Forbidden Scroll: The Aureole of Wishes | 2
One day, a Feral Pest came down to the Trepa Forest from the Nergystl City. He heard that the Trepa Forest has very tall and strong trees that can stand out against the cold winds. He wanted the best hardwood he could find and it must be fresh.
The Feral Pest was a violent Beast of gigantic size, named Beetle, who has a shell made of copper-brown glass and triangular pitchfork-shaped horn. He trampled the weaker ones afoot without a care.
"Oh? They are only this weak for the strong to crush, how inevitable," said the Beetle.
He began to ram his horned head into any tall trees he could find. Plain grasses and colorful wildflowers cried out in shock and terror as they were stomped on. Small animals like the rabbits and lizards were also crushed into bloody mushes. Even the the toughest weeds couldn't stop the Beetle from squashing them into flat hays.
The violent Beetle heard a song that calmed him to a silent stop. He found a Hickory Tree. The Lady of the Hickory sang a melodious tune on her bushy branch of buttery nuts from above. He tapped her tree's trunk.
The Lady of the Hickory asked the Beast, "What does this Beast knock my tree for?"
"Are you the strongest tree?" He asked.
The Lady of the Hickory replied, "Not I, but another of my kind is."
"Who?" The Beetle asked.
"Seek the Lady of Maple, her tree that grew strong and sweet as her syrups with leaves of red and bright gold like sunset," the Lady of the Hickory replied.
The brown tendrils of ugly black leaves suddenly quivered. Something was wrong!
The tendrils started wriggling and frantically waving at the Lady, who only scowled at the sight of it. With a flick of her wrist, a dead branch fell down and crushed the brown tendrils flat. The Lady of the Hickory kindly pointed the beast at another direction and the violent Beetle walked away.
BAM!
Then the violent Beetle returned, charging at the Hickory Tree. He rammed into it so hard to the point he brutally shattered the poor Lady's tree trunk. The Lady of the Hickory fell down to the ground with her hands clutching her stomach, her face in anguish and dread. Her green dress and gray-brown skin faded away into the sunlight.
"Why?" asked the dying Lady of the Hickory when her Hickory Tree crashed to the ground.
Said the violent Beetle, "I want your wood!"
When the Hickory Tree was fell, many Plants and Beasts of small sizes were crushed to death along with their horrified screams. The Plants were snatched up by their beastly mates, who quickly fled to safety far from the evildoer.
The violent Beetle was not fazed. Who care if one or a few lives were lost?
The Beetle whistled, "Good wood to make my boat."
His giant mandibles bit into the withering Hickory Tree's wooden fleshes and tore off the barks in one move despite the Lady of the Hickory's dying screams. The evil Beast drilled seven holes with his needle like tongue into the red-brown fleshes of wood deep into the tree's white. Orange-brown saps poured out of the holes. The violent Beetle drank the blood of the fallen hickory tree. He could not get enough, so the Beast split the dead Tree in halves and sat on the big log.
It was hard and cold. His clawed feet dug and scratched into the wood. It took a few moments for the violent Beetle to turn the log into a big husk of sawdust.
"It's not enough! I want more," said the Beetle.
The Beetle dragged the hollowed log out of the Trepa Forest to the Border and left the Hickory log there. He turned toward the direction given to him from the Lady of Hickory's fatal naivety. He went forth to find a stronger tree with thicker width. The other part of the Hickory log became a dried firewood that started to burn in the hot sun. The green Moss wept for her fallen friend and the others mourned their loved ones, who were pressed to death under the weight of dead Hickory Tree.
But the violent Beetle did not care. Who care if one or a few lives were lost?
The grieving fellows saw the brown tendrils of black torn leaves wriggling their ways out from under one of the Hickory Tree stump's roots. They hurled slander and balls of mud at the quivering tendrils.
"Was it you who led that Beast here?" asked the weeping Moss.
"I did not! That Beast crossed the Border, I-" answered the tendrils of the Black Sprout.
A small Squirrel had slung a ball of mud at the brown tendril. It smacked the Black Sprout's ugly leaves like a shameful slap to the her face.
SPLAT!
"Lies! How can a Beast dare to break the rules to cross the Border! No Beasts of the Nygerstl City have ever crossed the Border! You're lying!" The angry Squirrel cried.
