Part the Seventy-Ninth
In which: Reyu is glad to be a fourth level druid.
As Lira and Euro attempt to keep Kiara in some mental condition remotely resembling calm, Reyu and Benedic scour the scene for any clues as to what might have happened to their friends.
The most confusing part of the whole situation is that there really are no signs that anything has happened at all… except for the pile of unconscious Sovereign soldiers in the middle of the snow with no winter clothing or gear.
Lira sums it up. “How did someone incapacitate an entire camp, kidnap our people, and take all of their gear without leaving footprints in fresh snow?”
“Maybe they flew!” Kiara suggests. “Giant flying things with mind-control came in while we were gone, kidnapped Annika, and now they’re going to make her their slave, and…”
Euro attempts to distract Kiara from future dire predictions by crawling through her hair.
Reyu decides that an exhaustive survey of the campsite can wait for another time, and sets about attempting to rouse Lord Agasha. She shakes him firmly by the shoulder and he starts awake.
“Hold fast!” he shouts, eyes flying open to sudden and complete wakefulness. Reyu puts a steadying hand on his shoulder, and Agasha relaxes a bit. He blinks for a second, disoriented at no longer being under attack.
“What happened?” Reyu asks him.
“I don’t know… exactly. Eva woke me up, said we were under some kind of attack. Then… the next thing I remember was you bringing me around again.” He shakes his head, evidently disgusted.
“What is this?” asks Reyu she points to a sliver of wood stuck into Lord Agasha’s leg. Carefully removing the piece of wood, she finds it is actually a tiny arrow. She holds it out for Benedic to examine. “Have you… seen anything like this before?”
Benedic takes the tiny projectile and scrutinizes it closely. It certainly wasn’t intended to cause grievous wounds, but… “I think… I mean, I’ve never seen myself… but it looks like it could be a pixie arrow.”
“Umm…” Thatch puts in, “what’s a pixie?”
“Tiny-like little creatures,” Benedic explains. “They fly around, sometimes shoot people with arrows that make them fall asleep.”
“Tiny?” Thatch asks, looking at the scene.
“It does seem… doubtful that pixies alone could have accomplished all of this on their own. Even in great numbers,” Reyu allows.
“Did I mention they can turn invisible?” Benedic adds.
Reyu and Thatch exchange skeptical looks.
By this time, the remaining members of Lord Agasha’s guard have been roused, and—although they are probably all a bit cold, they are ready to move out. If only the party had a direction.
Much to Kiara’s frustration, there is nothing for anyone to do except wait until Reyu, Benedic, and the scouts attached to the guard until can pick up some kind of trail.
It takes about twenty minutes, but Reyu finally notices something.
They group had been traveling through more or less untracked woods, making their own trail through the woods as they went. That trail is still visible, and does not appear to have been backtracked or followed. However, there is a slight differentiation in the untracked snow around the site.
It’s almost as though a group of people had passed by, leaving their tracks in the fresh snow, and then, somehow obscured their tracks by causing a fresh snow-fall with low-swirling winds to follow them.
With the extensive natural knowledge of a Druid, Reyu knows one thing definitively: such things are not natural. Unfortunately, her vast stores of knowledge do not give her any hints as to what could cause such an unnatural phenomenon.
“Yeah,” Benedic agrees, “probably not pixies.”
And so, with no idea what awaits them further down the non-trail, Reyu leads the (remaining) party into the woods.
###
She doesn’t have her winter cloak, and even though she is sitting on a snow-covered log in the middle of the woods in the middle of winter, Eva doesn’t feel cold. There are lights dancing everywhere, through the tree branches, and occasionally around her head. Anvil is there too, for once, not talking about Justice. Actually Honeyoak is telling him that trees don’t have laws, they just get along by all being nice to each other. But really, Eva is far more interested in Elmsweet telling them what it’s like to stand in a sacred grove and grow leaves in springtime.
It is fascinating.
And then Reyu is standing there, at the edge of the grove, beside a giant bear, and the man with the goat-legs starts to play his pipes again, and maybe that means that Reyu will come listen with them. Eva doesn’t give her much more than a passing glance though. Elmsweet is talking again, and—now that it has been brought to her attention—Eva is absolutely shocked at all the hours and years of her life she has not spent thinking about rising sap.
###
Reyu rests one hand casually on the bear’s back, and stands for a few moments, listening to the satyr’s music. It’s a pleasant enough melody, but she is glad that her training has taught her how to resist its lure. Given the look of things, the others are quite distracted enough.
It does, however, give her time to observe the scene before her. Although the sun has set, the grove is brightly lit by what appears to be a combination of dancing lights and flying pixies, while the sound of their chattering and laughter fills the air. Anvil, Eva, and Annika are sitting on some fallen logs beside three women, dryads she guesses—with flowing white hair, brown skin, wearing what appear to be simple shifts of unbleached cotton. A few of Lord Agasha’s guards are gathered here too, all listening with intense focus to what the three women are describing in rapturous tones.
Nearby, the satyr plays his pipes, much to the fascination of one of the few female members of Agasha’s guard.
A little off to one side, a woman with the palest skin Reyu has ever seen, nearly as pallid as her white gown and cloak, stands alone. Her jet-black hair hangs in a solid curtain, occasionally lifted—along with her cloak—by a gentle wind, except… there is no wind. She looks over the others, a faint curl of disdain on her lips her only expression. Finally, her gaze comes to rest on Reyu.
“Good evening,” Reyu says.
The woman does not reply.
At that moment however, a swallow flies down from the trees to perch on the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr seems surprised, then amused as the sparrow attempts to whistle along with his playing.
Reyu sighs to herself. She had warned Kiara to stay behind with the others. Somehow, she had had a feeling something like this might happen.
The satyr turns to Reyu, grinning broadly. “Don’t you like my music?”
“It is pleasant enough,” Reyu allows.
“It clearly didn’t work,” one of the dryads informs him.
“Go back to talking about your trees,” the satyr grouses, throwing an arm around the guardswoman at his side.
Reyu allows herself an inward smile of satisfaction at her correct identification. Outwardly, she drops a short bow to the three women on the fallen logs. “I hope your groves are well.”
The women pause in their narrative and exchange uneasy looks. “Well enough,” says one.
“Would you like to hear about growing leaves?” asks another.
“I would,” Reyu replies (quite sincerely), “but first I would appreciate the return of my friends, and their belongings.”
The dryads all turn to look at the dark-haired woman, but before she can say anything the satyr interrupts with, “Hey! Another one!”
Reyu glances back and sees Lira doing her usual poor job of hiding in the woods. The others can't be far behind.
For his part, the satyr picks up his pipes and begins to play...
