[sylvanSpider]

The weather worked only to serve in direct juxtaposition to Zentha Gilfaren's cloudy moon. Contrary to her countenance, the sun was shining, song birds were chirping, general spirits around the town of Davensport were high. Economy was at all time high, mouths were fed, and the townsfolk were more focused on building stores of food than building weapons of offense and walls of defense. It was not without its faults of course, but the people of Davensport were in no need of an adventurer.

Quite the contrary, in fact, there were no jobs whatever to be held for someone like Zentha. She possessed quite a specific skill set, and that skill set was suited to exactly one position: hunt the bad guys, gut them, reap the reward. That was her entire job description since leaving Grikkan, and this adventurer was out of a job. There was simply no need for her, at least, none that she could see. There weren't even the ever so reliable Wanted posters that so generally graced virtually every other city she'd been in up until now.

“You'd think the blacksmith would take me up for a spell or something. Anything. I'd do anything. But no, they need no one and now I'm hungry with no food. Just...just great,” Zen said sighing as she listened to the city gates close behind her. “Well that's fine because I know how to hunt.”

Zen rolled her eyes, shifting her pack and left the road, immediately making way for the forest.

[Worm]

Askal Dakath

The conference was long and unnecessary. He stood back, gritting his teeth as the wrinkled prunes of a committee spoke about peace. There was no peace in Kath Iten. There never has been. The raw power of the elven race had been contaminated with the needs of others. There was no use for the tangling, massive overgrowth of forest. Especially when they were more than capable of growing personal gardens. In fact, they all had gardens in the city grounds. Right in the center was a new Eden, a garden with every kind of plant known to elf and mankind. It was all they needed.

When the tangled ball of roots came to speak to the council, Askal lost it. He spat at the creature, threw him out. There was no room for his plea for sympathy in an esteemed committee. There was no way a creature such as him would have any idea how to rule the people. With the conference finally over, Askal found himself lounging in the council’s library. He flipped through books about dryad and their history, stewing and bubbling with plans for revenge. Myantha hobbled past, on her way out of the proscenium arch of a conference room. She looked in at Askal, made eye contact, and shook her head, hobbling forward. Askal scowled, brushing a strand of silver hair from his face.

Laurel Quercus

There was no need for such disrespect. He wallowed, hovering towards the edge of Kath Iten’s city center. He sighed, the last bit of hope leaving his lungs. To change anything, he had to assemble a group. And who would be brave enough to face such a powerful force, the Ancients of Kath. As he moved to the edge, the little bits of remaining free grass swooned towards him. Much like how the flowers in Eden kissed his roots. The sound of aching wood followed him into the forest. If he could find a group of fellow treefolk, it wouldn’t be enough to take them on. They would need infiltrators, gunpower and force. Dryad were peaceful healers, not meant for the brutish nature of battle.

He tried to imagine a way to train dryad into battle, but the thought was slashed by the image of a human figure. Laurel growled, roots seeping from his twig fingers. ”Who goes there?” He was prepared to whip a human down with vines, tie them up and leave them for the birds. Especially if they brought fire. He had no more room in his heart for more death.

[BlueInTheShell]

To say the man traveling on the road was dressed in the obscene was to say the sun was only somewhat bright. Xyni smiled with each look of revulsion that he was given from the various passersby; and a few of them he had even stopped to let them bask in the visions etched into the porcelain-colored armor he wore. Scenes of wanton debauchery and crude depictions of bestiality were emblazoned on his person - Though he could see within each and every single one of those eyes that narrowed in disgust. They were jealous. Jealous that they weren't but of the depictions on his armor. And each time they cursed out his name and spat insults at him, it was near bliss as the insults caressed his ears...

Xyni ran a finger across one of the blackened horns along his head, before it trailed slowly down his chest - Finally stopping an inch above his groin before darting his eyes through each bit of shrubbery. So serene. So ...boring. It made Xyni spit out his tongue in disgust; the forked muscle tasting stale, unaromatic air and churning his insides - Xyni looking to one of the other men in his entourage and then pulling him close; Xyni shoving his tongue halfway down the man's throat for several moments, and tasting the man before he pulled away, and began to resume their course of travel. Anything was better than the monotonous scents and tastes of nature. He needed something more extravagent.

