Wild Wastes 4 -Ch 6- (Patreon)

Vince and Blue turned away from the rather macabre sight and moved off. Blue began pulling at his arm after they’d cleared the immediate vicinity but hadn’t left the very large plaza.

“This way, very old tree,” she advised, leading him around a bend in the pathway.

It led them to a partially enclosed section that had a tree in the center of it.

To be honest it was rather hard to miss given the size of it, Vince just hadn’t realized it was as close as it was. It’d looked a bit further away and as if it were growing out of some mansion’s backyard.

Surprisingly, or at least to Vince, was that it looked to be a type of tree Vince was familiar with. An ash tree of some variety.

Growing out of the center of the area provided for it, this wasn’t just an old tree, but one you could call ancient. With branches and boughs that strained up into the sky above, reaching out for every inch of sunlight it could gather.

“Oh, goodness,” Blue said and then laid her right hand to the bark of the large specimen. Reaching what clearly had to be over sixty feet tall. “Hello. You… had a Dryad once.”

Looking up to the branches above, Blue looked very curious. Curious but also forlorn.

“He’s lived a long time here. A very long time. His Dryad was the city’s… trasgu. Or… something like that. I don’t really understand. She was revered and… she had wings. She was more akin to a Sylph then a Dryad. How very strange.

“She spoke out against the violence occurring. Against the civil war that was tearing the country to pieces. They killed her. Right here. At the base of her tree.

“Her blood soaked the ground and fed her tree, now he lives on. Living for both of them and wishing to see her again. To… live… with her again? It’s hard to make out.

“He’s not very fond of the Dryad that’s… that’s living… in a pot? In a pot, yes. Living in a pot at the back of the city.”

Shaking her head, Blue looked like she didn’t even understand what she herself was saying.

“I have a Dryad by the name of Meliae,” Vince said, looking up into the tree’s foliage. “She’s an ash Dryad.”

There was a strange hesitation in the air, followed by what felt like the tree reaching out to him. To the grove inside him.

Lifting his left hand, Vince placed it to the tree as well.

There was an instant connection between himself and the tree. One Dryad tree, to another.

Vince heard what sounded like static electricity. The type you’d hear when you pulled certain clothes apart on an extremely windy day. Followed by a rustling through the tree.

“He… welcomes you,” Blue whispered. “Welcomes you and wants to know if you’ll take a seed from his Dryad. The last he has.

“He’s old and very tired. He can’t… can’t finish… he can’t finish something. I can’t understand what he’s trying to say.

“His life is very weak. I don’t think he has many winters left if even one winter left. The soil just can’t support him anymore.”

Now that Vince was looking, he saw a number of spots on the tree that didn’t have bark coverage. Where it’d shed it and nothing new was growing back over it.

Around the ground and about them were a great many broken branches. As if they weren’t strong enough to endure the wind and storms anymore.

Looking down to the base he even saw new shoots growing up from the base of the tree.

None of these things were signs that this tree was in good condition.

“Yes,” Vince said simply, looking back up to the tree’s middle.

There was a sharp crack, as if something broke above him.

Fluttering down toward him came a flat looking seed pod. One that reminded him of the one Meliae had put into him.

Catching it out of the air, Vince looked to Blue.

“He’s… asleep. I don’t think he’ll wake again,” whispered Blue, turning her head to meet Vince’s eyes. “All he said was thank you and… that was it.”

Frowning, Vince looked to the seed pod.

“Should I put it in me?” he asked, lifting his gaze back to Blue.

“I… don’t know. He’s a Dryad tree but there’s no Dryad attached to it. It wouldn’t harm you at all but there’s no point to it.”

Vince looked around and then back to Blue.

Dryad’s were the backbone of his kingdom.

They were also the key for Felix defeating his enemies.

As a family, they owed a great deal to Dryads.

“Help me get this inside,” Vince muttered and opened his coat. “When we’re done, let’s go find this ‘Dryad in a pot’ he mentioned.”

At his waist was the gifted pistol Felix had given him through Andrea. On his other hip was the energy-bladed sword he’d stolen from a dying superhero. These two weapons gave Vince a great deal of confidence.

Now just imagine when I get into the Sword of Yosemite.

“Wipe that smirk off your face, my dearest grove-husband,” Blue said with a chuckle. She stepped up to him and then laid her hands to his chest. Standing there for a few seconds she looked to be considering something.

With a quick shake of her head she just pulled down the top of his tunic. Then pulled the Legion small ballistic vest forward. She focused on his clavicle. The same spot that was opened up every time they planted new Dryads in him.

Without even touching him, the skin split apart and opened up.

Blue plucked the seed out of Vince’s hand and slid the very faintly glowing seed-pod into him. Then sealed the wound with a finger tip.

Letting the clothes sit back on him in the correct way she patted his chest. Then closed his jacket at the front. There was no reason to advertise his weaponry.

“Alright, off we go,” she said and then hooked her arm into his once again.

As she pulled him off, he had a lingering strange feeling. That there was something else he needed to say.

