The White Apple Campaign 7 - Family Matters

Vasher hurt all over, inside and out. He had been revived and healed a bit, but he had died today. That left an impression. He could still feel the little boy’s hand where it had covered his mouth. Feel the death spreading from there. Had he seen something in that place? Heard a voice? When the radiance of Lenny’s magic brought him back it burned away whatever he had been experiencing like the sun through fog. Almost like those experiences could not follow him back into this world. Not even in memory.

The entire experience had left him raw and psychically naked. The physical toll had him aching and exhausted, but the new perspective carried him forward. The people around him seemed so much more vibrant now. Shining beckons of life against the dead surroundings. That life screamed at Vasher now, almost as if he could hear each of their heartbeats against the dead silence. They formed a counter beat to his own heart in his mind. Then, somehow, he was humming along to the rhythm again.

Bedraggled from the day of fighting, the group didn’t make it far from the river before settling down to camp. To Vasher’s mild comfort, camping was becoming routine. People had their spots, a rotation of rations had been established, and having Lenny to cover half the night’s watch was making those rotations easy a well. Tonight, it was Jr. who volunteered to take watch.

“Are you sure?” Lenny asked to the suggestion.

“Yeah,” Jr. said. “I won’t be able to sleep for a bit anyway. I’m not to beat up either. I just ran that whole last fight.”

I wonder what the lich showed her.Vasher thought, noticing her avoiding eye contact with Lenny.

“Ok, well, I guess I’ll get some sleep then.” Lenny complied.

Before she was settled, Vasher walked over to her as she was rolling out her bedroll.

“Thank you for today.” He said quietly from behind.

“For what?” Lenny asked, turning.

“You saved my life. I shouldn’t have blown my cover.”

“Oh, I do that all the time!” Lenny laughed. “It’s no big deal. I didn’t even know you were all the way dead!”

“Let me assure you I was.” Vasher replied, starting to smile again.

“I’ve seen people look worse and not be dead. Liking the buzz cut by the way. Makes you look younger.”

Vasher raised a hand involuntarily to his snowy white stubble. It bristled under his calloused hand as he rubbed it. A strange feeling. It had never been this short before.

“It’s a bit liberating I suppose.” Vasher said. “I was going to glamor it back on, but after today I don’t know. Maybe it’s a good reminder of a new start. Or I’ve just given up trying to make it stay.”

Lenny chuckled.

“Anyway, thanks. I hope you don’t ever have to do it again.”

“You got it!” Lenny said with a smile. “You’ve been too helpful around anyway. You saved people’s lives on that boat. It’s time someone did the same for you.”

This gave Vasher a wan smile, but as he turned to go, he could see the jaws closing around Rat. He saved who he could. He would keep doing so.

The next morning was fresh on the other side of the river. No more humidity or excessive heat. It was like they had stumbled into a micro climate. It made for one of the more pleasant mornings Vasher had had on the island. He stretched and checked that each of his companions were safe. Each roll was occupied, and Johnathan could be heard rustling about in the tent with is supplies. Lenny was still at her post, sitting on a large rock and watching the sunrise. Everyone accounted… but wait. Where was Uru?

Scanning the surroundings there was not a speck of emerald green or white. Usually he would be in the northeast part of camp, standing until the mortals were done resting their bodies. Now, the guide of the last few days was gone.

Vasher pondered waking the others but decided to let them sleep. It was going to be an interesting day already. So, instead, he walked over to Lenny. She sat on a high stone with her legs pulled up against her chest, still watching the sunrise.

“Have you seen Uru?” Vasher asked when he was close enough.

Lenny didn’t respond.

He asked again louder.

Lenny stirred and looked around, her reverie broken.

“Did you doze off?” Vasher asked.

“No… No, it’s just… sleeping is getting harder.” Lenny replied as she climbed off the stone.

“I’m worried too.” Vasher said softly. “This is a dangerous place for many reasons.”

“It’s not that.” Lenny replied. “It’s these dreams I have been having. If I sleep well enough, I dream of vines line what were on the ship. Then, it’s like there is a skin over my face and I can’t breathe. My lungs burn and my stomach cramps. When I wake up, everything is fine, but my stomach still hurts…. I think the same thing is happening to Hemswick. I see him wake up at night too. Did I tell you he tasted an apple too?”

Vasher took this all in for a second. On top of Uru missing, the implications were all just too much. His instincts pushed him to comfort her, but he was getting to know this woman.

