The next day passed in a blur. Mostly because he was giddy to try his new talent. He wanted to find out how potent the venom was. Even if it was weird and he had to milk himself like a snake to get it.

  They got up fairly early in the morning, packed what little they had, and set out, heading on that same north eastern path that they had been on before. Throughout the day they made slow progress forward. It goes without saying but having to forge a path of your own through mostly undisturbed forest took time and effort. Even more so when they would often come across either cliffs that were in their way slowing their progress, or ravines that would be too time consuming to climb down and then back up.

  As they walked they walked in silence. Neither of them really saying anything, Bjorn because he was busy thinking using his new talents, Adriana because she was thinking about their conversation the day prior. Even though they talked about it and she felt good, there were still plenty of emotions running through her that she still had to sort through.

  The entire day was extremely uneventful. Most creatures avoided their group as they went. Mostly due to the amount of noise the golem made while it traveled through the underbrush. A miniature heavy stone man was anything but stealthy. For the millionth time Bjorn thought he needed to give it a name. So he spent his time alternating between trying to come up with a good name and day dreaming about his new venom talent.

  It wasn’t until evening that Bjorn finally broke the silence. “I think I have a name for the golem.”

  “Oh?” Adriana said distractedly, hardly even paying attention to what Bjorn said.

  “Yeah. I think I will name it Javaris Jamar Javarison-Lamar.”

  The sheer out thereness of Bjorn’s suggestion put a stop to whatever it was that Adriana was thinking. “What? No! That is shit, sounds like shit, and you should be disappointed in yourself for even suggesting such a thing.”

  “Well it is either that or D’Jasper Probincrux III.”

  “That is even worse and doesn’t even make sense. It would be the first of his name, why would he be the III? No, I am tired of your shitty naming conventions and terrible suggestions. I am going to name it and you have no say in this matter.”

  “Oh? What makes you think I will go along with that? The last I checked I was the owner of the golem, not you.”

  Adriana just stuck her tongue out at Bjorn. “That doesn’t matter, I am going to name it and that is final.”

  “I have the right to veto anything you come up with.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Adriana said dismissively. She then got a look of intense concentration. After a few minutes she got an eureka look on her face. “It will be named Eimir.”

  “Why Eimir?”

  “I don’t know, it just sounds right.”

  “No. Eimir sounds like a religious name back on earth. It doesn’t quite fit. It has some credence though, it does sound nice. Let’s each think of one more and we can vote between the three. How does that sound?”

  “Sure, but it doesn’t matter. I am going to be the one who ultimately decides.”

  Silence fell between them for a few more minutes as they both thought. “Granite,” Bjorn said, “we can call him Grant for short.”

  Adriana wrinkled her nose. “No, what about Arkose?”

  “What is that? Where did that name come from?”

  “I don’t know, but it sounds good. I think that is what I am going to go with, Arkose.”

  A prompt appeared.

  Do you wish to name your golem Arkose? Yes/No?

  She is not going to get to name the golem. Bjorn thought for just a moment longer before mentally clicking no.

  Do you wish to use a different name? Yes/No?

  He thought for just a moment longer before mentally he clicked yes. He quickly came up with a name and entered it before hitting accept.

  Your stone golem will be named “Malachi.”

  “Alright, I came up with a name, it’s name is now Malachi.” Bjorn said, a note of triumph in his voice.

  “Why that name?” Adriana said, her voice almost annoyed. “I said I was going to settle on Arkose. So his name would be Arkose.”

  “That you did but I didn’t like it, there have been too many A names in my life, I wanted a different letter. Besides, Malachi is short of Malachite, which I am pretty sure is a kind of stone.”

  “Oh you have had too many A names in your life have you? What about Meira, or Medera. You know two major people in your life. I think you have had too many M names in your life so you decided on another one.”

  She had a valid point. So instead of agreeing Bjorn just shrugged. “What can I say? I am a creature of habit. Anyways the decision is already done and taken care of. His name is now Malachi and there isn’t anything you can do to stop it.”

  “Dick.”

  “Well you should have been the one to help make the golem. Let's start looking for a place to crash tonight.”

  Not long after their conversation they found a nice place right next to a small stream that looked great to stay the night. It was flat, covered by trees in case it rained that night, and had a large flat boulder they could lean against or use to avoid some wind if any came up.

