Kalise led the Quartet into the village through one of the still broken sections of the wall. Kahari caught a glimpse of a makeshift barricade behind the gate that some soldiers were still clearing away. The village was built around the brook, which bubbled endlessly out of the ground at the heart of the village. Most of the buildings were made of white wood with thatch roofs or dark colored shingles. That was except for one building near the source of the brook.

The building was three stories tall, with weathered dark gray stone speckled with spots of black and white. It’s roof was made of some kind of polished crystal, blue-gray and sparkling in the sunlight. It was also one of the only buildings without some kind of battle or fire damage on it, it looked pristine. Kalise approached this building and pushed her way inside without so much as a knock.

“Mother I’m back! I brought those adventurers that showed up!”

Kalise called out as she pulled off her helmet. She had short cropped aquamarine hair, and eyes that looked almost like polished silver. She tossed the helmet to the side where it clattered to the floor.

“Kalise? What have I told you about knocking?”

Came a tired voice as an old woman with gray hair moved into the room. If she was a full Naiad, to look as old as she did, she must be a few centuries old, at least. She sighed and lowered herself into a chair as Kalise rolled her eyes and unhooked her cutlass and it’s scabbard to put down onto a table.

“Kalise! We have a place for that.”

“Oh whatever, it’s fine for now.”

“Kalise!”

“Whatever.”

Kalise sighed and picked the scabbard up and left the room, very clearly ignoring her helmet. There was a clatter from the other room and she reappeared a moment later.

“Anyway, these are four of the five that helped us.”

“And where is the fifth?”

“It’s still doing something to the water, clearing away whatever curse those undead put onto it.”

“Very well…and who might you four be?”

The old woman turned to the quartet after she got done talking to her daughter.

“We’re from Ixul, we were headed up this way to drop off the stuff you requested from the Adventurer's guild. Wasn’t expecting to find the village under attack.”

“Ah yes…that.”

“What happened?”

Kahari asked after introducing the group. He had yet to give their names, but there were more pressing matters to attend to than that. The old woman sighed, and closed her eyes. After a moment she spoke.

“That supply request was put in a month ago. Usually it takes a few months for someone to bring us anything, so we put it in before we need it. Well not three after our messenger got back, they started showing up. There weren’t many at first. A wolf here, a deer there, some rabbits. It’s not entirely unheard of. Creeping Carrion and Fungal Shamblers sometimes showed up if one of the Behemoths comes down from the mountain. The bodies it leaves behind can sometimes animate on their own.”

Chara tilted her head at this.

“There were far too many for just a Behemoth.”

“Yes, I know. At first we weren’t very concerned. We organized some of our hunters for my daughter, Kalise, to lead to kill the thing. After a few days they came back, empty handed. There was no sign of a Behemoth, instead they found wilting trees and poisoned soil, snaking down from the mountain as if something was strangling Nisteria itself.”

“Must be that Wither Willow Silverleaf told us about. She said he was in a cave high up in the mountains.”

Kahari interjected, from Silverleaf’s story on the way here, he'd used such tactics before.

“Wither Willow? Silverleaf? Is she that tree thing outside?”

Kalise asked from where she was standing next to her mother.

“Yes, she’s a Kinrinde from the Amethyst Expanse. We bumped into her on our way up here, and she told us about Wither Willow. He’s…well she never made it very clear what exactly he is, but he used similar tactics to destroy a Great Mother and her grove.”

The old lady gasped loudly at this info while Kalise just looked confused.

“Great Mother? Grove.”

The old woman grew shaky and pale, and pressed a hand to her forehead as she steadied herself.

“Mother?!”

Kalise, despite her bickering early, knelt down next to her mother, concern plain on her face.

“I…I’m fine. Just…need a second.”

“I um…okay mother.”

Kalise remained kneeling until her mother waved her away, having finally steadied herself.

“A Great Mother is a being that rivals the dragon Kings, or the Fae Nobles of the Seelie and Unseelie lands. At least in wisdom and magic, but they give up their freedom to nurture and guard the next generation of Kinrende. To kill one is a crime against nature itself.”

“Silverleaf was born in the Grove that Witherwillow burned. He was raised in the same grove, though he is still young by the standards of his kind.”

“Grove?”

“The Grove’s are nurseries. Younglings are raised there, to burn one would be like killing a baby in it’s cradle.”

Kalise looked visibly disgusted, and her pale skin turned red from anger. To kill a child was unthinkable, and Wither Willow had slaughtered dozens when he killed his own Great Mother. All of this was still knew to Kalsie, but she seemed to grasp the implications at least.

“Silverleaf settled in these woods to keep an eye on Wither Willow as she is to large to reach him where he is now. If he pulled this without her noticing…”

Kahari let his words trail off. The old woman began to open her mouth to speak when there was a knock at the door.

“Elder Laska, ma’am, Silverleaf wishes to speak with you.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The old woman, no, Elder Laska sighed and got to her feet. The group followed her outside to find Silverleaf had simply stepped over the village’s palisade. She looked down at Elder Laska and Kalise, giving a friendly wave.

“Greeting oh great Child of the Bark. It is an honor to be visited by a Guardian of the Ancient Amethyst Expanse.”

