A Benevolent Evil Dragon

There is one less tree in the forest, not that it does me much good, but I needed to vent my frustrations. I take one nap and suddenly find myself who knows where, separated from the group that lives only because one baron's kid decided to commit a crime just because I happened to save his siblings, and I am starting to really believe that the slaver goddess cursed me with bad luck. Everything since the attack has been a constant battle with a few reprises that ended sooner than they had any right…

Back to the situation at hand, I frown. Ever since I became a dragon I've had an insanely good sense of direction, yet somehow I feel like I am teleporting around. I have no idea how to return, my tracks keep vanishing and even taking five steps in one direction leads me into a whole different place, with the way back looking completely different. I know partly why that is, but I don't understand it.

"Lost! Lost! Lost! Grass anew, forest shifts! Lost! Lost LOST! You are now! Stuck like this!" The moment I let myself focus on the nature mana that floods the plant life all over even more so than back in mother's territory, this is all I hear. Nature mana doesn't usually sound like that. It should tell me about the needs of the local flora and its characteristics, not mock me…

So, as always, I am dealing with some bullshit and I am preparing for it to splatter me in the face. Finally, after the fiftieth time trying to find my way around, I decide to climb a tree. The reason I didn't until now is that they tend to become sharp when I touch them, and I can't just fly straight through the branches like normal because they're too meshed together. Either way, I bite the bullet and endure the sharp spikes as I make my way up. Finally, with most of the branches being behind me, I open my wings and mold my magic, then soar out of the leaves and find myself kissing the dirt. At least I didn't get to pick up speed…

I take a deep breath, then roar out in anger, wanting nothing more than to burn this whole place up… Maybe I should… I gather fire in my lungs and I order it to use nature mana as fuel, but before I manage to do that, I hear a lullaby that talks of willows, the song making me choke on air. I hear my own heart beating in my ears, my back spines trying to raise themselves like hackles. I can't help but follow it, not because mind mana is messing with my brain, but because of its content… and the words used.

It's beautiful, it makes me want to close my eyes, rest, cry out about all the stress that never seems to leave me, it makes me want to enjoy its familiarity but that is the very reason I need to look deeper. My breath trembles as I prowl towards the voice… My eyes are focused on everything around me and how it stopped changing, on how my footsteps remain firmly in their place, and yet I can only keep walking forward because someone is singing a song in English of all things.

I finally step out of the treeline into a sight that is both familiar and foreign, yet beautiful all the same. There is a pond, smaller than mother's lake, but still sizeable, with beautiful flowers, even some that have no business existing in a continental temperate climate, they're all spread about and even dominating the surface of the water. Right in the middle of the water, however, what truly rules this small pocket of heaven is a giant willow tree if it can even be called that anymore when looking more like a baobab in size… The sheer mana in it makes it an emerald-tinted beacon for me.

And there she was, right at its great roots. A woman of otherworldly beauty, her fair skin dotted with plant based green tattoos that glowed with a healing green light, her hair was a garden in and of itself and her figure… She was simply gorgeous, and yet…

"My, my… It has been a while…" Her voice had an unnatural echo and a deliberate slowness that made the words sound like she covered them in honey before forcing them into my brain. "... since a mere damaged, mortal man has found his way into my home…" She began turning around, her movement having a note of innate seductiveness, emphasizing her bright, full lips. "... and such a violent one too–"

Our eyes meet. I finally see her in full. She isn't like the vengeful songstress, a rotten thing only seeming beautiful from behind, relying on mind tricks for it all. She is truly gorgeous, and in response I can only be disgusted, just like she is of me. We stare at each other for a moment longer as instincts scream at me to eat her whole and I can almost hear her own doing the same, so it all begins.

Her form twists inside out, gone was the woman, now replaced by a mighty stag that could stand on water as if it was weightless. It is three times my size, with hissing snakes for antlers, bark for skin and flowery vines for fur. It lets out a sharp sound reminiscent of a rutting elk and the mana from under us bursts out. The monster doesn't charge me, instead it dances. I see the way it twists and turns, stomping on the very air as nature mana follows its lead. I see it before the stag finishes its work, it's a rune.

With my nemesis flooding the very air with mana, I can only smile. It would have been hard to pull it from the ground since it was so tightly packed, but this? This I can work with. I feel my horns burn under the strain while my chest becomes bloated with air, but it's all needed.

"NATOBEVIRDIF!"

Three words in draconic is normally my maximum when using it for magic, but I felt that the free floating mana yearned to be shaped, which took the load off my shoulders for the most part. My throat still feels wrong, my horns vibrate, the mental hands that grasp the surrounding mana feel like they're trying to weave a basket from a field of grain all at once, but the spell takes form. Both of our runes are enormous, but mine is simpler and snaps into reality faster, its command spreading to the surrounding mana.

Nature, control, focused strength and outstretched range. The final two technically work against one another, but they still work, the positives of each outweighing the negatives they give, thus I end up on a decent plus and that is visible.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As the stag almost finishes its spell, a tree flies at it in pieces, breaking under the strain of my magic's push. Another follows right after and the whole lake is turned into a mess. I syphon more magic, hearing something crack as I pull from the earth and air more and more mana. Finally, when nothing remains in a ten meter radius around me aside from the barren dirt, I stop, breathing heavily, feeling the strain of my magic.

