Rose was humming softly as they traveled together, before she was jolted out of her pleasant daze by the reactions of both Mehaila and Lyra. She listened and she had a bit of a frown. "No magic? No fire? Why don'tcha just cut off my arm while your at it. You know that's going to be hard for me." She said in a rather wistful tone.
She did sigh, and look a bit more serious, nodding. "Aye, duly noted. It's going to be an uncomfortable one, but we just have to grin and bear it." She blew out a bit of frosty air as if to emphasize her point, though she had managed to weather it for the most part.
Meha knew something of Mana storms, but she never delved deep into it, as it seemed to be a foreign deep forest with no population type of things. She talks to Lyra about it, for her lack of knowledge was clear " I am confused. I thought that was for the wild untamed lands of the southern landmasses? Are we sure this will affect even my magic?"
She was wanting a fire, for while 50 was pleasant compared to what they had just ridden through, it was still not nearly as warm as she would have liked. She grumbles as she awaits for more information from Lyra.
"In the southern continents the mana storms there aren't like the...well calling what we are experiencing a storm isn't right. Down in the region of land between the countries of Nex and Geb there are two regions where the magic that occurs naturally around us goes wild. One part of the wastes are flooded with wild magic so potent that it will manifest into pools. There savage mana storms rip apart anything living that gets caught in them, sometimes killing them and sometimes mutating them into a monster. The other part of the wastes is where magic has died. Magic of any kind will not function in that area. There is some debate on whether or not the dead magic zone really lost it's magic or if the magic was stripped away and dumped into the wild magic zone, thereby making one area dead and the other saturated." Lyra explained.
She looked around and seemed to come to a decision. "I'm probably worrying about nothing. The fire most likely won't flare up since these aren't streams of wild magic, just heavy magic. Be careful with casting spells however, they might interact with the heavy magic in ways you aren't expecting." She waved at her eyes with a rueful expression. "After all I didn't go blind when I cast this magic. Let's try something along those lines."
She walked over to the river and picked up a stone from it's banks, casting a minor cantrip over it that caused to glow with a faint light.
A second later both Lyra and the glowing stone vanished from view.
Appearing several long seconds later, Lyra threw the glowing stone away from her as if it were on fire. She rubbed her hands nervously as she moved away from the river, laughing quietly. "See? Be careful."
Moira didn't understand a lot of what was being said. She'd never heard of mana storms before. It might actually make certain creatures less of a threat as there would be a high likelihood of magical backlash. Then again it probably just made them more dangerous for the same reason. Unpredictable magic sounded bad. The one thing she did latch onto concerned her. "So we might die in a fire or we might loose some body parts to hypothermia?" she asked.
It was cold. Damned cold. Camping without a fire with their current gear would be dangerous. But apparently starting a fire might immolate the lot of them. Awesome. "I don't think we can go the night without a fire. It is literally freezing. So we do everything the mundane way. We just keep a damp blanket near the fire in case it...flares up? Goes bonkers?"
Lyra shrugged, grunting as she untied a pack from her horse and dropped it on the ground. "It's not that dangerously cold within this glade but I agree, I don't like sleeping cold. Plus there is always that-" she nodded with her head towards the river, "-to jump into if a firestorm erupts. And I always have these on hand 'just in case'."
She untied a small pouch from her belt and dumped flint and steel into her hand. "Get everything set up and I will go gather some firewood." She shrugged her shoulders to get the colorful jacket into a more comfortable position and walked towards the forest, trailing her hand through the crown of of the short tree at the glade's center as she passed.
Within an hour the party would see something in the forest glowing with the brightness of the sun and approaching at a leisurely pace. Soon the globe of light resolved into a disgruntled Lyra who shielded her eyes from the intensely glowing disc of force that followed behind her carrying several days worth of firewood. As she dispelled the disc and dumped the wood onto the ground with a flick of her hand as she sat down heavily on the ground. "Did I ever mention how much I hate mana storms? I just soooo love it when all of my spells do things they aren't supposed to."
