Chapter 5

In the morning, the men shuffled around gathering up their things. Roden dug through his pack, locating a small pot. He filled it with water from his water skin and placed it on the fire he had just reinvigorated with a wave of his hand. While waiting for the water to boil, the three all sat down for their morning prayers.

Errrkkkk took to the trees climbing up high to get a good view of the sunrise. Riakon sat stoic and resolute amidst the camp. Roden put his back to the base of the tree, closing his eyes fully intending to pick the same spells he had prepared the day before.

As he came out of his prayer meditation, he thought he felt a rustling in the tree. He looked up and saw the branches moving ever so slightly. It wasn't until he was pouring the hot water in his mug that he realized Errrkkkk wasn't the source of the rustling as he had leaped off the top and flew down on his wings.

"Did either of you notice that movement?" He said in a hushed voice.

"Cacaw"

Riakon took a few steps forward, putting himself directly in front of the tree.

"Hello there, is anyone in there? Come out now, there is no need to hide."

There was a moment of stillness before the bark of the tree began to shift and contort. In moments, the texture of the tree trunk had morphed into that of a face. A decidedly feminine face with higher cheekbones and soft eyes, despite their dark brown color. The mouth was not much more than a thin line. Surprisingly, it opened in a melodic voice.

"Oh drat. I'm so sorry I didn't mean to disturb you. I tried so hard to not move." The voice had a twinge of disappointment mixed with its lilting rhythm.

"Oh, that's okay, cacaw. Can't say I've ever spoken to a tree, cacaw."

"Oh yeah, not really supposed to talk to people. I just couldn't help it." As the tree woman spoke, the branches shifted back-and-forth in a jerky uncomfortable motion.

"Is something wrong?" Roden asked, having remembered this encounter from all those years ago. He made the decision to influence this as little as possible. He knew this encounter was pivotal and had long reaching effects on this campaign.

"Oh, yes, you see, I have this itch and it just won't go away. It started off small, but over the last few years, it's gotten so much worse. I just don't think I can bear it anymore." Her branches shifted more dramatically.

"So where's this itch? I can scratch it for you, cacaw. "

"Oh, that would be wonderful. It's up near these branches here." The tree shook, opening her branches revealing a crux of branches. Errrkkkk spread his wings and leaped up quickly. Arriving at the offending itch. His hand reached into the crux of the branches before leaping down, relief washing over the tree's face before he even touched the ground.

"Oh, goodness, that feels so much better. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." Her voice dripped with gratitude.

"Well, here was your problem. cacaw" Holding up what appeared to be a small knife, no larger than Roden's palm.

"It looked like someone had carved their initials in you and stuck this knife in there as well, cacaw."

The tree gave a deep sigh of relief,

"I'm just glad it's over. I wish there was some way I could repay you." As the words left her, what served as her eyebrows shot up and the branches near the top began to rustle the movement cascading down until one of the branches reached out holding what appeared to be a softball sized fruit.

"Here, take this. It is one of my fruits. I don't grow many, and they are precious to me. I hope you will enjoy it." Roden wasn't positive, but the tree appeared to blush as Errrkkkk took the fruit from her.

"Thank you, we will. Oh, and sorry about sleeping in you last night. We didn't realize you were more than just a tree, cacaw. "

Roden had decided that the tree was most definitely blushing now.

"Oh, it's okay, it wasn't bad. I kind of liked having company, but I'm not really supposed to be talking, so thank you again and goodbye." With that, the face on the trunk vanished back into the texture of the bark.

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"Well, I can cross talking to a plant off my bucket list." Roden said, sipping from his mug.

"Yes, that did not go how I expected."

They finished packing up camp, stowing away any left out equipment, and found their way back to the trail they had been following the day before. Over the next two days, they traveled north following the paths when possible, resorting to game trails when necessary. On the third day of travel, the party expected to arrive at the cave just before midday. All morning, Roden had been preparing himself for the encounter to come outside the cave. This one was a little fuzzy. He knew it was spiders. Giant spiders, to be exact, but the details of the fight were lost to history.

At the first sign of spider webs, he alerted the other two.

