XII

‘Alright, does anybody have any ideas for what we’re going to do next because this is all too weird for me and my brain isn’t working anymore,’ Rylan groaned as he buried his head in his hands.

The party had assembled in the clearing just outside the shack that contained the growing plant beings. All of them were trying their best to process what they had stumbled upon in this strange village, to little avail. It was all so bizarre and incomprehensible to their minds that they could do little else but sit in stunned silence, occasionally broken by feeble attempts at conversation and rationalization.

‘We knew the Sephia was peculiar, but this— this is on a whole ‘other level,’ Damien said.

‘That’s the understatement of a lifetime,’ Aroha replied. ‘This is quite literally the oddest thing I’ve ever seen with my own eyes, and we’ve been through a lot. I don’t even fully understand it. How is this even possible?’

‘Well,’ Penelope began, ‘let’s consider this. We know that magic exists, yes? The cursed gemstone we encountered in the fort is proof of that, at least.’

‘I didn’t see that with my own eyes, Penelope. I only know what you all told me afterwards. I couldn’t possibly understand it properly, even if the tale was weird and fantastical. This is different though. This is— Like Dandelion is right there! Walking and building and…’

‘Well, we all saw it. Or, more accurately, Rylan and I did. Damien was similarly indisposed during the whole incident.’

‘Aye, that’s true,’ Damien mused. ‘All I remember was a flash of red. Then Rylan punchin’ me in the gob.’

Rylan groaned from behind his hands. He sighed deeply, ‘Oh… Yes… Sorry about that.’

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Aroha said in confusion, ‘Nobody told me this part! Why did you punch him in the— the “gob”? I assume that’s Camarian slang for the, uh, male bits?’

‘No!’ Damien exclaimed, flailing his hands around as if trying to clear the very thought away. ‘Me face, Aroha! He decked me in the face!’

‘Oh, that makes more sense then,’ Aroha said, barely able to suppress a laugh.

‘Aye, sure it does,’ Damien glowered.

‘Well, as I was saying,’ Penelope continued, in an attempt to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand. ‘We know magic exists, or at least it does here in the Sephia. Maybe it’s why this place is considered cursed? All of these – as you put it – weird and fantastical things can happen here. Perhaps because this place has remained untouched by civilization and people.’

‘There was a civilization. The fort is proof of that,’ Aroha countered.

‘Alright, “civilization” in a sense that we are familiar with. The fort was clearly inhabited by a race that isn’t human. Or even Carnelian, from what I understand.’

‘Do you know much about the Carnelians, Damien?’ Aroha asked her well-travelled friend.

‘Not really, no,’ he replied, scratching his head. ‘I suppose I ken about the same as ye might. They’re a rare race – skin as red as fire an’ said to possess inhuman power, but nobody can say what exactly. They were nearly wiped out during the civil war these last few decades in Sevet. I believe they were kinda the cause of the war in the first place.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know much about Sevetian politics, but supposedly the previous royal family tried to integrate the Carnelian bloodline into the royal line. Folks weren’t too happy an’ there was an uprisin’ an’ the royals were deposed an’ dethroned. That’s about all I know, though. Carnelians have been hunted an’ shunned in the Kingdom ever since.’

‘We’ve heard much the same stories then, I suppose,’ Aroha mused. ‘It was big news when our parents were little because it was the first time a Kingdom had ever had a change in rulers like that. The original Sevetian royal bloodline was all but completely wiped out. I’ve never heard the Carnelian angle before though.’

‘Aye, it was a massive scandal back in the day. Took a long time for the Kingdom to recover. An’ to think the war only ended thirty years ago.’

‘That’s just sad,’ Penelope said. ‘To go to war and scorn an entire race for something so petty and small.’

‘The Kingdoms don’t need much excuse for such atrocities,’ Rylan remarked darkly. ‘No offence, Damien.’

‘Aye, slavery is rampant in Camar an’ the Sevetians hunt their own people. It’s some mighty fine neighbours ye’ve got. I don’t blame ye for hatin’ the Kingdoms at all. The way they carry on, it’s not exactly inspirin’, or “enlightened” as they claim to be.’

‘Well, we can’t just relax here in the forest forever,’ Penelope chimed in. ‘We already lost a lot of time at the fort, we need to get moving and reach Sevet already.’