Rose breathed out a chilly sigh, and nodded her agreement to the feelings of the others. It would be entirely too long a night to spend cold and a mundane fire shouldn't pose too many issues. Though they wouldn't know unless they tried, so she got to helping the others set up camp in various ways.
When Lyra returned with her brightly glowing disc full of wood and her surly demeanor, it caused Rose to blink a couple times before poorly stifling her laughter at her poor sister's misfortune. When she finally finished, wiping tears away she drew a shuddering breath to calm herself. "Oh come on dear s-sister, it wouldn't be the first time we needed to be modest with our magic, no?" She smiled wryly and assisted with moving the dropped wood.
Giggling at Lyra's obvious displeasure, she pokes her with a stick and says " Perhaps a little climbing is in order? One can not always magic out of a situation. Sometimes finesse is needed. Other times, hard work is the best thing. Or you could always have your beau do it for you." Meha says teasingly to Lyra, as she had not be gathering firewood, but trying to figure out the best way to help out Rosa.
She does somewhat stay near the water though when they go to get the fire ready, clearly ready to dive in if needed to
That was true. The glade was warm. Was that because of the storm or was it resistant? Would it change as the storm ranged? All the more reason to have a fire. That and hardtack was an awful way to end the day. So while Lyra searched for firewood she set up tents, unrolled blankets and sleeping bags and dug a fire pit. And as the others lamented the lack of magic she just smiled. Oh how the mighty have fallen, reduced to gathering wood and starting a fire with flint and steel.
That honestly got her thinking about how her own magic could make things easier. Light, the one that nearly blinded them as Lyra came back, would allow searching at night and require one to bring less torches. Exploration was always determined by supplies and Create Water negated the need for a lot of water canteens. Acid Splash? Now that was a tough one. That seemed like it was more useful for escaping traps and cages. Maybe opening doors? Detect Poison had obvious benefits for scavenging food. That also had obvious benefits right now, what with her upcoming fight.
Without thinking about the storm, Moira said the words that came to her intuitively and waved her hands about.
At first Moira didn't know if anything happened. Nothing really changed. But as she looked past her immediate surroundings she noticed the things close to her were tinted green. Odd. Unfortunately nothing really...stuck out like she was expecting. What did poison look like now? Was she missing something. Then she realized she cast a spell in a mana storm. She stiffened and sucked in a breath. But nothing happened. Nothing bad had been happening the whole time. Was she unaffected? Could she be affected? "Hey," she said to get Lyra's attention. She pointed at her eyes. "Nothing bad happened. Is something really going on or are you messing with us? What's Detect Poison supposed to look like?"
Lyra looked over at Moira's questions and frowned at the fighter's doubt. She thought of many ways she could prove what was going on right now but decided against most of them. She could tell that her thought process was being influenced by her frustration and looked around the group. "Anyone else who can cast the dweomer that reveals magic to you?"
Rose turned to Lyra at her request for a magic revealing dweomer spell. "I believe I am able to assist with such a spell, though as you said yourself I cannot vouch for the efficacy of said spell in an environment such as what is occurring this moment."
She took her staff in hand, chanting and gesturing as she summoned the magics that she would require to reveal magic around her.
Frowning, for while she had not readied detect poison, she always kept detect magic. Unsure why Lyra wanted it cast, she does the same as Rosa, though her words were softer and frankly more sensual in nature, subtle movements of her hands really. She comments " Detect poison is more useful if Rosa had put something in your drink that could harm you. I am unsure if anyone else here would even know much about using poisons in that sense outside of me and her, and I still prefer not to use them."
Rosa and Mehaila would be rocked by the sudden appearances of ribbons of multicolored ephemeral energy that flowed everywhere, wrapped around and passing through solid matter as if it did not exist. Sometimes there would be a faint response to such interaction, a faint flash of light that emanated from the object touched. For as far as the eye could see the ribbons flowed like rivers of light through sky and ground in a display of power that could only be brought on by the will of a god.
