Blood Vine

Thane stood up on a rock outcrop, he squinted his eyes trying his best to see as far as he could, their destination was the human settlements for now, so they could restock and get back on the mission.

"What do you see?" Kayden asked in excitement, more than Thane, he was so happy to have left the Blackened forest, never again would he go near a forest such as this, he wondered how many warriors had fallen victim to the coy traps those intelligence monsters make.

"It's not so far from here but I don't see any people" Thane said calmly, "It's a bit unsettling" he finished, he claimed down from the rock and stood side by side with Kayden.

"Well I'm sure they've spotted us and are just hiding" Kayden spoke, "Besides if I was them and I spotted two men coming out from this damned forest, I'll hide too" he finished.

Thane sighed deeply, "Well that settles it then, keys get in with it, shall we?" He asked them began walking in front of Kayden, he followed behind Thane almost immediately.

"How's your soul core?" Thane asked him.

"Aahh, well it's almost full now" Kayden replied.

"You're not joking?" He asked, looking at me in surprise, "The hell are you, the average warriors soul core takes atleast a complete day to get fully saturated but it's only been a few hours for you " he complained.

Kayden knew what he was talking about, it hadn't made sense to him but he had no choice but to accept it, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, Kayden shrugged at Thane's complaint, "I guess it's my body".

Thane was quiet for a few seconds, he looked off into the horizon, not sure what to do except walk, "Kayden, that last move, was the the one you've been training on for some time?" He asked carefully.

Kayden had been expecting this question, dreading it because he wasn't sure just how much he should tell Thane, he simply nodded his head silently.

"It was beautiful, Kayden" Thane said after a moment, then kept quite and kept walking forward, Kayden hadn't no idea what that meant so he kept walking ahead.

A few yards away, they both heard footsteps running towards them, Thane stopped in front, his head immediately reached to the hilt of his blade, Kayden stood behind him, he hadn't held his yet but it seemed he didn't have too.

A few moments later, a young woman came running towards them, she held her vest at her neck at she ran, breathing heavily in the snow, they both relaxed seeing it was a woman.

"Stop there" Thane said cautiously, he stretched forth his arm, the woman stopped as soon as she was told, then he dropped down on her knees to the snowy ground.

"I...mean.. no harm" she said between deep breaths, seeing her Kayden understood she had been ruining fkr quite a long time, but she looked like she was more in pain than anyone else.

"Who are and you and what do you want?" Thank said coldly to her, I held his shoulder in a questioning manner, staring into his eyes, "Don't look at me like that, woman or not we have to be cautious" he whispered back to him.

"I saw your robes and knew you are warriors from the clan" she said hopefully, Thane looked at her more considerably now, "And what would you like us help you with" he asked her calmly.

"The children, they need help" she said as she drew in enough air, she finally began breathing properly, his heads dropped from her chest, her vest slowly parted revealing the fullest sets of breasts Kayden had ever seen.

"Children?" Thane asked, "Tell me everything in detail" he demanded, still seating in the snow she began explaining.

"Everything had been okay two days before, the men usually went out to catch meals while the women worked and took care of the kids".

"Then suddenly, one of the men brought a vine to the village, he said he saw it moving by itself in the woods and brought it back to study".

"No one stopped him and he did as he wished, but after a few hours he began acting strange, begging people to come and see his plant, telling them he would give anyone all his belongings if they would come to his house to have a look at it".

"But everyone avoided him, the more time passed, the more frantic he got, until he killed a little boy and dragged the boy all the way back to his house, after then we didn't hear from both of them".

"It was dark and the men were bothered about the whereabouts of the boy, eventually they followed a streak of blood back to the house of the mad man" she said softly, he voice was almost inaudible but they could both hear her very clearly.

"The men of the village all gathered together and went towards the house of the mad man, they broke the door down and all marched inside, no one has any idea what happened inside".

"But all we know is that, the men came out smiling, happily like nothing had happened to them, they seemed even happier about going to the man place" she stated

"So far, nothing weird seemed to have happen" Kayden said calmly, "Just a bunch of smiling men" he said playfully, but the woman's eyes looked beyond scared as he said those words.

"Shut it Kayden, please go on" Thane said taking lead of the conversations, the woman nodded and continued.

"After the men of the village came out happily, a certain yellow powder seemed attached to their bodies, it spread everywhere and very fast, everyone thought it was just dust and ignored it"

"The yellow dust came from the house of the mad man, it just kept spreading around everywhere, soon everyone in the village began smiling and getting happy, they forget their duties and families, everyone began forgetting who everyone was, I took the kids in the village and hid them deep in the basement of my father's house" she said, her chest began having up and down again.

"Pollen" Kayden said, suddenly he realized just how dirw the situation was, Thane looked at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about, Kayden?" Thane asked, he was the focused looking in Kayden's eyes and knew he had caught on to something.

"Thane" Kayden said as he held his shoulders, "It's a plant capable of spreading it's seed and influence over a large population, the yellow dust are it's pollen grain and I suspect it has the ability to control the minds of those it infects" Kayden said hastily

"How many of you adults are left?" Kayden suddenly asked the woman who sat looking at them from the ground

"One" she said with finality

Kayden's lips parted open slightly, he couldn't believe that here was anything more deadly than the Fluxxara but he had been sorely wrong, the woman stood up gently and faced them.

"It's just the children left, I can't do anything else to help them so please, save the children, I'm the daughter of the village head and I locked them up in my house" she said as calmly as she could, but her pain betrayed her, she biy her lip in frustration, know she didn't have long left and how she couldn't save the lives of those children.

"What do you mean you can't help us?" Thane asked surprised, the woman gently shook her head and slowly removed her kimono from her body

"Hey?"

"What are you doing?" Kayden asked In a panicked voice, "This isn't the time for things like this" he tried to avert his eyes but a man's nature stayed true to him no matter the circumstance.

After taking off her robes, she was left with a white cloth used to cover her flower, beyond that she was bare naked, her breasts swayed gently from side to side, pink and supple, with nipples as pink as peaches.

Then she turned around, and Kayden paused in shock, latched onto her back, as if coming out from her spine was a single vine, it seemed to grow out from her skin, it ran from the base of her waist to the middle of her back, spreading slowly but surely.

She turned back around to them, "My name is Lyda and I'm a third rate martial warrior, also th

e last survivor of my village and as you can see, I won't be alive for much longer".