Ch: 57 Mud and Blood

The creature paced in a circle around the pair, disapproval writ large across her tiny face. “Oh, you really are bonded strongly to this thing. What a pity, he was so young too, oh well. Would you like me to ease his passing?” She said cheerfully. 

“That wretched worm slew my tree, so I will not be around here much longer. I had hoped it would stay and fight, as is their way. It carried on even after I struck it a terrible wound, that is passing strange, to my mind.” 

The gregarious spirit started scanning the hillside in earnest once she had satisfied her curiosity toward the pair. “Where is this druid of ours, mortal woman who will not give her name, nor ask mine as is custom…”

 

“Well, this is getting us nowhere.” Gary said loudly. “Talk to me miss dryad, I think I’m the ‘druid’ you are looking for. I made the dishes and taught her the spell.” 

He pulled three camp chairs from his tush and sat in one. “I’m Gary, this is Shai, we want to kill that worm, but we would like to help you too, if we can. What is your name?”

 

“We don’t speak with the dead, that is taboo.” She said to Shai, pointedly ignoring Gary. “I have no name to give the dead, you may call me Solange, or sol if you wish…” She clambered up into a chair and wiggled happily. 

“Really, where is our druid, even these chairs were druid crafted, untouched by iron.” She went back to scanning the hillside as she spoke.

“If you will not let me cleanse this poor thing, why did you call me here? I was preparing to die and bloom again wherever fate might carry my seed.” She huffed and kicked her tiny legs where they dangled off the chair. 

 

“I am rather upset. All these centuries standing here, watching mortals pass to and fro. Now finally I have a civilized encounter… only, one is dead and the other reeks of iron.”

“I’m not dead…” Gary tried lamely, and got steamrolled for his troubles.

 

She scoffed and snorted at Shai. “It almost sounds alive, ‘I’m not dead’ it says, though it surely has died at least three times. You should punish it for lying. They make terrible pets.” She bounced up and down on the chair and giggled. 

“Your little offering was a lovely parting gift, are you sure I can’t destroy that for you? I do owe you for the meal and I hate to leave debts unpaid. If you do finish that worm I will owe you a debt twice over…”

She stroked her tiny chin, lost in thought for a moment. Just long enough for Shai to find her voice.

 

“I hae some questions and would call any debt paid did ye answer true.” Shai said softly and reverently. 

 

“Oh! Questions, how unusual for a human, from an ironmonger no less… ask, I will answer as I can. Be swift, my life in this form ebbs away.”

 

“Why say ye that mine man be dead? He lives. I hae felt his heart beat an seen his blood spilt.” Her face was wracked with uncertainty as she asked. 

 

“Many mortals have come to dwell in this place, by many means. Some are souls, pushed through naked, who clothe themselves with unborn flesh and walk as mortals. These we love, for they breathe life and magic where they pass.” She sighed sadly. 

“They are the seed that births new dryads, only they can get us with child, and only we can bear their young. It was once one of those, now it is dead.” She snapped from her sorrowful state and continued as though nothing had happened.

“Others, we dryads brought through, for our trees stand in the other world and this one. Only the dryads have this power, we alone could bring mortals here, though no longer.” She smiled, as though that cleared everything up. 

 

“That dinnae answer me, I say he lives, show me how he is dead.” Shai said, her reverence fading quickly, the longer she spoke.

 

“Oh, sweety… can’t you see it is coming apart? Flying away into the void one piece at a time. Something is holding it together, but for how long? Your pet walked a dead world as a dead man, for far too long to ever be alive again. It is simply too stubborn and muleish to die.” She smiled sadly once more. 

“A trait I do not share. My apologies, Ironmonger Shai who owns an undead druid.” She plucked a magnolia bud from her hair and handed it reverently to Shai. 

“I will be gone soon, to bloom again in another place. By the next full moon this bloom will bear a seed, plant it in a lovely spot and we may speak again.” 

When she finished speaking she fell still, sitting motionless, until a stray breeze came by, and carried her away in a flurry of magnolia petals. In moments, only a few scattered petals on the ground and a huge stack of logs remained.

“That were sadly beautiful.” Shai said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I do hope to see her again.”

 

“You will,” Luna said as she trotted down the hillside with Khan. “very soon.” The veteran had removed her eyepatch, revealing an intricate tattoo of swirling, knotted ink in the image of a raptor’s eye. She embraced Shai briefly, then broke the hug with a shout of triumph.

“Gotcha! You’ll see her again right now, cause that was mostly bullshit.” Luna held up her hand, clutching a large, white stick insect. “She was clinging to your skirts, hiding in the folds.”

