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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilex" data-source="post: 6167841" data-attributes="member: 82687"><p><strong>34x03</strong></p><p></p><p>Dark green vines blasted out of the ground, turning the cave’s floor into a tangle of undergrowth while twining tendrils curled inward, reaching for the party. Tavi stepped in front of Rose. “Don’t leave my side,” he told her—something between a request, an order, and a prayer to whatever gods were listening.</p><p> </p><p>Nyoko shot two grasping vines as they waved within reach of Rose, and they wilted to the floor.</p><p> </p><p>Arden danced between the vines and went straight for Orchid. Kormick was right behind her, tramping rather than dancing. Arden got there first: her dagger struck, Orchid’s side flickered into beetles for an eyeblink and then reformed, and Arden slipped back out of range. Kormick swung a warhammer, and the woman’s body again turned to beetles beneath the blow before becoming human again. Then plant tendrils wove toward Rose—</p><p> </p><p>Tavi sent magic racing down his arm and into his sword, which burst into flame as he lopped off the plants’ ends; fire raced up the stems and stalks and the plants crumpled into ash. </p><p> </p><p>But Rose screamed: through the plants came charging three huge white apes, the first grabbing Rose by the arm and hair and flinging her away from Tavi towards the other beasts; she fell hard.</p><p> </p><p>Mena was there instantly, catching the first ape in its thigh with her blade. The ape pounded its chest with both fists and roared, then spun to lumber back toward Rose. Tavi and Arden caught it with paired attacks and now it was bleeding in three places.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond it, Rose struggled to her feet, bleeding, only to be grabbed by another plant. <em>Get there now</em>, Tavi told himself, but got only two steps before his own feet were tangled up by green vines. He cut it away with his flaming sword only to be grabbed again, immediately, by yet another plant. As he struggled, he heard Savina chanting and blue light burst from her holy symbol. He felt her healing power wash over him, but their enemies seemed unharmed: in the chaos, her prayers lost focus.</p><p> </p><p>The injured ape burst into flame and Tavi knew Twiggy was at work, though he couldn’t see her past the vines that encircled his body, their tendrils waving tauntingly before his eyes. His sword arm was bound against his body. Somewhere, Rose screamed again—his name. Tavi yelled back in wordless frustration as he strained against his bonds.</p><p> </p><p>### </p><p> </p><p>At the cave’s mouth, Kormick found himself alone with Sister Orchid, staring into her eyes as her body reformed after his hammer’s stroke. She seemed slumped as she stared back at him, and Kormick dared to hope she was hurt. </p><p> </p><p>Orchid stretched out her hand and placed it with surprising gentleness on his shoulder. Kormick <em>really</em> dared to hope that she might be giving up.</p><p> </p><p>Then his life’s energy was running out of him: he could almost feel his body’s warmth, his ability to think straight, his arm’s strength racing up to his shoulder like water and flowing out of him through her hand. Orchid stood straighter.</p><p> </p><p>She removed her thieving hand, and Kormick staggered. The cave was spinning. The noise of the battle mere feet behind him seemed miles away. It seemed to him that Orchid leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Don’t oppose me, Sister,” but that was obviously wrong. He wasn’t her sister.</p><p> </p><p>There were beetles swarming over his body—touches of flaring pain as a few got inside his clothes and bit. Then Kormick was stumbling backward, then falling, and as he landed within the zone of Savina’s original <em>Banish Vermin</em> ritual, the beetles fell away.</p><p> </p><p>A plant wove toward him.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Sister</em>?!” he said to it, and re-gripped his hammer. Orchid was crazier that he’d thought.</p><p> </p><p>### </p><p> </p><p>Tavi struck down the last tendril binding him and dragged himself, at last, to Rose’s side. All three apes were struggling to reach her, but her friends had her mostly surrounded and were fending off the beasts. Unsuku, to Tavi’s surprise, was holding off one ape entirely by herself, ducking, weaving, dancing around behind the brute and snaking her arm around its neck, graceful as a vine herself.</p><p> </p><p>Savina chanted again and white light seared across a second ape. Scarcely missing a breath, Savina turned her gaze to Rose and her voice grew softer; Rose stood taller as healing energy coursed through her.</p><p> </p><p>Arden slipped around behind the ape that had first thrown Rose—the one that was now bleeding and on fire—and slid her dagger between its ribs. It dropped. Its two comrades, undeterred, fought on.</p><p> </p><p>Tavi busied himself with the one Unsuku wasn’t fighting (<em>dancing with</em>, his mind insisted; even her fighting was elegant). Mena turned her attention to Kormick, who was still battling vines on the other side of the cave and looking gray in the face.</p><p> </p><p>“Jan, pay attention,” Mena snapped at him. “There are beasties with kneecaps over here.” </p><p> </p><p>“Yes, ma’am,” Kormick said.