“Uru is gone.” Vasher said, plainly.

Lenny froze. A look of shock on her face.

“Was he there when you started your watch?” Vasher went on.

“Um, I.” Lenny trailed off, looking northeast. “It was dark. The moon is waning. Jr. woke me up with a kick in the face.” She pointed to a fresh bruise on her left cheek. “I think she is still mad at me for yesterday.”

“I see.” Vasher said.

“She didn’t say anything was out of the ordinary, so I just walked around and settled here. I think I got kinda lost in thought after these dreams. I’m such an idiot!” Lenny’s voice was raising with each word and she kicked a rock that flew dangerously close to the slumbering Hemswick. Lenny gasped and held her breath until the rock passed just over his head.

They both sighed with relief.

“Well, let’s go ask Jr. then.” Vasher said and the two walked to the opposite side of camp.

Jr. was just stirring when they arrived. She flexed her entire tiny body in one mighty stretch, joints popping and cracking. Then she stood up quickly, stumbled, and when she righted herself she was as awake as Vasher had ever seen her.

“Morning!” Vasher was the first to say.

Jr. sniffed her shirt, made a face, and said, “I was really hoping to get a bath in that river. You know, just jump in with my clothes on and get it all done at once.”

“I think we all were.” Vasher agreed. Everyone was starting to look and smell a bit stale.

“Anyway. Did you see anything last night?” Vasher went on.

“No.” Jr. spat, looking away.

“Nothing?” Lenny asked.

“I would have told you.” Jr. said, looking at her sharply.

They are starting to make up. Vasher thought. She wouldn’t look at anyone yesterday.

“What’s this?!” Came Hemswick’s croaking morning voice from behind them.

“Uru is gone.” Vasher said without tuning to face Hemswick.

“Weren’t you two supposed to be keeping watch?” He shot at Jr. and Lenny.

They both crossed their arms and looked opposite directions away from him.

“Worthless.” Hemswick said, pulling up his trousers and lacing his boots.

“What is worthless?” Johnathan asked sticking his head from the tent flaps.

“Uru’s gone.” Jr. said

“Oh dear.” Johnathan said, looking at the ground. Then he looked up. “Where are we going now then?”

“That is the question.” Vasher said, then noticed Hemswick bend over and pick up something small and glinting green.

Walking over to investigate, Vasher could make out way looked like the bit of vine Johnathan had been drawing on the boat all those days ago. But it was thinner and more detailed in shape. It was a green finger bone. One of the spindly ones from the end of the hand. What were those called? Something carpals Vasher could recall. Regardless, it was unmistakably Uru’s.

Hemswick and Vasher scanned the ground where the bone had been found. Just barely, Vasher could make out an indentation in the old grass and mud leading due north. It was a trail.

“I want to follow the trail.” Vasher proclaimed.

“What trail?” Johnathan asked while Lenny broke down the tent behind him.

“Look there.” Vasher pointed.

Johnathan squinted and nodded slowly. “Yes, there is something there.”

Without asking, Hemswick started walking.

“You want to get to the bottom of this too?” Vasher asked Lenny and Jr.

“We have to don’t we?” Lenny said, settling her packs, and the husk of the lich boy, on her shoulders.

“Nothing else to follow.” Jr. agreed.

Vasher shivered when he saw the Lich boy, trauma still fresh from yesterday. He knew it would take time to pass. He had dealt with trauma before. Most people that made it to his age got pretty good at dealing with trauma. Dying was just an extra buffer at this point.

As expected, the weather made the going easier, but it was strange for Vasher to lead himself again. Either a boat or a skeleton had chosen his path for so long now. As he walked with his companions, there were no signs of any more bones. Only the trail of trodden grass and mud to follow. Eventually, the rocks started to show evidence of ferns long dead. They crinkled into grey dust when touched leaving no trace on the stone when they were gone. They grew thicker and thicker and other plant remains lingered on fallen, near petrified, logs.

The diversity of life was greater here than the rest of the island. Vasher mused. I hope to life itself that these aren’t the corpses of the greenwood Uru hoped to find. He has been so shocked by the state of this place… Even the soil suggested this had been an old forest. Each step, Vasher’s foot sank a few centimeters into the loamy soil. No life left to consume these nutrients. Not even in the soil. Earth like this is like gold sitting in a vault where no one can find it. Eyeing Johnathan’s note taking, he was likely observing the same things. Vasher didn’t know about plants like Johnathan, but he knew dirt. It was in his blood.

