With his new weapons sheathed at his back on a leather tie, Murciel entered the forest housing a Black-Root Infestation.
Once inside, traveling under the dark canopy and over the glowing colorful flowers he learned it's name.
Glow-Petal Forest.
It was beautiful-- hard to believe a disease from Low-Earth had been living within it's virile density. The trees were strong with thick bark and lush leaves. Plants and bushes stood as tall as him. The flowers glowed along the path like fallen stars.
"Is it beautiful?" Thena asked.
"It is." Murciel replied. "But I can still smell the Infestation."
"I need you to do more than smell it, Mercy." Thena said. Titus snorted in agreement.
"Ok!" Murciel unsheathed his tonfa blades, Sanguine Retribution, and began sprinting through the glimmering forest.
It didn't take long for him to question if the forest was moving with him— or sentient enough to play tricks. It wasn't a very large forest, but he'd spun around and hit every angle twice before Thena caught him by the cape as he ran past her for the thousandth time.
"That's enough." She said. "Stop looking with the senses you're least gifted in."
"But my nose is better than most people's, mother. You taught me to use it best." Murciel replied.
"And now I'll teach you something else. Close your eyes." Thena instructed.
Murciel did. The sounds in the dark forest magnified and his imagination bloomed with clarity, filling the blanks in the dark.
"What would you do if you had something no one else on this earth had? No one in all the earths, for that matter?" Thena asked as she circled him.
"What could I do?" Murciel asked.
"You could use it…. Or stay stupid." Thena stomped.
The earth shook. Pulse waves of darkened red ripples across his vision, painting shapes and images in topographical outlines.
Murciel spun around, facing his mother. Who he could imagine so accurately even with his eyes closed. He could see her fingers twitch. He could follow the flow of her blood as it picked up speed with the rise of her nerves. She smiled.
"How many?" Thena held up a hand. Three fingers raised.
"Thre—"
She threw something.
Murciel flipped out of the way, eyes still closed. "Mother, what—"
Another.
He dodged.
When the last came, he caught it and opened his eyes. It was an acorn.
He was breathing far heavier than his little he moved.
Thena nodded, "Now try to find the Black-Root for me again."
Murciel nodded hesitantly and closed his eyes. Blackness welcomed him.
And then he stomped the ground.
The pulse waves came again. The wotld gained greater detail than what it was when he searched with open eyes.
Slowly it faded, forcing him to continue to make noise. He stomped, clicked his teeth and tapped the bark as he searched.
He watched the roots below ground as they dug deep like burrowing wyrms in the wake of his newly developed sensory prowess.
But new wasn't the right word. The same thing happened against Logan. It helped him win.
And now it was helping him find the forest infestation.
He traveled to the center of the forest, facing the largest and most healthy appearing tree. He didn't care for what stood above ground, his senses pulled him below, where the roots were matted and slithering like snakes in a war. They made their own sound, making them easily found to him once he made it past the forest clutter.
"Here?"
"Yes." Murciel replied.
"What can you see?"
"The roots are corrupted. I can see the... well, I'm not sure. It's a dark energy….. it's inside the roots, it's rising— but it hasn't reached above ground."
"Good, we caught it early." Thena said.
"Mother…"
"Hm?"
"What was that?" Murciel asked, "Why can I see that way? It's like my eyes are inside my ears or… my ears are my eyes or… I don't get it actually."
"It's called echolocation." Thena said, "You can see things based off how sounds are absorbed into or reflected off of them.
"Oh! Is that how you see?"
Thena shook her head, "No. humans have no such skill."
The grounds shook suddenly, causing the grounds to warble as the tainted roots below ground went wild with the spread of the Low-Earth born disease.
"Quickly, get to work." Thena said suddenly before Murciel could process what she just said. "Do you know what you have to do?"
"Cut the roots."
"Before that."
"There's more?" Murciel asked.
Thena nodded, "This whole tree must begin again, anew. Cut it down."
Murciel nodded and approached Titus. Thena watched him silently as he flipped through the saddle bags in search.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for an axe." Murciel said proudly.
"I gave you a bladed weapon already, did I not,"
Murciel turned to look at her, "You want me to ….. cut down a tree with swords?"
Thena flicked her chin to the tree as if she was telling him to hurry up.
"Well…. this could make me stronger. Maybe I could train a specific striking style…. Haha. My mother is thinking exactly how any teacher would." Murciel smiled and unsheathed his tonfa blades.
Instead of hacking away at the tainted tree with the weapons like he still had an axe, he took a step to the side and dashed.
He slid past the tree, letting the blades running up his arms cut across the bark mid stride. He came to a stop on the opposite side of the tree and repeated the movement.
Back and forth.
Slash and dash.
Thena nodded in approval, only giving a few pointers as he ran back and forth, marking up and cutting into the tree.
"Stay light on your toes. Make sure your cut is straight, if you come at an angle you could break your arm. Tonfas require precision and speed. I was told you've become quite fast…. With legs that long id expect as much."
In the back of Murciel's mind he went back to her early comments about how humans didn't have his echo-locating ability. More so, he wondered why she so hastily started training him.
Maybe Mrs. Augustus told Thena Murciel wasn't progressing fast enough. Thena was graduating Goldhenge at his age.
The thought filled him with shame and pushed him into felling the tree with a newfound sense of urgency.
He got lost in the process quickly. The amount of time passed was unknown but the sun was long gone, making it look like The Black Threshold looming in the distance had suddenly decided to overtake the whole world. Murciels sweat slicked his blade handles and dripped from him like water everytime he moved.
