Stray Soul

A hand supporting his head, the goblin shaman Krone pondered over the current situation of his encampment and tribe, like the possible expansion of the hunting parties, the amount of exp and resources that could be extracted from the dungeon, possibilities of establishing a small fishing community near the lake that was a few days away from the encampment, and overhaul, improving the situation of his tribe and making it more appetizing to possible migrants that he attracted, or were sent his way thanks to the Great One.

Though he doubted the Great One would invest into anything that wouldn’t have immediate benefits like sending people and resources to a newly formed tribe and encampment like his, he still hoped to receive some aid, no matter its form.

After all, they were sent here on the orders of the Great One, and he wasn’t going to leave them to rot now, was he?

Well, that was actually a very plausible thing, as Krone didn’t think the establishment of this encampment and him being given a tribe was anything more than simple politicking between deities, trying to attract the attention of lesser gods, but he still clunged to the hope that there would be some help headed their way, however unlikely that may be.

Tough there was also that weird undead that appeared a few times now, but it was not a problem, yet.

At worst, it would catch someone off guard and injure them, but he didn’t think much more than that would happen.

Turning his head towards a window near the top of the temple, Krone saw that it was already night, and another day had passed.

“Well, time to finish everything and go get some shut eye, after all I can’t rule a tribe with 100 souls in it without rest...” getting off of his throne, Krone started moving towards the back room of the temple to charge the undead with mana for the last time today, stopping them from decomposing, and sullying his gods’ domain.

Then he would go to the divine cores, make sure there weren’t any problems with them, do his nightly prayers and go rest.

But as his was on the handle of the door that led to the backrooms, the gates to temple suddenly opened.

*creak~~*

Turning his head towards the doors, he saw a familiar face.

“Ah, Gram, as punctual as always I see.” he said mockingly, not that he and Gram had that much of a bad blood between them, but because it was the opposite.

Closing the doors behind him, Gram moved forwards and started talking.

“Ha ha, how funny. You know I have to report to you whenever I return, right? This is not something that can be delayed.”

“Oh, but it can, only if a certain someone who shall remain unnamed wasn’t so into following the code of conduct there would be no problems.” Krone said, returning to his throne, he doubted that this would last for long, but Gram was always so strict with things like these, and there was no reason not to do these things, so he complied with it.

*sigh*

Heaved Gram, clearly tired from travelling the whole day, and the days before that, but mixed with his usual tiredness from a long mission, there was also a bit of worry, which was concerning to say the least.

Understanding this might not be just another simple report, Krone fixed his posture and told Gram to give his report.

“As you ordered, I went to explore the lake side for a possible previously undetected dungeon with 4 G ranks with me, but as I was exploring the lake side, instead of finding a dungeon, I found something much, much more concerning.” Gram started, proving Krone’s first impression of the situation correct.

But what could be more concerning than another dungeon so close to them? The dungeon they are exploiting right now shouldn’t’ve left enough mana in the surroundings, so the existence of another dungeon so close might’ve meant that the undiscovered dungeon might’ve been destroying the local forest and subsisting off of its mana, or something else like a mana stone mine, or an artifact of sorts that went undetected.

So, he couldn’t really see how something more concerning might exists.

As his and Gram’s gaze met, Gram continued talking.

“I believe I’ve found a spirit tree.” Gram finished. Which woke up Krone’s mind in alertness, after all if it was a spirit tree belonging to the All Mother, everyone in this encampment was already as good as dead.

Quickly calming himself down, Krone decided to first ask questions and then act.

“Do you think it belongs to her or is it a normal spirit tree?” he asked Gram, his worry accidentally seeping through his voice.

“While I do not posses conclusive evidence to support that this particular spirit tree belongs to the All Mother, I do believe that it does. Simply due to the existence of an anomaly I’ve detected while doing my return trip, which I believe supports the idea that this spirit tree is not a naturally occurring one.” Gram said and continued.

“I believe you remember the undead vine deer we talked about a few days ago?” he asked.

Taken aback, I answered.

“Well yes, I do. Talking about the vine deer, Grok encountered it, or another undead eerily similar to it while leaving the dungeon after finishing his delve, but he also claimed that it was heavily injured after he destroyed most of its brain with a spear throw, so I just assumed it would, at best, live for a few more days, I take that my assumption was wrong?”

