A Druid in Distress

The mountainous area North of Neo Arcturus. Powerful slabs of stone stagger towards the sky, peaking at a verdant, grass covered plateau. The Gafren Tribes call this area their home where they live in close harmony with the Spirit of the Land.
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Zero Venkage
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A Druid in Distress

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"None of this looks even remotely familiar!" Zero exclaimed to nobody in this bog of a forest. The mist that rolled in silently filled his vision almost completely. The few trees and foliage afoot he could make out were no more than 6 feet away from him, turning the Shimmering Forest into a maze. Maybe deciding to make this delivery was a bad idea to do solo. The Mako had a saying for situations like this, "Life's better in a pod."

Disgruntled, but not discouraged, Zero forged on. He had a single mission, no matter the thickness of the misty blanket. Not often did he find people willing to enjoy his company as often as he enjoyed theirs so his network he held close to his heart. The plant he carried strapped to his back reflected the size of the space he held for his friends, probably the biggest single plant he'd grown himself ever. Vescrutia is no stranger to large fauna, but for Zero's modest sized green thumb, he felt more than proud of himself. So proud in fact that he decided to gift it to the single coolest plant person he'd ever met. This whole forest belonged to her, normally providing guests with an overwhelming sense of calm and serenity. Today, not so much.

"The forest already moves, what's with this mist?" Zero asked seemingly to the forest itself. "Extra layer of protection I suppose?" The forest responded with silence, windless, wildless silence. Maintaining composure, Zero forged ahead in his search of that special fruit only available immediately around his friend's home. That fragrant scent infinitely unique only to her, notes of lily, lychee, and elegance permeating her personal space. He readjusted the pack on his back and steeled on, determined to at least get the plant to its destination.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: A Druid in Distress

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He traversed the mist almost aimlessly. The grass under foot barely made a noise while Zero searched the thicket. An hour's hike on a normal day stretched on methodically, each tree more familiar than the last. Watching the ground for signs he had been walking in circles, scanning as eagerly for his own trail as much as a recognizable walkway. His calm breathing grew a bit heavier with his irritation swelling.

“A left at the giant mushroom and straight on to the lake. Where the hell is that mushroom?”

He fumed lost in the middle of nowhere running his lavender whie locs. Every tree looked more alike than usual and his bearings were nowhere to be found. Zero’s eyes darted around wildly, a last ditch effort to make out anything but the milky sea of pillars before him. Succumbing to the futility of the moment, Zero stops walking, just to get his thoughts in order. His time in the Astral taught him nothing if not the importance of taking a moment to collect or recollect your thoughts. He breathed in deep.

Hope this mist isn’t poisoned, hehe…

Assessing his options, there were two ways of making it through to the center of the forest: Get rid of the fog, find your way in the worst visibility since leaving the Archipelago. The latter proved much more difficult than the former.

“Well, what have I got to lose?”

He mumbled to himself, cracking a few joints to limber up. Arm circles and a few well placed jabs carved through the fog. He closed his eyes and swayed lightly, dancing to the tune deep in his heart. He threw kicks in the clouds. A hook, a round, an axe, toes pointed. Skip over, spot a target and pull through. Activity calmed his mind. When he focused on the execution of a skill, his mind cleared, bringing his natural creativity to his current situation. His body was his temple and he adorned it with feats of agility he honed almost from birth. The Elgin Isles bade him a lovely childhood where he and his friends came together frequently to show each other how much better they had gotten. Every now and then, he took himself back to those gatherings, back to the simplicity, back to that feeling of trying out a new move and landing it just right.

His warm up whipped some of the mist around his body, limbs pulling through this blanket and enveloping him in its softness. Wide sweeping arm movements and flips planted off the trunks of trees began to smother Zero from view. The mist layered around his prancing body, obscuring even his hands from his own sight. Even without being able to spot his landing, he drilled these techniques so often his muscle memory does most of the heavy lifting. And with heavy lifting comes high flying, crazy kicking fruits of your labor.

A moment’s reprieve caught this fluffy mound of fog slow and still. Zero figured he’d gathered enough materials to work with. He’s done more with less but the chance to trick in fog proved far too enticing.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: A Druid in Distress

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The ample space on the forest floor narrowrd in his view to a single lane of white. A marked breath and deep lunge forward. He steps into his roundoff and the cloak of mist collects at his feet. Spotting the gas covered canopy, he launched the orb straight into the sky with a flash kick. It spiraled out of sight and increased the visibility immediately. But rather than stick the landing, he hung on to a thread of mist, an almost invidible string stretcing into the pocket vacuum he created. The Silvan Charm, Tornadus gave him a handle on a wide range of tricks he learned to turn the winds of fate in his favor.