  They quickly went through the tasks of setting up camp. Bjorn made a fire by casting his firebolt spell at the tip of a thick dry branch. He then put it on a small pile of dry wood that Adriana collected. They made a nice warm dinner. Then after that they just went to bed. Well Bjorn went to bed letting Adriana take first watch, his 32 hours hadn’t elapsed yet anyways. It was a struggle to fall asleep, but eventually he did.

  When Adriana woke him to take his turn at watch Bjorn first checked the clock. It was 16:03 pm. Just after midnight. He then checked his stamina which was missing 149 stamina. It worked. He had his first dose of venom.

  Excited, he shooed Adriana away and took over watch. This next part he didn’t want her to know about yet. At least for now. They just got done having a conversation the day prior about how he was becoming a monster, there was no sense compounding that by her noticing him secreting a venom from his canine teeth.

  At first he had been worried throughout the day that Adriana would notice his newer sharper canines but thankfully she hadn’t. Around mid day he had stopped at a particularly clear puddle on the ground and took a look at his reflection. His teeth were just slightly longer and more prominent but not enough to look unnatural.

  One thing that he did find throughout the day was that his canine teeth happened to have a single almost imperceptible hole. The only reason he was able to tell was he had developed an oral fixation throughout the day and ran his tongue over his new teeth. It was almost disconcerting, feeling a hole in both of his teeth, he worried about food getting stuck in there. However each time they ate it didn’t seem to cause any problems.

  Once she settled down and he took his turn on watch he pulled out an empty vial and not knowing what to expect took it and set it to his teeth. Applying a little bit of pressure to the back side of his tooth he waited, and nothing happened.

  With a frown he applied pressure this time thinking of injecting this venom. That seemed to do the trick. The sensation of the venom leaving his body was weird. It felt like he was producing an ungodly amount of saliva directly from his one canine tooth. There was nowhere where it felt like the venom originated from. He briefly wondered how the venom got from within himself and into the tooth to infect whatever he was biting onto.

  The sensation continued on for around 10 seconds before it faded. He then got a notification.

  Doses of weak paralytic venom left. 0/2.

  With a smile he pulled the vial away from his mouth and put a stopper in the top of it. He then held it in front of his face. Even in the low light he could see. The venom was a dirty, milky, white color. It also was a very viscous material, almost closer to a warm honey with how it flowed around inside the vial. It coated the glass walls and clung there. With that Bjorn used W.A.I.L.A. on the vial.

  Well it wasn’t the most impressive thing ever, but it was still great. Most of everything he fights for the most part is level 10 and under anyways. On average they had to fight something every 2nd or 3rd day while they traveled. Oftentimes creatures liked to overestimate their ability to fight, especially when it came to Bjorn and Adriana, and especially because they have access to magic.

  If he could collect a vial of this and store it in his bag of holding then he could apply it and make those fights mostly trivial. He could then use his power from the spriggan that was slowly consuming his body to feed on those creatures xp. This was actually shaping up to be one if not the best talent he had spent his hard earned talent points on.

  He wanted to try it on something but now was not the time, he had a job to do besides he wanted to test and make sure that the venom wouldn’t break down if he put it in his bag of holding. So he resigned himself to a night of waiting, unless something came close to camp then he would use it.

  Unfortunately nothing came near camp that night and he resigned himself to either try it during the day or to leave it in his bag of holding and see what happened once the 12 hours elapsed.

  The next day when Adriana woke up they took off. Around mid day Bjorn knew for a fact that the vial had been in his bag of holding for longer than 12 hours so he pulled the vial out to check. Sadly it seemed like the time stopping powers of the bag of holding didn’t have any real effect on the vial of venom as it just looked like bottled saliva when he pulled it out of his bag. Upon further inspection he found that it was labeled as “dirty water”.

  That night when they stopped again Bjorn actually had to drink a stamina potion to make sure he hit that 150 stamina mark. The day had been surprisingly taxing and he wouldn’t have been fully recovered by the time midnight rolled around.

  Adriana took first watch that night as there was still plenty of light. When she woke Bjorn up he was excited to see if he could try using his new venom. He went through the same motions and soon had a full vial of his venom in his hands. With testing he found that he could coat a total of 5 arrows from the one vial with the venom. Any more than that and the arrows wouldn’t be considered poisoned. Any less and he would be wasting usage.