“Maybe, maybe not, but I know that our first assumption of it being an undead was wrong.” Gram said, which left me confused as I couldn’t believe so many people, including my son, could misidentify something as being an undead while it was not.

“I believe that the creature was a plant being, puppeteering the corpse of a vine deer it found.” Gram continued, and for a moment I couldn’t believe what he was saying at told him to repeat himself.

“The undead vine deer we saw wasn’t an undead, it was a plant being, possible under control of the All Mother, that was puppeteering the corpse of a vine deer.” he repeated, which left me even more confused even though I could understand what he was implying.

But did the Mother even use lesser plant beings to control dead corpses to masquerade them as undead?

I never read a report of this or heard the priests of the Pale Lord talk about it while they were escorting us but... its also possible the damned kobolds just didn’t tell that to us.

After all, we were the servants of different deities, and only after that allies, I wouldn’t put it past them to include us in the politicking of the deities and give us out of date or just wrong intel on the Mother.

Leaving my thoughts be for now, I gave Gram a nod to continue.

“While on my return trip with my men, we decided to hunt a wild hog, but one of my men did a mistake and was injured by the hog so I quickly gave them the order to retreat, as heavy injuries on the field often prove lethal and we lacked the means to immediately treat any such injuries.

As we retreated, the hog lost our trail and started wandering the forest, and after making sure my men were fine, I went to finish the hog, but after finding the hog, I saw that it was chasing the undead deer near what appeared to be a really big turtle.

Not wanting to anger the beast, I decided to leave, but before I left, I saw the undead and the hog falling next to the turtle, and awakening it, which left both death, but curiously, after the deer fell, a swarm of branches started leaving its body and condensing outside it, forming a worm like creature made of plant matter, which then slithered on the ground towards the dead hog, and then entered it, puncturing the weak skin, and sliding in from the eyes, mouth, ears, and any other hole it could find. After a few moments, the branches covered the hog completely and the beast’s body started twitching, realizing what I was staring at, I quickly went back to my men, and returned back to the encampment, carrying the injured on my back.” Gram finished, looking at me.

And as he finished repeating what he saw, my brain moved faster than it had ever before, we might’ve either encountered a new form of war beast being tested here by the all mother, or just be under extreme threat in general.

But no matter if its really a new form of plant being never seen before, I knew one thing for sure.

I had to get my people out of this forest.

And fast!

But as I was getting up from my throne to go alert the Great One as to why we were leaving our encampment and needed reinforcements, I paused.

The Great One didn’t have reach here, like what I said, this encampment was built for, and only for, political reasons. So even if he wanted to, he couldn’t send us reinforcements, but the Pale Lord could... but not for free.

And sacrificing my people for a greedy deity didn’t fit well with me, but what else could we do...

Sitting back on my throne, I started thinking for a moment and turned to Gram.

“Gram, do you think you could capture that plant being, or at least destroy it and retrieve its corpse?” I asked after I was done thinking and made a plan in my mind.

Caught of guard, Gram thought for a moment, and then quickly met my eyes and answered.

“Twigs are twigs, they will be broken all the same. If I can, I’ll capture it, but doing so might bring the Mother’s attention on us, even more than whatever you are planning.”

A good answer, an answer I hoped for. He must understand the direness of the situation as well as I, and even if he doesn’t understand our political situation, he understands enough to be in the same wavelength as me.

“Good. Come here.” I said, extending my hand out towards him.

With quick steps he came towards me, letting the palm of my hand touch his head.

Quickly, I shifted through my undead, sensing and selecting the strongest ones, but leaving the Cave Terror I begged the kobolds so hard to keep. I wasn’t wasting it on a mission like this when it could potentially defend us from the ire of the Mother, even if it’s for a few seconds.

As I bringed the threads of mana that connected me to my undead towards Gram’s head, I saw him flinch with every new undead I connected to him

I had given him many undead to control before, but this time would be special as I would be giving a dozen or so undead to him, just to make sure my gambit would work.

After I was done connecting the undead, my hand lay on his head, contemplating my next move.

After a few moments, he opened his eyes and looked at me questioningly.

“Uhh, Krone?”

And after a moment of silence, I could only say.

“Damn the consequences!”

Realizing what I was going to do he immediately started saying.

