The End of the Dryads

[The Hive]

There was activity above, when the first of the large two legged creatures appeared in the ruins, the few drone Slivers left in the city sank deep within the earth. The Hive Slivers dwelling deep within their caverns nesting around the Arc of Earth felt the vibrations of the creatures above as they shaped their dwellings back together. The Slivers were still little more than animals mentally but they recognized great power when they were close to it. These creatures were more powerful than the two legged creatures in the woods, that much was obvious, they would be more cunning prey.

The massive Hive Slivers rumbled the Earth slightly as they moved about the caverns, laying tens of thousands of eggs, that began hatching within hours, by the end of the day an Army of Drone Slivers had moved out of the earth into the Woods of the Dryads, moving under the cover of Night, with the abilities of creatures already consumed, they began their dreadful hunt. The first night of the newly rebuilt Cyrida was an exceptionally eerie one, the horrific screams, and wails of dying Dryads in the woods washed over the city, mixed with the dying screeches of Slivers, hair raising banshee like sounds.

Dryads were not the only ones screaming, animals both prey and hunters alike were dying in the Woods in the night, within the first few hours the screams were too far back in the Wood to be heard in Cyrida any longer. As the sun rose the last of the Sliver Army, numbering around three thousand, sank back into the earth the first rays of the morning sun filtered through the tall branches of the massive trees to light a horrific scene. Blood splashed all over the trees, mangled half eaten dryad body parts littered the forest floor, the few creatures that had escaped the carnage f of the previous night remained in their dens, fearful to come out even to eat.

The ground was covered in fallen weapons, bows and swords crafted by the finest Dryad weapon smiths had not saved the race from the terror that came in the night. Here and there strewn through the torn apart and half devoured corpses of the Dryads were fallen Slivers, some so covered in arrows they were hardly recognizable. The worst Sliver casualties were in the heart of the Grove, where the Large dead Tree that belonged to the Dryad queen rose tall above the others in the Wood. Sliver corpses were heaped in a ring almost forming a wall around the tree, in the center was the remains of the Dryad royal guard, the most elite trained Dryads, all that remained of them were little chunks of flesh here and there.

Of the Dryad queen there was nothing more than a red smear across the brittle dead trunk of her tree.

[Lomes Artelias]

She took the Arc of Shadows from Daegan and smiled at him, his concern for her was amusing to her, not that it wasn't warranted, but it was nice for once in her life to see someone actually concerned about her well being for her, and not for the repercussions to the rest of creation. She watched his form vanish and turned her mind to more immediate matters. She touched the dream world lightly scanning through it till she found a spot to her liking in the Wood of the Dryad's and then stepped out of the waking world and into the Dream world physically. A simple thought brought her there, the world spinning around her and coming to rest in the lushly sunlit forest.

She stepped back into the waking world and blinked at the carnage surrounding her. Dismembered limbs and torsos of the small nymph like dryads, most gnawed on and far too few to account for the whole race. The idea that some creatures had devoured them was shocking to say the least. She stepped carefully her eyes scanning the underbrush, more than half the trees around her were dying, she knew that most of the trees in the Wood were linked to a Dryad, but not all, the Forest would survive, but nowhere near the lush verdant woodland it had been before.

The loss of the peaceful creatures to the south saddened her inside, they were a kind of counterbalance to this world, so much fighting and death prevailed and Dryads provided an intense amount of life to the southern half of the world. Such was the way of things though, more important to the safety of the Sedi was discovering what could do this, and how it could be done.

A slight movement to the left caught her attention she turned and tightened her grip on the Arc of Shadows, her eyes scanning the area silently picking out images deep within the shadowed woodland that it would not be possible to see without the Aid of the Arc itself. They were out there, watching her, unaware that she was watching them as well. There were only five; stragglers too wounded to make it back by the look of them.

“How interesting...” They were shadowing her movements, but they were moving as one, every time one fell back another took its place, keeping her surrounded but they were not advancing, and she didn't see any evidence they were communicating, not trough sounds or actions anyway.

She knew they were hunting her, but their caution was something more than the reactions of a predator. There was some kind of intelligence behind their actions, she raised he hand and looked down at the Arc of Life and Dreams, then glanced at the other hand and the Arc of Shadows. She could feel the power that radiated off the Objects. Perhaps this was what they were cautious about, if that was the case then they were far more intelligent than animals.

