The pain in her abdomen woke her up, a dull piercing ache that had only barely lessened each time she healed herself. She repressed a grimace, blinking her eyes open and seeing the lights shining in through the gaps in the boarded up windows. The girls were already awake it would seem, and were bickering before the sun even seemed to be fully up. Sighing inwardly, Ollie rolled out of the blanket cocoon she had sealed herself in before falling asleep, the muscles of her abdomen clenching from the pain of her still relatively fresh stab wound. She kept the pain from showing in her expression, a practiced goofy grin taking its proper place instead.
“Good morning! I hope everyone got a good nights sleep!” She could tell by looking at them that neither of the girls had slept as much as they should have, though that wasn’t unusual for Vera. Her Sight flashed on, giving her a view of both girls physiology and general health. Parker was still recovering from her stint in the house with the couple who had been on vigilance drugs, but nothing stood out that made it seem like it wouldn’t be an easy road to recovery. Vera on the other hand, had a number of things that concerned her. High blood pressure, slightly inhibited immune system, increased activity in the amygdala, to name a few. All symptoms of sleep deprivation, and each was a fraction worse than it had been last night. Had Vera stayed up the rest of the night after Ollie had gone to sleep? She felt guilty if that was the case, she had been the one to wake Vera in the first place after all. Should she have just let the nightmares continue through the night? She hadn’t found a good solution to that issue, and it gnawed at her.
Parker was the one who responded. “I feel like I could sleep a week and still be tired, and my stomach still hasn’t stopped growling at me since you guys rescued me. I woke up to get something to eat, and I can’t find anything because Vera packed everything into bags and doesn’t remember what bags have what supplies inside.”
“We can just get it all sorted once we settle into our new place, just don’t go emptying all the bags looking for anything, it took me hours to get all of our stuff packed up. You can be hungry for a little bit until we get somewhere safer, no biggie.” Vera shrugged off Parkers complaints, and Ollie could see Parkers eyebrows pinch together a fraction more than they had been at being brushed aside. Ollie quickly stepped into Parkers space, drawing the girls attention towards her instead, to distract from any anger towards Vera.
“How about while we’re out I get you something to eat? You can have it while we’re on the move, so we can get there sooner and give ourselves some well deserved rest once we’re set up. Maybe something from that deli you’ve gone to a few times, they usually open pretty early right?”
Parker’s head craned to look up at Ollie, glancing down for a moment towards where Ollies bandages were visible under her blue onesie, then back up again. Her heart rate picked up quickly, and the temperature in her face rose. Ollie quickly flipped off her Sight, scolding herself. It felt wrong to get insights into a person’s feelings like that, like she wasn’t being fair somehow. Parker was clearly still embarrassed about getting herself trapped in that house, and felt guilty about Ollie injuring herself to help get her out of there safely. She hoped that guilt wouldn’t influence the way Parker acted around her, she didn’t want it to be a big deal, she had just been helping a friend.
Even without her Sight, Parker’s round face was visibly red as she responded. “That works. They have these pork bowl things that are pretty big, we could split one?” Ollie was close enough that she could feel Parker’s breath on her neck. Parkers pupils were dilated slightly, was it another sign of her exhaustion getting to her? She would need to make sure Parker got the lighter bags when they left, and keep an eye on her as she went through the recovery process.
She smiled, big and with as much sincerity as she could muster. “Perfect! We could both use the protein while we’re on the mend. I’ll pay, my treat!” And she turned and pranced over to the pile of bags that held all of their possessions. Towards Vera, she asked “Any idea what bag has my clothes? I need to change out of my jammies, not sure the weather would be too forgiving of me walking around the snow in my PJs.”
Vera walked to one of the library shelves, and tossed a few things towards Ollie. “I figured I’d lose track of what was in each bag, so I picked an outfit for you ahead of time, so we don’t need to empty out any bags to look for something you can wear.”
Ollie held up what she’d had tossed at her. The biggest item was similar to the waterproof nylon overalls that fishermen wore, with rubber boots built in to keep water out and heat in, a perfect seal. The whole thing was a bright, eye-catching yellow color. Ollie smiled at Vera’s choice, she had forgotten she had this sitting around. The rest of the outfit included a bright blue turtleneck, intended to be worn beneath a pink parka with gold fur around the neck, nylon socks, blue leggings, and a pair of thick winter mittens with a blue snowflake design. It was possibly an even more over the top outfit than she would have chosen, even with her admittedly odd fashion sense. If she thought about it though, Vera likely just grabbed the warmest pieces of clothing that she could find, knowing that Ollie was more vulnerable to the cold while she was recovering from the blood loss. Vera liked to pretend otherwise, but she could be quite thoughtful when she felt like it. She crossed the room, and gave Vera a quick hug. “I appreciate you thinking of me, I’ll go get dressed so you can tell me how it looks.”
There was no response from Vera as Ollie went to the back of the library, hidden behind the rows of bookshelves. She slowly peeled off her pajamas, allowing herself a grimace from the pain in her stomach. Looking at her bandages, she could tell they would be in desperate need of changing before the day was out. Sweat and blood were slowly soaking through, and she needed to clean the wound to keep away infection too. She needed to shower, but none of their prospective new hideouts were likely to have running water, so she’d likely need to boil snow to get a bath of clean water.