“DON’T YOU FUCKIN—ARGH!!!” but before he could retort, I quickly brough the thread of mana connecting me and the Cave Terror to his head, connecting them, which overloaded him for a moment and made him feel a sharp pain, but it was only temporary, nothing bad would actually happen... well, nothing bad that was permanent that is.

“TELL ME BEFORE YOU DO THAT!” Gram screamed at me, massaging his head with both of his hands, looking like he was angered and in pain... though I can’t say why, maybe he was just grumpy about still being awake this late into night?

What a weird man he is...

“HEY, DON’T THINK WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME!”

“Oh, do tell why I would do such things Gram, I am just basking in the moon light.”

“Inside?!”

“Yes. Inside.”

After having a staring contest for a few moments, Gram finally relented and heaved a sigh.

“Haaah... At least tell me what exactly you want me to do.”

“What do you think?”

“Something really stupid?”

“Well, then you would be right.”

“Stop joking and tell me what you really want me to do.” Gram said, his voice low but he was serious this time, so I spelled out the obvious for him.

“I want you to go hunt down that plant being, whatever it is, and bring it back here, dead or alive, preferably alive but I also understand the threats of that. We will use it as a bargaining chip against the Pale Lord to send help to us because, if he doesn’t help us, he will be losing on critical military intel on one of Mother’s pet projects, if he does help us, all is great!

We will then just alert the Great One and move our tribe to elsewhere!” I said with a confident smile, but I saw his face go sour at the mention of the Great One.

“Agh... you are still hurt about that Gram?” I asked him.

“Hurt? Why no, why would I be hurt! Not like I was forced under the employ of a random troll masquerading as a deity that sees us nothing more than pawns on the board that can be sacrificed as he sees fit.” he said in a tone which I didn’t like, and to say the great one is just a simple troll masquerading as a deity?! Blasphemy!

“...Gram, you know who you are talking to, right?” I asked in a threatening tone, and as I said that the darkness covering the temple became a bit more oppressive. After all, I was a priest of the Great One first, and the Shaman of this tribe second.

“You and I were both there when the demons of the Dark Lord gave him the gift of divinity, raising him from a mere mortal to a deity! We should be proud the gods saw one of us worthy to join their ranks, not talk behind their back and look at their gift with distain!” I said once again, anger seeping out.

“And that’s exactly the problem, Krone. We were both there when that loser was given the gift of divinity. You know as well as I he didn’t deserve it. He just happened to be there when an another deity and a demon were arguing and the demon raised him to deity-hood on a whim to spite the deity it was arguing with.

There was no consideration, plans, or anything like that from the gods other than a salty demon playing with the lives of a few mortals.

And on the spot he was given power, he immediately went corrupt and demanded we pray to him, like he was a god who gained his power and position.

To me, and many in our tribe, he is just another deity. Not even worth mentioning his name. If not for the fact that our tribe and many others weren’t given to him to shut him and his ego up you wouldn’t even be a priest of such a loser, you would be in the ranks of the elite, guiding your flock in a church dedicated to the Dark Lord, not that troll.

If not for—” but before he could continue, I talked.

“Shut up.” by now, my anger was clear, and I knew he knew that I was angry.

Then he turned around and started walking towards the temple gates, but before he reached them, I heard him say something under his breath.

“We need a better deity. Not one that rules with an iron fist like a tyrant, but one that guides us with a soft hand like a father.”

At this I sneered, but didn’t say anything, after all, even though I couldn’t let others bad mouth the gods, I knew what he said was true.

If not for the Great One... I may have already become an archpriest for the Dark Lord... but that ship sailed long ago, and I doubt we’d be left free anytime soon...

*creak~~*

Stopping before leaving the door, Gram turned towards me and asked.

“How am I supposed to track something like a plant being in this forest? If I hadn’t been so close to the spirit tree, I wouldn’t’ve even sensed it, finding a plant being as small as that might as well be impossible for me.”

“Don’t worry about that Gram, I’ve got a few mana stones stored up, I’ll modify a H rank one with prayers to the Dark Lord, that should do. Just focus on doing your job and bringing me that plant being, dead or alive. Now. Go.” I said, after which he left.

Standing on my throne in the empty temple, thoughts overcame me, about how the future of my people would go.

Would we live, or would we die?

Or would ever be... free?

...

..

.

“Ahh... You’ve gone and done it again Gram, making me think of stupid things...”