A/N Another whooping 10 chapters milstone! Goodness, never in my life I've written something this long! And by the look of things, it still got miles to go!
Thanks for those who's been following this story, anonymous or not. I truly appreciated it.
The Beast Within
Chapter Thirty – Remorse From The Fire Spirit.
The forest in the Burning Grove was still burning when they returned. The heated flames lurked at every tree, sending them crackling in soundless pain. The barks and leaves Leela stepped on were smoking still as they were trekking through. As they drew near, the Shape of Fire still pacing between torched woods, doing it did best—mumbling riddles and cursing every living creature in Ashenwood. It seemed completely ignorant the group's presence this time.
"Now how do we defeat the Shape of Fire?" Asked Kaelyn the Dove: "We've tired that last time. Normal cold spells didn't work out well."
The air genasi sighed and extracted the item they just received from the ice hag—the vial of orglash essences. She stared into the vial at the palm of her hand. Even through a glass bottle the essences remained as chill as ice. It was a little bit hard to grasp even with a gloved hand, imagined what it would be like when any of them touched the essences directly. She swirled the container a little, watching the clear blue liquid twirl around inside. How were they going to defeat a fire spirit with such a tiny urn?
"Gann." Still staring at the small glass bottle, the druid called out.
"Leela?" The blue hagspawn arched his eyebrow.
"I need your weapon." Leela chewed her lips thoughtfully: "the quarterstaff you are holding will do."
"What for?" Having said that, Gannayev still handed over his staff without hesitation.
"My are enchanted already." Leela uncorked the freezing cold vial: "I need something that doesn't have any essence on it…. I wonder… right, let's see." She moved the bottle over to the quarterstaff and dripped a few drops of liquid onto the blade. The essence was quickly absorbed into the metal. The small cloud of smoke surged out, and the essences coated the long blade almost immediately. Cold, icy lights beamed out of the long weapon. Frost soon covered the staff all over. Everyone around felt the chill coming out of the quaterstaff in waves almost straight away.
The air genasi twisted her wrist, spun the weapon in her hand and stabbed the nearest tree around her. The fire on the tree was out instantly. The Shape of Fire stopped pacing and murmuring almost at once, jerked its head around and stared straight at them in alarm. Its crimson eyes glared straight at them, with mixture of horror and caution.
"Arh-hah!" The druid's lips curled up: "Just as I thought."
She tossed the quarterstaff back to Ganayev. Right on cue, with a smirk on his handsome face, the dreamwalker sprung his heels, waved his new-enchanted weapon and synced the long weapon deep into darkening tree. The fire was out almost as soon as the tip of the blade touched the tree barks. Icicles emerged from the root and grew almost a meter height.
The fire spirit began to shriek: "Wait, what are you doing? What are you doing? Stop! Stop! Stop!"
The druid tossed the vial to Safiya, who caught it in the mid air and also began to do the same on her weapon. The Red Wizard picked another burning tree and began to attack at once. More fire was out. The Shape of Fire shrieked even louder. Its flaming shapes changed even more rapidly. It leaped and charged toward the group. Kaelyn flew into the air and caught the vial. She was the next one who soaked her weapon with the frosty essences. Her sword slashed onto the charcoaled tree. Icicles grew out from the blackened trunk within seconds.
"NO! How dare you!" The Shape of Fire let out a pain stricken scream: "You will suffer! YOU WILL SUFFER!"
Fire burst out from its fingertips, the cursed spirit shot several fireballs toward the group at once. The flaming cannons flew in all directions, zooming in and out of the trees and thick smokes, all aiming at different targets. Leela dived sideways, watching the fire whooshing past, turned a few meters behind her, and charging back. She darted sideway; her Ice Maiden? waving and hacked at the magic flame. The icy blade clashed with the flame. A loud bang echoed throughout the Grove. The druid slowly opened the tight shut eyes, and realized the fire was gone.
Gannayev sprung on his heels, dodging the magic fire's attack with ease, while his staff continued to stab the burning trees. The Shape of Fire growled, its both hands were now in flames. The cursed spirit waved its arms and attacked the blue hagsapwn aggressively. The dreamwalker twirled his quarterstaff so fast; all the others saw now was a large blurry disc. The fire attacks kept bouncing away from him. Okku did not need any orglash essences. He simply lashed himself at several trees at once and bashed the hell out of them, putting the fire out and destroyed the plant in the process. Safiya the Red Wizard cast a protective shield around her and watched several fire cannons smash onto the barrier. She grinned, spun her head around and threw out a couple of daggers, already treated with the frosty essences. The sharp weapons headed toward a couple of smoking trees and their flare were disappeared in minutes
"AAARRRRRRRRHHHHH!" The Shape of Fire yelled with frustration: "You will pay! You will pay! I will slay you all! I will BURN YOU ALL!"
"Love to see you try!" Leela sneered back. Her katana synced, promptly sending another gush of frost down to a burning tree. The fire was off after a faint poop.
