Chapter 3: The Living Forest
I came to the decision that heading for Oaklore Keep would be the wisest choice, since Maguswood Forest is much less dangerous than trekking through to the kingdom of Sek-Duat III or hiking to Willowshire. Trying for Willowshire through all of those peaks would be life-threatening with such a lack of prepared attire, similarly for the Sandsea, therefore only Maguswood Forest was a reasonable choice of travel. This would mean that I would have to risk a possible encounter with that Speaking Willow the Pancival spoke of, which could serve to be disastrous if he was anywhere near as deadly as he seemed to pose to that trickster.
Now came the question of figuring out which way was west, only a toil due to the canopies above blocking out the light of Solaris. Their thickness was mighty terrible for anyone trying to find their way without a Gnomish magnetic compass or one of similar Orcish craft, though one would also risk the blasted contraption spontaneously detonating in your hands about equally to it working as intended. One must wonder if either of the two could tinker one of their inventions to not be a ticking time bomb. Pondering on the potentially lethal technology of the Ulgathi and Gnomes won't help me in getting to Oaklore, or conclude which direction was west.
Having reallocated my thoughts to trying to sight Solaris, I thoroughly began surveying the leafy tree tops above, and I miraculously was able to spot an opening in the canopy where there was a small clearing of weeping willow trees alongside a brook. I cautiously kept my sense aware, as it was certainly plausible that one of these willows was the Speaking Willow. To come upon such a deadly foe who desired my death unprepared would be signing my death warrant to be executed posthaste. I slowly crept towards the copse in hopes that the talking tree wasn't present inside of it, as I doubt that I could handle what is potentially a Wood Golem or easily worse.
I made a slow, cautious pace as I crept towards the Willows with wary eyes. The trees to my surprise did not abruptly dismantle themselves from their dug in roots and commence to attack me relentlessly in my vulnerable position, as I would be unable to comprise a suitable bulwark in such haste(thus being easy prey). I continued with a steadfast vigilance of my surroundings, in hopes that I would not alert this speaking tree. I circled around a few Willows and jumped over a tiny crevice. I stepped on what appeared to be an ancient, ebony root, five times wider than my foot, a deep, coarse voice burst out, drowning the former, peaceful silence, "Who are you to think you may step on me in my own abode? I am the patience of stone and the anonymity of nature, so speak now, boy, for I am Zolkt. Speak now, later, or never, for I will not move, neither shall you, lest you answer my question sufficiently."
With the end of Zolkt's speech, substantial barriers of bark akin to the outside of the root from earlier encircled me. The cortex was easily too thick for me to bother with my fists alone. I now sat and pondered for a spell, contemplating how to formulate a clever lie to introduce myself as someone else to Zolkt. I needed to be dishonest, as I could already figure that Zolkt wishes the end of me, else the Pancival wouldn't have dragged me out so far. Each attempt of deceit that I formulated seemed incomplete, so I delve further in my mind to concoct a decent fabrication for myself.
Eventually, I was able to put something believable together, "I am...Zairos Alderi, although my apologies for stepping on you, for I did not know that there was a sapient tree in this copse. I would hope that one so patient has the humility to forgive an unknowing youth's mistake."
"Liar! Do you take the wisdom of stone and the eyes of nature for nothing? I simply wished to test your honesty, Veldrin," Zolkt somewhat angrily blurted in response to my fib, "Granted, if I was less wise, I could've mistaken you for some half-elf due to your ancestors, who I know all too well."
"Then do you mind explaining as to how you learned that it was me?" I queried to the entity all around me.
"Simple, a little birdie told me," Zolkt answered mockingly, as a Soaring Theemis swooped down from the skies and its talons sunk deep into the bark of a nearby Willow tree. My face turned red in anger at how foolish I was to not remember to be alert to all possible types of pursuers, including the flying variety. The Theemis likely was eavesdropping the entire time and overheard my voice from when I told the Adalon. The bark previously enclosing itself around me began to sink back into the recesses in the dirt.
I was now able to look upon the Soaring Theemis, who had an unique look to him. Instead of the normal skin color, he bore skin of royal purple, matched with turquoise feathers that had bright green highlights, his hair being the same as his feathers akin to other Theemises. His armor, as well, was peculiar, in that, it was actually chainmail with a cloth covering the majority of the torso, upon the satin was an unknown symbol that looked incomprehensible. The avian eventually spoke, "Well, Zolkt, I see that my information has proved itself true enough, although nonetheless Ariyzi called me back here to check up on how things were going on dealing with the Veldrin boy. Maybe he doubts your skill at crushing things, which would be silly since you're the strongest swinger out of all of them probably, albeit the slowest."
"The rusted chains of prison moons are shattered by Solaris, I walk a road, horizons change the tournament's begun. The Pied Burper plays his tune, the choir softly sing; three lullabies in an elvish tongue, for the court of the Golden King." A choir began, while instruments played, "The keeper of the palace keys puts shutters on the dreams. I wait outside the communicant's door with insufficient schemes. The Nightmare Queen chants the funeral march. The cracked brass bells will ring; to summon back the Sandwitch to the court of the Golden King."