"Hey, guys, keep an eye out for spiders. I'm seeing a lot of webs."

"Cacaw" and a nod were the respective replies.

It wasn't long before the trail opened up to a small clearing that revealed the mouth of a cave embedded in a jute of cliff wall. Riakon being in the lead stepped out into the clearing. His foot picking up various lines of web hindering him enough to draw his attention to the offending obstacle. Just then white ropes of web shot out covering Riakon in the sticky substance from shoulder to clawed foot.

In a flurry of feathers, Errrkkkk leaped into the air, his staff glowing a faint green. A spider with a body the size of an average dog leaped from the bushes towards Riakon, only to be caught mid-air by a swift strike from Errrkkkk's staff.

It took a moment for the scene to register to Roden. He had been in fights before having learned to fight in his youth, but the abruptness of the situation caught him completely off guard. Something stirred his awareness, which spurred Roden to whip around just in time to see one of those unreal spiders rushing towards him fangs chittering.

Out of instinct, Roden pulled back his foot and tried to kick the thing to minimal effect. The spider continued forward, overwhelming his stance, nearly knocking him to the ground. Instead, he merely took a couple of steps backward. The creature rushed towards him only to have a massive hammer come crashing through its body. Roden looked up to see Riakon still covered, mostly in web, had dug himself free enough to move. He had gotten ahold of his hammer in time to deliver a crushing blow.

"Do something!" His resonant voice booming.

The resonant boom shook Roden out of his surprise. He had spells! He wasn't just a normal guy with fists and feet. Riakon, having drawn his hammer back, charged towards Roden intent on engaging the enemy's behind him. Roden remembered his spells, grabbing onto one in his mind. He knew the spell required two things. Words and a gesture. Roden turned and saw what could only be described as a nightmare of what had to be a dozen of these massive spiders. Errrkkkk was holding his own, swooping in delivering powerful strikes before zipping out again.

Roden threw his hand forward towards the mass of spiders. His index and middle finger locked together jutting out of his clenched fist and shouted, "Burn!" The conditions having been met, the magic leapt to his will, flames billowing out of his fingertips. As awesome as it looked, the spiders didn't seem as bothered by it as he hoped. His mental image of them being roasted into ash in an instant, quickly fled his mind as panic entered it once again.

Still holding his hand out he shouted the spell again, "Burn!" This time, as the flames reached spiders, he felt one of his new domain powers rise up in him. "Blaze" The word left his lips almost on instinct and he watched as the flames of his spell took on a brighter hue coating the spiders in sticky flames that burned with a greater intensity than before.

The spiders caught in the spell for the second time quickly popped and sizzled their death a certainty. Roden could feel himself drained of his magic ability. He knew he could still use his basic spells, but he wouldn't be throwing any fire around any time soon. Breathing heavy, Roden took in his surroundings. He spied Riakon wiping spider guts off the head of his hammer using the plentiful thick grass of the forest floor.

Errrkkkk on the other hand, was still airborne with an intense expression on his face. His taloned hand struck out, and a bright streak of yellow energy flew toward Roden. He dived to his left, avoiding the blast that collided with a spider that had survived his flames. The energy pierced the creature’s tough exoskeleton, leaving a melon sized hole in the creature where its eyes used to be.

“Thanks mate!” Roden said from his position on the ground.

With the fight over, the men regrouped and decided it would be best if they rested before exploring the cave. Roden was a little apprehensive of this plan, but had to agree with its necessity. He tried to remember if his friends had investigated the cave their first night, but the memory escaped him. The difficulty of the encounter was bothering him. He remembered the spiders being the first real combat encounter of the campaign and he had deliberately made it a non deadly fight.

The fight they just had was anything, but non deadly. Had he hesitated any longer, they all might be hanging in a spider’s web. Overall, Roden was happy with how the fight went, Errrkkkk and Riakon handled their own and even saved his hide when his inexperience almost cost him.

Having spent all his magic had drained him more than he had ever expected possible. Roden felt like he had spent the entire day doing hard labor in the hot sun. Once they found a suitable space for them to camp in the cave, Roden set to putting up his array of wards and quickly tucked into his bedroll and drifted off to sleep.