Path of Dragons

Elijah was frustrated.

Resting his hand on the trunk of a massive pine tree, he watched the line of refugees as they snaked their way through the forest. There had been thirty-four people living in Forest Hills, and thankfully, they’d all decided to follow Elijah. Unfortunately though, aside from Ron and a couple of Ranger archetypes, they were all low-leveled and woefully weak. Elijah had no issues with protecting them, but his patience at their slow progress had begun to wear thin.

The trip that had only taken him a few minutes’ worth of flight was now on its second day, and Elijah expected that they wouldn’t reach the dolmen for at least another four or five hours. If he could have been assured of their safety, Elijah would have had them start the journey while he was still working on the dolmen, but a quick look at Soul of the Wild told him just how bad of an idea that was.

Not only were they being shadowed by multiple groups of grimlings, but the forest also played host to quite a few dangerous beasts. Without Elijah there, the refugees would have had to fight their way through the forest. And given their collective weakness, at least some of them would have failed to survive such a journey.

Even now, they suffered from the cold that, courtesy of his Cloak of the Iron Bear, didn’t touch Elijah. He’d not realized it, but the air temperature was well below zero. To mitigate it, everyone wore multiple layers, including thick coats trimmed in fur, but aside from Ron and the Rangers, they still weren’t equipped to deal with the extreme climate.

“Is it always this cold here?” Elijah asked as Ron approached. He had no trouble keeping up, so just like Elijah, he was often forced to stop and wait as the others struggled to keep pace.

“It’s gotten colder after the Trial,” Ron answered. “But it’s been wintery since a month or so after the world changed. At first, we thought it was because we’d been shifted into Antarctica or something, but now that I’ve seen how much ethera can affect the environment, I’m not sure.”

“Did you ever try to talk to the grimlings?”

Ron shook his head. “Not really. They attacked us on sight, so there wasn’t much chance for a conversation,” he replied. “I still don’t know why they would talk to you, except maybe they felt how strong you are.”

“You know we’re going to have to camp out here for a bit, right?” Elijah asked. “A day. I can only teleport so many people at a time.”

“That you can do anything at all is more than any of us could have hoped for,” Ron stated. “Even if we all pooled our money together, we couldn’t have afforded to send more than a single person out via the Branch’s Teleportation Network. And even if we’d managed to scrounge enough ethereum, we’d have been stepping into the unknown.”

The Teleportation Network’s fees were not static, so if Ron and his people had taken the cheapest option, they would have ended up somewhere called Arsk, which sounded Russian to Elijah. Perhaps the people there were welcoming, but there was an equal chance that they would have been hostile. Nobody would risk that unless they had no other choice.

“Well, once we get your people to Ironshore, they’ll be safe,” Elijah said. Then, he amended, “Mostly. We do have that dark elf problem I told you about, but I don’t think anyone’s completely safe in this world. Whatever the case, at least they won’t starve. The climate’s pretty mild, too. Even in the middle of winter, it’s not nearly as cold as this.”

“That will be nice,” Ron responded wistfully. “After spending months in the Trial, coming back was a shock to my system.”

“I can imagine.”

After that, the conversation petered out and they continued along. As the procession of refugees wove between the massive trees, Elijah kept a close eye on their surroundings. The grimling elder had promised safe passage, but Elijah wasn’t so naïve as to blindly trust that pledge. If the grimlings attacked, he intended to be ready.

However, that caution proved to be unnecessary, and a few hours later, the group reached the dolmen. The first sight of the circle of standing stones drew more than a couple of gasps, and rightly so. The cherry tree at its center hadn’t grown, but like its progenitor, it had already bloomed. The monoliths themselves were just as Elijah remembered, and though he still wasn’t entirely happy with the carvings, the overall effect of the glittering relief sculptures was more than impressive.

Fortunately, the vixen was far enough away that she didn’t feel threatened by the group’s sudden arrival, but Elijah decided to head that off by offering her another grove fruit. He’d thought he was already out, but he’d found a couple at the bottom of his satchel – which was a good thing, considering that the way to a guardian’s heart seemed to go through her stomach.

The white, nine-tailed fox accepted Elijah’s tribute, then settled down to watch as Elijah returned to the dolmen, and, after a little discussion about the order of entry and what they would find on the other side, he cast Roots of the World Tree. The spell took almost five minutes to cast, but when he was finished, a sizable arch made of roots and vines grew from the snowy ground. When the two ends connected, the interior of the gate shimmered, then became a blurry window into the grove.

“Alright. Everyone through. Remember not to panic when the walking tree man confronts you,” Elijah told the twenty people who were going to be the first entrants. “Just tell him what I told you, and you’ll be fine. And don’t touch anything or he might take offense.”

“W-what? Offense?” asked one of the men. “It’s safe, isn’t it? You said it was safe.”

“Of course it’s safe. He’s harmless. Unless you mess with his horticultural pursuits, so don’t do that,” Elijah said. “And don’t worry so much. You’ll be fine.”

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After that, those twenty people stepped through, and when the last one disappeared to the other side, the gate wilted and disappeared.

“Alright. We’ve got a day until I can send the rest of you,” Elijah said. “So, let’s make camp.”

The Rangers led the way in that respect, and before long, they’d erected a large tent and built a decent-sized fire. It was an impressive effort, but given the frigid climate, probably necessary.

For his part, Elijah retreated to the center of the dolmen, where he embarked on a quest to usher the cherry tree sapling to greater maturity. To do this, he used both Blessing of the Grove as well as Nature’s Design. The former only required the repeated reapplication of the spell, though he was far more interested in the expression of the latter. He’d only experimented with it a few times, and never for very long. So, he wanted to truly explore the spell so he could hopefully one day use it to elicit unique results.