Something to do.

An itching feeling that an item had been left uncompleted.

With a shake of his head, Vince cleared the feeling and let Blue lead him off.

Blue took him down a series of alleys, streets, and cross-wise through intersections. It was somewhat of a strange scramble to move through the people around them.

A great many people were heading back to their homes, to where they’d come from to begin with. There was an ebb and flow to it that Blue was using to keep them moving and quite fast.

In very little time at all, they came back out of it all. To a small secluded area in the back of the city. There were a number of trees all around. A great deal of grass.

Fountains dotted the landscape.

There were no people here though.

Nor were there any guards.

It was an empty almost forgotten corner of the city.

“I… ugh… it’s… it’s awful,” Blue said, recoiling backward several steps. Even going so far as to release Vince’s arm in her retreat.

“What is it?” he asked, looking at the Dryad with some concern.

“A potted Dryad… living on the edge. Just like he said,” Blue said with a shake of her head. “That’s terrible. Absolutely terrible.”

“Well, I can’t see it or sense it, so you’ll have to lead me there or elaborate,” grumbled Vince.

Blue shook her head, then nodded it. Finally letting out a slow and forceful breath before stepping forward again. Her whole demeanor seemed as if she wanted to turn and sprint away at full speed.

“Trees like a healthy distance from each other,” muttered Blue as they started forward across the perfectly manicured green grass. “It’s to try and keep themselves from picking up a disease. This… feels like that to me. That I’m walking into something diseased.”

Eventually the green walk-way came to a curved path. One that led around to a different area entirely. A darkened hallway that led to a bricked up park. Twenty foot tall walls with spikes along the top of them.

Vince couldn’t see it from here but he’d bet there was a guard patrol that was kept around the outside of the walls here.

The area wasn’t very large, perhaps fifty by fifty feet. It was filled with stunted trees and very sad and depressed looking Dryads.

One and all they also had the look of being very unhealthy.

It reminded him of when Meliae had been dying on the way back to his home.

There was no one else here, just the Dryads, trees, and the walls.

Looking to the trees, Vince saw why these poor things looked the way they did. That they seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.

Their trees were mutilated.

Bound to be a certain size, it was obvious that they were frequently hacked at. Cut back at the first sign of growing beyond a set limit.

That wasn’t where it ended either. Most of the trees had clearly had their barks peeled off, leaving almost the entirety of the tree bare.

Quite a few of them also had what looked to be an endless number of taps put into them. Where sap poured from only to be pooling up on the grass.

There was no desire to collect it, only to damage the tree. To make it harder for the Dryads to resist or do anything he imagined.

At the back of the area was a larger tree. One that’d been hacked down from what had likely been a very like beech tree. One that’d grown magnificently and proudly.

“This is hideous,” Vince whispered. “Absolutely vile.”

Slowly, the two of them kept walking. Past the living Dryad’s that looked almost like corpses. Their partly tanned skin looking yellowish and hanging poorly on their bodies. Sunken eyes and wispy dry hair.

Each and every one of them was quite pregnant looking.

Okay. I’m burning this shit-hole city to the ground.

Anyone who can do this to Dryads… no. No, no, no.

Burning it all to the ground.

If the country behind it knew of this, I’ll burn it to the ground as well.

Then piss on the coals left over.

Sitting in front of the large and terribly mauled tree was another Dryad. She sat there for all the world as if she were a stone.

One that neither cared, saw, or heard their approach.

Her skin had the same light-tan that all of the Dryads had here. Her eyes were the Dryad green and looked empty. Her hair was pulled behind her head in a simple way that did nothing at all for her.

There was a diminished beauty to her and an echo of loss for it. That hung on her as if you were looking at a beautiful painting that’d been sliced from one corner to the other.

She was also so massively pregnant that she was even bigger than Meliae.

“You poor woman,” Blue said in a choked voice as they came up to her.

The Dryad blinked, her eyes slowly moving up to Vince and Blue’s. It was as if she’d been in a trance and unable to hear or see them until that moment.

“What?” she asked in a dry voice. It was also oddly accented in a way he’d never heard before.

At least we can communicate.

“Who did this to you,” Vince demanded before Blue could say anything. There was a growl in his voice that he didn’t expect.

The Dryad looked from Vince, to Blue, then back to him. She looked confused and shocked. As if she wasn’t sure what was going on.

“This?” she asked.

“Imprisoned you, butchered your trees, imprisoned you,” hissed Vince. He could feel his hands flexing into fists and the creak of his leather gloves as he did so.

The very idea that someone could do something like this to a Dryad was terrible to him. They were a species that just wanted to live in harmony with where-ever they were, have a lot of sex, and have more Dryads.

They only wanted things to live and breed. That was it.

“Did they rape you? Or are these pregnancies you wish,” Vince added in when his mind caught up to it.

Blinking rapidly the Dryad slowly tilted her head to the side, gazing up at him.

“You’re not from here,” said the Dryad with a wasteland of a smile. “Northerner’s. Verdad?”