‘What are we going to do about all this,’ Rylan asked, waving his hand around the clearing.

‘What can we do? I say we leave well enough alone and continue on our way. It was interesting to see and everything, but there’s really nothing to be done here.’

‘She’s right,’ Aroha commented. ‘This was certainly a magical diversion, but a diversion nonetheless. We should keep going.’

‘Should I mark the map with this place? Report it when we report the fort?’ Damien asked.

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea…’ Aroha said. She admired the clearing and the construction that Dandelion was still busying itself with. It worked tirelessly in its mission to build and erect homes, never pausing or taking a single break. Perhaps it was for the rest of its race that still gestated in the little shack, so that they might have something to wake up to. ‘It seems too cruel. They’ll just ruin this place. They’ll want to research and dismantle and destroy. They’ll want to capture all these— these people, and poke and prod… No, let’s just keep this our little secret, huh?’

‘Fair enough,’ Damien replied with a smile. ‘Our secret then?’

‘Yes, definitely,’ Penelope said brightly.

‘That sounds like the best idea we’ve had all journey,’ Rylan said, nodding his agreement. ‘Let Dandelion and his people have their little paradise here, tucked away in the heart of the Wood. It’s not our place to ruin that for them.’

‘I say we stay here for the twilight and then we can continue on come morning,’ Penelope suggested.

‘Do you think Dandelion will mind?’

Penelope looked across the clearing to the plant being, completely oblivious to the group resting in its village. She chuckled, ‘I don’t think so. Just… no fires. I get the feeling it might not be too comfortable with that.’

*

The party camped out in the small clearing for the rest of the day. They set up their sleeping equipment away from where Dandelion was occupied and ate a dinner consisting only of their nearly-depleted stock of preserved, dried meats so that they didn’t have to light a fire. Thankfully, it was a reasonably warm day – as it usually was in these parts. There was no rainfall, nor chill winds that day, so they had a reasonably comfortable experience in the plant being’s mossy little village.

Dandelion itself worked tirelessly on its latest creation and only stopped once twilight truly reached its peak and the sky turned the bright orange hue of a day gone. It simply stopped what it was doing and stood, motionless, rooted on one spot, silent as a sculpture. Rylan thought it a little eerie at first when it simply ceased all of its work out of nowhere, but he came to find it oddly comforting to have it standing watch over the village like a mute guardian and custodian.

Unfortunately, the serenity of the plant village could not last forever.

It was just an hour after the majority of the party had drifted off to sleep that it happened. Only Rylan was still awake, taking the first watch as he usually did. Even though they had all agreed that no watch was needed on this particular rest stop, nestled here as they were in the magical safety of the plant village, Rylan’s body would not allow him to sleep so easily after weeks of being conditioned to be alert while everyone else slept.

He sat up against a tree. He listened to the deep breathing of his companions and watched the clearing, albeit absent-mindedly as he was lost in his own thoughts and daydreams. It, therefore, took him more than a moment to notice the disturbance on the edge of the clearing at first. It was a slight rustle of the brush, akin to a light breeze passing through, although there was no such breeze. He perceived it, although it felt almost as if it were a far off dream or the wisp of a memory. Not real.

Until it was.

The brush rustled more ferociously, impossible to ignore now, and Rylan was roused from his stupor. A figure emerged from out of it. Rylan could do nothing save stare at it. In the dim light of twilight, it was hard to properly discern the figure’s features, but it appeared to be a male, of slender build and wearing light steel armour adorned with red livery. The figure merely seemed to be investigating the village, much like the party had done upon first arriving. Rylan thought he must be in the same state of shock and wonder as they had been.

And then Rylan’s thoughts turned to the more practical. Who was this man? Why had he come here? What armour bore red livery? Sevetian military? It couldn’t be…

‘H— Hey!’ Rylan ventured, standing up from his position. ‘Who goes there?!’

The figure jolted in place as if struck unexpectedly and spun around to look in his direction. He still could not see the man’s face, hidden as it was in the shadow of low light and under a small steel helmet. The man stood frozen in place for a moment, then unexpectedly pulled a light crossbow from his side and fired off a bolt in Rylan’s direction.