"Black Sprout, how dare you show your tendrils here and bring such misfortune to us!" The infuriated Moss screeched.
"I-" the Black Sprout tried to argue.
SMACK, SPLAT, THWACK!
Nuts, mud, sticks, and stones were hurled by the angry Beasts of the Hickory Tree's domain at the protesting tendrils of the Black Sprout.
"Ugly weed! Bad weed!" The seedling and saplings screamed at the Black Sprout's tendrils.
"Lady of the Hickory died because of you! My mate and children died because of you!" The survivor Beasts roared.
"Leave you ugly eyesore! Get lost! Get lost!" Everyone chimed in at the poor Black Sprout's tendrils.
So the Black Sprout's brown tendrils with ugly leaves shrunk from the angry mob and pulled away deeper into the Trepa Forest.
The Black Sprout sadly whispered to the wind, "I tried!"
"But I must warn the others of that fiend!"
She was determined and hurried toward the green hill where the Maple Tree grew.
-
-
The Black Sprout found the Lady of the Maple in her tree. Her leaves were beautiful red and bright gold like the sunset. The feathery and furry Beasts chittered nosily on her branches as with wildflowers and grasses do. The animals on the Maple Tree spotted the Black Sprout's brown tendril with ugly and torn leaves waving at them from the ground of decomposing leaves.
The Black Sprout called to the Lady of the Maple and the critters in the Lady's domain through her tendrils, "Lady of the Maple! Lady of the Maple and all who rest above, below and near! Heed me! Heed me!"
"Ugly weed go away!" the mean Vines shouted at her.
"Lady Maple! Lady Maple and all who rest above, below and near! Heed me! Beware of the wicked Beast, who have crossed our Border to come your way!" The Black Sprout shouted through her tendrils.
A beautiful Lady hairs like wildfire and a dress of red appeared before the Black Sprout's brown tendril of ugly leaves. She stomped on the tendril. The black leaves were torn into a mess even more than the beatings from the Plants and Beasts of the Hickory Tree's domain.
"Why must I take heed of an ugly thing and fear such Beast? No such Beast would dare trespass the Queen's Court!" The Lady of the Maple sneered as she ground her heel on the Black Sprout's leafy tendrils.
"He fell the Lady of the Hickory!" The Black Sprout shouted out the truth.
"You dare lies! No one can fell the Lady Hickory of the Hardest! Begone!" the Lady of the Maple snapped.
The Lady of the Maple shredded the Black Sprout's ugly leaves and make the poor Plant's tendrils look even uglier than before. The Black Sprout was forced to withdraw her brown tendrils as the Beasts and Plants near the Maple Tree laughed at her. Her attempts to warn them were in vain. The Lady of the Maple went back to singing her lovely song.
Then the violent Beetle came and tapped the Maple Tree with his horns.
The Lady of the Maple came down to him, "Lost rover, why have you tapped me?"
"Are you the strongest tree?" He asked.
The Lady of the Maple replied, "Not I, but another of my kind is."
"Who?" asked the Beetle.
"Lady of the Oak, with gritty and bitter capped nuts. Her tree lies farther north from here," was the Lady of the Maple's answer.
Then the curious Lady of the Maple asked, "Did you fell Lady Hickory?"
"No," the Beetle lied as he headed toward the direction where the Lady of the Maple pointed.
"I knew it! That weed lied to us!" The colorful wildflowers scolded Black Sprout, who hid away behind a nearby rock.
BAM!
"Stop! What are you doing?" the Lady of the Maple and her neighbors cried out.
The Beetle did not stop in his ramming. The Lady of the Maple panicked as she could feel her roots being pulled out of the ground. Her trunk was taking on the impact of the Beetle's charge and about to shatter.
"You can have my syrup for foods! Please leave me alone!" She begged him.
The Beetle said, "I don't want your syrup! I want your wood!"
CRASH!
With his pronged horns, the Beetle pried the Lady of the Maple's tree out of the ground. Her roots snapped as the vain Lady of the Maple screamed in pain as if her hairs were being pulled from her scalps. The small Beasts fled with their Plant mates and children from her branches. Like the Hickory Tree, the Maple Tree fell, crushing any Plant and any Beasts that couldn't flee in time.