A large stone loomed in the distance interrupting the monotony of the day’s early anxious walking. It was the same as all the other stones that had become more plentiful on this side of the river, but it was larger by far and, Vasher noticed, seemed to have something green on top of it. It was too far to tell exactly what it was, but in this land of brown and white, green glinted like gold in the day’s light. Excited at the prospect of anything growing at all, Vasher picked up his pace, spurring the rest of the group to follow suite.

It was a green skull. With a hole in the middle of the forehead. Someone or something had left Uru’s skull for them to find here. Again, they had been led like sheep in their very efforts to survive.

Lenny ran to the stone first. She clambered on top and scooped up the skull to hold it close to her chest. Then she slid down the smooth southern face of the stone to plop into the dead grass and ferns. She sat there for a while, looking at the skull while Vasher and the other’s approached.

“He was the only one who knew what was going to happen to me.” Lenny said when all gathered around her.

“He’s also the one who poisoned you in the first place.” Jr. said, drawing a chiding laugh from Hemswick.

“He didn’t make me eat that apple. He just gave it to me.” Lenny argued. “I got myself into this, and he helped me understand what I had done…”

After a pause, she perked up, looking around the group.

“Johnathan! Come here for a sec!” She said, and threw the corpse boy over her shoulder onto the ground.

“Want to ask it some questions then?” Johnathan asked politely, as if he was a librarian asked for the location of an old book.

He breathed into his fingers and repeated the now daily ritual of speaking to the dead. The boy shot up again and looked for who would speak to it first. This time, Lenny herself spoke before the others.

“Who did this to Uru?” Lenny asked.

“My brother.” The boy rasped, locking eyes with Lenny.

“Why are you all trying to kill us?” Jr. asked, drawing a nod from Vasher and Jonathan.

“To stop mother.” It replied when Lenny asked the question herself.

Wait what? Vasher thought at this. Uru said he was mother when we asked on the ship. Why haven’t they just been attacking him? Why spirit him away now?

Lost in thought, Vasher didn’t hear what was going on around him until he heard Lenny ask, “Where is the Farland with the remedy?”

The corpse boy pointed to the northwestern mountains and said “There, with my Master.”

Answers dispensed he fell to the ground, limp and lifeless as usual.

“So the remedy and the phylactery are both on the opposite side of the island than we are going.” Lenny said, looking at the corpse boy.

“It would seem that way,” Johnathan said and placed a hand on Lenny’s shoulder.

“Then where are we going.” Hemswick asked.

“It took us so long just to get here.” Jr. said. “And Uru said we were close to food before he was dismantled. Hey Vasher, what do you think?”

“Hmm?” Vasher started, normally he was quite attentive, but something the lich boy had said was still echoing in his mind.

“To stop mother.”

“Where should we go?” Jr. repeated.

“Did you all catch the second question?” Vasher asked.

“What does that have to do with –“ Hemswick started to protest but Vasher went on.

“He said that they were trying to kill us to stop mother.”

Everyone stared at Vasher with silent concern. No nods, but he had their attention to continue.

“When we asked Uru if he was mother. He said yes. But he also said he was taking us to mother.”

“That was confusing.” Johnathan agreed.

“Well, he changed into that skeleton thing after taking bites of the white apples. I reckon those apples were from this mother. I’ve heard tell of trees that look separate, but under the earth, they are all the same single tree.” Vasher continued.

“That is true.” Johnathan confirmed.

“Ok!” Vasher’s tone grew focused and measured. “So maybe whoever carries those seeds is mother, like trees that only look separate.”

This note made Lenny clutch at her stomach. But Vasher had to keep going to put it all together.

“Some seeds also only grow in certain soil conditions too right?” He continued.

Johnathan nodded.

“So all that considered, I think we are caught in a war my friends.” Vasher concluded.

“What do you mean?” Lenny asked, still holding her stomach.

“Well I only know as much as we all do, but these liches are committed to preventing us from reaching the place Uru was leading us. That means its strategic territory. If I am right about the seeds being the link to mother, and about soil, it means that if our seeds reach that spot, something bad will happen to the liches. Maybe the entire island will be effected.”

“I see!” Johnathan snapped his ink-stained fingers. “It’ll be like introducing an invasive grass with no natural primary consumers!”

