Chapter 6: Corrupted NatureDuring their ride on the sled both Cil and Theo started to shower Ivy with questions about her home world which she tries to answer to the best of her knowledge, “I’m sorry that I can’t expand on that. I don’t fully understand myself how that works exactly, I just use it.”

  “Oh, don’t be. I use many types of potions and I don’t know how to make most of them. I understand your sentiment,” Theo says in giddy excitement, “I understand that without the ability to use magic people need to get creative to achieve their goals. But still… the power to connect with anyone around the world with a handheld device that fits in a pocket? Marvelous!”

  “Theo, let her breath for once. Ivy, I hope you know that you don’t have to answer every question we ask, there’s no need for you to get uncomfortable,” Cil says, concerned about their new companion.

  “I’m fine, I swear. No one was really interested in my life before so it’s a nice change of pace to be able to talk about myself,” Ivy answers with a content smile on her face.

  “See? You heard her, you worrywart. She likes the attention. It’s fine,” Theo excims loudly, which causes Ivy’s face to heat up and her ears to turn red, “But what isn’t fine is it’s getting dusky already. We should look for a pce to make camp.”

  “Look there, a small clearing right by the path, perfect,” Cil shouts.

  Theo slows down the horses and guides the sled off the path into the clearing. As soon as the sled stops everyone gets off and starts to prepare to make camp. Cil and ivy start with setting up the tents and her hammock while Theo goes to find suitable firewood.

  “Do we go hunting again,” Ivy asks.

  “No we have enough. With the leftover stew and the rest of the rations we brought we will be able to comfortably reach the fort. The route through the forest is a great shortcut. We couldn’t use that path because we had to search all the vilges south of the forest to find you. We should reach the fort tomorrow about in the middle of the day,” Cil expins while tying down the st tent pole.

  “Why don’t you remove your armor to work, that looks very heavy,” Ivy wonders out loud.

  “I’ve been surprised one to many times before, I almost feel naked when I’m not armored up. I didn’t wear my armor when we found you because we were still close to the vilge and the long hike would have been anything but comfortable. I normally remove it right before bed,” Cil answers while nervously scratching the back of her head.

  “Ivy, could you come here please? I’m ready to show you the first steps with magic.” Theo calls over excitedly from the firepce.

  “Now go, he seems very excited. Don’t be afraid if it doesn’t work. Like with any training learning magic takes time. And trust me, he’ll be happy either way, just because he can talk to someone about magic,” Cil says and sends her away with a pat on her shoulder.

  When Ivy reaches Theo she finds him squatting in front of circle that he cleaned of snow surrounded by rge stones with sticks in various sizes in the middle arranged in a cone.

  “The goal of this lesson will be for you to light the campfire by magic” Theo expins, clearly happy with this situation.

  Ivy squats down beside him and asks, “So how does this work? Do I say some words and things just happen?”

  “No. Words are technically not essential to magic they just help to guide the energy towards their intended target. The words itself carry no power but they do help with concentration. What I want you to do now is to concentrate on lighting the fire, Say something like ‘Fire’ or ‘Ignite’ to guide the energy, pull from the memory of the hunt and try to repeat that sensation but focus on the fire. Can you try that?” Theo instructs.

  Ivy just nods. She closes her eyes and repeats the slow breathing exercises, the familiar feeling of calmness returns. She opens her eyes and concentrates at the sticks arranged in front of her. She pictures the burning campfire in her mind and with an enthusiastic “Ignite” she tries to let her energy loose.

  … But nothing happens. She tries again and again, tries different words, getting more and more frustrated until Theo finally stops her.

  “Patience, patience Ivy, frustration will get you nowhere. I know it’s easier said than done but you need to empty your mind, think of nothing else but lighting that fire. Visualize your mana reserve in your head, like a well of energy, then fill imaginary bucket at this well and pour it over the logs with the intent of lighting them abze,” he Instructs.

  “What now? You should have lead with that, I never saw any energy in my mind before. I didn’t visualize anything during the hunt, everything just… kinda happened,” Ivy replies.

  “Sit down with me, make yourself comfortable. Let’s try some meditation first,” Theo instructs, his enthusiasm unaffected by the ck of success of is new student.

  “Close your eyes, take some deep breaths and focus your mind inwards and try to visualize your energy reservoir” he continues.

  Ivy tries her best to sit down and quietly meditate but her recent transformation and her experiences the st few days made her antsy and cause her to fidget around restlessly. She does her best to picture her magical energy in front of her mind’s eye and…

  “Wait… I see something,” she calls out.

  But it’s gone as quickly as it came. Just a fsh ow white chased away by Ivy’s loudly grumbling stomach.

  “Ha, I think that concludes our lesson for today. Once you truly find your source you can try this on your own with candles and sticks when you are in a safe environment but for now it is enough. Forcing impossible results will only destroy your interest in magic.” Theo determines.

