Cora stood and stared at the giant bear in front of her. Her head barely cleared the animal's shoulder. Instead of brown fur, it had a shaggy black pelt streaked with gray like a tiger's, the gray reminiscent of boulders. Gleaming gold eyes shone in the early evening light.
Daria stood beside her, visibly vibrating with energy and curiosity. Cora glanced at her, once more noting the wood-like texture to her skin and the hair made of leaves and vines with the blue flower stuck in it.
"My name's Cora," Cora finally said, trying her best not to gawk at either one.
It was a lot to gawk at. It was clear that Daria was a dryad. Cora hadn't thought that they existed in the game. The forums didn't have any information on them, and Nate had never mentioned them. Now that Cora thought about it, the forums hadn't really mentioned orcs either.
"Spence," rumbled the giant bear. It glanced at Daria before lifting its head and sniffing. "There's a stink in the air. Lavcheg will be coming to the last place his dog was."
"Lavcheg," Daria gasped, trembling. She grasped Cora's arm. "Do you have any stuff left on the road? Lavcheg will take it if you do."
"And probably think I have something to do with the wolf's disappearance," Cora muttered. She patted Daria's arm. "I guess I'd better go. Does that little road," she nodded towards the path in the distance, "loop back to the main road at some point?"
"You can come with me," Daria offered. "He won't be able to find you, and you'll be safer."
"You need to stay safe, and from the looks of it, Blue was deficient. Yet again," the bear added with a huge sigh. "Follow Daria."
Cora pulled free of Daria's grasp and walked back to the road. Her sacks were still there, sitting forlornly in the middle of the path. She gave a quick, cautious look around at the still serene surroundings. Somehow, she could faintly sense something ominous approaching, making her shiver. Cora quickly rearranged the sacks on her person and returned to where Daria and Spence were waiting.
"I think something's coming," Cora said, glancing back at the road, missing the look shared between Spence and Daria.
"Follow me," Daria said, grabbing her hand and tugging her towards the depths of the forest. "He won't be able to find us there."
Spence followed after them for a little while before peeling off towards another part of the forest. Cora was sad to see him go. While he was with them, the forest was a quiet, safe place, but after he left, sounds started up again, spooky to someone raised for the most part in a city.
"Is where we going far?" Cora asked, realizing that she'd just blindly trusted the dryad. She gave herself a mental shake. If worse came to worst, she'd be able to resurrect and follow her steps back to regain whatever she dropped. "Just where are we going?"
"We're going to the grove," Daria said as if it explained everything.
Cora rather thought that it probably did to the dryad.
"Don't worry. It's not far," Daria said, fiddling with the flowers in her hand. She'd regathered the remaining untrampled ones when Cora went to get her sacks. Daria glanced over at Cora, eyes lingering on the bags. "What are those?"
"Sacks?" Cora replied. "You put stuff in them."
"Like a basket?" Daria pursued. She waved the flowers in her hand. "I lost the basket I used for these. I'll have to make another one, I suppose."
"I think so, only sacks are made out of some sort of cloth, maybe?" Cora explained. She unslung the big sack from her back and looked at it critically. "It's some sort of magic, and you can't put one of the others into the big one or it'd be so much easier to carry stuff."
"Ah!" Daria brightened. "You need one of those wagon things! I saw one once, a long time ago. You take a dead tree and give it circular bits and it moves!"
"That's the general gist," Cora nodded. She frowned thoughtfully, guessing that to a dryad, that would seem to be how a wagon was made.
They continued walking, following a path that only Daria could make out. Occasionally, flashes of light reflecting from watching eyes would happen in the nearby woods. Cora eased a bit closer to Daria when they appeared, though the eyes would almost as quickly vanish.
It took the better part of half an hour before they arrived before a magnificent grove of trees encircled by a meadow. Cora couldn't tell how she knew that the meadow had grown around the grove instead of the grove occupying it, but she did. The trees of the grove looked different from the ones in the forest, though Cora couldn't quite say how that was.
"This is the grove," Daria said. She smiled as she pulled the flower out of her hair. "Now, we finally have enough," she said, running forward.
Cora followed at a more sedate pace, wary of the whole situation. It had seemed like a great idea to follow Daria to her grove in the beginning, especially with that ominous feeling about the road. Now that she was here, Cora was having second thoughts.