Everyone looked at Johnathan, clearly lost.

“Oh, um. I mean it will take over the island whether they like it or not.” Johnathan clarified.

“Yes.” Vahser replied.

“Well then I say we keep northeast!” Johnathan said.

“Agreed.” Jr. said.

Hemswick just started walking.

Vasher helped Lenny get situated with her burdens as the group restarted the trek. She ceremoniously placed Uru’s skull in her pack. It was just small enough to squeeze through the opening and vanish into the cavernous depths it held.

“If I am right.” Vasher said quietly. “He’s still alive, at least as we knew him.”

Lenny turned with a questioning glance.

“We only ever knew him in his… green state. He told us he was mother. If we meet this mother in the greenwood, she’ll be a part of him. Or he was a part of her? Something like that.”

Lenny’s face was unreadable.

After a bit of walking she said, “That would mean that if I change, I’ll be mother too.”

Vasher cursed himself immediately for not considering that. He just wanted to ease her loss, not point out her doom.

Vasher opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. That one err was enough for now. Best let her process on her own.

The day grew pleasantly warm as the sun reached its zenith. The total lack of insulation that a forest would provide made the nights remarkably chilly for the heat of the days so Vasher relished the feeling of his fingertips thawing out. He turned his face to the sky and let the sun soak into stubbly areas where his eyebrows and bangs used to shade him. When he opened his eyes and the world came back into focus, there was a black silhouette on the horizon.

No. Vasher thought. Not again. A few hundred yards ahead, a figure sat in the middle of a clearing. Not so much a clearing as a grass field circled by fallen logs. Looking to Lenny, however, the lich child was still slung over her shoulder. Whatever awaited them was someone, something, new.

Everyone seemed to take notice of the figure, but something about the pattern of the last few days made no one even question what came next. Vasher shared glances with Lenny, Jr. Johnathan, they were all ready to head straight into this mess.

Drawing closer, there was a speck of white stark against the figures black outfit. It was a rabbit. With actual fur on it. He was stroking it with a green skeletal hand. This is who they were looking for.

“Hello!” The voice called. It was bright and affable, but threatening, like a jailor greeting his inmates in the morning.

Everyone froze. Not from fear, but from experience. Each person fell into flanking the other and a quiet but solid tension emanated between them.

“It appears you have my brother.” Hearing more, Vasher noticed that this one had an accent from a region adjacent to Vasher’s home town.

Each one has a different way of speaking. Vasher thought. Is their father a collector perhaps?

“We got your sister too!” Jr. yelled across the field.

“Oh, I don’t have a sister.” The man said standing, still petting the rabbit with Uru’s hand. “At least, she’s not my full sister. We only share a father. She’s fine by the way, despite your noble efforts. Now, would you be so kind as to give my brother back?”

“Come and get him!” Lenny bellowed to him, tossing the corpse to the floor with a clatter.

The figure sneered and slowly approached the group. As he walked, Vasher noticed the rabbit was dead. Where did he find one with fur and meat? Vasher wondered. This was the most alive thing he had seen in days, even in its freshly dead state.

“I don’t see why you won’t just come to me. My name is Jasper. What are yours?” The figure asked. From this close he was actually a fairly handsome man. Long golden hair and clean shaven, he was like a painting of a high elf, aside from the red glints that kept shining through his blue eyes.

When no one answered, he continued, “I practically saved you from that deceitful elf. I know my siblings have been rude to you but you know children. They love new toys and they can be cruel when bored. I however, want to help you.”

“Help us?” Lenny chided. “Impossible.”

“Oh, not so impossible, just difficult and requiring a bit of trust. Which you clearly have a surplus of, coming all the way out here. You’ve been tainted you see. My father can offer the cure. If you follow me.” He eyed his brother as he drew closer. “And if you give me my brother.”

“Take him.” Lenny said kicking the corpse towards the threateningly suave man.

This made him bristle slightly, but he placed the rabbit under one arm, and bent over to collect his brother’s bones.

“Thanks for that!” He said. Eyeing Hemswick and Johnathan who had been silent thus far.

“These two are awful quiet ey?” He asked. “I’ve seen what you two can do. Saving your tiny friends with fire and blade. Bet you’re tainted too though. I’ve been watching.”

“Fuck you.” Hemswick spat.