The one eyed warrior woman pinched the bug in a three fingered grip, as it crawled in slow motion, with its limbs milling in empty air. 

“She used a very complex bit of magic to hide her presence, she hitched onto your skirts while handing you that flower.” Luna mulled that over for a moment. “The flower is also part of her too, like Gary and his house.”

 

The rest of the gang came trooping into the meadow, marveling at the colossal stack of loose logs. It was still roughly mantis shaped, even in repose. 

“This little bug made that monster move all by itself?” Tallum marveled. 

 

“She’s a nearly immortal fae spirit of nature. not a ‘little bug’ and will probably hold a grudge, if you don’t apologize real quick…” Gary mumbled quietly.

 

With a subtle kick to the ankle from Ivy, he hopped and made amends. “Begging your pardon noble spirit, I meant no offense… Ivy, that hurt!”

 

“Good, not everything small, is weak ya big baby.” She grumbled. “I just can’t believe no one made the connection before. Walking sticks are always an anomaly, they break most of the usual monster rules.”

 

“How so?” Gary asked as they walked back up to the house. “This is my first time seeing one, all I saw of Plumeria were her parts… wait, that sounded gross.”

 

“Sticks appear in places with a history of strong magical energy and human habitation, always in forests and orchards that have been abandoned by man or on roads between cities, like her.” Luna answered calmly, still gripping the gently struggling creature. 

“They never eat, or have any animal biology and never wander far from where they appear. The plum tree pretended to devour animals but encased them in amber instead. All monsters eat. That hunger defines them.”

#

 

Wilford had a small hand drum and was chasing Otho around the garden, pummeling a chaotic ‘beat’ as he ran and yelled happily. Amy was on the rug by the fire playing foursquares against Levin, while Becky strummed her harp on the sofa. “They're coming back… with company. I think.” She said softly. “Wait here Amy, here comes Wilf.”

Otho deposited Wilford on the rug and settled down on his legs, pinning him in place with a doggie sigh of satisfaction. 

“Be right back, gang.” Becky dashed into the garden with a rustle of woolen skirts, whistling happily.

#

 

“…so my theory is, Plumeria couldn’t gather enough magic to sustain herself, and spun an amber cocoon to wait for a change in the tides of magic.” Gary lectured as they strolled. 

“A tree fungus probably went monster while she was sleeping and set her off. That must have sucked, getting spore wasps in a dryad’s tree must be awful.” He said sadly. “No wonder she was such a crabapple.”

The snow white stick insect riding on Shai’s shoulder bobbed and swayed in a way that suggested laughter. A faint chittering buzz confirmed her schadenfreude, even sounding a little guilty at hearing her rival’s condition.

 

“That were cruel, Solange. I do hope ye kin be civil, surely I demand it of mine guests.” She scolded gently. “We will nae be unpleasant tae mine guests nor kin in this home.” The pair of them had been chatting the whole walk, though only Shai’s side was audible.

 

Becky met them at the gate and was immediately fascinated by Shai’s guest. “Ohh she feels like Kai!” She bounced on her toes in wild enthusiasm. 

“Hi! I’m Becky, come meet the others!” In the blink of an eye, the insect and priestess were gone. Little remained beyond a flash of orange wool and the sound of laughter.

 

Gary watched Shai scamper off in pursuit, bells ringing in time to her laughter. “Well, ok. What’s the plan now? Wait for the cavalry or go after the worm?” He asked Khan and Luna with a sigh. 

 

“We will ride out and take a look, try to not befriend anything while we are gone. Gods, now I feel badly for every stick we ever destroyed…” Khan murmured, holding Luna tight. 

 

“Soft hearted fool! They are immortal, all we ever did was move them somewhere else. Open your ears when they speak, you can still listen, while staring at a spirit’s tits.” Luna tweaked his bottom in a way that only a person very familiar with his armor could pull off.

 

The two veterans rode off into the afternoon under a clear sky, despite the clouds still looming over Wheatford, far behind them.

“That weather will delay the cavalry troop farther, love. We may need to act before they arrive.” Luna remarked. “I still say bringing children was foolish.”

 

“Mikkel has seen more action than both of us together, just since he turned a hundred years old. He says we need the boy for this one, Shai and the kids come with the boy.” Khan shrugged helplessly. 

 

“I suppose it’s still just a worm, no matter how large… gods!” They paused on a low rise and stared down on a scene of madness. 