The Beetle was very cruel. Who care if one or a few lives were lost?
The Beetle whistled, "Good wood to make my bed."
He did to the Lady of the Maple's tree like what he have done to the Hickory Tree. The Beetle used his mandibles to strip her barks and his needle-like tongue to bore seven holes through the orange fleshes of wood. The Lady of the Maple painfully screamed for the Beetle to stop breaking and plundering her tree. But that monster did not care to heed her, for he enjoyed making her cries.
White-yellow saps streamed of the seven holes. The violent Beetle drank the syrupy sweet blood of the fallen Maple Tree. But he still couldn't get enough, so the Beast broke the tree into halves with his jaws. When the Beetle sat on her logs, the Lady of the Maple was long gone. She finally perished when he split her trunk.
It was rough and hard. His clawed feet dug and scratched into the wood. It took a few moments for the violent Beetle to turn the log into a big husk of sawdust.
"Not enough! I want more!" said the Beetle.
The Beetle dragged the hollowed log out of the Trepa Forest to the Border and left Maple log with the Hickory log. He went to the direction given freely to him out of the Lady of the Maple's fatal arrogance. He searched for a stronger tree with branches of bitter and gritty capped nuts. The other Maple log was left to rot in the moist forest. The small Beasts and Plants of the Maple tree's domain mourned the losses of their Lady and their loved ones.
But the violent Beetle did not care. Who care if one or a few lives were lost?
The grieving fellows saw the Black Sprout's brown tendrils hiding behind the rock and raged like the other Plants and Beasts from the fallen Hickory's domain
"You must have led the Beast here!" the Canary screeched.
"I did not! That Beast crossed the Border, I saw him fell L--" The Black Sprout cried desperately, but her weak reply was cut short by others once more.
"Black Sprout, how dare you curse milady to death with my families!" cried the infuriated Vines.
"I-" the Black Sprout tried to argue.
SMACK, SPLAT, THWACK!
They refused to listen to her warning and now they threw the hardened saps, mud, sticks, and stones at the Black Sprout's tendrils.
"Leave! You ugly eyesore! Get lost! Get lost!" Everyone chimed in at the poor Black Sprout's tendrils.
So the Black Sprout's brown tendrils with ugly leaves shrunk from the angry mob and pulled away deeper into the Trepa Forest.
The Black Sprout's tendrils cried sadly to the wind, "I tried! You just don't want to hear!"
-
The Black Sprout remembered what the Lady of the Maple Tree have told the violent Beetle. She quickly pulled at her tendrils near the Oak's courtyard to warn the Lady of the Oak and her companions before the evil Beast come.
The Black Sprout came back to her main body that grew alone inside a riverbank cave. She called out to the Willow Tree near her.
"Grandmother Willow! Grandmother Willow!"
The Lady of the Willow manifested from her tree with a dark green shroud of braided willow leaves and gray hairs. She came to the riverbank cave and found the quivering Black Sprout crying alone.
"Grandmother Willow! How can I make them hear me when they will not?" the Black Sprout sobbed as she bowed with her shredded ugly leaves down to the ground before the Lady of the Willow.
"Oh my poor sprout, what caused you so much grief?" the Lady of the Willow soothed the quivering Black Sprout.
"Grandmother Willow, I tried to tell Lady Hickory! She didn't want to hear me! I tried to warn Lady Maple's court! But they don't want to hear me!"
"Calm, calm my young sprout," said the Lady of the Willow.
She asked the Black Sprout, "What happened to them?"
The Black Sprout told her, "A very bad Beast crossed our Border and is knocking down any trees he could find and cut them all up! He want our woods! He met Lady Hickory and Lady Maple and they fell down. Now he is coming for Lady Oak. How can I get them to believe me when he lies too?"
The Lady of the Willow grew angry as she heard the Black Sprout's tales. She was so furious at the Ladies who have left their posts to follow their Forest Queen to the party, leaving behind all the young and naïve Ladies and their companions, who refused to heed her warnings of prophesied felling, and now they have treated her protégé like this for being born so ugly!
The Lady of the Willow raged, "I knew it would come to this! How dare they treat you like this!"