The bolt flew wide and struck the tree next to Rylan’s, but the diversion was enough. The man used Rylan’s astonished reaction to the event to flee the clearing, disappearing once again into the brush. Whether he had missed on purpose on not was an entirely different matter.

Rylan was dumbfounded only for a moment, however. He sprang into action, his thoughts racing to catch up to his body. Must catch the soldier! He could be a scout for a larger group! He grabbed his sword from the ground and hurried to rouse the rest of his party. He woke Damien first, shaking the man violently, before rushing over to Aroha and Penelope and doing the same.

‘An intruder just breached the camp!’ he screamed as he did all of this, not even waiting to see if his companions had gotten up or if they had even heard him. ‘A Sevetian soldier! Get up! Quick!’

He then took off in a sprint across the clearing and crashed into the bush in pursuit of the soldier. The man was only a few minutes ahead of him and was obviously trying to escape. He had left a wake of ruin and disturbance in his impromptu retreat. Trampled flowers and underbrush marked his passage as clearly as a trail of breadcrumbs and Rylan followed the escape route like a bloodhound. His mind was still trying to process all of the information he had, but his body would not slow down to allow him the opportunity to do so. All he could focus on was the path before him and the wind rushing in his ears. All else mattered not at that moment.

The intruder had taken much the same route back as the party had taken to get into the village in the first place. Rylan squeezed through the trees as quickly as he dared, not wanting to waste any time at all. As soon as he broke from the tree cover, he managed to spy the intruder. The man had managed to put quite a distance between him and his pursuer, but it was not so great as to be futile for Rylan to continue the pursuit, which is exactly what he did. The man looked over his shoulder and shouted out an obscenity at Rylan as he drew ever nearer.

‘Who are you?!’ Rylan screamed back, his lungs screaming at him in turn for wasting precious oxygen on such a useless endeavour.

But he couldn’t stop yet. He exerted every ounce of stamina he had, every muscle cried out in pain as he sped up instead of slowing down. He took short, shallow breaths, yet pushed his body to achieve speeds he had not needed to push for since he was but a child racing through the Port with stolen pies. The soldier could not keep up with his youthful strength and the distance closed inch by painful inch in seconds.

He was almost there…

The man was within his reach…

The soldier and his pursuer crested a ridge and then, all at once, Rylan’s mind caught up with his body and forced him to stop. He skid to a halt in the grass with such sudden force that he slipped and fell on his backside. He saw the soldier’s destination ahead in the distance and it had stopped him dead in his tracks. This was bigger than anything he had ever seen.

Down below, in a small valley, burned a multitude of fires. At least a dozen from what Rylan could hastily count. He could also make out tents around these fires through gaps in the trees, and the ants scurrying around these tents could only be more soldiers. It was the only logical explanation. The intruder had been a scout and this was the remainder of his unit. And he had seen everything. He had seen the others. He knew where they were. He had seen the hidden plant village and all its wonders. It was all Rylan could do to watch the soldier speed down the hillside and disappear into the waiting valley of soldiers, probably already raising the alarm and reporting what he had discovered.

He’ll bring more soldiers… He’ll bring death and destruction…

‘Hey, get up! There is no time to waste!’ came a voice from behind Rylan. It was not one he recognized, being more childlike than any of his friends.

He turned around and found himself staring at a pair of bare legs behind him, with skin as red as blood. He followed them up the figure they belonged to. It was a young girl, or at least she looked young in his eyes. He could not be sure at all because he had never seen a person like her before. She was clothed in a simple white dress, her cropped hair falling around the frame of her oval face as she leaned forward slightly to down at him. It was not an unpleasant visage at all. She stared at him with a large smirk on her face, her bright eyes twinkling mischievously. If there was one thing Rylan would never forget in all his life it would be those big eyes, like shiny emeralds set in a deep red pool. Strange and unnatural and alluring…

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‘Get up, big man! We must go back to your friends. To the plant man’s village,’ the girl said. There was an urgency in her voice, but more than that there was a friendliness and a jovial tone that made Rylan feel almost at ease in her presence despite the situation.

‘Who— who are you?’ he managed to stumble out, shaken to his very core by all of these events transpiring all at once. He couldn’t even be sure that he hadn’t just dozed off during his watch and everything that was currently happening was just a vivid dream that he would wake up from at any minute.

