- "I take it back".
They had just surfaced into the dark woods and Aan was suddenly nostalgic for the tunnel. The forest was almost as dark and twice as sinister. Thick branches twisted tortuously overhead, choking out the sunlight and blanketing the grounds below in an unnatural stillness. A dark taint seemed to lie over the woods.
Trees can't fall prey to demonic corruption...can they? The northman wondered. He kept a leery eye on the flora as Dana led them deeper within.
They walked for a long while without encountering anything. Eventually, they stopped to eat and recuperate. Though she and Galen were used to soldier's rations, Dana couldn't help but envy the barbarian's impressive appetite.
- "So how do we find this tree of Phineas?" he asked between bites.
- "Innifus," she corrected him. "Your guess is as good as mine, but staying on the path might be our best bet."
- "If it's as important as Akara made it out to be, I'm sure we'll know it when we see it," Galen chimed in.
The Askari nodded, but her eyes were already lost in her surroundings, scanning the trees as if she could see through them.
To Aan's visible displeasure, the meal was as short as the way ahead was long. The further they went, the more the unnerving quiet grew. Not a bird chirped, not a squirrel scurried, not a bush was disturbed by a woodland creature. Even the wind seemed afraid to play here.
Thankfully, this made it much easier for the amazon to detect the faintest sound. She suddenly signaled for her companions to stop, peering into the darkness.
- "Patrol ahead. Dark rogues. They don't seem to know we're here," she said as she took out her bow from the sheath on her back. She began knocking an arrow but Galen grabbed her arm.
- "Wait," he urged. "If they don't know we're here, wouldn't it be wiser to just avoid them?"
- "I don't like the idea of leaving enemies in our back. What if we have to fight at some point and it alerts them to our presence? I'd rather fight our foes piecemeal than all at once."
- "Yes, but light knows how many foes there are in this forest. We have no idea where the tree is, we can't go around fighting every enemy we stumble upon. Don't forget that time is of the essence."
She contemplated his words for a moment.
- "Is this about you not wanting to kill the corrupted rogues again, Galen? You know they're beyond redemption. The only salvation we can give them is a quick death."
- "That's not it," he retorted. "We have a mission and every delay lowers our chances of success. Taking the path of least resistance is simply the wiser course of action."
For his part, Aan wouldn't have minded replacing the disquieting silence of the woods with the familiar din of battle, but he held his tongue. His mother had always chided him for being too reckless.
- "Very well," Dana replied after a short pause. "We'll do it your way. Stay close, and try not to make any sound."
The three crept forward, giving the dark rogues a wide berth. The barbarian and paladin's attempts at stealth were somewhat comical, but thankfully the noises of the patrol itself drowned out their clumsy steps. The amazon held an eastward direction, or at least what she guessed was east. It was hard to tell anything in this forest. Time seemed different here, and hours seemed to stretch by. They circumvented three more patrols before Dana decided to stop.
- "I think we're lost. I have no clue which way to go, for all we know we might have passed the tree already. I've held a steady course so far but that was based on the assumption that the tree is close to the main path. The truth is it could be anywhere in the forest, and if we start wandering around to find it, we'll end up going around in circles."
- "I doubt Akara would send us to look for a needle in a haystack without further ado," countered Galen. "The tree must be unique in some way...maybe it's magical and it glows."
- "Maybe it's just big," Aan interjected.
- "You're one to talk," the paladin remarked snidely.
Dana stared at the huge northman who towered over her and Galen. Her face broke into a grin.
- "Aan, you're a genius!"
- "First time I've been accused of that," he laughed.
- "Wait here," she said as she lay her equipment against the nearest tree and began climbing it with impressive agility. Soon she had disappeared into the foliage. After a moment, she came back down with a triumphant smile.
- "There's a giant tree in that direction," she pointed behind her. "It must be what we're looking for."
The paladin nodded and beckoned for her to lead the way.
- "Ladies first".
