The Eserian came to life.
The vicinity awakened to a flurry of chaos. Time seemed to crawl. The undergrowth rustled as if enraged. Roots burst out of the ground, and the trees all around the clearing shuddered. Then their branches came to life.
Roots of all sizes shot toward the soldiers from every direction and coiled around their legs and waists. After that came the vines. They whizzed through the air like whips and lashed out at the soldiers. Finally came the branches. Their ends were pointed, unlike anything I had ever seen, and they shot forward, piercing through skin and flesh.
The soldiers tried to resist, but fear flooded their systems. The swift soldier blocked one attack, but nature's wrath kept him rooted, restraining his movements as the pointed ends of branches pierced through his hands and arms, then through his chest and head.
Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere, and the images of raw, unfiltered slaughter etched themselves into my mind. At last, I turned to several figures peeling themselves from nature itself.
One of them looked familiar.
It was Fern, her beauty unmatched even as her presence oozed killing intent. Those eyes–ice-cold and ready to decimate all who intended to harm her people. I really liked them.
A faint smile bloomed on my lips even as more and more blood pooled around me on the ground.
I saved them, I thought as the antler girl's blurry frame appeared above me. Her scream rang in my ears, but her words were impossible to make out.
They don't need my help anymore. Fern is here.
Then came the darkness.
***
Fern's heart skipped a beat when she saw Xavier. For a moment, she feared the worst. She thought he had betrayed her trust and joined the empire's soldiers to hunt the grove's harvesters.
Seeing the dead Forest Folk made her unimaginably furious. It was even worse than it had been all those years ago. She felt betrayed, angry, and guilty all at once. If Xavier truly had shattered her trust and joined the soldiers, then it was her fault that her people had died. She would bear that blame.
That, however, didn't seem necessary.
"Don't hurt him!" a young, familiar voice cried out frantically. "You're hurting him!"
Kaia, a young Forest Folk girl, squealed and thrashed as the force of the Forest Elder descended upon Xavier's unconscious body. The soldiers had been her priority, but now that they were taken care of, it was Xavier's time. Roots coiled around his limbs as thorny vines and smaller branches whipped down toward his unprotected chest, only to halt abruptly as Kaia threw herself on top of him.
That was all Fern needed to see.
She leaped into action, jumping to the ground and turning into an emerald blur that reached Xavier in an instant.
She arrived in front of Kaia's shivering form with a relieved smile. Xavier's breathing was labored, but he was still alive. So long as Kaia stopped crushing his chest. Blood spilled from several wounds across his chest and arms, some mild, others severe. Wounds he could only have received from the soldiers, as neither the Forest Folk harvesters nor the Flower Fairies carried weapons.
"He helped you?" Fern asked Kaia quietly, even though she already knew the answer in her heart.
The young Forest Folk girl looked up, her eyes red, tears streaming down her cheeks, and nodded. "I… He… Mother!"
She tried to get to her feet, only to slam her knee into Xavier's chest. His eyes snapped open for a brief moment, his face contorting in utter agony.
"Don't move, Xavier. We will help you," Fern said, running her hand across his cheek before she even realized she was doing it. "You are safe with us."
"T-thanks," he groaned weakly before his eyes rolled back until only the whites were visible.
"Oh no! Did I–" Kaia stumbled again, but Fern caught the little girl.
"He will be fine. Don't worry, sweetheart," Fern said, patting Kaia even as she felt the presence of multiple people behind her.
She turned to one of the guards. "Bring Kaia to her mother. Make sure she doesn't see any of the dead. She has suffered more than enough already."
"What about…" The guard accompanying the grove's Elder hesitated, his eyes drifting from Fern to Xavier. "Him?"
"He rescued Kaia," Fern said sharply.
"And me," a more mature voice added from the side.
It was Kaia's mother, her deer-like eyes still trembling with fear. Another guard had wrapped her in a blanket, though torn remnants of her dress were still visible beneath it.
"At least, I think he did. I… I am not quite sure what happened. It's all so confusing."
"Mom!" Kaia leaped into her mother's arms, and they both collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
"What are we going to do about him?" another guard asked. His voice was still sharp, but it had lost some of its edge.
"We should kill him. He's human," one of the guards snarled, fury burning in her eyes.
Fern understood her anger. She too had lost much to the Zetrian Empire. But she could not allow them to kill Xavier. He didn't deserve to die.
"No!" Kaia cried, still sobbing as she scrambled to her feet. Her mother tried to hold her back, but the little Forest Folk girl was already speaking.
"He is no human! He is a Kerink! Or… a Hnoll? Maybe he is part human? And part serpent? A little bit of everything, maybe?"
The more Kaia spoke, the more confused she became.
Fern glanced toward the Elder, hoping for a trace of kindness or mercy, but all she found was anger. It wasn't as hateful as the guards', yet it promised trouble nonetheless.
"His name is Xavier," Fern said, stepping in front of his unconscious body and placing herself between him and her people. "And he can transform. He takes on the shapes of the Eserian's monsters."
She hesitated before adding, "But he is human."
Unfortunately.
The Elder raised an eyebrow, her gaze shifting from Fern to Xavier.
"You know him?" Her voice was cold, not entirely devoid of emotion, but there was no change in her expression. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
"Yes," Fern said, lowering her head. "I found him a few days ago. He was lost and…"
"He smells like you," the Elder interrupted.
Fern froze. Several heads snapped in her direction.
She had to make a decision. Now.
Either she made up an excuse, claimed she owed him a favor for some vague reason, and risked Xavier's execution anyway… or–
Her heart skipped another beat as the other option surfaced.
"Yes, he does," she said slowly, nodding. "Because he belongs to me."
She lifted her chin.
"He's mine."