Unknown - 4

Rolling sections of leaves and plants, scattered about with intermittent roses and purple thorns. Their venom serious enough to warrant a priest to come if one were to be pricked by their venom.

But that was only for those that were not immune, as with all things humans evolved, adapted to their environments, and so had these people. A trait exclusive to their family if the husband's obsession with touching the said poisonous plant said anything.

Either way he sat down on the bench, his head resting on his hand. An ethereal look that seemed to gaze farther than a human could ever see.

Gabriel sat, his arms stretching back with a twist that brought his wings into the same stretch.

"I am sorry that I must cut to the chase, but heavens forbid there be any guest past her bed time, Ana won't let me hear the end of it, heh" He chuckled, a wry smile on his face as he relayed his worries.

And Gabriel merely responded in kind, a polite smile as he gestured for James to continue further.

"The day is setting, is it not?" James asked, his voice carrying an unknown pitch to it. As if some unknown setting had been placed.

"Ah, but excuse me for my rambling, please follow me, I believe that I may yet remember where those flowers had grown."

Gabriel did so, as with one last stretch he rose from his seat and followed. His wings flapped idly in the wind behind him, and with one final glance at the house, they set off.

All in the setting sun.

But there was something off about it, what about the skeletons, the undead, why were they not here. Was it some kind of effect only local to the city and not to the countryside outside of the inner walls.

It made little sense to Gabriel but he thought that with a little patience, a bit of investigation, that the answers would reveal themselves.

"It was here that I found the flowers." James began, his voice tinted with a hint of both reminiscence and emotion. Yet not enough to truly register it as that.

However Gabriel barely took note of that inflection, merely staring harder at the ground. The swirling whirlpool of mana that he could feel just below his feet.

It was distracting, as it should be. Gabriel stood still. His body did not sway even a centimeter.

But the same could not be said for James who had trailed off in his speech and crouched down, drawing some strange symbol into the ground.

It was a curious thing, a circle with a star in it, and several runes.

Gabriel still did not move, afraid that any move he made would set off the obvious traps. But to look and watch as James did something unknown…

He could only grit his teeth and flap his wings, taking to the sky as he watched the tear stricken man finish his incantation, his spell.

Life seemed to be taken from him and Gabriel was forced to watch as the man that seemed so content with his life, with his family, was turned into a husk. Barely able to be even recognized.

His life force was drawn into the ground, where dozens of the same flower sprouted their seeds. Howls that echoed through the night and drew forth the attention of those in the cities.

Monstrous creatures of untold power stood growling at the gates, kept in by the same mana that the flowers took from the man.

Gabriel could only grip tighter to the flower he had been given, the same power washing through him only to be purged with a thought.

An instinct refined after thousands of hours.

A silent tear ran down his eye and he picked the body of the husband from the ground. The tear marks scarred into his face.

'How…?' Gabriel thought to himself, how was he going to tell the family. That his stupid decision to want a guide had cost the family their livelihood, that they would have to give up their belongings because of the decision of some stupid angel.

Gabriel felt a wrath rage throughout his stomach, a flame that refused to fall to the wayside. And with a stretch of his will flew to the sky. The mana below him trailing just out of reach, as if grasping for another meal.

He flew and flew, all until he reached the same garden. The poisonous barbs. He placed the body down, only to find it gone the moment after, devoured by the same plants he cared so much for.

And for all of Gabriel's courage, he could not do it, not tonight. This rage he felt needed to be handled. And he knew the exact place for such a thing.

…

…

…

A withered hand reached out, controlled naught by its owner, but by a being unfathomable to the world. His eye wandered around the garden he found himself in.

Then with a prick he touched one of the plants, a sigh of ecstasy echoing from his hollowed mouth as he absorbed the essence. A feeling of extreme satisfaction as he felt the inferior species be taken in, absorbed all in the name of this body.

Yet a moment later, as if invigorated by the very energy he had taken, the plant turned human fought with a rage, an echo of consciousness.

A quiet battle raged on, only to be lost by both sides. Yet he still fell to his knees, roaring in pain. 

"HONEY!?" A voice echoed, the lovely wife of the man. She placed her hand over the cold back of his tattered shirt, and found herself worried.

He was cold, too cold, as if he was not truly alive.

'But it couldn't be' She thought to herself, even as she dragged his barely breathing body back into the house.

She veiled this action from her daughter, hiding her husband in her arms from the eyes of her curious daughter.

Asking this and that about the angel, and where he had gone. But a stern warning found her hushed into her room, where she soon fell asleep.

Something that came much easier for her daughter than for her, who spent the whole night worrying for her husband, her love.