by Billy Wong
Rose sat down and took a crushed biscuit from her pack, deciding to have a snack while she waited for help. She glimpsed a tunnel in the side of the chamber which must have led somewhere, but she would save that option for if her friends didn't come for her first. She didn't feel like exploring in pain. She heard footsteps, and turned.
An old woman stood in the tunnel. "Who are you, and how did you find your way into my abode?"
Taken off guard, Rose stammered, "Um, I-I'm Rose. I fell off the cliff into this place. You live here?"
"I do. I've gotten a body or two in my time, but never a live one coming in this way. Are you hurt?"
"A little banged up, but I'll be fine. But how do you get out of here, and back up top? I need to find my friends; they must miss me by now."
"I'll help you out, but can you stay with me for a meal first? I haven't had company forever."
Rose looked into the woman's eyes, and was overcome with pity for the incredible loneliness she saw there. They talked over soup made from mushrooms, roots, and some unidentifiable kind of meat, her host asking endlessly for news of the outside world.
Eventually, Rose found the chance to ask, "So what are you doing down here all alone? You're obviously not happy, and you know how to get out. Why put yourself through this?"
"I have to pay for my sins. I don't deserve to live among humanity after what I've done."
"Sin?" What could this seemingly innocuous old woman have done to warrant banishing herself to a life in the darkness?
"I released him, lass. The one who haunts these woods and binds wayward men to do his evil work in defilement and death."
"What are you talking about?"
"He has no name, but he's a monster from some long-past time, who I awakened when I watered his root with my own blood, lured by his charm into thinking I was aiding an innocent creature undeserving of the suffering it felt. Since then he's been forcing enslaved men to kidnap people from the road around his land, so as to feed him with their blood and allow him to grow his evil seeds—seeds with which he intends to turn this whole forest into the kingdom of his own kind."
Some sort of vampire plant? It sounded far-fetched, and Rose wasn't sure if she should believe the woman—Millie, she'd revealed her name to be. But as for the enslaved men, "Are you talking about the bandits?" That would explain why they always took the bodies of their victims. "If so, you've got one less thing on your conscience. They're dead, I'm sure." She'd killed half of them herself, after all. Her friends had better have been able to handle the rest!
"You, alone?"
"Me and my friends. We're members of the road watchmen."
"You did? I'm so grateful—thank you. Now the monster will be vulnerable, and I will make sure he doesn't find any more pawns to warp to his wicked cause. You're done more for this place than you can know."
Well, she knew now, and was beginning to think there might be something to Merrick's claims about her grand destiny. Too many unlikely things had happened to be explained by simple luck, good or bad. "You sure you're not going to be charmed by the monster again?"
"I don't think so. I wasn't enslaved in the end, after all. I managed to get away; I think it's only strong enough to control the already corrupt. I'll be fine, it's only a stupid shrub thing."
Rose laughed. She would have liked to meet this blood-drinking shrub monster, just to see what such a creature would look like. "You sure you'll be okay?"
"I'm sure. A warrior like you, who's already tasted much blood—I'd be more scared for your sake if you came."
She had killed a lot, hadn't she? Especially for a girl of fifteen. "All right, then. I'm glad I could give you your freedom. But I still think it's stupid the way you took it from yourself."
"So you're a member of the road watchmen, yes? I have a nephew who was a rookie in the watch. Do you know if he's still there now, and how he's doing? His name is Niles."
Rose marveled at the amount of time the old woman must have spent shutting herself away from the world. "Niles? He's retiring in a month!"
"He's alive? It'll make me happy to see him again."
Rose sat there and ate until Millie began to ask her more, and they talked a little longer before the old woman finally decided to let her go. She gave Rose a grappling hook she'd retrieved from a corpse that had fallen into her home a while ago, and Rose used it to climb out of the pit before tossing it back to her. Waving goodbye from the edge, she made a mental note to carry a similar tool with her in the future.
