Wary Druids and Tarry Fluids - The Druids: Part 2

Wary Druids and Tarry Fluids
The Druids: Part 2

“Was that really necessary?”

   Caelan rubbed his ears as Vericia finished applying the murky green stuff to comically grimacing Eli’s hindquarter, while Hesfedira tried to unlock her hearing again.

“Yes, we’re even now.”

   Vericia couldn’t let go of the smug grin that had conquered her face as she finished up wiping her paw clean into Eli’s fluffy foot. Luckily for the bullied Puller, the ointment took effect surprisingly fast so his bum wasn’t aching anymore from the stag’s stabbings and Vericia’s tough love.

“Should we keep an eye on the creature a little longer? Eli zapped it with some energy but it might not be enough.”

   Vericia turned to the elderly couple to hear their opinions on the matter. They agreed as they were also concerned whether the ointment and little invigoration was enough to keep it from collapsing. When Eli had washed off the leftovers of the medicine and soaked the dried bits of it out from his long leg fluff, the group of topsiders headed back into the dense forest to follow the critter’s tracks. Vericia was leading the expedition as she was specialized for this, while the other three had to worry only about not tripping over the twisted tree roots. She made sure to go at a reasonable pace so that the elderly pair could keep up without effort.

“What is this?”

   They had reached quite deep into the woods when Eli stopped, staring at something on the ground with furrowed brows. Obviously the others forgot about their pursuit as they also wanted to see what he was looking at and gathered around him. On the forest floor was something… weird. Neither of them was an expert on the Beneath’s flora but surely enough vegetation covered in black pulsing veins that seemed to suffocate everything else around them wasn’t part of it. They followed the otherworldly growths and saw with horror how it had spread, already draining out a few trees and underbrush, together with glowing mushrooms and even one cluster of glowing crystals. This sight devastated all of them, perhaps Caelan the most as he had a hunch what could’ve happened.

“Outsiders, what have you done?”

   An irritated voice coming somewhere above them gave everyone a good startle, Vericia even yelped as she usually kept her senses open to her surroundings, but stumbling upon this ominous black stuff had completely distracted her. Above them on one wide branch was a Haedian, glowing yellow angered eyes locked at the group below him.

“Greetings, inhabitants of the Beneath. We just arrived here, unless there is something else you wish to blame us for?”

   Eli remained calm, despite him spotting multiple other Haedians perching up in the trees, nervously eyeing them. Now when Vericia had a moment to look around, she also noticed a few of them and realized they were completely surrounded. Caelan protectively scooted closer to Hesfedira, keeping his eyes up in the canopy together with her.

“Lies! You have done this to our sacred grove!”

   The glowy-eyed Hae pushed himself off the branch and glided down on the ground near the desolate land. His already hairy coat was puffed up from his resentment at the intruders. Eli remained stoic while Vericia’s ears pinned back as she wasn’t happy being accused of something she obviously had nothing to do with.

“We have never seen such disease obliterating our tender flora before the topsiders set foot to our grounds. It won’t submit to our remedies and healing.”

   The Haedian’s head flicked away to look at the damage done to his forest, his anger being replaced with heartbreaking pain. All four of them perfectly understood the cave-dweller’s frustration and found sympathy for him.

“What my traveling companion said is true, we haven’t been to these parts of your realm. Please, believe us that we mean no harm, we wish to help you with eradicating this disease.”

   Caelan attempted to level with the Haedian as his yellow eyes snapped back at him. The Druid was thinking for a moment before he sighed in defeat and sat down.

“All is lost anyway, our hands are tied so what’s the point anyway. Go ahead and see if you know any better.”

   The rest of the Druids up in the trees seemed to follow their leader’s example regarding their attitude towards the topsiders as their tense bodies eased up. Some of them remained up in the safe high ground, some of them climbed or glided down on the ground to witness the horror eating away their home. Seeing how the Haedians didn’t intend to eat them alive, Vericia, Caelan and Hesfe eased up, calmly following Eli to the leader. They hit him up with a chat to introduce themselves, to which the Druid introduced himself as Auris. After the formal part, Caelan and Hesfe started inquiring more info Auris might have regarding this disease while Eli and Vericia took a closer look at the nasty veins. Vericia was a little too brave when she poked one of the yucky tendrils, which caused it to expand and burst, spilling tarry substance all around it, including Vericia’s paw and her fluffy part of the limb. Eli noticed that and gifted Vericia a smug grin, to which she looked really unamused as she glared daggers back at him.

“Shut it.”

   Meanwhile, Caelan and Hesfe had talked to Auris regarding the methods the Druids had used and they didn’t get much wiser. The tenders of the grove had been thorough, so this left them very little options to try out. Hesfe discussed her ideas with Caelan, before she remembered about the stag. Managing to convince a couple of the Druids to keep her company and seek the tracks, she left Caelan, Vericia and Eli with Auris to solve this unpleasant puzzle. When Caelan stood up to walk over to the siblings, Auris followed him in silence.

“Please step aside.”

   Caelan approached the siblings and they made room for him as requested. He sat down and with a determined face, summoned his magic to probe the alien organism with it. As he was lowering his paws to touch it, Vericia shouted.

“Aahh don’t touch it!”

   But it was a bit late as Caelan was now also covered in the gross tar, which smelled worse than it looked. As he was busy together with Vericia to wipe it off, Eli thoughtfully looked around.

“Auris, did you try physically isolating the infected area to avoid it spreading further?”

   The saddened Druid’s ears moved a bit before they weakly dropped again.

“Yes, but it only slowed it down without stopping it.”

“I see… would it be possible to bring me a bag of salt? It does not need to be too big.”

   Eli made an interesting request, which Auris forwarded to another Druid, who nodded and swiftly took off. While they were waiting for the salt, Vericia tried to hinder the disease’s evil plans by using her magic to drain it. She focused hard, but she was capable of destroying a small branch of it as it was ridiculously resilient to arcane manipulation. Together with Caelan, they tried once more but the result was pretty much the same - lop one branch off, two others have already grown back within the same time. Grunting from frustration, Vericia couldn’t do it much longer as she wasn’t the most proficient with magic, while even an experienced scholar like Caelan wasn’t powerful enough either to stop this parasitic organism from spreading. Fortunately, the Druid returned, handing the salt to Eli to see what he’d do with it. Eli politely thanked them, then opened the small sack and scooped a good pawful of it out, sprinkling it densely on one of the veins. Auris, Vericia and Caelan scooted closer to see its reaction while everyone held their breath in anticipation. Whatever it was, it definitely didn’t like that as the salt-touched area began to bubble and boil as it dried out like a gross slug. Sadly, this only seemed to irritate this organism as it spread its choking tendrils further with visible speed. The salted region was destroyed, but the veins that got separated from the main one still lived on.

   Auris noticed the topsiders’ perplexed and clueless faces, he sighed once more as the last hope to find a solution vanished from his heart. Seeing the beaten Auris infected the topsiders with similar sadness while they still rattled their brains to generate at least something else they could try out.

“So, this is it then.”

   Heavy silence befell to the grove as Auris had accepted the inevitable defeat.