  He stored his 5 poisoned arrows and sat to wait. Either he would be using the venom on something tonight, or they would go hunting in the morning to try and he could try it then. Luckily he wouldn’t have to wait.

  Them being attacked during the night wasn’t a particularly rare occurrence but it was still uncommon enough that sometimes they would go weeks without an attack. As luck would have it tonight was one of those nights where they were attacked during the night.

  Their normal reaction to being attacked was to wake the other person so they could defend together. This was a good policy to have in case whatever attacked was extremely deadly. In this case however Bjorn very easily and quickly discerned that they were being stalked by generic wolves. Even in the worst of circumstances they wouldn’t be much trouble for Bjorn.

  So instead of waking Adriana up he just pulled out his bow and one of his poisoned arrows and waited for them to draw closer. There were a total of 6 wolves that began to stealthily move towards where Adriana was sleeping. They hadn’t spotted Bjorn up in a tree.

  Even with the 6 wolves Bjorn wasn’t worried for Adriana. If things got dicey he could wake her up. Even if they managed to get past Bjorn, Malachi had orders to protect anyone who was asleep in the event of an attack. He wasn’t sure how Malachi saw but he was surprisingly perceptive for being a pile of rock. At the very least Malachi would be able to slow down the wolves long enough for Adriana to prepare some sort of defense.

  The 6 wolves surrounded their campsite and slowly began making their way in. When the wolves went stealth mode, Bjorn drew his bow and sighted on the wolf as far away from him as he could. This was the wolf that he had the least chance to stop getting to Adriana if it came down to a melee.

  He slowly exhaled and invested 10 stamina into his first shot. It being the farthest away he didn’t want to chance missing. He let go and the arrow flew straight and true, slamming into the wolf’s side. The arrow sunk into the soft flesh of the wolf, a wounding shot but not a killing shot. However when the poison that was on the arrowtip began to course through the wolves body it went rigid and it slumped to the ground motionless.

  The poison had done its job, with a wicked smile he drew another arrow and shot at the next wolf. It too had the exact same reaction, a soft whimper of pain before the poison took effect and the wolf fell to the ground. That brief sound was enough to give the remaining 4 wolves pause. But only for a second before they continued their stalking.

  It wasn’t until 4 of the 6 wolves had been shot that the remaining two realized something was wrong. They turned to flee and the 5th and final poisoned arrow slammed into the wolf’s haunch. It staggered slightly before their muscles locked up holding them in place. The last wolf ran. Bjorn thought about just killing it with his bow but decided that it was time to test out his essence drain on the wolves.

  So he got down from his perch and quickly made his way over to the first wolf he shot. Even though its body had betrayed it the wolf was still alive. Even paralyzed certain bodily functions still worked, it was able to breath, it was able to think, to blink, to see. Bjorn saw fear in the eye of the wolf, a predator who had become prey.

  He took no joy in the fear of this animal so he quickly tried to use essence drain on the wolf and was rewarded as the spriggan drained the remaining life force of the wolf, turning it into xp. All of a sudden the gap between him and Kairon’s group didn’t seem quite so vast. He quickly drained the life away from the remaining wolves.

  The entire endeavor netted him 3780 xp, a sizable chunk, but not enough for him to gain a level. This new venom could prove quite substantial when it came to power leveling. Well not just himself but power leveling Adriana as well. The only thing that killed the vibe was remembering that the spriggan would also gain xp.

  His growth was directly accelerating the rate at which the spriggan would consume his body. By now the spriggan had made its way up his forearm and was almost to his elbow. As it consumed his flesh and replaced it with wood it changed his form. His forearm which had once been thick with muscle now looked almost emaciated compared to his left forearm. The wood first encased his muscle and then ate it condensing its form until it was almost wiry.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  And of course this entire process was completely painless, so it was almost easy to forget about the plight. He hadn’t done so yet but he soon would use the vial that Skarit gave him to slow down the growth of the spriggan. He wanted it to get to level 15 just to see if the spriggan would gain another new ability at that next threshold.

  Bjorn spent the next few hours collecting his arrows or arrowtips in a few cases. The wolf bodies looked like they had spent the last 2 days out in the suns drying. They smelt like it too. He dragged them a decent way away from their camp and left them out for any passing predator to have a feast. He then spent the rest of the night on watch.

  In the morning the first thing that Adriana said when she woke up was. “Why do I have almost 1000 extra xp? What happened last night?”

