Dark Heart of the Wood

By: Jack Posted on: January 27, 2006

He paused quietly at the edge of the clearing, carefully scanning the pines on the other side. It had come this way, he knew, the outsider. Folding his heavily-armored forearms across his chest, he leaned against a towering pine and gazed out at the grass before him. He didn't understand many other things about this encounter though. He knew whatever he was tracking was foriegn to his woods, foreign and unkind to nature.

"Jack, have you found it yet?"

Miagorme is a good kid, Jack thought to himself. Just new to the ways of the world. To innocent for such a day as this, he was starting to think.

"No kid, I haven't found it yet. Perhaps you should return to your mother and tell her we are okay. You can catch up later."

Jack let his hand fall to his sword hilt as he suggested the kid return to his mother, Jack's wife. He never felt good about getting the kid into trouble, and he knew that Misty would feel better if Miagorme wasn't chasing danger with him. He also knew that the green scars that covered the armored carapace that was his body, intimidated Miagorme. He stood just under six foot in his horkvali form. A bipedal insectoid creature with an entirely armored body. But Jack was old, a veteran of several wars. Even his natural armor failed occasionally, and many scars covered him. They had healed though, the power of his private grove never failed him. A sign of his personal touch with nature, his love of the woods he now hunted through. He wasn't sure why the scars healed green, when the rest of his body was a deep redish-brown. But then he didn't much mind either.

"I can't leave you alone. You don't even know what it is yet. And you know just about everything that travels these lands. What if its dangerous? You might need help." Mia was fiddling with his hunting spear, avoiding eye contact. Yet he was speaking up.

"You're right. You might as well know, when we left to see what had entered the woods this morning, I had a small idea of what we hunted. I no longer do, and that doesn't often happen. I fear this may be something that I'll need help with. I can't be worrying about you at the same time." He offered a smile to the kid, he knew Mia wouldn't like what he was saying, "I need you to return to your mother, and then find Landon for me. I'm going to need his help. Soon I think, I have an idea of where it's heading."

Miagorme audiably sighed, the orange fur that covered his body rippled in irritation. "Okay Jack, I'll go get Landon. But if we are going to find you again in time, I need to know where to bring him."

Jack considered him for a moment, considering his answer. Miagorme was near full grown. A lithe Rajamala, agile as the cat he appeared to be. So frail looking, yet he had known many Rajamala in his lifetime, and he knew them to be a proud and strong race. His mother had raised him under the teachings of a Sentinel. A band of woodland warriors who actively defended nature when it couldn't defend itself. He was getting better with his tracking, and was able to call several creatures to his aide now. A small smile played across Jack's features for a moment as he realized how proud he was becoming of this kid. "I don't believe you know the place, but Landon will. Tell him I'll be at the Dark Heart of the Woods. Tell him.....tell him darkness walks."

Turning back to the clearing, Jack considered his past. There was a time, what seemed like a lifetime ago, when he fought darkness. His left hand crept up to finger a scar just below his heart. A wicked thing that crossed from the center of his torso deep under his right arm. Darkness never fought cleanly.

"You expect a fight? I should come with you then. You'll need my axe and my spear."

"Go get Landon."

"But I should come......"

Ignoring Miagorme, Jack kneeled in the soft carpet of needles that formed this forest's floor. Placing his forehead to the ground, he opened his mind and reached out, seeking. Small green vines begun to peek up through the ground, pushing aside rocks and dead wood. Slowly they wrapped themselves around Jack's feet. He pushed himself up, hands and feet on the ground as more and more vines begin to appear around him. Allowing several to wind around his fingers, he stood the rest of the way up, pulling the vines along with him. As his bond with the plants grew stronger, so did they. With snake-like elegance they whirled up out of the ground and circled around Jack, lifting him clear of the forest floor as they saught to cover him from head to toe. Several seconds after summoning them forth, Jack was covered with writhing vines as thick as his wrist. As the ritual came to an end, a light green glow begin to surround him.

"Viridian"

The glow suddenly swirled in a vortex around him, and then was pulled into his being. The vines released themselves from the earth, and fused with his body. They became a part of him, a carapace of nature. A sign of his extreme bond with the wild, and his power over magiks. Turning his glowing, green eyes back to Miagorme he stated once more.

"Go get Landon."

"Fine, but if you die Mom will ground me forever. And I don't want that, so you better wait for us."

That would have brought a smile to Jack's lips, if he had any. Instead a deep rumble of a laugh came forth. Knowning Misty as he did, he wouldn't put it past her to ground Mia and try to punish him even in death. His laugh died off, as he turned again to the matter at hand. He loved his wife dearly, and had every intention of returning to her. But not until he had removed the threat to the woods he loved, the woods his family protected.

