Chapter 1: Black Blood
Daimõn had managed to make it to tiny clearing an hour into the forest before he came upon his first bit of trouble.
"Halt! Go no further intruder, these forests are guarded by um, Gaia the earth goddess! She will strike you down if you take another step!" Echoed like a shrill bird song from Daimõn's right, it sounded similar to the smaller being that was in the room where his life had begun. After what seemed like an age Daimõn made his move by continuing to walk forwards, in what appeared to be a great display of courage; in reality, Daimõn had no idea who Gaia was and whether or not she would attack, and there was only one surefire way to find out.
After a few more steps a rustle from a large tree he had walked beneath became apparent, suddenly a creature that looked similar to Daimõn dropped out of the canopy. It had similar features to the smaller giant from before but appeared to older and a lot smaller, in fact this was the first living being that Daimõn had seen who was a similar size as him. His eyes quickly flicked over it, it had long, lithe hairless arms and legs that were covered in thin but easily visible muscle. Small hands and feet that seemed to rest upon the emerald glass lightly. As his eyes rose to its face he saw the green skin creature even had pale green eyes and bright orange hair that matched the trees leaves perfectly. The similar lips and nose as the small giant but a determined looking glare instead of eyes nestling mirth. As his eyes continued to peruse the creature he noticed large fleshly mounds on its chest and a series of leaves strung around its wide hips, he had enough time to see all of this before the left side of his vision went out.
Daimõn stumbled back from the force of the club that had smashed the left side of his face, he didn't feel anything but the act of hitting him probably wasn't done as a nice greeting. Daimõns hand met the second blow from the tree branch, turn makeshift club, before she pulled it away from him, thorns snagging and tearing at the flesh of his palm.
The green things face turned into a mixture of wonder and disgust as Daimõns face began work restructuring itself, he looked down at his hand to see the scratches had already sealed and any scars were quickly disappearing. Looking behind his hand he could see the club coming in for round three and deftly move out of the way before sending his clenched fist out and hitting the green things ribs with a loud crack. Daimõn had time to register the club falling to the ground before the green thing fell towards him with dark green liquid pouring from its lips.
He looked down at the crumpled heap against him as the sound of strained breathing reached his ears, he didn't know why but the thought of the small green thing dying startled him; perhaps because it was the first thing he had interacted with since his departure from his 'home', even if the interaction had only consisted of him being hit and then hitting it. It was something he didn't want to lose.
Putting one hand under its legs and the other under its neck he picked it up and began to walk quickly in the direction he had been headed, as good a place as any to go he supposed.
His eyes began to wander the body of the green being and comparing the differences between it and him. He didn't have large mounds like that on his chest nor a set of leaves his less defined hips, he began to wonder where he could get some of those leaves. After another ten minutes of walking, the things quick breaths were getting shallower and it had even begun coughing the dark green liquid onto Daimõns chest. With his only other idea being to leave it on the floor and hope for the best or call out for help, he figured he would save the first plan for later.
"Hello! Can anyone help me, this things hurt!" He called out to the forest, he didn't know what to expect, the trees to come alive and help?
"Who's hurt?" Said a similar creature to what he was holding as it crawled out of the tree next to him. Shocked, Daimõn spun on his heel and faced this new creature, "Who and what are you?" Were the first things that came out of his mouth. In return a sour expression graced its lips; "I'm a dryad, and by the sounds of it you are very rude, whatever you are". The angry response was made a little less threatening seeing as this newcomer only came to about Daimõns elbows, the one in his hand had reached his neck, but he kept a straight face and instead nodded his head towards the green, barely breathing, bundle in his hands.
The Dryad quickly regained its composure and pointed to a cave of to his right and signalled to follow, and follow he did. When he got into the cave he saw torches hanging along the side of the entrance and inside it, going all the way to a small room with various small metal tools dotted all over the place. "Put her here, she needs urgent help, did you find her like this?" It said quickly as he put the larger dryad down and rolled her over onto her back, ignoring the smaller dryads question.
