*Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 119*
*TURN BACK IF YE HAVEN'T YET CAST YOUR EYES UPON IT.*
"You okay Cad?" Beau asked looking up at him, as he stared around the twisting, the wrongness of this too-perfect forest with unease.
"No…this is casting a shadow over me," he responded, fighting to look away as memories came to him unbidden.
Calliope chasing him amongst the trees near their home, both of them giggling as they ran.
"Get back here Caduceus!" Calliope called, reaching out to grab him only for him to scamper away.
"That's not how the game works…I don't think" he replied whirling around to look at her and accidentally tripping over a tree root.
He fell backward hard, and Calliope tackled him, the two rolling around the leaf-litter laughing.
"Ow," Cad muttered, as his sister finally let him go and they both sat up.
His eyes were immediately drawn to what he had tripped over.
The roots of a tree were poking up from within the dirt…but they looked off, gray and twisted, knotted together in a deformed clump. His eyes tracked upwards, and he spotted that the branches were much the same, oddly conjoined with its nearest neighbor, an odd gray coloration spreading from one to the other.
He had no clue what this meant, but it was odd, "Weird?"
"Huh?" Calliope asked, to which he just pointed up. She followed his gaze and ended up looking just as stumped as him, as a large shadow passed over the both of them.
Cad looked down and spotted his Aunt, smiling at the two of them, "Well look at the both of you, more rumpled than a pair of Fox Kits."
"Aunt Corrin, what's that?" Calliope asked, pointing up into the trees.
Corrin looked upward, and Cad noticed, an immediate worry cross across her face.
"Nothing you need to worry about dears, why don't you head back to the grove, Calli, can you tell your Mother to join me?" she said, but Cad…thought she might have been lying.
He and his sister had run off, but he'd kept watching his Aunt, noticing her tense shoulders and worried glances, and he thought he heard her whisper under her breath, "It's gotten worse."
That had been the first time he had found out his home was sick, but it wouldn't have been till later that he learned just how bad it was. Aeor…was it the cause for it all, everything he'd seen and learned about this place, its people, its creations, it was an affront to what was natural.
And here…nature was bending in abnormal shapes.
He would have to ask Beau and Caleb more, this was confusing, and frightening in a manner that made him long for home.
Jester's voice dragged him out of his mulling thoughts, "Caduceus, have you ever tried talking to the trees in the Savlierwood?"
More memories flashed in his mind, "No…I…"
Beau spoke up, "Why didn't you talk to them?"
Cad answered, "I don't know."
Another memory played across his mind.
He was the last one left in the Grove, the sickness now battering at the borders of his home, and he had no clue how to fix it or why it was spreading so quickly.
He knew that the Wildmother could fix it, his family leaving to pursue avenues for a cure.
And he was alone.
As the trees closed in around him he felt the urge to ask them hunt for a sign as to what was causing them to act in such an unnatural way.
And one day his nervous curiosity had gotten the better of him.
So he'd left, wandering into the woods, trying to find an answer.
Instead, he'd found a wolf, lying against the base of one of the tree's shaking fit-fully, as it retched.
It was midwinter, food was becoming scarce, and the beast was clearly starving.
"Hey," Cad said, slowing and kneeling down, knowing it would understand him, "What's wrong? Do you need food? Can I help?"
The wolf looked at him with frightened, pained eyes and retched again, purple leaves and white bark covered in mucus spattering the ground. The animal continued to shake fitfully.
"Oh…oh dear," he muttered, calling his magics to him and preparing a healing spell to aid the ailing animal when it collapsed to the ground and began to twitch.
It grew, expanding in size unexpectantly, flesh tearing and blood leaking down its body as large spurs of bone emerged from it's back. It looked up to him, the fear gone, replaced with feral rage, and it snapped at him.
He'd returned to the Grove alive but badly wounded. He'd winced as he dressed his wounds, his eyes hunting the edge of the forest for other dangers. He didn't leave the grove after that.
Cad snapped back to reality, leaning on his staff for a bit of support as he looked over at Beau, "Things change."