Where the ribbons got close to the fire Moira had built there would sometimes be an interchange of energy, a spark of violent light that pushed the ribbons away. Around the rapidly growing Tree the ribbons wrapped in a tightly wound cocoon, permeating and soaking into its enchanted wood.
Rose was dumbstruck with the wonderful sight she had been witnessing. It was beautiful, not the terrifying sight she expected to behold from Lyra's description. She did however not the volatile reaction between the energy and the fire and understood the threat that such a circumstance could present to them if they were not absolutely careful in how they proceed with their activities while the storm persisted.
Meha whistles a bit as she looks at it. The fire was a joy to her, as if fireworks were going off, each one dazzling and exciting. However, what caught her eye the most was the tree. It seemed to wrap around the wood, protecting it from the outside. SHe got really curious about it, muttering under her breath and she reached out, wondering if what she was seeing was in anyway a physical or just magical sight.
At first, Moira starred in awe at the strange ribbons of energy as the rest did, marveling at the unique sight. A loud snap from the fire drew her attention there and her eyes widened in fear. She remembered what Lyra said and had done her due diligence. She had piled a large mound of dirt near the fire to put it out quickly in case of emergency.
This seemed like an emergency.
She quickly scrambled forward and shoved the mound at the fire burying it completely. That done she wearily scanned her surroundings for danger. The tree got most of her attention but it seemed harmless for now. "Anybody know what's happening to the tree?"
Mehaila and Rosa see the ribbons of energy whip and tangle around Moira for a second, connecting with her head for an instant before floating away like diaphanous silk on the wind. Moira would suddenly see the same energy flows snap into view as the Mana Storm warped her Detect Poison spell, revealing a universe of magic that mortals were rarely allowed to see. Under the party's arcane vision the Tree pulsed brightly with sentient energy that seemed joyous they could finally See.
Before anything resembling a sensation could manifest the eyes and feelings vanished, pulling the ribbons of energy down into a yawning vortex that gaped wide for a split second before imploding in on itself.
Without warning there was a flurry of light as the ribbons all vanished back to...wherever they had emanated from and the world returned to the familiar mundane. The storm had passed without causing any obvious reactions and the feeling of normal would start to soak back into the party's bodies.
Rose watched the multi-colored ribbons of light swirl and wrap themselves around them, but staying far enough to not touch them. She frowned and reached out to grab one of the ribbons, determined to understand the magical ribbons, and actually touched one.
It was as if that was all the invitation the glowing tendrils needed. Just as she had reached for one, that same one seemed to leap towards her and contact was made for the briefest of moments. Time seemed to slow down for her as she felt the thrum of magic connect with her palm as the ribbon brushed gently against her.
It wasn't unpleasant, for an instant, until time seemed to re-establish itself and the shock leaped up her arm and raced along her body as a both alien and pleasant feeling threatened to overwhelm her.
It lasted for only a moment and she looked around in a mixture of confusion and understanding of what exactly she just had happen to her. She felt she understood the magical ribbons of power, could feel the influence of a strong powerful entity of magic. She could see the magic as easily as she could see color and art, even as the magic began to wane.
What she couldn't see was that her unusual tattoo of a third eye on her forehead was glowing a soft blue as she observed the magic that she had embraced slowly begin to wane from her sight.
Mehaila shivers under the watchful eye, aware that whatever just saw her, didn't see just her, but it saw HER, who she was, who she would be, and what she could do. She wanted to share with the others what happened, but the form in her mind didn't make sense, and she had no words to describe exactly what it was she saw. All she knew is now there was for sure an entity that KNEW her. And good or bad, she was unsure what would happen from that.
After a few moments, she obviously tries to speak, but each time, she fails. Eventually, she settles for trying about the tree, mentioning " Well... ummm... the tree....Tree?" She was obviously baffled and flustered.
