270: Addition
Hari’s warning had been plaguing me all morning as we rode. Lily had not returned yet. Lily being missing, however, did reveal just how dangerous this road was, as we’d only been travelling for three hours when a loud creak came from the dark forest side of the road, followed by what looked to be a giant branch flying towards us from the trees.
“Treant!” Hari yelled.
There was a gust of wind as the branch was blown slightly off course. From behind, I heard dismounting and turned around just in time to see Luis removing his travel cloak with a giant grin on his face.
“It’s about time,” he said as he ran forward.
As he pulled his sword out, both his hair and his blade lit up in flame. There even appeared to be a smoking trail behind him as he ran forward. I was surprised not to see Crisplet hot on his tail, usually never one to miss the opportunity.
While this was happening, Milo had erected a small stone wall to protect the caravans, deflecting several more branches that had flown towards us.
Gilain, through all this, was just leaning against the wagon, clearly content to watch us deal with it.
When I turned around, I saw what Crisplet was doing. He wasn’t missing it at all. Instead, he was working with Jen as he handed her an arrow where the shaft appeared to be compressed coal, while the head itself was pure flame.
I watched as Jen shot it. There was a loud pop mid-flight before it hit the treant directly and exploded in flame, catching some small branches alight.
There was no pause as Crisplet already had the next arrow ready for Jen.
Liane, it seemed, didn’t bother going forward for this fight, just coming alongside me.
“I feel sorry for the treant in this fight; all this fire is rough,” she laughed.
I saw Luis slash out in a giant arc, removing two large limbs instantly, the strike itself leaving an orange afterglow for a few seconds where the fire passed.
“There is more!” Luis yelled, as another strike hit the treant at the same time an arrow appeared to blow a hole right through it.
The combined attacks left the first treant crumbling to the ground as branches came flying out of the forest directly towards Luis.
I saw him leap backwards towards the road, the grin on his face never leaving as two more tree branches flew towards him, which he cut out of the sky with ease.
Another arrow went blazing into the forest and exploded a short way in. This caused a couple of small fires to start around it.
“Be careful of the forest if you can; we don’t want to destroy it,” I said.
I realised that killing the monsters attacking us was far more important than worrying about some bushes burning, but it felt hypocritical of me to tell the towns not to destroy the forest and then not a day later do it ourselves.
“Don’t worry, Trev, we won’t let it burn much,” Jen said as she lined up another shot.
I noted that there was now a streak of black flame in the arrow that Crisplet was making, clearly putting in the draconic fire as well, which was a new development.
I watched as it once again flew into the forest and exploded with force, before another creak and a loud thud.
The final treant had made its way to the edge of the forest in its attempt to chase Luis; the smile on his face was almost scary as his eyes glowed.
There was a dash forward that just looked like a blur to me, leaving behind a trail of smouldering ground, and I never even saw the strike that hit the treant, only the orange afterglow that appeared to go right through the middle of it and come out the other side.
There was a moment where I thought he had missed, then the tree split in half, with the top section falling backwards, leaving a smouldering stump behind.
“Ha! That was great!” Luis yelled, turning around to face us with a giant smile.
Seeing Luis now was something else; his gleaming red armour was on full display, with his eyes glowing orange, his hair like flowing flame, and the blade of his sword completely engulfed in fire, right up to his wrist.
He looked like an incredible warrior.
I noticed a burst of sparks from Crisplet as well, as Jen stored her bow.
“You did great, Crisplet. I didn’t even know you could make arrows,” I said happily.
“It’s something we’ve been practising on watch,” Jen added with a beaming smile.
“I guess this pretty much confirms the belief that Lily’s presence has been keeping away the creatures on the road; I felt like it had been too safe until now,” Hari noted.
“Probably my fault as well; I’ve been practising holding back my aura to its absolute minimum,” Gilain said.
Luis waved him off. “Nonsense, this is good; I need the practice, and finally something worth killing.”
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Milo had walked forward and was putting out the fires, with Hari next to him, sword and shield still in hand.
Personally, I didn’t want to waste the treant wood either, as it was a good source of earth magic potency.
“Crisplet, I’m going to collect the wood if you’d like to come with me,” I said.
I got the burst of sparks immediately after.
The two treants outside the forest were no problem; both of them stored without issue, though I was upset to see the branches that were thrown were just regular wood and were not worth taking except for backup firewood.
When I made it to the third one, however, I reached down to store it…
And nothing happened.
I looked at my notifications, clearing off the stacked-up combat, healing, and enjoyable meal ones that I would need to address shortly, especially since I saw it had pushed me over level thirty-five.
Unable to store, one living lifeform attached.
I read it twice; the treant was definitely dead, there was a giant hole blasted straight through it. It was only then that I heard a very faint chirp, which caused Crisplet to flare up.