  Bjorn dropped down from his perch and began making a fire. As he did so he explained what had happened. He didn’t tell her that the paralytic poison came from him. He did tell her that he had spent the previous night producing the “poison”. He filled her in on his new specialization and how it enhanced poisons. It was fairly easy to deflect the attention off of him and onto his specialization.

  “Hmmm. I don’t know if that would have been the specialization I would have chosen. I think I would have chosen Augmentation or maybe even Transmutation. I think those are the best for what you are trying to do.”

  “Doubtful. I have a feeling that Augmentation would be too slow. It would take too long for me to gain the power necessary to get revenge. As for Transmutation I fail to see how that could help even a little bit.”

  Adriana stifled a yawn sitting down next to Bjorn as he made some sausage and eggs for their breakfast. “Yeah but think about how cool that would be. You could turn iron into silver and lead into gold. Think about how cool that would be, not to mention you would never have to work a day in your life ever again.”

  Bjorn narrowed his eyes and gave her the side eye. “I don’t know how you know about tales of turning lead into gold but I highly doubt that it would be cheap and easy to actually accomplish. Otherwise how could it be possible for any sense of economy with gold at one of the most valuable resources to exist? What is stopping a transmutation alchemist from crashing the entire economy?”

  “Shesh. I was only kidding. Who pissed in your oats this morning?”

  Bjorn didn’t dane that with a response. Instead he just focused on cooking. Once they were done eating they quickly packed up camp and got back on the road. They were heading in the exact same direction that they had been the last several days. Based on Bjorn’s estimation it would take probably 2 or 3 weeks before they so much as got to the area indicated on the map. Maybe if they found some kind of road that time frame would change but not likely.

  Over the next week nothing too major of note happened. They occasionally came across a creature that they didn’t want to fight so they either hid until the creature moved on or back tracked trying to go around the creature. It seemed like the further they got away from what was considered Escar the more dangerous the wilds got. More and more often they would run into something dangerous as they traveled.

  There were a few benefits to this but for the most part it was actually a drawback. They came across hulking boar like creatures, humanoids that were 8 to 10 feet tall were apparently ogres, they even came across one of the arrowtip toads.

  Based on the map he had gotten in Blackrock Bay they were well and truly in no man’s land. This map wasn’t the same as his basic map, that could only track where he had been. This was a map he had bought for a surprisingly high price that showed Escar, a little of Kroncrum, and a little bit of Lanolin. He had been hoping that he would have gotten a prompt asking him to add the map to his basic map, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

  Where they were standing was a patch of untouched forest that was located in between all three countries. It was located within the Summergate Woods, however this particular patch of forest had its own name. It was called the Emerald Sea. Bjorn wasn’t by any means a mind reader but he was pretty sure it was named that because of the trees that filled the area.

  They were for the most part evergreen trees with deciduous trees dotted around. The one thing that stood out with these trees were their deep emerald green hue to the needles and leaves that covered the trees. At one point where he and Adriana came upon a cliff where the drop off was probably 4 or 5 hundred feet down. Where they stood was well above the tree tops, As far as his eyes could see was nothing but cliffs, ravines, and a sea of the same emerald green trees. It was an impressive sight.

  The name was obvious however what wasn’t obvious was why this patch of land wasn’t controlled by one of the 3 countries that surrounded it. From what he could tell as they traveled there wasn’t any major reason as to why it lay untouched. Things didn’t seem overly dangerous, it seemed to have everything you would need to build a life. There was water, plenty of wood, the soil could make good farm land if you removed trees and stumps. There was no logical reason as to why it lay undeveloped.

  Those types of philosophical questions weren’t something that Bjorn would dwell on. It didn’t really matter, not to him. All that mattered was that Kairon was somewhere either in the Emerald Sea or just beyond it. With the amount of time that it would take to traverse the Emerald Sea it was likely that they would find out the reason it is uncolonized.

  It was day 3 out of the 8 day week when they first entered the Emerald sea. During the 5 days walking through the forest nothing really had changed all that much. The main topography was the exact same as what they had been traveling through. Ravines, cliffs, and densely packed trees. The creatures here were of a higher average level, but they still weren’t really much of a problem as they traveled. All and all there wasn’t really anything that indicated why the forest would be completely uncolonized. It was weird.

