Wirt was making his way through the woods. Looking for the clearing where he accepted the Beast's offer. He was planning to help on staying like that the entire while and give up his new oil to keep the teapot lit.
"I'm sorry Greg...It's all my fault." He sat against a tree and fed the teapot oil. For quite some time, he has been wondering what has happened back where they came from. He missed his mother, Sarah, even his step dad and classmates. But he then began wondering what happened to those he's met in the Unknown. What of the Woodsman, the Endicott's, Miss Langree and her school, Lorna and her Auntie Whispers.
As he was pondering, the Beast's voice entered his head and spoke to him.
"You need to get up, boy. We have trouble coming our way..." It said ominously. Wirt stood up and picked up his axe.
"What's going on? What kind of trouble?" He asked worriedly as he began to run. As he was about to make a turn, Wirt saw the trunk of a tree explode. "What was that?!"
"It is a weapon used by men in a futile attempt to kill me...but as for you..." The Beast became silent.
"A weapon used by men-" Wirt's eyes widened at the realization of what it meant and ran faster. "They have guns?!" He asked the Beast, who he thought would heed his call, to no avail.
"There he is!"
"Get him!"
"Spill his blood!"
Wirt distinguished several voices amidst his escape as he concluded that it most certainly was a mob or a man-huNT of sorts. As he looked back, he saw many people holding torches, pitch forks, sickles, and other farming tools that could be used as weapons and some had primitive looking rifles. More like muskets, really. The more shots Wirt heard, the harder he forced himself to run. The Teapot Lantern being kept safe at his hip.
As he ran, Wirt heard another shot,,followed by a burning sensation on his shoulder. As he looked at his shoulder, he saw torn ligaments, where his bark like skin was, it was now replaced with a hole by a bullet that forced itself through his body. Wirt began to panic for a moment as he kept running, only to see oil drip from the ends of the wound and replace the hole with a new shoulder. Wirt looked at himself in surprise, causing him to slow down and admire how quickly he healed, a mistake on his behalf, but an advantage for another as he was shot through the back.
Wirt winced in writhing agony, as what followed was a volley of bullets shot at him, several hitting where they aimed, others hitting around him. Wirt fell to the ground, his healing slowing down due to the amount of wounds in his body, but he felt the oil force itself to heal him, making the slow process of it more painful. And where it couldn't do it, it just spilled out of his body.
"You don't have enough oil, stupid boy." The Beast scolded him. "Now you're in a situation where your brother is going to disappear." Wirt struggled to get up on his feet and laid against the nearest tree and tried to keep out of sight from the mob.
"Where is he?!"
"He couldn't have gone far!"
"Follow the Oil trail!"
Wirt grunted silently in pain as he looked up at the white moon with his equally blank and shining eyes. As he looked up, he saw a figure pass through the night sky. It was brief and he surely would have missed it if he looked a moment too late.
As Wirt kept looking, he failed to notice the mob appear in front of him.
"Here he is!"
The voice snapped his attention back to in front of him and his white orbs widened as he was surrounded by several people. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that some of them were the people in the tavern that he's met before.
Before he could raise his arm, they began to stab, cut, hit, and shoot him. Wirt kept quiet as he had no way of reacting to all this pain happening all at once to him. He noticed that they were only attacking his chest.
Elsewhere in the woods, the Beast was making it's way to Wirts location as fast as he could. That boy was the only thing keeping the lantern alive. And the Beast would be damned of it allowed this to go on.
Back with Wirt, he could feel himself loose all the oil he earned the previous day at Pottsfield. He felt his frame wither and dry as he looked like a human twig, the life from his eyes draining. And at that moment, it all stopped. The mob stopped attacking him, and a girl in a beautiful victorian dress, with red hair in the style from the Regency era approached him. At that moment, Wirt lost consciousness and his connection to the Beast was cut temporarily.
"Is he fully drained of oil." She asked with a pained look as she looked down at his fragile form.
"Yes. We cut it out of him, look at him, he's dry." A man said as he pointed down at him.
"Good, bring him to the Old Grist Mill." She commanded and the mob lifted Wirt up. "Do not forget the Teapot, or the axe." She ordered and they picked up both items.
The Beast had arrived shortly after Wirt was taken away. The Beast looked at all of the oil spilled from Wirts wounds and began to absorb it from the ground into itself. Strengthening it's already immense power.
"We've got to do this now!" Beatrice said. The mob had followed her and the Woodsman back to the Old Grist Mill. "We need to do the procedure before he wakes up, or the Beast will know his location." She said as they placed his body onto the red couch by the fireplace. The Woodsman approached Beatrice and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this? There may be no turning back..." He warned as she held the Tome of the Unknown . Without hesitation, she spoke confidently.
"Yes." And opened the Tome of the Unknown and began reading an incantation out loud. However, as she was enchanting, there was a moment of dread befalling the entire house and some of the people looked out the window.
"It's pitch black!" The Master yelled. As he looked back out the window, it was quiet and eery, causing him to become uneasy. Suddenly, two bright orbs appeared in front of him with blue eyes and before he could yell and jump back, the entirety of the wall and window were obliterated. The dark figure with its unblinking and white eyes made it's way inside.
"You have something of mine."