The old man’s eyes glimmered with evil intent, his old and sagging body betraying his kind words to show his malicious meaning. He stood across a clearing from a much younger man, who stood over two young children, a girl and a boy, both of which couldn’t be older than 8.
“You’ll never get to them!” The young man cried, with some strength, but mostly fearing the frail old man. He was afraid. But he would stand in front of these children, protecting them until he breathed his last breath, if it came to that.
The old man cackled, evilly, and said, “You can’t stop me, Jeremy. I will have my grandkids back, even if it means going through you, dear nephew.”
“You won’t keep abusing them, not on my watch!” Jeremy cried, suddenly slaying his fingers forward. Vines burst from the ground at high velocity, reaching for the old man. They slammed into him at high speeds, and wrapped him up in a tight embrace, preventing him from moving.
The old man seemed to be unconscious, but then he shot awake, and grinned, teeth bloodied from the impact. “That the best you got?” he asked cockily, before rods of earth pulled up beside his body between the vines and ripped the vines apart.
Jeremy tried to send some more, but the grandfather deflected them with stone walls, before suddenly reaching his arms below him, and seemed to try and pull something up.
The old man’s arms bulged with effort, veins protruding from his tensing forearms. A trembling could be felt, as if the very planet were responding to his call. Jeremy tried to send more vines after him, but rapidly rising shards of stone sliced through them before they got near.
A boulder the size of a house suddenly erupted from the earth as the old man lifted his straining arms. The old man then closed his fists and ripped them apart, and the boulder crumbled into hundreds of smaller but still dangerously sized stones.
One of his arms then pointed to the frozen Jeremy, seemingly awed at the display of prowess shown. Half of the stones slowly started accelerating towards Jeremy, before starting to move at higher speeds.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Jeremy quickly raised his arms at the attack, forming a protective layer of vines. The stones pelted into the vines at high velocity, pummeling it, and eventually through it to hit Jeremy. Few actually hit him, but the ones that did were enough to nearly knock the consciousness out of him. The children were protected even further by another layer of vines, and were thankfully unharmed.
The old man cackled, and slowly stepped forwards, keeping one of his hands raised above his head to keep the floating rocks up there.
Jeremy then heard a slight whisper coming from the back of his head. ‘Join me’ it whispered. What did that mean? Join who? Seemingly responding to his thoughts, it said ‘I am the spirit of the forest, newly born through the great awakening. Join me and I will help you’
Jeremy was contemplating this, but seeing the old man approaching, he knew he had little time. Jeremy called out into his mind, ‘I accept’. The spirit then said, ‘let it be done. Do you wish for me to eliminate this enemy in front of you?’
‘Yes please’ Jeremy said, adding ‘But please keep the children safe, at all costs’
‘Let it be done then’ the spirit echoed in his mind, and Jeremy faded into unconsciousness.
The old man grinned even wider, watching the man fall asleep, but then stopped his walking when he saw Jeremy slowly levitate off the ground and face him.
Jeremy’s eyes then opened, only to reveal nothing there but the whites of his eyes. ‘Jeremy’ then said in a hauntingly primordial tone, one that seemed to have the same qualities of an echo, “For your actions against one of the forest guardians, you shall be eliminated.”
The old man’s eyes widened in panic, and he used all of his efforts to try and fling the remaining stones at the creature that now inhabited Jeremy.
The entity casually raised its hand, and hundreds of vines flew up from the ground and individually grabbed and hurled the stones away, into the distance. It then looked directly at the old man, raised Jeremy’s hands, and seemed to grasp them together, in a motion one would use to capture a fly, or something similar.
Tree roots as thick as a torso burst from the nearby trees and wrapped around the old man, who cried in fear at the powerful limbs of the trees, and struggles to break free, trying to raise stone to his defense. However, nothing worked, the trees’ roots mysteriously as strong as Damascus steel. The roots then pulled the man underneath the dirt, and his screams were quickly silenced by the loamy soil of the forest floor. Jeremy’s eyes then closed and he topples to the floor, and the children he was protecting rushed to his unconscious body.