She stopped walking and the 5 wounded Slivers stopped with her, they tightened their circle around her remaining hidden and utterly silent, still unaware that she was observing them even as they observed her. She could kill them easily enough, from what she observed they were strong fast predators, perhaps with uncanny intelligence but something stopped her, she couldn't put her finger on it but she felt... uneasy around them.

She glanced around the grove, dryad and sliver corpses still littered the ground, she stepped up to one of the creatures corpses and knelt by it It was relatively undamaged, a single arrow piercing it through the head had dropped it. They could obviously die, anything that could be killed in such a fashion should not have been able to wipe out the entire Dryad race in a single night unless... How many of them were there? How many to risk sending enough here to take the kinds of losses they had in crushing a species that was such a little threat. None of it made any sense to her.

[Baen]

Pallid light; quick, relatively painless… than nothing.

Oblivion.

There was nothing here, it was quiet, peaceful… but alas, such things are never meant to last.

There was pain, desolate pain as an odd shaped pair of lungs drew in their first breaths, as somber as a newborn child, a pair of oddly shaded obsidian eyes opened to the brightness of sun. There was a squinting, a small hand that reached up to cover those thin little eyelids, and the hand belonged to that of a small child. There were more, hundreds, laying about the forest all without clothes, simply as if someone had dumped them upon the forested earth from above. There had been only no sensation of falling; only a kind of singular forceful push as if being reborn into a cold, cruel place. There was the pain of mind, an absence of the maternal that had been there so comforting before. Though as the others awoke, there was that comfort, that partnership of mind that filled the void like liquid to a cup, over spilling as the last felt the harshness of its first breaths in this place.

Small, dimple knuckled hands pushed the body up from where it had rested so peacefully, letting awkward legs push it into position that it had seen the other’s take. There was that singular mind of thought, but it wasn’t quite put into words or images as much as a simple knowledge of presence, the knowing that you are not alone that there is something else out there; that their knowledge is yours. The peace weaved peace through the tree’s, and the bodies of the collective gathered- from youthful child to men that looked as ancient as some of the trees; withered and white, stood. Baen, a singular knowledge of name, of calling; its what she’d heard other’s use, stood to her mind as she took a small step forward and promptly landed on her face. An amazing amount of pain raced through her, and dark eyes welled with crystal clear tears as she pushed her hands up to stand again.

Her feet pulled beneath her, and she began the tedious task of learning how to walk…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

They had built a city; it was massive in manners, built from trees and roots a city in its own right, a newfound ability of whispering to the elements discovered to conceal the city within a veil of the forest; basically any who came across it without knowledge of the power would see only more forest and simply go right through completely unaware. This is how they had managed to survive when the race extinguished the Druids; an it was decided then that Baen would go out and seek the reasoning of this beneath her own veil. She was invisible practically against the forest, a blowing leaf, a slithering snake, a flying bird. She was everywhere an nowhere at once, and there was a kind of sad song that was coursing through her throat at the hapless slaughter of these earthen creatures that had so long ago cared for the maternal.

There were creatures that they had saw, that passed through their wooding, and it was another new thing that came to Baen then; a Darkness that had her pause and stumble in her footing, almost dropping the spell. It was Anger, but she had no name for it. No understanding but that it was negativity and something that she was not accustomed to. The thought caused the small child face to frown, and the soft blue tattoo that was on her face to glow as if in comfort, the presence whispering to let her know she was not alone, ridding itself of the negativity as the positive energy replaced it, cleansing and reminding her that she had a mission for her people, for their survival, for the knowledge of why they were released.

The veil almost dropped as she saw the woman standing amongst the carnage, and she stopped, frozen in steps as the veil held tight. Lomes might see through the simple magic; or if not she’d simply see a fox kit standing there, frozen where it stood, large brown eyes wide… but something was off about the illusion if she saw it- something that itched at the brain of something that thought more complicated than primal.

[Lomes Artelias]

Lomes paused in her examination of the Sliver to glance at the apparent fox kit watching her, it didn't take much deduction to examine the magical shielding holding the image around the creature but when she managed to look past it her eyes widened. She stood from the dead body of the Sliver in front of her and locked her eyes on this creature in front of her, unless it had a much more complicated warding behind the simple disguise it was using its true form was a small child like creature with disturbingly black eyes.

