Alice [Electronic Ink] Keera [Lightascetic] Griskin [Beefish] _________________________ As soon as he saw that giant, ancient root snaking through the ground, Griskin knew he'd wandered too far. There were more, and they tangled together along the ground, strangling grass wherever they interlocked. The trees they belonged to were gnarled, stretched out towards a green roof of dense foliage, covering the sky with several skins of leaf. He knocked Grudd with the knuckle of his fist gently. "Don't s'ppose you know the Kokiri Forest too well, Huh bud?" The octorok skittered around in circles, its legs rippled nimbly over the wild ground. It twitched, a little stone dropped weakly from the sucker on its face. They hadn't gone very far into the forest. In fact, they had only come to the very edge of it. The only reason they had walked so far, was that as the trees became scarce, a group of humans had made some sort of camp. They had to go around it. Griskin's eyes rolled upwards. Then he was reminded of the living barrier above him which shielded the sun. "Ah... shoot." He released his spear, it fell into a gown of fallen leaves with a crunch. He didn't have a way to tell the time; not unless it started going dark. His throat clenched, and a storm of thoughts gathered in his skull. What could he do now? He sat against a particularly bulky root and tried to think. Shouting in the distance. One of his floppy ears flinched and flapped. He found himself grabbing onto the root for dear life, and eyeing the spear at his feet. Grudd was more precise, more active. The octorok immediately pushed off and away into the thick forest. "Grudd!" He surged from his seat, stumbling onto broad legs. "Grudd!" He repeated the name in a harsh whisper. Without so much as a cautious look to the left or right, Griskin belted after his companion, towards the sound of other voices.
"Where did she go?!" Melda chimed fiercely into the empty glade. For all the gently swaying leaves and the dappling sunlight that danced between them, the atmosphere was tense. "I don't know... I'm going to have trouble restoring them from sickness if she's not around to tell me about the nature of the magic she used..." Keera said, hopping onto a vine-covered stump to better survey the area. Finding anything lost in the Kokiri forest was a difficult task in itself, but finding a stray fairy was its own dilemma entirely. Of all the days for an entire encampment of people to become sick, it was the day that most of the Kokiri healers went further afield to replenish their stocks of rare herbs and poultices. Keera was an accomplished healer in her own right, but it was even beyond her power to care for an entire group of humans. So many factors added up to this being a potentially dangerous situation. Kokiri medicine didn't always work as well on humans, and it wasn't under the Great Deku Tree's jurisdiction to assist strangers in the wood. If Keera couldn't find the fairy responsible for causing this illness, it was going to be a long and stressful day. "She can't have gone far... She was here a moment ago. You go back and tend to them, Keera. I'll find her." Melda said. There weren't many times that the pair separated, but the current emergency merited such action. "Right. Be careful!" Keera called out, bouncing from the stump and dashing back in the direction of the camp. She could hear the victims calling out in pain and discomfort, which tugged at her heart. What was worse is she knew right now, she could do little to ease their suffering.
Alice, meanwhile, was having an awful lot of fun playing with the colourful sparkles. They darted like fireflies under her tiny fingers, flickering around joyfully, ever so happy to play with the people the fairy pointed at. It was quite gratifying, actually. Alice wasn’t used to there being things smaller than her, and it was fun to play with them. All bright colours and tiny spots and Alice rather suspected that this was what she looked like to the Big People. “Talk no, ‘kay?” she said to the sparkles, who didn’t respond. She wasn’t sure if that was what she had been asking them to do or not, but in any case it didn’t bother her. As long as they didn’t leave her alone she’d be fine. Always fine. It was easy to be fine, she thought. While there was wind in her hair and space around her limbs she’d be just fine. She turned around at the sound of someone chasing after her and giggled. They wanted her sparkles! Well, they couldn’t have them! She looped back around to fly away and somehow managed to fly into a leaf, which was annoying, so she made the sparkles play with the leaf. The leaf didn’t seem happy with this- it started to grow fuzzy gray spots and curl up, dropping off the tree despondently. She poked her tongue out at it. Be that way, then! What a spoilsport. She flew through where the leaf had been, working her way around the edge of the woods. She thought that the tree with the little hollow in it was around here somewhere. Maybe. She’d probably lost it. It was a lot easier to lose an entire tree than it sounded. Maybe she should put a big flag on it, like the palaces she had once seen with Eve… She swallowed hard, her crazy eyes dimming for a moment. Eve. She missed Eve. Maybe if her mind wasn’t in as many pieces as it was she’d be able to find the piece that had Eve on it and find Eve again. Hell, she didn’t even remember what and when had happened. She could have been missing her charge for years or for ten minutes. Everything was jagged and twisted metal, spiky and painful, and she didn’t know how to navigate her way through it sometimes. But the sparkles were helping! Right? ...Right?
