Durthu coming to the Dreaming Woods.

Purification of Ariel took much of the strenght avaible to Durthu from the tree soul-realm. The confronation took place some weeks ago but the whole affair still felt bitter and will probably do for a long time. He need a time to rest after it. The terrible thing that happened was not only Ariel's corruption and how she failed to see all reason, but also her despair after being freed from taint for a moment and discovering how much she failed. In that moment she decided to cowardly abandon her life in this world instead of seeking atonement. It seemed as if just killing her would achieve same result without using so much strenght of the treefolk, but he could not bring himself to do it. In that moment when Ariel died Elves and spirits awoke as from a nightmare, the cloak of vengeance and spite that had clouded their vision for so long at least melting away like snow in the first days of spring. In that moment he decided that entwining Forest's fate with the fate of the elves was a mistake, one that he would correct right now. Thus he declared elves no longer welcome friends of the Forest, they are not to be coddled by Forest's many gifts anymore. Thus the explusion of elves from Athel Loren had begun and there was much grief.

It was nothing compared to the numerous griefs and woes elves caused to the Forest. Chief among them was corruption of much of the forest into Dreaming wood. Known as Athel Caiellin in Fan-Eltharin, the Dreaming Wood was not so much an area of Athel Loren as it is a wholly separate region that sit alongside the entire forest. It was a realm of grim prophecy and stark terror, of endless magic and daemonic malice. It was a realm that elves themselves had created inside the forest, one amongst many crimes of their kind. Durthu now had to face the consequences of his decision to bring elves into Athel Loren and entwine their fates together. Because of that antient decision, he was responsible for corruption of these parts of the Forest into the Dreaming Wood. As every deed has a consequence, it would be possible if Dreaming Wood had achieved a measure of influence upon him, one amongst many responsible of it's creation.

Walking around forest areas near the former elven settlements for days he finally stumbled upon an archway of vine-tangled white stone, placed as warning to the unwary that the Dreaming Wood lies beyond. Immedeatly, the woods beyond it started to appear odd. Trees entwining their roots against other trees, as if to crush them and, indeed, there were many trees that fell, usually smaller ones. Nearby trees had roots borrowed into the fallen trunks, as if to feed upon. Sometimes it was happening while the fallen trees were still alive and even standing. Durthu was filled with disgust. He tried to reach for the souls of these trees, only to recoil. They still held within them a will to grow in harmony with the world, gratefully recieving the light-gift of the Sun-god, binding together elements from air and soil to make the matter more alive. But there was also a burning greed, a hunger to ever get more then others, more sunshine, more rain, more nurture from the soil, hunger that eclipsed everything else. So that's how they began to compete with each other in abominable ways, thought Durthu. He noticed that some trees had also developed a hunger for flesh of the living trees like them. It was an atrocity. Yet, these trees still had some of their original nature within them and Durthu was not going to destroy
them as if they were daemons. The sunshine was falling upon this forest, even if it seemed dimmer for some reason as he walked on. Trees were still using Sun's gift as it was proper even in their corrupted state. Durthu could not afford to try and purify them as they were with the forces of tree soul-realm, for it was beset by the same daemons these trees were corrupted by. Purification of Ariel had costed the realm enough as it was and in the end, she decided to embrace death rather then use the chance he bought her with such cost. He would return to these trees and ensure their healing and redemption from their current state. But first, he needed to confront and understand the root of this corruption, so he moved on. In these forests there were also many beasts with their forms twisted and malign, but they gave him a way, not daring to attack. Once there was a pack of beastmen that fell upon him with savage glee, but he crushed them with his gnarled feet or cut them with his sword, their clawed blows and bites achieving little but chipping at his outer deadened bark. Occasionally, Durthu saw remains of skeletons lying around, a skull or a foot bone. Most were of the beasts but some belonged to elves and beastmen.

The land grew worse. In a few days there were no longer animals going around. The sun grew dimmer each dayTrees became unrecognisable to him, their forms twisting into purely parasitic forms feeding upon each other entirely, the landscape reduced from woodlands with standing trunks to the sea of writhing entwining vines, stretching as far as he could see. Strange clouds of pink and purple were concealing the sky, if there indeed was a sky in such place. Amongst the clouds strange violet lightning bolts sometimes appeared, but his mind senced no entities of winds&lightning he was so familiar with, there was no daring but joyful play there. Looking upon the clouds for a time, he felt his sences began to hurt. It was a habit to look upon the sky in order to get warm nurture from the Sun. There, however, was no such thing. He started to feel concern. How could he continue to exist in this form and act, if there was no sustence here? "Haste, humanoids often time call for haste". Yes, it was time to use haste, indeed. So he focused on his surroundings, noting the way he came to this place, a treeline of dark but still standing trunks with rotting leaves. He then looked forwards. Among the abominable vines feeding upon each other here and there were pitch-black bogs. Nearby vines that had parts falling into the bogs were weathered things, turning to ash him touching them. From beneath the bogs the black oily shadows were beconing him into their embrace and promising sweet oblivion. "At least this is familiar", he though bitterly. He gave them a lick of the sword of Daith, slashing at the dark waters and entities beneath. He watched some get hit and dissipate as clouds of fog getting sucked down somewhere beneath, but most just fled with a mocking laugter, as if daring him to pursue. His long reach made him able to catch some some with the sword and the same thing happened. He set upon destroying corporeal forms of these abominable entities, laying about him with the sword and giving pursuit with the long strides.

