Chapter 15 - Slow Crawl

“Well this place gives me the creeps…”
Garth was looking around the clearing. The forest was still quiet, though if I wasn’t mistaken I could hear the telltale chirps that’d suggest bugs had started to work their way back into the place. It wasn’t an ecological boom by any means, but it was a good sign for my soil.
I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about though. Honestly, the place felt rather serene to me. The section of the massive central tree that the dryad had melded itself into now sat hollowed out with misshapen edges. With a little work, it could be carved into the start of a nice little bench.
Regardless, after the morning I’d had, I was glad Garth was a man of fewer words and he opted not to elaborate on the thought as he started to walk the area, taking it in.
He didn’t ask me any questions as he looked, stopping every so often to kneel and run his hand over the ground. It was only after a minute had passed that he came to a stop in front of the tree. His gaze settled on the hollowed section of the trunk with a curious eye.
“So… the queen was a dryad?”
I stiffened. He didn’t look back at me, and his tone wasn’t accusatory either. Instead, he stood there, looking at the spot, humming to himself. I stared at him, watching for a reaction… or even another question.
After a few more seconds passed, he turned away from the spot, then walked toward the eastern edge of the clearing.
“Guess that finally explains the size of these trees. Wonder how long she’d been here,” he mused, stopping near the brush and kneeling again.
“Seen them before?” I asked, cautiously walking over to him.
“A few. We had to deal with all sorts of spawns in the frontier,” he explained, identifying the spot where the Stoneboar had crashed through the treeline and back into the forest. Without checking to see if I was following, he started to follow it. “If I ever find out which bard wrote Dryad’s Dream, I might have to backhand him. That dusk-riddled song makes the creatures look harmless.”
“You spent time out in the Northern Frontier?”
“Western… My lord was called to the banner during the second Ashborn conflict,” he explained, slowly making his way through the brush.
“Rough war…” I said and he grunted in agreement.
“Worse than anything you probably read,” he said, slightly uncomfortably. Since my knowledge of those early wars had been through texts, he was probably right. If it didn’t sound like it was something he had bad memories of, I might have asked for details. “Anyway, it’s probably better that the others don’t know it was a dryad. It’d cause a bunch of drama for no reason. Especially since according to Thomas, Bram’s been infatuated with the idea of them ever since he first heard that rootrotted song.“
He didn’t add more after that, stopping by another tree with a noticeable amount of rot on it. With a quick movement, he scraped a long knife against the bark. It crumbled and tore with ease as he dragged it down. A solid chunk of bark was cut away by the motion before he reached forward, poking at the exposed wood.
“Few inches deep, Stoneboar must have only stopped to… yup, there it is,” Garth said, pointing toward a pile of dung and scrunching his nose. “Parasite or not, when yah gotta go, yah gotta go.”
I watched the man as he worked, finding his attention to detail impressive. He spent entirely too much time investigating the dung, in my opinion, but I wasn’t about to question his process. When he did finally move on, I pulled a container from my inventory and quickly collected the waste, then put it back in my bag. There was only going to be so much I’d be able to gather before we got rid of the creature and it would be a shame if it went to… uh… waste.
“Not sure if I’d use that as fertilizer if I were you,” Garth called back.
“No, probably not,” I said, eyeing him again. I shouldn’t poke, I logically knew I shouldn’t, but I just couldn’t help myself. “So… you lived somewhere near Twin Lakes then?”
“Couple days south of it in Galarroy,” he corrected me, checking yet another tree.
If I was remembering correctly, Galarroy was something like a hunting community. Frederick used to talk about the competitions his father would organize. While the citizens of Galarroy didn’t always win, they had always put on good shows. I’d largely thought Frederick was exaggerating about their skills, since Gwendoline really was the only reason the man never got lost during hunting quests. But seeing Garth in action almost made me wonder if it hadn’t all been bluster after all.
“Mind if I ask where you came from?” Garth asked, poking at another decay section of a tree. “Or is that one of those things you’re still keeping close?”
“Manaway,” I said, having already decided I was going to have to name a place eventually. I’d been the one to open myself up to the question by asking about where he was from and the place fit pretty much every requirement I needed.
It was a small, magic community near North’s Edge where a select few did in fact train with the hopes of truly Activating as Sorcerers. Sure, if someone actually interrogated the Masters in residence there about my supposed training, none of them would know me from Daniel since I’d never actually met them in this life. Luckily for them.
Regardless, it covered most every bit of history people could actually tie me to so far and when Garth looked toward me, I could see the explanation seemed to land even if he did look somewhat disappointed.
“Rootrot… Crew’s got a pool going and my bet was you’d been training with Grand Sorcerer O’Veil. I’d heard stories of his skills with Magical Alchemy. Pretty sure Willem and Thomas both guessed Manaway, they’ll get to split the coin.”
“Sorry, can’t change the story now, even if I’d rather Willem not win any of the gold since he voted to kick me out… Besides, that would make everyone think I came from one of the Royal Branch families,” I said and he shrugged.
