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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canaan" data-source="post: 2895805" data-attributes="member: 40239">Thanks for the support!  Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse.....Chapter 21:  The Witch Tree    Feral growls mixed with the churning waters of Tangle River as the werewolves closed in around Lilian and Talon. I was standing on the far side of the wide river, deep waters cutting me off from the battle.     I looked down at my belt, suddenly remembering the rope I had looped there. Yes, it should just be enough to reach the far side of the river; the only problem was there was nothing to anchor it too. I knew the only way to get across was to attempt to swim. I had thrown off my backpack to lighten my load, but knew I would not survive a moment of battle without armor, even if I managed to make my way across the river.     I stood on the bank of the river, ready to wade into the rushing current when I was stopped by a sudden realization. Canaan was with me. Immediately I felt a rush of righteous strength emerging from my very soul. I uttered a prayer to Canaan calling on His wrath to smite my enemies.     A sword, wreathed in golden flames appeared above me. I pointed it toward the battle and it obeyed my commands. I called out. “Behold! The power of Canaan! Kneel before His Eternal Holy Might or be driven to oblivion!”         The spiritual weapon spun for one of the werewolves, slashing deep into the beast’s hide. Lilian let out a shout.     “Evora!” She cried. “Hurry! My blade is useless against them! The wounds it inflicts instantly heal!” One the werewolf's claws raked through Lilian’s armor, leaving deep gashes in its wake that instantly filled up with crimson rivulets. She screamed from the pain, but kept on fighting.     Talon had been pounding with his fists. As they struck the hide of the creatures, his fists let out a short, green burst of energy, causing the creatures to howl in agony and fall back. Somehow his natural weapons were overcoming their lycanthropic immunities as they hit home.     Gabriel had finally come to his feet. The werewolves had been, up to this point, ignoring him. Seeing the shimmering spiritual weapon dancing in the air around the fray, the brawler-turned-priest said a quick prayer to Canaan and hobbled closer to the melee, positioning himself behind his wounded sister. His hands were sheathed in orbs of light and he reached out to Lilian’s wounds, healing them instantly.     I looped one end of my rope to the broken trunk of a dead tree that drooped near the riverbank. I took hold of the other end of the rope and rushed to the edge of the river. Still feeling Canaan’s Justice forged into a spiritual weapon of pure energy, I waded out into the waters, feeling the current pushing me westward.     I stopped, my eyes on the water, my ears fixated on the awful sounds of the skirmish. I prayed to Canaan, asking Him to bless my allies. Then I stepped forward, off the narrow shelf and I, laden with my heavy chain armor, dropped like a stone in the deep, rushing waters. I sank, twisted end over end by the chaotic current. Icy water poured down my throat and filled my stomach, but Canaan was with me and by His grace, my lungs were spared the deluge.     My fist held tight around the end of my rope and I felt it pull at my fingers as it went taut and kept me from being dragged any further. I blindly grabbed the rope with my other arm pushed against the current, hand over hand, climbing the length of the rope until I broke the surface of the river.    Spitting out the water that filled my mouth, I followed it with an immediate, raspy gasp for life-giving air.     I heard the horrid cries of the wolves, mixed with the sounds of Lilian’s blade slicing the air and Talon’s fists pummeling bone, and felt the presence of Canaan's spiritual weapon.  I commanded it to continue its onslaught against our enemies.     “Evora!” I heard Gabriel call out. “Are you alright?”     I replied with a grunt and a half hearted nod as all my strength and focus was on the task of pulling myself up out of the churning waters.     “Let me help you!”  Gabriel added. “We need you over here!”    At last I felt the shelf under my feet and I scrambled out of the river and onto the muddy bank. I spun around to see Gabriel, just feet from the circling lycanthropes that assailed Talon and Lilian, hands outstretched by the far side of the river.     “Throw me the rope!” He hollered. “I’ll pull you across!”     Exhausted as I was from the struggle, I shook the tiredness from me, grabbed hold of the end of my rope and with all my strength threw it at Gabriel. To my relief and amazement, he caught it on the first try, despite my clumsy, effeminate pitch. He pulled the rope tight and in an instant, looped the end around his waist to anchor it.    “Hurry!” He cried. Two of the werewolves heard him and broke from the fray to close in. I called the gleaming, fiery blade of Canaan over to them. It danced over, cleaving clean through one of them. The onslaught was so sudden and vicious, it managed to cower the other one. I had my window and I took it.     