I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

The Grove

After having dealt with the orcs, Ergen decided to move as far away from the place of their encounter afterwards. And with the sun already having fallen some time ago, Ergen continued walking, hoping to find some type of shelter where he wouldn't have to worry about any friends of the orcs that he'd defeated. He didn't know what ties they had to the other races or if an army would be after him now, but the last thing Ergen wanted was to be ambushed in his sleep. And despite having looked for hours, he hadn't seen anything that seemed as if it would work.

His tracks in the snow were the problem as they would lead any hopeful hunter to where he would be sleeping. However, the only way that Ergen thought that he could stop making those tracks was if he could either learn how to fly correctly or if a snow storm suddenly appeared and saved him. Though, seeing as it had only been lightly snowing ever since he'd been in the forest, Ergen knew that his deep tracks would take days in order to disappear at this rate. No, he needed to find some other kind of shelter, one that preferably wasn't a cave so that he could have an escape route if need be. A lake would work, if he could find one...

No matter how good he'd been at finding water in the desert, trying to find frozen water in a forest full of frozen water wasn't going to be that easy, and Ergen sighed to himself as he continued walking. And as he walked, another two hours went by before something in the forest finally changed. Though it wasn't what he expected, nor what he wanted.

Looking around at the thick mist that was starting to obscure his vision, Ergen sighed inwardly as he knew that it would hamper his search for a lake. And eventually he had to stop completely as the fog had grown so thick that he'd nearly hit several trees just by walking. Therefore,  albeit reluctantly, Ergen laid down on the snow and attempted to sleep. The fog, while it most likely would only last for a few hours at best, would most definitely make anything pursuing Ergen have to stop as well. And so he planned to enjoy his momentary reprieve until that plan was interrupted.

"Why do you come here?" An unfamiliar voice asked from somewhere, and Ergen was immediately on his feet again, looking frantically around him for the newcomer. "What are you?"

Looking almost directly down at his feet, Ergen actually had to lean in closely as he spotted what looked like a small twig sticking straight out of the snow at his feet. And now, upon closer inspection, he was actually shocked as the twig actually had arms, legs and even a face.

"Can you not speak?" The twig asked, to which Ergen slowly shook his head negatively, hesitating at first as he was still shocked by the fact that there was a twig speaking to him.

"You are a beast... yet intelligent." The twig cocked it's head while sounding perplexed. Though it's image changed entirely as it started glowing, and Ergen had to lift his head as what was once a twig started growing and growing until it was double the height of the human he'd saved in the village.

"Normal dragons would have attacked me instantly, so I will assume that you can at least understand me." The woman now spoke, or at least, Ergen thought that she was a woman. She was still made entirely of wood, after all.

"My name is El' vayis, otherwise known as the Spriggan of the Grove." The wood woman preformed a short bow. "I am of the fae, and an ally to all beasts, such as yourself."

Blinking once in an attempt to snap his mind back into reality as he looked at the woman that was now floating in mid-air, Ergen finally shook himself out of his surprise, thinking that he should have been expecting such things by now before he took one of his claws and wrote his name in the snow.

"I'm afraid I do not understand those characters." Elvis said regretfully, and seeing as she's used some strange word slurs to state her name, Ergen knew that he'd be calling her that name instead from now on as it was easier to remember.

"Regardless, seeing as you are intelligent, I thought that I would warn you in case your mind overwhelmed your instincts about this place." Elvis explained. "This is the heart of the forest, the source of all of it's life, and there is absolutely no corruption allowed inside. Doe, hare and bear alike must find peace inside, as no blood shall ever be spilled."

'So... I'm not allowed to eat anything here?' Ergen guessed at what the woman was talking about, though it would help if she worded it differently.

"Do you understand?" Elvis asked, her expression seeming to be serious as she stared at him.

Slowly nodding his head positively this time, Elvis did another short bow before beginning to float away. And after pausing and looking behind her, Ergen guessed that she wanted him to follow her before he began doing just that. And not even ten minutes later, Ergen found that the fog suddenly lifted and the snow on the ground disappeared as he walking into an area that seemed as if it were eternally set in spring.

Despite there being snow on the outside of this grove, the inside was completely clear with low green grass covering most of it and with glowing purple flowers surrounding the base of each of the trees. The entire area seemed packed with animals, with everything from herbivores like elk and squirrels to carnivores such as bobcats and bears. Though they all seemed to be at peace with each other now, with some of them even laying on top of each other as most of them slept through the night. And while there were quite a few choice selections to choose from, Ergen figured that it was probably for the best if he left them alone for now as something about the air was... almost telling him that violence and death wasn't allowed here. It was a grove of perfect peace, and Ergen couldn't complain about it at all as Elvis left him and he walked over towards three large trees in the back of the grove that seemed relatively uncrowded.

While he'd immediately noticed the flowers from before, as Ergen walked through the grove, he started to find other interesting things as well. The full moon was directly above them, shining it's pale light down like a beam onto the center of the grove where the light made a a group of hovering fire-flies glow even brighter. And just below them was a curious sight as Ergen spotted what seemed to be several human women sitting around some kind of well. All of them were covered by brown robes and had their faces covered by hoods, and Ergen guessed that they were druids as he continued on his way, attempting not to disturb any of the sleeping animals until he eventually reached his own sleeping spot. And once he got there, he discovered why it hadn't been occupied as a cool mist started flowing over him from several more vine-like flowers that hung upside down from the tree tops.

They emitted the ice-cool mist, and Ergen instantly knew that they had been responsible for the mist he'd seen in the forest. However, the coldness of their mist didn't bother him in the slightest and Ergen laid down while resting his head on one of his front claws before eventually closing his eyes to sleep. And as he laid down to rest, he couldn't help but think of the wonderful feeling that this place was giving him. Like as if he could rest here for the rest of eternity and not mind it at all.