by Hans Bezdek
“We are going to kill the treekin, and that is final,” said Brynlee.
Diana straightened her back and stared back at her leader. “If you do that, I’m notifying The Guild the second we leave the Willows. We are meant to be protectors of Yaerna, not destroyers of it. These two are right. Attacking a guardian is out of our jurisdiction.”
The two women stared at each other in silence for a moment. Diana seemed to be reasonable. Perhaps we could come to some sort of arrangement with them to get through the forest. Then it would be a dash for the Shattered Sword once we got out.
“Very well,” said Brynlee coolly. The woman looked down at the dwarf. “Green light on Diana.”
“Green light?!” stammered Diana, taking a step back.
Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t fast enough. With one swing, the dwarf’s axe cut clean through her, separating the top third of her body from the rest. Diana fell, and with her, any hopes I had of coming to a mutually beneficial arrangement with this group.
Hands cupped together, I quickly mumbled the necessary incantation as quietly as I could. It was a spell I hadn’t used in years, but Galdric’s sorcerer friend reminded me of its effectiveness.
“That was quick,” smirked Brynlee, nodding at the dwarf in approval.
“Been wantin to do that fer a bit,” chuckled the dwarf, wiping the head of his axe on the grass to get rid of some of Diana’s blood. “Not much of a ranger if she couldn’t help us through here, was she?”
“Move!” shouted Anders as his eyes fell upon me. He dove out of the way as the others looked around in confusion.
Not sure if Cassandra was ready or not, I had to release the spell. Electricity was dancing in my palms, exploding out in a blue ray as I opened my hands towards the center of The Guild. Brynlee and the other dwarf barely managed to skirt around the beam, but my true target wasn’t so lucky.
The man in plate shook as he took a direct hit from the electricity, sparks of blue and yellow light bouncing back and forth between the gaps in his armor. After a few seconds of this, the man’s gauntlets shot off into the forest. The ray ended, and the man slowly collapsed back. His body twitched a few times, but was otherwise lifeless.
“You’ll pay for that,” hissed Brynlee, leveling her sword at me.
“What?” I asked, raising my hands out. “You guys were having so much fun killing your own people, I thought I’d give it a shot. I’ve gotta admit… it’s definitely a good time.”
“Kill him!” she shouted, charging at me as the two dwarves followed after her.
Before she could reach me, Cassandra sprang forth from the shadows of a nearby tree, tackling her to the ground. Anders and the other dwarf initially ran past, but Anders stopped and looked back at the two women. The other dwarf, however, barreled straight towards me, axe raised high.
“Think yer funny, eh?” he shouted.
“Sometimes,” I nodded, jumping to the left as he cleaved down at me.
The dwarf was quick, but I was quicker. As long as I kept my distance, I didn’t think I’d have too much of a problem. Risking a look, I checked to see how Cassandra faired.
The two women were back on their feet. Brynlee was back peddling, only able to bring her sword up in defensive sweeps to block the elf’s nonstop onslaught of dagger jabs. Cassandra was swinging with a burst of speed and power, occasionally finding her way through the woman’s defenses and nicking her opponent.
Luckily for us, Anders stood in between the two duels, hesitating with which one he should help out.
I dove to the ground as my opponent caught up to me, driving his axe through the air in a horizontal swipe.
“Stay still why don’t ya?” grumbled the dwarf, bring his axe back over head and swinging it down with all his might.
I barrel rolled out of the way, getting to my feet as quickly as I could. One hit from that axe and I’d be toast. The dwarf was too strong for me to try and block or parry with my dagger, so I was going to have to go with a different approach.
“Come on, shrimpy,” I beckoned, waving him on. “Or are you already out of breath, you fat slob?”
“You wish, sorcerer,” he chuckled, hopping at me and swinging again. He must have assumed that I was defenseless as long as I was being actively attacked. Magic users needed bits of time in order to do any truly devastating spells, so it was common to try and close the distance as much as possible.