They were finally in sight of the great tree.
They had emerged onto a clearing where it stood alone, its massive branches providing shade over the entire area. It was brighter here, the rays of the setting sun dying the clearing in shades of fire and blood.
As they neared the tree, they could make out inscriptions carved into its bark in a script none of them recognized, though Aan found them strangely reminiscent of the runes used by his own people.
- "So this is the tree of Infinus," he said, looking up admiringly.
- "Innifus," Galen corrected.
- "Right, that. This thing must be a at least a thousand years old. It looks nothing like the other trees in this forest."
- "It looks like an ash tree, except much bigger," Dana added, laying a hand on the bark. The glyphs began to glow in a strange pattern, alternating symbols lighting up with a hum of power.
- "This must be the ritual Akara spoke of," Galen offered. "Hopefully the magic will not dissipate once we cut off the..."
In that instant it was the paladin who was cut off by a bestial roar that echoed across the clearing. Three hulking figures emerged from the tree line ahead, rampaging towards them like rolling thunder, throwing clumps of earth around in their stampede.
The amazon recognized them immediately: Wendigos, giant ape-like creatures that walked on two legs in a parody of man, yet were rumored to feast on man-flesh. They were known to be fiercely territorial even when they coexisted peacefully with humans, but the demonic taint that corrupted the land had clearly driven them mad with bloodlust. Their bodies were almost comically disproportioned, hands the size of tree trunks protruding from massive torsos that looked out of place on their small legs and heads.
The three warriors immediately broke into action as the paladin's golden aura enveloped them. Dana placed her spear against the tree and took out her bow. She loosed arrow after arrow at the lead brute, which was bigger and faster than the others, but every missile thudded ineffectually into its ancient and bark-like hide.
- "Scatter!" she called out to her allies.
Galen and Aan moved in opposite directions, each drawing away one of the wendigos while the ancient one plowed its way towards the amazon. She grabbed her spear and at the last second braced it against the ground, hoping the brute would skewer itself with its momentum, but despite its evident rage this was no dumb beast; it batted away the spear and its wielder with a single huge backhand that sent Dana flying and rattled her bones.
She recovered just in time to dodge as the wendigo's fists smashed the ground she had been standing on an instant before. It relentlessly pursued her as she continued to evade it, unable to strike without exposing herself to the creature's massive reach and power.
Use the terrain to your advantage, a familiar voice echoed in her mind. Her sparring sessions with Lydia were a treasure trove of life-saving advice. She suddenly dashed towards the great tree, her enemy on her heels. When she reached it she kept running, jumping onto its trunk and using it as a stepping stone to propel herself even higher. Grabbing a branch, she climbed into the tree with feline grace and disappeared into the foliage.
Meanwhile, her companions had engaged the other two wendigos. Aan charged headlong into his opponent and smashed his broadaxe into its side but was rewarded with a giant fist crashing into his face. He was sent reeling back, the pain in his blood-splattered nose blinding him, and the creature pressed its advantage with a roar despite the axe buried in its ribs.
Just as it moved to strike him the barbarian roared in turn and retaliated with a punch of his own that stunned the beast long enough for him to retrieve his weapon. Blood spurted from the now open axe wound but this only enraged the wendigo further as it pounced on Aan in an attempt to seize him. Its grasping hand was met with the cold steel of his broadaxe, which bit into the fingers and severed off half of the appendage. The beast recoiled in pain and the northman used the opening to go to work on it like a lumberjack on a tree, cutting it down with repeated blows.
On the other side of the clearing, Galen was bracing for impact as his foe smashed into him, and though his shield took the brunt of the charge he was sent inexorably backwards, his feet plowing furrows in the soil. The paladin's golden aura blazed brighter and brighter until the beast could no longer push forward, so it changed tactics; it grabbed the human by the shield and hurled him to the side.