‘No time for that just yet! Come, come, I know of a shortcut!’ the girl said excitedly. With that she ran off into the trees, leaving Rylan sitting there in the dirt, overcome with confusion and the swarm of questions running through his head.

Rylan couldn’t say what possessed him to follow the girl. Perhaps he was so overwhelmed by everything that he just wasn’t thinking straight anymore. Perhaps just seeing what seemed to be a friendly face in this situation made him stop questioning the craziness. Perhaps she had bewitched him somehow. All he knew was that he followed the strange girl, despite all his best instincts telling him it was a stupid idea.

The girl led him through the Wood on a merry chase. She was always a few steps ahead, moving along at a breakneck pace, never once looking back to make sure he was even following. She seemed to move with the speed of the wind behind her and the trees gave away all around, providing her with a safe and speedy passage through their midst. She clearly had a knowledge of this part of the Wood that only someone native could. He lost sight of her many times in his efforts to keep up as she darted through the trees hither and thither. Only the flutter of her stark white dress against the mottled greens of the forest kept him on her track. All his tiredness from the earlier chase melted away during this mad dance through the forest.

Just who is this girl? Rylan thought to himself over and over.

Eventually, after what felt like a much shorter amount of time than his initial pursuit of the scouting soldier that had led him out of the village, Rylan started to recognize Dandelion’s handiwork in the trees once more. He realized that the girl had led him to the opposite side of the village clearing. It was near the back of the village, nowhere near where the party had entered earlier in the day. The pair arrived right next to the shack that contained the rest of Dandelion’s people, where they still slept and grew, completely oblivious to the imminent danger approaching their quiet paradise.

Aroha and Penelope were waiting in the clearing, weapons at the ready. They had traded rapier and bow between them, and had already packed up the campsite and put the group’s bags against a tree, ready to be grabbed and escaped with at the first sign of trouble.

‘Aroha! Penelope!’ Rylan cried out as soon as he saw them, pushing past his guide to go to them.

They both jumped at the sound of their names and spun around in bewilderment. They were then both embraced by Rylan so suddenly that they didn’t even have time to react.

‘Don’t do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!’ Penelope screamed at him when he released them from his grip.

‘What’s going on? What happened? Where did you run off to?’ Aroha asked in a rapid flurry. She opened her mouth to ask even more questions, but she noticed the girl standing behind Rylan. ‘Who is this? A Carnelian…?’

‘Hello friends,’ the girl said brightly, giving them a small wave and beaming at them warmly.

‘I, uh, I’m not too sure. She led me back here through a shortcut,’ Rylan admitted. ‘Where’s Damien?’

‘What do you mean “where’s Damien”?’ Penelope asked incredulously. ‘He ran after you! You gave us all a fright, screaming about soldiers and intruders, and then you just took off! We thought he was with you this whole time!’

‘I didn’t see him,’ Rylan said, worry starting to sink in once more. ‘No, this isn’t good… I need to go find him.’

He started with the intent to speed out of the clearing once again, but he was stopped by a firm hand on his arm.

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Aroha said. She grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face her, her face stern and serious, ‘First, you tell us what exactly is going on!’

‘A soldier came into the camp,’ Rylan replied hurriedly, not wanting to waste any more time. ‘I think he was Sevetian. He wore red livery on his armour. I chased after him but I didn’t catch him in time. There’s some kind of military force camped out in a valley just ahead of here! I think it’s his unit and he has definitely reported this place by now. We need to find Damien and get out of here, like right now!’

‘Yes,’ the Carnelian girl said sadly, drawing everyone’s attention. Everybody turned to face her. ‘They are Sevetian soldiers. They have come to hunt.’

‘Um, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but who are you exactly?’ Aroha asked the girl.

The girl beamed. ‘I don’t have a name in your tongue. I am called—’ She stopped suddenly and tensed up. Her emerald eyes grew wide and she hissed, ‘They come!’

She darted into the cover of the trees behind her before anybody could say anything further.

Then chaos descended onto the village.

It started slowly at first. A momentary silence as everyone tried to figure out what was happening. And then, suddenly, it was too late for such pleasantries.