She had seemingly forgot her own question as the small din of metal instruments filled the room as her hands moved agilely, one second examining the crater where her ribs were, the next pouring a translucent liquid on the wound and even making strange hand gestures like some sort of prayer. Daimõns eyes moved up from the smaller ones hands and saw similar features across the board; just lighter skin, smaller chest and a large bit of fabric hanging around her neck to prevent blood covering her.
After what seemed like hours she finished praying, prodding and pouring or whatever it was she was doing and turned to Daimõn, "I know you ignored my question earlier and thats pretty... Suspicious. Also, I have never seen something like you, well, I have seen things like you but they are currently fighting to the death and they're considerably bigger, like mountains. That begs the question, what are you?" She said, bright green eyes full of intrigue, Daimõn cleared his throat and answered back with "In regards to the second question, I don't know. I woke up yesterday and two giants were looking at me, one said he had made me and gave me some things, the other just laughed when I said no to the first, after that it smacked me out of the window. Your first question, I hit her, she was trying to club me to death. Trying". The smaller dryad seemed to contemplate things first before saying what was on her mind. "Well, at least you are honest I guess, you didn't do any un-fixable damage and you went out of your way to help her. Not to mention she's the type to fight someone she hasn't seen before to 'protect' others, I guess there's fault on both of your parts. Other than that, when you say giants I'm guessing you mean the gods made you, so I'll be damned if I know what that makes you, but at the very least you've got to have a name right?" She looked at Daimõn with a quizzical look, he was surprised she believed him but he had no reason to make her doubt him.
"I'm Daimõn, who are you? You said you know her" he said pointing at the sleeping figure of the taller dryad "who is she?" He finished, as curious about them as she was about him. "Daimõn, interesting name, I'm Drupacea, she's Exclesa, you can call me Dru, when she wakes up just call her Clesa, it's what I call her. We're friend in case you were wondering, I grew a little ways away from her". Daimõn nodded he lapsed into silence as he thought about what he should ask Dru, he figured he should get his bearings and ask something that will give him an idea of what do to and where to go.
Instead, he asked "You popped out of a tree earlier so I presume you dryads live in them, so have you ever got in the wrong tree?." For a moment Dru was baffled, not knowing how to react to this her mouth opened and closed for a while looking for an answer. "Well there was one time... Wait, you woke up yesterday and you're asking me that? Look, you need to know more important things!" For a moment Daimõn looked like he had forgotten all about trees and as his face cleared he said "You just wont tell me because you're embarrassed", Dru's face flushed dismissively said "shut up" before beginning to tell Daimõn the current going ons of the war torn world.
"Therefore, with all of the monsters on the loose we have to protect our community, in the centre of this forest is where the youngest trees are growing, we're trying to protect them. None of us have never seen something like you before so Clesa must have attacked you thinking you were a monster or something, I mean, you are huge and kinda scary." Daimõn was listening intently to the one-sided conversation and finding himself growing more and more attached to this idea of family Dru kept going on about, she said they all looked after each other, much like now, and she even said it was a vital part of life. Daimõs wasn't so sure it was as necessary as Dru made it out to be, at least he hoped not because if it was he could be in trouble. She had even answered his earlier question, albeit a little hurriedly and Daimõs wasn't surprised to hear she had but her tale brought a large grin to his face and invoked a hearty laugh out of him.
"Uhh, my head, oww..." As Clesa finally stirred from her long slumber. The sun had set many hours ago and was probably on it's way back. Dru quickly ran over to her friend and passed her the clear liquid she had been pouring on her wounds, but this time it was for her to drink. As soon as she had chugged down the entire jar full of liquid she began speaking.
"Dru! I'm so happy to see you, there was this giant, he was like three, no four times my size! He attacked me but I was too quick for him and I smashed his face with my club, you should have seen it, he looked like that guy behind you but it was mushier. But then, it un-mushed and it looked exactly like the guy behind you. By the way who is that guy?" She finished, her high-pitched voice sounding like bird song at the speed she was spitting words out at. "Thats the guy you fought, you know the guy who is 'four times the size of you', the guy who carried you here." As the sudden look of realisation came upon her green-skinned face she sat bolt upright and in the blink of an eye threw the nearest thing to hand at Daimõs. As it so happened the nearest thing to Clesas hand was a large knife used for cooking that had been resting near the kitchen area beside the bed, the knife that had found new residence in the centre of Daimõs head.