However, I had something else in mind other than magic.
I jumped back half a step, narrowly avoiding his swing, before jumping up close to him. His axe was too large to hit me while I was face to face with him, and he gave me a puzzled look. It probably looked like I was just stalling for time.
Instead, I kicked up between his legs as hard as I could.
The dwarf immediately dropped his axe and crumbled, letting out a shockingly high pitched noise, especially for a dwarf.
That had to hurt.
“Have ye no honor?” whined the dwarf, down on both knees and holding his groin.
“Nope,” I shrugged, grabbing his throat with one hand and pulling my dagger back with the other to deliver the killing blow. If he hadn’t just murdered his own party member in cold blood, I might have tried to have a little mercy on the guy. However, I didn’t see this ending well if I let him go.
“Stop!” came a shout as my dagger was halfway to the dwarf.
I paused, glancing over to where Cassandra was. Brynlee was bleeding pretty badly now, and looked to be on her last leg. Cassandra, meanwhile, still looked fresh. The human no longer had her sword, and the elf had just one dagger left in her hand.
Happy to see we were about to win, I looked around for where the shout came from.
I almost lost my grip on the dwarf as I saw Anders holding the treekin, hand axe at its neck.
“Now… put yer weapons down, and let me people go.”
Cassandra hesitated. She didn’t want the treekin to die, but surrendering her weapon would surely mean death for her. She appeared to struggle with the hard decision.
Not me, though.
Holding my dagger steady, I waited until Anders glanced at me. When he did, I plunged it into the other dwarf’s eye, finishing him off.
“W-What are ye doin!” stammered Anders, looking in horror at his dead ally. “I-I’ll kill the lil splinter, didn’t ya hear me?”
“I don’t care,” I shrugged. It was mostly true. I wasn’t about to simply give up and die for some little twig creature that I had just met, especially at the hand of The Guild. Dying to a Tumbler had some respect, but The Guild? I’d be a laughing stock all across Yaerna! “Go ahead and kill the treekin. You’ll be outnumbered two to one, and even if you somehow escape, we’ll tell everyone about how a dwarf named Anders from The Guild killed a baby guardian of the woods. I’m sure you’ll be green lit pretty quickly yourself.”
Anders looked back at his remaining ally in a panic. Sensing the tide was turning back against her, Brynlee leapt forward and slapped Cassandra’s dagger from her hand. Brynlee began swinging wildly with her fists at Cassandra, but the elf ducked and reached for something in her boot. Grabbing hold of her last dagger, Cassandra lunged up into Brynlee’s chest with it. The human let out a final gasp, before falling to her side.
Alone now, Anders pushed the treekin away and took off running.
If it were anyone else, I probably would’ve let them go. It being the dwarf that knocked me over and called me trash, though… I couldn’t just let that happen. I sprinted off after him.
Dwarves can be quick in combat, but are typically not the fastest when it comes to running. It took me less than a minute to catch up to him, gathering energy as I ran. The blue lightning spell took up a lot of my energy, but I still had some to spare.
He glanced behind him as he heard my steps, eyes wide in fear.
I bent down as he did, touching the ground and releasing my power. The ground in front of him shot up a foot, tripping him up. The dwarf tumbled to th
e ground as I got up and ran closer.
“Hey buddy!” I shouted, jumping into the air and cocking my fist back. “I got something for ya!”
“N-Now w-wait a second…” mumbled Anders, stumbling on the ground and bringing his hands up defensively.
I had been wanting to do this for a long time. Punching forward with all my might, the engines in the glove activated and propelled me forward. I flew fist first at his chin, connecting with a beautiful crunch.
Landing on my feet, it was now Anders’ turn to fly. The dwarf rocketed back from the force of the blow, leaving his feet and crashing through not one, not two, but five trees before he finally came to a stop.
“Who’s the gutter trash now?!” I shouted at his motionless body as the trees he destroyed came down.
