~~~

Contrary to what Mayflare had hypothesized. He had been surprised to find that Wyrmwood’s two strongest affinities were earth and water. The only other affinity he had was to a weaker degree than those: nature. When he told Wyrmwood this, it, of course, just confused him. Which reminded Mayflare once again that Wyrmwood didn’t know about his own titles.

Wyrmwood on the other hand, was just happy about the spell progress he had made. He had already been good at hiding. His body’s coloration worked wonders as natural camouflage despite his size. But after Mayflare taught him the ‘blend’ spell, he was basically invisible… for a few minutes.

While powerful in hiding his presence, the spell was actually quite high tiered. It basically guzzled his concentration and mana!

“Mana, ya see, is the fifth dimension to our world.” Mayflare had said in one of his lectures. “After the first three dimensions of direction, it tends ta’ get more and more esoteric. Also, as an interesting side note, I once read an old theory that each dimension can only imagine up to one level up. My grandfather’s grandmother was said to have arrived on this world from one that was in the seventh dimension! She had, supposedly, always complained how cramped and stifling it was here.”

Mayflare seemed to either mull over his own words, or get lost in memories… again. He did that a lot, yet when Wyrmwood once asked why, Mayflare started grumbling about “leaving ‘old foggies’ to reminisce in peace.” So Wyrmwood figured it probably just had something to do with age.

“What was I saying?” He asked when his eyes finally focused back on Wyrmwood. “Ah, yes, mana. Ye don’t have too much of it now, but yer reserves will grow as you do. Why, by the time yer fully grown ye perbly can have it going fer-ever! Though, as a proper dragon ye’ll likely be strong enough ta’ not need ta’ hide by then.”

“Danger everywhere! Want hide forever.” Wyrmwood’s much smaller, (compared to Mayflare), form croaked.

“Ai, most hatchlings feel like that for a while. It’s just a natural part of yer instincts. Now then, let’s get ya out there, huntin’ again. I get da gut feeling that we don’t got much time left together, and my gut’s almost never wrong.”

~~~

A giant dire mosquito buzzed out of the bog mother’s mud hut as she watched the adventurers leave. Despite being the size of a wolf, its wings somehow still made that high pitched whine its smaller cousins were known for, though the whine was much more intense.

“I’m surprised you actually told them everything.” It buzzed at the hag with a similarly high-pitched voice.

“You seemed to like the thing once it had properly crawled out of your bog.”

The bog mother scoffed at that.

“You’ve mistaken me for my younger, much kinder self once again. Just cause I like someone doesn’t mean I won’t honor a deal! Those tasks I’d sent them on would have been an absolute pain in my aged a-… butt, to deal with if I’d have had to do them. The fact that they both didn’t run and actually survived each one means fighting them woulda been more trouble than it’d be worth anyway.” She waved dismissively at the big bloodsucker.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So you did like the little guy.” The bug buzzed knowingly.

“Bah, of course I liked the little hatchling! I not only incubated him, but some of my bog’s mud got mixed into his egg fluids! By all rights, magical or otherwise, he’s my kin.” She huffed. “But I ain’t taking chances when I’ve only got a year left to be chained to this drying up bog! Once I’m a witch, I won’t only be young again; I’ll be free! With you as my familiar of course. I’m allergic to cats.”

“Glad to be reminded that my own position isn’t in jeopardy.” Its wings whined jokingly. “But what do you think will happen if they actually find him? He’s just a hatchling, I don’t see him being able to fend off seasoned veterans.”

The bog mother cackled darkly at that.

“Let them try, if the worst comes to pass; he did take his sister with him.”

~~~

Despite his hatred for the Draco Forest, Sidney was actually rather glad to be back in it instead of the hag’s domain. That slimy bog mud kept getting under his armor somehow, and it was really uncomfortable and gross.

Thankfully, their prey had wandered past a decent stream on its way out, so they stopped to take turns washing themselves off.

The trail was days old by now, but since they knew that they were at least on the right path they diligently kept at it. Despite her detailed explanation of where it went, the hag hadn’t given much description of this “Wyrmwood” that they were searching for, but they had spent a decent amount of time discussing the topic of species when they noticed that the supposed wyrm was leaving behind distinct claw marks. Wyrmwood were basically dragon headed snakes, they didn’t have limbs so they didn’t have claws. They realized they weren’t hunting a wyrm.

That didn’t change much though. They all agreed that much, at least, by the time they entered a dead silent clearing with a giant withered and battered tree in the center.

“Wow.” Ella quietly breathed as she looked way up at the dead limbs of the tree. They looked uncomfortably like skeletal hands reaching out to grasp the sky. A gloomy aura seemed to permeate the silent clearing, as if this place could never recover what it had lost.

“Careful.” Saintess Bethany whispered to them all in a serious tone. “This place has been cursed. It’s still taking hold, but whatever it is, it’s powerful.”

Sidney growled in annoyance once he spotted the graves on the other side of the clearing. “I heard about this place. Some idiots jump in to grab an egg too early. They didn’t make it out and the enraged parent dragons had to be taken down before they rampaged across the whole forest.”

“So many graves.” Ella exclaimed sadly.

As they passed by the enormous dead tree the back of Sidney’s hair stood up and instinct took over just in time to put his shield in the way of a strike, the blow so powerful that it launched him five feet back!

Braid rushed to cover the two girls and Ella screamed at what she saw. A near deafening, sorrowful howl echoed back as the massive, thought to be dead tree shuddered in its spot.

“T-they murdered a nature elemental dragon in its own nest?!” Bethany shook in rage and fear. “Curse those fools! They’ve created a rotting ent!”

Ents were trees that gained sentience and enough magic to move around.

Rotten ents were trees that had withered, yet still somehow collected enough animosity and magic to re-animate themselves. The dangerous part was that they had an affinity with nature and undeath. Opposite affinities in the same entity tended to have drastic consequences.

An enormous tree that had died and then fed on the death and animosity of a dragon failing to defend their eggs? Potentially cataclysmic for the continent, if the dragons didn’t take care of it.

Sidney pulled himself up as the adrenaline kicked in.

“Ella, Beth! Start running! Braid, go with them and protect them while I distract this thing! I can only take a few more hits like that!”

Braid nodded to Sidney with respect before hoisting Ella and Bethany up onto his muscular shoulders like two sacks of rice. The girls protested as Braid started dashing out of the clearing, they could only watch as an oily looking, rotten vine burst from the ground and bashed into Sidney’s shield, throwing him to the ground once again. That was their last sight of the giant horrific monster and their brave leader as Braid sped away through the trees, back in the direction of civilization.

Sidney grunted and got up once again, sparing a single glance in the direction of his fleeing party before refocusing on the massive rotten ent currently heaving and pulling itself out of the earth. A black, tar like liquid dripped and oozed out of the burnt, hollow hole in the trunk before spontaneously catching fire, the hole now belching and wailing a constant turquoise blaze. The massive flames seemed to snap and scream like hundreds of people having their bones broken. Deep in the turquoise blaze of the hollow trunk, Sidney thought he could just barely make out some figure, but it was too hard to tell.

Sidney noticed numbly that the barren branches really did grasp madly at the sky as this monstrosity finally pulled itself free from the earth. He could only hope he gave his party… his friend, enough time to get away and warn everyone.

“I hate this forest.” He said once again as he prepared to take the next blow.

~~~