Grasping the taut rope that now straddled over the surface of the water, I boldly pulled myself across the racing river. The current was just as harsh, but anchored by the ad-hoc bridge, I was making it across, one agonizing pull at a time. Gabriel kept urging me on.         I risked a look up to him and spotted the cowered werewolf behind him suddenly shake off his fear and growl.    “Gabriel!” I cried. “Behind you!”     He turned just at the beast pounced on him. The rope slackened and I almost lost my grasp, but managed to hold on as the rushing current battered me about.     I called forth the gleaming blade to attack, and it obeyed, but the creature must have been ready for it, for at the last second, it twisted clear. In the next instant, it slammed into Gabriel and the two rolled onto the ground.    I managed to wrap part of the rope around my arms to improve its hold on me. Some of Gabriel’s old brawler talents must have surged back to him, for a second later, he was standing up out of the roll, one of the beast’s arms held in his grasp and with a great grunt, he threw it over his shoulder and into the rushing river.         It shrieked like a dog whose leg had been shattered as it slammed into the water and was lost under the harsh current. In the next instant the rope grew taut again under Gabriel’s grasp and I hastened over to him, mindful of the possibility the drowned creature may emerge any moment, or worse, claw at my legs in an attempt to pull me down with it.     Neither happened, and with Gabriel’s help, I managed to pull myself out of the river and scramble up the bank on the far side.     “Lilian is in trouble.” Gabriel hissed, his old anger threatening to boil over.     “Only for the moment.” I said between labored breaths. “The tide will now turn.”     I rushed over to the battle. Lilian and Talon were both in the thick of it. Talon’s hands were consumed with a mystical green energy that erupted into great flashes of light as each struck the lycanthropes. His flesh had been rended badly by the werewolves relentlessness, but he was holding his own.    Lilian, on the other hand, looked close to death. Blood poured over her armor and down her arms, covering her gauntlets in secondary, dripping crimson gloves. I prayed to Canaan to shower my allies with a mass lesser vigor, to slowly, but continuously heal their wounds for the remainder of the battle.     Gabriel limped up behind me as three of the werewolves broke from fighting Talon and Lilian to face me.         “Turn back, oh ye foes of righteousness!” I hissed. “Turn back to the pits from whence you came or face eternal perdition!”     They answered with howls and sickening chomps. I took the moment to count the ranks of the enemy. Six remained. Three lay dead on the grass. One was lost in the Tangle River’s depths. There were four of us. The odds were shifting to our favor.     There was a horrid snap of splintering bone and muscles torn asunder. Talon had wrenched the neck of a werewolf. He dropped its corpse and leapt on the back of one of three threatening Gabriel and me. The other two lunged at us, with claws and rabid jaws.    Searing pain poured into my chest as two sets of claws ripped through my chain shirt and slashed into my flesh, but I managed to feint to the left just before the creature’s cursed, disease ridden fangs closed on my throat.     I gave Gabriel a quick glance to see he had suffered identical wounds.     Talon rolled clear of us, taking the werewolf he had just grappled with him.     Lilian dodged, weaved and parried the enraged attacks of the two beasts still threatening her. Her own blood draped over her entire upper torso like a shawl. I knew she would not last long without immediate aid.    I called upon Canaan to bless my mace with his divinely magical power, transforming it, for a time, into a magic weapon. Silver light erupted from the center of the mace and sheathed the head in a mystic glow.     I luckily dodged another flurry of claws and teeth, diving out of the way just before disaster, then jabbed my mace upward, striking the lower jaw of the werewolf with so much force, it dislodged from the skull and sent the fiend spinning on the grass, whimpering in agony.     Gabriel successfully grappled his foe and pinned it to the ground.     “Help Lilian!” He called to me. I spotted Talon lifting the werewolf he bettered and throwing it, squirming and howling, into the river.     The path was clear to Lilian. I rushed up to where the same two werewolves still threatened her. I struck one of them square in the back with my empowered mace and it howled with rage and spun around at me. I took a step back and readied for it. One of its claws tore deep scratches into my side. I bit down the pain and countered its blow.         I slammed downward with all my strength on its crown. I could feel its skull splitting under the strike. Without a sound it fell forward. I stepped out of its way, letting it timber to the ground.         I cried out to Lilian, my free arm outstretched, palm up.     “Champion of Canaan! Show me your blade! Let it be an extension of His Righteousness!”     She whirled around and the flat of her blade met my palm and I gripped it, calling out to Canaan to bless it in the same way he empowered my mace. A celestial silver light transformed the blade into a magic weapon and exploded from the core of the blade’s steel. I let go.    The werewolf behind her pounced, tearing into her back with its claws. She twisted around, letting out a cry of wrath.    “By the power of Canaan!” She evoked. “I smite thee!”     Her blade, doubly strengthened by the immortal, holy power of Canaan, bit deep across the werewolf’s throat. Waves of crimson splattered forth. The creature gurgled and clutched what remained of its neck as it soundlessly fell backward.     There was a splash behind us. We turned to see both Gabriel and Talon by the riverbank, looking westward at the flailing claws of the last of the werewolves as the current washed it away.     Lilian stumbled, clearly weakened from the fight. I took hold of her shoulder to support her. Talon and Gabriel rushed to our side. Talon looked us all over, then turned his eyes to the copse from whence the werewolves emerged.     “We need to rest.” He said, winded. “That copse will have to do.”    We rested in the gloomy, dead surroundings. The ground was rough and dusty, boney branches dangled over us, long dead and leafless. Tangle River’s soft lapping provided a soothing foil to the murkiness.  Sleep soon took me and I did not stir until the sun’s first golden rays broke over the horizon and filtered through the twisted naked branches.     I rolled to a stand, still aching from the wounds I took from the werewolves. I found a patch of new day sun and knelt in its warm rays, praying to Canaan. After my meditations left me renewed and restored, I found Lilian, Talon and Gabriel by the river’s edge. They had been waiting for me, having already agreed to a course of action.    Talon had awoken earlier and scouted ahead. He said the westward river twisted to the south, ending in a pool. He believed we should quickly search the pool for any clues that may lead us to the Witch Tree. If it was clear the pool would yield no immediate help, in which case we agreed we would abandon the search and look elsewhere.     As we approached the wide, serene pool, Talon suddenly stopped. At that very moment, music floated down around us. The song was supple and fragile as cottony dandelion seeds on the wind. It was then my eyes beheld the image of a beautiful woman bathing naked in the center of the pool. She turned toward us and I averted my eyes.    “Hello, my friends. Come closer.” The song beckoned. “I am Corday. I am ever so lonely. Come closer. I know what you seek and can point the way.”      Her music caressed and tickled the outer rim of my ears, the nape of my neck, massaging me down to the small of my back. I felt a hand grip my arm and push me back. I opened my eyes, half expecting to see I was in the talons of a harpy who had beguiled me into submission and was preparing to take me to its nest for second breakfast. Instead I saw Talon’s stoic face. He was pushing me away from the pool, out of view of the serenity, out of earshot of that intoxicating song.     Beside us, Lilian had taken hold of Gabriel and was doing the same thing to him. As we drew further away from the pool, the hold the music had on me lessoned and soon crumbled. I shook away the remainder of my drunkenness.    “What was that?” I heard Gabriel ask.    “A River Nymph.” Talon said. “One of the Fae. She beguiles mortal men to remain at her side with her beauty and her song. Once ensnared, the men become slaves to her, never wishing to leave.”    “She said she knew what we sought.” I said. “If she knows the way to Gothgul, then we should risk her enchantments.”     I could not believe what I was saying. Had this creature’s charms so clouded my judgment and will that I would so easily rush back to her? Luckily, Lilian’s wisdom saved us.     “Does her power affect only men?” She asked. Talon raised an eyebrow.     “I believe so.” He said with a mordant grin.     Moments later, lead by Lilian, we were again at the pool, only this time Gabriel, Talon and myself had stuffed wax in our ears we had scavenged from some candles in my backpack. All sound was completed muted. I could hear nothing but the sound of my own breathing.    I watched as Corday, this beautiful, if ethereal, spirit of Wiltangle first looked upon us as we returned with a smile, but when only Lilian responded, her smile drifted away like a leaf on the surface of a babbling stream.     The river nymph pointed northwards, behind us, and then her finger slid to the right, to the east. Lilian bowed, turned and bid us follow. Once we were clear of the pond, she turned back around, listened to the air a moment and nodded to us.    The wax dug out of our ears, Lilian told us the river nymph had shown her the way.     “Follow me.” She said and without another word, spun back around, drew her sword and marched north.     