The Life of One Tree

The lake rippled peacefully. Small waves from the slight breeze were the only disruptions across the water's surface. The breeze, mud, and wet scents were the only reminder of the storm from yesterday. That and the clothes they wore. The Aldlesians hunters bore the discomfort of the wet dark leathers of their occupation with stoicism.

They had gotten word of the dead hunters last morning, and half of the sixteen stayed behind. Not only to more thoroughly investigate but also to bury the dead. Afterward, they would follow the much lower threat of the Rover caravan. The captain, four wyvern riders, and four veterans ventured on ahead to make certain the trail of the more dangerous demons didn't get lost in the rain.

To no surprise, the traces led them towards the foothill of the Blue Mountain, the nearest border. Despite a few frail efforts to throw them off by traveling through streams, as long as the purpose of fleeing remained the trail quickly resurfaced.

How far would one stray from the quickest route with death on its way? Jakobe thought.

Until the trail had disappeared into this lake, without a boat or signs of one in sight. He'd sent the wyvern riders ahead to check the other side. Perhaps there was a boat on the other side, a trace of a spell used, or the unlikely footprints of a wyvern.

Although Jakobe didn't expect this to be planned at all, the demons could have robbed a passerby. More possible than the two just vanishing into the lake. The only other hint the hunters had was a woman. She'd only added to the confusion though. She insisted that she was "from the nearby village" and that "she'd just come to wash her clothes".

There was no nearby village according to his knowledge of the area, and the woman only has the clothes she wore on her back. When pressed about these contradictions, she ignored them. The fact that this woman stood on her contradictions in front of five experienced, fully armed, Aldlesian hunters was another odd point. Even though the questioning remained completely amicable on the end of the hunters.

Wandering up and down the river bank, she never left the mud. Her bare feet were caked in mud, but the bottom of her feet looked wrong.

Jakobe's eyes traced the woman's footsteps. Something was off about the footprints she left behind as well. A familiar cry came to his attention. A sound like a screech with the cadence of a more guttural roar.

"Come back," Jakobe said, "The wyverns are back."

Four pairs of olive green wings landed on four pairs of black-green legs, scales highlighted like metal. The large and narrow heads came forward on the long necks this storm breed was so known for. As the leather wings touched the ground and balanced them, the riders stepped off.

"Captain, I've checked the streams and rivers, but I've nothing to report."

The other three riders nodded.

"So it's the same for all of you?" Jakobe said.

He rubbed his neck and sighed.

"Let me introduce you to this woman we found," Jakobe said. "She claims to have seen them."

The woman had appeared after the riders had left. The four riders followed their captain as he caught up to the woman, who had wandered off quite far.

"Miss, if you could tell me again what you saw?" Jakobe said.

The woman tugged her shawl closer.

"And why would I do that?" She said. "I already told you."

"You did," Jakobe said, "but I'd like to hear my men's perspective on it, and not get my version of it but yours, especially since you're still here."

"Fine," she said. "I woke up this morning, a little before dawn. I live in the nearby village--the wyvern riders shared confused glances at this--and I needed to do my laundry, so here I am. Doing my laundry!"

None of the riders knew what to say.

"Ma'am, I haven't seen you wash a single article of clothing the entire time I've been here," Jakobe said.

"What's it to you?" the strange woman replied. "Making it sound like I'm some sort of lazy peasant--

"About the pair of fiends you saw, the man and the woman, could you elaborate on them?"

Not desiring a rehash of the continued absurd and ever-rising outrage, Jakobe quickly changed the subject.

The woman crossed her arms.

"I saw a couple of fiends. They were wandering around the edge of the lake."

The riders perked up, but Vex, one of the groundsmen, only chuckled.

"Which side?"

"I think..."

The woman pointed to one side of the shore. Then she waved at the other.

"I can't really say," she said.

Natal gripped her sword, but Jakobe put his on the hilt to keep it in the scabbard. The woman made almost no reaction to this.

Jakobe felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"Thank you again, Ma'am," Jakobe said.

He walked away from the woman, the small group of hunters behind him.