It was a voice in the thicket nearby however that forced Xyni to stop for a moment; the man turning his head towards the forest, a small smirk turning into a grin, which stretched to an in human smile that went from ear to literal ear.

"...Oh look. Someone to experience and sample." Xyni sighed outloud dreamily, the man raising a hand and forcing his little troop to a halt. If there were more voices, the temptation would be too much, but for now Xyni showed a relatively rare moment of patience.

[sylvanSpider]

Zentha

Zentha, bow in hand, was making her way through the forest, afraid that her stomach (currently seeming to be possessed by some demon from the Underworld) might scare away any potential prey. She was a great shot, but she simply did not want to bother with the hassle of gutting and cleaning something just for a meal when in any other gods forsaken place she'd be making enough gold to feed her and several others for weeks to come.

Now though, the lass was dead broke, and she was hungry. But a few steps into the forest and her growling gut betrayed her and she was greeted by a loud “Who goes there?”

Zen jumped, startled, “Ah! Uhm! No one--” But she stopped midsentence seeing the tree like figure before her. No wonder she missed him. “Ehm...no one of consequence anyway...” She took several steps back until her back hit a trunk of a tree. “I was just hunting...I can't find a job, you see, and I'm terribly hungry.”

[Worm]

Laurel's bark groaned as they lifted an arm to the pinned newcomer. Roots began worming through his fingertips, streaming towards the human. They would wrap around the human's form and hold it securely in place, lifting it a couple inches from the ground. He didn't trust the grumbling creature. It was alone, it was human. "What do they call you, human?" He thought that his original question was straightforward enough, but apparently the creature was too daft to give an appropriate answer. "This is dryad territory." Laurel's eyes glowed with the warm magic of the forest. The smell of his moss surely bleeding into the human's nose now as roots tangled up its torso, near strangulation.

---

Askal was more than ready to take his mother's seat. He prepared by reading all that he could of ancient magic. The sort which originally brought their ancestors to throne. According to The Illumination of Itrix, thousands of years ago, there was war between all races. Which meant that at one point, they were almost equal. It was the elves which called upon the gods to bestow them gifts and blessings. There were two other blessed races, one of which had already been exterminated by war. The last being dryad, who were too gentle to cause any alarm to the elves. It took one sweep of fire to kill them too. But he needed to be prepared for another uprising. Especially, for what he had planned.

Elves were the superior race. They were efficient, logical and blessed. The gods wouldn't have chosen them, if they weren't meant to rule. He blinked a couple of times, realizing how long it had been since he last did so. Looking up to the ticking of a clock, he closed his book. He stroked its spine, bound on the skin of dragons. He took a deep breath and carried the book back to his apothecary. The light of morning would soon peek into the greenhouse. High glass ceilings surrounded an ethereal garden, lush with life. Askal moved through it like a ghost, the only thing lacking in life. As the light filtered in with pure, morning glow, he watched a specific plant rise with the sun. It was this blooming plant that would bestow him regal power. He clipped the bud from its stem just as it blossomed. A beautiful, ink black flower oozed blood from where it was cut. Askal smiled, satisfied with the fruits of his labor.

[BlueInTheShell]

The sounds of bark creaking. The sounds of the woods. Birds chirping. All so delightful. A ping of lustful desire swelled over him, and Xyni slid a hand under his breastplate, digging a nail into his chest and pulling down, the scent of lavender and rose permeating the air around him as he drew vibrant, obscene blood under his arm; pulling a hand out and flicking the cherry red blood from his fingers, the man flicked out his serpentile tongue and chirped a few times, Xyni looking to his side as a small entourage of the Flawless moved towards him - A smaller, purple figure bounding behind them, and then pushing past porcelain-armored warriors to drape herself along Xyni.

"Ahhh! My pale little prince! Every time I see you, I both find you repulsive and appealing." The woman cooed, a smile permanently etched acroos her face while she raised up a crab-clawed hand, pincers clicking together before locking down on her own throat; Purple face growing deeper in color. She new Xyni enjoyed watching her suffer. And she loved the strain of struggling for air almost as much as she loved the scenes of barbarism on his armor. And the thoughts that each man in the Host imagined doing to her. And some of the acts they had done to her as well. Each night was a cavalcade when they all decided it was time for her to show her devotion to the group.

