A gentle breeze rustled the forest canopy, and the smell of blooming flowers danced in the air. Even in the shade, it was hot, but the Cloak of the Iron Bear kept Elijah from becoming uncomfortable as he followed his quarry. The hunters, for all their bluster, were terrible at their jobs. They moved with heavy-footed obliviousness, frightening any real game they might have targeted. In addition, they had yet to close their mouths long enough to look or listen.

“Shoulda smacked him for real,” said Todd. “I was ‘bout to really bring it when Ray stepped in.”

“Me too,” said the heavyset Derek. “He was lucky. S’all I’m sayin’. We woulda messed him up but good.”

Elijah couldn’t help but roll his eyes. It was clear that the two idiots were talking about him, but it was just as clear that their statements were entirely bluster. The other hunters recognized it, too, and one of the women actually did roll her eyes.

In any case, Elijah continued to follow them, silent and unseen, as they traversed the forest. It was a wonder that the hunters had ever killed anything, as terrible as they were at the job. But Elijah guessed that most of the forest’s game was aggressive enough that making a lot of noise could prove to be a viable hunting tactic.

Of course, that was assuming that the hunters only attracted monsters they could reasonably defeat. There were plenty around that would rip through the group without expending any real effort. Elijah felt positive that if it came down to it, he could slaughter all ten even more easily than he’d killed the group of hunters who’d killed the bear. A single round of Calamity and Swarm would probably do them in.

So, considering that a stiff breeze could probably blow them over, Elijah knew he needed to be extra diligent. With that in mind, he stalked them even as they failed to find any meaningful prey. A few times, one would shoot an oversized squirrel or grouse, but for the most part, they seemed incapable of completing their task.

Just before night fell, the group of hunters arrived at a displaced trainyard. As they settled into a cargo car, Elijah took a few minutes to investigate the area, and he was unsurprised to find that the tracks – of which there were a multitude – ended only thirty or so yards into the forest. Otherwise, the yard was populated by quite a few locomotives and box cars.

At one end was the skeleton of a building, its structure rusted or crumbled, with every window having been shattered. The forest had reclaimed much of it, with vines snaking up any walls that hadn’t already fallen.

It was another reminder of how much Earth had changed in the past few years. At one point, the yard had probably been a hub of activity in the center of some city. But now, it was just an artifact of a world that no longer existed.

As Elijah explored, he caught the scent of something interesting. After seeing that the hunters had closed themselves up in a box car – for defense, it seemed – Elijah decided to investigate the odor. It was an animal, he was certain. But there was blood there, too. And something else – an ethereal trail Elijah couldn’t quite place. Gradually, he followed the trail as it circled the train yard.

Sometimes, it doubled back on itself, and others, it meandered in an odd direction. Yet, it progressively got further and further away from the yard. Hours passed, and the night progressed. Still, Elijah couldn’t find his quarry – until, at last, he stumbled upon a small pond.

The body of water was only a hundred yards across, but it glowed with silver luminescence. More importantly, it felt powerful, and in a familiar way. It reminded him of the ancestral tree. Or the mushroom. Even with so much similarity, there were enough differences that Elijah briefly doubted whether he’d found a natural treasure.

Until he saw the stag across the pond.

Its snow-white coat glistened in the silver moonlight, marred only by a streak of deep red. In awe, Elijah stared at the majestic beast – no, it was a guardian, just like the panther or the bear – with glittering and crystalline antlers that spread out from its massive head.

Elijah watched.

And he knew, beyond a shadow of any doubt, that the guardian knew he was there. Despite the fact that he was cloaked in Guise of the Unseen, the stag was aware of his presence.

He slowly approached, circling the pond with deliberate caution. As he did, he let Guise of the Unseen fall away. Then, he shifted into his human form. The stag nearly bolted, then and there, but it settled after only a moment. Elijah held his hand out as he took one slow step after another.

And then he saw why the stag hadn’t run.

Behind it were two fawns. They looked so tiny, nestled against the huge stag’s white coat. Belatedly, Elijah also saw a doe, this one with no antlers but no less majestic, lying near the stag. She was covered in blood.

Instantly, Elijah chose to cast Healing Rain. Then Soothe. The stag flinched, and the fawns trembled. But the doe remained still.

Elijah felt it in his heart, but he refused to accept it.

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He rushed forward for the last few steps, sliding to a stop near the fallen doe. He saw a trio of large arrows protruding from her body. One had hit her in the neck. Another, in her flank. But the worst had taken her in the chest. It clearly hadn’t hit her heart, but judging from the bubbles in the still-wet blood, the lung had been pierced.

She was dying.

Despite his efforts, she wasn’t long for the world.

Via One with Nature, Elijah felt three corpses nearby, but he knew they weren’t human. Their pointed ears, slim figures, and otherworldly beauty marked them as elves. He wasn’t worried about a few corpses, no matter what species, though. Instead, Elijah was wholly focused on the family of deer.

Reaching out with a tentative hand, he slowly inched toward the fallen doe. She was still breathing, though it was shallow. Rapid. She was dying. She flinched when his fingers brushed against her soft fur, and the stag snorted. Elijah felt ethera gathering, but he ignored it.