[Greetings Elder. It has been many a moon since I last visited a Naiad village. I just wish it was under better circumstances.]

Silverleaf turned her eyes to the mountains. Elder Laska nodded.

“Yes, your friends here told us some of what’s going on.”

[Then I will skip the story. It seems my watch over him has lapsed. I am very sorry, if I had done my job better, you never would have had to deal with these undead.]

“Do not fret great one, you couldn’t ha-”

[Yes I could have. It is my job to curb his foul magic, and I failed. It cost you lives, and untold damage to the forest.]

“What more could you have done?”

[I was content to simply watch as long as he remained on the mountain. I should have cut thar rot out years ago.]

“All due respect ma’am bu-”

[There is no excuse, do not try to make one for me. I have cleansed the brook of the curse he placed on it, but it is clear now he is no longer alone. The leader of the undead was not one of his, it was a Marrow Knight.]

“What do you plan on doing Lady Silverleaf?”

[I will stand watch over your village for now, while some of my kind make their way here to help me face Wither Willow. Until they arrive, I will guard your village and it’s brook with my very life.]

“There is no-”

[Enough. I have made my choice. If I do not do this, I can never atone for the lives you lost because of my own failure. I will take root outside the village.]

Silverleaf sounded frustrated and angry, but it was not directed at Elder Laska herself. Instead it seemed to be more towards Silverleaf herself. She turned and walked away, stepping over the wall with ease. Kahari shook his head. It seemed even ancient talking tree people could be stubborn.

Bedora took this as her chance to finally say something.

“Elder Laska, we have a few other quests here in these hills and woods we need to take care of once we’ve offloaded our supplies. Do you mind if we stay here at Whitewood till it is time to return to Ixul?”

The Elder studied the Amazon, before turning her eyes to Nissa.

“Just keep that one under control, and you are welcome here.”

Nissa turned red and was about to say something but Bedora interrupted her.

“Yes, I’ll keep Nissa under control.”

“Then you may use the guest bedrooms here. A guard will be posted, if you need anything just ask them.”

With that Laska moved past the group to head inside. Kalise shook her head.

“I’m sorry about her, she’s very….traditional. It was a fight to get her to allow me to train as a warrior instead of being another court Dame like my sisters. That includes her treating the various Fairies, especially Sprites, like garbage. There’s a Lunar Fairy fortress up in the mountains she sometimes sends us to skirmish with. Waste of time for both of us.”

Kalise sighed.

“Anyway, let me show you to your rooms.”

Kalise gestured for them to follow her. Rather than go upstairs like Kahari would have thought, she led them into some back rooms with doors on the back of the stone building.

“We only have the two, so you’ll have to double up. And…when you leave to head back to Ixul. Take me with you.”

Bedora frowned at this.

“Why?”

“I’m sick of it here. Patrol the woods and kill a few stary monsters, fight some fairies that only seem to care about a millenia old feud, and having to keep turning down suitors trying to buy my hand from my mother. I can’t stand it anymore.”

Bedora sighed and looked at Kalise, who Kahari realized was only a few inches shorter than Bedora, and while not as heavily built, could be said to have a toned body. And much to his embarrassment, his eyes trailed a little lower than her face. He quickly snapped himself out of it, hoping no one had noticed.

“Well…it’ll be a few weeks. We’re out here hunting and training for something big going down later this year. Come with us and you’ll need to train with us.”

“That’s fine, hunting actual groups of monsters will break the monotony all on it’s own.”

Bedora scratched her head.

“Well, we’ll split the profits from any materials we sell that you help us gather. After that if you want to come with us, we won’t stop you.”

“Oh thank you. I was getting close to accepting this Sidhe Lord’s from the otherside of the Ogre Tribes just to get away from my mother.”

Kalise sighed as Nissa moved past the group to start unpacking. Kalise smiled and shook Bedora’s hand. Chara acted similar to Nissa, choosing the other room to go put her stuff down into.

“I’ll make sure I’m the ‘guard’ watching over you guys too, it’ll keep some of the other traditionalists from bothering your friend too much.”

Bedora smiled and nodded. Kahari took this chance to move into the room Chara had chosen so he could put down his own stuff. Much as Kalise had promised, she was indeed the ‘guard’ that escorted them around the village. For the first few days the quartet, no quintet now, helped patch the wall and make sure the village could stand against another attack if they needed to.

After that the days turned to weeks as they hunted in the forest. The days grew shorter, the nights longer, and the air colder. It wouldn’t be long before some of the monsters started hibernating and only the winter beasts were left. As their last days began approaching, they started packing their things, and as promised, Kalise was waiting outside the gate for them. They had one final stop to make before they returned to Ixul to turn in their quests, and that was their final quest. They had a Solder Wasp Queen to hunt down before they could rest. With Kalise with them, with four turned to five, maybe just maybe it’d even be an easy job. Those Queens were nasty though, but that was a fight for another day. For now, it was simply time to hit the road once more. The days were growing less and less lonely for Kahari, but he never lost sight of what was most important to him. No matter how much time passed, his resolve was still as hard as steel. Nothing would stop him from saving his sister. Nothing.