Madrea would willingly hang by the stakes than take a human's word for it. One of the surviving elves that lived to remember the outcome of the olden battle of Axim. Madrea still had the vitality and memories of old Axim running through her veins.
The trees of the forest separated from each other, creating a long path that led the humans out of the forest.
"For a minute there, I forgot to breath," one of the warriors said as he caught his breath.
"Me too," another added.
-
Few months later...
Man gashed his fellow man, not feeling any sense of remorse nor guilt, because he was not on his side of dispute.
Faces and bodies were bathed in blood with the clanking of swords resounding and footsteps roaring in marches. The ground turned red with the blood of men from both sides. It was yet another battle, the third in the last three months.
Loud cries filled the atmosphere. Birds flew past in many directions. Women cried. Children also cried. Both the young and the elderly wept as the bodies of their beloved laid on pyres and burned for the gods and the ancestors to receive their souls.
The next day, the flapping sounds of wings could be heard from a distance as many birds deserted the forest, taking to the sky.
The verdant leaves of the forest trees started to blacken as fiery sparkles ate them up. The quiet and purity of the forest's air was soon contaminated, filled with smoke and ash.
Madrea's body toggled side to side where she laid, calm and stiff like a babe. Her nose tickled. "Etchewww!" she sneezed herself out of a sweet and sound sleep.
Madrea started to cough from her throat being dry. She found it hard taking a single breath. "What is happening?" she wondered, covering her nose with the inner part of her elbow. She rose from where she laid, her sight was no better. The cloud of smoke had reached the roof of her abode, she barely saw what was next to her as she reeled her way outside yearning for a singular breath of fresh pure air.
Madrea's eyes widened and her mouth gaped the moment her feet stepped outside her home. A part of her wanted to believe that the scenery before her was a nightmare that she would wake up from. Her throat felt drier than before and her tongue tasted ashes. Madrea's face was washed in soot. The furious flame burned and dried up whatever moisture remained in the atmosphere.
Madrea's gritted her teeth. Her face flushed, becoming as red as a tomato with tears that rolled than the corners of her eyes. She felt like her mind about to explode with rage.
"Nooo!" she yelled, her voice reaching every corner of the forest, echoing. She fell to her knees, her face to the earth as rivers of tears flowed from her eyes.
"Not even your forest will be spared!" The words of the elder rushed back to her mind. Everything was happening like he said it would. Humans were truly insatiable creatures. Whether it is greed or the natural hunger for growth, no one knows the true answer.
She fumed, her veins almost popping out the sides of her head. "Humans!" she yelled.
Like wildfire, Madrea would only get satisfaction when she consumed everything around her in that moment with no care for friend or foe, and that was her only wish at this time. She continued to scream so loudly that her voice ceased.
-
These parties that entangled themselves in the war remained headstrong in their endless armed conflict for land and territories.
"Behind the trenches!" bawled one of the commanding warriors of a side. The side that sought an alliance with the sorceress of the forest.
The warriors of that village fled. Since they were outnumbered, there was no other choice other than using their territorial advantage to turn the tides.
"Archers!" the commander cried out. Bows rose immediately at his command and arrows were pulled.
"Fire!" he yelled. A rain of arrows descended on the opposing forces without mercy. Despite the numbers from their enemies' side that fell to the skill of the archers, it looked like there was no end to the number of warriors on the other side.
"Huh?" one of enemy warriors muttered. Just as he was about to take a step forward, he noticed that a branch of tree trying to wriggle its way, from under the earth, to the surface.
In the twinkle of an eye, the earth birthed many branching trees that grew thick very fast and wrapped around their many targets. The grip of the branches tightened that those that fell victim to it had their eyes bulging out of the sockets and a feeling of vomiting their guts. The squeeze was strong and bone-crushing. Cries from the excruciating distress was heard on the enemy's side.
Madrea marched her first step on the battleground. An outburst of her energy spread out violently striking anything in its path. Her Aer manifested strongly and tangibly, so fierce that it could be felt. Her eyes glowed green and her long hair swayed around. Her enemies trampled on each other in the race for their lives as the tree branches continued to sprout from the ground killing as many as were caught by Madrea's sorcerer.
Tree magic: garden of the sorceress.
"An elf?" muttered one of the commander of the enemy troops. He understood, immediately, what the outcome of the battle would now become. The table was turned and it was not in their favour.
"Retreat!" he shouted. He stumbled over the bodies in his own bid to flee. "Retreat!"
"Retre-"
This commander of the opposing troops spewed blood from his mouth. Branches stuck out through his heart, dipped in his blood. Madrea had no plans of letting any of them live.
"Such immense power," one of the warriors, from the side Madrea was supposedly on, admired.
Slowly, she was lifted into the air by her branches at her beckon. Madrea spread her arms out wide and started muttering words only she could understand. It was no human language rather an old elven tongue.
Many that survived the garden spell from her tree magic might have bought some extra minutes of life but one thing was certain, and that was death. Their death was sure to come like the sunrise on a new day.
Madrea's body shook and her eyes bled but that did not stop her from finishing the lines of her incantation. The aura around her was thick and intense.
"Earth magic: devouring world!" she screamed. A large crack tore through the earth and the earth caved in. Soldiers started to fall into the earth that had its mouth wide open. It swallowed them up. Everyone of the enemy troops died that day.
The sorceress of the forest singlehandedly ended the war of men but at the cost of breaking the oath that she held ever sacred.