Thena stood at his backside, watching diligently.
A eight inch deep wound cut into the trees side. Murciel was in a race against time, he could see the dark infestation spreading upward against him.
"Do you know what Dark-Root is?" Thena asked.
"…..Evil… tree." Murciel huffed.
"That's a….. simple way to look at it." Thena replied, "It's a tree that's been tainted by essence from Low-Earth. A Foul-Beast probably urinated on this tree, or it's hideous slobber probably fell in this very grass. Their disease doesn't care for classification of life. Only that which is alive, it's drawn to it like a moth to flame. And if the infestation takes over the whole tree it becomes a Low-Willow."
"What's…. That?"
"You don't want to know."
"Ok…."
Murciel crumpled and gave into his exhaustion, falling into the grass mid stride. He rolled over onto his back and found his mother standing beside the tree in the dark.
The glowing flowers shined rainbow lights on her hulking frame.
"Well done. But we can do better." With one hand she pushed the tree down.
"Wha— I wasn't done!" Murciel huffed.
"Then why did you stop?"
Murciel made a face.
Thena laughed. It was a bold and powerful sound that he felt in the earth he laid on. "Rest, Mercy."
Murciel bedgrundly laid his head in the grass and sighed. As he did, his eyes closed.
And suddenly he was watching the sillouette of three panthers walking along the canopy behind him.
Murciel burst to his feet, adrenaline rush active. Fur sprouted down his arms and muscles bubbling.
"Tell me where." Thena cracked her knuckles.
"North. Near the cliffs edge, they're in the canopy. Three big-cats. But they're different…. They're—"
"I know what they are." Thena reached for the trees. Energies coalesced around her fingers and suddenly the canopy above turned into a wood prison. Branches interlocked and knotted, providing barely any space for even a bird. Thorns bloomed, ensnaring anyone inside.
In the distance feline yowls bloomed and turned human.
"BETRAYER! We've found you! Were told you're strong, so you should have no reason to run." Someone yelled from the trees. A man.
"But just in case you try…" A woman added before a wave of glowing dust fell from above.
"Blast Pollen!" Thena grabbed Murciel and shielded him. At the same time, Titus shielded Thena.
The blast came to Murciel in the form of a flash of white.
Then, he was suddenly far away from where he once lay on the ground. His ears rang. He was naseuous as all hell and his bones hurt.
Titus lay in the distance, closer to the madness heaving on the ground. Half of his body was bald and burned. Steaming.
"Titus!" Murciel got to his feet, stumbling from how disoriented he was— falling as another blast shook the scalped forest.
He reached his uncle, unsure of what to do.
Finally, the sounds of battle drew his gaze.
Behind him, Thena faced off against three….
"Druids?!" Murciel was in disbeleif.
The enemy was in Low-Earth. They had no reason to fight each-other.
And still, there they were.
Thena moved like water with her mace. Her skin was stone. Her might was the green. She was basically three people. She was herself, the grass and the trees.
The attacking Druids could barely keep up.
"Where's the beast you brought from Low-Earth?!" One of the Druids questioned.
"Caspien will wake soon! The Pillar-Oak will return…. And he knows what you did down there. Everyone else may have died, but the truth will reveal itself, you're as crooked as your father, Thena."
"Your truth is whatever you wish it to be. With that being said, why talk? Let's just finish what you started here." Thena said as she caught a Druid by the throat. Immediately, the man shifted into a crow and flew out of her grasp.
The bird flew away from her, locking eyes with Murciel for the first time.
"Is this it? No child this young should be able to shapeshift! I see those eyes! They're from Low-Earth!" The crow descended on him, shifting into a massive snarling wolf as it pounced.
"NO!"
Murciel stood, blocking the beast from Titus.
The two collided. He couldn't help but notice the Druid must've been a Green-Knight— a talented one since he could feel the steel bones beneath the wolves fur. A high level shapeshifting ability called. He probably would've remembered the name if he didn't get the wind knocked from his lungs.
The wolf tore into him.
He wrapped his arms around the beast and kicked out its legs, making the wolf lose its center of power.
Murciel knew the Druid would shift again to escape his grasp. He needed to do something or he'd die.
Maybe he had another skill he didn't know of— maybe it was something he'd done already.
"Think…. Think!—"
"Mercy, bite!" Thena yelled.
The wolf whined in fear as Murciel lunged for its throat.
The time between felt infinite. He felt different. Changing. His gums itched. His skin felt like it was on fire. He only just noticed in insanely hungry he was.
He bit down hard, inhaling fur and dirt and…. Something intensely sweet.
Fear.
The blood slid down his throat like fire. The red took him over in flashes.
One second it was red, then he was on his feet.
Two feet.
Then four.
He'd become a wolf.
His mothers words echoed as memories since he missed hearing them in his crimson lust. His own mind pieced together a puzzle he wasn't aware of standing over.
"Bringing me out here taught me nothing. That angered Mrs. Augustus. It was for Thena. She brought me out here to study me. To see how I'd grown. She knows what I am. She knows I'm not human."
He had a fox in his jaws. Titus. It smelled like him.
He was running then, fleeing the battle at his mothers command.
Now with more questions than ever.
"I know I'm not human now. But if I'm not human, then what am I?"
The word hit him in the form of images. Images he'd read over in textbooks on the scourge of Low-Earth.
It was split into two. Two factions overpowering the rest.
The Moon-Born. Wolven, Feline, Ursine. Beastial hunters of the dark. Drawn to death and violence.
And Shadow-Kin. Winged wraiths of the dark empowered by blood and undeath.
They had another name.
"Vampires."