At the close of the second verse, Sek-Duat III rose from his throne, plated in gold and the seat cushioned with many layers of red satin, and had declared, "That is sufficient, my orchestra and choir, I have a guest, who is to arrive soon. I would wish for you to be prepared to play for our banquet this eventide, for I am not to disappoint my sojourners. 'Tis the consequence of being the Kings of the Sands, Sek-Duat III of the Sandsea." Sek-Duat III now walked out from his throne room, taking his leave towards the right passing by a golden cobra statue and the bust of a falcon, which marked one of the front corners of his throne's raised platform. The red, satin carpet below his linen robes, his black cloak fluttered by the tiniest bits as he strolled towards his personal room to prepare.
He opened a sandstone door with thin layers of red, green, and blue painted smooth stone covering a majority of the outside of the door in the shape of a red oval border filled with blue scalene triangles outlined rather thickly with the green, a winged golden scarab being the doorknob. Sek shut the door behind him immediately, wanting no one to hear him. He scoured about through his belongings looking for something. "Where is it?" He said the question aloud. He took out one of his vault keys and placed it inside a hidden lock. He turned the key, and gazed about quickly through the mass of treasure in the hoard.
Eventually, after working his way through pools of gold, jewels, jewelry, statues, busts, totems, and other luxuries that made up his personal treasury, he came upon the Light Orb. "Ah, there you are, time to meet our guest," Sek-Duat III said gleefully as he grabbed the gleaming gem, examining it to make certain that no one attempted to trick him out with a fake. After the emperor was certain that it was genuine, he then jokingly beckoned the shimmering sphere with, "So, shall we greet and meet Szayan, our sojourner?"
When Zairos awoke having had just regained consciousness from being stampeded over by a horse, he found himself entering DoomWood. The Wind Elf began remembering as to how he found himself in this ordeal, when Zairos first left from Maguswood Forest to Deep Root; he had attempted to sneak onto a Merchant Caravan to Sil. They weren't exactly pleased with his try at freeloading a ride, so their guards threw him out. After wandering on to the border of DoomWood, a startled horse had trampled over him. It was likely this had being the last thing of note to happen to him until he had arose from his short but undesired comatose.
Before him now was the undead-infested forest of DoomWood, to the east lay Darkovia, another cursed vale, would seem that Battleonia has quite a problem with curses upon their forests. To his fortune, the undead aren't exactly the keenest of folk, due to their general lack of ears, eyes, taste buds, most nerves, and noses, therefore a stealthy Wind Elf, such as himself, should be capable of slipping past undetected easily. Especially since Zairos had a loaded one-hundred-sided die to fool the Stat Roller, so he took out the cheating tool and rolled it. It obviously landed a natural one hundred, utterly defying whatever the difficulty of the roll was.
Zairos cautiously slithered his way onto the dirt road and followed the path that he had when the Wind Elf first came to see Galvin Veldrin. The surrounding pines hid no skeletons or zombies from his sight, thanks to his LUK. He eventually met the sign which had on it carved, "Deep Root" and pointed eastward, to which he followed until he came upon the familiar houses and the massive tree for which the town likely has its namesake. The town seemed less lively than during his previous trip though, which was a tad disheartening, yet despite the signs, he continued onward to Galvin's estate.
He gazed upon the door, and examined it carefully. He had concluded that it would appear that the door was battered in and caught aflame somehow, as there were ash residues all about the bark of the wooden door. He pulled the bronze doorknob nonetheless, yet to his surprise found no smoldering corpses or their ashes. "Uh...Zazaith...where are you? This seems too...extreme to be a joke," He blurted, "So, seriously, come out, it's an emergency!"
Zazaith could be heard lazily awakening to Zairos's clamor; he casually strode down the oaken stairs. He was surprised to see the Wind Elf, "Zairos, what in the name of the Lords and Avatars are you doing here?"
"Well, you see...Razen is missing and Galvin requested me to get you to form a search party to find him in Maguswood forest," Zairos answered hastily.
"What!? How...explain what happened, Zairos!"
"Razen and I were to keep watch for Ribalds and Pancivals during a stop at Surewould, we failed at that and followed the blasted tricksters to a glade, Galvin urged us to be the ones to fix our own error, and during that time I got the stolen tent frames back, while Razen apparently took a nap and wound up lost,"He quickly explained, "So, that's why I came here. Oh, and your door got battered in and has some ashes on it."
The Boveoxen-pulled carriage finally came to a halt, and the tuft blue, armored giant was the first of the group to remove himself from the transport. The Elemental Foothills were beautiful in the terms of landscapes; Mt. Shining Star's lava flow could be sparsely seen in the background, to the right of some other mountains. Their quarry was nearby, Galvin and Rifroz decided to take their leave of the caravan as well. Galvin then took some Sun Lotus leaves with some Mushy Mushrooms and Pretzel Root mixed in to get the exhausted Boveoxen to a proximate waterfall to revitalize themselves for the return voyage.
