The Poisoned Woods

[Apronia Silvanus]

Apronia crushes Cain as far to the ground as she can push him, and throws herself over him. The key around her neck begins to glow as she feels an arrow carve a shallow furrow in her bicep, another in her calf, and from Cain´s whimper one has grazed him also. But of those deadly shafts pointed directly at them, not one has flown true, and centaurs don´t miss. Time goes molassas and Apronia feels...

sunlight, age. a squirrel is idly eating a nut in her branches. two Kneazels play on her floor. what are you? she thinks, and feels clearly the web. as two arms, warmth wraps around her, gentle lover, and there is breeze in her ear.

the treessssssss


the wind hisses, and she knows it is so. the key is the only solid thing she feels, she drifts.

save us


The world coming together again around her is like a plunge into cold water, and she thinks she is falling. She is falling. Cain tumbles to the wet stone below her, crying out, and she lands next to him, rolling and bruising, but avoiding a break. She looks up and there is no sky.

The only light is dim fungal glow, so she casts Lumos and checks the young one with her, hand running over the legs she can reach.

¨Have you broken anything?¨

[Cain]

Cain clambers onto all four legs, testing them carefully. He is pale in the artificial light, grey eyes shining with fright. "N-no," he stutterers, wrapping his arms around his bare torso to fend off the cold. "I think I'm okay..." he glances around, glaring at the dripping stilagmites which adorn the ceiling. "Where are we?" He asks.

[Apronia Silvanus]

¨It appears to be...a cave.¨ she replies sardonically, aiming her wand in all directions, examining the mineral structures and the uneven ground. There are three tunnels leading away from their current cavern, water drips down the walls. Root reach from the ceiling. ¨Where is Hogwarts?¨ she wonders aloud, looking helplessly upwards. She sees the root tendrils sway and sighs.

¨How are we to get out of here?¨ she whispers to herself, not wanting to upset her trusting centaur friend. There is niggle in her mind. She looks up again. The roots have moved. They all point to one tunnel, and she stands on tiptoe, straining to touch them. A thick thread descends to touch her hand, then points again at the tunnel. ¨Come,¨ she says, taking Cain´s hand hopefully, praying this is the force that redirected the arrows, and not whatever possessed the centaur herd. ¨we´ll go this way.¨ After all, she thinks to herself, we gain nothing by sitting still.

[Prof. Rainer Freundschaft]

They stumble; their own arrows lodged in blasted thighs. Rainer looks on from a distantce, not trusting his magic to keep him unseen. The wounded centaurs call out low and sonorous, waves in the fog. The light of the sun is lesser and blotted by the sudden closeness of the trees, the mobile weather, the forest floor is patterned in the sharp contrast of an over exposed photo. 'Gott Verdammte. How do I get myself in to these messes?' he had thought to himself angrily while moving aimlessly through the trees, his steps slow and just above the ground. There had been no sign of Professor Addis nor, for that matter, any sign of corruption within the forest and then - he saw the centuars- and with their eyes milky and unfocused, he found they could not see him.

"This is the work of a man..." they call again to no one. In a moment they will gather themselves and trot awkwardly from this place where the ground has opened up. The sky is a slate of cirrus clouds.

A heaving wind sets the foliage to a high shriek and Rainer turns quickly to leave.