 

A patch of berry brambles and small trees had been churned and burrowed into a stinking morass of mud and filth by a ragged, surging behemoth. Sleek brown fur stretched for a hundred and twenty yards from a lipless, round, grinding mouth surrounded by massive teeth. 

It chewed in a circle, knotting itself and devouring everything in its undulating path.

The tail end of the creature was a battered and mangled mess. Long wounds ran down its flanks, seeping thick, dark blood. Lumpy contusions and flattened areas on its long body told the tale of a very angry dryad.

The furrow of churned earth still pointed straight to Flintspire, barely visible as a shape on a distant hillside. The fields and orchards began just a few miles on, looking fertile even in mid winter.

 

“Oh, that is big and nasty. We won’t be killing that without a lot of help.” Luna grumbled. “It could pull down the city walls and take this end of the valley by the end of the week.”  

 

Khan nodded in grim agreement. “Best we get to work on it. I’ll stay and watch, go get the kids and whatever else is coming along.”

#

 

Luna and Winslow rode back up the trail of destruction  to the meadow. There, she found most of the group, climbing around the mantis shaped log pile and chattering with enthusiasm. Even the children were scampering about, while Shai and Gary played and danced together around the thing.

“Hey, Luna, everything ok?” The boy called between verses as she rode up. When she nodded, he resumed his  strange song.

 

Sunshine daydream,

walking through the tall trees,

going where the wind goes.

 

Blooming like a red rose,

breathing more freely.

Light out singing,

I'll walk you in the morning sunshine.

Sunshine daydream,

Walk you in the sunshine…

 

 “We are almost done here, how far off is it?” He gasped, sinking into a camp chair beside Shai. “The Grateful Dead have a song for almost everything.” 

Shai just sagged against him and sighed. They both looked wrung out and limp, though they smiled happily while holding hands in triumph.

 

“Your new friend battered it quite thoroughly, it’s a mile and a quarter off, eating a small and pleasant dell down to bare earth as we speak, Khan is keeping an eye on it.”  

She dismounted and scooped Amy up in her arms with a smile. “Khan was right, the darn thing is so huge, it could never catch a person or animal. At its size, it will reach the fields in two days, at that point we either kill it, or the city will fall.”

 

“We should get going then, we’re done here now.” In short order, the small troupe had themselves ready for travel. 

Mounted up and ready to run, they all watched, as Gary climbed the massive log structure and sat atop what remained of its broad and triangular head. “Ready Solange?” He asked, from atop the pile.

 

As if in answer, the assembly began to move again, standing to its four massive legs with a rumbling groan. A truly enormous magnolia blossom sprouted and opened in a few brief seconds, stepping down onto the creature’s head and taking a seat across from Gary in the form of a tiny, beautiful woman. 

 

Slowly, the construct took on the form of the familiar walking stick monster, shaking the earth as it stepped onto the road.

“It is a very strange creature you have found for yourself, ironmonger Shai. Though it is taboo, I find myself enjoying its antics immensely.” An enormous sigh, windy and warm as a summer day, swept over the clearing. “Such a pity. Though, sweet Wilford and Amy will give hope to all my kind.” The voice rumbled and whispered from the voluptuous woman, clad only in her flowing brown hair and olive skin, as well as the vast creature they rode atop.

 

Thundering steps pounded down the road behind their band, following the music of Gary’s bamboo flute into the winter sunshine. 

“This is a new thing, your pet does, ironmonger Shai. My kind do not travel, save when we are born anew.” Her chuckle was the comforting sound of wind and rain on leaves in a spring storm.

  “I am surprised again, we love the old things, but it is the new things that humans and their pets provide that makes eternity bearable.” She said, in woody, percussive clattering and songbird’s chirping.

 

“Does that mean you will talk to me directly now?” He asked the smiling spirit, with a wry grin.

 

“Your pet is sassy Shai, it amuses me with its words and music. I will allow it to continue to exist as a favor to you and your children.” 

Gary decided that her singing laughter and the joy on his woman and children’s faces was worth putting up with her attitude. “My gratitude is immense, noble spirit.” 

 

“It remembers the old ways… and makes moonlight into liquid nectar, Perhaps it does live… after a fashion.” She said, while bringing a tiny cup of moonshine to her pink, blossom lips. 

#

 

Khan and Annie felt the earth shaking at almost the moment they heard the music. They both shook their heads in confusion as the party rolled into view, with their enormous companion thundering along behind.

“We brought backup, Solange said she wanted another crack at the worm if I provide the magical energy…” He stopped speaking when he came in sight of the worm.

