The Dendrites of Tulkar

[Rath]

His strained muscles shivered in the blistering cold. Torrential rain came thundering down upon Rath's exposed head, bouncing roughly off his scraggly hair. He huddled himself inside his shirt, attempting to shield as much of his body from the icicle-like drops that pelted against his skin. The clouds mocked his worn physique, intentionally blocking out the sun from warming his chilled limbs. Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the rain ceased, slowly. Gradually, the boy felt the rain pound against his heart slower and slower until he could no longer sense the drops. Rath slowly picked himself up off the ground as the sun peeked out from the edge of the clouds, appearing to be smirking at the traveler. Rath shot a peculiar look of contempt at the clouds, and commenced further into the woods.

At every turn, Rath could see nothing but trees, extending unto what seemed infinity. It had been days since he entered the vast forest to collect food for his continuous journey, but in his attempt to find his own way out of the forest, he had succeeded in getting himself even further lost in the ever repeating maze. Additionally, Rath discovered that despite the fact that he had plenty of food from the surrounding trees, there was no water nearby. The wanderer managed to live on the watery substance of the apples and oranges, but he knew it wouldn't sustain him for long. He would have to find a body of water eventually. Eventually, the goals changed for the young man. He entangled himself in this web, and so he must make sure he is fit first before attempting to break free from the sticky twine.

After wandering aimlessly for a few hours, Rath's alert ears began to pick up flowing water, but from the sounds he was discerning, he had no idea which direction it was coming from. The notification that there were fluids nearby revitalized him, however, and he quickened his pace to ascertain where this water really was. Rath quickly found the brook nearby, and rushed forward to take a long, relaxing sip. After quenching his thirst, he proceeded to splash some onto his worn face, feeling out the creases and relaxing it with the cold, crisp fluid. It was refreshing and inviting, given his lack of fluids for the past few hours.

Just then, the earth behind him cracked open, and the land began to shake. Startled, Rath turned around to face this new and unknown danger. A long tendril extended from the ground, thrashing wildly to escape its previous cage and give the appendage wiggling room. Enraptured by this monstrous , the young man gazed as the tendril first finished growing accustomed to its surroundings, and then gasped as the appendage opened the tip to reveal a glistening yellow eye, which locked on the defenseless boy. It closed the eye swiftly, and drew its whip-like body back, poised to strike. Finally realizing the true intent of the tendril, Rath attempted to roll out of the way, but it was to no avail. He felt the full force of the swinging appendage, and was tossed easily into the brook.

Rath groaned, clutching his side. Perhaps this water wasn't so good for him after all.

[Witchblade]

Witchblade was not a fan of the cold. It didn’t affect her like other races, in fact temperature changes barely affected her at all, but the snow was an obstacle she could do without. Sure it was pretty and sure, Daegun loved to run around and try to eat the fluffy flakes as they fell from the sky. But get enough of it on the ground and it made travelling just a little more difficult. That was why she could do without the cold. Of course today was a little different. Instead of snow, there was rain. It pelted down between the thick needles of the pine trees and splattered across the forest floor. She had taken refuge inside one of the many trees. Her body mostly kept safe from the downpour by the branches above her. Yet every now and again one snuck in and soaked into her clothing. She’d have to make a fire after the rain stopped to dry herself. Not to mention Daegun was shivering. Though the baby dragon was safely hidden away from the rain in her rucksack, which sat in her lap right now, she could feel his small body shaking from the cold.

A few hours passed and Witch preoccupied her time by thinking about why she was here. Salvar had never been her favourite region and the last time she’d stepped foot in it she’d nearly died…but she’d also made a friend. In fact, she’d made her only friend. Out of all the allies and companions she knew, Izvilvin was the only one she could truly trust. She had not seen him since The Cell and she wondered when next their passed would cross, or if they ever would again.

Still, that did not answer the question of why she had come back. Perhaps it was just something to do, or perhaps her creator had something to do with it.

Leaning back against the rough bark of the tree, Witch took in a deep breath and caught the scent of a human on the air. Glancing towards the forest floor, the halfling heard him long before she saw him. His uneven steps upon the pine needles and the branches were beacon for any creatures abound to attack him. How humans became such a dominant race was beyond her when they were so stupid. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they procreated so easily and spread like a disease. What got in their way, they destroyed. How she wished she could destroy all of them so easily.

Adjusting herself on the branch, the halfling watched as the human approached the small stream of water near to her. Hid form fell to his knees as he took a drink and splashed the cold liquid upon his face. Why she couldn’t imagine though, he was already soaked through and through from the rain. She would think he’d had enough of water for the moment.