The fire spirit roared. Fires burning on its body became bigger and redder. It tried to send sparks to the unburned trees, sending them alit. Leela murmured the Ice Storm spell and the whole Grove were covered in blizzard before the cursed spirit's sparks flew out of its fingers.
They soon realized the more fire on those burning trees they put out, the less strength their enemy had. The party spread, diminishing more fires while avoiding more fire spirit's attacks. The spirit panicked, and its attacks became more violent. Leela and her companions began to take hits. One of the air genasi's hands was burnt, Safiya's face was smudged with ash and bruises, and there was a rather nasty burnt mark from one side of Gannayev's ear to the other side of his forehead.
"It's…getting weak!" Okku the telthor bear god did a paw sweep and temporally slashed the Shape of Fire in half. It joined back up in seconds. However, its flare was no longer as bright. The fire spirit hissed and attacked again, while trying desperately to re-ignite the fire on another patch of green bushes.
The air genasi and the blue hagspawn leaped toward the cursed spirit at once; waving both of the frost enchanted weapons in their hands and attacked it viciously. Behind them, Safiya and Kaelyn continued to cast Ice Storm spells. The Shape of Fire's flames started to dwindle. At the end, after Okku's one last bash, and an awful lot of smoke and dust, the fire spirit turned into a small floating heat blob, squeaking and weeping on a pile of burnt leaves.
"End my life, end my pain." The spirit panted: "Suffer long enough. End my pain!"
"No, I cannot do that." Leela shook her head slowly. Even though she could feel the hunger has slowly crept up within her again, turning, curling and nibbling the back of her skull, she still refused to devour the cursed spirit: "I will not consume you! Even with what you've done! No one deserved such a fate."
"You…you know what I've done?" The Shape of Fire seemed slightly surprised.
"Oh, yes." The air genasi nodded: "We all know. What you did was… unforgivable. But I cannot…I still can't... I've made a pact with myself, not to devour a living soul or being on this Plane."
"I betrayed him. I betrayed him." The spirit seemed flicker a little: "Betrayed his trust. Betrayed his trust. Deserved to suffer. Deserved to suffer."
"Not like this." The druid tilted her head: "Shape of Fire…listen…I was told by the hathrans that there is only one way to leave the curse."
"Name it." Hints of hope glittered in the fire spirit's eyes: "Name it."
"Show remorse." Said Leela quietly: "You did something wrong, and you had just acknowledged that. Show remorse. Ask for forgiveness."
"Is that it?" The Shape of Fire did not seem to believe it was that simple.
"Sometimes the solution for the most complex problem is usually a simple one." The air genasi shrugged.
The fire spirit closed its crimson eyes for a moment before opened its mouth again: "I regret what… I've done. Betrayed the trust. Betrayed the trust. I am sorry. I am sorry."
A surge of light beamed out of the cursed spirit's dying body and slowly covered the area where they were standing. When the blinding light subsided, they saw an old dying man in basic leather armor lying before them. His tunic was torn and shredded at edges. His hair was grey and in knots. His face was wrinkled and aged. His eyes, no longer in maddening red, were twinkled with relief and gratefulness.
"Thank you…" Blood gushed out of his mouth, his voice was slowly fading, but the old man did not seem to mind the slightest: "Thank you… No longer suffer. No longer suffer. Leave in peace. Leave in peace…"
With a final gulp, the former scout in Ashenwood rolled his head sideway, and quietly passed on.
"I can't believe you did this…" Kaelyn was in awe as she watched the air genasi conjured a thin blanket and gently covered the dead man's body: "You could have devoured him…"
Okku and Gannayev silently took over the burial duty. They dug a shallow grave and laid the poor man to rest.
"And that's not gonna happened." Leela knelt on the ground until the whole procedure was finished before standing up. She looked around the surrounding trees, which still had smokes coming out of their stem: "I'd rather the hunger kill me first before I do anything that evil."
Safiya stepped forward, her fingertips brushed the air genasi's shoulder slightly. Almost immediately the Knight Captain felt a rush of warm energy injecting into her body. Once again the hunger inside her body was refrained. She jerked her head around, and saw the Red Wizard was grinning at her.
"Thought you need one right now." She winked: "You don't look so good after the fight."
Leela regarded her for a moment: "Thank you."
"No problem." Replied the Thayan wizard.
The air genasi turned her head back to the yew tree she was inspecting. It was not completely burnt. There was still a reasonable amount of bark on the tree that did not look like charcoals. She reached out her hand and carefully peeled off a small piece off it.
"I think this will do." She stood up: "I think we got all three ingredients we need to make an appeal."
"Now how on Toril are we going to do that?" Gannayev arched his eyebrow.
"The Gnarlthorn spoke of the Red Tree," Okku interjected thoughtfully: "The Red Tree we came across in Immil Vale."
"You reckon that's the spot?" The druid cocked one snowy eyebrow.