Chapter 16
I waited a minute to see if Anders would get back up. When he didn’t, I decided to just let him be. He wasn’t getting out of the Willows anytime soon. Speaking of which…
Turning around, I tried to get my bearings back. I couldn’t be too far away from Cassandra, but I couldn’t risk going in the wrong direction. Even if I picked the right one, there was no guarantee that I hadn’t already gotten far enough away to set off the magic of this place and be permanently separated from the elf.
“Reimar!” Cassandra shouted to my right, somewhere in the distance. I ran as fast as I could, trying to follow where her voice was coming from.
After sometime calling back and forth to each other, we were united again.
“Cassandra!” I smiled, glad to see her. “I was worried I-Ow!”
The elf swatted me with both hands as I tried to protect my face.
“Why would you run off like that!” she demanded.
“That dwarf was getting away! He could’ve come back and-Ow! Stop!”
“You chased after him just because you had a grudge!” she said, smacking me one more time for good measure. “That wasn’t smart! We could’ve gotten separated, and then been in even more trouble than before.”
“Okay, okay!” I said, keeping my hands up in case the barrage started again. “You’re right, I only chased him because I wanted to punch him in the face. I’m sorry. It was dumb.”
Cassandra sighed and shook her head, but seemed to accept my apology since she stopped smacking me. She looked me over and smiled just a tad. “Did you get to hit him?”
“Yup,” I smirked, holding up my goblin glove. “Sent him flying through a few trees with the help of this bad boy.”
“Jealous I couldn’t witness it,” she nodded in approval.
The bushes behind her rustled, and I readied my dagger. Was there someone we missed? Maybe the man in plate armor wasn’t dead after all.
Instead, the little treekin popped out.
“You two saved me!” cheered the little creature.
Cassandra knelt down and smiled at him. “Of course we did! It was the right thing to do.”
“I was a worried when the human here said to kill me,” said the treekin, pointing up at me. “I see now it was just a distraction though!”
“Y-Yeah… that… that’s what that was,” I nodded. I’m glad it worked out, but it was by no means my plan. He didn’t need to know that, though. “What’s your name, little guy?”
“Barykbrabrrybayrabyaa,” smiled the treekin. “The third!”
“Huh. That’s quite the name.”
“Treekin have hard to pronounce names with our tongues,” explained Cassandra.
“I hadn’t noticed,” I said. “I’m going to call you Barky, if that’s okay with you.”
“Barky?” laughed the treekin. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a treekin with such a short name before.”
“You guys don’t have nicknames?” I asked.
Barky shook his head.
“Well, you’ll get to be the first of your people to have one, then,” I said.
Barky smiled and shook in excitement. “What are your names?”
“I’m Cassandra, and this is Reimar,” she said, gesturing to each of us in turn. “Did you grow up in the Willows of Wander?”
“I don’t know what those are, but I’ve always been in these woods,” he shrugged. “We don’t talk to many outsiders, so we don’t know what you would call this place.”
“We?” I asked. “There are more of you?”
“Of course,” he nodded. “I can take you to meet the others if you’d like.”
“Maybe lat-”
“We’d love if you could,” interrupted Cassandra. She gave me a look, and stood up, lowering her voice to a whisper. “We can learn more about this place and maybe the Shattered Sword if we talk to the elders of his group.”
“Oh… good idea,” I nodded.
Barky led us through the woods, pointing out various trees that he had a fondness for as we went. I couldn’t tell the difference between any of them, but he seemed to have a name for each one. He explained that this area was his playground, and that his people had named all the trees in order to never be lost here. Outsiders would come in and be lost forever, but not the treekin.
“Why were you so far away from you people?” I asked after we had been walking for half an hour.
“I was looking for my dog,” said Barky. “That was probably a bit far for him to go, but he ran away last night and I couldn’t find him.”
“I didn’t know there were dogs out here,” said Cassandra. “What does he look like?”
“He’s big and black, with red eyes and three tails,” explained Barky.
Cassandra’s eyes widened as I was hit by a sudden coughing fit.