"Yeah. Tree." Moira said confused and weary. So this is magic? she thought. It was... She had no frame of reference for this. Nothing. Her world up until now was hunting and smithing. Now ribbons of color floated through the air and did weird things. And it meant nothing to her. Nature was hard to analyze too but there was a cycle to things. Connections that could be perceived if one watched long enough. And balance. She felt like she was stepping into a whole new biome of nature. A whole new environment. And she had no basis from which to make assumptions or connections. And the longer she stayed ignorant the weirder this would seem. She vowed then, to take a little time to read that massive book on magic Lyra casually tossed her way previously. She didn't like this feeling of floundering through new information looking for something familiar.
After the strange magical phenomena the mood returned to normal as the fire could be restarted safely from the glowing coals that still smoldered under the dirt blanket Moira had thrown over them. A peaceful mood would settle over everyone as the four women, tiger and tiny sparking hawk relaxed over conversation and fresh stew brewed by Lyra.
Later that evening Shirak would jerk to wakefulness a moment before faint sounds could be heard approaching from the west, a beastial grunting and squealing from several different animals.
Lyra, who was reclining on a blanket on the long grass reading one of her many tomes, jerked upright into a sitting position as the sounds of several boars coming closer reached her. Her eyes quickly locked in on Shirak's alert posture as the tiger vanished into the grass in a very obvious hunting position. The druid looked back at the other party members and there was a dangerous, hungry glint in her eye. "Fresh pork."
She jumped to her feet and made it to the edge of their campsite before arching her back in pain as energy danced over her body. Enhancing her druidic abilities with mythic power sent waves of pain crashing through the woman as her muscles bulged and strained under her skin, dropping to all fours as her pelvic bone was reshaped. Shimmering black fur obscured her clothing as her jaw thrust out and grew several long, pointed teeth. In a blink the shapeshifting was finished and the black panther that was Lyra vanished into the darkness to stalk the fresh meat.
Rose was enjoying the conversation until the racket coming for the west interrupted them. Seeing the look that Lyra gave them, as well as Shirak disappearing as well, she reached into her belongings and pulled bottle. She pulled the cork from it, downing the thick, syrupy substance quickly. As she reached for her bow, the concoction had already begun to work, her skin growing roughened and harder. She peered into the darkness, carefully stepping into the brush as well, casting a glance back at the others. "We would be remiss if we didn't at least try to savor the hunt as well right?" She chuckled quietly before disappearing as well.
Having been chilling around the fire, she seems to be a bit put out upon the intrusion. It had been such a peaceful night afterwards, but now there was a new challenge. She was not the hunter the others were, more cosmopolitan than them, but still, a challenge was a challenge.
" I bet I shall bring the best one in." Meha seems more interested in challenging her friends than truly testing out which one brought forth the best one. Even though from her stance and her attitude clearly she felt she would have the best
Moira perked up at the noise. She knew that one well. One of the first big game she ever hunted. Wild boar were tenacious and ferocious prey despite their seemingly lack of natural weapons. But they were strong and had deceptively dangerous tusks. She went for her bow when a strange sound came from beside her. Lyra transforming would be a hard image to forget in the coming days. It looked...painful. But the advantages spoke for themselves. She disappeared as easily as her big tiger companion. Well two could play at that game.
The party members one by one vanished into the tall grass and ventured towards the forest, spreading out to surround the area the hogs would emerge from. There would flashes of color as both great cats scaled up into the tree to hide amongst the leaves and gain leverage over the powerful pigs.
Rose carefully picked her way through the brush, quiet as she can be, carefully pulling one bottle of her strange liquids that she carried on her, quaffing it, and then feeling her hardened flesh become thicker and more gnarled like aged bark. She then calling upon the power gifted by the phoenix that seemed so long ago, she did the same with another, albeit different colored, potable in her possession. She felt the energy form before her, not unlike a disk that hovered in front of her.
Swallowing the last of the second potion, she began to quietly chant to herself, almost only mouthing the words, knowing that her patron could hear her beckon of his power as she gently touched her staff that was fastened to her back. "Deepest shadows, darker than black, cloak me with you, and protect my back. Drape upon me, a mantle unseen, coat me in its, protective sheen." Once she felt the pull of the magic settle upon her, she smiled, and then crept forward once more. She could feel her eyes peer through the darkness and shades like they were nothing. There was a time she cursed the cat-like eyes, but now they came in handy when the situation presented itself time and time again.