</p><p> </p><p>The ape Tavi was battling took a swing at Mena; her armor hissed at it and it blundered sideways—and met Kormick’s warhammers. He struck it twice, then crossed the hammers and sent a burst of arcane energy crackling into the ape’s face. Tavi seized his chance and drove his sword home. The second ape fell to the floor.</p><p> </p><p>As if that had been a signal, the third ape twisted away from Unsuku and backed away into the darkness outside the cave; in the same instant, the waving vines grew still, lowering to the rocky floor. Silence fell, except for the insistent buzzing and fluttering of the birds, bats, and insects that still swarmed outside the zone of Savina’s ritual.</p><p> </p><p>It wasn’t much of a silence, in other words, but Tavi had bigger concerns. </p><p> </p><p>“Rose,” he asked. “Are you all right?” Savina was already healing her, but Tavi was more worried about the look in his sister’s eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Is she gone?” Rose whispered.</p><p> </p><p>No one answered: reflexively, everyone looked to the living, flying, creeping wall outside the cave. Orchid wasn’t gone. Not yet.</p><p> </p><p>“Perhaps she’s too weak to attack,” ventured Nyoko.</p><p> </p><p>“She stole energy from me, I think,” said Kormick. “With magic like that, she’s not too weak. Not yet.”</p><p> </p><p>“Then what is she waiting for?” asked Twiggy.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t ask,” said Mena. “Drink water, take a breath, and prepare yourselves for whatever comes next.”</p><p> </p><p>Tavi managed two gulps before the fluttering, buzzing tone went up a notch and the living curtain parted for a second time.</p><p> </p><p>Orchid reformed herself out of the beetles and surveyed them.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t want it to be like this,” she said. “But you leave me no choice.” She took a deep breath, and Tavi—even through his fear for Rose, his exhaustion, his quick calculations of tactical position—even through everything—Tavi saw the sorrow in her eyes. </p><p> </p><p>“May the Mother of All forgive me,” she whispered.</p><p> </p><p>She stepped forward, into the ritual circle. Her body flashed into beetles, which sheered off in waves, unable to enter the zone of Savina’s magic. Left behind was an old, frail woman who raised her head and screamed, “<em>Mother forgive me</em>”—the last word shredded by choking as her throat was torn open from within. A thin, bloody <em>something</em> reached out, reaching upwards. All over her body, Orchid’s flesh was pierced from within by—<em>branches</em>, Tavi realized, watching in shock, <em>those are branches and thorns, it’s like she swallowed a demon acorn and now it’s growing out of her</em>— </p><p> </p><p>The last shreds of Orchid’s body hung like rags and dead leaves from the monstrosity that now towered above the party: a giant tree-monster of pulpy, bloody wood-flesh. Its body was studded with foot-long spines, random patches of bark like a disease, and strange, misplaced, bulging eyes that seemed barely to see at all. It was a horror like Tavi had never seen before, a supernatural assassin Orchid had died to bring into being, and it was coming for Rose.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilex, post: 6167841, member: 82687"] [b]34x03[/b] Dark green vines blasted out of the ground, turning the cave’s floor into a tangle of undergrowth while twining tendrils curled inward, reaching for the party. Tavi stepped in front of Rose. “Don’t leave my side,” he told her—something between a request, an order, and a prayer to whatever gods were listening. Nyoko shot two grasping vines as they waved within reach of Rose, and they wilted to the floor. Arden danced between the vines and went straight for Orchid. Kormick was right behind her, tramping rather than dancing. Arden got there first: her dagger struck, Orchid’s side flickered into beetles for an eyeblink and then reformed, and Arden slipped back out of range. Kormick swung a warhammer, and the woman’s body again turned to beetles beneath the blow before becoming human again. Then plant tendrils wove toward Rose— Tavi sent magic racing down his arm and into his sword, which burst into flame as he lopped off the plants’ ends; fire raced up the stems and stalks and the plants crumpled into ash. But Rose screamed: through the plants came charging three huge white apes, the first grabbing Rose by the arm and hair and flinging her away from Tavi towards the other beasts; she fell hard. Mena was there instantly, catching the first ape in its thigh with her blade. The ape pounded its chest with both fists and roared, then spun to lumber back toward Rose. Tavi and Arden caught it with paired attacks and now it was bleeding in three places. Beyond it, Rose struggled to her feet, bleeding, only to be grabbed by another plant. [I]Get there now[/I], Tavi told himself, but got only two steps before his own feet were tangled up by green vines. He cut it away with his flaming sword only to be grabbed again, immediately, by yet another plant. As he struggled, he heard Savina chanting and blue light burst from her holy symbol. He felt her healing power wash over him, but their enemies seemed unharmed: in the chaos, her prayers lost focus. The injured ape burst into flame and Tavi knew Twiggy was at work, though he couldn’t see her past the vines that encircled his body, their tendrils waving tauntingly before his eyes. His sword arm was bound against his body. Somewhere, Rose screamed again—his name. Tavi yelled back in wordless frustration as he strained against his bonds. ### At the cave’s mouth, Kormick