The Lady of the Willow shouted out loud in the Forest from the cave to warn the others, "Heed my voice and spread the words! A vile plundering invader have come to wreck havoc upon us and seek to knock down trees for their woods! Hear my voice and spread the words to all to take wary of him!"
-
But it was too late. The Lady of the Oak's tree fell and perished to the violent Beetle in the same way as the Maple Tree and the Hickory Tree did. The Black Sprout tried to warn the Lady of the Oak through her brown tendrils of ugly leaves, but her warnings fell on deaf ears.
It was not only just the Lady of the Oak's screams. There were more Trees being felled by the violent Beetle and other creatures ruthlessly crushed to death. The Black Sprout heard their screams and grabbed the Lady of the Willow's hands with her brown tendrils.
She cried and shook her stem sides to the sides, "It's too late! Why does he need more?"
The Lady of the Willow grabbed the Black Sprout's dark stem and petted her quivering leaves, "Peace child. Peace and calm. Tell me, where is this brute heading to?"
The Black Sprout pleaded, "He's coming our way! Grandmother Willow, please take your tree and flee!"
But the Lady of the Willow was an ancient and wise Tree. She was also a powerful, proud Lady, who has long foreseen her own destruction.
The Lady of the Willow told Black Sprout, "How can I run or hide when I am already so old?"
"But he will chop you down like what he did with other trees!"
The Lady of the Willow said, "Then I shall fight!"
The Black Sprout watched the Lady of the Willow leave her cave. The Beetle found the Willow Tree's Lady waiting on the riverbank.
The Lady of the Willow asked the Beetle, "Beast of the Nergystl City, what needs brought you here to seek the falls of my kin?"
The Beetle chirped, "Good woods from the trees that stand out."
"Don't you have enough or do you only came to waste my Trepa Forest?" the angry Lady of the Willow asked.
"Not enough! But you are to be my last," said the violent Beetle, who began to charge at the Willow Tree.
"So be it," said the Lady of the Willow, who raised her arms and gentle branches.
-
The Black Sprout could only watch the Lady and the Beetle fight from her cave. It was a grueling battle between the ancient Lady of the Willow's gentle blows and the wicked invader's violent bites.
The Willow Tree's slender branches tried to grab the violent Beetle and choke him. But his shell was too slippery. Therefore, the Beetle bit at the persistent branches that tried to whip his underside.
WHIP! BITE!
SWISH!
The Lady of the Willow lifted her clawed palm upward and sent the water from the lake flying toward the Beetle. His wings were soaked and shredded as bad as the Black Sprout's ugly leaves. Now the Beetle can't fly anymore.
BAM! BAM!
The Beetle charged at the tree with a roar despite having one of his legs chopped off by the Lady of the Willow's water manipulation. The Willow Tree's branches wrapped around the Beetle's horns, legs, his body, and the Willow Tree's roots. She pulled him down to the ground.
WHIP! PULL!
He reared up on his remaining legs with a roar and slammed his body down. The shock waves of both roar and body slam loosened his bindings and cracked the Willow Tree's roots.
ROAR! SLAM!
The Beetle wrapped his horns around the branches and jerked his head hard. The entire Willow Tree was pulled out of the ground and fell down with the Lady of the Willow.
RIP! BAM!
The Beetle got on top of the Willow Tree's trunk and said, "Tis an honor to give up your wood, to me, Wise Lady of the Willow!"
"Never!" The Lady of the Willow shouted with great defiance.
"Then see how I break you!"
He bit into the Lady of the Willow's barks and pelt it off. The Lady did not scream. The brutal Beetle drilled seven holes into her wooden fleshes. Still, the Lady did not cry.
The white sap poured out her holes. The greedy Beast slurped up her bland blood and was not satisfied by the bland taste.
"Old wood's good wood! Big, strong, and long's all good! You shall bear my sons!" said the happy Beetle.
"Death awaits for us!" said the Lady of the Willow in anger to his declaration.
The Black Sprout was very horrified. She saw the monster crouch over the exposed trunk and urinated. The foul urine ate through the wood into pulpy gray liquids with smokes. Then the Lady screamed in deep pain and the Beetle laughed at her agony. He smeared more urine over her wooden fleshes and watched the Lady of the Willow burn up.