“Oh, if I still could I probably would be a lot more nice to people.” The man said, flashing a shining grin. “So what’ll it be? Follow me, or end up like your friend?” He waggled Uru’s hand at Hemswick.

Something inside of Vasher changed then. He remembered how good it felt when his voice slammed into the lich girl, buying his friends time to roast her. He remembered reviving to see his friends standing over the husk of yet another defeated power. He remembered that he had died, and it somehow hadn’t mattered in the end. He didn’t have any single reason left to be cautious.

“No.” Vasher said.

“Excuse me?” The man asked lazily.

“We have been walking this road for days now. Following the very person that hijacked our boat, and for what? To die of starvation or get turned to plants? No, not any more. We aren’t following anyone.”

“Yeah!” His companions cheered in agreement.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” The man said, the red rising in his eyes.

“You should be.” Vasher went on, something in him was swelling and there was no stopping it. “You should be sorry how insignificant you are to us.”

This actually broke the man’s smile. He glared at Vasher, but Vasher didn’t care. In defiance, he took two big steps forward so that he was toe to toe with the man who loomed feet above him.

“We slaughtered your sister. We slaughtered your brother. And we are going to drag your body behind us in the dirt the way we did theirs.”

Vasher could almost feel the righteous indignation burning out of his eyes as he stared down the looming man who, amazingly, took a trembling step backwards.

“Well look at the tiny gnome.” He said with the slightest quaver in his voice. “You can’t stand up to me. I’ll just come back while you’re sleeping. Pick you off one by one like I did your friend.” He threw Uru’s hand at Vasher and it clattered to the ground at his feet.

Vasher grinned. “I don’t think you understand me. You’re done.”

A knife sprouted from the looming man’s handsome face and snapped his head back. When he turned his face back to Vasher, no blood poured from the wound, but his eyes shown bright red. He threw the dead rabbit to the ground near where he had left his brother and drew long twin scimitars from his back. In turn, Vasher hummed into his free hand and the fire beetle crackled to life yet again. In an instant, his friends were running to him.

The lich cackled and threw one of his scimitars at Lenny as she started to run to join Vahser. It flew over Vasher’s head and cut through her armor causing her to wince in pain.

Well, that was a waste of a weapon.Vasher thought as the fire beetle buzzed from his palm to assail the lich. Then Vasher saw the scimitar soar back over his head back into the lich’s hand. Everyone was shocked at the display and it was exactly what he wanted.

Hemswick bellowed as he swung his ragged sword at the enemy. It caught the lich’s head and cleaved a hemisphere of it right off, revealing a dry and crumbling interior. Before the skull cap could even hit the ground, however, the flying scimitar returned to the lich’s hand. He shifted position lazily paying no mind to his injury, and ran Hemswick through.

The scimitar slid effortlessly through his armor to come out the other side of the Constable. Somehow, the lich used the other scimitar to fend off other attacks just long enough to kick Hemswick off his blade to fall lifeless to the dirt. Blood seeping into the fertile loam.

Vasher’s heart screamed for him to rush to revive the fallen man, but the threat of flying scimitars was too pressing. Determined to fight through the fray to help Hemswick, Vasher locked eyes with the lich, and Vasher saw hesitation. He really is scared of us now!

“Let’s show him what we think of his family!” Came Lenny’s voice right beside Vasher. Her rapier was radiant even against the midday sun.

Vasher nodded, leveled his spear, and charged with Lenny.

Catching the lich’s hesitation, Vasher’s spear and Lenny’s rapier both sank deep into his paper veneer of flesh. He wasn’t truly alive so he kept his balance, but the effect left him pinned like a macabre tripod. Johnathan cheered and from somewhere behind, rays of fire zipped over Vasher’s head to sear away more of the handsome face that had tried to threaten them.

The lich screamed in defiance and threw a scimitar again, to ward off Johnathan’s spells. Vasher was too occupied to see if it found its mark, but he did see knives start to sink into the lich one after another. Jr. exploiting that opening no doubt. Using the distraction, Vasher and Lenny pressed harder. They stabbed and stabbed together, forcing the lich back inch by inch. This is not going how he intended at all! Vasher thought with a manic grin, snapping ribs with his spear tip.

“I’ll kill you! We all will!” The lich cursed, struggling to move his increasingly broken vessel.

With one final thrust, Lenny and Vasher’s blades slipped past his now near useless arms, and with a strangely dry snap, the lich’s spine broke, his red pin prick eyes faded, and he collapsed to the floor. His hollow eyes gazing where he had left his brother’s body.