I look on and the stag crawls out, puffing out air as it steps angrily over the broken bits of life I ruined. Its form is more crumpled, but far from damaged. Its spell was disturbed but it dances again with renewed vigour. I see it for what it is, it is mana, loosely linked with the plant matter. It reminds me of… the goddess… I fear for a moment, but then remember how she screeched when I spat my own stomach acid at her, the chaos mana in it ruining her demeanor and form… So I do the same now. I don't think I could spit out the mana and use my voice at the same time, so I instead use my breath, that trusty thing.

I pull on my chaos mana until I feel my scales dulling and weakening, then I mixed it with flame and ordered it to burn away all nature mana it can. As the stag danced, twisting and turning unnaturally, I let my flames run wild and it becomes a sight to behold. A mix of deep red, dark green and a beautiful purple spreads over me, the monster, and everything around, causing the monster to scream out in pain as the whole place is being destroyed. The willow's hanging crown bursts into flame despite being far from the chaos, and the mana around me screams as it is consumed. The stag rips itself apart, branches of the giant tree falling at the same time, and it can only look at me through false, bloody tears.

It turns into something ambiguous but floral and screeches without a mouth, but I feel it in my heart before I feel it hitting my face. The creature shaped itself as a rune and all the debris I created rushes at me, ragdolling me across the forest, each tree I get close to suddenly snapping and ping ponging me further off. I feel things breaking over and over, seeing flashes of the library with every hit, but waking up moments later from another angry branch. I lose track of reality as my curled up body breaks with each attack, until I am hit with even more strength and sent into a clearing…

Is that a house?

"So we're completely stuck? Even you, Meruk?" Edith's voice was worried, and for good reason.

It was one thing that the benefactor had apparently exhausted himself into needing a week-long rest so far, but all three of them had somehow ended up stuck in an unnatural forest, at first Edith herself was attracted by the sight of some berries, then the second she went out of sigh, Verah and himself thought that that they heard her screaming for help, Verah feeling a bit embarrassed at not realizing that she heard Edith screaming in Freetongue.

The only answer Meruk could give Edith was a worried nod. "I cannot fly. The trees forbid it any time I attempt and when I do manage to climb over them, I simply find myself hitting the ground. The magic protecting these woods is powerful." He sat down, crossing his legs as he began to ponder the situation.

"It took me long enough just to find you and my beloved, and even then my guardian father did all he could to guide me, as did Verah's. But now…" He took a deep breath, then shook his head again. "I cannot. I kept following the path but it all leads back here. I do not understand how we can escape…"

Edith seemed to deflate as she sat down with him, followed by Verah. They had already attempted to push through, but it felt like the very ground under them moved away so they would not reach their wagon. They came across no beasts, nor berries or other fruits, or even water. The day almost ended and they were no closer to home…

"This magic.." Edith began as she looked down at the vivid grass under her. "Enough to keep this pocket of nature alive, and to keep intruders lost… Do you know what it could be?"

Meruk just nodded, lessons from the elders coming to mind. "A mana born creature. Like the guardians, like the gods, but small. Mana given life, one so linked with nature, but clearly not powerful enough to have a large territory… Clearly not an elemental. Too tricky for an incarnate… Too powerful and wise for a mere sprite… but also not as strong as a nymph."

His head turned to Verah who mostly stood silent to let the two have their talks, though she noticed his gaze instantly. "Is the ground rich in power? Or merely teeming with it?" It clearly took her a moment to understand his words, but when she did her eyes widened and she dug into the dirt.

"It is not barren, but the roots form the flows, not the earth." That was enough for him to be sure of it.

"A dryad! A rare sight, to be sure, but a powerful spirit of nature descended from true mana beings, meant to guard the wild and seed even barren deserts… At least it means we are not affected by mind magic, but we are stuck nonetheless. If we were clad in iron… Maybe we could escape her trickery…"

They all went right back to thinking. If a nymph was holding them hostage, what could they even do? It would hide in the depths of the wild, making them run in circles around her domain until they died. And the only thing that could oppose it was something they didn't often carry as they simply didn't need it and it even clashed with their natural powers… Currently, the only trace of iron they had was the enchanted sword Edith carried for little reason and some joinery of her armor and belt. There was nothing… and yet his attention was taken by a tiny bit of metal. He reached for it, surprising Edith for a moment as it was stuck to her belt, then he looked at it.

"Heart's enchanted needle!" She seemed joyous, then her face fell again. "Not that it does much… We don't even have the water or bowl to use it…"

But Meruk didn't share her pessimism. He smiled and let out a happy chirp as he got to work, following the lessons he learned from their savior. It took minutes to carefully pull the barest thread of plant fiber, but once he was done he ended up with a long string, which he tied around the needle, making sure to keep it balanced. He waited for a bit, then saw the needle pull one way. The string tried to twist some other way, but it was clear that whatever lingering magic affected it had too little strength to overpower the iron needle.

"It does work! The Godling of Heart told me that the leaf on water was merely a way to make it easier for the weak and tiny needle to move as it pleases. Hanging from a string does the same. Ingenious, I say."

With excitement, Meruk led the way, noticing how the very grass under his talons, the shape of the trees and even the pressure of the mana around them worked together to mess up with his own sense of direction, but nothing worked on the needle. It took a while as it seemed the forest became agitated, either from their escape or something else, but once they were out the pressure all dissipated.

Verah kissed him, calling him her wise and beautiful husband, but Edith did not share their relief at their escape. Instead, she said a scant few chilling words as she looked in the distance at their own wagon, seeming to be ransacked by armored soldiers flying an ornate banner.. "Where's Heart?!"