"That was worthless," Natal said. "If she's so obviously hiding and protecting beasts, the least we could do is interrogate her."

"Ain't nothing about that woman that ain't a lie lass," Vex said. "And times a-wasting. Better to do the opposite of what she says. We should head off in the one direction she didn't point to."

"Yeah, so the demons teleported across the lake?"

"Entirely probable," Vex said.

"Forget the debate," Jakobe said, he spared a glance over his shoulder at the woman. The next words were murmured.

"Any see the feet? The soles, specifically."

"Translucent as the river's surface, Captain," Vex said. "Before she mixed them in with the mud, o' course."

"A water demon? Then why aren't we killing it?" Natal said.

"A small demon incapable of speech might do us in," Jakobe said. "Yet this one can hide its form with such intelligence, it would very likely kill us instead. And a demon of water locked in by land proves little threat to the Kingdom. Instead, we seek the murderers of our brothers."

Silence spoke for the group.

"Enop was an ass," Natal said.

"Sure was, but he didn't deserve murder," Vex said. "Even if he did, no demon's gonna get away with killing one of us."

"Deserving or undeserving, our task is to bring justice to those who did him in," Jakobe said. "Riders, take the point to the northeast, across the lake. Fly as low as you can, going slowly. If you find them, don't attack. Trail and send Hale to me. Groundsmen, follow me."

"Yes, Captain!" the hunters said.

"Sure," Vex said.

The hunted hid. Crouched by a bush, Danielle held her hand over her mouth as she internally screamed. Melorandious kept his head peaked over the leaves.

"War wyverns," he whispered. "We should be flattered."

Danielle looked at him with wide eyes.

"So, with the wyverns, we'll be going for under the thickest foliage we can find," he said. "Come up, Danielle. They seem to have landed by the lake. We now need to hurry."

I really regret so much right now, Danielle thought.

Danielle took Droplet and shoved it inside her satchel. It squeaked. They rushed out of the bushes and through the undergrowth. Melorandious pulled her along by the arm.

"Look for a place to hide and that's easily defended," Melorandious said.

"Easily defended?" Danielle asked.

"A place where we won't have to watch our backs. We'll catch a few by surprise but they'll likely want to circle us."

"OK," Danielle said.

Into the thickest growth, Melorandious dived. Danielle looked widely for a place to hide, but so far it was only trees on a widening slant. Soon a stitch formed in her side, and she found herself gasping for breath.

But the thought of imminent demise really has a way of motivating the lungs. Even as it burned, she surprised herself. It hurt less than it would have a week ago. Days of walking did bring sore muscles but paid off in less pained breaths.

Melorandious listened past her breaths and his for a sound he anticipated. The flapping of membrane wings.

He hadn't heard it yet. Danielle dragged behind, but he pulled her further. Her backpack felt like it was filled with stones.

Something with a height advantage, Melorandious thought.

"Would that big rock work?" Danielle said.

"No, not big enough," Melorandious said.

Her lungs burned ever fiercer, but she kept running. Melorandious glanced back.

She won't last far, he thought.

But they had t run as far as they could. He wanted as much distance between the wyverns and the hunters as possible.

They slid between trees and jumped over bushes. The trees' trunks thickened quickly as they drew farther and farther from the lake. As Danielle grew slower and slower, Melorandious grabbed her hand and tugged her faster and faster.

The moments stretched out into minutes, but how many minutes Danielle didn't know. Branches snagged by her but she ignored them. Breaking past them, some part of her noted that this would leave an easy trail to follow.

Danielle ignored a thick thorn vine as it scraped her like all the rest, but it caught on her dress's skirt. She tripped.

Only her kneejerk reaction kept her face safe from thorns. Melorandious pulled the vine off of her. The thorns biting into his hand, they came off the fabric with a plucking sound.

That's when he heard it. The flaps of skinned wings and the great movement of wind through leaves.

"Up," he said, "up, up, come on now."