Galen went tumbling but found his footing just in time to block the creature's overhand smash. His left arm numbed by the impact, he retaliated with a rising swing of his war scepter. It bounced on the wendigo's torso without quite reaching the head, so he reversed his swing and sent his weapon crashing into the knee with a sickening crack. The brute buckled and had to support its weight with one hand, its head now an easy target. It tried grabbing Galen with its other hand but he bashed it away with his shield and raised his scepter, its flanged crown aglow with righteous fury, before bringing it down in one thunderous blow that caved in the beast's skull.
The ancient wendigo was pounding on the trunk of the tree of Innifus, outraged that its prey was beyond its reach. Its tiny murderous eyes kept fruitlessly searching the leaves for any trace of the sneaky human.
Just as it backed away from the trunk, winded by its own fury, the amazon pounced from above, slamming her flaming speartip into its head. The creature bellowed with rage; though its thick skin prevented the blow from being fatal the wound was still grievous.
Dana pressed herself into her spear, trying to drive it deeper but she quickly realized her mistake as the brute seized her by the waist and began squeezing, her scale mail providing no protection against the crushing grip. She screamed breathlessly as the air was forcefully ejected from her lungs, yet she retained enough focus to reach for one of the javelins on her thigh. She pulled it out and jammed it into her captor's eye.
The beast roared in pain and flung her away, her body hitting the ground hard. She was already getting to her feet as she gasped to breathe; she knew she had little time to spare before the tainted ancient was on her again. She ran, putting as much distance as she could between herself and her foe.
When she heard it recover and begin barreling towards her, she pulled out her bow and shot arrows imbued with frost at the wendigo's legs. The missiles embedded themselves in the monstrous limbs and began to cover them with a thin sheen of ice, but this only slowed down the creature.
Dana stilled her panicked breathing and knocked one more arrow, recalling her training in Mount Karcheus. Her mana flowed freely into the shaft, filling it with the wintery breath of Karcheus himself, and when she let fly it chilled the air in its trail.
The arrow slammed home and instantly froze the ground in front of the charging wendigo; it slipped on the ice and its reckless momentum sent it sprawling at the amazon's feet. She immediately grabbed hold of her spear and pushed with all her weight, driving the searing tip into the creature's brain with a grunt of triumph.
The hulking body was wracked with spasms, then went still, and the stillness seemed to spread to the entire clearing which a moment ago had echoed with sound and fury. Galen and Aan were rejoining her, appearing unharmed except for the barbarian's nose. She allowed herself a sigh of relief.
- "You two sure took your sweet time," she reproached playfully. "I might as well have taken all three of them on by myself."
The barbarian grinned at the familiar boisterous banter but Galen simply gazed intently into her eyes. It was the same look he had given her while she had been in his care.
- "Holy man, think you can fix this up for me?" Aan pointed at his nose.
- "I don't know, I think you look better this way," the paladin replied.
- "You wouldn't want to break Charsi's heart, would you?" the amazon chided.
Galen chuckled and set about healing the barbarian's face, while Dana took out a dagger and began chiseling at the bark to remove the part that contained the carvings.
When she was done, she had a scroll made of inscribed bark in her hand, one that still pulsed with magic. She rolled it and placed it inside a scroll tube that hung on her belt.
- "I have what we came for. We can go back to Akara now".
- "Great," Aan interjected, feeling up his restored nose with alternating grimaces "we get to retrace our steps through the long dark tunnel, not to mention all the rogue patrols we'll have to avoid again".
- "Maybe not," Dana replied mysteriously. Despite the dying light she had spied something familiar in the underbrush close by.
She moved there and began removing the overgrowth with her bare hands. As she did so, she cut herself on some thorns, and a drop of blood dripped onto the object she was uncovering. There was a sudden flash of blue light, which turned into a soft glow and a low hum.
- "Looks like we won't have to sleep out here after all," she finally revealed her handiwork, gesturing invitingly at the waypoint that had been hidden by the shrubbery.
