Chapter 76: Back to Nature
The trip from Athkatla to Windspear Hills would normally take two days on foot, but at the rate they were going, Ember expected it to take at least three. The months they had spent in captivity had taken their toll; she couldn't walk much farther or faster than she could the day she'd first set out from Candlekeep, and she had to use her staff as a walking support most of the time. By the time the trio reached a small inn, long after nightfall, Ember was exhausted; once she got settled in her small room, it did not take long for her to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
A few hours later, she was woken up by a large hand on her shoulder. "Little Ember?" Minsc's voice asked.
"Minsc?" she asked blearily, pulling her hand back in under the covers; she'd automatically reached for the dagger on the nightstand. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," he said, "but it is time to get up!"
Ember rubbed her eyes, blinked a few times, and looked towards the window. "It's still dark outside," she said.
"It is not that dark! The sun will come up soon, and little Ember should watch it, like she used to! Come now!" The large ranger lifted her out of bed, covers and all, and carried her out of the room. Ember tried to protest, but he ignored her, and didn't put her down until they were under a large tree that stood just outside the inn.
"See, isn't it pretty?" Minsc said, pointing to the east. "Minsc and Boo thought you'd like it."
"It is pretty," Ember conceded. A red glow was building on the horizon, lending a tint to several streamers of cloud. So much time had passed since the last time she saw a sunrise... I'm not ready for this. It's been too long! She turned to Minsc to tell him she couldn't do it, but the smiling, expectant look on his face stopped her. He only wanted to help her, and she wasn't even trying. She couldn't disappoint him like this.
She turned her attention back to the sunrise.
There were little streaks of orange gold on the clouds, and the light was growing stronger. Songbirds were warbling from the bushes and trees around them; Ember listened to how their songs changed as the land brightened around them, with different tunes fading in and out of the chorus. Some she recognized from home, others were unfamiliar, but they all seemed to fit together, forming an everchanging river of sound.
For a short while, she just sat beside Minsc, listening to the sound of dawn. It was a pleasant morning; the air was warm, and it carried with it the scent of dry earth. The horizon was gradually turning into bands of gold. Around them, flowers were preparing to open.
I can do this.
Drawing a deep breath, Ember tentatively reached out to the life she could sense all around her.
It felt like coming home.
---
The following morning, Minsc woke Ember before dawn again, and sat with her as she meditated. She managed to wake up before dawn on her own the next day, but he still accompanied her. That morning, she finally felt ready to pray for spells again.
The forest thinned around them on the second day of their trip, and in the afternoon of the third day, they reached a hilly region with barely any trees at all. Instead, the landscape was dominated by hills, gullies, caverns, and vast stretches of gravel. Grey rocks the size of small hills jutted out of the ground at irregular intervals.
"This must be the Windspear Hills," Yoshimo said, "but I must confess that it does not look like the home of a dryad queen."
Ember pulled the acorns out of her pocket. They were glowing slightly. "She has to be here somewhere," she said, showing the acorns to her companions. "There must be something we're missing."
The sound of harsh, gibbering laughter came from the north, carried towards them by the wind. It was soon accompanied by clashing metal.
"Gnolls!" Minsc growled, and sprinted in the direction of the sound.
"Our large friend doesn't like gnolls much, does he?" Yoshimo asked.
"No," Ember replied, alredy starting to run after Minsc. "Hurry, or we'll lose him."
They caught up with Minsc on the crest of a hill that overlooked a gully. Six men stood on the gully floor around a trampled campfire. The bodies of at least three times as many gnolls were strewn around their feet.
One of the men looked up at the small group on the hill. "I did not think we deserved an audience," he called out. "Dispatching these creatures was well and truly easy."
"We heard the gnolls," Ember called back.
One of the other men laughed. "Gnolls are nothing! They're just desperately stupid canines. No sense of self worth outside of combat."
"And how would you know," a third man sneered. "You've never engaged one in anything but combat."
On the hillside, Minsc gave Ember a very confused look.
The man who had laughed snorted. "You can see it in their bearing, in the way they hold their tails."
"Oh, you cannot," someone else said. "The only thing in their tails is what they sat in yesterday. Filthy things."
"I think we should leave," Ember muttered to her companions.
"You are one to talk," the sneering man said. "Smell yourself in the morning lately?"
The one who'd laughed raised his sword, which was still smeared with gnoll blood. "That's it, I'm going to kill him!"
"I think you are right," Yoshimo murmured to Ember.
"No you are not!" the first speaker shouted. "If you must have blood then take it from those whelps there. They are the kind we are hunting, after all." Six pairs of eyes turned towards the hill.
"Run!" Ember shouted, all but shoving Minsc ahead of her. She looked over her shoulder at the men, and almost lost her footing.
It was not six men that were climbing out of the gully. It was six large, shaggy beasts, covered in brown fur. They grinned ferally, displaying long, sharp teeth.
"Werewolves," Yoshimo panted.
Ember made herself run faster. We can't die here; Imoen needs us! Part of her - the taint - wanted to go back and fight the creatures, but she had learned to not heed that particular inner voice, and the three of them couldn't have handled their pursuers even if they'd merely been the humans they appeared as at first. No, their only chance was to outrun the pack.
How could mere humans outrun werewolves?