Danielle pulled herself up by supporting her weight on his arms. Melorandious looked around. He headed for the largest tree he could see. Danielle stumbled along with him. Crouching down, Danielle found herself pulled down with him. Eyes moving widely, he peered through the leaves for the scales. Nothing for now.

"If I had a bow..." he said.

Danielle caught her breath is gasps. She didn't know how long she'd run, but it'd felt like hours. It had been closer to half. Melorandious continued murmuring to himself.

"Without the right ammunition, the entire thought is a waste anyways. But taking out the wings is a better bet than fire. They're related to dragons, however distant."

The wingbeats grow closer and the branches began to shake. Snake-like forms shimmered behind the leaves. Muffled cries could be heard from the riders, but Danielle couldn't hear the specifics.

Still gasping, she felt her panic freeze into calm wonder.

"Whoa," Danielle said. "They're--they're so big."

Indeed, a wyvern head was bigger than her entire torso, and a single wing was twice her height long. The wyvern flew closer. Dainelle's eyes moved past the scaled neck to the almost toy-like figure riding it. The dark armor of the hunters stood out from the blue sky and green leaves. The body of the hunter turned in their direction.

Yeah, red stands out better than black in a forest, Danielle thought.

The hunter pulled a horn and blew. The sound echoed out over the wing beats and any thoughts Danielle had.

Melorandious pulled out his sword and carved sigils into the tree with quick gashes. It looked close to the one on his right palm.

"Heh, even if the wyverns are resistant to fire, their riders aren't," he said.

Danielle's eyes widened. She reached out her hand.

"Wait!"

The bark underneath glowed at the cracks, and the leaves curled into red flame. The sudden heat from the fantastical occurrence flushed Danielle. The tree burned from the inside out.

Danielle didn't bother to stare, she turned and ran. Melorandious followed behind.

"Are you insane?" She said. "What the hell are you doing!"

"Starting a forest fire," Melorandious said.

"We're in the forest!"

Melorandious circled his left arm, and water encircled the two of them. A translucent barrier that was fearfully quick to murk with soot. The fire jumped from the leaves of one large tree to the other.

Danielle took a big breath. And another. Her lungs ached, and the air tasted fouler with every second. Trying to outrun the fire was futility. It snaked from tree to tree above and snipped at the barrier of water below.

Fear powered her to push past what she'd thought was possible. Melorandious' ragged breathing followed her own. His left hand constantly moved in round gestures, reinforcing the water shield. Droplet pushed its way out of her pack and sang out loudly in front of her. Danielle followed it.

Jakobe first smelled the disaster. The taste of ash in the forest. Turning his head, he saw the flickering light coming from the trees.

Shit, he thought.

A wyvern rider flew towards him in the distance. He recognized the beast as Natal's, the larger wings for the female wyvern distinctive even at a distance. She stayed in the saddle, saluting.

"Captain, we found them!" Natal said.

"I can see that," Jakobe said. "Did you at least leave a rider on them?"

"Hale's combing the mountain now, but the fire was started by some kind of sigil the man carved. The fire's mana is obscuring the traces of their mana."

"Carved?" Jakobe said. "As in into a tree?"

"Yes, captain," Natal said.

"That means it'll continue spreading for as long as the tree lasts," Jakobe said. "He probably chose an old tree so. Instead of searching the fire, have your riders patrol the border to the northeast."

"As you say," Natal said.

Her wyvern lept into the sky, the wind brushed the men's faces as it lifted off.

"So much for an easy time off the line," Vex said.

"The glory's all greater for the more growling hunt," Jakobe said. Turning to the group he commanded, "Search for any cover close by. Now!"

Melorandious grabbed Danielle and pulled her down. Some sort of crevice or hole, but she was well past knowing other than that it was lower and it was cooler. The flames roared overhead, and branches cracked and fell. She heard and smelled the tiny creek before her eyes understood it for what it was before her face. Droplet murmured to itself in worried and angry squeaks and squelches as it rested on her hand. The running water about two inches wide at the thinnest. The ground rose up where the formerly wider stream had dug it out, year after year.

Her face in the sand, her eyes closed to blissful unawareness.