“Th-Three tails, did you say?” I clarified.
“Yes,” nodded the treekin. “He’s a very friendly dog, always tackling us and licking our faces until he tires. I’m a bit worried something happened to him.”
Cassandra and I shared a panicked look.
“Uh… don’t worry, kid,” I said. “I’m… I’m sure he’ll turn up one of these days.”
We continued on in silence. His poor dog… I thought the thing was trying to kill me!
The trees started to get closer and closer as we walked, until finally we had to go in a single file line to make it through. Barky went first, followed by Cassandra, and me picking up the rear.
I watched Cassandra in front of me as she joked and talked with Barky. She had a renewed look of hope on her face. She walked with her shoulders back and head held high again, like when we had first entered the Willows. Meeting Barky had sparked her zeal for the Shattered Sword once again, and things were looking up. I wasn’t so sure if this would turn out to be as helpful, but it sure beat wandering around aimlessly all day.
A vine dropped down close to the elf, and it almost appeared to be following her. Actually… it was following her! Another vine dropped beside her, and another one.
“Cassandra!” I shouted. “Watch ou-”
Intense pressure surrounded me and I was hoisted into the air. I looked down to see enchanted vines wrapped all around me, and looked over to see the same had been done to Cassandra. Our arms were pinned at our sides, and there was no wiggle room whatsoever.
“W-What’s going on?” she asked, struggling to break free.
Two giant creatures stomped over to us. These looked very similar to Barky, but stood at least eight or nine feet tall. Their arms looked more like giant logs than twigs, and they had leaves covering the bottom of their chins, looking almost like beards. I looked around for Barky, but he was nowhere to be seen. Were these friends of his, or was he taken as well?
“You two dared to take Barykbrabrrybayrabyaa hostage, and have him lead you here?” demanded the giant treekin on the left. “We shall wring you dry!”
The two approached as additional vines spring from their arms. As they got closer, I realized that these vines were covered with horribly sharp looking spikes.
“Wait, there’s been a misunderstanding!” pleaded Cassandra, still trying to get at a dagger on her belt.
“Uh, Barky!” I shouted. “Could use some help!”
The treekin pulled their arms back, ready to lash out with their spiked vine whips.
“Halt!” boomed a voice behind them.
The two stopped on a dime, lowering their arms and turning around.
A third giant treekin, this one a foot taller than the other two, appeared. He had on a long robe made entirely of beautiful flowers, along with a wreath around his neck.
“Those two creatures saved Prince Barykbrabrrybayrabyaa,” he said. “They wish him no harm. We shall let them enter.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” nodded the two other treekin, their vines pulling back into their arms. They walked away as the vines around us gently set us down and loosened their grip.
Cassandra looked back at me, not sure what to do now.
I shrugged, wiggled past her, and followed the treekin.
We emerged from the closely packed trees to a huge clearing. Scores of treekin of all sizes were milling about with their daily routine. Large tents of leaves were the only buildings, and they were all very large to accommodate the giants among them. The two treekin that nearly killed us waited by the opening as Cassandra and I passed through, while other treekin bowed and saluted to the robed treekin in front of us.
“You must excuse our two guards,” explained the apparent ruler of the treekin. “We rarely get any visitors, and when they saw you with Prince Barykbrabrrybayrabyaa, they were worried that you had kidnapped him. Wouldn’t be the first time some outsiders took a young one and tried to get us to pay a ransom.”
“Barky’s a prince?” I said, shocked that he hadn’t mentioned it at all to us.
The treekin gave me a confused look before nodding. “Ah, that’s right. He mentioned that you bestowed upon him the first short name of our people. Barky, is it? What a strange name. Yes, very strange indeed.”
We followed him as he entered the largest leaf building. Dozens of stumps dotted the giant room, with a particularly large one at the front. There were many treekin in here, including Barky, who was sitting next to the giant stump at the front. The king went over to the big stump and sat down, facing us with a smile.