The second he got the chance, Vasher ran to the fallen Hemswick. The wound had left him unconscious and he would bleed out in a matter of moments from the looks of it. Deeply aware of the irony, Vasher placed his hands on Hemswicks heavily stubbled face and began to sing the same song he had used to knit up Johnathan’s shoulder. The blood stopped flowing and Hemswick’s bloodshot eyes snapped open. He grumbled uncomfortably and pushed Vasher’s hands away as he got up without even a grunt of thanks. But that didn’t matter to Vasher. Everyone was healing everyone lately. So, he made his way back to the latest lich body.

“I’m not carrying this one.” Lenny said as she cleaned her sword.

“I don’t blame you.” Vasher replied. “But look at what he left behind!”

The no longer handsome corpse still held its two shining scimitars. Vasher reached out gingerly and tapped one with a fingertip. Nothing happened. So he gathered both up and offered them to Lenny.

“Little bit of the dog that bit you?” Vasher said with a smile.

Lenny let out a quiet “ooh” at the offer but she hesitated. “Those really would be perfect for Jr.”

“I’m too small.” Jr. said walking up to root through the lich’s pockets.

“They’re enchanted to fly around. Too valuable to let him get back.” Vasher pointed out.

“Right. I guess I am the best option.” Lenny said shooting a sideways glance at Hemswick who was rubbing at his stab wound. Then she slipped the scimitars away into her bag.

Nearby, the small white lump of the rabbit the lich had been petting lay in a tiny heap. Noticing it, Vasher’s stomach growled loudly and his mind was filled with the phantom aroma of fresh roasted meat. It had been days since he had a hot meal.

“I wonder if that rabbit is still fresh.” Vasher said quietly.

“That,” Lenny replied, “Is a wonderful thought.” And she ran towards the white lump.

Vasher saw her scoop up the limp animal and immediately begin skinning it expertly. The very next moment, Lenny gasped and dropped the flayed animal back to the ground. Vasher ran over to see if she was hurt, but as he approached, Lenny was clearly fine. She simply stared down at the rabbit with a look of shocked curiosity. When he was close enough to investigate, he could see what had shocked her. Not just the animal’s fur was white, its insides were white too.

“Was it sick?” Vasher asked kneeling down to get a closer look.

“I’ve never seen any sickness like this.” Lenny replied. “It felt healthy. The meat is fresh and there are no tumors or worms I can see.”

By now, everyone else had joined to investigate. Johnathan was taking notes and Hemswick actually stared at the mess with concern instead of just walking away. Looks like he had his hopes up for fresh food as well. Vasher thought. Then he had an idea.

“Did you notice the bones?” Vasher asked Lenny.

“Hold on.” Lenny replied. Then she used her knife to cut off one of the rabbit’s feet in one smooth chop.

The action made Vasher wince. He was fine with eating other living things. It was natural out here, but desecration, even for knowledge, always bothered him a bit. He pushed the emotion aside and readied for what he expected.

“Green wood. No marrow at all.” Lenny said, pointing at the center of the cross-section the severed foot provided. Its center spiraled in the same intricate way Johnathan’s vine did on the ship.

“I don’t think we can eat this.” Lenny said, defeated.

“Agreed.” Vasher said. “But it means we are getting close to some answers. Why does this one have meat and guts and Uru was just wood? What’s more, where did the lich find it?”

“We’ll find out if we keep northeast.” Hemsiwck said. “I think I smell something on the wind that way anyway.”

“That’s just us.” Jr. said. And started walking northeast, ahead of Hemswick this time.

Vasher was starting to feel himself again as they made it through the dead ferns and stones. Nothing made you feel safer than defeating the very kind of thing that had killed you before. What he said had been true. He wasn’t afraid of them anymore. The seeds in Lenny’s belly. The total lack of life, and therefore food, weighed on him far more than the threat of being attacked. Things probably would be very different without Uru and Hemswick’s help so far, he thought. Looking back to the days on the boat, there had been so many times when killing them would have been the most sensible thing to do. If he had silenced Uru and pushed him off the boat that first day instead of warning him, they would have made it to Port Arbor. Maybe, he thought, remembering the shifty crew. They all should have killed Hemsiwck in the hallway the night he went mad. But now, Hemsiwck had cut down more foes singlehandedly than anyone else. If he had died on the boat, we might have fallen to that gang of wraiths. This entire experience had been a strange dance of choosing the lesser of two evils. After all, here they were still following the very course that doomed them to this island. Then he smelled it.