The mutated human's overeagerness was met with Xyni reaching out with a pallid hand and brushing it against her cheek - Xyni forming a smile of pearly white fangs, before pulling the self-asphyxiating girl closer and planting the tiniest kiss on her nose, causing her to limp her crab-claw and blink a few times. "My dearest little nun!" Xyni exclaimed, his free hand clamping down on her shoulder as he leaned in a bit closer. "I've a little taske for you. I know you can hear the things in the woods. And how musical and sensuous they sound?" The woman nodded, and she looked in the direction of the woods - Eyes dilating. Every bit of the thicket and brush she saw seemed so...Wonderful. Every tree a phallic outline. The few birds and rodents flickering about flooding her thoughts with prurient thoughts.

"They do sound lovely, Xyni..." The woman cooed, half drooling from her own mind.

Xyni gave her a small squeeze and a frown, his eyes narrowing at the woman and showing a hint of disaaproval to bring her back into reality. "I want you to watch them. See if they're worth...Sampling. Or failing that, just simply carve them into something more beautiful. The world I walk needs to be something enamorous. Something I can taste. Smell. See with utter perfection." He grumbled, taking a deep breath of the woman's scent. Peaches. Decayed Flesh. The scents of afterplay. All of them dance in his nostrils when he smelled this one. It was why he kept her around.

"As you wish, Lord Xyni..." The woman said, soon bounding into the woods like a lost child, skipping and snickering - the purple-hued woman stopping to pick up a rodent in her hand, letting the soft brushing of fur bristle against her hand before she snipped it with her pincer, and then drenched herself in the creature's heat.

Xyni watched as she disappeared. Piety. What a lass. Probably would have been leading this entourage of excess if it weren't for him. Xyni remembered when she was newly inducted into the Flawless Host. A former nun that had decided she would try and convert them into a more conservative and gods-fearing life. Three days later and she was blessed by his god, after the troops led a rather vivacious...Study session...Of her anatomy.

"Rivzek." Xyni called out, one of the porcelain-clad knights moving towards Xyni. and nodding to show he was paying attention.

"If nothing is worthwhile in this place? Burn it down. Fire is beautiful. And The smoke will be perfect for announcing our arrival into the next town we're mustering in."

[sylvanSpider]

Zentha squeezed her eyes shut feeling herself being lifted from the ground, roots slithering up her bodice and she kicked her legs trying to break free. She'd come into contact with dryads before, and more often than not they were kind, even going so far as to feed her. That would have been nice, wouldn't it? Now, she was struggling, and she let herself get caught in the roots by believing dryads to be peaceful. “Z-Zentha!” she said, gasping. Air! She needed air! She grasped at the roots around her throat, trying desperately to wrench herself from them, but she was a person of stealth more than strength and she couldn't budge. “That's---that's my name...I know...I'm just—just a traveler!”

The more she struggled, the tighter the roots seemed to get. So this is how I die. An embarrassing mistaking of a feral creature for a peaceful one...and now I get to die for it. She wasn't giving up though, however fruitless her endeavors seemed to be and she continued to kick her legs, attempting to bring them up and plant them against the creature's chest to push away, but again, it was met with nothing.How...embarrassing, she thought as she started to lose consciousness.

[Worm]

Though Laurel was hot with fear-fueled anger, he still had the light of Driseni inside. As he watched the human gasp for air, his emotions became as twisted as his vines. He wanted to see her die by his hands, as they had done so many times before to his own people. If only he could fillet her flesh and keep her alive and in agony. But something deep inside kept him from killing her. Driseni would not allow unnatural death in this sacred forest. Yet, she allowed it to happen over and over again to her followers.

"It is in Driseni's honor, that I not kill you." Slits in his wood glowed like eyes all over Zentha's restrained form. "Though I would much prefer if all of you elven pets would die. Die the way that you condemned my people to." His roots tightened around her throat, face turning red under the pressure. Then, he dropped her. All of his vines whipped back into his pandora's box of a wooden shell. "Where must you travel to? I will make sure that you exit this forest without so much as turning a leaf." He loomed over her weakened state, ready to attack again if needed. If he saw even a glimpse of flame, he would kill any and all in the way. Sacred lands were depleted, and Driseni be damned, he wouldn't let them take it all away.