The soldiers arrived. A troupe of seven men, all armoured, hardened fighters. They came with torch and steel. They came with orders clear and unquestionable. The scout who had initially discovered the village led the six other men of the unit into the tiny glade. He locked eyes with Rylan first, the young man’s terror writ clear all over his pale face. The scout raised a sword at Rylan and turned to another man beside him, this one older and more grizzled and far fiercer.

‘Dead or alive,’ the old soldier growled. ‘Take them all.’

The soldiers all drew their swords from their belts at their commander’s orders and assumed battle stances. Everyone in the glade tensed up. Rylan shielded his sister and Aroha with one arm, the other one clutched his scabbard with white knuckles. Everyone drew an expectant breath in preparation for the fight ahead.

And then many things happened all at once.

From the side, hitherto completely ignored by the soldiers, came Dandelion. He descended on the soldier closest to him like a silent demon. He swung a plank of wood so hard into the man’s body that the crunch of his bones cracking broke the silence of the clearing as forcefully as the beat of a war drum. The man flew clear across the clearing and crumbled into a tree, his body mangled in unnatural ways, never to rise again.

There were screams then. From the soldiers. From Rylan and his party. Anger and confusion and terror all mixed into one. A cacophony that destroyed the tranquillity of the plant village forever.

In the confusion of Dandelion’s attack, Penelope drew her bowstring and let loose an arrow that pierced the scout in the throat. He went down quite unsure as to why or how this had happened. Penelope for her part had not been aiming to kill the man, and upon seeing the blood spill forth from his throat, her eyes grew wide with horror and her entire body froze up in fear. She did not even to have time to process what she had just done because Rylan pushed her to the ground forcefully in almost the same instant. She sprawled out in the dirt next to Aroha, who had been given the same treatment. Aroha’s hands shook and all she could do was watch events unfold before her – petrified in place.

At the same time, two soldiers rounded on Dandelion with torches high and steel hungry. They set the poor being alight and if it could have screamed, it would have. They hacked at it with their swords while Dandelion flailed wildly. Its crazed swings did nothing to deter the soldier’s relentless attacks. They stuck to it like a pair of mosquitoes, dodging swings that would have annihilated if they even found their mark. But they never did. As soon as Dandelion had scared one opponent away, the other took his place in the melee. It was all the plant being could do to try and flee from the fire and the pain it had never experienced before in its short life. It tumbled backwards into a stack of planks it had prepared, setting them too alight with its own burning body. The soldiers pursued it, hacking all the while at it as it scrambled to get away from them.

Rylan managed to draw his sword from its sheath and he charged at the disordered army group while he still had a chance to do something. With a bloodcurdling cry, he ran his sword through the stomach of the soldier nearest to him, directly under the man’s armour piece. He drew it back out, his hands now slick with blood, before his mind even had time to catch up to his actions. Unfortunately for him, the old, grizzled commander had recovered enough from the initial chaos of Dandelion’s surprise attack to see the enemy in front of him. The old soldier brought his sword down again and again on Rylan in a flurry of swings and it was all the younger man could do to clumsily block the fury and skill of the grizzled commander’s blows. Rylan knew he had to stay on his feet or he was dead. His limbs felt heavier and weaker with each blow he endured, the shockwaves of the commander’s powerful strikes running along his blade and into his arms, threatening to paralyze them.

It was then that the remaining soldier joined his commander in his assault. The soldier realized what was happening and, seeing the Dandelion situation being handled, decided to help his commanding officer. He attacked from Rylan’s flank, almost catching the young man with his very first strike. Both commander and soldier entered into a deathly dance, one man offsetting the other much like the two soldiers assaulting Dandelion. As soon as one sword as withdrawn to set up the next strike, another had already taken its place. Assailed on both sides by two more skilled swordsmen, Rylan knew he was going to die. He saw it coming.

An inevitable outcome for his own foolishness.

Time slowed to a crawl. He felt like he was underwater, unable to breathe, unable to move his limbs properly. He felt the stillness of death creeping in…

And then a new scream joined the fray. From behind the soldier’s upheaved ranks, Damien roared like an enraged lion as he charged straight into the clearing. Without thinking, without hesitation, he tackled the grizzled commander from behind, taking both himself and the old man straight to the ground. Even in the confusion of the sudden attack from behind, the old commander was not out of the battle yet. He cracked Damien in the side of his head with an elbow. Once, twice. Vicious cracks as armour met flesh and flesh inevitably gave way. He forced himself out from under Damien’s weight, grabbed his blade from the dirt and rounded on the now-wounded younger man. Damien wiped the blood from his eye and drew his own sword, squaring up against the commander.