His range of charms stretched from small feats like blowing out candles to flight with myriad skills between and beyond. This particular skill produced a sound Zero loved, fast moving metal on metal, like discs of steel grinding into each other, sparks would be flying and anyone without proper protection wound shy away. But he relished in it, a confident smile crossing his face as he reached for the ground with one hand, the other balled into a fist, whipped in a whirling wall of wind, harmonized with the sound in the sky.

His earthbound arm reeled back and whipped his body toward the ground. The whirlwind at his landing spot exploded like a top let rip, expanding to engulf the falling sprite. The sound’s pitch raised to a whistle once the vacuum’s outer shell passed Zero’s ears, the steel grinding amplifying to a bellowing gale, twisting and mangling the branches and leaves they tore through, flattening the pliable flora and fauna in a wall of wind razing the forest for as far as the eye could see. Landing silently in an area looking untouched by the razor winds, nestled in the eye of the storm, Zero brought the now elephant sized, screaming disc of swirling mist down right on his head. The eye of the storm which remained placid in the wake of these typhoon strength winds kept almost untouched. The disc met the eye’s edge and unfurled itself into the windswept woodland, carpeting every inch outside of the eye in a billowing gale, rolling like thunder through the verdant vegetation.

The chaos unfolded across the jungle and untethered tree from leaf from branch, tree from root. The oasis he made of his small platform made a perfect stage for him to stand tall, scan his surroundings, and casually move his locs from in front of his face. Zero’s smile beamed in the ring of lush that remained while the rest of the forest, mist and all went up in wind. The aftermath roiled on for what looked like ever, green and grey dust and debris fading to an ever present misty background. He learned the skill from watching waves lap over the jagged rock face that made up his homeland. Countless nights he rested there watching the power of the sea carve into the bedrock island face. He had to clear his mind and sight some way, and multitasking was a skill he enjoyed flexing. The waves rolled further and further, whipping more and more of the forest floor into the sky, leaving no pebble unturned. Jade speckled with myriad colors from flora and fauna flying in the air captivated Zero for a moment, pride placed himself routinely after moments like this. Off the cuff creativity and reckless looking abandon meeting for a solution only a madman could devise with unlimited resources.

The waves of his technique caught everything in their wake. What he thought would clear his vision to the elusive magic mushroom he used as a landmark, only painted a pleasant background for him in a ring of calm foliage. Looking out from his summer snow globe, he was perplexed. He was sure he could get a quick peek at something familiar, but nothing really

And like waves on the shore, the mist rolled right back in.

“Now this is a real proble--”

And before he could finish his sentence, the first sound he heard came from emptiness. The mist shrouded everything around his tiny oasis in the eye of the storm, but only barely stifled the carnal screech bellowing from all around him. “ARRRRRUGH” Zero screeched, covering his ears from the piercing screech, followed by a second wave of wind whipping the fog and grass into a tizzy right around him.

Guess something found me instead...

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Re: A Druid in Distress

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Another piercing shot through the mist. This time the pitch fell, a rumbling parting the mist and departing the shimmering green surrounding Zero. The whipping clippings and leaves sent skyward began to reston the forest floor, the green growing steadily as the rumbling fell away into silence.

“UH huh…” he mumbled, time turning backwards, returning the tiny clearing he made for himself to its natural state. Every blade of grass and leaf and petal, branch and bark rested back in place like snow in a globe. The strange flapping receded into silence, semi-silence accented with the gentle swaying in the wind of regrown arboreal giants. The only thing missing is the mist that blanketed the forest.

The world Shimmering Forest unfolded in its original splendor, not a shred of humidity to dampen the most delicate petal. The usual sweet scent returned, filling Zero’s nose with a warmth he found nowhere else on Vescrutia. Spices, orange peel, cinnamon and lilies invaded his nostrils and seeded a relaxed smile on his face. It even washed the memory of that annoying ass screech away for a second. The familiar scene of the Shimmering Forest, washed all over him, the warmth radiated from the ground, life returning to the formerly faded thicket. Brought back to a familiar place, the world melted into view behind his sealed lids. The concentration of lilies placed him exactly where he wanted to be, lucky guy. He could find his way to the mushroom hands tied behind his back and blindfolded.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: A Druid in Distress

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The scent wafted through trees, drifts of pollen alight in the golden rays slipping between the reassembled canopy. Opening his eyes to the forest sitting exactly how he expected it, Zero began following the scent to its source.