Instead, he channeled ethera through Touch of Nature.

The life-giving ethera flowed into her, guided by his knowledge of biology as well as his innate understanding of living things. So often, Elijah was forced to simply flood the spell through his patients’ bodies. But he knew precisely what her injuries meant. He was no veterinarian, but he was well-versed in animal physiology. So, he used that to inform his efforts.

And slowly, she healed – just enough to ensure that she would survive for a little while longer.

However, just before he got ready to pull the arrows free, he felt something that he knew had the potential to mess everything up. He erupted into motion, using every point of Strength at his disposal to interpose himself between the deer and the idiotic hunters who’d suddenly arrived.

An arrow thudded into his shoulder. Then, another hit him in the leg. Still a third took him directly in the chest, where it lodged in his sternum. That’s when he looked up to see four more arrows in flight, all aimed at the stag who refused to abandon its mate.

Elijah’s hands flashed out, and he snatched one out of the air. The next one clipped his arm, while the last two flew wide, one thudding into a tree while the other was lost in the underbrush.

“Stop!” he roared.

But it was too late.

The stag had had enough. Its crystalline antlers lit up with silver light, and a second later, a beam of energy erupted from between them, burning through one of the hunters. The others scattered.

But Elijah knew they weren’t gone.

He wheeled around and slapped the stag in the face, screaming, “No!”

Elijah knew precisely how silly it must’ve looked, but against all odds, it worked. The deer’s antlers went dark – or as dark as glittering crystal could get – and it actually managed to look chastised. Or maybe that was Elijah’s propensity to anthropomorphize animals. Either way, it was no longer attacking anyone, which he counted as a win.

“I’m going to try to save your friend!” he shouted to the hunters who’d scattered into the forest. “If you don’t want to die, let me do it. If you attack these animals, I will kill every last one of you. Do you understand?”

There was no answer.

But Elijah was banking on the hunters recognizing how ineffective their arrows had been. Hopefully, that would give them some hints as to how much more powerful than them he was.

So, with that, Elijah quickly circled the pond and found the woman who’d nearly been cut in two by the deer’s retaliatory attack. But thankfully, she was still alive. So, Elijah pressed her flesh back together, then used Soothe. He was prepared to use Touch of Nature as well, but as it turned out, the heal-over-time was enough to knit her back together.

She healed in seconds, telling Elijah just how weak she was. As he’d discovered, healing wasn’t so different from fighting. The more powerful a creature – or a person – was, the more effort it would take to heal them. And vice versa, a characteristic he’d just seen in action.

The woman gasped, shooting upright and trying to ram a hunting knife into his side. Elijah knocked it away disdainfully, saying, “Stop.”

“Y-you…you have arrows in you,” she breathed.

“Oh. Right,” Elijah said. Then, he proceeded to snatch the projectiles out of his flesh. None had gone more than a quarter of an inch in, so the damage was negligible. Then, he raised his voice, saying, “If you all know what’s good for you, you’ll leave right now. I’m going to save these deer. I know you’re busy imagining what kind of benefits you could get from killing them. Put that out of mind, because I can guarantee you – if you try it, you’ll never live to see any benefits. Don’t push me.”

Then, Elijah returned to the family of deer and went back to treating their wounds. As he tore the arrows out of the doe, he continuously pulsed Touch of Nature. After four or five casts, the chances of her death grew negligible. However, Elijah didn’t intend to leave her side until she was back to perfect health.

As he worked, the hunters gathered together, then came to some consensus and left. Elijah knew they would be back. At best, they would wait until he was gone. At worst, they’d gather everyone in town to come hunt the beasts.

The benefits were too attractive, especially considering there was a natural treasure nearby.

So, as Elijah worked, eventually moving to the fawns, then the stag, he developed a plan. It would require yet another delay to his primary goals, but he couldn’t in good conscience leave the deer to fend for themselves.

Once he’d finished, he sighed.

The first step was done. Now, the real work could begin.

So, Elijah stripped down, leaving his gear on the shore before diving into the pond. As soon as he hit the water, he knew he’d made a mistake.

The ethera wasn’t just thick.

In felt almost solid, like he was swimming through pudding. And for the first time since he’d gotten his Ring of Aquatic Travel, the fact that he couldn’t breathe actually mattered. He still didn’t need to fill his lungs with air, but the thickness of the ethera was enough that he felt like an overfilled balloon. Panicked, he backstroked, then, mercifully found his way to shore.

Once there, he knelt on his hands and knees, panting to catch his breath. After a few minutes he looked up to see the stag staring at him, and even though Elijah knew it was in his imagination, he could have sworn it was smirking in his direction.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m an idiot. Got it.”

Originally, he’d intended to take whatever the natural treasure was and relocate it. However, now he was forced to rethink things. Only after a few more minutes did he realize the obvious answer to the issue at hand.

But as obvious as it was, Elijah didn’t really want to do it. Still, he didn’t see any other solutions, so he resolved to get started.

“As soon as I feel a little better,” he muttered, rolling over onto his back. A second later, one of the fawns approached and licked his forehead. “Yeah. Big fan of yours, too little guy. Just give me a minute to rest my eyes…”