Tooth and Claw, Part 13


With so many different factors at play, you decide that you can't afford to lose sight of your primary objective. You've already started chipping away at Fallhazel's resolve during your brief encounter in the woods, letting her feel your aphrodisiac as she pinned you. Now you decide to capitalize on that further, using your Dreamwalking to further fan those flames of temptation.

You look over to Verika. "I'll need to you keep watch over both of us tonight," you say. "Be careful. We don't know when Fallhazel's patience might run out."

The drow heroine nods in understanding. You duck back into the tent, trusting her keen vigilance to keep you safe. That confidence allows you to close your eyes without any worry, sitting down in a lotus position as you prepare to cast your mind into the Plane of Dreams.

Moments later, you hear Juri enter as well. And cracking one eye open, you see that she's watching you. "Is there anything I can do to help, master demon?" she asks hopefully.

"Just listen for if Verika shouts a warning," you tell her. "If she does, and I'm in too deep to hear her, then I'll need you to shake me awake. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes! I will!" Thankful for a task where she can feel useful, Juri sits herself down right next to you. Her young face takes on a look of determined focus, as she strains her ears for any sound of danger. You close your eyes again, reaching out with your consciousness. Searching for Fallhazel's dream.

For a long time, you find nothing. It's a tricky thing to guess. You don't know how much sleep the druid even needs, or when exactly she will rest for the night. Your only option, therefore, is to keep fishing. Always on the lookout for what might be the briefest of openings.

And then you sense it.

Fallhazel has not only fallen asleep... but has begun to dream. You grasp the opportunity, slipping carefully into the dream, the recent enhancements to your demonic power making it impossible for her to detect your entry. Her sleeping self, her subconscious, her memories... all lay open before you.

Even without delving too deeply, it's obvious from the sheer volume of memories that the druid is unbelievably ancient. This is something entirely beyond a more normal longevity. Even races that stop physically aging after maturity, like the elves, seldom reach a full millennium. Sooner or later, the soul's tether will still weaken enough to slip, leaving their body behind to continue the Cycle.

But Fallhazel... she is already far older than that. You can't even begin to estimate by how much, but it's clear that her bond with Nature is something entirely beyond what an ordinary practitioner could possibly achieve. With a bond like this, you're not even entirely sure if she can truly die, so long as the Great Forest itself endures.

For a moment you're tempted to plumb the depths of those memories, enticed by the secrets that no doubt lie buried within. What is Fallhazel's true objective here? And why is she so insistent on taking Juri?

But right now, you have another, more pressing objective. You're here to weaken her resistance, to tempt her, to bring her even closer to accepting your intoxicating pleasure. And so, ignoring the other memories for now, you dive into the dream that Fallhazel is currently experiencing.

At the center of the dream is an owl, gliding through the forest in search of prey. From the dreamworld's focus on it, you can tell that this must be Fallhazel, though you doubt you would have known otherwise. She perfectly inhabits the owl's form, its golden eyes searching the underbrush for the slightest hint of movement.

Soon she catches sight of what she's looking for: a small, terrified mouse that is trying to dart away into cover. Fallhazel banks around, diving right toward the frightened animal with merciless precision, her talons outstretched.

But before she can strike... something else catches her attention. A greenish glow, visible even through the trees, far off in the distance.

At the last moment Fallhazel veers away from the mouse, soaring instead up to a better vantage point. Even before she bursts through the canopy, you can feel a sense of unease permeating the fabric of this dream. The druid's subconscious already knows what she is about to see.

She knows what she is about to remember.

Spread out before her, Fallhazel can now see an enormous fire raging unchecked across the neighboring plain toward her forest. Except this is no normal fire. The flames burn with a corrupted green radiance, spreading farther and faster than should have been possible, consuming everything in their path.

The unnatural conflagration is already at the forest's outer edges. It sets tree after tree alight, withering them in seconds. Below, countless animals flee in a terrified stampede, trying desperately to stay ahead of the fire's ravenous growth.

Fallhazel dives, resuming her naked, dryad-like form as she falls. She lands right in the fire's path, terrified animals racing past her on either side. The fire bears down on them all, the curtain of flames completely filling her vision as the searing heat washes over her. But she stands her ground.

Then, gritting her teeth, she reaches deep within herself, before thrusting her palms skyward with a feral cry.

And her forest responds.

The earth itself explodes up in front of her, the land itself obeying her call. Soil and rocks hurtle skyward in a torrent, forming an enormous barrier that stretches off toward the horizon, as far as your eyes can see in either direction. The force of the cataclysmic upheaval snaps countless trees like matchsticks, killing countless animals that hadn't quite made it to safety. But Fallhazel does not falter, sending the towering wall higher and higher as the green flames lick and burn at it from the other side.

You jaw drops at the sight. You knew the druid was powerful. You knew that she had stopped the Witch Queen's spellfire ritual all those years ago. But to see this memory of how she did it... to see the sheer scale of it with your own eyes...

Still, it's clear that this effort is taking a toll on her. Her body strains, trembles from the forces that she's channeling, her sinews twisting as her face contorts in pain. It's taking everything she has to accomplish this. You doubt it would even be possible outside this forest of hers.

But despite the incredible strain, she does not falter. With one last cry, she pushes her hands forward, sending the immense wall of dirt toppling forward, burying the flames under a thick rain of rock and soil. The earth shakes with the thundering force of the impact, the green flames struggling and spluttering.

Even buried, traces of them burn beneath the soil for an unnatural length of time. But eventually they falter, snuffed out. Nor do the flames beyond manage to cross the wide firebreak that she's created with her power. The Great Forest stands. Marred... but protected. If only barely.

Fallhazel sinks to her knees, gasping for breath. She does not move, just looking out as what remains of the fire scours the plains. Even once the enchanted flames finally exhaust themselves, what remains beyond the forest's border is a ruined land, with toxic gasses rising up from the poisoned earth. An utter desecration of Nature itself.

It isn't hard to guess what events might have prompted this particular memory to pay a visit to her dreams. This is what jolted Fallhazel out of her neutrality. The devastation from the previous war that convinced her that Kovora had to be dealt with.

It also confirms—not that you had any doubt—just how easily Fallhazel could have ended this situation with the loggers any time she wanted, erasing them and their camp with barely any effort at all.

Either way, this moment is the core of Fallhazel's animosity toward your side laid bare. And the recollection of it leaves her vulnerable to you in this weakened mental state. Which presents you with a choice in how you want to address it in your temptation.

You could focus on assuaging those fears, easing her down from this fraught memory into a comfortable, hazy-minded molestation. Once you have her there, you could whisper honeyed words of reassurance. Telling her that supporting Lily will prevent anything like this from ever happening again, while you teach her body to yearn even more for sexual pleasure.

Alternatively, you could redirect her concern, tying the memory in this dream to the recent incursion on the part of the humans, transferring her worries about Kovora into more general suspicion. You could fill her mind with fantasies of what her dryads are already doing, fucking the intruders into submission, and tempt her into joining in on the debauchery.

Both approaches would tempt her closer to an ultimate surrender to your pleasure, and you're confident you can pull off either one. Still, the specifics of what either approach prioritizes might subtly affect her decisions in the short term, and how she responds to your upcoming moves... depending on what they are.