 

Down in a fold of the landscape, a small stream ran clear and bright from the hills clattering happily into a pleasant dell. In the bottom, a mass of mud clotted, fur and flesh writhed. The creature squirmed awfully, tying itself in elaborate knots as it consumed every living thing that could not escape the small hollow.

“That is gross.” Gary shouted to Khan as he climbed down from his strange ‘mount’. “Let’s get this done before I pass out from mana loss.”

 

Without further preamble, he produced his first recorder, enjoying the welcoming rush as the enchantment flowed into the air around. His armored friends took station around the dog cart, while Gary and Shai walked with the massive dryad down into the vale. 

“We return anon, Wilford, Amy, mind yer brothers and sisters while we tend this thing.” 

 

With every step, the giant construct became less a rough puppet of logs and vines. It grew a carapace of deepest green, streaked in white and violet. Iridescent eyes of emerald green and terrifying, barbed forelimbs replaced logs and leaves as the raw magic of life and nature transformed the entity. 

With a terrible roar, as if a landslide were throwing an entire forest down the hill, Solange dropped into a lumbering run. The worm never even had time to uncoil itself before she was on it. 

 

Her forelimbs lashed out, slashing the creature, ripping its fur and spilling more dark blood into the churning soil. Again and again she slashed and battered the writhing shape, until it brought that terrible maw around. 

 

With a sickening crunch, it bit into Solange’s right front leg, ripping it entirely off and consuming it. The worm writhed even more fiercely as it chewed, its wounds beginning to heal as the enchanted wood fueled the monster’s growth. Solange struck again, her enormous weapons wrought carnage on the beast, but it fought on. 

Biting and chewing anything it could get its mouth on, it began to wrap its long. sinuous body around her. Entangled in slithering loops of constricting muscle and fur, her limbs groaned in wooden distress. 

On the hilltop, Khan and Luna had bows out, flinging arrow after arrow into the furry nightmare as it wrestled its equally terrifying foe. Their shafts disappeared into the fur causing it to twitch and thrash, but little more. 

Khan took a deep breath, drew his bow slowly and carefully, as a soft warmth spread from his body. A tiny golden glow began at his arrow tip, shining as though reflecting the summer sun. With a gasp he let fly and the gleaming shaft vanished into the behemoth’s fur. He sagged into Luna’s arms with a smile as she caught him.

Luna waved away Tawny and Tallum, who rushed forward as he fell. She laid him on the ground and grabbed up her bow again.

She too began a long slow draw, taking careful aim at the titanic struggle below.

Gary and Shai danced and played their instruments with greater intensity, hurling themselves into the performance as though they were part of the surreal battle occurring down the slope.

 

Solange was nearly lost in the writhing coils of the creature, it had its teeth on one of her forelimbs and was munching up to her shoulder rapidly. She continued to rake and bash with her free arm, while her jagged mandibles gnawed at the creature’s body. 

All four of her legs were entangled, so she began stabbing with their blunt points, ripping large holes in the ground and worm. 

With a final crunch, the worm was into her thorax, chewing and grinding as her body slowed and Solange’s struggles weakened.

Luna released her arrow, it streaked with a shivering whistle through the air, faster than any object of wood feathers and steel should have been able. It vanished into the monster’s fur without effect. 

The furry behemoth began to consume the dying mantis, her beautiful carapace became simple wood as it chewed, while the monster’s wounds began to heal even more quickly. 

 

Luna sagged down to the ground beside Khan, resting her head on his slowly rising and falling chest. Down below, near the midpoint of the beast’s body, where Khan and Luna’s arrows had struck, a swelling mass developed under the creature’s fur.  

While the beast finished its meal, the swollen lump continued to grow, becoming a round mass the size of a small house. With squishy pop it burst, sending blood and less identifiable substances spilling all around.

“We failed kids.” Luna sighed as the creature lost its back half to the spreading contagion of whatever the veterans had inflicted on it. “Ride ahead and tell them to evacuate the town, our spell won’t kill it, not after a meal like that.” She sagged back down onto her sleeping man. “We did our best, nothing can stop that thing now.” 

 

As her eyes drifted closed she sighed. “I’m sorry about your new friend, she did well against it.”

 

“You two rest, we’ll finish it off.” Liam said confidently from above them, as he dropped his cloak over the pair. “It’s our turn gang, let’s show this worm how Ginger Dreadnought puts on a show.”

Luna tried to protest, tried to order them to flee, but they ignored her feeble whispers. Amy and Wilford were joined in the dog cart by the sleeping veterans, watched over by Levin as the band marched to the edge of the slope and vanished.

