Ruin: Hierophant Candidates, Part Four

"Here," said Zoriel. He gestured ahead of them. "The grove is this way."

"Where are we, exactly?" asked Ruin. 

"About three miles east of Sabertooth Lake, southeast of the Fey Grove." The giant bear moved forward, sniffing cautiously at the air, and Ruin drew his blade. 

There was something profoundly wrong here. Ruin lacked a druid's sense of the way things should be, but he could see the way the trees were unnaturally twisted, the leaves turned thin and hooked, the roots pulsing against the ground. Oh, this is not going to end well. He took a moment to look around, then ducked aside as something half-glimpsed came hurtling towards his head. 

It was, he thought, some sort of nut. Or it had been, before something had rendered it gray and withered, almost more like stone... or old bone. He looked up, and after a moment spotted the black-furred beast with the glowing red eyes sitting on a tree branch, studying him silently. Small, black horns curled up from its head, and there was something about its back... vestigial wings? 

On a squirrel?

"This is a bad place," Ruin observed. 

Zoriel snorted. "You're just noticing? I warned you it would be like this."

The bear glanced back at them and grunted, and Zoriel nodded. "We should get moving."

"We should," Ruin agreed, and started forward.

The air was heavier here, almost too humid to breathe, and hot. For Ruin, it was merely uncomfortable; he wondered how Zoriel didn't find it disabling. "How far to the shrine?" 

"Not far," Zoriel told him. "Half a mile, maybe. But we'll have to go on foot; ever since it was corrupted, it... started hiding itself. Or moving around, I'm not sure which."

Wonderful, Ruin thought. Aloud, he just said: "You have some way to find it?"

Zoriel nodded and cast a spell. Ruin didn't recognize it, but then that was well outside his area of expertise. "This way," Zoriel said, and pointed. 

They'd been walking for about ten minutes, with Ruin pausing periodically to study the ground and the forest around them, when something burst out of the bushes and slammed into the side of the bear, sinking massive fangs into the base of its neck. Its fur was red and its configuration was feline, though heavily built through the chest and shoulders. It managed to slip past the metal barding that protected the bear, which howled and reared up in pain. 

Ruin slipped forward, cutting, and connected. He could feel his connection to the realm of death take effect, reaching through his blade to take extra life from the sabertooth and give a false semblance of it to him. The tainted beast wrenched loose of the bear, and turned to snarl at Ruin, but he only met its eyes and shook his head. He knew how deep his blade had cut. 

Then the bear turned and fell on its attacker, an avalanche of gray fur that ripped and tore and took the animal apart. Ruin stepped back, checked their surroundings, and then looked to Zoriel, who had gone pale. "I take it this is why you wanted company?"

Zoriel shook his head. "It wasn't this bad, the last time I came to check. How...?" Then he stepped forward, and laid a hand on the flank of his massive bear, murmuring under his breath as he did so. The animal shook itself as the wounds on its neck closed. "I... Thank you. Spike could have taken that thing, but..." 

There was a long, fraught silence. 

Finally, Ruin said: "I don't think you and I are ever going to be friends... but I do like your bear."

Zoriel whuffed a surprised laugh. "Yes, well... the two of you have a lot in common."

Ruin decided to let that one go. "Let's go find this grove and end this, before it gets any worse."

Zoriel paused to consider, then pointed again: "This way."