She strained her hearing for her allies, hoping that they were being careful and that they didn't hit each other when attempting to down their quarry, either alone or collectively.
All too soon the first of the boars trundled out into the clearing, their noses up in the air as they searched for any threats. One of the boars snorted in alarm as it caught the scent of something but before this could be translated to the rest of the herd a black shape dropped onto the nervous animal with a snarl. Shirak landed on the nervous boar and the two tumbled away into the bushes, the pigs alarmed squeal changing into a wet gurgle as the tiger locked her jaws on the throat of the dying pig. The other seven pigs reacted by dashing at full speed into the clearing and away from the predator, squealing in terror.
With her animal vision Lyra was able to see Shirak move and reacted at the same time, launching her attack on a large female at the back of the herd with claws extended. In the darkness of the night shrouded forest she was an inkly blot in the shadows as she descended on the female and engaged the heavier animal at point blank range, going for the creature's jugular.
The panther and pig tumbled into the middle of the already panicked herd, the pig spasming as it's blood began to pump from it's neck in a steady rhythm. The panther had turned in mid-air after it's strike and landed on all fours, crouching over it's kill and snarling at the other pigs.
Moira watches from the safety of a thick tree, behind the creeping vines at the base. If one of those boars happened to come her way she wanted something between it and the goring tusks. A blur took one pig. That must have been Shirak. The tiger could have that one. Lyra's new panther form got another and was currently standing guard over it. Moira winced as neither of those were likely to yield much leather. But one more would set them up well food wise for the next few days. She watched them flee and picked out one that would come close. Taking aim, she waited until it was almost next to her before shooting. The magical arrow glowed slightly as if sensing its prey close at hand.
When the arrow left her bow she felt a deep sense of satisfaction. That was a kill shot. And indeed the arrow hit the boar squarely in the side, penetrating all the way to the heart. Neither the tough skin, layers of fat or muscle, or even the bone stood a chance against an arrow blessed with the Bane of beasts. The boar jerked to the side and fell over squealing. The pain did not last long though as it's shredded heart ceased to function. Out of habit she said a prayer to Erastil. She stayed behiond the tree and waited for the rest of the boars to leave. They wouldn't need more than the three they brought down. Anymore was wasteful.
Meha goes in for the strike, leaping from behind the tree in a similar manner how she suddenly struck the dragon only days before. However, this time she had misjudged her steps, resulting in her being just a bit out of reach when she struck home with her rapier. She scored a hit, but due to her position and timing it only bounced harmlessly off the bristling fur of the wild hogs.
The black panther shimmered as Lyra appeared crouching over the dead pig, her hands and lower jaw covered in the animals blood. "They are a threat to the Tree and the forest will be filled with them. Kill them all!"
Rose needed no further urging after Lyra shifted back and spoke. She pulled an arrow and prepared one of her volatile explosives to attach to it. She took steady aim and lined up for a central swine of the pack that was still fleeing. She loosed the arrow and watched it sail quietly with its package.
As soon as the arrow struck the hide of the one she had chosen, there was a squeal of pain followed by the explosive detonation as the creature was swallowed up in fire. The flames rained onto the others, leaving the slower ones to feel their own hides scorch as the fires licked at them.
She winced as the one that she hit almost appeared to char from the intensity of the explosion, and knew that the arrow she had used was beyond recovery.
There was a thunderous detonation followed by an almost ear piercing squeal of pain from many pigs as their hides were scorched from the flaming death of the pig in the middle of the sounder. The tall grass around the rushing pigs all bent away from the shockwave but did not catch fire, the sparks and embers falling amongst the green stalks flickering away into darkness. A four legged scorched corpse with a similarly burnt arrow sticking from its side collapsed onto the grass very much dead. The other four pigs split into two groups to get away from the dead pig before reconverging into a single group and turning until they were running directly away from the humanoid tree shooting burning arrows of death at them.