#

 

“Remember, we delay the beast long enough for everyone to escape. A troop from the front lines is coming, we just need to buy time.” Gilbert Angor was in his late eighties, but still energetic. His troop of city guards, retired Adventurers and a small squad of priests from Craft and Order numbered barely thirty, but you fight with the force you have. 

“Let’s move out before it finishes off those fool greenies.” They marched out in good order, leaving their tents and camp gear behind. “That walking stick was a lucky break, never seen one do that before…” He remarked to his second as they marched. 

“Hard to believe if I didn’t see it meself.” Angus rumbled. The young Craft priest was not huge, but his muscles had muscled themselves into a whole new category, the man looked positively lumpy in his armor. “If any survive we should ask how they tricked it into fighting the worm.”

 

With a groan Gilbert picked up the pace. “If you want an answer we better hurry. They are advancing on it… and playing music?” He shook his grizzled head in sadness. “They are lost, poor fools.”

 Even at a full charge, the troop from flintspire had no chance of reaching the fray, and even less of saving the poor kids. 

They were advancing slowly in a line down the hill a half mile away, strains of loud, martial music audible even from so far away. The monster writhed and turned toward the tiny forms on the hill, intent on consuming them.

Gilbert’s war horn cut through the lengthening shadows, blowing the retreat, in hopes that the fools would flee. Instead he felt a subtle tickle in his bowels as some strange magic began creeping over him. His toes began to tap, somehow making his hips swivel in time. 

Almost unconsciously his horn shifted from the urgent call to retreat, blaring out unfamiliar notes and lines as though he were possessed.

As they ran their boots began to hit in time, not with each other, but with the thundering beat coming from the drummer on the far hillside. Other bugles and war horns began calling from his troop, picking up the same fast and chaotic lines he was playing.

 

As they approached the hideous mess of mud, blood and wood splinters that marked the titanic battle, the warriors from Flintspire could make out the words they were screaming over their bass heavy ‘music’.

 

Listen up here, I'll make it quite clear,

I'm gonna put some boogie in your ear.

 

Shake and bop, don't you stop,

dance like a maniac until you drop.

I don't mind, I don't mind,

 

I can run a razor right up your spine.

What are you waiting for?

What do you think you were created for?

 

The worm was making its furious way uphill towards the children, while the fools kept playing and dancing in its path. Gilbert and his force bogged down in the filth and residue of the giant’s battle, forcing their way through the mess in desperation.

“Flee you fools!” He shouted when he could pull his lips from this warhorn for a moment.

If anything the music got louder and more furious, as did whatever sorcery was influencing himself and his troops, they were bashing weapons against shields and breastplates, and shouting the strange chorus that the kids were screaming.

 

Born to raise hell, born to raise hell!

 

We know how to do it and we do it real well!

 

Born to raise hell, born to raise hell!

 

Go on out and boogie 'cause you never can tell!

 

Gilbert almost stumbled in relief when the creature fully committed to eating the band on the hillside. The kids could run for it, but Flintspire had a chance now.

It seemed to undulate in time to their music as it crawled forward, hypnotically twisting as it climbed at them. The whole force from Flintspire was shouting at the kids to run now, while still slamming their weapons in time to the mad wailing song. 

 

They just kept playing and dancing as though they could not see the monster climbing their way. In desperation, Gilbert picked up his pace, sprinting through the mire trying to reach the ragged tail end of the gruesome creature. The boy with the flute met the warrior's eye as he charged the beast, spear raised to strike. 

The flutist shook his head desperately at Gilbert, as though discouraging his attack. When he was almost in range to lunge at the creature the music changed, breaking his stride and making his breathing and heartbeat lurch awkwardly. He staggered and fell into the filth before he could strike.

Gilbert flailed back to his feet and cleared the offal and blood from his eyes. The children were standing just a few yards away from the monster, still hammering away on their instruments. The creature slowed, its charging rush faltered as its body trembled and shook from within.

“TAKE COVER!” A young man’s voice thundered out across the vale, the same voice that had chanted those lyrics. His volume shook many of the warriors off their feet, as the music stopped. The small force of veterans, townsmen and semi-retired  Adventurers splashed down in the muck without hesitation, as the creature began to swell and moan.

 

After a moment a loud, explosive splat echoed in the vale as gobbets of meat and fur flew high into the cloudless sky, raining down on the survivors.

Gilbert was still staring up at the crazy children when a wad of meat and fur the size of a wine barrel hit his chest, throwing him back into darkness.

#