"Come on, Boveoxen, you know you want some of this delicious stuff," Galvin jested as he waved the bait in front of the Boveoxen's nostrils. They began to nibble a tiny bit of the snack, as Galvin strode towards the waterfall and subsequent pond, and they followed like he hoped they would. Once they got to the waterfall, the Boveox gleefully began to drink from its waters. They then took what they needed in specific for the hunt itself, such as his quiver, arrows, bow, Illoz's spear, Rifroz's throwing daggers, and three doses of Powdered Dragonbane, which Galvin purchased from Dragesvard during his last trips there.
"We have everything we need, no?" Galvin asked.
"We all have our weapons, all of which are covered in Powdered Dragonbane, I would believe that we are certainly prepared," Illoz answered.
"I suppose so, Illoz," Galvin responded, taking a firm grasp of his bow. They strolled from the waterfall and went south and then east of the enchanted grove of the Minx Fairies, SylphDrakes, and Ribalds. Before them now stood a great portal, albeit Illoz could barely slip in without crawling, so one could clearly figure that they weren't made with the Giants in mind. They all gazed into the starry gateway, the stone pillars to each side having an elegant symbol inside of a triangle carved around near the top. They all slowly made our way through the portal.
They now looked in awe at the ground below, Mt. Shining Star's fiery pillars, lava flows, and entrance being down before them on back towards the enchanted grove. The area that they were at was called the Floating Cave for rather obvious reasons; the walls of the cavern were marked with bizarre symbols and of similar color to sandstone. Inside this elemental grotto was a wind dragon, a small one too, at least according to Galvin's sources, as there was an account of one flying into the vicinity and entering the hollow.
"Well, this is the place, is it not?" Rifroz questioned, to Illoz and Galvin's amazement.
"Well, is this cave floating?" Galvin mocked.
"Fair enough, though I hear not any roars of a Dragon," Rifroz replied, and it would seem that the Dragon knew of their presence as he burst an outcry to spite Rifroz's statement. "I stand corrected," The Water Elf reacted to the echo of the Dragon's growl.
The Chain-mail clad Theemis looked at me with an expression on its face that I could not see, as his turquoise hair covered the majority of its face and his beak gave little assistance to discerning the gesture. "Well, Razen Veldrin, how are ya' doing? I'm Zayn, a Theemis, and an associate of Ariyzi, who is a companion of Zolkt's," the Theemis, Zayn, had moved the conversation towards me. I refused to answer him, instead giving a rather confused look. "You're a quiet one, eh?" Zayn responded to my silence, and continued with, "Zolkt, you'll want to keep an eye on this one, if what Ariyzi had told me of his ancestor is true, then he was always a nigh mute one, supposedly aided him in his guile."
"I fear not, Zayn," Zolkt calmly responded, "I am of a more vigilant sort after my prior mistake, Ariyzi need not worry his whimsical head off. I will make certain we shall not lose that which we lost last time."
"That's wonderful, Zolkt," Zayn replied happily, "I would not wish for the shame of my ancestors to repeat itself in my flock."
Butting into their conversation, as it seemed to be towards an end, I queried the immense, eloquent Willow, at least articulate for a tree, "Who exactly is Ariyzi, if you don't mind my curiosity?"
"Ah, that's correct, I had forgotten to inform you as to who he is, well, allow me to satiate your thirst for knowledge on my companion," Zolkt began to elucidate, "Ariyzi is the wind-aligned member of my group of eight, he serves as the communication relay, if you will, and has Zayn to help him in that regard."
"Your group?" I repeated the words with a curious tone.
"Oh, no, I cannot tell you of that, I'm afraid," the Willow enunciated, "Perhaps another time. For now, simply remember your ancestors and do not make the same mistakes."
"So, what now?" I questioned the clearly knowledgeable tree, as the roots that previously uprooted continued to settle down into the mushy dirt.
"What now? Why, you're going nowhere, not for awhile at least," Zolkt began to explain, "As your ancestors were the ones in lead of delaying me and my companions for so long on our goal, as they stole our research notes and books relevant to the matter. We simply want what is rightfully ours from your family, as we had collected the works long before your ancestor stole them from us. In my calm patience, I therefore offer that you bother not that which does not concern you in the matter of the Planes, if you abide to such, then you will be rewarded with getting out alive. What say you?"
"Do I really have a choice?" I mocked the terms of the offer.
"Of course, death is a viable option, if you wish it," Zolkt expounded, "You can even choose how you desire to die, as I made clear earlier, I am amiable, be it by me crushing you, Zayn tearing you apart piece by piece, or Zayn devouring you alive, piece by piece."
I gasped in terror, and muttered frantically, "I will accept the terms that you have brought forth!"
"G'ewd!" Zolkt answered gleefully, clearly overjoyed at the idea of possibly achieving that which he had craved for however many years he was set back, and that it may finally happen. Though, I know not what it was, which he had yearned for.