As he channeled it, he focused on the cherry tree sapling. It was full of what he could only call generic nature-attuned ethera, which was teeming with potent vitality and laced with the whispers of something larger. The Call, if he was reading it correctly. However, woven into that overall attunement were bits of ice, earth, and oddly enough, fire. The first was far and away the most prominent, but to Elijah’s surprise, the last was almost as strong. The middle was the weakest, and Elijah expected that it was only meant as connective tissue between the other energies within the tree.

He watched as Nature’s Design went to work, and he discovered that if he didn’t focus on any particular affinity, it simply injected vitality into the plant. That, in turn, trickled down into the other affinities, bolstering everything equally. The result was that nothing about the tree changed, save for its overall potency.

By contrast, Elijah could augment the other affinities, though in doing so, he would tip the balance one way or another, thus changing the fundamental nature of the tree. And that was dangerous.

Elijah knew the transformation would be incremental, but as he’d discovered with the blade of grass on which he’d first experimented, trying to change the nature of plant life would invariably tip the balance one way or another. And that was dangerous, especially considering that the cherry tree was part of one of his dolmens.

Sort of.

It wasn’t technically part of the structure itself, but the structure couldn’t really exist – not in its current form – without the cherry tree at its center. If Elijah changed its nature, then by necessity, the dolmen would need to change as well. And considering that Elijah didn’t really know what he was doing, the results of that transformation would be unpredictable.

So, with that in mind, he only watched the different strands of affinity, noting how they responded to the influx of vitality. Like that, hours passed until he felt a presence hovering at the edge of the dolmen.

“Do you need something?” he asked, opening his eyes to see Hope standing nearby. She was half hidden behind one of the pillars, though she pointedly kept from touching the stone.

“Um…I was just watching,” she said. “What are you doing?”

Elijah answered, “You can step inside the circle. It’s not dangerous.”

“I know.”

“You do?” Elijah asked. “How?”

“It doesn’t feel dangerous,” she said. “It feels…I don’t know…I want to say natural, but that isn’t quite right, either. Balanced. That’s the word.”

Elijah narrowed his eyes. “So, why are you staying on that side of the circle if it’s not dangerous?”

“You are.”

“What? I’m not dangerous.” Elijah insisted, though even he was self-aware enough to recognize that lie. There was a good argument to be made that he was the most dangerous person on the planet. Or if he wasn’t at the top spot, then he was definitely close enough that it wouldn’t matter to someone like Hope. “Okay, so I am dangerous, but not to you. I swear on my grove.”

Clearly, Hope didn’t know the implications of that pledge. Until that moment, neither did Elijah. But the moment he said it, a wave of ethera washed over the area, settling onto both Elijah and Hope. It wasn’t onerous. Nor did it feel terribly powerful. But it was something that both of them felt, and apparently, it was enough to reassure Hope. She stepped into the circle.

When nothing bad happened, she let out a sigh of relief.

“You know this dolmen is called the Circle of Hope, right?”

“What?” she asked. “Really?”

“Yeah. The system named it that,” Elijah answered. “It wasn’t really named after you, of course. I barely know you. But when I was building it, I was thinking about the world and where it’s going.”

“And that made you hopeful?”

“It did,” Elijah answered. “I think that’s important. Don’t you?”

She shrugged, stepping closer. “I don’t know,” was her response. “I want to, but it’s hard.”

“That’s how you know it’s worthwhile. Nothing worth doing is ever easy,” Elijah said. “That’s what you have to remember.”

She didn’t have a reply to that statement, and for a few moments, she was silent. To break that silence, Elijah asked her about her class. She seemed eager enough to talk about tailoring, though she remained guarded.

Right up until a familiar group of kits came bounding into the circle. There were four of them, and they weren’t shy at all about rushing both Elijah and Hope and excitedly clambering for attention. Hope was defenseless to their weaponized cuteness, and she let out a little squeal of excitement as she picked one up. Elijah tried to stop her – they could be dangerous, after all – but the little fox seemed entirely happy with the turn of events.

That was when Elijah realized something extremely important. Hope was attuned to nature. Probably not as strongly as Miguel, and definitely nowhere near the level of Elijah’s own attunement, but it was definitely there. He’d felt it from the very beginning, and it seemed that she had as well. That was probably why she’d come to the circle in the first place.

Elijah watched as the teenage girl played with the baby foxes, a smile playing across his face. It reminded him of Miguel with Snappy. Or with Trevor and the rest of the lunar deer. More importantly, with those fuzzy distractions, she completely forgot about Elijah. So, keeping an eye on her via Soul of the Wild, Elijah continued his task.

Eventually, the kits scampered away – much to the disappointment of Hope – and she didn’t stay much longer after that. The rest of Roots of the World Tree’s cooldown passed without incident, and soon enough, the time came to open another gate.

However, just before he cast the spell, he was confronted with another surprise. The vixen had approached the dolmen, and four of her kits followed. She gestured with her tails from those small foxes, then to the center of the dolmen, and after only a moment, Elijah realized what she wanted.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

The vixen nodded, then let out a little yip. The kits returned that with higher-pitched versions of the same before they bounded forward. Then, their mother turned around and pranced back to her spot beneath the tree.

When Elijah glanced back at the gathered refugees – including Hope and Ron – he saw a group of terrified people. As he cast Roots of the World Tree, he said, “I guess we’ve got a few stowaways, then. Everyone ready to leave this forest behind?”

There was a murmur of agreement.

And soon enough, Elijah had opened another gate. The kits were the first through, followed by Hope, and then the rest of the refugees. Aside from Elijah, Ron was the last one to enter the portal.

Elijah turned and waved at the vixen, who studiously ignored him as he took a step and returned to his grove.

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