Jackal Among Snakes

Onychinusa looked upon the older dryad after she made her offer and said, “I agreed to help, but I don’t know what it is you’re asking of me.”

The mother dryad stepped up to Onychinusa, staring her eye to eye. “I cannot fault you for that. The circumstances of your birth were very strange, and so you cannot be expected to know what I speak of.” She held her hands out magnanimously, then continued, “I humbly plead that you reconnect with your lineage, learn of your people, and help us just as your ancestors once did.”

As Anneliese watched this exchange, repressed desire seemed to explode outwards from Onychinusa at that moment. The dryad’s request was something that she’d thought about herself many times before, yet the ancient elf had never been allowed—or perhaps never allowed herself—to explore it. When confronted with it directly, the emotionally inexperienced woman became a storm of uncertainty and curiosity.

A storm that Anneliese was more than happy to intensify.

“You should definitely do it,” Anneliese encouraged immediately, much of her initial purpose in coming here put to the wayside. She moved the Brumesingers aside.

“I don’t... I can’t...” Onychinusa edged backwards, “There are other considerations, and I...”

“I know that you are tied to Erlebnis. In the end, it matters not,” the dryad shook her head, dark eyes uncompromisingly kind. “Your parents, though entrapped, thought to preserve you... and by preserving you, preserve everything they held dear.”

Onychinusa stared for a few moments, coming to grips with what the dryad said. “...in the end, it matters not? That’s a fitting thing to say. I never knew them. I cannot remember them. Every year of my life, they were already dead.”

“You were never told of them? You never had that question answered?” Anneliese probed.

“I know...!” Onychinusa whipped her head to glare at Anneliese, then took a deep breath. “I know what you’re doing.”

Anneliese only tilted her head innocently.

“The children... my children...” the dryad turned her body, looking out at them as the played loudly in the distant reaches of the clearing. “So long ago, they were so few. No more than five. But as the years passed, I made more and more, as I was instructed to so long ago by your kin. Hide away, they told me... hide away, and prepare for the return of our brood. They thought that one day, the troubles would be over... and even were that not the case, their legacy would be preserved, to be reborn.”

Anneliese watched as Onychinusa was assailed by tremendous guilt. But soon enough, the elf felt confusion in equal measure as though this feeling was entirely new to her. Perhaps it was—Anneliese supposed there was seldom an opportunity for Onychinusa to feel like she’d wronged Erlebnis enough to feel guilty.

The dryad turned her head away from the children. “You must forgive me, but I have promised my children for so long that you would come back. Could you please, at the very least... indulge them for a time? They have practiced for centuries how best to serve you... or someone like you. Could you allow them that?”

Onychinusa looked quite trepidatious, and she offered no verbal answer. After a time of debating with herself, she abruptly stormed off towards the playing dryad children, almost as though to give them a piece of her mind.

“I am feeling a sense of what you might call irony,” the dryad said to Anneliese, turning her head away. “It was a slave rebellion that marked the end of their empire. Now the last of them returns nearly a thousand years later... as a slave that does not know it.”

them that made it clear it was not meant as such. She questioned gently, “How is it you know all of these things? About me, about her,

gifts,” the mother explained. “Among them is the gift to see to the root of life. We can intimately understand the origins of all that we lay eyes upon, from the smallest sapling to the largest among us... like you,” she

felt like there was something more important. Ahead, Onychinusa reluctantly engaged with the dryad children,

cannot grow without her. This forest cannot spread beyond these ruins without her. And I believe, perhaps with few exceptions, that the whole of this forest cannot be healed of the damage that foul interloper

what Kirel

its name,” the mother dryad nodded. “The roots have taken in

the first of the dryads dared to approach Onychinusa. It began to fit her hands with rings of purple flowers, vibrant and

here... those with red eyes... I treat them kindly, but they were once slaves. The centaurs were once slaves, and the humans on this continent were once slaves. They have all broken their bonds, razed the cities of their captors, and allowed the gods to lay waste to their culture. Now, only me and my children remain bound

the Bloodwoods... aren’t descendants?”

still servants. The elves sought to assume the position of overlord, but the centaurs’ betrayal during their mutual rebellion put an end

the ancient elves... how

of it all harvested Onychinusa’s ancestors like wheat. He took the knowledge he wanted, hoarding it, and left the victors to stew in the ignorance of their making. Onychinusa was... a concession. Until the end, Erlebnis couldn’t get every bit of knowledge. He struck a bargain with the elves. Preserve

Erlebnis,” Anneliese

do. When someone knows your loyalty is assured, they trust you, and treat you very kindly. Naysayers claim it could be likened to the relationship between dogs and mortals, but… whatever the case, our

the world could be overthrown when Gerechtigkeit came down. And furthermore, what Erlebnis was attempting with Argrave was not his first instance of such a behavior. Perhaps just as the empire of the ancient elves had died, so too did Erlebnis

and so she asked, “The man that was with me, my husband... you know of his

see him,” the dryad shook her head, then looked out across the clearing. “Perhaps ask the—oh. Yes, I can say I know

two that had gone with him returned. She could tell just by looking on him that things had not gone as he planned, and he walked with a heavy heart. At once, she broke away

a question

bitterly said, “There’s a huge damn hole.” His eyes scanned the place around, not elaborating further. When he spotted something, he gestured. “There, see? That big hole. You can see it. You can damn well see it. The whole thing collapsed, and now the

for a minute,” Anneliese said, taking his

with the dryad as he might an old friend. Once they’d placed a

shamanic magic... and that’s sort of the point for coming here.” Argrave looked to where Onychinusa engaged with the druids, the frustration written on his face. Around everyone else he

began hopefully. “I

from the ancient elf and narrowed his eyes. “Can you think of another way to get the spirits for the shamanic magic? She has spirits. We need

explained. “They want to expand their sphere of influence, and help Onychinusa reconnect with her

can work out. We can show her a DNA test, tell her all about

what he said, and thought about how she knew Onychinusa... and indeed, all his words rang true. But something flared in her, and she argued, “I am certain only of

this whole idea... but in the end, his trust in her was so absolute he