"Can't be hurt if we have a look." The bear god shrugged.
"Humph…" The druid folded her arms: "Suppose you are right."
They returned to Immil Vale. The Red Tree's flaming red leaves waved in the gentle breeze, as if it greeted them as they returned. Its vivid scarlet color breathed under the mid afternoon sun. Standing in its shade, Leela half closed her eyes and listened to the rustling sound of the branches brushing against each other. For a moment, she had the hallucination she was back in West Harbour.
"The tree talked. They whispered to you in the wind." Daeghun's deep blue eyes reflected the lights drizzled through the woods as they stood in the middle of the forest. People rarely traipsed past this part of the woods. They were surrounded by the sounds of nature—animal callings, cicadas crackling, small stream running nearby, and trees brushing against each other: "You will need to know how to listen, to figure out what they are trying to tell you."
"How?" Leela stared at the tree in front of them in puzzle. It looked like a normal tree to her.
"Use your senses." The half-elf looked at the air genasi patiently: "Use your heart. Use your ears. Close your eyes…"
The young druid closed her eyes obediently. At first she heard nothing but a bunch of noises. She frowned and coughed in frustration. Her adopted father placed his hand on her shoulder gently, urging her to calm down.
"You won't hear a thing if your mind is rippled like water in the wind." Said the archer: "Steady your mind, gather your thought, and you will see."
Leela sighed, and closed her eyes once again. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to clear her thoughts as Daeghun had suggested. Soon the whole forest seemed to quiet down. She could smell the flowers in the wind. Arh, it must be those from the glade. The spring was near. The air genasi also smell a hint of burning herbs in the wind. It must be Tarmas's cauldron. Amie told her once the wizard had a secret wooden hut in the forest somewhere. This must be it! Heh, he was brewing his potions, she wondered what the potion was. The birds tweeted in the nearby oak tree. It was the sound of mockingbirds. They usually mated in springs. She heard the fish swimming upstream. She smelt the sweet maples in the wind. The corner of her lips curled up. She outstretched her hands, feeling the sensations of wing blowing through her.
"Spring is near, Daeghun." She sighed contently.
"Yes, indeed." She opened her eyes and saw the half-elf smiling: " Now you got it, Leela. The trees talk."
Leela searched her waist pouch and dig out the bark, the leave, and the small bottle of pure water they retrieved from the telthor sanctuary. She laid them down on the grass in front of the tree and waited.
Nothing happened.
"Perhaps you could try putting them altogether? " Safiya suggested: "Say, put the barks and leaves in the water vial?"
"Humph, excellent notion." The air genasi nodded. She uncorked the vial and stuffed barks and leaves down the narrow neck. Now they were all in one small bottle. She stared at the now muddy water and cocked her head, waiting to see if anything magical came out of the container.
Still, nothing happened.
"Hey, guys." Gannayev smacked his forehead: "Have any of you made any offering in the past? That's not how you do it!"
"For once I agree with the hagspawn." Okku chuckled: "The offering have to be in touch with the land in order to make it work."
"Also a certain prayer." Kaelyn added.
"Don't laugh." The druid grunted as she turned around toward the tree again: "I am not a Rasheman, as you can see. Custom differences, you know."
"Don't look at me." The Red Wizard surrendered her hands up: "Red Wizard of Thay only believe in themselves!"
Leela cast them another side-glared before stepped forward and placed her hand on the tree. The strong energy instantly surged through to her in waves. She tipped and emptied the bottle, watching the water splashed onto the soils near the root. A few drops were splattered onto the air genasi's body. For a split second, she thought she heard a faint sigh whooshing past her ears. But when she tried to listen, it was gone.
"Ahem. Alright, here we go." The druid cleared her throat, readied to say her prayer: " Chauntea, Great Mother of the land, divine warden of the grows, know that the Ashenwood is stricken with powerful blight. Grant me your blessing, that I might reverse the damage it has wrought."
Then she waited.
For a while there was nothing happening. Just as Leela was about to give up, worrying what were they going to do, now she had tipped the offerings down, the gentle breeze around the Vale stopped abruptly. The air genasi felt sudden flood of warmth circling and embracing her body. For a brief instant, she felt as if the ground has been taken out from beneath her, and she was floating in a place removed from time or space as she knew them. The pangs of spirit hunger that had been nagging constantly receded, and the druid knew relief for the first time since she awoke in the barrow cavern. Wherever she was, she suffered no longer. She inhaled deeply and smiled wholeheartedly for the first time since she realised she was in this forsaken place.
At once, the world rushes back in to fill the void, and she was at the tree once more. Her hunger remained. Nothing has changed, save that in her hand; she now hold an extraordinary crystal bottle.
"Oooh," Gannayev approached and observed the vial curiously: "Shiny. It's a lot flashier than the one we offered, don't you think?"
"What does this mean?" Asked Leela.
"It means Chauntea had granted your prayer." Okku smiled.