found himself alone with Sister Orchid, staring into her eyes as her body reformed after his hammer’s stroke. She seemed slumped as she stared back at him, and Kormick dared to hope she was hurt. Orchid stretched out her hand and placed it with surprising gentleness on his shoulder. Kormick [I]really[/I] dared to hope that she might be giving up. Then his life’s energy was running out of him: he could almost feel his body’s warmth, his ability to think straight, his arm’s strength racing up to his shoulder like water and flowing out of him through her hand. Orchid stood straighter. She removed her thieving hand, and Kormick staggered. The cave was spinning. The noise of the battle mere feet behind him seemed miles away. It seemed to him that Orchid leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Don’t oppose me, Sister,” but that was obviously wrong. He wasn’t her sister. There were beetles swarming over his body—touches of flaring pain as a few got inside his clothes and bit. Then Kormick was stumbling backward, then falling, and as he landed within the zone of Savina’s original [I]Banish Vermin[/I] ritual, the beetles fell away. A plant wove toward him. “[I]Sister[/I]?!” he said to it, and re-gripped his hammer. Orchid was crazier that he’d thought. ### Tavi struck down the last tendril binding him and dragged himself, at last, to Rose’s side. All three apes were struggling to reach her, but her friends had her mostly surrounded and were fending off the beasts. Unsuku, to Tavi’s surprise, was holding off one ape entirely by herself, ducking, weaving, dancing around behind the brute and snaking her arm around its neck, graceful as a vine herself. Savina chanted again and white light seared across a second ape. Scarcely missing a breath, Savina turned her gaze to Rose and her voice grew softer; Rose stood taller as healing energy coursed through her. Arden slipped around behind the ape that had first thrown Rose—the one that was now bleeding and on fire—and slid her dagger between its ribs. It dropped. Its two comrades, undeterred, fought on. Tavi busied himself with the one Unsuku wasn’t fighting ([I]dancing with[/I], his mind insisted; even her fighting was elegant). Mena turned her attention to Kormick, who was still battling vines on the other side of the cave and looking gray in the face. “Jan, pay attention,” Mena snapped at him. “There are beasties with kneecaps over here.” “Yes, ma’am,” Kormick said. The ape Tavi was battling took a swing at Mena; her armor hissed at it and it blundered sideways—and met Kormick’s warhammers. He struck it twice, then crossed the hammers and sent a burst of arcane energy crackling into the ape’s face. Tavi seized his chance and drove his sword home. The second ape fell to the floor. As if that had been a signal, the third ape twisted away from Unsuku and backed away into the darkness outside the cave; in the same instant, the waving vines grew still, lowering to the rocky floor. Silence fell, except for the insistent buzzing and fluttering of the birds, bats, and insects that still swarmed outside the zone of Savina’s ritual. It wasn’t much of a silence, in other words, but Tavi had bigger concerns. “Rose,” he asked. “Are you all right?” Savina was already healing her, but Tavi was more worried about the look in his sister’s eyes. “Is she gone?” Rose whispered. No one answered: reflexively, everyone looked to the living, flying, creeping wall outside the cave. Orchid wasn’t gone. Not yet. “Perhaps she’s too weak to attack,” ventured Nyoko. “She stole energy from me, I think,” said Kormick. “With magic like that, she’s not too weak. Not yet.” “Then what is she waiting for?” asked Twiggy. “Don’t ask,” said Mena. “Drink water, take a breath, and prepare yourselves for whatever comes next.” Tavi managed two gulps before the fluttering, buzzing tone went up a notch and the living curtain parted for a second time. Orchid reformed herself out of the beetles and surveyed them. “I didn’t want it to be like this,” she said. “But you leave me no choice.” She took a deep breath, and Tavi—even through his fear for Rose, his exhaustion, his quick calculations of tactical position—even through everything—Tavi saw the sorrow in her eyes. “May the Mother of All forgive me,” she whispered. She stepped forward, into the ritual circle. Her body flashed into beetles, which sheered off in waves, unable to enter the zone of Savina’s magic. Left behind was an old, frail woman who raised her head and screamed, “[I]Mother forgive me[/I]”—the last word shredded by choking as her throat was torn open from within. A thin, bloody [I]something[/I] reached out, reaching upwards. All over her body, Orchid’s flesh was pierced from within by—[I]branches[/I], Tavi realized, watching in shock, [I]those are branches and thorns, it’s like she swallowed a demon acorn and now it’s growing out of her[/I]— The last shreds of Orchid’s body hung like rags and dead leaves from the monstrosity that now towered above the party: a giant tree-monster of pulpy, bloody wood-flesh. Its body was studded with foot-long spines, random patches of bark like a disease, and strange, misplaced, bulging eyes that seemed barely to see at all. It was a horror like Tavi had never seen before, a supernatural assassin Orchid had died to bring into being, and it was coming for Rose. [/QUOTE]
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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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