"Grudd!" One more time for good measure he shouted after it. Trees flashed by in a reel of green, the thick scent of fresh plant life might have been potent enough to confuse the Moblin's path were it not for snoutfuls of heavy, amphibious flesh picked upon by his keen, animal nose. Not as if that royal blue orb could have been hard to spot amongst the barrage of forest colour; but still, the little octorok had managed to vanish into the raw scenery. Griskin peeked across a runway of scents, chased his troublesome friend through every shade of nature. Suddenly all of the shapes around him started mingling in an unusual fashion, his body flung itself forward, eyes tumbled, was he still running? No. He was embraced by fallen leaves, and greeted with a quick pain to the knee. He rolled to a stop, eyes blurring together. Trees moved across his vision until they merged and stood in their correct places. Thunk! "Ouch!" He wailed and scrambled upright, responding to sound and the corresponding ache. Little blue blob formed in front of him, staring sternly familiar. "Grudd!" He wasn't sure whether to kick the quick little monster or scoop it up and huddle. He did neither. "Why did you run away?! You bad octo!" His voice grated through his throat with rough abuse, as if a club was lodged in his neck. Grudd's violent brow was bent down as usual, permanent hate spread across its face as it expanded slowly and menacing with low gurgles, promising murder by rocks. Standing its ground, Grudd peered into a section of forest ahead and continued to stock stones within its belly. Griskin sniffed, lumbering his portly limbs forward as he listened. There was certainly some kerfuffle. He smelled something unusual. Like flesh imbued with the forest's own essence. "Okay then," he whispered, "I'll trust ya, just, don't shoot! Not we know it's alright and as long as there's nobody we like out there, 'kay?" Following nose and Grudd, and curiosity, Griskin started after the alien smells.
Melda darted through the bushes, searching every nook for the stray fairy. She knew more about Alice than Keera did, especially when it came to her affinity for bizarre magic. Most of the Kokiri and the fairies left her to her own devices, as her tricks were normally harmless enough and easily undone. This time however, she'd gone several steps too far. It wasn't long before Melda spotted an irregularity in the layout of the forest. In a remarkably healthy glade, blessed by the radiance of the daylight, was an oddly twisted shoot. From the look of it, the sapling had taken root less than a year ago. Melda knew that it took more than a month for a healthy shoot to deteriorate, so it seemed strange that the plant was in such a sorry state. Flying closer, she could already sense foul magic. Sure enough, buried within one of the grey, shriveled leaves was a faint glimmer of purple. Looking up, Melda saw a bush with several crisped-up branches protruding from it. Flitting over, she soon found a vague trail of blight, varying from crumpled leaves hanging from otherwise healthy trees to sour patches of grass that looked as though they'd jumped over from a wasteland. Alice could do some serious damage to the forest if left alone. The pressure forcing her on, Melda followed the depressing path of destruction. ***************************************************************************************** Keera re-emerged in the human camp, despairing over the sight of the suffering people. They'd even been respectful to the forests- dampening their fire and dispersing the ashes, spreading out their equipment to ensure they didn't trample any plants... That they had been met with such misfortune didn't seem right. She'd quickly glanced upon them beforehand, but Keera hadn't closely inspected any of the humans. They all seemed so ill that they'd barely responded to her appearance. One man, laying on his back with his head propped up on a stump, limply rolled his head over to her and groaned. "What happened here?" Keera asked, already knowing but trying to see if she could get a response. The man merely breathed deeply, clearly having no more strength to work his vocal chords with. She knelt closer, realizing with horror that the man's skin was already taking on a greyish hue. "Hold on." She pressed her hands together, bringing forth her Life spell in the hopes that it would stall the progression of the curse. Keera laid her hands on the man's breastplate, allowing her magic to seep into him. For a moment, some color returned to his face, the pain temporarily fading from his features. Just when it looked like he was going to recover, Keera felt a sharp sting along her hands. "Ow!" She yelped, recoiling. No sooner had she stopped healing him, his skin turned grey and his anguish resumed. Several colored sparkles emerged from the man's clothing, buzzing in what sounded like mocking laughter before burrowing back into the man's body. It was as she had feared: the curse had to be undone, and she wasn't capable of doing it.