Seeing the pigs were about to escape Lyra's hands ducked into the pouches at her belt and came out with a smoky glass rod and tuft of white fur in either hand. Rubbing the two components together sparks of electricity began to dance between her fingers as the rod and rabbit fur vaporized in a white flash. Gritting her teeth and touching her index fingers tip to tip the woman channeled a spark of mythic power into the spell, her brow furrowing in intense concentration as the intense mythic magic swelled up the leylines around her.
Crimson lightning spread down her arms in thick ropes as the spell consumed the pig's blood as an impromptu third component. Turning to aim the bolt so it lashed across all four pigs Lyra spat out a single word and the world flashed blood red for a second as the pent up mythic energy lashed out in a thick, jagged bolt that went THROUGH the four pigs before slamming into a tree on the other side.
Moira's arrow was easily able to penetrate the hard hide of her target and bury itself in the boars' heart. Mehaila could not aim her rapier for a killing blow and the sword point skittered against the hide of the powerful animal as it ran past her. Rosa's alchemical arrow made a charred corpse out of one animal before Lyra's impressive display of new magic killed the last four wild hogs. The tree that was struck by her lightning flickered with tiny fingers of flame around the scorched wood that quickly went out.
With that the clearing went silent and smelled pungently of fresh bacon. The blood from the non electrified or burned corpses soaked into the soil and quietly vanished. The only sound for a few seconds was wet ripping noises as Shirak tore into her dinner with gusto.
Moira didn't have long to feel good about the excellent shot. Lyra yelled out that they had to kill all of them. Moira hesitated. Boars bred fast and could threaten an ecosystem but it didn't seem like this forest lacked predators and Oleg's stocked showed there were hunters in the area. Then again the boars were charging towards the tree. That thing was unique and she did feel some attachment to it. As she readied a shot she flinched back as the pack exploded. Well one exploded and the rest scattered. Apparently they were whipping out the big guns now. She tried to take aim again when the world went white...and loud.
The lightning bolt was so close she staggered from the impact of the sound wave alone. The clearing went silent on the wake of the bolt. No movement, no shuffling, no birds. Actually no sound at all. Only a very slight, high pitched whine at the edge of her hearing. It was weird seeing the world move yet not getting the associated sounds she expected. At least the boars were dead, a hole burnt through the remaining four. She shuffled over to a tree and sat starring dazedly at everyone else. Mouths moved, leaves rustled...but no sound reached her. She prayed this wasn't permanent.
She did have the presence of mind to stare at Lyra, wait for eye contact, then raise a lone finger in the air. That'd have to do for now.
Meha manages to duck her head from the duel explosions in time, though barely, as she was somewhat right in the center when they went off. THe flashing light bothered her more than anything else, as she had to blink for a second to clear her vision, but when everything focused back all the hogs were dead, and everything seemed fine. She calls out to Moira, having no idea how to skin a hog. " Hey Moira, you got any tips, or should we just leave it to you? Hey? HEY! Moira, I'm talking to you!" Moira seemly ignores her, and Meha crosses her arms and glares at the woman. Typical humans, always doing whatever. Least she could've done was answer me, anything. SHe goes back to staring at the hogs, for surely they were not skinned like fish.
Domitian eases up off of his drawstring after all the boars fall so very quickly to his companions. He blinks and shakes his head, clearing his vision after the massive lightning strike. I don't know what it was about that mana storm, but it just seems to have made everything foggy. Almost feels like I've been somewhere else for a lifetime. Did we even take a shot in that fight, Akiivos? Weird... He shakes his head some more, then goes over to Moira.
"That was quite the shot, Moira! I feel like I haven't been progressing as much in my shooting as I'd like, even with Akiivos. Maybe we could..." he trails off and then frowns in concern as she doesn't turn or respond in any way. He reaches out and touches her shoulder. "You OK?"
Lyra shook the last vestiges of magic from her hands and saw Moira glare angrily at her from across the glade, raising a single middle finger as the tall woman pointed at her ears. Lyra responded by crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at the fighter before bending down to grab the dead pig by its backfeet.