“Would explain all the gold,” he suggested, starting to slow down a bit. “Don’t be too mad at Willem for that though… or the others for that matter.”
“Don’t have to be mad at him to have rather seen the gold just go to Thomas instead,” I suggested and Garth shrugged again.
“Fair point,” he said, then nodded forward. “Looks like we found the start of the slow crawl… do you have everything you need?”
My brows raised and I looked at him curiously.
“Wasn’t the vote to take care of it tomorrow and have a hunting party?”
“The vote was to let me track it and you kill it. The hunting party and exact date were based on your estimation on how fast the Stoneboar would be eating and my confidence in tracking,” he said, looking back and smiling. “Daniel knows you’re a little impulsive, he wouldn’t have let me take you out here if he wasn’t ready to have this problem taken care of.”
“Huh… well alright then,” I said, weaving my fingers together and cracking them. “Let’s take care of this nuisance and get back. Been up since far too early and I could really use a nap.”
While I wasn’t quite sure how much Garth knew about the system, the man had proven capable and more knowledgeable than I’d expected. After a brief moment of consideration, I decided to just throw caution to the wind, mostly since I didn’t want to have to go through the annoying process of pulling things out one at a time. Since I was Activated, though, my bag let me use shortcuts to quickly access and sort through my honestly ridiculous stockpile of goods.
Items started popping into existence in front of me and, to his credit, Garth didn’t react with anything more than curiosity. In just a few moments, I had everything I needed for just a handful of different mixes laid out on a tall workbench that had thumped into place ahead of me. I also pulled out a simple short bow and quiver set, then held it out.
“I’m hoping you know how to shoot one of these,” I said and Garth seemed suddenly hesitant. He looked at it briefly, nodded, and then took the gear. “I’m not expecting you to kill it, but once I get things ready in front of where it’s going, I’m gonna need you to startle it. Put a couple shots close enough that natural instincts kick in and the Stoneboar thinks it needs to flee to protect the hive.”
“I’m rusty,” Garth said, carefully sliding the quiver over one shoulder. He tested the draw a few times before pulling an arrow and notching it. When he pulled back, clearly aiming at a tree for practice, I noticed his hand shaking.
“How rusty?” I asked. He looked over, then at his hand. He swallowed hard, steadied his hold and then loosed the arrow. It flew, striking a tree and piercing it with a good amount of force… it just hadn’t been the tree he’d been aiming at.
“A little…” he admitted.
“Well… good thing the beast is as big as it is,” I said, turning back to my work as he notched another arrow to try again. “Though… maybe we should focus on being loud instead of precise.”
I pulled out just a handful of the Rubyfyre clippings and the Stoneboar dung, along with a handful of other basic reagents. I was once again having to work outside of my preexisting list of “known” recipes according to my class. While I did know the generalities of these specific mixes, I’d had far less reason to actually need to make fire and explosive-style potions since I could normally just do it with a thought.
“Stupid restrictions,” I muttered. It wasn’t very loud, but Garth still looked over long enough that when he released his shot, it once again went wide. Once I noticed him, I shook my head and he shrugged, going back to his practice.
After testing just a few different combinations, trying not to waste any of my supplies, I ended up with a handful of mixes that I was sure would do the trick and enough mistakes that I’d need to find a way to safely dispose of them.
“Okay, take a few of the arrows and dip them in this,” I said, handing him a vial of [Flashbang Gel]. “Honestly, this is really not gonna be that much work so I’m glad you’ve got a level head on your shoulders about taking care of this.”
He examined the vial before dipping three arrows into it one by one until the container was empty. Then he looked at me expectantly.
“We’re gonna walk until we find the Stoneboar. Once we do, I’m gonna go and get ahead of it,” I explained, gesturing for him to start moving forward. “I don’t have access to a lot of spells yet, but I can use Trench and False Image to create a pitfall that the beast won’t be able to dodge, maybe pour some grease all over the ground to make sure things are nice and slippery. Though, I’ll probably dig a few of them just to be safe, can never be too careful.”
“‘Specially if I spook it the wrong way,” Garth added, holding the three arrows carefully in his hand.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I can cast a Target spell on myself, you’ll be able to see where I am even if I’m behind brush. Just make sure one of those hits it in its keister, or somewhere right behind it,” I explained and he gave me a nod. “Good, once it falls in the pit, I’ll toss a couple of these [Bangfire Brew] mixes in after it. That should kill and burn it into ash. Sound good?”
Garth actually considered it for a moment, scratching the side of his face and humming.
“Any chance those potions can set the rest of the forest on fire?” He finally asked. I was about to brush his concern off before I stopped and thought about it for a moment.
“Only if I somehow miss throwing it in the pit I dig out,” I said. Garth thought about it again, then nodded ahead of us where the sound of rustling could be heard.
“Well then don’t miss. I think we’ve let this beast take enough of the forest.”