Her friends found her shortly after she'd begun to limp away from the pit, the priest walking alongside them. Seeing her, he asked, "Where's my medallion?"
"I forgot to get it," she realized with a wince. Needles of pain still shot through the small of her back when she moved. Why was it she had run after the bandit for the medallion's sake again? In the heat of the moment, she hadn't even considered denying his request. "Sorry."
"It's fine. At least you escaped with your life. I shouldn't have made you risk yourself that way."
"No, you shouldn't have," Bert said with narrowed eyes.
She shrugged. Having met the old woman, she didn't really mind. Letting the priest go, her friends escorted her back to the Watch House with Bert showing great concern for her bruised back. But she was fine, and had another deed to her credit which infuriated Huey to no end. Rose grew worried she actually would be chosen as Niles' replacement in the neighboring Watch House. She didn't want to leave her friends, especially not with the hardship she expected to find in a new place.
A few days later, Rose was on base when she heard a knocking on the door and answered it to find Millie waiting with pale face and bloodshot eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
"He comes, Rose. The monster—he can move, and he's out for revenge on you. And I don't think he'll stop until he destroys you all."
Chapter 3
Rose recoiled at the words, but seeing that the woman was physically unharmed asked, "How did you find this out? Did you see him?"
"No, I had a vision. In it, he rose and came here, and slew all of you. So of course I didn't go after him; I knew he could walk, and that my life was forfeit if I tried to take him on. So I came to warn you instead. You must run. Otherwise, he'll destroy you..."
"So now you're a seer, too," Rose said dubiously. Maybe, hopefully, the woman was just crazy. "Are these prophetic visions a commonplace thing for you?"
"No, this is the first one I've had."
"So how do you know this wasn't just a bad dream brought on by fear?"
"Please believe me, it was too real to only be a dream."
Millie looked frightfully certain, but Rose tried to hold on to her belief that the vision was untrue. "Do you have any proof of it?"
"Come with me to the monster's lair, and I'll show you the hole where he was. But I'm afraid we'd meet him on the way, and I don't dare confront him now."
Rose dared. "Tell me where it is, and I'll go."
"You mustn't go alone. He'll rip you apart, I know he will."
"I'll get help."
Merrick was out, so she went to her partners and asked if they wanted to come. But all of them, even Bert who she thought to be her closest ally, chided her for believing Millie's apparent delusion. Though there were monsters in the world, nobody seemed to buy into the existence of a shrubby one.
Her head bowed in disappointment, Rose returned and asked Millie, "What exactly did you see in your dream?"
"It came here, right here, and butchered the lot of you. You don't stand a chance alone."
A plan to defy fate too stupid to work formed in Rose's mind and brought a smile to her face. "If I go find it, I won't be here, will I? So your vision won't come true, because I won't be here to get killed by it."
It was a silly technicality, and they both knew it. "That's a foolish idea. You'd be better off waiting for your captain to return, and trying to convince him you must run."
"That wouldn't work. Come on, te
ll me where this thing is." Rose knew there was no small chance she might fall prey to this beast, even if as she hoped it couldn't actually walk. It still had its mental abilities, whatever they were. But she'd rather not wait here to get killed, nor make herself the object of ridicule by continuing to try and get the others to help.
"It'll kill you."
"I'll think of something. Nobody's been able to take me down in real combat, so far anyway. I won't let a shrub be the first."
#
Eventually, Rose was able to coax the monster's location from Millie and escape her well-meaning clutches. She made her way towards the monster's lair alone, hoping Merrick wouldn't be too annoyed at her for leaving on what would probably end up a fruitless quest. In trying to convince herself everything would be all right, she'd begun to make herself doubt the truth of Millie's words even in regard to the very existence of the creature she feared.
She wasn't even close to the specified location when the sound of something huge dragging its way through the forest underbrush pricked her ears, and she hid behind a nearby elm. As it rumbled closer, her heartbeat quickened and she began to sweat with fear. Then, she saw it. She would have laughed, if she didn't know the danger she was in.