She froze for a moment the Shadows warning her about the Slivers watching and slowly creeping closer, their actions emboldened by her apparent lack of attention. What an incredible development, if these creatures were not the only new arrivals then perhaps these two races were related, perhaps there were more. What could possibly have caused such a drastic shift in the balance of this world...

“Shit...” It dawned on her, the chaotic release of energy during the resurrection of the Sedi from Tarthia. There was no way she could have anticipated this result, and she still had a feeling she didn't have a clue as to the extent of the damage. Her head shot up as the Shadows snarled at the approach of the Slivers. She sighed and negligently released her restraint on the Shadows, they leapt from the trees and leaves, lashed out and sliced the encircling slivers into hundreds of pieces in a flash.

She turned to Baen and frowned slightly, she wasn't sure if this creature was dangerous either, but the fact that it was hiding from the Slivers was indication that she had little to fear from it. Aether drifted from the cracks in her skin and a brief wave of nausea nearly overcame her. She staggered for a second and caught herself on a nearby tree. She was going to have to do something about these wounds eventually, but even the Arc of life failed at healing them.

She decided to try to contact this creature, she embraced power through the Arc of Dreams and impressed it onto the creatures mind, simplistic images, emotions and sensations, the vague ideas conveyed asked where and how it had come to be here what its intentions were. She had no idea if it could speak, and rather than say the wrong thing or frighten it further, this was the most basic form of communications she could be sure it would understand.

As she waited for the creature to Answer she embraced the magic portion of her soul and opened a small portal tot he tower of shadows, she knelt and tossed the nearly intact corpse of the Sliver through the portal and onto the floor in Daegan's chambers. She left the portal open and should he look through it he would be able to see and communicate with her.

“I'll be coming through soon Sire, just let me wrap things up here first I have learned far more than I thought I would.”

She squinted as the light filtering through the trees abruptly brightened in intensity feeling the gaze of the Sage of Light across the land she smirked slightly and shook her head her words remaining soft and steady.

“And I have a feeling What I have not learned Lasius just did.”

[Daegan]

Daegan had been up for several hours now, his rest short and sweet to say the least. His mind was troubled and without Lomes near him, he couldn’t find the peace he needed to slip into slumber. For the better part of his long life, Daegan had been alone. In some instances he preferred it. Outside of his people, no one counted on him. No one really needed him. But now things were different. He had daughters now, and a growing infatuation with the Avian that had saved them all. Daegan felt complete, in some senses at least, and had become almost dependant upon the presence of Lomes. She was the soothing, calming sensation in the maelstrom that was his mind.

Life in Cyrida was beginning to return back to normal, and Daegan paid little mind to it at the present. He had ensured the fortifications of the city were intact and trained a handful of those wishing to be Elites on how to defend the city at a moments notice. He, of course, would take up arms as well – and would most likely be the first to do so – but for now he didn’t care. He simply sat in the antechamber in his bedroom, the shadows licking over his body as the Soul Fire well burned silently above.

He had been watching Lomes for awhile now, and had felt the strange creatures stalking his love in the shadow. It brought a silent snarl across his lips as he closed his eyes, manipulating his element to feel through the trees and brush of the Wood of the Dryad, his mind focused on the Arc of Shadows and the Avian that held it. The snarl was replaced by an almost proud smirk as Lomes dealt with the strange little creatures with almost no difficulty.

But there was something else. Something strange unlike anything he’d felt before lurking in the shadows.

Daegan’s eyes flashed open suddenly as he heard a thud. Instinctively the murky substance that was his element exploded around him, as if he had just fallen backwards into a shadowy pool. The tiny tendrils swarmed around his body, overlapping themselves as the carcass of the dead Sliver stopped before him. He glanced at the body, and then at the strange rift that had appeared suddenly before his antechamber, a smile coming to his face.

“Hello my love… this is quite the strange, uh, present. Are these little bastards what caused the Dryad carna…”

His words trailed off as the permanent twilight over Cyrida seemed to shudder and gave way for several seconds, the intense sunlight making him almost hiss outwardly as his head darted to a window. His eyes narrowed as the sun once more retracted and the twilight fell back into place. Daegan shook his head, turning back to the portal and cleared his throat before speaking again.

“It seems like he has indeed. At any rate, finish up there and come home to me. We’ll discuss plans on what needs to be done with our new neighbors to the South.”