In some hours however his strenght began to fail, so he decided to go back into the more hospitable land in order to root himself and recover. He began walking back from this plain of abominations and into the dark woods. Suddenly, there was a purple and pink lightning bolt striking the ground some dozens of meters ahead. The vines covering the ground a dozen of meters around melted and burned and then there was a swirling upside-down tornado striking from the clouds above and into the ground in a wide area. When it touched the ground it transformed the piece of the land into the maelstorm of red, pink, purple and violet colors. Out of it emerged a dozen of shimmering silhouettes, their forms achieving shape out of the maelstorm as if absorbing it. They looked like oddly small, 2 and 3 meters high treemen. They were walking towards him with outstretching arms. Durthu was vary of the situation, looking at them closely. When they were some 10 meters close they began to run. At that moment their whole form shimmered, their colours changing from brown and green to bluish pale grey, appendages taking form of insectoid hooks. Their faces changed to those resembling monstrously grown bark beetles, cordes of muscle rippling around sharp jaws, each fang looking like an immensely robust and sharp crystalline growth. Durthu made a horisontal swipe with his blade, bisecting half of them in one strike. Another half managed do dodge the blade, bending and running
beneath it. He kicked 3 of them aside with his leg but other 4 were on him. They hooked themselves upon him with clawed arms and legs and began to chew his bark with abandon. It hurt, as little things had hurt before. The only thing that had hurt more were magical axes of the dwarves chopping at his face a long time ago, the wound that did not heal since and might not heal ever. He focused and took one of things into his clawed hand and tearing it off himself. It was painful, creature had hooked itself well onto his bark and took small chunks of it with it. He crushed the thing as it began to chew upon the hand, his sharp talons bysecting it in many places while it was crushed by barky palm closing around it, ichor and gore exploding from his closed fist. It took too much time to destroy the thing utterly in such manner. The next creature that was borrowing into his bark he struck with a clawed fist, flattening it even as his leg groaned beneath the strenght of his own blow. Durthu's attention turned to the 3 fiends he previously hauled away, now running at him again. 2 of them fell in half beneath the sword's swing and the third was struck with a rooty leg, roots closing around it and crushing it into a flow of gore. The remaining 2 were moving around upon his form as if to avoid the blow. He tried to shook
them off himself while at the same time searching for them with a clawed hand. One fell away and another got catched by clawed hand and destroyed. The one that well away was running back into the maelstorm.

Before the fiend could get away a huge claw several times it's size grasped it whole. Out of the ground maelstorm a being emerged, taking all of it into it's single form. It was the same size with Durthu and combined elements of a treeman and the smaller fiends he fought and it also had 4 arms instead of 2. The features were blending, transforming back and forth. It had an aura of strenght and even some beuty while being ugly and malign at the same time. Durthu decided that such perception was a lie, a part of it's abilities to decieve and dominate it's victims, similar to that of smaller fiends but more advanced. It took an effort of will to resist the alluring perception as it tried to convince him about being his best friend and ally. He watched the massive fiend move up smaller one with a gigantic claw and crunch it to bits in it's jaws. He started to move away but still towards the dark forest. The grim trunks were some hundred meters away. Behind him was a sound and a thought that should've belonged to the massive creature. It was delighted in it's recent meal of flesh and soul of the smaller daemon and beckoned him to share such delights, promising an opportunity of such
expirience now and forever. Wouldn't it help to protect his precious trees and forests from daemonds? Letting himself listen and be guided into the line of thinking a daemon offered him would be a mistake, one that might be worse then merely a fatal one, he knew, so he resisted it while continuing to walk. The dark twisted trunks were now a dozen of meters ahead and the pink and purple clouds above were thinning there. He was bleeding the life-force through the deep holes in the bark, the amber glow pouring out in a slow current. His wounds were closing with the new bark growing, but his strenght was at it's limits. Also there was a problem of the powerful daemon being nearby and likely to attack physically and not only mentally. He needed to reach safe place to rest, to recuperate and to let his wounds seal completly. Otherwise he would die and that would be a fail of his mission in this world. To allow himself to die and to return to the tree-realm was a temptation that he succumbed to once, but never again.

He called upon twisted but still upstanding trees looming ahead, called upon their tortured and corrupted minds, souls and bodies to fulfill the covenant. It was an antient understanding among the treefolk to make the most daring and willing of them to have their center of attention and soul get into the physical world where trees' bodied grew and multiplied, awakening fully in that vast but yet primitive and mostly empty dimension. It was an unpleasant task because the dimension where trees' minds and souls resided was familiar one, nurtured and protected by forces of higher realms and no tree would leave such place otherwise. But it was  needed to be done in order to guard treefolk from the daemons who tried to get to their minds and souls by attacking their bodies in that primitive dimension where trees's bodies were doing a slow but necessary task of making the matter more alive. Durthu now needed help from the madded trees there whos tortured souls and minds were likely cut from the tree-dimension. They needed his help too of course, but it was beyond him at the moment. They reached to him with dimunitive reserves of the life force they accumulated and still had in
this dreadful place. He took it and every bit helped, if little. Giving away their life-force reserves fully they died and in the moment of release they rejoiced. More and more started to reach him, perhaps yearning for release more then they cared for his mission. He was now among the dead trunks, with a hint of true light coming from greyed sky spotted with ragged clouds of pink and red. Behind him there was an bellowing cry of rage turning into anguish but he was not stopping to listen to it and continued to move towards the realm he came from. In a few days he was out of the Dreaming Woods entirely, with death of the most corrupted and bitter trees among those that didn't succumb to corruption entirely. He still had little idea how to battle this corruption, but it was good that he was still alive and had a glimpse of that dreadful realm.