Faygludin - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nimbian spent the rest of that day and the following two trekking through the mighty jungle. At long last he happened across the first of the corruption. The trees seemed darker, smaller, and twisted. It was a gradual process, but he knew it for what it was the moment he saw it. It was only the border, however, and the trees might yet be saved.

The elf pushed onward, watching with a sickness in his heart as the corruption grew. In short order strands of cobwebs ran from branch to branch, and then soon it grew worse, with entire webs spanning groups of trees. The webs were large, too, and though none dared approach him, he saw the spiders that had spun them. They grew larger the further he went as well.

The first spider to launch itself at him was the size of a fox. He dodged it and kicked it into a tree, drawing his sword and stabbing it to be certain. Other spiders, he saw, were larger. They ringed him, mostly just watching but occasionally one would attack. Before too long Nimbian found himself facing groups of spiders. He dodged their clumsy attacks, but they made up in numbers what they lacked in finesse.

His arms beginning to tire from the hacking and slashing, the spiders suddenly broke off and left him alone. It was as though he had hit a wall that prevented them from progressing. Wiping sweat from his brow, Nimbian looked around nervously before continuing onward.

Soon enough he learned the reasoning behind the spiders retreat. Only his heightened awareness in the forest saved him from the leaping attack of a panther. The panther, however, was not as it should have been. The spiders showed an unnatural sense of teamwork and intelligence, whereas the panther showed other special talents. The first would be the mottled coloring of its fur, making it blend into the shadows more easily. Next was the extra appendages that grew out of its shoulders, looking like nothing so much as tentacles with barbed claws on the ends of each. One of them, in fact, had scored a stinging strike against his arm as it had sailed past him.

Sword firmly in hand again, Nimbian turned to face this latest threat. Of course it could never be so simple as a single opponent. Instead he saw three of the mutated cats. Beasts that had been caught in the corruption of the forest and turned into something darker than they had once been.

The first one underestimated him, lunging in and snapping at him while its tentacles whipped forward at his head. Nimbian's sword slashed the ends of the tentacles off while his boot kicked the creature square in the jaw. It fell back, hissing and snarling, then lunged forward without thought or reason.

Nimbian spun, putting the wounded panther between himself and the other two, then lashed out again with his sword. The panther tried to come at him, but his sword stabbed into its shoulder, sending it crashing to the ground. The other two leapt over it as it struggled back to its three good legs, forcing Nimbian to retreat in a hurry. Their teeth dripped venomous looking saliva, promising any bite they inflicted would be slow to heal, at best.

He held them at bay with his sword held out in front of him, sweeping back and forth. He pulled his dagger with his other hand, feeling better armed with both weapons. He continued to back up, hoping to use a tree as a barrier to help him separate the two panthers, when things took a turn for the worse.

He found a tree, but instead of it working for him, a root burst free from the ground and wrapped around his ankle, tripping him and sending him crashing to the ground. His only salvation lay in that both cats leapt at him at the same time, tying one another up in midair. His long sword was of no use in the close quarters he found himself in when they landed upon him, but his dagger thrust upwards repeatedly, disemboweling one of them and drawing the fight out of it. The other one bit into the sleeve on his arm, trying to drive its teeth into his arm.

Nimbian pushed his arm upwards, forcing it into the back of the panther's mouth and preventing the panther from getting the leverage necessary to chew on him. He could, however, smell the fetid breath of the beast and his enhanced senses told him without a doubt that the panther's saliva was indeed envenomed.

When the creature realized it could not bite him effectively, it changed tactics. Nimbian felt the claws of its rear legs trying to rend at him. The tentacles lashed at his head as well, missing mostly but occasionally scoring a stinging strike against him. With a Herculean effort, he rolled and tossed the panther away from him, then rolled back quickly in the other direction.

Nimbian was on his knees when the panther was once again on its feet and crouching to jump at him. He threw his dagger, slick with the blood and viscera of the other panther, and succeeded in making the panther flinch and spring to the side to avoid the clumsily launched attack. It gave Nimbian the time he needed to dive to the side and grab his sword from the ground.

The panther jumped again, seeing Nimbian's back to it. The woodsman twisted on the ground and set his sword against the ground. The panther saw it too, and tried to twist in mid air away from it. Gravity, inertia, and momentum being what they were, it failed.

Nimbian pulled himself out from beneath the spasming panther and walked over to the first panther he had wounded. It snapped at him and tried again to regain its feet, succeeding for a short time. Nimbian slashed at it, hacking into side and back of its neck and severing its spinal cord. The panther collapsed to the ground, dying in short order.

Breathing heavily and examining himself to make sure he was not injured seriously, Nimbian reclaimed his dagger and then surveyed his surroundings. The stench of the taint in the air was nearly overpowering, but by forcing himself to ignore it he could function. The wolves had a reek about them as well, similar yet different than that of the forest.

He fought the urge to breath deeply, suspecting he might vomit if he did, and instead stepped forward, heading to an area where the foul contagion seemed yet stronger. His route remained unopposed for the better half of an hour before he had to pause and build up the strength to continue onwards against the vile odors emanating from ahead. The decay and death was so raw and offensive that every step and every breath was a fight consisting of both willpower and endurance.