  As they traveled onwards heading deeper into the Emerald Sea the type of trees that they came across started to shift. They went from being mainly pines, firs, and other evergreen trees. To oaks, willows, ash trees, and others that Bjorn didn’t recognize. The plants that they passed started to grow larger and larger as well. The trees were starting to become more and more infested by vines and other types of parasitic plants.

  It was actually the evening of the 9th days when they learned probably part of the reason why it was uncolonized. The day had been the exact same that it had been over the last few days. They got up, walked through the forest, tried their best to avoid fighting anything, and all around just made progress in a north easterly direction. That night was the same as well. They made a small fire, made dinner, then after a little bit of small talk Bjorn went to bed and Adriana took first watch.

  Bjorn was awoken to the feeling of something slithering around his feet and around his hands. The sensation was so out of place and enough to jolt Bjorn to full awareness in a matter of moments. His eyes shot open and he looked down at his hands.

  The vines that had been growing close to the ground from the tree which they made their camp under had come alive. In the few moments it took for Bjorn to wake up the vines had managed to get a tighter grip on his feet and with surprising strength began to pull.

  His eyes darted around the forest looking for Adriana. Finally his eyes settled where she had set up her post for the night. His eyes had missed her the first time because she was mostly covered in vines and looked to be more a cocoon than person. All the while he was fighting for his freedom.

  It didn’t seem to matter all that much as his 42 points of strength weren’t enough to break his hands free from the inch and two inch thick vines that had wrapped around his wrists. His only saving grace so far was that none of the vines had wrapped around his neck and mouth. It didn’t matter, as the further it pulled him towards the trunk of the tree the more vines he got in range of. Those new vines joined the first few in wrapping Bjorn up.

  There were very few tricks up his sleeves that he could use. His arms were suspended in front of him so he couldn’t reach either the knives he kept on him at all times or his bag of holding. His 42 points of strength only seemed to help the vines tighten around his wrists, binding them more in place, slowly cutting off circulation to his left hand. For his right it didn’t matter all that much.

  The fact that his right hand didn’t need blood actually was his saving grace. This gave him access to his spell casting. The first spell he tried casting was his sonic shatter spell. A beam of concentrated sonic damage shot forth from his mouth and into the vines around him. In his panicked state he hadn’t considered the fact that the vines were most definitely not considered inanimate objects. They were alive, as evidenced by the fact that the vines were pulling him to the tree.

  He then moved on to his next best chance, Firebolt. He figured that wood, vines, and fire didn’t mix very well. By the time he was done casting his sonic shatter spell the vines had cut off circulation to his left hand, making him lose all motor control in that hand. His right hand however was able to make the complicated hand gesture necessary to cast Firebolt.

  He didn’t realize it at the moment but every time he had tried to cast Firebolt he had subconsciously used his left hand to cast the fire based spell. Not because he favored one hand over the other for spell casting, but because subconsciously he had realized that fire and wood wouldn't mix. This would hold true for his right hand which comprised the spriggan’s body.

  No major issues would crop up because of the wooden right hand. However when he cast his spell there was a strong resistance which threatened to break his concentration. The longer he channeled his mana, and changed the unattuned mana into fire mana the stronger the resistance grew.

  The spell only had a 1 second cast time, but that second felt like it stretched on for 10. At a quarter second into the cast time the pressure grew noticeable and was more like a headache. At half a second the pressure turned into something he had to actively fight against and grew into a migraine. By three quarters of a second the pressure was almost unbearable and his mind was threatening to wander off. He gritted his teeth and pushed through the discomfort. He could last a full second.

  When the spell finally finished the notification icon began to blink. He ignored it as he paid attention to the world around him. The Firebolt spell shot forth from his right hand and shot into the vines. The potent fire attuned mana began to rapidly eat away at the vines wrapped around his wrists. At the same time that it was eating away at the vines he took several points of fire damage.

  The minor injury didn't matter as he had gotten his desired effect, his hands were free. He went for one of the daggers on his belt. It wouldn’t be as effective as his ax or sword, but they were both still in his bag of holding, it was faster than retrieving the weapons. He took his blade and started hacking at the vines that surrounded his legs trying to free himself.

  It was a losing battle as the vines continued to drag him further and further under the canopy of the tree. He had to abandon freeing himself and try to fend off the new vines questing forward trying to capture him.