  Theo lights the fire with a quick gesture of his hands to Ivy’s dismay, but her mood lightens immediately as she sees Cil walking over with the pot of cold stew in her hands.

  They all wait in anticipation for the stew to heat up. Ivy passes the time by trying to magically light a small twig on fire while the other two idly chat.

  “You know what the first thing I’m going to do is once we get to the fort? Taking a hot bath! Sleeping in nature is nice and all but all the little twigs, leaves and pine needles get stuck in my fur, it would be nice to brush all that dirt out. How about you Ivy?” Cil remarks.

  “Mhm,” Ivy pays little attention to the other two because she is concentrated on the stick that refuses to burn.

  “Oh yes, a bath! And more important, sleeping in an actual bed, not just a bedroll. My back is killing me,” Theo compins loudly.

  A loud rustling in the distance interrupts their thoughts and suddenly an eerie silence falls over the camp that puts everyone on edge.

  “Ivy, get the bow. Now!” Cil whispers while she draws her longsword, her hackles raised in trepidation.

  Ivy nods and sneaks over to the sled, her tail fluffs up and twitches around uncontrolbly. As she unpacks and strings her bow she notices that the horses, which Theo leashed to a nearby tree are also nervous. They stomp around and whiny with their eyes wide open in fear.

  In the same moment as she steps away a rge tree trunk comes flying towards them, unched like a javelin. It tumbles through the camp, tearing down everything in its path. It finally stops right where Ivy was standing, crushing the sled beneath it. The horses tear the rope that ties them to the tree and scatter in the forest.

  “Ivy are you alright” Cil cries over

  “Yeah, nothing hit me but the horses got away. How about you?” Ivy answers while running towards her companions.

  “We are fine. The tree knocked down the tents and spilled the stew but we are unscathed.” Theo responds.

  As Ivy joins them Cil holds her by the shoulders and examines her over for injuries and excims, “I’m gd you’re okay,” and hugs her tightly.

  “What was this?” Ivy asks while returning the hug.

  “That’s not cut, that tree was broken off. Whatever unched that tree is some sort of monster, a rge one at that” Theo theorizes.

  The group flinches as they hear loud and slow drumming sound, like the heavy steps of something gigantic.

  “Ivy, Theo, hide behind some trees and prepare for whatever comes from the forest. I’ll wait here,” Cil Instructs.

  Ivy pleads, “You can’t -”

  “GO!” Cil interrupts.

  As they scurry away into the safety of the trees they can make out a rge humanoid shape, about 10 feet in height, closing in on them. As the being enters the clearing they can finally see it in detail.

  The body and limbs seem to be made from wood, the hands and feet resemble something close to tree stumps with long and windy roots as fingers and toes. The head looks like a giant deer skull adorned with enormous, ghostly white antlers. Bck ichor pours from its body, permeating the clearing with a foul odor. To Ivy it smells like a mix of burning pstics and hot electronics. She looks to Theo for guidance. With a shaky breath he utters a single word.

  “Leshy”

  The Leshy continues to approach Cil, who stands in the open. Everyone hears a deep, gargly voice speaking inside their heads, “Intruders.” Ivy refuses to stand still and wait, so she draws her bow and shoots an arrow toward the monster to distract the Leshy from Cil.

  “Ivy, wait!” Theo whispers and reaches out to stop her, but she evades him and runs out into the clearing while letting more arrows loose.

  The Leshy changes his direction and bounds in long strides towards Ivy. She continues to pelter the monster with arrows put it doesn’t seem to slow it down. As she reaches again into her quiver she notices that she ran out of arrows. At the same time the Leshy reaches her and swings one of his tree trunk shaped arms at her, flinging her against a tree where she slumps down unconscious.

  With a loud war cry an enraged Cil approaches the monster from behind but she doesn’t fare much better. The strike with her longsword does little to no damage and with a quick turn of its body the Leshy Swings at her, throwing her several feet back. Protected by her armor Cil manages to stand up again and runs to help Ivy.

  Spurred on by the tragedy unfolding in front of him Theo’s gaze fixes the monster with murderous intent, he starts to mumble and a burst of fire shoots out of his palm, hitting the Leshy in the back.

  A pained scream echoes through the clearing as the monster catches fire. It turns around to look for the attacker but only sees Cil and Ivy. Meanwhile Cil has managed to shake Ivy awake and helps her up. Ivy grabs her bow and “Fuck” it must have broken into several pieces as the Leshy hit her. They both run towards Theo but Ivy, who is still badly hurt stumbles and falls down.

  Ivy, now helplessly lying on the ground draws her hunting knife as a st resort. The Leshy approaches her menacingly and winds up for another swing. Seeing this, Ivy hunkers down, covering her head with her hands and braces for the inevitable impact. She hears a loud swoosh but feels no impact.

  She opens her eyes and looks around, suddenly disoriented and slightly woozy but she holds herself together. She finds herself now behind the monster and sees thin wisps of bck smoke dissolving into the air at her previous location. Shaking heavily from a mix of pain and adrenaline she decides to seize the opportunity and runs towards the Leshy with renewed vigor, knife in hand.

