack pierced the air as a third bullet was fired from the trees directly into the maw of the smoking creature’s humanoid head.

As Heloise watched helplessly, she suddenly noticed a presence right beside her casting a looming shadow over her torso. Craning her neck up towards the source, she focused her gaze on a strange pale woman blocking out the sunlight behind her.

“Hello,” came an unpleasantly robotic voice. “You must be Alma’s friend. She has instructed me to give you this.” The mysterious woman held out Heloise’s staff to her, which shaking hands grabbed uncertainly.

“T-Thanks. Wait, who in Azotha’s wounds are you?” Heloise eyed the woman warily. The stranger’s relationship to Alma had only given the witch greater cause for suspicion.

The woman simply smiled, her hands behind her back, and shifted her gaze to the demonic creature eyeing them both with its malevolent gaze. “I believe you have more pressing concerns at the moment.”

“Huh?” The witch staggered to her feet, wiping the sand and mud from her dress. She cast a sidelong glance at the woman before turning her attention to the nuckelavee, staff raised. “This… This isn’t over.”

Radices Invasor Ex Natura!

Slithering vines tore up from the ground and tethered themselves to the demon’s thrashing arms, anchoring them down. The Hecatian that had previously been incapacitated by its poisonous gas had already vanished. Heloise turned, looking for any sign of her and realized the other strange woman who had been standing behind her had also disappeared from sight.

“Who—? Alma, what crazy mess have you gotten yourself into?”