Around him the trees leaned closer, as though they were trying to choke him. The light from the sun grew fainter as they blocked it, shrouding him in darkness. The ability of the elves to see in darkened conditions, as well as the gift of the forest that Alsa had shared with him, allowed him continued vision.

Finally he saw what seemed a ring of trees surrounding a pit. He stepped up to it, not knowing what he might find within, and was forced to turn and retch when he did so. Inside of it the bodies of numerous light elves lay cocooned in roots and insects. Vines, thick and ropy, plunged into the bodies like veins, drawing the sustenance out of the dead. The smell was overpowering, dropping Nimbian to his knees in spite of his reserves of endurance.

Limbs from the trees dipped down, supported by vines that slid around him while he was overpowered. He realized and tried to fight but it was too late, already he was lifted from the ground by the vines wrapped around his waist. He gagged and coughed, struggling with renewed energy, but against the mighty trees that held him he had no strength. His sword fell from fingers slick with sweat, standing upright from where it landed point first in the dirt at the edge of the pit.

Finding the last bit of will left to him, Nimbian dug a torch from his pack and pried the branches and vines away from his belt enough to let him retrieve his flint and steel. The trees, seeing his arms as being no threat now that he was captured, never paused to stop him.

Nimbian clutched the torch under one arm and struck flint to steel, sending sparks into the oil soaked head of it. In three strikes one caught in it and in a matter of second Nimbian had nursed it to a flame that showed promise. A few more seconds later, seconds that had the trees squeezing the breath from Nimbian and causing him to see spots, and the torch was fully lit.

He held it to the trees imprisoning him, gasping to try and breath through the crushing weight being applied to him. The trees recoiled from the fire, letting him go from first one branch, then another, and finally altogether as he singed them all. He fell to the ground, landing roughly and having what little wind remained in him driven from him. Gasping for air, he reached for the torch he had dropped and felt the flames lick at his fingers.

Too tired to curse, he snatched his hand away and grabbed the torch as it was meant to be handled, and slowly rose to his feet. He brandished the weapon, keeping the trees away and grabbed up his sword as well. The trees remained several feet from him, withdrawing their branches fearfully from him. Nimbian slowly regained his breath, but wondered what he was to do next, for the stalemate could not last.

A noise from the pit drew his attention to it. Something within it was moving. Eyes wide with horror, Nimbian watched as one of the corpses moved. It rose up to its feet slowly, insects crawling over the flesh and in and out of the openings in it, and began to shamble towards him. Nimbian shook his head, not understanding how it was possible, then he saw the tiny roots running through it, feeding off it and giving it a perversion of life. It had become a symbiotic relationship between the plant and the corpse, with the magic of the forest allowing it to tap into the mind of the now undead light elf.

Others began to move as well in the pit, filling Nimbian with a sense of dread that made his own veins feel as though they were filled with ice. He looked at his torch, as though seeing it for the first time, and through it into the pit.

Insects skittered away from where it landed, as did a few snakes that Nimbian had not realized were also in the pit, some of them quite large. The flames spread rapidly, more so than the greatest of forest fires he had seen in his time. The putrid corruption had dried out the area, it seemed, and made it more vulnerable to the purifying flames. The ground shuddered beneath his feet, surprising him, and then he saw the contents of the pit actually heave, attempting to smother the flames.

Already they had spread too much, however, preventing them from being put out. The walking corpse reached the torch and bent down to it slowly, picking it up and holding it up. The flames had already spread and now licked at its feet. Mouth open in a soundless scream of rage, it threw the torch at Nimbian and started climbing out of the pit towards him again. Nimbian dodged the torch and stood waiting while the unnatural thing approached him.

He slashed at it with his sword when it was close, finding it had little to no defense. His sword, however, had as much of an impact upon the unnatural thing as it would have against the trunk of an oak tree. His arm ringing, Nimbian stared at the part tree, part elf that stalked him in horror. An arm, blackened by the flames that now sheathed the corpse, crashed into him, sending him stumbling backwards. Nimbian was shocked by the force of the blow, and he clutched his chest to make sure no flames had landed upon him.

He hacked again at it, this time being ready to dodge when it lashed out at him again. It seemed a dangerous game of cat and mouse, with him landing the majority of the blows, but a single strike from the other thing causing him far more pain, if not injury. Behind it, the flames in the pit began to grow. Nimbian kept the fight going, doing his best to keep his adversary from getting too close to him, meanwhile the fire grew into an inferno. The stench of the smoke, part rotten wood and part rotten flesh, felt so deeply ingrained into him that he was not sure he would ever be able to smell anything clean and fresh again.

Finally the avatar of the forest he fought crashed to the ground in front of him, the roots, flesh, and bones succumbing to the heat. Nimbian saw that it still tried to pull its way towards him, trying to destroy him. He lashed out at its head repeatedly hacking and chipping away at it until it rolled free. Still the body came at him, burning just as brightly. Nimbian, body exhausted from smoke inhalation and exertion, continued to chop away at it.

Continued in Chapter 3