"Old wood's soft! Soft is good wood. Tree stand out is good wood!"
The violent monster stabbed his tail deep into the wood of the Lady of the Willow's wood.
GLUB, GLOOP!
His tail wriggled. White balls flowed through it and entered the tree. The Lady of the Willow tangled her branches around the Beast's neck for the last time and pulled! The Beetle fell into the lake on his back. His feet flailed in the air to grab for anything, but failed when his underside was exposed.
So the violent Beetle rocked to the side until he could flip over in the water and swam to the shore. The Lady of the Willow began fading away as her Willow Tree was dying. The giant Beetle crawled over trunk and opened up his tattered wings.
He said, "I win! Bear my sons!"
Squirming white maggots with black spots wriggled off his back onto the Willow Tree. The Black Sprout cried out for the ancient Plant, one of the rarest few, who did not mind her ugly appearance.
-
The Black Sprout taunted the Beetle, "I pity you. So weak and short!"
"What did you say?"
The Beetle came over and stood over her tiny black form. The maggots were burrowing through the Willow Tree.
The Lady of the Willow screamed hoarsely, "Leave her alone you monster!"
But the Black Sprout said to the violent monster, "I said that I pity you, who are so weak and short!"
The Black Sprout continued her rant, "So short that tall Plants looked down upon you and you knocked down any tree you can find. So weak that the big Beasts make fun of you and you crushed all things small and weak! I pity you! So weak and short! You want wood! But you are not satisfied! Why? No! You want to crush the weak and small because you are very weak!"
"You are no good! You are too weak and ugly, I don't want you!" the violent Beetle declared.
He raised his giant foot to crush the eyesore despite the dying Willow's screams. The Black Sprout glowed a bright white color.
"No remorse for those you Take
Then small and weak, you shall be!
Beaks, fangs, tongues, and claws
Pierce and tear out your seeds, your limbs like you did with the Trees!
Trample and crush you whole like you did with the weak and small!
Sticky wet, gulp away the worms like the greedy beast you are!"
-
It was one big flash. The violent Beetle was knocked over. The other Beasts, who have lost their loved ones to the violent Beetle and came to seek revenge.
They said, "I wished to have powerful beaks, claws, and fangs, so I can the damned Beast!"
Their wish for power was granted.
The birds became the first Woodpeckers with long beak that can drill through any wood to stab the Beetle's children.
The bugs grew more legs, webs, and sharp fangs to capture and suck the Beetle's blood. They were the Spiders and Mantises.
The Frogs and Lizards gained sticky tongues that can snag the Beetles and gulp them down.
The others like the Rats grew big with sharp teeth and claws to tear apart and trample the Beetle's children.
The angry Beasts spotted the violent Beetle wriggling on his back and the fallen Willow log infested with white worms. The Beetle shrunk so small and saw the giant eyes of the furious Beasts, gleaming with vengeance.
"Spare us, I beg you!" He cried out in terror.
The vengeful beasts roared, "Why should we spare you when you did not spare the people of the Forest?"
"You crushed my flowers, took my mates to death!" The Spiders and the Mantises hissed.
"You destroyed my home!" The Rats screeched.
"You knocked down my Lady and chopped her up, then defiled her corpse by letting it rot in the sun!"
The screeching Woodpecker and Oriole were the mates of the felled trees: Hickory, Maple, and Oak.
The trembling Beetle tried to flee. A Frog opened his mouth and fired his long tongue. The tongue grabbed the Beetle's leg and dragged him before the Spider. The Spider bit the Beetle and locked his prey in his cobweb of sticky silks. A Mantis and the Rat tore off all of the Beetle's three legs and his tattered wings. The Woodpecker drilled forty-nine holes into the Beetle's brown fleshes as the Beetle screamed in pain.
Then a Black Sprout cried out to the vengeful Beasts, "Help! Please save the Lady of the Willow! Save her, I implore you!"
The Beasts were filled with even more rage when they saw what the Beetle did to the infested log that was once the Willow Tree.
They shouted, "You are still not satisfied, and keep on taking more and more of our trees! Now you dare force the ancient and wise Lady of the Willow to bear your sons, defiling her pale fleshes!"
