Chapter 63: Book 2 Chapter 10: Dire straits

Eirlathion’s POV

-Might of the forest 

-Give my hand the great strength of

-Your most anci...

Eirlathion felt a sudden strange sensation as he only got that far in his chant. The energies of the spell had already fully formed. This was originally supposed to be a 4 line chant, including the trigger phrase, but it had somehow formed correctly before he had even started the third line. He could only think it must be the power of the staff in his hands.

“Hand of the woodlands!” He chanted the final line of the chant, having abandoned the now seemingly unnecessary one. Upon the completion of the spell, Eirlathion’s right hand and arm began growing a bark-like substance over it, expanding his arm to over twice its original size, and his hand by three times. This was quite useful. If all his spells had their chants shortened as well, this staff really would serve as quite the effective weapon.

He looked over his shoulder to see Sagel running back from the wagon, having apparently just dropped Gaerien off. “What are we dealing with?” He asks the changeling who clearly had much sharper senses.

“Hmm…” the changeling’s large pure black eyes of his natural form scanned the forest. “There are a lot of them, and moving softly. Going by that information alone, I would say wolves. I cannot tell yet whether they are demonized or not. If they are not, they will likely leave us alone if we just make some noise. Otherwise, if we’re dealing with dire wolves.”

“We should probably assume they are.” Eirlathion said. “We are very close now to the path the great tree took to get to Heaven’s Scar, and it’s been nearly three weeks since then. It would not be strange at all to see entire wolf packs converted into dire wolves.”

Eirlathion looked around with his wooden hand held out in front of him and his other hand holding the staff behind him as he trained his ears to hear what Sagel was hearing. “So, what should we do?” Eirlathion asked. “If I were alone, all I would have to do is go up a tree and I could take out the entire pack from a distance. When it comes to protecting the wagon though…”

“Hmm… I would normally say it would be best to just run, but we are going into a region where there will only be more demons the deeper in we go. If they catch wind of us and start giving chase, things could turn ugly quick if we happen to meet something else while we are fleeing.”

“Alright, you hang back and protect the wagon. What direction are they? I’ll try and head them off before they can approach.” Upon being pointed in the right direction, Eirlathion marches off toward them.

After getting around 20 paces out, and with the wagon still in sight, he hears them in the distance. They've gotten close.

-Children of the forest…

“Pass woods.”

Once again, the chant was shortened. It seemed every chant was shortened by at least one whole line. Well then, one more.

-Spirits of the woods

-Carry my steps like the wind  

“woodland stride.”

Now, with his pace quickened and even the toughest of terrain posing no hindrance for him, he takes off at a run in their direction.

“Awwoooooooo!”

“Teh!” Eirlathion lets out a disgusted sound. They’ve heard him. That was definitely a hunting call just now. What’s more, it was deep, not as sharp as a typical wolf’s howl. No doubt, that was from a much larger dire wolf who had been transformed by arcane energies. He needed to keep running. He needed to build distance from the wagon before he encountered them.

“Grrrr..”

He could hear them snarling now, and just a second after that warning he was able to see them. Suddenly the forest seemed to come to life with several large black forms of wolves that each stood as high at the shoulder as a man was tall. Beasts like these, if the wagon was not made of wood they would probably eat it whole. He could just imagine such a large creature jumping on a herd animal the size of the wagon if such a creature existed.

The beasts were fanning out, encircling him. They had identified their prey and he was it. Well then, first he has to keep them interested. “Haaaa!” He yells at them and then takes off running to the side. He has to get moving before they close that end in their encirclement. He may be able to take one or two of them on the ground, but there is no way he could take this many. There must be close to a dozen of them!

One of the large wolves manages to make its way directly into his path. He didn’t have time to fight this thing. By the time he could do anything, the ones behind him would be upon him and that would be it. Eirlathion reached out his wood-covered hand, and activated the spell he had cast earlier. His hand of the woodlands stretched out forward, grabbing onto the huge dire wolf’s scruff. He took a good firm hold of the wolf’s main, much to the creature’s protest. It tried to bite at his wooden arm, but the bark that covered the skin was simply too tough.

Next, the stretched arm began to retract. There was a brief moment of a tug-of-war between the two as the wolf realized what was going on and braced it’s legs. Of course, four legs makes for a far sturdier purchase on the ground than just two, and eventually Eirlathion went flying off his feet as his body hurled toward the wolf. It was a very good thing the beast was distracted with trying to brace his feet against the ground. In the moment Eirlathion reached the creature, it didn’t know what to make of the situation and he simply sailed over the large wolf’s head.

Eirlathion let go with his wooden hand and slid down the wolf’s back and made a break for it. Now, after that little stunt, he definitely had the pack’s attention. He had gotten close enough to touch them and gave them his scent, and then he turned his back and ran from them which showed himself as prey. There’s no way the will be able to resist.

With the effects of pass woods and woodland stride still in effect, Eirlathion was able to stay well ahead of the pack as he continued to lead them away from the wagon. “This should be about far enough.” He said after running for a short time. It was a tough call to make between what would be a safe distance and what would have him running so far the wolves might become too discouraged to keep chasing him.

