Michel was different from other woodsmen, most of them spoke of hearing or reading the forest in an abstract way. When he talked about it he meant it quite literally. Ever since he had been a small child he was able to hear the strange mutterings of the trees. The way that they spoke, shared nutrients and communicated in general. It was like a strange whisper that moved too slowly for regular conversation.
His parents had been unsure about how to take it when he kept vehemently holding to his "fanciful talk" after he was well grown past the time one was supposed to set such thoughts aside. They had eventually taken him to a healer when he was 14 summers old, an old woman who lived within the woods named Gunnvor. Everybody who lived on the farms outside of Hor knew of her and she had saved more than one dying cow or sick child on most of the farms. Maybe she could help with whatever was "wrong" with the boy was their assumption.
She had taken some time to speak with him and fed him some tinctures while mumbling strange incantations. Eventually, she could come back to his parents and tell them that Michel neither lied nor was he "odd in the head", he had a gift and she thought it would be a damned shame if he couldn't develop them. So she helped him get an apprenticeship with an old hunter named Arvard who owed her a favor. When he wasn't learning from the old grump he spent his time learning stranger woodcraft from her.
Few ever actually believed him when he described how he could hear the trees talk, but after he finished his apprenticeship he became a well-renowned woodsman to the point he managed to make a good living. Working with the temple of Old Yoss was one of the more profitable yearly work duties he had. Taking the old priest out to find a proper monster to harvest from along with some herbs paid way more than his usual work.
Normally monster-slaying would be the purview of Adventurers, but the two adventurer teams in Hor didn't exactly inspire much confidence in that regard. Michel thought of them mostly as drunks who only knew how to hit things and nothing about the actual work that came after having made a kill. So Yorich and himself had worked together for 8 years now doing this work. He knew that the old man was considering letting Michel do the job alone as he had mostly grown too old to be out and risking himself in that way. So it had been a surprise when the old man had sent his apprentice in his stead.
Like most people, Michel didn't know much more about Helena than what was said. Her father had been a chandler before he passed away due to an illness a few years back. Helena, her older brother, and the widow had lived on the mercy of his family until the brother had followed in the footsteps of his father and become a chandler himself. The sister on her end had been chosen to serve as an acolyte of Old Yoss without any real reason given. She did not fit the image of what one would expect for a servant of that god. Old Yoss was a harsh, taciturn, farmer who expected hard work and a grounded vision of the world. Based on the rumors Helena was a tardy, gluttonous, and a rather lazy girl who preferred napping to praying.
She more than lived up to her reputation as the young woman showed up almost half an hour after they were meant to meet, carrying a sack filled with enough food to feed a small mercenary company. The girl tried to hide her annoyance with the task she had been given and failed spectacularly. Despite giving him a rather brilliant smile he couldn't help to notice the magnificent pout she was affecting as she glanced towards the woods.
"You're late."
"Huh?"
"You. Are. Late."
"Oh. Sorry, I was just occupied getting my provisions and the important tools I will need for the harvesting."
"And this took you more than 2 hours because?"
"Well...I had to get enough and sometimes it is hard picking what you are supposed to bring when you are meant to work."
"You napped didn't you?"
"How could you say that!"
Helena had a look of badly affected outrage as she looked from the forest to Michel. He for his part just gave her a deadpan look before glancing to the forest.
"Well, we can't waste any more light than what we already have, so we should start walking."
He handed Helena the waterskin and did not turn to look at her as he began walking down the road towards the forest. She did at least follow him even if he could hear her angry mutterings that she tried to conceal as they made their way into the forest. In spite of her reputation and the way she had so far conducted herself, he had to admit she kept up with him well as the two of them walked in relative silence. Him being the silent and one and her making a myriad of noises which probably had words involved at some stage.
She trundled through the woods without any kind of grace but kept a steady pace without issue despite the massive sack of food that she was carrying with her along with the sickle in her belt and the very full belt pouches she had. Which Michel suspected also contained food if the sack was representative of her preparations.
The moment the two of them entered the forest proper he felt that something was wrong. It was not just what the trees were slowly whispering to one another, but also just a general sense of...something alien in the air. He got the impression that the trees were worried about something, as most of what passed between them were warnings rather than the usual request for nutrients. Long ago Gunnvor had explained to him that his ability let him translate the language of the forest into a form that he could understand. Trees didn't actually use words to talk or if they did they weren't in any human tongue at least. In time Michel had also come to recognize this as when he meditated he could sense the symbols behind the words as it were. So as he strained to focus he heard something in the whispering that he had never heard before.
"The Sovereign...The Sovereign is spreading. Another-"
He couldn't hear them clearly and he was interrupted from trying further as his misgivings must have clearly shown themselves on his face.
"Something the matter Mr. Michel?"
Helena didn't even try to conceal the hope in her voice as she asked him. Michel shook his head so he could focus on her words over the forest and said.
"Maybe, something seems different about the woods today. I think we will be able to do our work still, but caution would be wise I think. There are always dangers out here and if we are going to find a monster then we must leave the road."
So said so he did as the "road" was barely worth walking on in the first place. The Forest of Hala was a wild place and no road could ever really change that, and especially not that glorified forest trail. Michel found one of the usual deer tracks that he used when out for a hunt and began leading Helena through the forest.