"Please! You can cut, boil, or tear me apart, but have mercy on my sons!" The Beetle cried out in pain as the green blood flowed out from his holes when he saw the eyes turned to his wriggling sons, the white Woodworms.
"You killed my children! Even before they could be born into this world! So we cannot spare them!" The Frogs and Lizards cried.
Naturally, they did not spare him nor his larvae. The Beetle was forced to watch the hungry Beasts descend upon his sons on the Willow log. His sons, the grubby white Woodworms burrowed deeper into the wood to escape the hungry claws and pecking beaks. They squealed in distress for their father. But he was trapped in a web and could not move nor fight back against the vengeful Beasts.
"No! No! Have mercy!" The Beetle cried for his sons.
The Beasts of revenge did not care to hear his cries for mercy. One by one, the Beetle's sons were snagged and pulled out by the long beak and sticky tongue. They were thrown before the birds and the other Beasts. The Woodworms cried out in terror for their father as their brothers disappeared one by one into the maws of revenge.
Spiders seized the grubs to pierce their fleshes and sucked them dry. Their shriveled forms were tossed aside for the Lizards to swallow up. The Frogs gulped up the wriggling worms. Rats and Mantises cut up the Woodworms with their fangs and claws. Woodpeckers, Orioles, and Finches pecked the grubby Beetle's sons until they turned into a roasted pile of fertilizers in the sun. The Black Sprout couldn't join them because she was too weak and drooped to the cold floor.
-
The Beasts turned to the Beetle when they were done with eating up all the larvae and saw that it was too late for the Willow Tree. A white paw pressed down the Beetle to the ground. It was a White Wolf and a powerful Beast from the Nergystl City.
"What do you want?" The Beasts of the Forest growled and hissed warily.
"My quarry," the White Wolf growled.
"Who are you? Why would you want to save this monster? He felled the Ladies of the Trepa Forest! Killed my people, their mates! Crushed their children! Defiled my grandmother's corpse! Why?" The Black Sprout cried in outrage and waved her ugly form at him.
The White Wolf's ears twitched and perked up to attentions. He gave a short glance at the wreckage made by the Beetle. The fallen trees became logs riddled with holes all over as half-hollowed husk or half-rotten woods.
"I see," said the White Wolf, who turned his attention back to the Black Sprout.
He flashed his metal dog tags, one of them was coated in silver with quercitron colored laurels and a lapis lazuli blue star over it. The angry Beasts of the Trepa Forest became very wary and took several steps back from the intruder. It was common knowledge that the Beasts of the Forest were born skilled Farmers, whose strengths will never be able to rival the power of their cousins from the Nergystl City, who were born as powerful Hunters. The dog tags were proofs of the Hunter's pride.
The Hunters can only roam the Forest to track and hunt if they were blessed with the Trepa Forest Queen's laurel wreaths and the Nergystl City King's star. However, this White Wolf was a high ranking officer and a very powerful Beast. No one could afford to offend him without facing death penalties for breaking the Treaty between the Queen of the Trepa Forest and the King of the Nergystl City.
The White Wolf asked the Black Sprout, "White Wolf at your services. I am a Hunter sent to retrieve the King's bounty. Mo ghaoil, what do wish to do with this Feral Pest?"
"I-I . . . Please make him so he can never hurt anyone anymore," the Black Sprout replied.
The White Wolf' bowed his head, "As mo ghaoil wish."
The Beetle thought that the White Wolf was going to save him only to be betrayed. His long pitchforked horn was bitten off and shattered into pieces in the White Wolf's maw. The Beetle pitifully cried for his destroyed horn. The other violent Beasts of the Trepa Forest, who were granted their newfound power became furious at the Black Sprout. They could not accept the fact that a powerful Beast would bow his head to the Black Sprout's wish.
How could they accept it when the ugliest Plant was able to accomplish what they could not?
The Frogs and Lizards raged, "Then what about us?"
The Squirrels and Rats hissed, "You ugly weed, have you ever thought of our revenge?"
The Spiders and Mantises demanded, "Why do you let this outsider steal our kill?"
The Woodpeckers shrilled, "Remember the Ladies!"
The Black Sprout shrunk in fear. Their words tore at her shriveling leaves. The White Wolf silenced the fussing mob with his glare.