With several grunts the short woman dragged the corpse over to the fire and dropped it, placing her hands on her hips to look at the carnage the party had wrought. "I just want to make something clear; I don't want to make this a habit. In a normal setting I would only allow the killing of a few of that sounder, leaving at least one male and female to continue. However this Tree...it's too important. I don't know exactly why but we are bonded to it and I will not allow ANYTHING to hurt it."
Rose managed to avoid being deafened and blinded by her sister's flashy finale to the wild hog encounter. She walked around, still very much looking like an over-sized effigy, though the spells she consumed and called upon ran through the fullness of their duration in short time, her dendrite mixture would linger for quite a while yet.
It was just something that she became accustomed to, especially as perfecting the mixture further would only prolong its effects more and more. She was pulled out of her introspection for a moment when Domitian showed concerned for Moira, but at a casual glance she appeared to be unharmed. She was heading to help with the carcasses and saw the one she immolated thoroughly. She winced at the burnt, unpleasant smell, reaching to grab her arrow, and watch it crumple in her grasp. She worked at breaking down the husk into mostly ash and using a solution of her own making a form of liquid enrichment for soil and plants.
At first Moira didn't even realize that Mehaila was talking to her. She only noticed when she saw the elf looking at her and making faces. She tried to parse the words by lip-reading but that was a skill she'd never learned. So instead she pointed to her ears and and says, "I can't hear s%%$!"[/b] Well yell was probably a better description. She felt the words vibrate in her skull but didn't actually hear them. This kinda sucked.
When Dom tried to get her attention she responded the same way, practically shouting into his face. It looked like the others were carving up the boars. Since they weren't able to skin most, she left it to them until she had a better idea of whether her hearing was coming back. After a few minutes she heard a high-pitched whine that had her wincing. Other high-pitched noises began to bleed through a few minutes after that. Eventually the whine faded and the sounds of the world returned to her. She sighed in relief.
She turned to Lyra when her hearing finally returned. "Little warning next time would be nice. The blast was a bigger threat to the tree than the boars were." Grumbling she got to work on the one boar whose skin they could actually use. Hers.
Meha makes a small disgruntled sound at Moira as everyone/only Dom pours attention on her, while Meha goes and sulks a bit near some of the down hogs. She had no idea what to do with the ones that had been lightening, and just now sorta awkwardly stands around. She still hadn't picked up any of the more naturie stuff from Moira or Lyra, so she was a bit lost when it came time to dealing with the after affects of fighting off wildlife.
"Maybe we could give the tree some of the hogs blood? That's a thing you do isn't it Lyra?" The question stemmed more from her lack of understanding about what Lyra did than any misunderstandings about how the world worked.
Before Lyra could answer the ground rumbled under the party' feet, the tall grass whipping back and forth as roots glowing with threads of blue energy shot out of the ground. The four hogs that Lyra had electrocuted to death were quickly wrapped in coils of glowing roots that dragged the corpses back underground and in the direction of the Tree. The ground surged as rocks and dirt were displaced in a physical wave of motion from the movement of the pigs underground. When the wave dove under and vanished when it was four feet from the base of the Tree, the slender plant rippled with energy and visibly stretched in front of the party, growing two feet taller and thickening to three inches wide at the trunk. The burgundy leaves darkened in color until it seemed as if they were coated in a layer of fresh blood as a discordant, ephemeral song rose at the very edges of consciousness.
Within seconds the feeding was finished, the ground settling down as all signs of passage were erased. The faint song vanished as the surging Tree settled down and gave off an almost subconscious aura of satiation.
Lyra jumped when the the four pigs were roughly yanked underground and vanished into a wave of earth that passes beneath everyone's feet. She edged a few feet away from the happy Tree as it gorged itself on four pigs worth of meat and blood before settling down, staring as the powerful magical entity grew several feet taller in a few short seconds. She continued to stare at the Tree while ignoring all questions and faint songs, her head cocking to the side very slightly as her brain clocked away at a million miles an hour.
