[Worm]

As much as Laurel did not want to hear the human's serpent tongue, he listened. His bark ached and moaned with misplaced anger, though it began to settle as she continued. He didn't have the constitution to know whether or not the human was lying. And surely, if there were documents proving his people's struggle, there would be no war forged against them.

With one smooth movement, Laurel extended a vine, letting it reach towards a nearby rabbit. Calmly nibbling on a piece of grass, the rabbit would not notice the movement of flora. Like a dagger, Laurel shoved a spine through the rabbit's head. Without so much as a whimper, the rabbit fell limp. Impaled on Laurel's finger, he lifted the bleeding corpse back to the dryad and the human. He held the corpse between them, meditating on the death of another creature. "Humans are no better than elf. They survive on the death of others. They are both diseases." He sighed, winding the rabbit corpse closer to the human.

"Here. This is what you came for. Now leave." His voice was hollow, defeated. He let the human tug the bloodied corpse from his needle like branch.

---

By the time the sun would set, Askal would be heir to his mother's seat. He now comforted her in her illness. She was pallid and clammy, choking up black ink every hour. Her poison was taking effect and there was no way to reverse it. He held her hand, stroking the wrinkled knuckles of his birth mother. "Mother. I will do our people justice. It is okay for you to leave." He feigned sympathy for her.

Myantha struggled to comprehend her son's words, but she knew. She'd known all along that he was rotten to the core. "Askal..." She spoke as if a spirit were animating her corpse, keeping it barely alive. "I have no choice." She coughed up another handful of ink. "But you will be punished... You will find retri-retri..." She wheezed heavily until she could no longer draw in another breath. Her hand fell limp in Azkal's palm. He sighed, shaking his head. He kissed his mother's hand and dropped it against the side of her bed. When he stood, he made sure to clean his hands of her death. It was finally time...