Suddenly a sand cat burst out from the underbrush and raced towards Stormrage, who held his ground. The cat dashed passed, spun around, and cowered behind the bulk of Stormrage's form. There was a rumble behind the underbrush, and what looked like a ball of vines pushed it's way towards the group. It seemed to be sliding across the floor by way of its countless appendages, and plant matter wriggled out from its center like hundreds of octopus arms. The entire thing was smoking, and a cold, rotten chill emenated from it. Shiawase crouched, ready to attack.
The masive knot of vines stopped in front of the druids as if considering, and then the entire body shuddered and contracted with a shake. A low growl escaped from Stormrage's throat, and Cirrimor snarled and pawed at the ground. The vine creature seemed to creak with the sound of a heavy metal door slowly opening, and then shuddered violently again and from its center ejected a elf that seemed to been in very much the same condition as Andhol had been when he had attacked Shiawase and Cirrimor. His eyes were the same pale purple color. His skin was warped with disease, and his movements were slow and lethargic.
The corrupted druid looked to the group in front of him and said, "Join us brothers. Become the avatars of the new world." Stormrages growl became a low rumble. The corrupted druid began to shuffle forward, it's hands held out in front of him as if it were reaching for the others. Behind it the ball of twisted vines writhed in place. Shia, from his perch on the side of the confrontation, noticed that some of the vines lay across the floor and dissapeared into the corrupted druid's back, like some sort of puppet string. That was where he would attack, Shiawase decided.
"Come brothers," The druid said. "We will take the land away from the mortal races. We will save it and return it to what it was meant to be. Let us throw off the corruption of the titans brothers."
Stormrage let out a bellowing roar and charged at the corrupted druid head on. The mass of vines twitched, and ten thin vines shot out towards the bear. In unison Shia and Thendil lept from the branches they had been hiding in and intercepted the attack. The two vines that esacped the cats' pounce continued their projectory, but Stormrage batted them away with one powerful swipe of his paw and barrled towards the elf in front of him, Cirrimor at his heels. The sandcat had hightailed it in the opposite direction. The corrupted elf raised his head to the sky and screamed with such force that Shia instinctively hid his head under a paw. A vine wrapped itself around his waste before he could recover from the noise and lifted him up into the air. The second he felt himself caught Shia concentrated and exploded in bulk as he morphed into his bear form. The vines were ripped apart and Shia dropped to the ground a few feet behind the corrupted elf.
Stormrage had landed one of his great paws onto the corrupted druid's side and sent it flying into a nearby tree. The vines connected to him followed and Shia found hiself among three taut green ropes. He clamped onto one with his jaws and tugged, snapping the vine.
"RAAAAAAGGGGH~!"
The mass of vines exploded in every direction. Shia grunted in pain as at least six lance like green tentacles peirced him in the side and continued through him towards Cirrimor, who lept into a tree to avoid their trajectory. Stormrage had made it to his eagle form in time to fly out of danger, but found himself dodging volly after volly of attacks in the sky. Thendil had been hit dead on and was lying on the side will a pool of blood forming under him. Shia tried to ignore the pain and clamped his jaws into the second connecting vine. The corrupted druid screamed again and his body warped and enlongated into a gigantic cobra as he raced at the young druid.
A brilliant flash of light blinded Shia for a split second and dissapeared. The back half of the viper in front of him had been vaporized off by the force of the starfire that Stormrage had brought down upon it, but the top half of its body was still wriggling forward, mouth gaping and poison tipped fangs jutting out towards Shiawase. Shia began to morph again, hoping to be able to slip out of of his impalement, but the change sent a jolt of pain through his system. Something vital had been hit. He was preparing to take a viper bite to the head when the druid attacking him jerked to a stop.
Cirrimor had grabbled the last of the vines connecting the druid to its vine knot and planted his paws in the ground, anchoring the viper to the spot. It let out a high pitched hiss and spun back around, only to meet a blast of Stormrage's energy with its face. The shock of the impact blew the druid back and the last vine in its back snapped clear away.
The druid landed face up at Shia's feet. He had returned to his humaniod form in death and lay staring up at Shiawase with a gaping mouth, as if he were still screeming. The vines embedded in Shia's body softened and the writhing ball of plant mass was twitching about weakly. It was loosing it coherence and seemed to melt as the plant life dropped off itself and sunk to the ground in layers. A weak green smoke began to drift out from its center.
