The Beast of Brokenthorn Forest

[Hysteria]

Closed to Jennifer

“The creature kills everyone it comes upon. You should leave this forest, it will not recognise you as different from the men that it feeds upon. At least, not until it takes a bite out of you.”

“Where did it come from?”

“Only the earth knows. Can you talk to the earth walking one?”

“No. Can you?”

“Of course not. I am just an Oak tree.”

“Trees...” Muttered Twig as she walked away from the giant Oak she had been communing with. The tree was massive, with a strong life force that the youth could easily talk to, but like most trees, it had no sense of humour.

Twig was something of a oddity in the forest. The little girl was probably something similar to the beast reaping havoc through the Brokenthorn Forest. She had been created by latent magic, a plant imbued with the abilities of a person. Biologically she was nearly identical to a child her age, a merger three years old. The subtle differences could be seen once someone looked closely enough. The girl's long brown hair was tied back in an easy plat and there was a slight tinge of green. Her skin was similar, with her tan slightly off colour.

The little girl moved easily through the forest and her green dress swished with each step. She made her way from the Oak tree back towards the giant lake that pierced the middle of Brokenthorn. Twig had come to the forest to visit her family on the far side of the forest, but the warning from the Oak tree had cut her trip short.

Twig came out from the thick forest and onto the short of the giant lake. The clear blue water shone like sapphire, ringed with emerald green of the forest. The girl started the long trek around the edge to eventually get to the river that would take her out of the forest. The girl travelled for about a hundred metres on the rocky shore before plodding down on a large stone.

[Jennifer Oakley]

Jennifer stared at the lake. She felt odd at ease near the crystalline waters, even knowing a great evil loomed. For days, she had tracked the beast through the thickets and mangroves, strange places and stranger revelations awaited her behind every branch and bough. For many more hours, she had become accustomed to the new surroundings, forced upon her in what was known amongst her people as the Rana Dandra, the end days. It referred to a path finders exile, the time when she was to set upon the world in a blaze of learning and salvation, to return truimphant and enlightened to her Matriarch's side when she was at death's door, to take on her mantle and lead her people into a new dawn.

She spat, and licked her lips to try and get the acidic taste of hatred out of her mouth. She hated the solitude, the loniliness, the...she pricked her ears and turned to her right, every bone in her body tensing with electric prangs.

From the conclave of her mind, she drew on the ancient energies gifted to her by prophecy and Anima burst forth from nothingness, erupting to life by her side. He brayed and stomped his hooves in a flurry of white fur and primal fury, and Jennifer rested her hand on his left shoulder to calm him. "Something is coming," she motioned to the small creature, sensing a powerful omniscience about it, one that was unmistakably fae, a forest borne, a creature of nature given life.

"What is it?"

"If I knew that, I would not have called you."

They instinctively began to move closer, feeling the heady bond between foot and earth fall away as they too stepped onto the pebble shore and approached the creature with a low stance and cautious steps. The crunch of the rock underfoot and hoof gave them no element of surprise, but their presence in the open and the wide open retreat behind left them feeling secure and satisfied to approach.

"Hail!" Jennifer proclaimed, in simple common, "Nagasaki!" She followed up in simple fae dialect.

[Harlequin]

My bad on posting with the wrong account...

“Oh hi.” Twig answered instinctively before she even registered who was speaking.

The little girl watched the two individuals approach silently. Her green eyes quickly past over the woman and the faun as she tried to work out how much of a threat they were. The faun could have matched the description of the beast the Oak had mentioned, but the lack of eyes had limited the detail the Oak could go into.

“Nice to meet ya Nagasaki.” said Twig, “What about you goaty? Maybe the Hoof? That seems suitable given we are near a large body of water and you are hairy and muscle-y.”

The little girl lent back easily on the rock and kicked her feet idly.

“Whatcha doing in my forest by the by? Weekend away for two?

[Jennifer Oakley]

Jennifer did not grasp the context of the question, but she tried to be civil all the same.

"...I, was just looking for Salthas herb..." the appearance of the small girl, or at least, of the thing she assumed to be a girl did not disturb her so much as perturb. She had encountered fae in every season, and indeed, in every part of the forest, dark or new...but this jovial creature was something altogether new. "What about you?"

The soft breeze washed away the tension slowly, and then Jennifer chuckled...she realised her faux paux. "No no, silly, my name is Jennifer, not Nagasaki," she beamed a smile and relaxed, the fear and surprise draining away from her tiring muscles like sludge from a sluice gate. "This here is my Animus, he is called"

The faun cut in, "Anima..."

She glanced over her shoulder with a stern reprimand, "yes...Anima..."

[Harlequin]

“Anima?”

Twig wrinkled her nose at the word. With a soft pad she pushed her self from the rock and landed on her feet. The little girl straightened up and folded her arms behind her back like a drill sergeant
inspecting his troops. The girls feet kicked into the air in a faux marching step as she circled the faun.

“As in animal? Animated?” Twig questioned the faun without any real aim, “Well I guess its a better suiting name than 'Pleasant Smelling'.”

Twig danced away from the faun in a twirl of her long green-tinged hair giggling wildly. The little provocation stopped with Jennifer between her and the creature and shot it a cheeky smile.

“I'm home of course. Visiting the parents, greeting the siblings and pruning the family members. Sometimes people just don't know how to look after themselves, ya know?” Twig folded her arms and nodded solemnly as she agreed with herself.

“Salthas herb... salthas herb...” Twig's mind flashed back to the earlier point in the conversation, “Used for warts right?”

[Jennifer Oakley]

Jennifer chuckled. The sun on her neck and the lapping shore of the lake set the scene for a beautiful, pleasant introduction to one of the reasons she loved these lands so much. The very heart of Althanas talked, and it had sent her this fae to guide...or perhaps to test her.

"That's one it's applications, though I am searching for it for another reason." She rested forwards onto her staff and let the immediate tension that had formed in the first few moments of crossing paths with Twig fall away to the pebbles and rocks beneath her feet.

Anima twitched his ears and gruffly eased up too, the emotional drain from his stoic guardianship falling apart as the tranquillity cycled to and from between summon and summoner. The bird song and summer breeze set him fully at ease, and he let his hands fall to his sides. Whilst she talked, he looked out with a minimalistic wisdom on his brow at the distant shore, uninterested in their conversation.

"I am looking for it to make a healing poultice for one of my people, who has fallen ill to the sting of a creature found in this forest." A flash of the beast jolted her memory into a slight twitch, but she remained composed to not let slip the horror the creature had wrought on her people. Three lay dead, and three more dying in the Matriarch's hut, suffering terribly beneath the scolding weight of the creature's venom.

There were two hopes to save them. Twig, perhaps, held the key finding the herb. Jennifer thought for a moment, contemplating her course of action. If she played the game of thrones with this sprite, perhaps she might lead her to the creature, and in turn, Anima's blade to it's neck.

"Could you show me where it is, the herb...or perhaps you know of this fiend?" She raised an eyebrow inquisitively, and shrugged with her right shoulder half-cocked.