For the first hours he didn't hear anything from the trees that could lead the duo to a proper monster nor did he find any proper tracks. But at least he could lead Helena to some of the herbs and berries that were needed for the grand harvest sacrifice. He kept watch while she whispered prayers to Old Yoss while carefully gathering what she needed using her sickle. The sickle is a normal accouterment carried by acolytes of Old Yoss and one of his most famous symbols. The other notable symbol of his was the hammer but despite being one of the town acolytes she carried a sickle, like one of the farmer acolytes.
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"-Sovereign"
It was with that passing whisper that the day turned from an ordinary day to something out of the ordinary. Michel barely had time to spin around as he heard the trundling of...something coming at him through the trees. A large insectile horror rushed at him and seemed content to smash through where the forest was too thick to simply run over it. The horror was startlingly similar to bee but with the mandibles of a spider and some unnatural metallic plating along its sides like armor. It was the size of an enormous hog but moved even faster than a wolf.
The creature came at him in a scuttling charge and Michel had to jump and roll out of the way as it smashed its way into the clearing. It adjusted quickly after entering the clearing and Michel flicked two arrows out of his hip quiver. He shot an arrow towards its side only for it to bounce off the metal plating and his second shot hit the more vulnerable head of the monster, but the arrow barely managed to lodge itself in it.
In reply, the monster opened its mandibles and screamed at him before rushing at him again with the same fiendish speed that it had displayed before. With the creature close, Michel could see it had a crown of sharp spikes sticking out from the top of its head almost like a unicorn and that was all he was able to think before it was on him again. Michel ignored the started scream from Helena as he barely managed to dodge to the side again. He dropped his bow as it would be of no use to him here, and trying to run away from the creature would be suicidal. It was all he could do to pull his hatchet from his belt along with a short club before the beast turned to attack for the third time.
This time the creature didn't come in with a charge but with a more cautious lunge, clearly, it had adapted to his tendency to dodge. He spun to the side and tried to deflect its lunge by hitting it in the head with his club and then he felt the icy cold of pain as looked down at his left hip. The monster had anticipated his move and used its right forelimb to lightly stab him in the hip. His gaze met its multiple sets of eyes at that moment and he saw something unnatural inside of two of them, almost like there were something inside of the eyeball.
But he couldn't spare any moments to reflect on that as he had to get away when the creature suddenly jumped up and tried to land on his chest. The weight of it would have obviously crushed him and that was before you added the sudden speed of the fall as it jumped remarkably fast. Michel swung his axe into the abdomen of the creature and it felt more like hitting a sack full of soft mushrooms than actual flesh. The surprise of the sensation caused him to stumble back and inadvertently saved his life as the creature landed where he had once stood.
He felt the cut in his hip stretch as he moved and knew that the bleeding and pain of it would get worse. Which meant that his mobility would be hampered further. Rather than letting the monster keep dictating the pace this time he went in on the attack as he rushed forwards and began hammering down a quick series of blows with both of his weapons. At first, it seemed like his blows to the monster's head had little effect, but then he saw it swing its forelegs at him. Loud clicks came as the creature suddenly lifted up its head and half of its torso to become almost like a strange mockery of a centaur.
It exchanged blows with him using the metal-tipped forelegs as sharp swiping weapons and drove Michel back on the defenses again. Michel was experienced dealing with monsters but he was no true warrior and a battle like this was not something he was prepared for. Its hacking limbs were faster than what he could be with his own weapons, and before he knew it the monster had managed to smack both the axe and the club out of his hands.
Coiling wheatgrass suddenly exploded out of the ground and wrapped itself around the limbs of the monster. Michel hadn't heard the incantation coming from Helena but he saw her stumble and sweat with the effort as she reached out with her hand like a grasping claw. Thankfully, Michel had seen that particular miracle before and he was not unprepared for it. He pulled a bundle out of his belt and whispered a quick word over it before tossing it into the impeded creature. Fire suddenly erupted from the herbal concoction and soon the monster was fully ablaze.
This finally managed to actually hurt the monster and Michel heard its horrific screams as the fire burned it. But he wasn't foolish enough to expect that this would be enough so he rushed over to where he had dropped his bow and began launching arrow after arrow into the burning mass until the screaming ultimately stopped.
"Keep the fire away from mah field!"
Helena incanted at the fire and it suddenly disappeared with a poof as she waved the sickle at it. Michel turned to look at her with an arched eyebrow and she blushed.
"That is his incantation! I didn't make it up."
Michels smile in response to that turned into a grimace as he felt the pain radiating from his hip and Helena rushed forward to heal him using the power of her god. It felt almost like having an old grandfather judgementally mumble at you just transformed into a physical sensation as the divine miracle flowed through his body and healed the wound.
"What...what was that?"
Helena indicated the collapsed pile of burned chitin that had once been a living monster and Michel could only shrug and grimace in response to that.
"I don't rightly know, but I don't like it. It was faster and stronger than most of the lesser monsters I have ever seen. Thankfully, there was only one of it here. Had there been more we would probably be dead."
"Yes, I have never actually had to summon up the grasping wheat before. I wasn't sure if Old Yoss would let me do it, but it did work so that is at least something."
"Well, we do have a monster now. So if this thing has a heart we should harvest it and be on our way from here. After that, I believe we are only missing some mushrooms before we can return, yes?"
"That should be about it yeah."
Helena pouted as she knelt down to begin the messy work of ritually harvesting the heart from an eight-legged abomination that she had never seen or heard about before. In the meantime, a sparrow launched itself from the branch it had been observing them from and began to clumsily fly deeper into the forest, with an unsteady flight path that would have made Michel worry it was sick if he had seen it.