Scorched Earth: Druids 2

Somos was sure that if they were above ground, they would smell it long before they saw it. Even from a distance, he could spot the flecks of glowing bluish-green in the soft tree bark and whatever the leaves had become now. 

“Don’t touch anything and try not to breathe anything in.” Somos instructed. “I don't entirely know how this thing spreads.”

“So, you’ve actually seen something like this before?” Asked Reon. 

“Yeah, and so have you.”

The group walked along the treeline as Parth gave the rundown, when they first noticed the blue rot, how fast it spread, how every method they used was practically ineffective. “Things are getting desperate. This infection has reached even our homes in the trees. We cannot, under any circumstances, let it infect the Oracle.”

“Right,” Somos began with a sigh. “Imma be honest with you. I’ve never seen it affect trees much less the ground. This is pretty out of control. There’s only one way I know to kill it for good and that’s by fire.”

If the haedian could, his complexion surely would have paled. “B-burning it? All of it? No. Surely not all of it has to go?

“You’ve got a massive problem on your hands here and no magic fertilizer or potion is going to cure this. It’s just gonna eat it up and use it to spread… I think. That’s one of my theories. Fire is the way to go. Give the whole forest a fresh start.”

Parth shook his head. “No. We can’t burn it down. The smoke and the ash will take a long time to clear. The Watchers above will be displeased with the mess. Not to mention the plethora of animals and insects that live here. Are we to displace them all? Leave them without a home?”

“What do you think can still call this place home? They’re all long gone. Gone or rotted with the forest.”

“Still, a decision like this cannot be made lightly. I will present it as an option to our leader but don’t think it will pass just because I spoke to them. Please, find another solution. This place is a home to us as much as it is to the animals.”

With that, he took off back the way they came presumably to speak with the clan leader.

“Hm… I think I’d remember seeing something like this before.” Reon said while fighting the urge to touch the sickly looking tree roots and the blue sap leaking from between cracks in the bark. Luckily, the smell was enough to keep his paws at bay. 

“Not on trees,” Somos answered, then suddenly switched topics. “What was that thing called? The rabbit thing you were supposed to be escorting?”

“The rowa? It's named after the rowberry bushes they eat from, you know.” Stranger gladly informed him. 

Somos side-eyed her. “It’s a stupid name.”

“So’s yours!”

“Anyways, there is one thing we can do to help but you guys cannot tell your Druid friends, got it? I’m serious. You tell them, I’m taking you back and I’m gonna tell Rain all the other things you guys did that you told me not to talk about.”

“You were gonna take us back?” Reon asked at the same time Dani shouted, “That’s blackmail!”

“Don’t snitch on me and I won’t snitch on you. Got it?”

“Fine! What do you want us to do?” Stranger snapped. 

“We’re gonna find that same rowa and kill it. It’s the one causing this mess!” Somos spoke quickly over Dani’s gasp and Stranger’s hiss. “I don’t know what exactly is causing animals to mutate into these things but that’s what Eli’s been sending me and Du’an out to ‘clean up’. That hyena that almost killed you, Reon? You probably already guessed it, but that wasn’t a normal hyena. It’s the same thing, well, something like it.”

The trio stood in silence. Dani, trying to put the pieces together. Reon’s mouth fell open in an “O” as he saw at things from a new perspective. Stranger was the only one that protested.

“You can’t know that for sure! The Druids said it was a new subspecies!”

“The Druids haven’t seen what I’ve seen!”

“I believe him.” Dani finally determined. 

“Why?” Stranger turned on her. 

“Because the scent is the same as the hyena’s. Both of their blood is blue too. I don’t think there’s anything in the world with blue blood.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Somos said. “Just don’t tell them what we did, okay? I have enough problems as is.”

Stranger growled but didn’t argue any further. It was clear they all made up their minds. 

Somos stretched out each leg as he and Stranger watched the treeline, hidden in the field of grass. To their left the flock of rowa streamed out from the trees with terrified bleats. Their cries faded into silence as they grew farther away. A few beats of silence passed before their target shot past them, a blur of white cotton flecked with blue. Blades of gold flung into the air in its wake. Somos was up and bearing down on it before Stanger could even stand.

“Sorry we took so long!” Dani trotted out of the treeline. Reon right behind her. “Reon was chasing them the wrong way.”

“And I fixed it, so shut up about it!” He seethed through clenched teeth.

Stranger ignored them and watched Somos’s silver hide cut through the grass at a steady gait. Then he took two bounding leaps and–

Reon’s tail settled over her eyes. She still heard its squeal suddenly cutoff, forever. 

He didn’t lift his tail even when Somos returned, noted by the putrid smell that followed him, and dropped what she assumed was the kill. 

“I need to find a good bath after this.” He said. “Alright, light it up.”

There was a click and the sound of rocks scraping together, then the crackle and pop of a fire. Reon removed his tail. 

The corpse was aflame, or at least she assumed it was. The fire itself was strange, dark in colour and wispy, yet white near the center. It curled and twisted akin to smoke. A pop sent white embers into the air and in the grass. One landed at the base of a nearby sick tree. It went up in flames almost immediately. 

“NO!” Stranger screamed and reached out. What she had planned to do, she didn’t know. The flames had already reached the branches and were spreading to the other trees. 

Somos held her back. “Leave it! There’s nothing anyone can do for it anyways!” 

She whimpered and slumped to the ground. 

Dani finished stomping out the last of the small fires in the grass. Oddly enough, they didn’t burn as nearly as quickly as dry grass should have. “We should leave.”

“Yeah and fast. The fire will block our exit.” Somos pushed Stranger to her feet. “Let’s move.”