"Dru, why was he just sat there! Did you not see him!" Clesas screams penetrated the thick silence of the forest, "Clesa! You just killed him, why did you do that, he saved you!" Dru roared back, her shrill voice startling the birds nestled in the trees around the cave entrance. "Saved me? He almost killed me! He is a monster, you cant trust him, I caved his face in and it just fixed itself; he is a monster and you're a fool for trusting him!" After a moment of silence Dru turned back to the motionless form of Daimõn and sniffled as tears welled in her now murky green eyes. "Would you rather it be him or the little saplings back with elders? Look, I know you don't want to hurt anybody but sometimes we have to, I'm sorry okay." Clesa said as she stepped around the sobbing form of Dru and pulled the knife, buried to the hilt in Daimõs head, out with a sickening shhlck.
Suddenly, Daimõs eyes burst open and his mouth opened and closed for air, the gold blood flowing from his forehead, with a thin stream of black pooling along the top of the immortal ichor. Both the dryads looked at him in shock and fear as he sat back up. His hand felt his forehead and looked at the black and gold blood littering his fingertips. Tension filled the air and Clesa looked close to tears as she stared into Daimõs cold, eyes that betrayed none of his thoughts as he held the the knife, that had been in his head previous to this, by the handle.
As fast as the knife had entered his forehead a smile split his face and and a deep bellowing laughed erupted from his mouth. At first the two dryads were unsure but Dru began to laugh along with and Clesa had no choice but to be swept along with it. As the three of them raised a cacophony of laughter that swept through the forest breathing life into each individual leaf and filling the hearts of all the creatures with hope of better days. In one brief moment these feelings flourished before being cruelly squandered by the broad back of a falling giant made of storms landing nearby, shockwaves uprooting the small saplings in the centre of the forest and cracking the bark of the eldest trees. Great trees were uprooted and thrown across the field by the storm shrouding the God. Daimõs watched his two new friends face twist in agonising pain before falling into piles of golden sparkling dust that disappeared through the mouth of the cave. Daimõs face contorted in shock and despair and spun to look out the door at the otherworldly devastation being wrought before him.
Four giants battled fiercely, two verses two, while a fifth, the one that fell, stood back up and let out a roar loud enough to blow Daimõs off his feet and back into the cave, bursting out of the other side of the rocky cliff face the cave had nestled in. He could feel his thick blood pour down his entire body and around a large chunk of rock that stuck out of his hip, shoving the bones aside. As his head drooped down and hung loosely his eyes looked at the black liquid pooling at his feet, covering all but a speck of golden ichor. His body felt hot and flames licked at the side of his vision, the quiet pattering of small green footsteps drew him away from his reverie and instead to the small group of dryads in front of him. There could only be a few dozen of them. The now shattered cliff had shielded them. Unsurprisingly they were too scared to approach him, but as he looked at the dozens of faces each would remind him of his fallen friends.
The young ones too innocent to understand what was happening had the same innocence as Dru when she listened to his story. The elders trying to shield what must have been the 'saplings', infants too weak to fully escape from their tree, reminded him of the over-protective Clesa; the one who had practically killed him twice in near enough the same day.
Tears poured down Daimõs face as he remembered the beings fighting, their names burnt into his mind, the ones who brought this chaos by trying to usurp the throne. The brothers. The very thought of them tormented him and the flames in his sight grew larger, more fierce as the trees were uprooted all around him and dryads young and old began to whither.
The final shove came in the thin layer of golden dust that landed on the pitch black liquid spreading across the dead grass. It might not have even been theirs but it was enough to ignite a golden fire that spread across his body, covering him head to toe, spreading along the black blood like a wave of gold devouring everything in its path - dead or alive. The now mad with grief creation ran across the clearing further into the forest burning all in his path, all the while vowing vengeance against the gods in the name of his lost friends and those that had been killed in the gods 'just' war.