We traveled back along the shore of the river until it turned eastward, taking us back to the shallows and the broken crossing of jagged stones. We crossed it with great care. Talon went first and took an end of my rope with him. He secured it to the far side while I secured it to a tree on our end. Lilian helped her brother across, as the rocks were both sharp and narrow and dangerously slick from a thin sheet of algae that clung to their surface.     Given Gabriel’s missing leg, it made a difficult conveyance nearly impossible and after more than a few heart stopping slips, brother and sister managed to make it across. I immediately followed, taking my time with each step to rebalance myself before continuing.    At last I made it across and we continued on, following Lilian’s silent, determined lead. We broke through a thicket of dried, thorny brambles that gave way to an opened path. The air here was drenched in gloom. Nothing moved. Nothing lived but an oppressive weight that grew with every step I took.    The sky darkened. Clouds began to gather above us, seemingly trailing us. What little sun shown through the overgrowth was soon completely blocked by a gathering storm. A dreary, whispering voice rode on the wind.     “So, you come for us, slaves of Baern’s lies. Too weak and cowardly to face us himself, he calls upon you! Ha! Fools! Slaves! Thieves! Vagabonds! Come for us! We await thee!”     The voice continued to torment us as we drew closer to a clearing in the center of a circle of trees just ahead. Wind and rain battered down. We stopped just shy of the clearing’s border. A solitary shadow, vaguely human, paced before a massive tree in the center of the clearing. Even at this distance, even with the growing shadows, I could make out a cruel, feminine face weaved into the bark of the tree’s trunk.    Over the wind and rain we formulated a plan.     Talon would ingest the potion of invisibility given to us by the pixies and sneak in behind the tree with the copper nails. Knowing what I knew of invisibility, I warned him he would have to avoid any aggression until he was in place, if he fails in this, the enchantment cloaking him will evaporate and he will instantly become visible. While he positioned himself, the rest of us would distract Gothgul and the Witch Tree with a direct assault.    “You must be quick.” Lilian warned Talon. “We do not fully understand the extent of the Witch Tree’s power. I fear any delay would spell our doom.”     Talon nodded. “I understand.”     He drank the potion in one gulp. The magics took hold and he vanished.     Lilian led us into the clearing. I bestowed upon her Canaan’s guidance to aid her in fighting off any influence either from the Witch Tree or Gothgul. I did the same for myself and Gabriel.     The three of us moved into the clearing. Lightning flashed overhead. Thunderbolts rolled over the deepening darkness. Rain plummeted down in stinging sheets.         Gothgul, more beast than man, faced us, placing himself between us and his twisted botanical mistress. He wore a hood over his face. Yellow eyes flickered out from under the hood.     “So, at last you come to wrest the guardianship of the grove from me?” He unsheathed a curved blade that seemed to radiate despair from its cold steel. “Very well. But I warn you. Her power is great indeed.”     With that, a mighty wind engulfed him. The hood flew back revealing his bestial face covered in black fur. He howled. Lilian answered with a battle cry and rushed him, sword up, ready to strike.     A lightning bolt rained down on Gabriel and I, called from the bloated clouds that churned above us. Gabriel and I scattered at the last moment as the bolt slammed into the earth. I felt its numbing, burning strength, but was left only singed. I gave Gabriel a quick look. By all accounts he, too, had successfully evaded a deadlier blow.     A vile cackling split the air, breaking through Gothgul’s howls and the winds cries. Lilian, just inches away from striking Gothgul suddenly stopped. Whispers danced around us.     “My enemies.” The voice said. “My enemies. They seek to wrest from me what is mine. This I cannot allow.”    It was the Witch Tree, boring into my consciousness, trying to supplant my will and cloud my judgment. Such power, I thought. Such ancient, primal power. How can I resist it? How can I deny its very right to exist? It is older than time. Who am I to pass sentence on such a god?     The final thought broke the enchantment.     “You shall not have me, witch!” I cried out, my voice drowned in the wind and thunder. “There is no god but Canaan! Your blasphemy will not go unanswered!”     Lilian turned around slowly. Her eyes were distant, lost, drawn within. They focused on Gabriel, who had secured himself under a tree that bordered the clearing. He was quietly muttering to himself, watching his sister’s every move.     “Fight it!” I called out to Lilian. “Fight her! Trust in Canaan alone! Do not despair, Lilian Evenshire, Champion of Canaan! Do not listen to her lies!”     Thunder rolled, overwhelming my speech. Lilian raised her sword and closed in on her brother.</blockquote>

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