Suddenly, the earth began to shake. The vibrations forcing their way up the tree the halfling was sitting in. She quickly wrapped her fingers around the rough branch she was sitting on to steady herself. Her other hand securely held on to her rucksack in case it should fall from her lap. From the crack in the ground came a long tendril, it’s body thrashing against the confines of the earth and slowly wriggling more and more of itself free. From the tip of the tendril came an eye, yellow and eerie, it’s gaze locked on the form of the human.

Now this is getting interesting…

From behind Witch, the ninja dressed all in black materialized from the darkness of the tree. Tapping her on the shoulder, the halfling turned around and grabbed the parchment it held in its hand. Once she had a hold of it, the ninja vanished as if never there. Shaking her head, Witchblade carefully unfolded and parchment to read the cursive writing scrawled across it.


You have to save the human before the Dendrite kills him. After you save him, you need to join forces and fight against Tulkar, who’s controlling these Dendrites.

The halfling looked from the parchment to the human and watched as he was knocked into the river by the tentacle, which she was guessing to be the Dendrite.

“I am not joining forces with that!”


P.S. The lair of Tulkar will be filled with all kinds of treasure, including magical items, weapons and anything else you may want.

The halfling growled low in her throat, “That’s bribery, and who says I need treasure? I’ve got enough weapons as it is…”

The branch beneath Witchblade suddenly broke, leaving the halfling grasping at the branch above her with one hand and her rucksack with the other.

“All right, all right…I’m going.”

Cursing the fact that her creator could be such a pain, the halfling let go of the branch and fell to the forest floor. Her impact barely made a sound and carefully she lowered her rucksack down as well. Reaching behind her into the darkness of her cloak, she pulled out her twin daggers. The familiar weight and the worn leather handles feeling at home within her hands. Not bothering to wait for an invitation, the halfling rushed the creature. The distance between them was covered in seconds and before the thing even knew she was there, she was burying the blade of her dagger in its side…if it even had a side. The attack seemed to phase the creature little and it quickly lashed back at her. The tentacle slamming against her body and sending her flying back into one of the trees. Her back crashed against the trunk of a tree forcing the air from her lungs as she fell to the forest floor. Wet pine needles poked against her skin and the soggy earth leaked out between them.

Growling, the halfling pulled herself up from the ground and shook her head. It would take more than that to bring her down.

The Dendrite quickly turned towards her, it’s large beady, yellow eye carefully observing her every move. As it lashed out against her, the halfling ducked beneath it and slashed at its under belly with her dagger. Straightening herself, the halfling used her telekinesis to pull one of her throwing daggers from the sheath around her hips and send the blade hurtling towards the creature. The honed piece of Titanium imbedded itself in the Dendrite’s eye, which thrashed around violently from the assault.

“Let’s see you fight blind…”

[Jasmine]

Jasmine trudged wearily through the forest wishing she had a hood to protect her head from the never-ceasing rain. She had entered the forest a few days ago as she journeyed south toward civilization again. She had been much further north, where the Grey Braves’ tower had once stood. She’d gone there to see how much of it, if any, still stood. All she found was a pile of rubble that could have been anything at one time. She had carried a great deal of bitter anger at the Braves’ leaders to that place, but she had also buried it there. Now, she was eager to return to her new home in Akashima with Zerith. Scowling up at the sky, she shrugged her shoulders against the rain and held her cloak closer to her body.

Right about then, the earth rumbled as she staggered a few steps at the unexpected movement. It didn’t last long and she was going to continue on, but curiosity nagged at her. What in Salvar could’ve made the earth rumble like that for such a short period of time. She’d never heard of earthquakes being commonplace here. Loosening her sword in its scabbard, she listened carefully for sounds of some immense creature or a sign of the earth rumbling again. She heard neither until a splash announced someone or something falling into a body of water. Thinking that whatever caused the ground to shake must be in that direction, she headed there as quickly as she could.

As she came within sight of the river, her eyes scanned the scene quickly, then almost popped out of her head as she got a good look at the thing before her thrashing around wildly. She could see the hilt of knife sticking out from the tip and wondered briefly what had been there. Wasting little time, she drew her sword and stepped closer to the creature. Deftly, she jumped over it as it swung toward her in its pained thrashing, then darted forward, slashing down the right side. She had no idea what this creature was, but she did see that there were people fighting it and that her help could be used. Once her sword was clear of the creature she backed away to see how it would respond to its further wounds.

Rain still poured down, keeping her black hair slicked back and dripping from her sword. She barely noticed it now though, as she kept her eyes trained on the creature before her.