Similar to the wall of stench that had burned his eyes on the beach, what was on the air smelled clearly dead, though it lacked the briny overtones of the sea. Eventually, a line of green and a line of white could be seen growing on the horizon. The green line grew taller and taller until it was clearly a wall of green trees. The ribbon of white simply grew thicker, more detailed, and more disturbing.

Beyond the wall of trees lay the corpses of countless animals. All white. Deer, bears, birds, all kinds of all ages lay in various states of decay as if the woods were a city after an extremely long siege. Everyone covered their faces and made quiet sounds of concern at the sight.

“Guess that’s the greenwood.” Hemswick said, stepping right over the first old corpse in the line of death and making his way continually forward.

Everyone else kept quiet with Vasher as they worked their slow way through the remains, careful to only step on open ground, and saying little to prevent having to uncover their faces. Through the quiet, birdsong could be heard from the forest. Vasher looked high into the now looming trees to catch a glimpse of what birds they might be. Sure enough, small white birds hopped from branch to branch up above. Some unknown disturbance made them take to the air in a flurry of white feathers. They circled the trees and those that flew out into the open fell immediately dead to the ground.

Heartbroken at the sudden shock, Vasher scanned the tree line. A deer vaulted out of the wood yards away. It too collapsed immediately dead when it left the tree line. Even though the green wood was mere feet away now, Vasher froze on the spot, overwhelmed.

“What makes us so special?” Vasher said quietly to himself.

His companions stopped where they were walking ahead of him and turned.

“What was that?” Hemswick asked impatiently.

“What makes us so special.” Vasher reiterated looking at the death around him.

“How do you mean?” Lenny asked.

At some point, Jr. had gotten on her shoulders to avoid having to jump over the larger corpses herself and she gazed down at Vasher over Lenny’s red braids.

“Something had clearly cursed this land so badly it has killed every living thing. The plants, the tiny things in the soil, even the bears.” Vasher gestured to the remains of a nearby albino bear that was far larger than even Hemswick.

“I have been worrying about it since Johnathan mentioned that the dead fish on top of the ocean were freshly dead. I wondered, is there some line we are going to cross that will kill us like the fish? When that didn’t happen I thought it was because they were so small, or maybe it was the water. Seeing this? Watching it happen in real time? I have to wonder why we are still even alive. Lich’s efforts or not.” Vasher trailed off as more animals dropped from the forest into the heaps around him.

“I’ve heard of dark powerful magic that can curse a land.” Johnathan spoke up, putting his notebook away. “Any lesser creature that enters the ring of the spell will die.”

“I’d like to see how the person who made that spell defined lesser creatures.” Vasher said bitterly.

Johnathan opened his mouth, closed it, then turned his eyes up in consideration. The next thing Vasher knew, his notebook was back out and he was scribbling away. After an impressively short time, Johnathan spoke again. “You do have a point about the bears. They eat what we do, have the same, if not far more mass to their bodies. Similar circulatory and nervous systems. I can’t think of any reason they would die and we wouldn’t. That is unless we get into all that soul business. I’ll take this up for debate in my next book I think.”

“Are we going in or not?” Hemswick asked.

Vasher was actually impressed with his patience today. Maybe that was the gratitude. No words of thanks, just patience.

“I can’t.” Lenny said, setting Jr. down.

“Are you hurt?” Johnathan asked.

“No, I’m fine. I guess.” Lenny replied. “I just can’t stop thinking about what Vasher said earlier. About the seeds. What if I grow into a tree or something when I walk in there? What if I melt away into a green skeleton?”

Vasher could see that she was trembling ever so slightly, though her face was resolute. He thought of something to say, but Hemswick huffed from behind and strode into the forest. He set his wide feet firmly upon the deep green floor, turned, and actually smiled at Lenny. One of his eye teeth was missing and he desperately needed a toothpick, but all of it together made the expression strikingly genuine – if not somewhat intimidating.

“You can smile!” Jr. yelled as Lenny snorted, holding back a laugh.

Hemswick’s smile vanished and he turned to stride deeper into the woods. Guess he gets to be the leader now. Vasher thought and stepped into the deep green wood.