Keron’s tribe walked through the desolate desert in groups of three or four. These groups were usually made up of families. The same was true for Keron, he was traveling with his mother and father.
His mother was a tall and skinny elf, with pointed ears and leaf brown hair. His father was a stocky satyr, with dignified hooves and broad shoulders. They both had bows and a quiver of arrows wrapped around their shoulders.
“Stay on guard, we’re close” said his mother. All 50 tribe members got ready. Hands on bows, knives, spears and other types of weapons. The most powerful magic users of the tribe got ready to call upon nature.
They held this battle-ready mood for 30 more minutes, until they reached the entrance of the city.
While the gates were imposing and grand, with a skull painting etched into the gate doors. It inspired terror and intimidation in visitors and sent a clear message that only those welcomed could gain entrance into the city. But, the illusion was broken once someone saw the walls surrounding the gate. They were made up of old bricks with no guards in front of the door or sentries on top of the wall. It was unguarded, which indicated that this city was weak and the necromancer was not strong enough to spare undead to guard the outskirts of the town.
“Hello!” screamed the tribe chief. The tribe chief was an old druid, which was a rarity as druids were not true nature kin, but beings from other species that were loved by nature spirits. The chief was an old human woman who was bent and shriveled.
“We are here to take refuge in Romulus city for one cycle! We promise to not create any trouble or conflict in your city and we offer to carry out any tasks that the city leadership deems fitting for us in exchange for food or shelter! Our tribe is skilled in hunting, healing and cooking! We even have some unique medicines and wears to trade with the businessmen of the city!”
The tribe’s goal was to travel to a forest that they had heard of in their travels. Forests, jungles and other wild areas had ceased to become common after the necromancer class came to power so many centuries ago. These areas close to nature were important to foster the power and personhood of nature-kin. Going to this forest might be the start of something new for their dwindling kind. They needed to stay in this city and chart the course to the forest and gather supplies for the trip. This city was the closest known place of civilization to the forest, so it was the ideal place to prepare for, what could be a harrowing journey.
For Keron, the hope that his tribe felt when they heard the news was confusing. How could one forest be the start of a new age? The nature-kin needed power, power enough to contend with the necromancers to truly live free in this world. But Keron never voiced these thoughts, not even to his friends. He couldn’t extinguish whatever little hope his kind had somehow scrounged up.
After a minute or two, the gate slowly opened with an ominous creak. And out came a pale woman with long blonde hair and red eyes.
“My name is Sidona, closest servant to the Great Ruler of this city, Romulus. Romulus has heard your terms, and he finds them interesting. He is prepared to accept them, but he does have one question. There have been rumors of a new Great Forest that has sprung up near here. Do you seek that place? Does this tribe desire to recover whatever power the nature-kin once had long ago?” Her voice was a whisper, but somehow it sounded as if she was speaking right into his ear. Hmm, did she think that a ruler of some run down city could intimidate them with this level of magic. Keron was ready to show her just what true magic was. True magic was alive and vibrant, not cold and dead.
“We don’t seek out some imaginary forest. We simply want to rest for a bit before we resume our travels. We know how things are now. We really just want to live in peace”. The chief had stopped yelling as well. She instead used wind magic in order to allow her natural voice to travel far enough for the disgusting undead creature to hear her from a distance.
The monster smiled and said, “I think you’re lying. I know you hate creatures like me, my children and my master. I know you wouldn’t stay in our city unless you had a specific goal in mind” she smiled, revealing four fangs. A vampire.
The chief signaled for everyone to prepare to attack. Vampires were very powerful physically, but this one also had some magical ability, it would be tricky to kill.
Keron took an arrow out of his quiver and knocked it to his bow. He had it ready.
“Good. I see that you all are somewhat capable. That will at least make this fun” said Sidona, before her figure blurred as she ran towards the tribe’s battle formation.
“Fire!” screamed the chief. Keron emptied his mind and connected with nature, his body felt weightless and his senses became sharper. He called upon the wind to aid him in this fight. It powered his arrows and made his actions swifter. The other tribe members who were archers did the same.
But, despite the speed, power and number of the arrows, only one hit Sidona. It was lodged in her arm. She was almost upon them now, and she would have an advantage in close combat.
As if they all shared a mind, the whole tribe moved forward to meet Sidona, but rather than facing her head on, they surrounded her in a circle. They once again started to pelt arrows at her. This time she was hit by many arrows. Her body was like a pincushion.
She was finished, thought Keron. This creature would at least learn of nature’s superiority before she dies.
Just as the tribe thought they had won, Sidona let out a monstrous scream.
“AAAAAH!” As she screamed, the blood from her wounds suddenly started floating and kept on flowing rapidly. It suddenly congealed around her and started shielded her from the barrage of arrows.