As he breathed in, the cracks in his bark sealed. As he breathed out, green mist poofed from the cracks. He sensed something or someone else near. Another outsider infiltrating the forest. While the small village of dryads communed in peace towards the edge of their sacred forest, Laurel was defending the front lines. Even though each of his family members were old enough to have experienced the cleansing fires, they assumed that Laurel was paranoid. They fought back with peace, as Driseni would. But would Driseni really allow her people to be slaughtered, her sacred lands to be destroyed? Laurel felt power within every splinter of his body, he knew that this was the right thing to do.

With a gentle hum, he forced wind to whip through his hollow parts and through the forest. It was a subtle distress call which treefolk would recognize. Hopefully, they would care. After all, who knew what else was creeping in their forest?

[BlueInTheShell]

Piety was lost in her own world as she danced through the flora and fauna of the forest, the purple-skinned woman stopping a moment to pluck a flower in her hand, only to exhale a small plume of breath and watch the color and life fade away from it; Piety puffing out her cheeks into a pout and then tossing the used bit of matter to the side. Everything was so vibrantly green. For a moment it had hurt her eyes, but now it was quickly growing more and more grey and...Mundane looking. The sensation had left as soon as it had come to tickle her senses. Still, the smile along her face seemed permanently etched and the corrupted human carried on, as per her master's wishes.

Piety stopped however near a small pool of water, watching a small deer drink from it, and delicately pranced over to the beast, the animal taking in the sickly sweet scent from the woman. Once it seemed enthralled by her, Piety reached out with her pincer and ran the tip of the claw down it's spine - giving it a pleasant smile before dropping into a squat; Piety cocking her head to the side and cooing at the beast. "You're such a precious thing. Unknowing. Free. Yes you are. Ah-yes you are!" A few more scritches and scratches with her pincer, and the woman leapt upon the deer, smile stretching deep across her face as she raked her tongue across the beast; the animal sprouting all manners of different appendages, before the fur fell off of its being; and ther deer warping inside out - Howls and pains escaping the beast, before it went still; Piety giggling as she gyrated her hips on the mass of inside-out animal, before sliding off and then circling the mound. Xyni had always mentioned something about having a stag for a pet. And now she could deliver at least. But there was no sight of anything that warranted Piety, or Xyni's attention.

Still, the pool of water was inviting, and Piety decided to just, peer at the reflection of herself. She was....So beautiful. This is what true beauty was like. Wasn't it?

[sylvanSpider]

Zentha was losing consciousness, and the face of the tree ent man who was to be responsible for her death grew blurry twisting in and out of her vision. Elven pet? I'm not an elven pet, I'm a human! A human! Did he just say something about not killing her? She couldn't be sure. Then, she fell to her hands and knees with a clunky thoomph and a grunt, the blood rushing back up to her head in a rush only adding to her dizziness. She gasped for air, and stayed in her place on the ground, heaving, getting as much oxygen as she could to her brain.

When she was finally done recuperating, she sat back on her haunches and looked up at him, “I don't know who you think I am. I was raised by the elves, yes, but I left them. I've never been responsible for the destruction of your forest...I...I left because I disagreed with everything they were doing for expansion.” She shook her head, narrowing her eyes at a spot on the ground, “Their...their destruction of the forest spits in the face of everything their ancestors hoped to achieve. The peace then? Between your people and the elves? It was more than tentative. I've read it, there are documents of it all.”

She scoffed, shakily getting to her feet and using a tree as a brace, “Since I left, I don't have a place I must get to. I'm a hired hand, helping out where I can. I work for anyone I deem as having a worthy enough cause...if they pay me. Girl's gotta eat, you know? I just...I guess the sooner we get out of the forest the sooner I can pray I find food before I starve. That's the entire reason I was in the forest to begin with. I just wanted a squirrel, or a rabbit. Something to fill my aching belly.”

[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...