The Raine of Strahd

Chapter 4

After the frightful experience earlier that morning, Raine and Vinny continued to the winery. "So are we going to talk about it?" Vinny asked patiently.
"About what?" Raine asked.
"This morning?"
"Oh..." She slowly nodded, acknowledging what he was referring to. Raine kept walking, silently chewing on the inside of her cheek. "We should be there in a couple of hours," she replied, dodging the question.

Vinny nodded. He didn't care for the cold shoulder, but things were awkward. What was he supposed to do? Vinny followed her as they trudged along, deciding along the way to pull out a small ocarina. He played quietly and tried to stay out of Raine's personal space.

Raine listened to the music but kept her mouth sewed shut. She was in no mood for chatting. She wanted answers, and the only way to get them was to find these party members.

After walking another few miles, the duo's attention was grabbed by the sound of an explosion nearby. "Let's go." Raine said quickly and took off, speeding towards the sounds. "Wait!" Vinny cried out. "You're so fast!" He whined.

Raine followed the sound, entering through the woods. She leaped and slid under fallen trees and other natural barriers. She soon reached the edge of a clearing where a tall purple skinned elf was fighting what looked to be like tree creatures. Their branches clawing at this new character.

"You are too weak to defeat me." He laughed and used a short sword with green flames coming off of it. The man stabbed the creature, setting it ablaze. The tree screamed in pain and began to move frantically until it was burnt to a crips.

The mysterious elven man smirked in victory and moved onto the next creature. Raine watched curiously as she studied these newfound adventurers.

Soon, another male with black hair opened the door from the inside. "Hurry up!" He shouted and ushered everyone inside.
The elven man began to make his way backward as did another man, this man was humanoid wearing purple armor his hair also short. The duo began to retreat into the building when one of the tree creatures began to rush them.

Raine gasped slightly and instinctively pulled out her short bow and fired a couple of shots at it, hitting it in the back. The creature glared and turned to look at Raine, a fire inside of his eyes. Raine visibly paled and stumbled backward. "Oh shit." she muttered under her breath.

The creature stomped towards her angrily.
'Great Raine, you had to just piss it off' she rolled her eyes. Raine dropped her short bow and unsheathed her sword. The tree came sprinting at her and tried to tackle her. Raine ran back at it and slide under it when it jumped. She used her sword to carve at it while she slid. The creature hissed in pain, and tumbled to the ground.

Raine smiled victoriously and sighed a deep breath. Her smile quickly faded when she saw the tree stand back up. The tree grinned at her and started to laugh, mocking her attempts. "Ugh, seriously?" She grumbled in response. The tree charged her once again, but this time it had backup.

Raine was about to take off towards it make another attempt when she was grappled from behind. Raine gasped in suprise as the tree hugged her abdomen. She tried to breath but it was too tight, and it was only squeezing hard worse than a python. Raine used her legs to thrash about and tried to break free, but it was no use.

The first creature she previously attacked laughed once more and began to charge her, using one of its branches to pierce through her leather armor into her lower abdomen. Raine cried out in pain and blood spewed from her mouth.

The purple elven man's eyes widened in shock and began to back track towards her and her rivals. He began to mutter a cantation and a ring of fire appeared around Raine and the trees. "What are you doing? That'll hurt her too!" The man with the purple armor glared. The elf smiled "it'll be alright, I'll heal her afterwords." He spoke arrogantly.

Raine looked at the ring of fire which was now at least 8 feet tall and used her legs to kick the other tree man into the fire. The tree stumbled back a few feet, but it was just enough to get him into the fire. He screamed in pain and was engulfed. He fell over backwards and the branch that was still in Raine's chest broke off like a wooden steak.

The other creature stared in shock and held onto Raine even tighter. Raine wheeled in pain and began gasping for air. Her face slowly loosing color and her vision was fading.

The elven man then dismissed the spell and casted another spell, he spoke in soft whispers and before anyone could react, Raine watched in fear as ice shards began to spew from the spellcasters hands. The tree yelped in pain, the shards scratched and Raine's face and neck, drawing blood from them. The creature dropped Raine as the fire in his eyes had burned out.

Raine collapsed on the ground, unable to move, now free she could give a better attempt to breath her chest rose and fell at a fast pace and she was hyperventilating. Her chest burned from being crushed and wound was bleeding profusely. Her vision was fading and was going into shock. All three of the men that were once fighting ran up to her in guilt and in panic. Raine moved her eyes to look at them. She then heard someone call her name.

"Raine?...Raine!" Vinny cried out. He had finally caught up to her ran to the others. Raine looked at him in tiredness and was fighting to stay awake. She coughed a few more times each time spitting up blood.

"What are you doing?! Heal her!" One of the guys shouted at the other. "Right!" He nodded and began to work his magic. A small glow appeared from his hands and the cuts on Raines' face began to close shut. The glow went away afterwards.

The spellcaster stared in confusion. "No, no, no, no!" He cried out.
"What?" Vinny whimpered.
"I can't cast anymore spells!" He yelled back.
Raine tried to catch her breathing but everything was growing dark.
"Raine?" Vinny stared at her, tears building with her eyes.
'So...tired'. She pondered the idea of getting some rest and smiled weakly. 'That sounds really nice...' Raine gave into the urge to go to sleep and everything began to get quiet.
"I can still stabilize her!" She hear a voice yell out. It was the last thing she heard.