[Baen]

Survival warred within Baen; they had survived on instinct alone and now she could feel predators around her; even if the illusion filled up the sights of the creatures that had slaughtered the woodland creatures, even a fox probably wouldn’t be spared from the claws of them if they came after this odd looking creature before her. Delicate ears human but oddly more round and tipped like some kind of elven creature poked through the baby fine golden curls, the dark odd black eyes flickering over Lomes as the image of the fox shifted its foot nervously, and Baen herself shifted her feet, as if getting ready to run. She felt indeed like the heart of the fox though her mind was still a trained calm, the voice of the others letting her know that they were still present with her; though survival of any race could agree that even masses couldn’t help a lone creature amidst the enemy.

The images assaulted her mind, and she extended her mind to Lomes then, non-intrusive it would act much like a subconscious dream state if the link made it through, touching parts of the brain that normally lay dormant and sleepy, touching them like a cool ice without the edge of cold burn. Her small fingers curled as she felt her heartbeat race faster, thumping in her chest a wild, trapped thing. For all appearances she was human without her illusion, except for the odd black eyes, but she knew. The other Mystics, old tall creatures or small children, were based parts of the land that had become sentient as they cared for it at one point, physically reflecting maturity of mind and ability rather than actual age. She listened to the connection, letting the massive awareness welcome the new mind (so to say) though curiously and cautiously sharing nothing but the actual feeling of presence.

Baen sent the images along though, of awaking within the nude, and setting up land though she gave little actual imaging beyond building so hopefully this creature if hostile wouldn’t attack, and left out the images of their spells woven around it. Images of the feeling that tugged them away, little more than pieces of sentient within the land that had not enough power or will to manifest, but that were given life by some strange surge that pulled them forth and shaped them. Her small form shifted again, and she moved closer to Lomes feeling no hostility, but she could feel the closing in of the other race and her fear reeked like some kind of intoxicating perfume; never actually manifesting, but to her mind predators hunted on the scent that was left behind of a scared creature, and what they had observed of these things they were indeed predators of many natures.

She sent the images that they saw of the Predators, of the fighting, and the images of them as they watched, as the predators moved over them but not why (it wouldn’t do to have this creature find out that they used the same mask she used now to cover their homes) because hers was not a race of battle, they simply cared for the land. Delighted images that could easily be taken from a child’s mind would assault her then, delight of things like the forest creatures, the pleasure of wind and breeze, the joys of climbing trees, before Baen realized that her mind was once more wandering of it’s own accord and she quickly shut it off, leaving the link open for communication but trying to keep her mind locked like most of the collective had, if she only would keep consontrating…

[Lomes Artelias]

Lomes glanced at the small child like creature as the images assaulted her mind and rapidly sorted through taking what she could from it and filing the rest away for study later. She glanced around at the carnage and rapidly darkening woods, and then back at the little child like creature in the guise of a fox kit. If there were more of those creatures around it was entirely possible she wouldn't make it back to where she had come from, she didn't have time to debate the decision in her mind as dizziness nearly overcame her again and the portal damn near snapped shut before she reestablished her hold on the Magick.

She glanced over her shoulder and through the portal at Daegan, her eyes were tight from effort even though she wasn't doing that much. ”Take the Creature somewhere secure Sire, I will resurrect it when shortly and we will study it to find out just what it is and what kind of threat it poses. I'm going to bring this other creature back with me we can speak with it more in depth, and then give it a proper escort back to the woods so it doesn't get attacked.”

She turned and focused fighting back nausea at the effort and gripped the Arc of Shadows. Shadows raced through the forest and surrounded the small fox kit and Lomes both, they ripped around in a cyclone for a brief second around the two and when they scattered they were back in Daegan's chambers. The portal she had been holding open snapped shut, she would have simply stepped through it rather than use the Arc of Shadows to teleport herself, but she was afraid that if she tried to walk her legs would give out from under her, and she didn't want to worry Daegan about what could only be simple exhaustion. ”I'm going to Meditate, see to this little creature for me please dear, I will join you when I have gathered enough strength back.”

She dropped the Arc of Shadows to the ground and sat down slowly crossing her legs, as the Aether leaking from her surrounded her form in a kind of misty solitude. She didn't embrace any elements, and she left the Arcs of Life and Dreams on, not returning them to their altar. Her eyes slid shut and her breathing evened out, she wasn't exactly conscious but she was aware of everything that was happening around her. She was also aware of the growing weakness deep within her body and that something would eventually have to be done about it for the good of all.