Laurel’s POV

The two-- humans?--that Maximus called into the courtyard clumsily walked into the sunlight. Their skin resembled someone already on their deathbed. Everything my senses were telling me is the last thing these people should be doing is moving.

“Stacy!” a sharp cry from near my feet pulled me out of my stupor. “What did you do to my sister?!”

“Do you like it?” Maximus said with a disgusting smile. “I like her much better this way. No more complaining about the food or asking to get out. Now she does not even need to rest and never feels pain. I really think this is a grand improvement.”

“Turn her back. Return my sister to me!” Michael cried from the ground, now genuinely struggling against the vines that bound him. 

“No. I don't think that I will be doing that,”  Maximus lazily replied. “Go get that blue haired lady over there.” At Maximus’s words the two started to stumble their way towards Tide. I saw Tide recoil at even the thought of them getting nearer. She was equally as sickened by their nature as I was. 

“Please. Let me go to her. I need to help her.” From the ground, Michael was looking at me with pleading eyes. Tear streaks were evident on the side of his face. There was no way I could keep holding him back. He needed to reach out to her. 

The vines wiggled off of him as wrestled his way to freedom. Michael did not go for his sword, still lying on the ground after his bout with Leafia, but dashed past all of us. Crashing over the few brambles that still stood in the no man’s land between the two sides, he rushed over to his sister. While Michael was causing an effective distraction, I ripped up more cobbles and flung them one after another at Maximus. He was not as unprepared for the assault as I hoped but looking on the bright side I was also providing cover for Michael. Part of the problem might have been that I could not pull my attention away from the wrongness of these two humans.

“Stacy,” he cried, reaching her side. “I am sorry that I was not strong enough to protect you.” Stacy did not react. Michael seemed to grow more desperate. He glanced at the shambling male figure next to his sister. Neither of them so much as blinked at his presence. Michael looked shaken by the pair of them completely ignoring him. I wondered if he might know the male figure. Michael looked completely disgusted by what the two had become. But he steeled his courage and tried again. “Stacy? Can you hear me? I’m right here.” I kept up the barrage of cobbles crashing on Maximus’s barrier. But one of them slipped a bit too far to the side. Fragments of cobble shattered near the slow moving trio. Michael took the hits with a small cry as he tried to block Stacy from being hit. But even while being hit by shards of rock there were no reactions from her and the male.

It hurt seeing Michael sacrifice his own body for her while she took no notice. But there was no frustration in his eyes. It was clear to me that everything he did was for his sister. But that was taken from him as she now stood before him clearly not the same person that she used to be. The only way I could describe it was that she had been turned into some kind of a monster. She did not respond, but just continued on her march to Tide. 

Thankfully, Tide was still maintaining the bubble of water that was protecting Faun from the archers above. Tide however did not seem nervous about the grotesque duo getting even closer. Disgusted, yes. Afraid, no. She had moved to the inside of the bubble and was now in a hushed conversation with Faun.

“Stacy, I know you are mad but please. I beg of you to forgive me.” Michael’s voice sounded choked. Still she did not show any sign of noticing his presence. A chuckle escaped Maximus. He clearly found something amusing about the siblings’ dialog… or monolog... but Michael was not going to give up yet. “Stacy, please listen to me,” he said, grabbing onto her arm. “Let's get out of this place. We can find a farm in the country and go back to the way things were before.”

I found myself staring at the siblings. The tossing of stones paused for a moment as I was caught up in the drama. Stacy paused and looked at Michael with her dim eyes. Was there some sort of recognition in those eyes? 

THUD.

Stacy’s free arm crashed into Michael's side sending him tumbling across the stone floor. Gales of mirth were now echoing around the yard and Maximus was nearly doubled over. 

Twang. An arrow left Istan’s bow and grazed Maximus’s arm. Instantly the peals of laughter died with a cry of pain. Clearly he had not been able to maintain his shield in his unjustified levity. 

Seeing that Maximus’s guard was down the others quickly loosed their arrows while I found another rock. Sadly Maximus was able to recover quickly, causing the arrows to fall short as my rock did not make it there before them. 

Another twang came from above drawing my eyes up to see arrows flying down on us from the ramparts. Most of the archers were too far away and their arrows drifted off course but a few were true. A vision flashed in my head of an arrow piercing Leafia’s chest terrified me. I could not let that happen. As quickly as I could I jumped in front of Leafia with my arm out in front of Istan. 

“Forest Mother!” Istan cried, I felt his hand try to push my arm out of the way. But I did not budge. A sharp impact left a sting in my hand while the other arrow sank into the bark around my waist. 

I looked at my hand in surprise. I saw a small scratch with a faint trail of sap starting to appear.

“Laurel, why did you do that?” Leafia cried, bending down to look at the arrow embedded near my waist. 

“I could not let you take an arrow for me.” I smiled down on her. 

“IDIOTS, I TOLD YOU NOT TO HARM THE DRYAD. I NEED HER ALIVE!” Maximus roared, hurtling black balls filled with his twisted magic up at the archers on the roof. The first archer did not react in time. Screams of pain could be heard as his body decayed starting from the point where he was hit. The other archers quickly fled to escape from Maximus. I was fairly sure I heard one of them retching as his companion’s screams faded to silence.

“What do we do now? We need to get you out of here. He is coming for you and you can’t fight like this,” Leafia said, still panicking. I raised an eyebrow again looking at the small scratch on my hand from the arrow. Yes, this is the first time a human has managed to draw my blood. But if this was not a superficial flesh wound I did not know what was. I then looked at Leafia again to see that she was not even looking at my hand but the arrow caught in my bark covering.

This was not even a flesh wound. “I am not leaving without my friends,” I said firmly. I grabbed the shaft of the arrow and pried it free. There was a tearing noise as it pulled several sheets of bark with it. But my skin underneath was unharmed.

“Don’t do that, you will make the bleeding worse!” Leafia cried out, firmly putting her hand over my ‘wound’ to slow down the supposed bleeding. 

She really did care for me. A warm feeling filled my heart. “Leafy, calm down. It did not even break the skin.” I gently pulled my hand away so she could see the slightly green flesh. She resisted but that was nothing to me. 

She looked in fear at my hips fearing what she might see. She blinked and then blinked again, just looking at my exposed hip. The pallor that had overcome her at the thought of my injury faded as she began to flush. It was cute but was now really the time to be embarrassed about putting your hand on my hip? We were in the middle of a fight. Trying to steer her focus back to the matters at hand I said, “One good thing did come out of this. The archers are gone.” Leafy turned back to face Maximus and picked up her bow with determination etched on her features. 

Not wanting to stall her momentum I hurled another stone at Maximus. It was then that I spared a second look at my hand. I had never gotten a cut before. The sting was already fading as the sap was starting to scab over. I did not think mortals had yet formed a means to harm me directly. Was I too far from the vast power of my forest?

Katuwarrior

Sorry for the delay