“Let’s just say… we’re from somewhere you’ve never heard of,” offered Blue, pushing in close to Vince’s side now. It looked like she wanted to curl up into him and hide in her own clothes.

“You’re… a Dryad,” said the woman, her eyes slowly losing the confusion and lack of awareness. It was as if she were waking up. Gazing at Blue with something akin to shock and awe.

“Yes,” whispered Blue. “He’s my grove. Who… did this to you? What’s the government of this place? Where are we? What’s the name of the city and country?”

Looking rapidly between the two of them, the very pregnant Dryad levered herself up to her feet. She looked winded from the simple action.

“I’m a prisoner,” said the Dryad firmly. “I am held against my will, as all my daughters are, as well. Those who can receive a man, are here, or sold to other cities.

“Those too young, are held in a prison beneath the city-lord’s castle. Close enough to be part of my grove, far enough to keep them weak and tired.

“The day they can plant a tree they are forced to do so, then sold, or… bred. This is one of three, Dryad breeding cities.”

That was all Vince needed to know.

All he would ever need to know.

To Vince, Dryads were one of the very few species he respected. No-one garnered the same to him at any level.

“How can I free you,” Vince demanded. He wanted to know what it would take to make this happen. “Do I just slaughter everyone? Do you have seeds?”

“I… no. We don’t. It’d cost too much for us. We spend too much just trying to survive and care for our daughters,” lamented the Dryad.

Gritting his teeth, Vince looked down and to the side.

A single thought came to him.

Charging the Dryad up with his own grove. To use what power he had to give to her. He imagined it wouldn’t be very much at the moment, but he could probably come back the next day and do it again.

And again.

Until they had enough power to have seeds ready. Then he’d break them out as well as their daughters.

“If we were to escape, we’d rather not… not interact with anyone. We know a place we can go where we could retreat from the world,” voiced the Dryad.

“That’s fine. As long as you’d be safe,” confirmed Vince, then he looked around himself.

“We can’t leave this area. They don’t need guards. No one comes to see us,” offered the Dryad with a small shake of her head. “The city-lord discourages anyone coming to see us as well, though he doesn’t prevent it.

“No one has come to see us in a very long time. Months upon months, really. The only ones that come… come to harm our trees.”

“Right… well… that’s done now,” Vince hissed.

Reaching out he laid his hand to the Dryad’s shoulder and promptly tried to empty what little he had of the power of his grove into her.

There wasn’t much power available given that he’d emptied it recently into Sam. Though he did believe there would be some available.

He was finally near a level that he’d used to be at with only a handful of Dryads in his grove and them as individual trees. Except with so many trees providing him power, he could recharge rather quickly.

In the next moment there was a steady and powerful discharge exiting from him. All entering the poor withered and partly-dead Dryad.

There was a shocking change in the woman, going from a hunched over and meek looking creature, to a Dryad that Vince could recognize. As if she’d just arrived from the wastes and wanted to know where she could go to join a grove.

As quickly as the change had come on, it fled again.

The Dryad once again withered, wizened, and looked drawn. Exactly as she’d been when he’d first met her.

When the power ran out, Vince let his hand fall.

“I… thank you, outisder,” whispered the Dryad, looking up at him. “That… that was far more than I expected. I’ve given much of it to my daughters.

“Those behind you, that is. They weren’t as strong as I was and were succumbing much faster. I’ve strengthened their roots to prepare a seed. When… can you do that again? Next week?”

Flexing his hand, Vince looked at his palm. He could feel the newest seed-pod that’d joined his grove growing now. Shifting about inside of him in a panicked yet incredibly excited way.

Finding endless Dryad trees to mingle with and be a part of.

I’ll become the damn lord of the Dryads. This sickening display will end. I’ll let Blue do the… Dryad invitations. I’m sure Meliae, her and Mouth worked out what’d happen if I found more Dryads.

No need to worry over it.

“In a few hours. I’ll have most of it back. How many more times do you think it’ll take before you’re all ready to move? Also, where are your other daughters? I’ll need to make sure we can get them out as well,” he said, looking back to the Dryad woman.

“I… that… two times I’d say,” she said in a near whisper. “As to my daughters… I don’t know. I can find out though. If… you can fill me with power again, when the city-lord visits me tonight, I can take the information from him. I’ll know tomorrow.”

“Then tomorrow, if I get permission from my general, your imprisonment ends,” promised Vince. “Do you have a human name, by the way?”

One way, or the other.

I’ll either break you all out and give you your exit… or I’ll kill the city-lord, all his damned people, and turn the city over to you. You can be the Duchess here in this place.

This little walled off courtyard can become your throne room.

Give you full run of the damn city.

The Dryad gave him a sad small smile.

“I’m most unfortunately known as Firewood for a long while now,” she said softly. “My… mother once called me Flora.”

Kill them all.

“I’ll return, Flora,” promised Vince.

Turning away, Vince left. He’d come back in a few hours to recharge her once more, than leave. He still needed to collect what information he could here as a scout for Petra.