"What are you waiting for? Come on," Daria called from the edge of the grove. Two more dryads stuck their heads out to see who she was talking to. "Will you two return? It's dangerous outside!" Daria scolded them, using her free hand to push the heads back inside the grove.
"Daria," Cora said, caught between laughing and sighing.
"Shall tell," came an indistinct voice from inside the grove, causing Daria to whirl.
Cora had a suspicion. She remembered taunting the same thing whenever Nate wouldn't let her do something growing up. Their fights had been legendary with poor Lorenz usually breaking them up.
When she entered the grove, she was surprised. The trees virtually disappeared, leaving a little townlet with small little buildings that looked like they were constructed out of twigs. They were centered around the statue of a large tree that towered in the center, majestic and well built. It even had little leaves that tinkled in the wind.
Cora looked around with wide eyes. The pathway was paved with tiny little twigs, smoothed down and carefully slotted together. Looking closely at the little buildings, they were made from bigger branches, the bark still on some of them.
Dryads smaller than Daria crowded around her. Cora counted. Despite the noise they were making, there were only five of them jumping around.
"Daria, who's she?" One of them asked, tugging on Daria's arm.
"Daria, is she a human?" Another asked, ducking behind Daria and peeping at Cora.
"Daria, did you get the flowers?" Two chimed together, looking exactly alike.
"Her name's Cora, and yes, she's a human, but she saved me from Lavcheg," Daria explained, inching towards the tree statue.
"Lavcheg?" The other dryads chorused, huddling together.
Cora felt a flare of anger. Clearly whoever Lavcheg was, he was extremely bad news. Owning Glug the wolf had been bad enough, but clearly the wolf had learned from its owner's temperament. The only mystery to her was why he was the boogeyman to these poor creatures. Daria looked like a teenager and the new ones much younger.
"Hurry, Daria, hurry!" The last one said, tugging Daria towards the statue. "He might be near."
"He's not near," Daria soothed, pulling free. "He's nowhere near. We're all safe."
"We left long before he could catch up," Cora said, earning the little dryads' attention. She squatted down and patted the twig pattern. It was smooth and seamless, but there was still a faint hint of its original shape to be felt. "This is awesome!"
"You like the pathway?" A little dryad sidled up to her. "My name's Willow, like my tree, not like Daria who's just Daria." She waved her hand in a little dismissive gesture.
Cora bit back a laugh at Daria's outraged squawk. The other dryads scattered like seeds in the wind as Daria came storming over.
"What do you mean 'just Daria?' I'll have you know that I'm magnificent," Daria announced as she came to a stop in front of the unrepentant Willow.
"Boo-hoo, I'm so scared," Willow shot back, tossing her long, leafy hair. She turned to Cora. "So, do you really like it? I know how to make it."
"It's very nice," Cora admitted as Daria sniffed and walked away, heading towards her original target.
"Don't mind her. She's moody," Willow said. She flashed Cora a smile. "At least she got the flowers!"
"What do you need the flowers for?" Cora finally asked. The question had been running through her mind ever since she saw how Daria had been guarding the ones she had.
"To break the spell, of course," Willow said, leaving Cora's side and drifting after Daria.
"They never explain anything," another dryad said, appearing next to Cora. "I'm called Ash. I'm kinda the quiet one, but that's only because I'm not out all the time."
Cora looked at Ash. Instead of the light brown tones of Daria and Willow, she was a mixture of cream and browns with grey accents at her joints. Her leafy grey-green hair caught back by a headband of twined ivy that trailed down across her shoulder.
"There's a spell?" Cora looked back to see Daria standing in front of the tree statue and arguing with the twin dryads.
"They probably can't agree about how to use the flowers," Ash said with a knowing nod. "We just know that they can break the spell."
"Perhaps I can help," Cora said, walking forward and nearly missing Ash's relieved smile.
"Can I see a flower?" Cora asked Daria as she drew to a stop next to her.
"Of course," Daria said, startled. She handed Cora a flower.
Cora accepted the flower. It was surprisingly light considering its rocky appearance. She squinted at it, calling up a description.