“Wait, Crisplet!” I said before he could do anything.
Moving towards the sound, I spotted it under the branches. There appeared to be a nest, and on the ground next to it were three broken eggs, but among the semi-collapsed nest, there appeared to be a single baby bird. It didn’t look to have its proper feathers yet, and I couldn’t tell what sort of bird it was, but after checking the nest and surrounding area, this was for sure the only one.
Going by the eggs, it looked like only one had hatched.
Which left me with a problem. I couldn’t leave it here; that would be a death sentence, but I couldn’t take it with me, could I? This was a creature of the dark forest, and I had no idea what it even was.
The bird appeared to have a small streak of blue on its belly as it looked up at me from my hands.
Then it pecked me, hard, causing me to nearly drop it.
“This is what I get for not wearing the gloves they got me,” I muttered.
I placed the bird on the broken nest and pulled them out of my storage.
In the end, I was wearing the gloves and had collected the remains of the nest, which was holding the chick, who seemed content with this, as I reached down and stored the treant.
By this stage, Milo, Liane, and Hari had all joined me, with none of them seemingly noticing the bird yet, well, except for Liane, who was staring at it.
“Trev, what are you planning to do with that?” she asked.
“I don’t know; I couldn’t leave it to die,” I countered.
Milo shook his head, just now noticing what I was carrying.
“Trevor, that’s a monster from the dark forest; we don’t even know what it is,” Liane added.
“Even if you did know, what are you going to do with it?” Milo said, clearly agreeing with Liane this time.
Hari just shook his head. “This isn’t the place to talk, let’s get out of the forest before we attract more attention,” he said.
Not having a better plan and not wanting to leave it behind to die, after we destroyed its home, I carried it with me.
“Maybe Lily or Huling will know what to do?” I said as I walked with the others.
Approaching the caravan, I saw Luis had his travel cloak back on, while Milo’s wall had gone back into the earth. Gilain had been staring at me since I exited the forest.
“Did you find a baby dragon or something?” Gilain laughed.
“No, just a bird. We destroyed its home,” I commented.
Gilain smirked. “Its home on what I assume were ancient treants?”
I felt like he was making a point of some kind, and it was completely lost on me. I mean, I could put the basics together, implying that it had to be a special kind of bird to make that its home, but it just felt like a smart place to me. You wouldn’t need to worry about predators if the treant did the protection for you?
Hari just let out a sigh, remounting his horse at the front.
“Let’s get moving; everyone mount up and be on guard,” he yelled.
Gilain looked over his shoulder. “We’re all just accepting it and moving on?” he asked, looking to the others.
“Got a better plan?” Milo said with a laugh.
“Baby monsters grow up to be adult monsters, you know!” Gilain said, mounting his own horse.
“There’s no shortage of adult monsters around here, though,” Liane added.
Which I agreed with, and if anyone would know what to do, it would be Lily and Huling. Plus, Crisplet was entirely fascinated with the bird right now as he was floating alongside me, just staring at it, and equally surprising, it was staring back at Crisplet.
“You can’t talk to it, can you?” I asked, confused.
A single ember showed no, but then I felt Crisplet push across, weak and hungry.
Which was probably true, but what did a baby bird eat?
The first thing I pulled out was some berries. They were soft, and some birds ate fruit, right?
Nothing. It even kicked the berry out of its nest with its beak.
I looked to Crisplet, then to Liane, who seemed to be finding great amusement in all this.
“What else do birds eat?” I asked.
“Some of them are scavengers and eat meat. There are some that hunt the waters, so fish and small critters, and there are some who eat bugs,” Jen explained.
Crisplet let off a big burst of sparks at that, clearly liking the idea of it hunting bugs with him.
The next item I pulled out was a small piece of bacon, which was promptly snubbed, which I felt was for the best. I doubted Lily wanted to share it with more people.
I moved on to a small boar bone that had some uncooked meat left on it. This seemed to get a bit more attention but was ultimately rejected as well. I went through my storage, desperate to find anything fish-related, as the only thing I had was the thunar, and that was far too large to pull out on the horse, let alone for the bird.
So I pulled out a leaf-bladed spider, and immediately there was a reaction as the bird started to let out squeaks while flapping its wings.
Not wanting to poison the thing, I used reclamation on it to purify it, then broke one of the legs off so it wasn’t too large and put the leg into the nest.
Immediately, the bird started pecking it, gripping it with its feet as it was ripping what little meat was in the leg.
“Seems like it likes to eat bugs,” I said with a laugh.
Crisplet let off a burst of sparks, sharing happiness and strength.
Behind me, I heard Jen let out a groan before saying, “We’re not keeping a monster from the dark forest, especially not a spider-eating monster. When Lily comes back, we’ll give it to her and she can take it somewhere safe, alright?”