Crawling along on gnarled roots was a many-trunked bush the size of a house, with a "beard" of thick leafage hanging from one side nearly to the ground. This was the thing that was supposed to annihilate the watchmen? She poked her head out from behind her tree, glaring at it.
"You're hunting us?" she spat. "I don't know what you're thinking, but you're going to burn."
The shrub rotated slowly towards her. Rose lit her torch and charged, sure she could set it aflame before it could defend itself. To her surprise, a mighty sleepiness filled her head, and she realized it was attacking her through her mind. She'd forgotten about that... Her steps slowed despite her efforts to resist, and a woody limb lashed out with deceptive speed, catching her in the face.
She grunted as she was sent flying away by superhuman strength, and landed in the thick of a thorny bush which quickly caught flame. When she struggled to her feet, the shrub-thing said in a nearly unintelligible whistling voice, "You are strong. Most men would not continue to move against my command, nor after that blow."
Rose wiped blood from her face. "If that's all it took to kill the men you did, they must have been weak men."
It hesitated as if surprised, then tried again to muddle her mind. But she walked steadily forward this time, no longer trying to run but focused on maintaining her stride. The shrub lashed out again, and she tried to cut the limb away. Yet she was still slower than usual, and as her sword bit into the wood another branch struck her and knocked her sprawling to the ground. Her head slammed against a rock, and tears stung her eyes.
The shrub rumbled forward, rearing up as though to trample her with its roots. Rose scooted groggily away on her rear, but saw that she would soon be overtaken. She slashed up at the plant, striking again and again in an attempt to beat it back. A rattling noise filled her ears, and she realized it was in pain. Its advance slowed, and Rose pushed herself to her feet. Encouraged by its distress, she thrust her torch at it again. A branch caught fire, but it struck at her with that very limb, the flames flashing in her face.
She blocked with a forearm, the force of the blow jarring her bones and making her stumble back. Still dizzy from hitting her head, she reeled and nearly lost her balance. All at once the shrub's roots coiled and then uncoiled, throwing the entirety of its mass forward at her. Rose barely managed to spin aside from the lunge, the sharp tip of a branch raking a bloody cut into her cheek. She chopped at the monster as it passed, but her blade only grazed a thick limb to little effect.
"Tenacious woman," it said. "It is unfortunate you are too strong to be controlled. Instead you will have to die." Rose noticed that its burning limb only smoked now; there was dirt on the tip, as though it had dug it into the ground to extinguish the blaze. But this did not discourage her greatly. It was evident that fire was a threat to the thing, and she would just have to keep it burning.
With a scream, Rose rushed the huge shrub. A wall of woody limbs came up to flail at her. She whipped her sword left and right, cutting into wood again and again. Numerous blows smashed into her body, staggering her, but she ignored the pain while she touched her torch to the limbs she'd shortened with her blade. Soon her opponent's front was riddled with flames, and its attacks lost all their strength.
It screamed in pain and leaned away, but no longer had any speed with which to flee. Ignoring the heat of the flames Rose hacked at its trunks again and again, breaking each of them away. When they were all gone, the shrub's roots twitched, tried for seconds more to creep away, and stopped dead. Rose stumbled away, coughing with the smoke she'd inhaled. Her body was battered and sore, but her defeat of the monster made her feel stronger.
"You didn't impress me," she told the burnt, shattered remains.
She hurried back to the Watch House, where she found Millie waiting for her. The woman stared at her, then broke into a wide gap-toothed smile. "You came back. I can't believe you're alive. What did you do?"
"I killed it. Didn't really believe you until I saw it." Millie hugged her, and Rose found herself surprised by the emotion in the embrace. "What did I do to make you so happy?"
"You freed me. For a while, I didn't think it'd ever happen for me."
"If you'd asked for help sooner, you might have been free long along. Why didn't you?"