The White Wolf growled, "Do everyone here have a death wish if they dare break the Treaty of my King and your Queen?"
"Ugh!" The Beasts of the Forest could not argue against the White Wolf.
"Then scram!" The White Wolf barked.
The Beasts of the Trepa Forest scattered deep into the Forest's bushes before the powerful Hunter. The Beetle's eyes have been glaring at the Black Sprout with so much hatred. He wanted her trampled under his feet! Then he caught the White Wolf's fiery red eyes staring at him. He could not stop the feeling of terror from shaking his small body.
Then the White Wolf told the Black Sprout, "Mo ghaoil, you are weak. But your courage deserve a fine reward."
The White Wolf flashed his other sharp claw. The Beetle could not scream because his voice was hoarse. With a powerful swipe, the Beetle's hard glass shell was pelt off and his eyes were cut out. The White Wolf tossed the glass shell over to the Black Sprout's riverbank cave. He turned to drag away the Beetle back to the Nergystl City. The pleas of the Beetle bound in spider silk, fell on deaf ears.
-
-
The cowardly and vengeful Beasts of the Trepa Forest came back and could not find the White Wolf nor the Beetle. They blamed the Black Sprout for their losses, but the Black Sprout was nowhere to be found. She hid from them under the blanket of crusty leaves in her cave.
The logs of the fallen Ladies were burned and buried in the ground with the Plants and Beasts crushed to death, by the violent Beetle. Even if a life have been taken away by death, all things must return to nature and be reborn anew as it was the way of the world. The Black Sprout was very sad as she could only watch her people cry from afar in her cave.
On that night, the cold winds blew into the Black Sprout's riverbank cave. She wept when she heard the fading voice of her only friend, the Lady of the Willow.
"Little sprout, you have made me very proud.🎵
Promise me never to stand out 🎵
Winds only beat and fall the tall trees🎵"
So the young Plant picked up the glass shell and hid her small form under it. The Black Sprout spoke to the silver moon.
"Let this looking glass be my shroud
Of all things, hide me away in their shadows"
The glass shell were absorbed into the Black Sprout's skin. Her ugly form disappeared into the darkness of the cave. No one could see nor find her anymore except for one, who knew where she grew.
-
The next day, the Trepa Forest heard a strange tale from the CNergystl ity through the vines' gossips. A Hound of the Crown brought a de-shelled Beetle before the King of the Nergystl City. Because the Beetle was such a Feral Pest, who illegally crossed the Border and stole, then fell the woods from the Trepa Forest.
The King of the Nergystl City sentenced the pest to death at the claws of the Hound of Crown. The Hound tore the Beetle into pieces and ate it all up except for the head, which was left intact. The King was puzzled.
"Hound of the Crown, why have you left the head intact?" The King asked.
The Hound replied, "It will crawl and be crushed."
"With no feet or arms for whom?" The King pointed at the Beetle's head.
The Hound said, "Then let it roll."
The King was so impressed by the Hound's sincerity and declared, "Then let the Trepa Forest have his head! "
The Hound of the Crown was ordered to roll the head back into the Forest. That's how a Beetle became a slow slug to be crushed and pecked to death by the angry Beasts of the Trepa Forest.
The Beasts, who mustered up the courage to take revenge on the Beetle, were hailed as heroes among their kins. A small banquet was held in the Trepa Forest to celebrate their heroes' returns. Many birds, insects, trees, and flowers sang tales of the Hound of Crown joining force with the Woodpeckers, the Spiders, the Mantises, the Rats, the Frogs, and the Lizards in defeating the evil Beetle. But no one mentioned her because she was a useless eyesore. No one knew that she was the Aureole of Wishes that granted their heroes such power to fight against their foe and no one bothered to care.
"🎵 The Tree is falling down, falling down 🎵"
-
The Black Sprout never came out from the shadow of her cave. She hid her ugly self under the ground during the days and only came out at night to nourish herself with moonlit dew. She was the ugliest Plant in the world, but she was never truly alone.
But the Feral Beasts did not stop coming down to the Trepa Forest. The lives of the Trepa Forest was plunged into great terror once more.
Forbidden Scroll: The Aureole of Wishes | 2