At the base of the hill, Ember stopped and began to cast a spell on the bracken and and small, woody shrubs that grew between the rocks. Moments before the werewolves would have reached her, the plants blossomed into a twisted mass of branches and vines, entangling the snarling creatures.
"Bought... time," she told Minsc and Yoshimo, who had also stopped. "Go!"
If we survive this, we're getting Minsc a bow, she thought as they ran up a gentle slope. Her spell would not last long; their only chance was to find a cavern or a large rock or some other easily defensible spot, but there was not as much as a tree to climb. And they could set a tree on fire. Then, she noticed her hand. Her fist, still clenched around the enchanted acorns, was glowing as though she held a candle flame. Were they drawing closer to the dryads? She hurriedly looked around, but saw only a few bushes, some scattered boulders, and a massive wall of smooth rock that rose ahead of them. There was nothing to indicate the presence of forest spirits, but the acorns in her hand burned brighter with every step she ran.
"They're not coming," Yoshimo gasped.
Ember glanced behind them. The werewolves had broken free from the enchanted plants, as she'd expected, but for some reason, they'd stopped following them and were standing some distance from the rock wall, howling and snarling.
"Boo thinks... they don't like the big rock," Minsc panted.
"It is forbidden to them," said a voice that sounded like rustling leaves. A dryad with dark green skin and pale, almost translucent hair stood behind them. "The queen will not allow it. You, she awaits. Follow."
"Look, Boo, we found the forest ladies!" Minsc said happily, and followed the dryad along the rock wall. Yoshimo just stared at the dryad, mouth agape.
Ember laughed with relief. By the Lady, we're saved! "It's only a dryad," she told Yoshimo, nudging his shoulder.
The Kara-Turan blinked a couple times. "I... I will never have occasion to refer to one as 'only a dryad', I don't think."
Grinning broadly, Ember took Yoshimo by the arm and led him after Minsc and the dryad. They walked along the wall for a few minutes until they reached a point where the smooth rock curved slightly inward. A large patch of creeper vines grew up across the face of the rock. The dryad spoke a few syllables, and the vines parted, revealing a tunnel. The dryad gestured for them to enter.
On the other side of the tunnel lay a valley unlike anything that surrounded it. The rock wall enclosed a deep blue lake that was surrounded by a myriad of trees of every shape and size, all of them vibrant with life. Butterflies flitted through the air, alighting where they pleased on colorful flowers. The place seemed unreal, but at the same time, it felt more real than the barren wilderness that surrounded it.
"Boo wants to know if the Afterlife looks like this," Minsc whispered to Ember.
"Maybe it does," she whispered back, staring wide-eyed at the beauty around them.
A tall woman with hair like a sunrise approached them. "I have been waiting for you, little sister," she said with a gentle smile, her eyes sparkling like the sunlight on the lake. "My sisters' acorns call to me. Give me them."
Ember obediently handed her the acorns. They shone as brightly as they had when the captive dryads had created them; she was almost surprised that they didn't scorch her fingers.
The dryad cupped the acorns in her palms, and blew gently on them. "Ulene. Cania. Elyme," she whispered.
"My Queen!" a faint voice, little more than a breath of wind, cried. "Can our trees be saved? Has Irenicus doomed us?"
"Nay, my sisters, you are not doomed," the queen said. "I shall protect you forever more."
"Thank you, my Queen," came another faint whisper.
The queen turned to the dryad that'd escorted Ember and her companions into the grove. "Come Llyna! Plant our sisters' seeds, that they may again taste the wind."
Llyna's eyes lit up as she accepted the acorns. Cradling the precious seeds in her hands, she headed into the trees.
"The pretty ladies are safe now?" Minsc asked.
"Yes, little brother, they are safe," the queen said. "I thank you all for your aid; you have braved the evil that dwells in this land for our sake. We will not forget. This forest will always welcome you." She pressed her pale green lips to Minsc's forehead, then to Yoshimo's.
The dryad queen looked into Ember's eyes. "Be true to yourself, and you may claim your truth," she finally said. She kissed Ember's forehead. "Stay a while, little sister, and heal."
---
They stayed in the quiet world of the dryads for a few days before returning to Athkatla, arriving in the city a tenday after they set out. Ember had felt slightly guilty about delaying their return, but the way it had rejuvenated her was more than worth it. Minsc seemed happier as well, and had regained much of his lost strength.
"Ah, the city," Yoshimo exclaimed with relish as they passed through the bridge district.
"Glad to be back?" Ember asked with a grin. He had seemed out of sorts in the grove; she wondered if it would have helped if they'd been there during the dryads' revels.
Yoshimo smiled apologetically. "My skills are of little use in a forest."
"Boo likes the forest," Minsc said.
Ember looked around. The main bridge of Athkatla was all but a market square in its own right, crowded as it was with street vendors and their customers, sailors on leave, soldiers and scholars; she even saw and heard a grey-haired Red Wizard, arguing loudly with someone outside an inn.
"So, how do we find this contact of yours?" she asked Yoshimo.
"Coo!" someone called out from an alley. "You'd be the one I be looking for, if I not be mistaken. Ember be yer name, aye?"
The speaker was a cheery looking man, slightly shorter than Ember and dressed head to toe in faded browns. A mottled red liripipe hood hid his hair.
Yoshimo grinned. "It appears that he has found us."