"I was afraid. I didn't know there was any warrior capable of standing up to such evil, and I didn't want to lead any more people to their doom. But you proved me wrong, didn't you?"
Rose supposed she had, though she still couldn't see what had been so great about the shrub to inspire such fear. Maybe Millie's judgment had been clouded by her guilt, and the threat of the creature amplified in her mind. She decided not to dwell on it. "I'm glad I could do it. You want me to take you to see your nephew? It's not too far away." The woman had suffered a lot, and Rose wanted to make sure she didn't any more before her reunion with her nephew.
"I'd like that."
Realizing her break would be over soon, Rose asked Bert to fill Merrick in on what had happened. Awed by her story about the shrub monster, he quickly agreed, and she escorted her charge to the Watch House where Niles worked. Aunt and nephew reunited happily if not without a few angry words, and Rose felt proud at having helped mend their broken bond. Returning to her own base, she was greeted with much cheer, though Huey and his friends seethed with more hostility than ever. She was going to win, even though she didn't want to.
#
"I think I might have to leave here soon," Rose told Bert in a soft voice as they lay on their bunks, looking at each other in the morning light.
"Why? I thought you'd grown to like this place."
"I have. But it's not my choice. They're going to take me away."
"What do you mean? Who's 'they?'"
She figured he hadn't given it much thought. Most of the watchmen wouldn't have, especially not new recruits like them. But she was different—a better fighter, among other things. Some would have considered her lucky to have this issue to consider, but she didn't. "The Watch House to the south needs a new captain, remember? Theirs—the man whose aunt I found—is retiring next month. So they're planning to grab one from nearby, and I'm worried I might have done a bit too much in recent days. Huey thinks I'm well on my way."
Bert looked at her as if she was crazy for being unenthusiastic about a possible promotion. "What's wrong? It's a great opportunity; go for it. I think you'd be the first female captain I've ever heard of, too."
"You don't understand. I don't want to leave here, and I don't care for rank."
"Didn't you leave Hullel to experience life out in the world? So what's leaving here to you, when you left a place you were much more familiar with to come here?"
That was true, but she wasn't ready for another big change just yet.
"I don't know. I've just grown attached to you guys, that's all." It didn't matter much to her whether or not she got ahead in her job, as she cared more about staying around her friends.
"Typical foolish female sentimentality." But Bert said it with a warm smile. "Can't you just turn it down, if you're picked?"
"I don't know. Can you? I'd have to ask Merrick—I'm still a novice here."
Bert looked at the ceiling. "Maybe you could give the post to me, if you don't want it."
Though she knew it was a joke, Rose replied, "I don't think it works that way."
"We can dream, can't we?"
"Sure we can. I'm living one!" She'd been growing bored of watch life before, but the shrub incident had driven all that out of her. Now she just wanted things to stay as they were, but she feared the dream was about to end.
"Go ask Merrick, then. About declining the position, that is."
Rose wasn't sure if that would be a wise idea. While Merrick was her friend, he was also clearly dedicated to his work, and she didn't know if he would understand her reluctance to advance in the ranks. "I'll ask him if I'm chosen. There's no need to make myself look bad now."
"I don't know. You might look worse if you wait until the last moment, when you could have saved them the trouble of considering you before."
"Whatever. I'll think about it, okay?"
She did, and decided to test the waters first. After practice that day, she asked Merrick, "So becoming a captain of the watchmen—what's that like? How does it work?"
He told her things she already knew—that candidates gained consideration through merit shown on the job, that one was chosen by a committee of current captains, that the position gave one authority over the members of one Watch House, and that it was a great honor for anyone to be so promoted. Especially if they hadn't been in RIEL for long. Then he said, "Why do you ask? You already looking ahead to breaking new ground?"
Rose shook her head. "Oh, no. I was just wondering, does everyone who's chosen actually become a captain?"
"Why wouldn't they?"