Talithi's Story 1

There were strangers in the forest. Though they treaded softly, the whole forest was aflame with news of their arrival. It had been a long time since a stranger had set foot inside, much less a group of them. Though many animals scurried their way, to make sure that they didn’t cause any harm to their homes or families, I stayed where I was, leaning up against a tree, pondering. I felt no urgency in going to them, though the last person I saw was a good seven years ago, and he was a crazy old man who either finally died, or wandered back out. Before that, there was only my mother in my memory. Anyways, I had already sent my brother Aiken to investigate. Aiken would be able to see them and they wouldn’t see him. Best to keep it that way.

The forest was full of horrible monsters if you didn’t know what you were doing, which apparently these people didn’t, since their current path will take them to the deadly sarkus flower. The plant may seem absolutely harmless, looking like an innocent large flower, but it emits a poisonous gas that traps those that are unwary of its signs. The gas is invisible, but it gives off a distinct smell in the air. If the gas is inhaled to a certain degree, the victim falls into a dreamlike trance, not noticing the vine-like arm that wraps around their body and pulls them slowly towards the carnivorous teeth of the flower.

All sorts of creatures like the sarkus appeared in the forest after the sickness had come. The sickness came about twelve years ago and had killed almost all of the forest’s population. Those who had survived were scarred in some way, though even those are fewer now. The sickness had come and went, all in a matter of a year, but it was a terrible year.

I think you’ll want to see this for yourself… The thought entered my mind, reminding me of the business at hand. A small smile flashed on my lips and was gone as fast as it had come. Aiken wouldn’t give me any more details, but I could guess that the strangers had fallen into the hands of the sarkus and I might think of giving them some aid. I rose to my feet with the help of my staff and gathered myself into a mile eating jog through the wood, easily clearing any trunk in my path or limb that tried to swipe me in the face. Which some did try. Some of the forest trees were alive and were not all that merciful on a stranger who invaded on what they believed to be their territory.

It didn’t take me long to get there, I knew all of the paths of the forest, so when I got close, I slowed down to a walk until I came abreast with Aiken, still hidden from the stranger’s view, behind the trees. By the sounds of it, the travelers had indeed run into the sarkus, though only one had succumbed to the gas in the air. Shall I help them, my brother?

I could almost hear the laughter in Aiken’s voice, I am curious to how much longer they might hold out… I smiled and found a good grip on my staff. As I walked towards the battle, Aiken filled me in on what I had missed out on.

An hour earlier, one of their number had been stung by the ditte, which is a poisonous insect whose venom is secreted in its bite and would kill the victim in about 24 hours. The victim currently was too weak to join in the battle, in fact, was so out of it, he did not even know that they were being attacked. I made my way over to him first, reaching into my bag of remedies. He was lying underneath a large oak tree, shaded from the sun, hardly conscious at all. He mumbled under his breath as if he was in a dream. I think I caught the word “Shia,” but I didn’t know what it could possibly mean.

My patient was insanely hot and his breath was shallow. He appeared to be in the later stages of the poison rather than the earlier. They were probably attacked by more than one ditte. A lita leaf should slow down the poison spreading in his body and some varu pollen will reverse the poisons course. Years of living by myself had taught me many of the secrets of the planets in the forest. I quickly ground the lita leafs into flakes in my rounded bowl before mixing it with the tiniest bit of water from my canteen. The leaf dissolved almost instantly into a thin liquid. Little by little, I added varu pollen. If I gave him too much pollen in proportion to the lita leaf, it could very well kill him as much as save him. I sprinkled a pinch of pollen then mixed it in with my fingers, waiting to feel the perfect thickness that would signify the remedy being complete.
The man thrashed with his arms flying, nearly knocking the bowl out of my hands. I muttered under my breath and felt the comforting presence of Aiken. The man stopped moving at all, due to the heavy weight of the wolf bearing him down and keeping his arms at his sides. All he could do now was groan in agony.

The concoction was perfect, runny enough to go down his throat without any problem, but also thick. I leaned the man’s head back and forced his mouth open with my hands. Deftly, one hand poured the remedy into his mouth while the other rubbed his throat to encourage swallowing. It would do him no good if it never got into his system. After it was all completely gone, I moved back to find how the others fared.

The sounds of battle still reached my ears, just as fierce as before, though seemingly weaker. The sarkus still had its grip wrapped around one of the strangers while the other muttered under his breath the spells of a wizard. I smiled to myself, there was only one element of magic that could touch sarkus and it was amazingly enough considering it was a plant, water. I wouldn’t have even thought of the possibility, if I hadn’t witnessed one pulling itself back into the ground on a rainy day, and later experimented with pouring water on it unsuspecting. Such a simple thing to defeat such a dangerous plant.

I walked over to the defenseless traveler, still mesmerized and being pulled to the sarkus and sprinkled a few drops of water on the tongue that kept her tight. The tongue immediately loosened and snatched back to its owner. Without the support, she fell to the ground, her mind still not in focus due to the poison she had taken in. I grabbed her by the arms and hoisted her into the air, moving her into safety. She wasn’t very heavy, in fact, she was quite light. Her long hair of braid dragged on the ground, but she didn’t resist my efforts, which helped. Once I had moved her to safety, beyond the reach of the sarkus, I set her down on some leaves that padded the forest floor.