As he decided he had achieved about the right distance, he located a tree with a branch at about the right height. More importantly though, it was one tree among many in the area completely covered over with ivy to a point the vines also spread all over across the ground, the triple point leaves making a carpet over the forest floor. He extended his hand of the woodlands once again and pulled himself up onto a branch about two and a half body lengths high.

He prepared his staff and got ready to chant the next spell, only to find it already fully formed before he even said a single word.

“Engangle”

All he had to say was the trigger phase and the roots of the vines on the trees and forest floor began coming to life and ensnaring all the wolves. That was quite the surprise. Perhaps this thing is even more effective with spells that closely align to a dryad’s nature. Eirlathion surveyed the wolves below. He had not expected it to go anywhere near this easily. It seemed all of them had been caught quite easily in the trap, and if he was not mistaken all his spells seemed a lot more effective than usual.

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He had not really practiced much since he ranked up to the ability to cast fifth rank spells, that ought to strengthen his magic overall a little, but he could not imagine it was all just because of that. This staff really was amazing.

“Alright, well, time to finish them off I suppose.” He said as he took ahold of the branch overhead with his hand of the woodlands once again, and then lowered himself down. Now then, no sense in wasting additional spell power when he still has a spell active. He reached out to the nearest dire wolf with his wooden hand and extended it out until he grasped the beast’s head in his palm. It struggled, but it was fruitless. The vines held it tightly to the ground, and his hand that was enhanced by a fourth rank spell was frankly too tough to be damaged by anything this wolf could possibly do, and too strong for it to possibly overpower.

All Eirlathion had to do was close his hand, there was a sickeningly wet crunch, and it was all over.

He looked at the bloody mess that had become of the wolf’s head. He didn’t want to look at his palm. The sight of blood and brain matter caused his mind to flash back to the sights that had greeted him when he left his house this morning. He thought back to that woman who’s face had been bashed in.

No, he couldn’t allow this to affect him now. This spell had a time limit on it, and right now he was unsure of how long that time limit would be. All he knew for sure is that it would be longer than before, but it was certainly not infinite. These were not his neighbors, they were forest beasts, and demonized ones at that.

The sound of frustrated growls and rustling leaves as the dire wolves struggled against the vines filled the area, acting as a reminder that he was still surrounded by active threats. Eirlathion shook his head and reached out for another one, closed his hand, and… crunch. He breathed deeply to hold down his bile and put the third one in his sights. He was still far from finished.

“Ok, you can do this Eirlathion.” He reached out for the next one, crunch. That’s three. He stiffened his shoulders and neck muscles in order to try and suppress the tingling it sent up his spine and into the base of his skull. “Come on, I’ve done this before! What’s different now! Nothing has changed!” He reached out to the fourth and closed his hand so hard the wolf’s head was ripped from its body before he had time to crush it.

He dropped the head, breathing hard now, and looked around. He wasn’t even half way done yet. “Arrg! Just do it!” He started running toward the next one, standing right over it as he closed his hand over it’s head. Crunch. He reached and extended his arm toward the sixth. Crunch. Another one was right next to that one, all it took was a slight movement of his hand to get it. Crunch.

Eirlathion was breathing hard now. “No, I can’t stop!” He had extended past his original time limit for the spell already. He was in the untested danger zone now. It could end at any time and he would not even have the slightest warning. As a fourth tier spell, his hand of the woodlands should still have quite a bit of time left on it. Entangle, however, was only a second tier. It could be over any second, and he still had at least four more to go.

He momentarily considered going back up the tree, but that would mean he would have to use more spells and they very well might have another demon encounter later today. He needed to save his magic. No, it would be far better to just finish this as quickly as possible.

He extended his hand toward the eighth dire wolf. He had already taken care of all the ones close to the base of the tree. Now it was only the more distant ones. He had finally grown somewhat numb to that crunch. They were all in very spread out locations now, so it took a little time for him to re-orient himself to the next one. Crunch.

He could see two more, but he was hearing growling coming from other directions than just the two of them. This is not good. Ok, gotta move. Reaching out to number ten. Crunch. Elevin. Oh no! As soon as he laid eyes on the eleventh wolf, he saw something was different. The vines had gone slack. Before, as the spell was still active, every time the wolves tried to struggle the powerful vines would compensate and re-adjust themselves automatically to keep them restrained. Now, however, they were just lying there over the wolf, and finally its struggles were proving effective.

Eirlathion reached out toward the eleventh wolf and finished it off just like all the others. He still heard growling from more than one source nearby. He had to locate the next one quickly. Using ivy to bind them had its disadvantages, and they were showing now. The leaf cover was just too dense, and the mounds of the ensnared wolves all blended in with the ivy covered ground beneath them. He followed the sound and found a place where the leaves were shifting. He reached forward, and the large black form finally managed to struggle free before he could reach it.

“Teh!” Eirlathion hissed as he withdrew his hand of the woodlands and prepared for the fight. He heard another sound of rustling leaves and saw the dark form of a second wolf circling behind him. He was staying alert for a possible third, but this might be it. He really HOPED this was it. He glanced between the one in front of him and the one circling behind. 

