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Squib Ep.35 - The Ancient One

ButonflyAug 13, 2019, 12:57:33 AM

(Start at the beginning here)

Bandana gasped, spun in the dirt, scrambled away kicking as a frightening shiver told her to make distance. She bumped into Squib who placed his hands on her shoulders and tentatively forced her to stop. The Dryad only looked on, making no advance, and Bandana exchanged a questioning look between Squib and their host. Squib gave a bow of his head, his eyes ever watchful despite the formality. Proprietary appeared out of place with the Goblin, and Bandana couldn't imagine anyone faulting the green skin for normally forgoing such reactions. That only made her question the standing of the creature that now loomed before them.

“Squib, you have returned, and with a companion.” The Dryad’s voice resonated with an echo and shook like a tree full of leaves, something Bandana found difficult to listen to, strange to comprehend, but comprehend she did. The Dryad bent at the middle, folded forward at an impossible angle to lean in and take a closer look. The strange creature seemed ready to topple forward but didn't, it’s feet and the earth maintaining contact as one. They came nose to nose, eye to eye, pupil and blue iris staring back at wood and bark rimmed recesses that had in their depths a translucent, faintly glowing silver light. Had she been small enough, Bandana felt as though she might have fallen in.

“They call her, Bandana.” Squib replied.

Anna nodded, “Anna, two Bandana Anna.” She added quietly, more breath than sound.

The Dryad straightened, “It is no coincidence that you are here, the forces that govern this world swirl around you.” The Dryad said mysteriously then turned her attention to Squib. “You on the other hand,” the Dryad’s eyes narrowed.

Squib produced a box, finely crafted with a well oiled hinge. He opened it’s latch, flipped open it’s lid, and retrieved from within a leather pouch. He pulled it open, Bandana watching with fascination, and saw with delight as the contents set the silver shimmer in the Dryad’s eyes to sparkling. “The purple powder.” There came a collective groan as all around nature seemed to breathe with relief, reflecting the sentiment of the Dryad themself.

“Three handfuls. Two for payment, one for Squib.” Squib chanted for the first time in a very long while.

“Yes,” The Dryad agreed. “Yes!” It’s eyes drew wide. “Only I fear you may be too late, little Goblin. A new power has risen, death is spreading throughout the swamp, the greater Silkwood is no longer under my dominion.”

Squib planted a defiant foot forward, casting his face in a mask of threat and pointing a twisted finger up at the Dryad that spoke of curses and oaths not yet made that could be deadly. Squib struggled yet managed to keep himself from saying something regrettable, though spit and vitriol bubbled behind the edge of his lip. “The Seed of the Swamp and Squib had a deal.” Was all he ended up saying and seemed to say it all.

The Dryad gave a nod, “And we still do. For my interest there is time a plenty, and I will fulfill my side of the bargain regardless of its outcome. Just do not hold false hope is all I mean to say.”

“The Seed of the Swamp?” Bandana asked. So much was being said, so much Bandana didn't understand, the title keenly mysterious amongst it all.

The Dryad straightened ever more, holding up it’s arm in a flourish, posing at the invocation. “One name of many, a first name, from the beginning of things.”

“Of what things?” Bandana pressed.

“Of the Silkwood. Of this glade. Of the mire that stretches from the grassy plains in the west to the rock quarry in the east, and south to where your human’s settlement lie.”

“You planted these trees?” Bandana asked.

“The trees, the beasts, the silkworms after which it has taken its name, I invited the Lizardfolk, and sowed the beginnings of the Goblin tribes. Before me this was but a wasteland, destroyed by war, drowned with the bodies of legions, poisoned into infertility, claimed by death, and barren beyond the power of the natural world. I brought new life and the power to see it reclaimed. It has been millennia since I began it. That is why I am called ‘The Seed’.”

Awkwardly, Bandana climbed to her feet,“The Witch called you ‘The Ancient One’, how old are you exactly?” She stretched, seething at the pain in her side.

“I am timeless.” The Dryad answered. It stepped forward, reaching and catching Bandana by surprise, placing one of it’s long wood-like hands on Bandana’s ribs and emitting a glow of energy. There came a moment of intense pain and a cry burst forth from Bandana’s mouth, yet was gone so quickly she was left feeling stupid for ever making a sound. She jumped back on an instinct, found herself suddenly feeling no pain at all, and tested gingerly for any source of what just ailed her, had been ailing her for days. She reached in under her shirt, peeled it back to look at the bruising, but all had gone. “It’s healed,” she gasped, astonished.

Squib stepped into the gap ignoring whatever marvel had just taken place. “Some of us not timeless!” He thrust the pouch into the air before the Dryad. She reached out and took it. “Very well, follow me, the pool is waiting.”