“Mages! Attack!” Their more advanced magic users started chanting in unison, calling upon nature spirits in order to help them with their attack.
A tornado gathered around the village chief and she condensed it down into a bow and arrow.
“Trap her!” The whole tribe, except for the chief, started to channel their spirit into the ground. Euphoria coursed through Keron as his soul connected to the roots in the ground, and through those roots he was able to connect his soul to his tribesmen. At the beginning of this merge, he could feel the tribe members' individual souls. His mother’s soul was kind and calm, and touching it made him feel at peace. His father’s soul was quiet but fiery, and it emboldened Keron. The merge became complete and Keron lost his individuality and became one with the tribe and with earth. Through this connection, many roots rose up around the vampire and surrounded her. In her haze from the injury, she was unable to avoid being surrounded by these rapidly coiling roots. They eventually wrapped around her and crushed her.
This paralyzed her long enough for the Chief to launch the concentrated wind magic at the vampire.
“WOOOOSH!” The arrow made from the tornado hit the trapped monster and pierced into her, only for the tornado to course through her body and ravage it. More blood flowed through her and made her body a bloody puddle.
Hmm, well that was quite easy, thought Keron. He had always thought vampires were extremely powerful, especially those contracted to necromancers, who were able to take away their weakness to sunlight.
Keron’s father clapped his shoulder and said “Good job son. You handled yourself well there. You kept your head and stayed in formation. I am proud of you”.
Both pride and irritation soared through Keron’s body and he let out a pained smile and told his father “Thanks father. I know that the tribe’s at their strongest when they are together and I strive to make sure that we are strong”.
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Just as his father was about to respond, his mother interrupted “Enough! Both of you. Jurrow, let us go and meet with the Chief in order to discuss our next move. Keron, you stay here and be ready to move out. It seems that we are not welcome in Romulus”. His mother and father held hands and walked towards the chief along with the other adults.
Keron decided to go over to Uruon, the chief’s grandson. Uruon was pale skinned and blonde. He was also quite broad shouldered and muscular, which was rare even in half elves.
Uruon smiled at Keron when he saw that he was walking towards Uruon.
“Hello Elder Brother!” Screamed Uruon. His smile grew thinner and his eyes had a curious glint to them as he made this show of respect.
“Oh shut up. I am your elder aren’t I, and I am also like a brother to you. So why is it wrong of me to call you little brother?” asked Keron incredulously.
“You’re only two months older than me, and you barely come up to my shoulder. You just want to show everyone that you’re above me. This is for your ambition, which I already support you in”, said Uruon in an accusing tone.
“Hmph. I’m sorry brother. I shouldn’t do that. But we need to change. I love the way we live, but we at least need to change a little if we want to protect it”
Uruon sighed like someone who had to repeat a conversation he had already had numerous times.
“Keron… I know. You’re right. But before you can even figure out a way to go down that path, you must have the resolve to actually do it. And I don’t think you do brother. If you did, you would have already sought it out. But even you are afraid of the corruption of necromancy. Your connection to nature is stronger than most and I don’t think you would pervert that by being a necromancer”. Uruon spoke gently as he patted Keron on the shoulder.
Keron swallowed. “What do you think your grandmother is planning now that we are not welcome in the city?”
Uruon smiled wistfully. “I think she might think it best to attack the city. That vampire must have been the most powerful because she talked about how her children serve Romulus, meaning that she is the sire of the vampires under his command. That would make her his strongest servant, and we took her down pretty easily. With some good stealth and surprise attacks we could whittle down those pathetic defilers and kill the necromancer”
As Uruon was saying this, he was getting noticeably paler.
“Are you okay brother!” Asked Keron in an alarmed tone.
“I am. I’m just feeling a little tired all of a sudden” Uruon was starting to shake from weakness and his balance was becoming precarious. He grasped Keron to stay standing.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Keron” said Uruon. Then his eyes grew big in realization.
“Keron! It’s her! The vampire! We didn’t defeat her! Run!” Uruon’s body was becoming thinner as he spoke, as if he was being drained of his insides.
Keron looked around to find that other members of the clan were in similar states. No!
“Uruon! Stay with me!” said Keron in vain. At this point Uruon was a husk of a person, unable to even say words. Keron let him be. There was nothing he could do.
“Be on guard! Look for the vampire!” The able bodied members of his tribe were all looking for the vampire. His father wasn’t among them.
Don’t focus on that right now. He needed to find her. He communed with the earth and the wind, his anxiety turning to urgency as he tried to find the abomination. She was still here and intended to finish off his tribe.
He found her, next to a cluster of five young tribesmen. He could feel the wrongness, the corruption of nature and life.
He called for the earth to boost him into the air and for the wind to carry him towards his opponent.
“AAAH!” it only took him a second, but already three of the five were dead. In front of him was a congealed mass of blood. Constantly moving rapidly as it attacked the other two.