The soldier still standing did not give Rylan a chance to savour the sudden rescue. He renewed his onslaught as soon as he confirmed that his commander was still alive and Rylan just barely reacted fast enough to block the new string of attacks. Rylan and Damien faced off against the two soldiers, almost fighting back to back at that point, doing their best to keep the two at bay. It was a merciless assault on both sides of the fight.

Penelope had recovered from her dazed confusion by this point. She grabbed the back of Aroha’s shirt and pulled her friend along the dirt and out of the fray.

‘Come on, Aroha,’ she strained through grit teeth as she dragged both herself and her friend through the dirt and towards the cover of the trees. ‘We need to get out of here!’

It was like lugging a piece of deadwood, but Penelope managed to get Aroha all the way to the tree where the group’s belongings were hidden. She propped Aroha against the tree and then crawled in front of her and slapped her friend across the face, hard and with purpose. The look on Aroha’s face as she raised a trembling hand to her cheek and tears welled in her eyes almost broke Penelope’s heart.

‘We don’t have time! Grab what you can and let’s get out of here!’ she cried.

‘But— but Rylan! Damien!’ Aroha stammered, snapped out of her stupor by Penelope’s violence.

‘There’s nothing we can do!’

To emphasize her point, Penelope grabbed two of the group’s backpacks. Just as she turned to run into the trees, Dandelion crashed down right next to Aroha. Screaming, Penelope dropped the bags and pulled her friend out of the way as the two soldiers pursuing the plant being descended on it, hot on its heels. The one soldier plunged his sword straight through the being’s chest and there was a final, decisive shudder as the life or magic or whatever had been animating the foliage that made up its body left it completely. The plant being fell still and stopped writhing. There was something akin to a sigh on the wind, or maybe Penelope just imagined that. The only sounds to be heard were the faint clash of steel, somewhere far off in the distance, on a different planet from here, the heavy breathing of the humans surrounding Dandelion’s corpse, and the crackling of the fire eating away at it.

The soldiers rounded on the frightened girls in front of them. The one who had ended Dandelion’s life pulled his sword from its corpse while the other stalked towards the girls slowly.

Penelope realized that Aroha still had the rapier in her hand. The young woman brought it up in front of her, hands trembling violently, her entire body shaking against Penelope’s. Even terrified and knowing it was futile, she shielded herself and her friend with it anyway.

The soldier stalking towards them chuckled nastily.

That was the last sound he made.

There came a noise from the trees next to them. A word. Penelope did not know what the word was; it was not a language she had ever heard before. But there was a word and even though it was foreign, its intent was crystal clear. It coursed through the bodies of all who heard it – terrified friends and soldiers alike. It felt like a surge of energy. Of magic. Of a sunrise bathing a battlefield. Of dying words whispered into expectant ears.

It said “Rise”.

It said “Stand” and “Fight”.

It said “Grow”.

It coursed through the lifeless body of Dandelion and the magic that had resided within the being reacted to it violently. The being’s torso rose as if lifted by some invisible hand. It was torn open by invisible claws in one motion. Spores and pollen burst out of the chest cavity like blood spraying from an arterial wound, covering the soldiers near it, and, more importantly, covering the air around the body in tiny little plant particles.

Then a new word. A new sensation. Of heat. Of warmth. Of sitting beside an open hearth. Of home.

It said “Scald”.

It said “Kindle” and “Tingle”.

It said “Fire”.

And the tiny particles in the air around Dandelion’s corpse ignited all at once. There was a tiny, breathless, split-second wherein a tiny mote of pollen caught fire, and then the sudden explosion as this fire spread. All of the pollen in the air erupted all at once like the blast of a cannon as it ignites gunpowder. And the force of the explosion was enough to blow the soldiers down. And the heat of the explosion was enough to melt the skin of the soldier who had been standing, full of pride, over Dandelion’s body. The strange plant being had its vengeance on the man who had mercilessly cut it down for no reason at all. And this soldier died painfully, not knowing what had just happened to him and why his skin was burning.

