Thom leaned down to get a closer look, something tickled the back of his neck. He brushed it away and looked up, and he was greeted with a handful of leaves falling down on his head. Sitting on the branch above him was a small, delicate looking creature with long tufts of hair sticking up in every direction from its head and back. It chittered down at him, scampered a few branches higher into the tree, and chittered some more. He watched with dread as two more creatures joined the first, and they all tumbled and flipped through the branches above him. Thom knelt down and picked up a rock the size of his palm and threw it up into the branches as hard as he could. They shrieked and scattered into the nearby trees, and Thom sneered as he headed up the path. Even finding a rabbit in the first snare he had set failed to improve his mood after the encounter. He grabbed it by the hind legs, snapping the vine rather than bothering to loosen the noose, and quickened his pace back to camp as the forest grew darker.
Thom stomped back into camp and growled when he realized that he had nothing to skin the rabbits with.
“What’s the matter with you?” Aron asked, reclining against a large boulder near the fire.
“Tree sprites,” Thom replied shortly, scanning the ground for a sharp edged stone. “I hate tree sprites.”
“Oh, Thom, are you afraid of a little sprite? They can’t hurt you. They will just steal you blind and then laugh at you for it,” Shrad teased, laughing with Aron across the fire. Thom looked up with a vicious snarl and was about to respond when Asram and Gad walked into the ring of firelight. Gad’s torso was bare and they held his tunic loaded with berries between them. A strip of cloth was tied around Gad’s right arm and blood trailed down to his elbow. Aron stood and walked over to inspect their haul as well as his injury. Grabbing a handful of berries, he popped a few into his mouth and spoke around them. “What happened?”
Gad untied the strip of cloth to reveal a red, swollen puncture wound. Aron grabbed his arm and a bit of dark pus oozed from the wound. Gad’s eyes were bloodshot and he grimaced in pain. “We were collecting berries, and I tried to get deeper into the brambles for more. I tripped and fell against a tree with a vine growing around it. I must have caught a thorn in my arm when I landed.”
Aron looked at him suspiciously. “Was the thorn from the berry bush, or from the vine? What did it look like?” he asked, squeezing more pus from Gad’s arm.
“It was big, and dark. I think it may have been from the vine.” Aron swore under his breath at Gad’s response.
“When you tried to pull it out, did it burrow further into your skin?” Darin, the small, dark skinned guard asked. Gad and Asram exchanged nervous glances.
“It seemed to, just a bit, but I got it out whole. What was it?” Asram answered while Gad looked at his arm in disgust.
“Probably a Rhy Vine. You are lucky you pulled it out or you would be dead by now. They are rare, but the thorns are like parasites once they get under your skin. I saw a man fall into a bunch of them once. He started convulsing and within moments he was dead. You need to clean that out and wrap it back up,” Darin stated.
Thom looked around the campsite and asked, “Where is Cowald? I sent him to collect water; isn’t he back yet?”
“I haven’t seen him,” Darin’s face showed a flash of concern, “but I can find some moss and make a compress until we can wash it. If you are lucky, it will draw out the toxins and you will live to see the sun rise. Perhaps one of us should go find Cowald and help him bring back water.”
“We can’t go looking for him in the dark. Let’s eat and then get some sleep. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow.” Aron shoved another handful of berries in his mouth and then grabbed one of the carcasses from Thom. He picked up a rock, slammed it down against the boulder to break off a sharp edge, and progressed to clean, skin, and spit the rabbit over the fire. Aron ordered Darin and Shrad