“I love being lucky. Winds of favor, keep on blowing!” he yelled to himself cackling into the day. Tiny victories were some of the nicest little gifts he could poach from the day. From landing a difficult technique in the Elgin style to finding a shiny new whatever it was he bent down and grabbed off the ground. Small, orbular, and really, really shiny, the orb found its way easily into his pocket and he kept moving along. If it were a part of this enchanted forest, it’d find its way back there eventually, and if not, free shiny swag! The details eluded him.

Zero traipsed along aimlessly, letting the sweet scent of lilies invade his nostrils. The more he walked, the more intense it grew. The fragrance wound round the trunks and Zero followed, steadily picking up speed, tracing the roots along the fragrant path. Bounding from tree to tree, his speed increased. He dashed, wind catching his heels and gliding him gargantuan strides through the thicket. The scent grew stronger still, filling his lungs to nausea. Verdant emerald speckled with copper raced past his peripheral, dust devils drenched in notes of cinnamon spice whirled at his every stride, from the earth, off dusty trunks, high into the thick canopy, pillars of blustery bronze bursting through the air as fountains fathoms apart from each other.

And riiiight… Abooooout…

His blurred vision need not focus, his nose put him exactly where he wanted to be. Cinnamon faded and were overtaken with ripe stone fruits. He knew the mushroom grove was three… two… one cyclonic step off the head off a gargantuan mushroom head launched Zero skyward. He spiraled up through his towering tornado breaking free of the forest’s pollen and plants with a confident smile pasted on his relaxed face. From the start of his sprint to his takeoff, seconds passed and he covered an area about half the size of his homeland, the Marlboro Archipelago. On their treacherous seas, he made a trip around the same speed in half the time, unimpeded by the thicket of the Shimmering Forest. The realm lorded by his friend changed in size depending on their seasonal proclivity, but with his aerial vantage, it had grown quite a lot since his last visit. His trail of tornadoes glistened in the air, a satisfying scene for the airborne troublemaker. Aside from musing over his work, he scanned for the… Oyster Valley? Is that what she called it? They’re mushrooms though, he thought to himself, descending into the embankment nearby below.

A gaping hole covered in lush grass appeared in a clearing as Zero made a nosedive. His hands and the air pressure helped him control his descent, gliding into this ill placed cavern of a valley. He might as well have grown webbing between his arms and legs with the control his Tornadus charm gave him. He came in hot, skimming close to the ground as the valley took a deep slope into a cavern. Zero ‘s wake, the wave of wind his blistering speed left behind, whipped up grass clippings and tiny, dusty mushroom heads. Like a comet he descended past the cavern’s opening and into its innards, copper dust and shrooms clamoring to catch up to his slipstream. Direct sunlight faded, as did the dusting of pollen that coated the rest of this area of the Shimmering Forest. The cavern was not exempt from the forest’s glittering demeanor. The indirect light they caught refracted through the crystalline walls and illuminated the depths like stars in the night sky, deep in space with nearby nebulae and galaxies passing like eons. The starfield narrowed to a point of white while the wind muffled his ears in this tunnel. Deeper he fell, closer the shining portal grew, bigger and bigger until he broke through and the cavern opened up to his final destination.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: A Druid in Distress

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He dove towards an oasis beneath the earth, bedrock broken into by wooden veins dripping golden sap from their pores. Zero’s subsonic flight burst through the tiny opening creating bellowing PWOF that shook the peaceful fronds infesting the walls of this atrium. He shot downward directly at the door of this modest looking mound, the modest mushroom mansion met the masterfully muted step onto the patio. Without a sound his clothing rested gently on his body, as if he transported there on a whim. He enjoyed dropping in on his friends far and wide, nothing said ‘gang gang’ like a routine fly-by.