‘Come on!’ Eirlathion cursed at these wolves in his mind. ‘Any normal wolves would have run off scared once someone kills over half your pack.’ 

“Heh, you demonized beasts sure are persistent!” He added aloud to them as he weighed his options. He could see no trees close to the one behind him, and he had a trick that thing was definitely not expecting. He extended his wooden hand straight out to his side, and then swung it in a wide arc around behind him. Eventually, he heard a low thud followed by a loud yipe, and then the dark silhouette behind him went flying off to his left. This was when the one in front of him chose to attack.

Eirlathion was still withdrawing his extended wooden hand when the gigantic K-9 pounced on him. His strength was useless before such sheer overwhelming size and weight. He was immediately pinned to the ground as the large wolf attempted to bite at his throat. Eirlathion raised his staff to block the bite, but its teeth still scraped across Eirlathion’s chin as the head was pushed aside.

“Gah!” He yelled in shock and fear at how frighteningly close that had just come. As bad as it looked here, that maneuver had provided him just the time he needed to fully withdraw his wooden hand and raise it to protect himself. The wolf immediately bit into the wooden wrist, and Eirlathion grinned as he managed to catch his breath even with this huge beast on top of him.

“That was a bad move.” He said, bracing his back against the ground as he extended his arm straight up, the sheer force of the extending arm pushed the monster up and off of him. The wolf was now on its side, its lower half still pinned Eirlathion’s legs to the ground. He grabbed the beast by the scruff of the neck and lifted. He quickly got to his feet and began swinging the beast around, and he soon found himself letting out a yell as he bashed the gigantic wolf against a tree, and then against the ground.

He took a few more deep breaths, and then used his hand still holding the large creature to pull himself to his feet. His shoulder still hurt from the monster’s weight on top of him, and his back hurt from landing badly on a particularly large ivy vine. He looked up to the large wolf. It was still stirring and struggling to move. It was broken, but it was still alive. He still had to finish it. His hand moved down the slope of the beast’s neck down to it’s head, and then gave it the same end as all the ones before it.

Eirlation breathed a deep sigh. There should still be at least the one more, but he still couldn’t be sure that was it. He kept looking around and over his shoulder as he approached the direction he thought he saw the last one fly off. By the time he found it, it was also quite injured. Not to the extent of the other one he had just finished off, but it was struggling to get back to its feet as it looked toward him with hatred, baring its fangs and snarling at him.

He never moved his eyes from the monstrous wolf. He just stared straight back at it as he approached and considered his options of attack. Suddenly, he found himself having to make decisions rather quickly as the beast seemed to find the strength to lunge at him. He quickly extended his wooden hand and bashed it to the side with a merciless back-hand. It did not fly as far as it had before, but it did not change the fact that it had received a devastating blow.

Eirlathion extended his hand again and then brought it down, smashing into the wolf’s back and electing a loud yipe. He took the monster by the scruff and lifted it up and then threw it back down. Well, if it’s not dead now then all the fight has left it. With one more crunch, the job was done.

Eirlathion withdrew his hand, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He listened carefully for any additional signs of creatures moving among the brush or any more snarls of angry dire wolves. The forest was silent, as it always is following such an incident of violence. The birds and small prey animals would all have run away and hidden themselves. There was nothing to disturb him but the sound of his own racing heart which he was trying to get under control.

He couldn’t hear anything else. Was that really it then? No, he knew he couldn’t let his guard down until he was back in the wagon and on the move. Even then it was probably not a good idea to become complacent, but he also trusted Sagel’s senses and intuition a lot better than his own. As soon as he heard from Sagel that there was no more enemy, only then would he be able to relax.

Subscribers quote of the chapter

"old grandpa ether got some epic grip power"

-Roy

Yeah, yeah, that was really it for the chapter. There were more comments, but they all actually referenced an announcement I had made to the subscribers. (Actually in regards to the fact that the first 7 or so paragraphs would be moved from this chapter to the previous chapter on the Scribble Hub release. That happened already BTW, you are seeing it in a more cleaned up form from what the subscribers did.

More important Author's Note.

I have heard and understand a lot of the frustration with calling the gender neutral Dryad and other tree spirits with the singular "they" for the sake of gender neutral references. Well, last chapter, a new face going by Daitengu who seems to have far better wordsmithing skills than I do proposed a new idea for a proper gender neutral pronoun.

I have avoided the use of the made up gender pronouns currently favored like "Xi" and "Zer" mainly because they just do not feel right when you say them. I think most of the reason for this is because of the fact they use letters with a scrabble letter score higher than 10. I see why they did that. An effective pronoun needs to be a single syllable long, and it's very hard to come up with a single syllable word that's not already taken and doesn't intersect with something already taken, while also following the same conventions as "he" and "she," and also fitting well with the possessive and identifying conjugations like "his" and "hers."

Well, we got into a pretty long conversation during which Daitengu proposed "Phi" or "Phe" (both pronounced "fee") We settled on "phi," with the conjugations being "pheir" and "pheirs." So, I wanted to throw this out to everyone in order to get some additional feedback before I decide whether or not to implement this. I will include a poll below, and encourage discussion if you want to give additional input.

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