The poison could last for several hours, and I wasn’t about ready to wait around for her to come to on her own, so I pulled out my strong salts and held it under her nose, letting her breathe them in and clear up her mind. I could almost see the salts working their magic, going up through the nose and into the system, acting as a neutralizer for any poison that it met up with.
The upper half of her body flew up in a gasp and she breathed hard for air. If I had been a second slower in moving my hand from under her nose she would have hit me. Slow, heavy footsteps came to a halt to my side and I could almost imagine an old, wrinkled face frown down on me, as if wondering my existence. I bit back a smile, and moved back to sit back, putting all of my weight onto my toes, slightly rocking forwards and backwards. Aiken came to my other side, and I put a comforting hand on his back. His lip was curled up in a snarl as if to warn them off from coming any closer.

I kept my mouth closed, waiting for one of them to start speaking first. But it seemed as if the silence would go on for an eternity before they found their voice. I could feel their stares on me, inspecting every inch as if it would give a better hint as to who it was that saved their lives. My face remained stone, I wasn’t going to let any emotions show.

“So nice of you to join us, Talithi,” a deep male voice said to my right. It took all of my self control not let my surprise show in my body or face. How did he know my name? The last person I saw in the forest was about 7 years ago and he was a crazy old man. The only other was my mom, and as far as I knew, no one knew we were here.

“You’re lost,” I said slowly moving a couple strands of long brown hair out of my face, tasting the words on my lips. It had been a while since I had used my mouth to speak the common language. Many years, in fact. “Maybe, maybe,” came the same voice, with a hint of mystery. It was impossible to tell whether he was admitting to it, or whether he was saying that they knew where they had been going the whole time. “The forest has changed much. More than I had imagined it would. New creatures roam and many homes of old creatures lay vacant as if for many years.”

I remained emotionless as he continued to make his observations known. He had definitely been here before, though I would not know when except that it would have to be before…when the trees had still been alive with birds singing their joyous songs, instead of the few that still roosted here. The forest floor had been full of tracks of deer, bears, and wolves. Now only Aiken’s are seen, along with the terrible new creatures and the few small creatures.

We have more visitors. I stood up, fixing my grip on my staff. How many visitors would the forest see before the end of the day? Using Aiken’s eyes, I swung my body around and thrust the end of the staff into the stomach of a unsuspecting thing. That was all that I could tell of it. My nose said that it wasn’t a humanoid in any way, but not an animal either. Almost like a mix of both. A bad mix of both.

Two more replaced the one that I took down. They were not as easily taken care of. They had their daggers out and ready, slashing at me every chance that they got. But I was too fast for them. I had not survived in the forest with the aid of Aiken alone. There had been many times that I had been alone with Aiken several miles away when I’ve had to fight my way out of something I shouldn’t have run into the first place. Giant birds with dagger sharp teeth and packs of small cats that breathed fire and attacked in groups were common and dangerous enemies. Both were fast opponents and I had to match them speed for speed, or better, or else I wouldn’t deserve to live.

The female in the group was fighting her own enemies also, though she didn’t move with the grace that she might have usually portrayed. The wizard again was muttering under his breath and his own magical staff whirred in the air to keep the things back from touching him.

Just as the last thing hit the ground from a blow I had distributed to its head, the battle was done. The elf was leaning down, breathing heavily from the exertion done to her body, but neither I nor the wizard showed any sign of fatigue. I knelt on the ground beside one of the things and fingered their clothing. It was scaly like the hide of a snake. It had sharp claws at the end of its fingers and razor teeth to go with them. The nose was just two slits on its face, like a snake. Suddenly, the whole body went up in flame, until there were just ashes on the ground. All of the things had gone up in smoke. Just the ashes and the faint smell of oil were left.

“What were those?” I asked a little forcefully. More monsters to take over my once beloved forest; another foe to fight.

“I believe they are called anichols. It has only been recently that they have begun to terrorize my own land, Cania. We do not know of their origin, though it seems as if they have followed us here.” It was the wizard again.

“Where are you going?”

A heavy silence answered my question. They were waiting for their leader to answer my inquiry. Did they even know or where they following their alpha blindly into the darkness, trusting solely on his judgment? Even wolves knew that this was a foolish thing to do.

“We thank you for your help, but I do believe that we should continue on your way.” This one came from a female with her voice cold; though full of grace of the animals and the sway of the trees. She was most definitely a full blood elf and proud of her heritage and undoubtedly ashamed that she had fallen to the pull of the sarkus. She apparently did not relish the idea of me staying any longer in the group. I laughed a little bitterly. A small part of me did want to stay with them, find out about the world outside the forest, but the other larger part told me to stay far away from them and their intrigues. Nothing good could come from it.

I nodded and pulled back into the trees until I was completely hidden from their line of sight. Not very nice considering you just saved their lives, Aiken remarked as we continued on our way. Well, I knew they wouldn’t start bowing down to me for it. But I guess they could have been a little more respectful. I think we ended with more questions about them than we started.
Aiken slowed down to a stop and looked up to me, his head butting against my stomach. Then, I do believe we should go back and get some more answers. I wouldn’t want to end the day with a lot of loose ends. He gave me a toothy grin and started back the way we came. Laughter shot out of my mouth before I could suppress it. Aiken looked back at me, startled. I haven’t heard you do that in a long time. My laughter was instantly gone.

I know.