The second soldier was caught in his blast from behind and he fell forward and sprawled in the dirt in front of Aroha. She didn’t know what possessed her then. Her mind was clear for one second and she knew what she had to do. And she did it. She lunged forward and plunged her rapier into the man’s back. His wordless cough of blood splattered onto her lap. She felt no remorse for doing this. This man would have killed her and Penelope and everyone else just the same. She felt a wave of emotion hit her. Fear, panic, grief, elation. Everything a person could possibly feel. It was too much for her body to process.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up into the emerald eyes of the Carnelian girl. The girl smiled at her.

The explosion also gave Rylan and Damien an edge in their own fight. For just a moment, the explosion stopped the furious melee in the middle of the glade as everyone turned to see what had occurred. Upon seeing the smouldering body of one soldier flying away from his friends, Damien felt a rush of adrenaline and purpose fill his limbs. The commander recovered from the diversion fast, but Damien was just that little bit faster. He ran his sword straight through the underside of the man’s upstretched left arm, angling his blade into the weak spot behind the man’s chest armour. The sword cleaved its way upwards and pierced all the way through his body, exiting from the man’s neck.

Upon seeing his commander and all his comrades slain in the clearing, the soldier fighting Rylan turned to run. Rylan felt relief wash over him and he nearly collapsed to the ground. He only managed to hold himself up by planting his sword into the ground.

But it was not over. And Damien had had enough. He flung his sword at the fleeing soldier. It sailed past Rylan with eerie precision and deadly intent and buried itself into the fleeing man’s back. The force of the throw was enough to pierce his armour and there as a satisfying thunk as the man was taken to the dirt by the blow. His life left his body before he had even touched the ground.

Rylan turned to Damien, the shock and horror on his face enough to give the man pause as he walked over to retrieve his weapon.

‘What was that?!’ Rylan screamed. ‘He was fleeing!’

‘He woulda called more soldiers,’ Damien responded calmly.

‘That’s— That’s—’

Damien grasped Rylan’s shoulder. Despite himself, Rylan felt the warmth and care in it. ‘He woulda killed ye. Killed us all. It’s what he deserved.’

Damien walked ahead, pulled his sword from the soldier’s corpse, and then returned to Rylan and grabbed his arm. He led him back over to where the girls were still sitting in the dirt, completely in shock.

‘The bad men are all gone now,’ the Carnelian girl beamed at them as they drew nearer.

Rylan took in the scene before him. The smouldering bodies of Dandelion and the soldier who had killed him. Aroha leaning heavily on the rapier she had plunged into the back of another soldier. Penelope sitting speechless and motionless, staring at the carnage in front of her, completely taken aback her friend’s actions. The Carnelian girl beaming, proud as a puppy.

He surveyed the clearing. The shack with Dandelion’s kin had been set ablaze, probably by the rampaging Dandelion itself. The scout Penelope had killed with an arrow, still clutching at his throat. The man Rylan had taken by surprise. The commander, the crushed soldier, the fleeing man Damien had killed…

So many bodies… So much death…

All the carnage and bloodshed was backlit by the fires from where Dandelion had set the outskirts of its own village alight.

‘Madness…’ Rylan muttered. ‘It’s… madness…’

‘We have to go now, yes?’ the Carnelian girl said. ‘Poor plant man’s village is no more. We must escape it now.’

‘Who… who are you?’ Rylan asked weakly.

There was no response, just a smile like sweet honey and innocence. It didn’t belong to this battlefield. It couldn’t.

Damien pulled Penelope and Aroha to their feet, talking to them under his breath. Rylan had no idea what he told them. He wanted to help but he just couldn’t. His body did not want to move anymore. It wanted to sink to the dirt and be swallowed up by the slowly encroaching flames. All he could do was watch as Damien gathered the group’s belongings. He carried two packs on his own and Penelope and Aroha each took one as it was shoved into their arms. Both of them said nothing the entire time. The Carnelian girl watched with fascination for a moment, and then, satisfied they were ready to leave, she danced off into the forest once more. Penelope and Aroha followed close behind her, moving as if in a daze, their feet barely lifting off the ground. Damien came back over, grabbed Rylan by his shoulder and led him into the forest after them.

All Rylan could focus on was the fluttering of the white dress, always a little ways ahead of them, leading them deeper and deeper into the Wood.