Three… Two…

The Shimmering Forest’s hidden grotto glistened with refracted light. Zero reached out with a firm knuckle and a grimy grin. And like clockwork the mushroom came to life, at least from the inside. A pitterpatter of tiny feet scrambled all over, bowls and spoons and all sorts of cookware jumbled together in a panic. Grumbles seeped through the doorframe, met with Zero’s stifled giggle. Had he knocked yet? His eyes fell to the moat beneath the patio, he could see a perfect reflection of his entryway in it.

“... no no no NO NO NO! NOT AGAIN!” the voice inside yammered as the door swung open to meet the silver haired lad before he could finish the countdown.

A thick verdant vine broke out of the mushroom, strong and scaly. The basilisk-like tendril went straight for Zero’s abdomen, ‘barely’ letting him catch on to any of the scales. It unfurled powerfully, wrapping Zero in its thinnest wisp of a tail and ripping him back towards the starfield hole he bore through. Trapped in its sap, he thought to himself Did I come in too hot?

“Zero Venkaaaaaageeeeeee!” the voice screamed. A relatively short, dumpy little creature stood on the tendril at their doorstep, riding it like a magical carpet. Their hair hung low, sitting on the length of the tentacle trapping the trickster. Saturated ruby, matching their fiery gaze piercing the wind sprite’s surprisingly entertained gaze.

“What?” he replied, rocking lightly in the serpent’s grasp.

“Don’t you what me!” the scarlet scalped creature spat out, “FIX IT NOW!”
“Fix it? I didn’t eve--” and cinnamon took over his sense of smell again. The peace of the grotto broke with a terrible rumbling growing exponentially louder in an instant. Oh, there it is.

Zero turned to face the starfield, now filled with the roar of a supercell saturated in cinnamon spice scented delight, puffed plump with powdery pollen plowing through the partition. The basilisk tail forced Zero back into the hole far enough to plug it with its scaly girth. His friend seemed not to want any of the overworld to defile their secret homestead, no matter how deliciously it smelled. Sometimes you get tired of the same thing day in and day out, especially if it’s a bitch to clean off.

“You’re gonna clean up any bit of bluster you brought with you! IT’S NOT A JOKE IF NOBODY THINKS IT’S FUNNY!” the druid screamed, waving a bejeweled staff at the hole. The wooden tail shook and rocked in time with the staff, rocking young Zero all over the place. He still had a grasp on his Tornadus charm, knowing the cleanup that awaited him. But his cackling laughter was muffled by the grotto’s walls and the rumbling of the scaled limb grinding against the effulgent stones. “YOU’RE SUCH A DICK SOMETIMES!”

She fumed and huffed, waving her staff with more pronounced swings. The tail arched and curved, shook and rattled, slamming itself in the moat and back into the sunlit walls, just to stifle the laughter pouring from the other side. Orange puffs of dust peeked through some of the grotto’s cleavage as the wand beckoned the basilisk to a fervor. Zero’s laughter still poked through the cracks. The kickup knocked mushroom from their home, flung boulders from the ground across the few acres of grotto into its upper reaches. Luminous stalactites were knocked free and crashed into the meadows below, the moated, marshy areas throwing mud everywhere, crystal clean waters and pristine flora and fauna pelted with debris. The dumpy little druid huffed heavily, hearing the heckling still on the other side of the plugged wall. Her haggard breath gathering for her equalizer. If everything was so funny, he’d love this part, or at least she thought.

Her livid eyes alight with frustration focused on the tendril’s destruction, and her staff followed suit. The gem at the far end of it shone a piercing plum, orbited by sprites of a similar energy. She raised it to the sky, a pulse emanating from it and resonating with other roots gnarled into the translucent groundwork. Their fibers groaned and creaked, breaking free from their crystalline terroir, stretching their thorny tendrils as they came to life. Their creaks almost spoke to each other, whispering through arboreal snaps and crunches. The tips of their tails turned inward toward the dumpy druid, ruby eyes seething Naten, her almost endless hair stretching back into her plush living room in the mushroom pulsing in time with her babies.

“Stop. Laughing.”

The scaled roote turned inward, flexed their scales, exoskeleton crumbling to reveal a glowing golden center, sap oozing from the jagged ridges. They were the smaller of the roots, but more than enough to pulverize Zero, quieting his distorted cackle. Across the whole subterranean chamber the roots grew freely from the fungus at the nexus, some large enough to appear centuries old. Zero made friends in ancient places all over Vescrutia and this seething little hobbit was no different

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