“Move out of the way!” said Keron as he fired an arrow powered by wind. The arrow hit the blood and dispersed it a little. It did seemingly no damage and the mass of blood sped towards him.
“HOLNOTURUPHE!” The chief screamed a spell and just before the blood reached Keron, it was engulfed in a small, miniature hurricane. Keron looked over towards the chief. She was sweating, her forehead was strained in concentration. The fact that she had to verbally cast this magic showed Keron how difficult it was to activate. And what was difficult to enact was difficult to maintain.
“Keron! Get out of there! You can’t do anything!” screamed his mother. Keron looked at the fight between blood and water in front of him before running towards his mother.
She was by the chief with her arrow drawn. She fired at the vampire along with the remaining tribe members.
When he reached his mother she said “You need to leave Keron!”
Keron’s eyes widened in shock, “So you think we can’t beat her! You just want to stall while some of us leave!?” Keron’s body took an aggressive stance against his mother, his back low and his arms positioned at her neck.
“Yes. We can’t beat her son, I’m sorry. You need to escape from here. Look, you can see that the remaining young people have already left” His mother pointed to the direction from which they had come and there were four figures who were running with everything they had.
“I’ll stay!” As Keron said that, he knocked his arrow to his bow and fired. He fired rapidly with the aid of wind magic.
His mother sighed and kept firing. This state lasted for only a few seconds.
“Boom!” The blood suddenly condensed into a ball and then exploded. Dispersing the hurricane and causing the chief to fall to her knees.
The blood condensed again and formed into a human form. In front of them the vampire appeared again. She was covered in wounds and looked tired, but was better off than the tribe as a whole.
“You all are quite strong. I will display your corpses to the whole city and I’m sure Lord Romulus will take you into his service for the rest of eternity”.
A current of anger went through the tribe, but it was stunted by exhaustion.
The vampire turned around and looked at the four runaways. She then smiled, turned into blood and sped towards the young people of the tribe.
“Go Keron. Go into the city. Figure out a way to avenge us son. Find a way to free us from their slavery. We will lose, but we all know that you will be able to avenge us”. His mother looked at him in the eyes, pleadingly. Keron looked off into the distance and heard the screams of his peers in the tribe. He looked into her eyes again, gathered her into a hug and kissed her on the forehead. He then let her go and ran towards the city gates.
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Sidona layed down. She was exhausted after murdering the lot of tree fucking savages. Their blood was still being absorbed into her body. Through this process she was able to get some of their memories. She was right. This tribe had been looking for the rumored great forest. Hmm, these prideful idiots really thought that that would make a difference. That one forest could help them fight the sheer might of numbers of the necromancers. But Sidona still wasn’t satisfied. One had gotten away. From her memories, she could tell that he was stubborn, talented and smart. He was also vengeful. He was told to go into the city.
Sidona got up and walked leisurely towards the city gates. She decided that she would wait for him to come to her. Yes, who knows, he might even threaten her a little.
The gate opened for her as she entered. A cracked skeleton that carried a familiar aura approached her and wrapped her in a beautiful red robe with white stripes.
Sidona closed her eyes and focused, sending all she knew to her master. She waited a moment for a response. None came. Ah well, such instances were beneath her master anyway. She would inform her children of the intruder and continue on with her night.
Sidona walked with a gathering of skeletons and rotten corpses that could only be zombies towards a large mansion towards the end of town. She would need a long bath to wash the filth from her body.
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Gerona came back home in the night only to find a half dead satyr-elf halfling on her table. He was unconscious and bleeding. Gerona immediately ran to him and grabbed his arm. She closed her eyes and sent her consciousness into his spirit. It wasn’t damaged, but strained. That was good, the damage was just physical. It seemed like he had stab wounds and was a bit beat up.
Gerona, still holding him, emptied her mind and became one with her tree and with the halfling. She then acted as a conduit and moved the lifeforce from the tree into the boy. She opened her eyes to find him with his wounds all healed up.
Gerona backed up and took a real look at him. He had small horns on his forehead and slightly pointed ears. He was well muscled and lithe. He had a wooden longbow and a quiver full of arrows. On his side was a reed pipe. His legs were slightly furry and though he did not have hooves, the bottom of his feet were clearly made of the material that makes up hooves. What stood out the most about him were the scars riddling his body. Scars were rare among creatures of nature. They could heal each other and had amazing vitality. They were also intune with nature and had great agility. Wounding one of them was tough, and someone able to wound them usually killed them. This probably meant that either the boy possessed a unique fortune, or, more likely, he was just reckless.
Gerona sat in her chair and waited. Patience was natural to a nymph afterall and she also had no plans tonight anyway.
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Shame. Anger. Fear. Pain.
“Huuuh!” Keron woke up with a deep breath. He had many abominations to kill.