Cirrimor returned to his elven form and made his way cautiously to the bundle of plants. Shiawase had returned to his elven form too. He found that holding on to conciousness and remaining a bear was too taxing, and he lay tangled in the vines that had peirced him, strugling to breathe and ignoring their stench. Stormrage was kneeling next to Thendil, who hadn't moved from the spot where he had been thrown. Was he dead, Shia wondered, but the stone faced druid put his hands above his comrade and began to summon healing energy, and Shia knew that Thendil would recover. Now he only needed to wait for his turn to be healed.
"Brothersss..." A weak voiced hissed from within the center of the vines. Shiawase forced himself to turn his head towards the sound. "Brothersss..." it repeated, "join us, become as we were meant to be..." There was nothing left of the vines but a small, tight ball of knotted plant matter, perhaps the size of a dwarf. The plant pulsed erratically as green ooze seeped out of its middle and evaporated into a sickly mist as it touched the ground. Cirrimor had taken up a stick and was pointing it at the plant thing. Shia coughed and spat out a mouthfull of his own blood. Stormrage knelt down beside him as the younger druid was begining to loose his eyesight. "Stay still brother," he said sternly, and then placed his hands on Shia's body.
A surge of warmpth raced through Shiawase from the point where he was being touched and out through his fingers and toes and top of his head. Immediately he could feel his innards mending and his wounds closing. This was the power of an elder druid, Shia told himself. Had he been the one doing the healing the process would not have been nearly as smooth. After spitting out the spare blood that had risen into his mouth from the operation, Shia struggled weakly to his knees with Stormrage's assitance.
Cirrimor turned to the two druids. "There's something in this thing." Stormrage left Shia to recover his breath and picked his way through the fallen vines to where Cirrimor was standing, pointing at the pulsing plant with his stick. "Can you sense it brother?"
Stormrage nodded. "It feels like those sithilid creatures in the south."
"But different."
"Yes, something's different."
The plant mass rolled to the side and seemed to deflate before jerking and writhing again. "Brotherssss..." it hissed.
"Poke it Cirrimor."
The white haired druid jammed his stick deep into the middle of the plant. There was a squeal and the remaining layer of vinelike knots fell apart. Out tumbled a something that resembled an onion with a marbled green and lavender shell. Under it twitched four long legs almost twice as tall as the onion body, which scrambled in the air for a moment before setting themselves upright. Shia stared at the creature, or plant, or plant - creature, which tapped at the ground with its thin legs and made a hissing noise.
"When in the name of Cenarius' creation is that?" Cirrimor asked. Stormrage shrugged. The onion creature pranced at the ground and hissed, "Join us brotherssss!" in a high raspy voice.
"Who are you?" Stormrage asked.
"Join usss~" the onion creature hissed again, and lept at Stormrage's face. Suddenly it's union body had split apart, revealing a mass of black tentacles, which shot at the druid. Stormrage put his hand up and blasted the creature with a sudden shot of energy and sent it rolling across the moss. Cirrimor raised his hands as well and soon the creature had been blasted into specs by the two druids.
As soon as he was sure that the threat was gone, Stormrage turned to Shiawase, trotted to his side, and grabbed him under the arm. Shiawase tried to support himself as he stood up, but the energy had not fully come back to him yet, and the best he could do was lean on the other druid's shoulder and let himself be led. Thendil was sitting upright against a tree, tired looking but alive, the entire bottom half of his body was soaked in his own blood. Cirrimor approaced his fellow druid as a wolf and Thendil dragged himself onto its back.
"What do you think brother," Thendil asked.
"I think that this is much larger than we anticipated, and that perhaps it was a mistake for us to have come here against the wishes of the council. Was that sort of thing in your dream Deeproots?"
"No," Shia replied. "I've never seen anything like that before. But the smell is familiar. And that forest..." The young druid pointed in the direction from which the corrupt elf had come. Its path was clearly marked by a long carpet of blackened moss, charred looking tree trunks, and a dark haze that floated in the air."
"Perhaps we should follow it," Cirrimor offered.
"We regain our strength somewhere safe first. Let's get ourselves out of this forest and into open land." Stormraged morphed into a bear and nudged Shiawase to get on. The younger druid obeyed and the group set out at brisk pace, away from the warped land.
