A Walk In The Winter Woods (Belenos, Iollan, Galaeron)

Ailín had left Iollan to lock up the store alone a while ago, giving the older elf time to walk to city’s edge alone. The druid was off on a house call, winter sickness finally needing a healer’s attention. The trouble was, Ailín had meant to meet a friend of his, for business purposes (or something of the like), and he hated letting people down.

So that was where Iollan came in. Who was he to deny his brother?

The snow fell gently on the dark elf, wrapped neatly in his forget-me-not cloak, its hood pulled up to protect his ears. The cold nipped at what it could reach, namely his nose and cheeks, but that was a small price to pay. He was still, for the most part, sitting up against a nearby tree and content to wait in this relatively peaceful place (the path’s entrance did not quite court the dangers of Wispwood, and no one else was passing through the area in this weather). Every so often he’d turn away from the path’s entrance to observe sudden snowfall, a bough above having finally dropped its burden. Nothing more, no monster to be faced.

Iollan perked up at the sound of footsteps, and carefully rose to his feet as someone came into view. “Would you happen to be Belenos?” he called, his voice calm, even gentle, in comparison to the crisp winter around them.

Hm.

Iollan made quick judgment of things, of people. Never final ones, as to do so would be simultaneously cruel and unwise. Always just a quick glancing over of others and picking up any useful notes to remember – a skill drilled into him by his family, and one that came into great use in all matters, be it Wispwood, Coven, or social.

Body language, clothing, physical appearance. Hmm. Combined that with what his brother had warned him about (okay, no, not ‘warned’ – Ailín would be offended if Iollan described his cheerful chatter in such a way), and it made for an interesting human.

The dark elf’s smile was kind, listening to the other talk and simply bowing his head in acknowledgement of the weather. “It is good to meet you as well,” he said, reaching out to shake the man’s hand, then to carefully readjust the satchel at his belt and the bag over his shoulder - they shouldn’t be going that far, relatively speaking, but even Iollan did not like the idea of being unprepared. Getting caught off-guard would be so aggravating. “Yes, it’d be best for us to go now. Freezing to death would not be a fun way to go, hm?” Giving the human another reassuring smile, he smiled, returning his own limbs under the safety of his cloak as he headed down the path, careful not to stray more than a step or two from the healer.

    Belenos did his best to ignore the icy breeze as he trailed closely behind Iollan. The strange pair made their way thorough the of chilliest of airs, the stubborn, reluctant sort that heeded no mention of the risen sun. The level of snow was starting to rise now as well, a slow, lazy crawl over the vegetation of an otherwise sleepy Wispwood. For a forest with such a terrifying reputation and a belly full of such unsavory creatures, it was, at shallow glance, a place of peace for the moment.

    But, there were shadows still. And in the shadows, there lurked movement - quick, hurried feet, racing against the dwindling afternoon. If one looked closely enough, they could see the glittering ruby eyes as they glanced about sizing up prey. For this reason, the healer found himself a little on edge, eyes shifting about to constantly cover his range of sight. When he heard faint footsteps in the distance, a once covered hand instantly reached out to tug on his partners cloak in warning. 

    However, they had nothing to worry about it seemed, the noise just belonged to another elf making his away down their same path. What a terrible day to be doing such a thing.

    A courteous greeting sounded through the air, and Belenos was the first to respond back, a pleasant expression coving his rosy cheek. 

    "'Lo~....terrible weather for taking a stroll there~ "

    

The elf eyed the two reactions to his presence and then placed his hands up. “No worries, not here to eat or mane you,” like most of the creatures that resided here. Galaeron couldn’t help but laugh inwardly at his comment. A tiny smirk pulled at the corner of his lip, but it soon quickly dropped while hearing their greetings. Galaeron quirked a brow and stared at the other elf, "...."  her voice was rather masculine for a girl, and...it was rather weird. However Galaeron tried his best to look past it and keep his composure, “what? Are you kidding me? This weather is beautiful” only being partially sarcastic. It may be bitterly cold, but the snow…..it was pretty nice to watch it fall down to the forest ground and blanket  everything. It was also sort of relaxing especially after the fight he got into.



Galaeron looked up to the sky for a moment before sighing, “I wasn’t exactly strolling. I just, needed to get out of the city, you know” which was also true. Galaeron leaned against a trunk of a tree then crossed his arm under his starry cloak, “well now, what are you guys doing out here, friends?”

Iollan raised his eyebrows back at the other dark elf, still smiling though now studying him and his expression more closely. Did he know him? Hopefully not, as the reverse was not true - and Iollan made it a point to at least recognize the Iadlish citizens, even if names (shamefully) slipped his mind. Which either meant that this man was not from Iadlain, or Iollan had been slacking on his info-gathering. He was more inclined to believe the former. So here was a stranger - Relan, likely, quite a bit away from home. He made a mental note to see if the elf arrived in Iadlain, later.

"Mm, beautiful, I agree," he replied, glancing at the snow-covered path before conceding to Belenos' words with a light nod. "I suppose it would be best to hurry, lest the weather worsen. Perhaps we'll meet again, my friend."