'Blue Stone Flower - value 80 gold (+200,000 rarity) - (Decorative, crafting, alchemy, cooking, spellwork) - Blue stone flowers usually grow in shady forests near stone outcroppings, taking their nutrients from the stones. After a period of time, they will gradually gain a stony appearance. Valued for their unique look, they make excellent decorations and a must-have for crafters looking for a special material. They are also a prime ingredient for various esoteric potions and spells. It is for these reasons that blue stone flowers are extinct through most of the world despite being so populous at one time.'
Cora drew in a sharp breath, her eyes widening. Then she cautiously tapped the spellwork part of the description.
'Blue Stone Flower - Spellwork Uses - 1. Can be used in the casting of the Stone Portal spell which enables the caster to walk through solid stone for a variable amount of time, depending on how the spell is concocted. 2. Can be used to cast the Petrification spell and also to dispel it. 3. Can be used to cast the Gorgon spell which summons a gorgon to fight for the caster for a variable amount of time depending on how the spell is concocted. 4. Can be used to cast the Stone Barrier spell. 5. Can be used to cast Stone Armor spell for a variable amount of time, depending on how spell is concocted. {more}'
Cora blinked at the shining {more}. She'd only seen it on a few of the longer descriptions she'd found. She was tempted to touch it and see what else was available but noticed the dryads increasingly anxious expressions. Cora instead touched 'Petrification Spell.'
'Petrification spell - Can turn target into a stone statue. Lasts until dispelled. {cast method} {dispel method} {classifications}'
Cora resolutely chose {dispel method}. Her heart itched to know the classifications or cast method, but she currently had a time crunch. While the dryads seemed pretty nice, they were also some form of monster, and she wasn't sure how long their hospitality would hold if she delayed to satisfy her curiosity.
'Petrification spell - dispel method - Depending on the materials used, it can be dispelled in a variety of methods. The most concise is to use blue stone flower extract mixed with a thimble of morning dew and a drop of dryad's blood. The second most concise method is to use crushed blue stone flower paste mixed with a thimble of dryad's blood. The third most concise method is to use the juice of blue stone flower stems mixed with a cup of dryad's blood. The most usual method is mixing blue stone flowers, a quarter cup of morning dew, three drops of dragon blood and five seeds of golden morning glory. {more}'
Cora blinked. That had to be the most unexpected thing she'd seen so far. She looked at the dryads and their anxious faces.
"You need to crush them up into an extract and mix it with a thimble of morning dew and a drop of your blood." Cora grimaced and shook herself. "Why would it need your blood? That's so wrong."
"We're a magical race?" Ash ventured. She shrugged. "It's why Lavcheg hunts us. We're the last of our trees in this part of the kingdoms, but now we have a chance."
The dryads disappeared into their tiny houses, only to reemerge with cauldrons and mortars and various implements. They set up a small cauldron in front of the statue, tossing in the flowers and a bit of water.
Cora sat down on the ground, her stomach churning. Did they mean that there used to be more dryads, and they were now the last? Daria looked like a teenager, younger than Cora herself. The others, if she were to guess their ages, ranged from ten to twelve with Ash nearing fourteen or fifteen. They were just babies.
Then she could feel anger start to roar to life in the pit of her stomach. If she hadn't shown up, then would Glug have eventually dragged Daria to this Lavcheg person who would have then gotten his hands on the others? Cora remembered the description of the Petrification spell's dispel. There were probably other spells that needed dryad's blood as well, and from the ordering, the more powerful the spell, the less it would need, but conversely, didn't that mean that if someone had a monopoly, then they would be able to cast older, rarer spells that needed dryad's blood? And that didn't even bother to touch on whether the stuff was needed for things other than spellwork, like alchemy or arrays.
Cora stood up, brushing imaginary dirt from her pants. Then she looked around, feeling frustrated. There didn't seem to be any protection for these girls other than the fact that there were predators like Spence roaming around who offered desultory, sporadic protection.
"Why don't you come and live in my town," Cora said, turning towards the statue. "You'd be safe from that person then."
Even as she turned, she was bathed in blue light. She stared, dumbfounded as color spread over the statue from a blue paste being liberally spread over its trunk.
Cora blinked as two boles set in the trunk filled with black and blinked at her.
"Ah, the mayor of Wilderven? Offering sanctuary to my charges as they always do," the tree said with a deep chuckle. "We'd be happy to shelter there for the moment."
"Awesome," Cora managed, closing her mouth. This game was awesome! Even the trees talked!