  As she climbs onto the back of the monster she notices that Theo’s previous attack has opened up several rge, smoldering wounds that are pouring more of the disgusting bck Ichor. >Nice, obvious weak spots<

  She turns the hunting knife around in her hand and stabs down, grabbing the knife with both hands. She hits the monster several times, causing it to wail in pain and fil around like a rodeo bull. With the knife embedded into the Leshy’s body In between the spine and the right shoulder bde, or at least where they should be she manages to steer the beast around the clearing.

  Looking over the monsters shoulders she sees Cil and Theo waiving their arms around, directing her to move towards them. She sees Theo unching another burst of fire towards the monster, so she hides behind the Leshy’s shoulders. She holds tight and manages to stay on the beast during the Impact. She continues to guide the monster towards her companions.

  Ivy sees Cil running towards her with her longsword raised. Cil’s powerful strikes pnts her Longsword to the hilt into the Leshy’s smoldering chest. The beast buckles forward and falls limply to the ground, causing ivy to tumble down unceremoniously.

  “Is it… dead?” Ivy asks cautiously.

  “I… I sure hope so,” Cil answers in between bored breaths. Several ptes hang loosely off of her armor because several rivets got dislodged and the heavy textile of her brigandine ripped in multiple pces.

  “Not being able to light a single twig on fire but teleportation is on the table, do you always start at the deep end?” Theo says ughing while healing Ivy’s wounds while she is still on the ground.

  Ivy ughs at this accusation, “Yea I noticed that already. Whenever I try something new I always start accidentally with the more difficult stuff.”

  “How was it, did you try to visualize anything?” Theo asks.

  “No, it was purely on instinct. I wasn’t even aware I did anything until I was behind that monster,” Ivy replies.

  “Astonishing… I sure hope you’ll learn how to consciously use magic, if not you and anyone around you would be in grave danger.” Theo puzzles.

  Out of nowhere the hear an old raspy voice echo through the clearing, “Thank you for freeing me”

  “I think that settles that,” he adds with a chuckle.

  “What even was that?” Ivy asks as she walks over to inspect the corpse

  “Theo, would you do the honors”

  “Yes of course. This was a Leshy, also known as a shepherd of the forest. They are spirits, very rare to find. They usually live deeper in the forest and are highly territorial, but this one was different. The foul smell and the ichor is highly unusual, they normally smell like the forest they live in. This one seems to have been corrupted by some vile form of magic and was gd to be killed. Normally they conjure thorny vines from the ground to ensnare their opponents or they summon several ravens or wolves to aid them in battle, curious that this one didn’t use magic. I need to write this down, this needs to be reported to the Lodge,” Theo expins

  They jump back as the copse starts to shake suddenly and watch as it decomposes rapidly, as if in time-pse. The only things that are left are the Leshy’s skull with the antlers, a small wooden disc with a glowing piece of amber in the center, like an amulet, a long staff with a rger piece of amber at the top and a shorter stick bent in a C-shape with the ends almost touching.

  “Gifts for my saviors,” they hear the same voice as before speak.

  Bravely Cil reaches out the first, picking up the small amulet around the edge without touching the amber and asks,” What do you think this is?”

  Theo holds his hand over the amulet and concentrates. “I sense a strong source of healing magic and nothing else. This is safe to use”

  As soon as Cil touches the center a cooling wave of energy passes over her, invigorating and healing her body. After that feeling passed the glow of the amber dissipates.

  “Is this only a one time use item?” Cil asks her brother.

  “No, I don’t think so. It probably just takes some time to recharge” He answers while picking up the staff, “Finally, a nice focus. This is perfect.”

  “And what am I supposed to do with this bent stick?” Ivy asks, disappointed in her gift.

  “Hey, I’ve seen something simir. The dwarves use shorter, curved bows that shoot as hard, depending on the quality sometimes even harder than our long war bows. Unstrung they look comparable to what you have, even though theirs are made from the horns of mountain goats. Once we get back to the fort you should visit the bowyer, maybe he can help you out,” Cil expins

  “We should take stock of what is still usable, but first I need a torch. It’s really getting hard to see for me. Cil walks to the remains of the sled and grabs a few torches from a bag and hands one of them to Theo, who immediately ignites them with a quick spark of magic. They comb through their camp and look for anything that still is intact and usable.

  “The tents and the sled are a lost cause and with the rest of the materials and Ivy’s hammock we only have enough to make two tents. The only positive thing is that we still have enough rations to get back to the fort” Theo summarizes.

  “Maybe Ivy and I can share a tent. I mean if you are interested.” Cil proposes with a fleeting hope in her voice.

  “I’d love to,” Ivy answers and embraces Cil, resting her head on the lupine woman’s shoulders. With her head against Cil’s body Ivy can clearly hear her companion’s heartrate quicken.