Chapter 18

Roden woke in the morning to find himself nestled in his bedroll. The events of the night before slowly dripped through his consciousness as the lingering effects of the celebration revealed themselves.

He peered over the edge of his bedroll and saw both Riakon and Errrkkkk in similar states as they slowly wormed their way back to the land of the living.

“How you feeling, boys?”

“Like hot doo doo cakes, cacaw.”

“What he said.”

“Riakon, make with the Faith Healing before I yak.”

Both of his companions looked at him bleary eyed uncertain they heard him correctly.

“To yak means to throw up, not turn into a yak.”

“Well just say that then.”

“Just come on and get rid of this hangover already.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your Faith Healing.”

“Yeah, it only works on diseases and poisons.”

It was Roden’s turn to give a bleary eyed stare.

“Riakon, alcohol is poison.”

“No it's not.”

“It is if you think it is, cacaw.”

The concept dawned on the paladin and in a moment he glowed a faint yellow light. Once the light dissipated Riakon looked much more alert and less like he had run a marathon.

“Well ain’t that a bitch.”

“Dose me up mate.” Roden said with a cheesy grin.

With their hangovers cured and their things packed they met up with Mu’Tumbo once more before heading back to Coastall.

“Ahh boys, I shey you enjoyed di parti.”

“It was a great time Mu’Tumbo thank you for having us, cacaw.”

“We just need the list of items for the Gathering of Spirits.”

“Oh yes, I get it right here.” Mu’Tumbo handed over a tiny scroll the size of Roden’s thumb.

“Is there anything else we can get for you from town, cacaw.”

Mu’Tumbo thought for a moment,

“Sugar”

“Sugar, cacaw?”

“yes, sugar na one for di few tins we no fit comot here. I go pay you for how ever much you bring.”

“Sugar it is then, it was wonderful meeting with you Mu’tumbo.” Riakon put out his clawed hand for Mu’tumbo to shake.

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With their goodbyes said and tasks set, the party set out once more into the Timber Wilds heading west towards Coastall. After about an hour they passed through the barrier surrounding the lycan camp. As they continued to push on, Roden started sifting through his memories from his time with Mu’tumbo the night before.

After his visions among the trees, Mu’tumbo christened him a Grove Guardian. It turned out that his latent blessing was most likely stirred when he helped protect their tree friend from her Treant father. That gave him the idea to give his new abilities a try.

“Hey guys, check this out.”

Roden found a thick root snaking across the ground and looked for a branch high above. His two companions paused. Errrkkkk perched on a branch, while Riakon simply waited with a quizzical look on his face. Roden visualized what he wanted to do and let his instincts guide him.

When he felt the power welling up in his legs he knew it was time. He leaped into the air soaring up twenty, thirty feet before he whipped his hand forward and a vine shot out of his palm. He held on as the vine grasped a sturdy branch and pulled him to it.

That part wasn’t as graceful as he had hoped as he ended up having to pull himself up onto the branch by hand, but lesson learned. If he wanted to land on a branch he needed to lash onto the branch above his landing spot. Either way, he couldn’t fight the face splitting smile plastered across his face.

He leaped around the trees in this little area to show off his new abilities. Errrkkkk was impressed and nodded in approval. Riakon however, had a look of frustration on his face. Before Roden could ask, Riakon shouted at them,

“Just great, now I’m the only one on the ground! One of these days I am going to have wings!”

Grok gave a little harrumph from Riakon’s pack, while Errrkkkk and Roden burst out in a round of incessant cackling. Errrkkkk’s laughter made Roden laugh all the more as they were laughing for different reasons unbeknownst to Errrkkkk.

“It’s not funny, you shitheads!” Riakon shouted at them while trudging through the brush on a determined journey to Coastall.

His leaping ability took a bit to get used to, and Roden nearly launched himself into the trunk of a tree he didn’t see, but his Instant Destination spell saved him from the impact as he teleported himself to a safe limb.

That close call gave him pause going forward. Using the vine to swing was a wild experience, his instincts told him it would hold his weight and then some.