She thought back to the several times the party had been through the clearing after the events of the bandit fight, how every time the tree seemed a little taller and yet the clearing remained somehow undisturbed. How the trees to the East had appeared literally overnight, extending the borders of the forest by several miles and moving the grove from the plains to the deep forest.
Slowly the druid stepped towards the Tree and extended her left hand, her right hand shaped into a claw that held a readied fire spell.
As soon as Lyra's hand got within a few inches of the Tree's crown a slender silver vine dropped down from within the burgundy leaves and gently wrapped itself around her left index finger, holding on with the same fragility and trusting love that a child held onto its mother.
Lyra visibly tensed when the thin vine wrapped around her finger but held still as the sentient plant stroked her skin. After a minute of this she carefully extricated her hand and quickly stepped away from the plant, flicking her right hand to dispel the magic. She rubbed her left hand with a slightly alarmed expression as she moved back to the others. "That is a very dangerous plant."
Her shaken voice firmed as she seemed to come to some kind of conclusion and took several deep breath to calm herself. "It's a Silverthorn Tree. They are the rarest tree on the mortal planes and are always imbued with incredibly potent magic. They also have an animal intelligence and are predatory to the extreme; they are always hungry. I think the only reason it seems...fond of us is because we were directly responsible for its creation. It views us as parents of a sort."
Rose was still dealing with her scorched, burning pig. She watched as the fat continued to burn for some time.
She turned slowly when she heard other sounds than the crackling flames on the pig near her. She watched as the other pig carcasses were claimed by their strange tree they had helped grow. The music and discoloration gave her pause and she eyes twitched as she mulled over in her mind what she knew about the natural world.
She watched the tree interact with her sister and looked back to the still burning carcass in front of her. She poured some of the ashen liquid she gathered to douse the remaining flames on the pig carcass. She then flexed her still wooden appearing arms and slowly dragged the body of her pig kill over towards the tree, deciding to donate the carcass rather than let it rot and waste further.
"As it's parents of a sort, we should care for it. It seems to take some time for the tree to burn through the calories it just consumed. Eating like a snake where if it has a large quantity of meat, that satiates it for some time." She grunted as she tugging her offering closer to the tree, before pushing it forward with a mighty shove.
As she got closer, she took a more analytical look at the tree and she looked as giddy as a young child in a sweets shoppe. "The berries, the leaves, the bark... so much of it is a series of endless possibilities for using the material that it produces. It's far too young, and quite dangerous to attempt that kind of cultivation. In time there may be many discoveries that can be made from it that none have even thought to attempt creation of..."
She giggled a bit and wiped a sleeve across her mouth as she realized that she had been actually drooling some as she rambled about what she had come to understand about the true from her own studies.
Once Rosa stepped away from the burned pig roots would extend up and gently wrap around the offering, dragging the biomass underground to the Tree's root system.
Moira was about to comment how dumb it would be to feed a tree blood when the ground rumbled. At first she thought it some underground monster attracted by all the activity and made for a large tree nearby. Then she say that strange sapling pull the dead boars beneath the ground like a crocodile. Now she felt like the dumb one. But how was she supposed to know the damn thing ate boars? And of course after witnessing the murder tree pull down and eat four large creatures, Lyra walked up to it and touched it. Isn't that how they made it in the first place?
After hearing Lyra describe it she had to think about that for a moment. It made since that the bandit corrupted by a demonic coin would grow into this. As much as a magical tree popping up out of corpses made since. He was a monster, raping and murdering to feed the coin which would eventually turn him into a demon like the Staglord. Now it was a murderous tree, which was at least stationary and...liked them? She didn't really believe they were parental figures. They were just kin. On the do-not-eat-list unless it was starving. Not the same thing.
"Could you please stop touching the dangerous murder tree?" she said, annoyed and from several feet away. "Extreme aggression and hunger? No wonder they are rare. The thing is dangerous. I mean, what's the range this thing is going to have if it's fully grown?" she says, looking at the tree wearily.