"Hurry Mia."

A bright flash turned his head, as Miagorme morphed into a small wyvern, and took to the air. With a flap of his wings, he disappeared over the trees. A maverlous thing, Jack thought, to be in touch with the creatures of the wild to such a point as to change into them. But he prefered his lifestyle. The Sentinels had made themselves a part of the forest by becoming a part of the wildlife. He however, was a creature of magik. Both nature, and elemental. Leaning down, he let the vines of his hands gently probe the ground until he found water. Using the moisture as a focus, he chanted softly and summoned forth a water elemental. Waist high, it seemed nothing so much as a living puddle. The only thing that gave it the look of intelligence, were the sapphire eyes that floated inside of it.

"I'm going to need our help today. Darkness is about."

It nodded its acceptance, and swayed next to him, waiting for the next command. Jack turned his head to the sky, and gave a loud whistle. The singular, piercing cry of an eagle. Almost instantly, a rush of warm air announced the entrance of a hellkite. An impressive thing, a hellkite. A dragon made up entirely of dragonfire could shake even the strongest of adventurers when first seen. But this was Jack's companion and friend.

"Hello Mandarb. The shadow walks again, do you feel like a hunt?"

Mandarb snorted amusement, "When have I ever let you hunt alone? You'd get yourself hurt. Let us find this shadow of yours."

Green eyes sparkling, he turned and walked into the clearing. Landon and Miagorme may be Sentinels. Sworn defenders of the woods. But Jack was a Sylvan. A guardian of nature and magik. And able to call the form of Viridian to himself. Jack was a walking representitive of the woods.

----

Sending Mandarb to see what he could find from the skys, Jack moved foward through the clearing. He had been born in the woods, and had spent a great deal of his life in them. Tracking was second nature to him, yet this creature left very little to follow. An occasional twig snapped here, a rock moved there. Before it had seemed almost impossible, but with his viridian form came a closer bond with nature.

Kneeling down in the tall grass, he placed the writhing vines that made up his hands onto the ground. Gently probing the grass itself, he quickly noticed the outline of a footprint. It was large, as big as a large man or even perhaps a troll. Yet it carried no weight it seemed. This was why he had had such a hard time picking up prints. There were no signs of life, but rather signs of life removed. Each that was on the grass seemed to have sucked a little life from the plant as it passed.

Sitting back on his heels, Jack considered this new fact. Certainly not a friend of nature, to be so thoughtlessly stealing life from any plant it touched. Big, yet apparently not heavy. A wraith perhaps? No, wraiths stole life from those with blood. He had no idea what this was, and that both alarmed and interested him intensely. Looking up, he noticed Mandarb appeared to be circling something past the clearing. Long past time he found out what was going on.

Motioning to his waterweird, he climbed to his feet and finished crossing the clearing. As he entered the towering pines, Jack eased the katana at his side with his right hand. Without really thinking about it, he eased the vines away from the hilt, and pulled it a small way out of the scabbard before letting it slide back in. His left reached through the vines on his back, and pulled out large mithril shield bearing his personal arms, a large blue phoenix. Something in the woods spoke of an intruder. The creatures had gone silent, an unnatural silence had taken the trees in this area. Except.....for a buzzing sound off to the right.

Green eyes sparkling, he moved quickly to intercept the sound. He knew that noise well and knew exaclty what to do. Moving swiftly through the woods, the buzzing got louder and louder until he passed around one tree and saw the source. A huge swarm of bees was weaving between the trees towards him.

The cloud was almost as large as he himself was, a big colony lived nearby. They overwhelmed him quickly, covering his entire body with a buzzing drum that vibrated down into his carapace. They were not here for him though, and he knew it. After inspecting him throughly they backed up and floated nearby. With a motion of his arm Jack indicated they should follow, and then started again towards where Mandarb circled.

This time, with a swarm of bees in tow as well. It became quickly apparent to Jack that he was right about where this thing was headed. The trees starting getting blacker and more gnarled as he moved on. The canopy huddled and cut out the light, fewer and fewer game trails were apparent. Nature was a force of many sides, and this was one of the darker ones.

He was close to what many often refered to as, the Dark Heart of the Woods. A dark and twisted grove of trees that most animals simply refused to enter. Insects too for that matter but glancing over his shoulder he noticed the swarm was still with him. Jack always felt good when a hive swarm was helping him, but he wondered if this time it was his affinity with insects that made them enter this accursed wood. Or if perhaps it was the need to remove this unnatural presense so close to their queen.

----

...to be continued