He stepped aside to move past the unknown dark elf and follow his human companion, who was ahead of him just a pace or two. The ground was uneven here, and while Iollan made to circumvent it Belenos stepped into a pile of snow - and appeared to immediately regret it.

“Come, now, move back - oh, sweet Atros.” As soon as the human lifted his foot, white snow was replaced by discolored red hidden beneath. Iollan wrinkled his nose as he reached for his bag. From within he pulled out a pair of gloves, clearly meant for protection against harm, perhaps against thorns and foliage, and not the cold.

He knelt, shooing Belenos back with a gesture, and began to brush away the snow. It was relatively recent - the top layer was thin, making uncovering the body fairly easy - but not so recent that the stranger was guilty. Unless, of course, the smaller dark elf decided it would be easier to bury the body in snow rather than move it off the path.

A light frown graced his features as he stared down at frozen, half-lidded eyes. An Iadlish citizen, dark elf, and mauled by something that gutted him quite roughly, leaving the ragged wound that Belenos stepped in. He worked at one of the cafes around town. How unfortunate.

“We should probably return him to his family,” Iollan murmured, glancing briefly up at Belenos as he did. They were close enough to the city that Iollan couldn’t justify disposing of the body otherwise, as gory as it was. Not to mention, he had company who probably wouldn’t approve of him summoning his own monster to clean up. “If we leave him here, he’ll just attract more beasts,” he said instead, rearranging the limbs over the torso. As he did, he caught sight of something clutched in frozen fingers. He pried them out with some difficulty.

An empty pouch, and a fire striker?

Something crashed through the underbrush. Iollan whipped his head around, back down the path to Iadlain. There was just the stranger, there, but not for long - a tree come to life lurched onto the path, blocking the way to the city. Even at this distance, he could see that it wasn’t moving right, and where its roots lashed through the snow dark soot was left behind.

Wounded or not, it was still an ent. Iollan pulled himself to his feet, and yelled for the other elf to run.

Sights, sounds and even the smell of blood in the air consumed him as he squared his thin shoulders, multicolored eyes set forward, ready to dash straight. This was sheer madness, why did such a thing have to happen on this day? In these conditions?

Normally Belenos enjoyed the riddles of the upper Ents, of which could occasionally be spoken with, but he didn't possess quite as much love for the brute variety, of which was currently after them. With their mad blood thirst and hallow insides, they only functioned to hunt and carry off their pray to a hidden location to feast.

Someone however, he noticed, had tried to spark a fire against this beast, and a fire in the belly of a brute was it's absolute weakness, a dangerous tool of the plant's enemies. It was fortunate, as these creatures, if left unchecked and unchallenged, could rage like an uncontrollable wildfire out and into the city of Iadlain.

At any rate, they couldn't outrun the beast even if it was injured, and one of them had quickly stamp it out, until not even embers remained. There was a fire starter on the corpse, and the shop owner quickly snatched it before taking off one foot leaving a bloody trail after him.

Curly locks flew behind him as the healer sprinted after his partner, not very quickly, nor coordinated. His body was just not used to running anymore, those days long left behind in Song-Lu. And sadly the Ent was quick on it's roots behind them.

"Iollan, we can't outrun this brute, we're going to have to do something!"

As much as Belenos shied away from taking life, they might not have much of a choice.

Just a few more meters


The dark elf told himself until, "GAH!!" one of the roots of the Ent swiftly wrapped around his ankle. And before he knew it, Galaeron fell face first into the ground and was immediately dragged across it. 

NO nononononononono! NO!


It was the only word that rang throughout Galaeron's mind as he hopelessly tried to latched onto different stones and roots of different trees. But compared to the shear force of the ent, Gal was ripped away from whatever he tried to hold onto.

"GOD DAMN IT HELP ME!!!" the young dark elf squeaked Screamed as he was hoisted up into the air. Galaeron wasted no time and immediately started to struggle and squirm within the ent's grasp. Having no blades or daggers on him, the elf pulled his body up and started to scratch at the roots around his ankle, "Put. Me. DOWN god Damn it! You overgrown Piece of Pap---!!!"

This anger the woodland creature even more than it was before, and it tighten its grip on Galaeron's ankle. Pain shot through the elf's system as the ent also screamed in his face and shook the young dark elf like a rag doll. Feeling "dizzy" was an understatement, Galaeron wanted to completely throw his guts up.

When he was able to gather his bearings, Galaeron began to notice that he was advancing towards the creature's mouth. "Oh...NONONONONONO!NONO!NONONONO!!!" the elf screamed at the top of his lungs. "YOU'RE A TREE!" Gal snapped, "A FUCKING TREE! GO ADSORB SOME FUCKING SUNLIGHT! DON'T YOU DARE EAT ME I SWEAR TO ATROS!!" Galaeron yelled at the thing as he tried to push himself away from the ent, by pushing off of the wooden part of its face. In response the roots of the ent continued to apply pressure around the elf's ankle until it broke, and the elf screamed at the top of his lungs.