Castus opened his eyes to fire everywhere. It was the night he was abducted. The house was burning down and Yursa was fighting Anabelle once again. Castus tried to change his trajectory from when he was there, but he realized he was merely an observer this time around. Sadness permeated his mind as he watched the events unfold once again. He ran to the kitchen and saw Ben and the dead Reid. As he was forced to look at them, Castus noticed something he hadn't before. In Reid's hand was small metal box. A similar box to the one his sister's rings had come in. He also saw something that made Castus shudder. On top of the box was Tyrus' monocle. He father never went anywhere without that thing. In fact during the six years Castus had known his father he never separated from that thing. Castus burned the image of the metal box and monocle in his mind. A sharp pain ran through his shoulder causing the dream to rupture.
Castus woke up to the splitting pain in his shoulder. He looked over to the bloody bandages that held his left shoulder together. Castus thought of that box and monocle. 'What was that? Why did Reid have Tyrus' monocle? Why was Reid in the kitchen at that time? Late night snack, no, no, the kitchen is the closest exit to the bedrooms... was Reid escaping? I need to go back.' Castus had tried to suppress the memories of that entire day ever since it occurred. He now realized that more happened that night than he knew. The more he tried to suppress that night, the more it seemed to draw him back in.
Quickly recalling what happened to cause him to black out, he looked around. It was nighttime now. A fire burned a few feet from him. The darkness of the swamp painted ominous shadows all around. A few feet from the fire a man with one arm was seated, one knee up to the sky and the other leg on the ground. He had tattered robes on, covered in blood and viscera.
Castus cautiously called out. "Grant?" The man who had apparently been asleep stirred. "Your alive runt. Good. For a little bit I thought you might die." Castus grunted and used his good arm to pull himself to a better position. "Grant, what happened?" Grant sighed at the question.
He looked over to his left where the corpse of the creature Castus had been locked in a struggle with laid dead. "A monster that is never supposed to be here showed up. It killed a number of soldiers. Sanguineous Treant it's called. The war in the north must be pushing out local monsters. That thing you killed. It's an infant. You got lucky it had just been born. A few days after they are born, they detach from the main root and start to sap the life out of their surroundings to grow stronger. If it had detached it would have sucked the life out of you and moved on." Castus took a dry swallow in his mouth. He didn't feel nearly as bad about killing this creature. It had been self-defense and it seems like it was an abominable creature as well. The words of Ben rang in his head. He had to learn to fight and survive. The things of this world, they were predatory. Violence wasn't a rarity. It was the way of life.
Grant used his one arm to toss some materials towards Castus. "Analyze those, then get some rest. We will recover tomorrow and then we will go back to training. We still have a deadline to make." Castus grabbed the materials and analyzed them.
Sanguineous Treant Elder Scalewood
Sanguineous Treant Infant Scalewood
Sanguineous Treant Elder Claw wood
Sanguineous Treant Infant Claw wood
Sanguineous Treant Elder Heart wood
Sanguineous Treant Infant Heart wood
Castus' eyes jumped at the new materials. He had tried to produce some of the elder scalewood and his mana bottomed out instantly only to produce half a fingernail size piece. Grant looked at the quantity Castus made and nodded silently. "Thats material from a much higher-level monster than you. I'm not surprised you can't make much. Get some sleep." Grant's gaze fell once again and he was silent. Castus peered through the fire at the resting Grant. He was torn up badly. Not only was his arm missing, but he had burns all over his body and recently closed wounds all over his body. The man was barely alive, hell, Castus was barely alive. Castus turned over and tried to sleep. New mysteries and a stronger resolve filled his mind as the exhaustion from the struggles overtook his spinning mind.
Castus was woken up by Grant. He was nudging his chest with the toe of his boot. "Get up. It's time to get up." Castus groggily tried to pull himself up only to get a sharp pain from his arm. Remembered his injured side, Castus rolled to one side and used his good arm to push himself to a standing position. He then looked at Grant. In the daylight it was easier to see how hurt Grant was. His burns were severe. The green hair he once had was incinerated away and his entire upper body had twisted burns that ran through out his entire body. His missing arm only had a stump remaining. Grant spoke again. "Gather some firewood. I'm going to get us some food in the meantime. I won't be far. Shout if anything comes close." For the first time Grant didn't simply vanish and Castus watched as he walked away from the fire. That creature Grant killed must have been a rough fight to put him such bad shape.
Castus, still tired, walked around the nearby campsite and gathered some suitable branches that didn't seem too wet. It was a long process with only one arm. It took nearly three hours to gather everything and at this point Castus' hunger had started to dig into his abdomen. He hadn't eaten in a day or two at this point and he was starving. Returning from yet another trip into the surrounding marsh to get firewood, Castus noticed Grant had returned. He was unceremoniously dragging a behemoth of a snake behind him. Its body twisted behind him. Grant reached the campsite and dropped the nearly twenty-foot-long snake down. "This is enough firewood. Take a seat, I'll cook."