  That was when it hit him, he was being a dumb ass. Last time his fire spell had been very effective at weakening the vines holding his hands together and freeing him. By now the 3 second cooldown had elapsed. He switched the blade to his right hand and started casting Firebolt once again. This time when he cast there wasn’t that feeling of wrongness, of pressure.

  The fire spell shot forward burning into the vines that surrounded Bjorn’s feet. It wasn’t perfect and he was using the spell in close quarters. There was a brief burning sensation as the flames licked at the vines and his skin underneath. This too was successful and the vines pulled back or snapped under the intense heat. His legs were free.

  In his attempt to free his legs he was momentarily distracted and the vines shot down encircling his right wrist. They pulled taught and pulled him into the air. Letting out a curse he pulled one of his other blades from his belt and tried cutting away at the vine holding him in the air.

  This futile attempt didn’t last long before another vine came down and encircled his left hand forcing the blade out of his hand. It then wrapped around his left hand immobilizing it. He was well and truly fucked. It didn’t take long for the rest of the vines to fully encircle his body and completely restrain his movements.

  He was dangling helplessly when the vines finally pulled him next to the bundle he had seen earlier. Much as he expected it was Adriana, held in place, just as helplessly as he was. Both of their mouths were actually left open without a vine to silence them.

  “Adriana are you okay? Are you alive?” When he started speaking her eyes shot open and looked around frantically before settling on Bjorn’s face.

  “What happened? Why can’t I move?”

  “I think this tree captured us. I think it is stopping us from moving. I don’t know why it didn’t kill us however.”

  “Trees aren’t alive, they can’t have feelings like that.” Adriana said as she struggled against her bonds.

  “Trees are very much alive, so are all plants. I doubt it is a stretch to think that somehow trees are able to gain sentience as well.”

  “What now? How do we escape?”

  “Your guess is as good as mi-”

  His sentence was cut short by the sound of a distant crash that shook the ground. They could feel it from where they were at roughly 15 feet high in the tree.

  “-ne. What was that?”

  Adriana gave Bjorn a side eye. It was obvious that she didn’t know either. The look said “How the fuck am I supposed to know that?” She didn’t actually say anything.

  The distant crash was soon followed by a second one. Then by a third. With each new crash it was obvious that they were getting closer. From his vantage point Bjorn could see a small puddle of water on the ground. When the 5th crash sounded he saw the entire puddle vibrate. If Jurassic Park had taught him anything that was an impact tremor.

  The sound of heavy footsteps continued to grow louder until it sounded like they were right on top of them. Through the thick foliage of the tree Bjorn could just barely make out something large heading their way. But what he was seeing didn’t make sense. It didn’t look like the skin or scales of any type of humanoid creature. It looked like bark.

  Finally the footsteps stopped. There was a loud creaking noise and the branches and leaves of the tree started to part. When it finally stopped there was a large humanoid face directly in the middle of their field of view. The face was made out of wood and bark. There was moss and bird shit that ran down the center of this wooden face. Bjorn tried using W.A.I.L.A. on the face.

  The Ent and the two captives sat there looking at each other for what felt like minutes. During which time the Mosstoe was making sounds that were a mix between wood groaning and elk snuffling. When the Ent finished whatever it was doing it surprised Bjorn and Adriana for the tree they were being held in to make the same type of sounds back.

  While that was going on Bjorn started thinking about what he just read. Ents were real, and holy shit they were old. He thought briefly about how long Ents could possibly live. That wasn’t the real important part of the identification. Mosstoe’s level was nothing but question marks, to him it meant one of two things. Either it had a way to hide itself from identification abilities, talents, spells, and skills, not likely as he saw the rest of the information. Or it was too high level for Bjorn to get an answer.

  That possibility scared him. When he was level 8 he was able to see Kairon’s level 43, when he was level 11 he was able to see Dornan’s level 51. Now he was level 20 and the level of the Ent was hidden from him. Did that mean it was 50, 60, or maybe even 70 levels over Bjorn. He just hasn’t seen enough in this world to really get an answer. Either way, if Mosstoe decided to kill them there was nothing that Bjorn or Adriana could do to stop it.

  The conversation between the tree and the Ent had lasted an hour before Bjorn finally decided it was time to check his notification.

  You have learned the fatal weakness of the Bloodroot Spriggan, Fire magic. Fire is anathema to these wood based lifeforms. Although the fire spell that you channeled was weak it still has done damage to the spriggan. You and the spriggan had almost been in a mutual understanding of partnership. Your actions today have hastened its desire to take over your body. Do not try to cast fire magic through the spriggan again or it will completely turn against you.

