Chapter 25

After waiting for Andir to wake up, the group didn't want him to take any more risks.

"I can still go. It's just that I'll need to take it easy on the spells" Andir tried to explain.

"Nonsense you old wizard. You look frail enough for a breeze to blow you over" Irene retorted ruthlessly.

Andir felt so angry, "Damn brat, don't you know how to respect your elders?"

The group couldn't help laughing at the pairs interaction, but Harold held back his smile and said seriously, "Andir, you know how badly that last fight was on you. I know you want to continue, but I don't want to lose anyone on this quest. Please wait here, we won't take long".

Andir wanted to refute, but seeing the worried faces of the group he's been with for decades, he could only sigh with frustration, "okay".

"Thank you, Old friend. Rale you stay up here too. Protect the entrance from anything that might follow in" Harold explained.

Rale knew that he wasn't just stopping anything going in, but was kept here to protect Andir. So he responded "Leave it to me".

"Alright. Everyone else let's finish this as soon as possible" Harold said.

The group set off for the stone archway, leaving behind the unwilling Andir, and Rale who would protect him.

When everyone got close to the archway, they noticed that it was actually a Staircase, leading down into the pitch black darkness. Edrii summoned a small ball of light. Dimmer than Andir's, but it was enough to light the passageway. There were signs of roots at the entrance, but as the light passed the charred walls, they knew that the flames had burned along the vines, down into the depths.

Following along the staircase, only the sounds of their restrained breathing, and the rhythm of their footsteps could be heard echoing in the narrow passage.

They all continued down the staircase until the light from the surface could no longer be discerned, before they finally heard another sound. A soft tapping sound came from deeper down the passage.

As they moved closer, the tapping sound became more prevalent. Until they finally saw a soft light coming from in front of them.

Edrii dissolved her conjured light, so as not to arouse the attention of anything further inside.

As they walked in, they were shocked by what was in front of them. A large cavernous area had been dug out. Isla and Sila saw that it was even larger than the dwarven ruin they had seen when they destroyed the goblin den.

The cavern wasn't bare, nor empty. In fact it was full of dense foliage. Small grass hills full of wild flowers filled most of the space. A mixture of moss and vines entangled themselves along the entirety of the caverns walls, reaching a small hole at the top, that was letting in a few rays of sunlight.

At least that explained where the light was coming from, but they heard the tapping sound coming in from the darkest area of the cavern.

In the deepest part, where only a slight ray of light shone, they saw the shadow of a tree. The size of the shadow was enormous. The top of the shadow reached almost to the roof of the cavern.

The group all looked at each other knowing that they needed to investigate that area, which was the most suspicious.

Slowly making their way over, Edrii had no choice but to bring back the ball of light, otherwise they'd have to fight in the dark.

This had no effect on the twins, who had already noticed something was wrong. They quickly motioned for everyone to stop.

"What's wrong?" Harold whispered.

"On the tree, there are many things swaying" Isla replied in a low voice.

"Swaying? More vines?" Irene asked with worry.

Sila had been watching the tree while Isla was talking to the group. After hearing what Irene asked, she quietly responded "No, not vines. Corpses. There are no leaves on that tree, only corpses".

The groups eyes went wide, as a sense of dread crept up their backs. They looked towards the shadow of the tree. Edrii sent the ball of light towards the darkness. Watching slowly as the horror of the tree revealed itself to the light.

The twins were right. The tree in front of them had no leaves. Much like the ones up above. It was mangled and twisted, every branch that existed had human and beast corpses hanging from them.

Under the light, the tapping sound they heard finally revealed itself. As the blood of the fresh corpses dripped down, it landed in the pool of blood that surrounded the tree.

The scent of the wild flowers had covered up the terrible stench of decay and blood. It was at that moment that they knew the fate of the missing adventurer teams.

They knew approaching any closer was just asking to fall into the trap, so everyone started pulling out fire talismans from their storage equipment, throwing it towards the corpse tree without hesitation.

The talismans hit the tree, bursting out flames which created an incredible stench of rot from the tree.

A pair of eyes opened from the base of the tree. Seeing the corpse tree burning and hearing its painful cries, a sharp shriek erupted from the creatures mouth.

Under the light of the various flames, the group saw what emerged from the trees base.

"DRYAD!" Harold roared in shock.

The dryad looked at them with hatred. It tried to put out the flames on the trunk of the corpse tree, but to no avail. Knowing that its work for so long was in jeopardy, it rushed towards the humans that had damaged its creation.

It reached them with a speed that only the twins could match, its emerald eyes filled with a terrifying rage.

From all sides, vines and roots appeared with varying degrees of thickness. Some attacked directly, while others attempted to restrain the group.

"Don't waste time on the vines. The dryad is the one that controls them. If we take it down, they won't be anything to fear" Harold shouted over the shrieking.