His human mind told him he was going to fall to his death every time he leapt off. He felt like he was some combination of Spiderman and Tarzan as he would shoot out a vine and swing from one tree to the next.

He made the mistake of trying the hand thing like Tobey did on the roof top only for his vine to get caught up in his fingers and fail miserably. By the time they reached the edge of the forest he felt pretty good about his leaping.

It was an ability made for the forests, so it would have limited use away from the woods, but he was pretty sure any wood would do. Before they left the forest completely he grabbed a thick limb about the size of his forearm.

He gave it a few swings and smacked it against his palm, testing the weight. When he was satisfied, he tucked it into his pack.

They had forced themselves to march a bit further than they had on previous trips. They knew they were on a time crunch.

By their schedule they would arrive back in Coastall on their third day. They’d have the remainder of that day and the next to acquire supplies then they would have to hit the road again.

Technically, they had a bit of wiggle room on that last day because they needed to wait for the full moon to be high in the sky, but they didn’t want to take any chances. A pureblood werewolf under a blood moon sounded like a worst case scenario and this gathering seemed like their best bet. They slept under an overcast sky that held whispers of rain to come.

The rain came the following morning. They packed up early and tried to get as much walking in as possible before it started coming down in sheets. Seeing the rain coming Roden had grabbed a few twigs from the remnants of their small campfire.

As the rain started coming down he took the opportunity to enact the other ability he received from his blessing. He held up one of the twigs he’d grabbed before and focused on the feeling of the bark on his skin. He let the twig become an extension of him.

He brought forth the memory of the vision where he saw the elf being encased. He opened his eyes and saw the twig had bent to his will and was expanding to cover his fast and arm. It crawled like a snake up his arm and across his chest. In seconds he was completely covered in a suit of wooden armor.

“When in the world did you learn how to do that, cacaw?!”

Roden flipped up his visor exposing his goofy grin, “Mu’tumbo was able to help me tap into a special wood elf magic. Turns out I had some special blessing from long ago tucked away in my bloodline.”

“Did you really just do that so you didn’t get wet.”

“Why yes I did.”

The two soaked adventurers looked at Roden annoyed and with a hint of envy as they trudged along, fat raindrops bouncing off their heads and shoulders.

“How long does that armor last?”

“From what I can tell, it’ll last until it can’t take anymore damage. It’s not nearly as sturdy as metal. It’ll take the brunt of an arrow or sword, but it’s not impervious by any means. I don’t know for sure, but I’d bet either of you could get through this stuff pretty quickly if you put your mind to it.”

“Well now I want to try.”

“Please don’t, I don’t relish the idea of getting hit with that hammer.” Roden said quickly.

“F I N E, I won’t.” He said with dramatic annoyance.

Roden gave him a long searching gaze before deciding he probably wouldn’t get hit with the hammer, at least not while everyone was sober.

Later that night, the men stopped on a high rising hill, the last such hill before entering the valley of Coastall. They had chosen the high ground for their camp as they figured the rain would have drenched the ground below and no one thought very highly of the idea of sleeping on soggy grass.

Even the grass where they had chosen wasn’t completely dry until Roden let off a couple Burning Fingers. After he was done, the ground even had a nice warmth that radiated up through their bedrolls.

There was no campfire that night as there was no wood to burn. Yet, in the last light of the day Roden noticed Riakon was futzing with his flint and steel.

“Whatcha doing over there Riakon?”

“Oh uhhhh well during the party last night I was talking to one of the villagers and he sold me some of their fireweed. And look, he even taught me how to roll.” Riakon held up a relatively cleanly rolled joint complete with twisted ends.

It was nowhere near the quality of Mu’tumbo’s, but for a beginner it was a solid attempt. Roden judged it would smoke well enough.

“I can’t believe you bought drugs, cacaw.”

“Oh so you don’t want any?”

“I never said that, cacaw.”

“Riakon, give me that and I’ll get it started.”

As it turned out Errrkkkk had purchased a couple bottles of the mead that was popular among the camp from an old woman who tended the bees. As the day turned to night, the three friends sat on the hill smoking and drinking, having a small party of their own.

Roden had to admit things were going well, but he knew there were events on the near horizon that would change everything, forever.