  Well shit, that’s not good. At least now he knew what that resistance was. He wondered if it was caused because it was the fatal weakness of the Spriggan. Without a doubt it was because he tried to channel fire mana through the wood, he would not be doing that ever again. At least as long as he could help it.

  Not long after he checked his notification the Ent’s full attention returned to the pair of humans restrained in the middle of its vision. It came in close and took in a deep breath. Wind rushed past Bjorn’s face as the dinner plate sized nostril sucked in an ungodly amount of air. Then one of the eyes settled on the pair. The eyeball had to be at least a foot across and a deep chestnut brown.

  The Ent’s face retreated briefly before it spoke. It spoke in a language that was both familiar and alien at the same time. It sounded elvish, like what he had learned from Meira but it wasn’t the same. Occasionally he was able to pick out a word here or there but ultimately he had no idea what was actually being said. It was just like when he heard high elvish when he only spoke wood elvish.

  The Ent finished speaking and sat there patiently waiting for the constrained party to say something back.

  “What did it say?” Adriana asked.

  “I have no clue. It was close to the elvish I know but it wasn’t actually anything I could understand.”

  “Well you better do something or we are dead.”

  “Thanks for that, I hadn’t figured that one out on my own.” Bjorn quipped back.

  Throughout the brief exchange the Ent didn’t move or make any sort of sound indicating that it understood what was being said. Seeing how Adriana was going to be useless in this situation Bjorn tried speaking in Elvish. “Hello great Ent. We were passing through the forest and were hoping to make it to the North Eastern corner of the forest. If you were willing to let us go we will not harm any tree or creature as we pass. This I swear to you.”

  When Bjorn finished speaking it blinked its massive eyes and continued to kneel there with no other reaction. They just sat there staring at each other for a few minutes.

  Finally Adriana’s patients wore thin. “That didn’t work, try something else.”

  Before Bjorn could respond the Ent started making the same kind of groaning and elk sounds. After a few minutes of that communication the vines around Bjorn and Adriana started to relax and slither away from their bodies.

  Before the vines were fully removed and they regained their freedom the Ent’s head snapped to attention at Bjorn’s right forearm. It said something else in that same elvish not elvish language. Then there was a soft crashing sound as the branches around Bjorn and Adriana began to pull back. They were soon replaced by more branches that made up the size and shape of a massive arm.

  The arm slowed down and with surprising dexterity gripped Bjorn’s right forearm with a surprising gentleness and gently lifted the arm away from Bjorn’s side. He wanted to resist at first but understood the folly in that. The End held the Spriggan out in front of its face for a long minute.

  It then said something else that they couldn’t understand before another massive wooden hand reached into the tree and grabbed Adriana. The one that had been holding Bjorn let go of his hand and also grabbed him by the waist. From there they were unceremoniously pulled out of the tree.

  Now that they were outside of the tree they were able to get a good look at the Ent as it stood up. It looked as if the Ent had been turned from a human into being made completely out of wood and bark, and then super sized. The main body of the Ent was made up of gnarled wooden branches that were interwoven. It was nearly 250 feet tall and it still looked to be hunched. It’s legs were freakishly long and same with its arms.

  Mosstoe turned towards the north east and started walking. It almost felt like a run due to how high up they were and how fast they were moving, but the gait was that of a leisurely walk. The 5 fingers of the Ent’s hands were wrapped around the humans. That wasn’t an entirely true description. The index and middle fingers wrapped around their bodies with the thumb wrapped around the two fingers. Its ring fingers made a little platform for them to stand on with the pinky doing its own thing. It held them tight enough that they couldn’t escape but not with enough force to squish them.

  They traveled like this for a day and a half with the Ent never stopping. They had to have covered hundreds of miles during that time. When they finally stopped it was because the Ent had carried them to a stone building. It knelt down and gently put the humans down.

  The stone building that they were standing in front of was familiar. Its stone architecture was the exact same cut, shape, and what looked like layout as the Grove Elf temple they found. The same place where Bjorn picked up the Spriggan.

  There was a single large stone door set into the side of the building. Bjorn looked up at the Ent. It didn’t say anything, it just took one 9 foot long pointer finger and pointed towards the entrance. The message was clear. Enter.