Visions of Foresta: Dryad

One day, when Kaeli sat weeping in the forest, the monster came.

She had chased it away from travelers a few times, but this was the best look she'd gotten. It was like an artist's mannequin, half-finished, with a face that was a jack-o-lantern's suggestion and spindly, barky limbs. She began to draw her axe, but it felt like her arms had no strength.

"Go ahead and kill me if you want," She said, feeling selfish and apathetic.

It didn't, though. It regarded her with something closer to curiosity. Since it was so close, she noticed something.

The monster was sick with Witherbane. Its left arm was completely black with the blight, and from it, tendrils spread over its whole body.

"Oh!" She sprung from the log. It took a step back, so she stopped. "It's because of that, isn't it? That's why you've been so cranky. If you come here, I think I can heal you."

Though the tree-creature waited, skeptical, eventually it came to her side.

Kaeli stretched her hands over its diseased limbs and concentrated. At first, she did no good. Master Durante had taught her this, and look what he turned out to be. Then she remembered other things he told her. That this creature was unformed, and probably lost. The best thing she could do was show it kindness, the kind Captain Mac showed her.

As she worked, the patches of black shrunk. The disease drained from the monster's body. However, the arm simply wouldn't clear. It was too infected. It was beyond her. Durante could have cured it, if only...

The monster wandered over to the log and picked up Kaeli's axe. It drew the blade across its shoulder.

"You want me to cut off your arm?" Kaeli asked, covering her mouth with both hands.

It regarded her still with curiosity. Like a child. Was that what Durante meant? Was it a child, like her?

She took the iron axe. "You're right. It might be the only way."

With a strike powerful beyond her years, Kaeli cleaved the infection off at the shoulder. The monster staggered a bit under the blow, but quickly regained its balance. Then, to Kaeli's amazement, vines shot from the wound, forming a new green arm and hand. It flexed its damp fingers.

"Wow! No wonder you weren't frightened."

Kaeli picked up the rotten arm. Now that it was severed, she could see a core, tiny as a thread, of live wood in it. "I might be able to salvage this, after all, but it'll take a long time. When it's finished, I'll give it back to you. Promise."

That would prove harder than Kaeli had thought. She took the arm home, put it in a small pot, and worked on it every day. The Witherbane fought her, but she doubled her efforts. The seashell Captain Mac gave her was always beside her, and when she was exhausted and too cross to summon healing magic, she listened to the sea. That would calm her enough to continue her work.

It took years, but eventually, Kaeli managed to remove every trace of Witherbane from the arm. The healing seemed to have given it a hyper-immunity to the disease; anything it touched was instantly cured.

Furthermore, as it sprouted, it began to look less like an arm. Kaeli coaxed it a little, and perhaps it was because of her influence it grew into the form it did: a silvery double-bladed battle axe.

She named it Silverdream.