Shadow Druid Halsin; Drabble.
THE FOREST HAD WARNED HIM.
The roots had trembled first. A soft shudder beneath the earth as if the trees themselves recoiled. Then came the groan, a deep, primordial sound, like a wounded god sighing beneath the bark. Halsin felt it in his chest before he saw it: the wedge of metal biting into the base of a towering birch, its sap bleeding like milk from a broken spine.
The man, a hunter by the look of him, though greed had surely rotted any reverence he might’ve once held, had only turned halfway before something lashed out. Vines. No, more than vines—veins, thick and thorn-ridden, blackened like sinew pulled from the belly of rot. They cracked from the earth with a wet, hungry sound and bound his limbs in mid-motion, pulling his arms back until his joints screamed in protest.
“Wh—what the—what in fuck’s name—?!” he spat out, the words half-strangled as the axe dropped from his grasp, landing crooked in the dirt. His hands shook, eyes blown wide. From the treeline, something stepped forward. A figure formed from dusk and dread alike, wrapped in a shroud of scorched leather and splintered bark, seams held together with tangled vine and moss streaked dark with soot. The forest hadn’t sent him, oh no no. It had birthed him.
Golden eyes caught the dying light beneath the canopy, but there was not a single ember of warmth visible. No grace. Only a rising fury, wild and steady, coiled tight in his jaw. His teeth bared; not in warning, but in promise. Brow furrowed deep, casting harsh lines across his face as his hands flexed, the ends of his fingers tapering into darkened claws. Whatever patience once lived in him had been left behind. What stood here now was wrath made flesh; consequence with a heartbeat.
“I warned this glade. I beseeched its protectors be heeded,” he murmured, voice curling out like frostbite; creeping, hushed, & made to settle in the bones. “But men carve their greed into bark & believe nature deaf.” With a simple flick of his hand, the vines crawled higher. They slithered up the man’s thighs, around his waist, curling up his neck like affectionate serpents. One thorned tendril paused before the man’s lips—& then forced itself in.
He gurgled, screamed, & choked, but it slid deeper, coiling down his throat, rooting its thorns into the warm flesh of his esophagus. Then the absolute horror began. The vines did not remain thin. They expanded, bloating within him, bulging his abdomen outward like a grotesque fruit ripening in fast-forward. His belly pulsed and writhed, veins blackening beneath the skin, skin stretching, splitting, & when it tore, it sounded like soaked parchment being ripped apart.
His lower half burst. Flesh, muscle, & tangled vines exploded in a spray of crimson. Gnarled remnants of intestine tangled in creeping thorn. His scream didn’t last. The vines reached the lungs and throat, silencing everything but a gurgling, wet death. Halsin approached the ruined corpse, eyes dark with malice, lips drawn in silent contempt. No glimmer of mercy remained, only that cold, primal loathing that came not from hatred alone ... but from betrayal. He had asked for peace. Nature had asked for respect. And instead, they brought blades.
The blood that soaked the earth did not pool aimlessly. It was drunk by the thirsty roots, seeping deep into the soil like penance, the scent of iron heavy in the air. The vines, thick, pulsing, still adorned with thorns slick from the violence, tightened further around the carcass, groaning as they crushed what was left.
Sinew popped. Bones snapped. Flesh gave.
And with every twitch, every final shudder from the heap of ruined meat, Halsin did not flinch, a hand rested against the bark of the wounded tree, fingers splayed like a blessing… or a brand. “Your essence will not be wasted,” he remarked, words laced with sardonic grace. "You will feed what you tried to destroy." The vines rippled once more ... then lulled, wrapping the body like a cocoon of thorns. A slow & sickly hum pulsed from the glade; the forest itself sighed in grim satisfaction.