If she were a patient, her parents would have scolded her for not being more attentive with the wound, and for rushing the stitches instead of taking the time to do it perfectly. Thinking back, even in times when their clinic had been fairly calm, Ollie had formed the bad habit of rushing things. Her mother had given her a talking to once, telling her that doing more work wasn’t the same as doing good work. Rushing to get more done only meant that you were sloppier with each individual step. What would she say, if she saw Ollie cutting corners now?
Ollie stopped, all movement ceasing for a full second as she changed the course of her thoughts. She got dressed, fully bundled up in the winter gear that Vera had chosen. She walked back to the girls. “How do I look?” She asked, a bright beaming smile presented towards them.
Parker and Vera both looked at her with stony faces for a long moment, before Vera held up a finger. “Wait just a second, I saved the last touches of the outfit.”
She walked towards Ollie with her hands behind her back, before wrapping a pink and gold woolen scarf around Ollie’s neck, enough sheer fabric to partially conceal Ollie’s mouth and nose. The last piece of the ensemble was a dark brown fur trapper hat, the kind with side flaps that were currently lowered and covering Ollie’s ears, the only part of her face still visible were her eyes.
Vera stepped back, and it only took a moment of looking at the finished outfit for both her and Parker to burst out laughing. At this point Ollie was covered from head to toe in a brightly colored fashion disaster, and the girls couldn’t contain their amusement at how flashy and mismatched the entire outfit was. It was exactly the sort of outfit that Ollie loved, taken a few steps further. Ollie laughed along with them, her own giggles muffled by the scarf covering her mouth. Vera practically cackled, overdramatically dropping to the ground and holding her stomach, whereas Parker’s laughter was more restrained. That restraint dropped when the laughter prompted a bout of hiccups, which only made the three girls laugh more as Parker tried to get the hiccups under control.
This is perfect, Ollie thought to herself as she watched her girls respond to each other’s laughing fits. This was exactly what she wanted, for everyone to get along and be happy together. No fighting, nobody upset, everyone enjoying each other’s company. It was easier with these two than with her family, less conflicting personalities that she had to keep from clashing. Parker and Vera had differences in opinion, but they respected each other at least, and they got along well enough considering the difficult living situation they all found themselves in. Anger was normal when things weren’t going well, and sometimes that led to bickering, but never anything more heated than that. They respected each other’s opinions and skills too much to resort to yelling, which Ollie was always quietly thankful for.
With her movement restricted by her ridiculous outfit, Ollie flopped forward to fall on top of Vera, removing the hat and scarf to wrestle them onto the smaller girl. Vera yelped, laughing harder than before as she fought back and tried not to be wrapped in the over-sized scarf. She was losing the grapple, and was quickly finding herself partially mummy-wrapped with the scarf around her head and shoulders, the hat pressed down on top of her head. Parker’s laughter was reaching a crescendo, and at this point her hiccups were more frequent than the laughter that prompted them. Ollie looked away from her victory over the now panting Vera, beaming as she took in Parker’s reaction to the scuffle. Her stomach throbbed violently from the exertion, but it was worth it. Vera out of breath and grinning as she extricated herself from the scarf, Parker unable to contain her amusement despite her usually serious personality.
Was it wrong for Ollie to think she might be happy now? Her family was gone, was it wrong to not be upset anymore? Or had she accidentally buried those feelings? She genuinely wasn’t sure. She was good at figuring out other people, how they were feeling and how she could help, but her own feelings were so hard to pin down.
She smiled despite the thoughts, focusing on the present. She badly wanted to see if she could push Parker further, bring out this facet of her even more. But too much of a good thing was possible, and she didn’t want Parker to be annoyed with her. This was enough, just sitting here, the three of them having a genuinely good day. While Parker had been trapped, it had been just Ollie and Vera. It had been nice, the two of them got along well, but Ollie had worried about Parker the entire time and that had made it hard to enjoy the alone time. She liked being a trio more, she decided as she watched Vera sit up and remove the last length of scarf. Her hair was wild and messy, in a much different way than the loose messy strands she usually let escape her braids.
“Fucker, aren’t you supposed to be injured? How are you still so much stronger than me?” Vera laughed a bit more between catching her breath. She ran her fingers through her hair to try and get it back into a manageable state. Ollie smiled and moved closer to help Vera fix her hair, the two of them quickly getting it back under control.
“I’m twice your size, dummy.” Ollie said as she got tangles out of Vera’s hair. “Besides, I didn’t stay up all night and miss out on getting any sleep. It was sweet of you to get everything packed, but I want you to get some proper rest when we get to the new place.”
Vera stuck out her tongue at Ollie, taking over to separate her long hair into sections to form a long braid. “I’ll sleep after we get settled in. I’ll need the rest, I’m thinking of binding some Omens on a longer term basis to set up as a sort of warning system around the new hideout. Invisible patrol units, letting us know if they see any dangers in our area.”
By now Parker had recovered from her fit of hiccups and laughter, and interjected. “I would be careful about that, some Witch Hunters will be able to notice those sorts of things. They’ll ignore ghosts most of the time, but if there’s a sign that it’s been bound or altered somehow then they’ll be likely to investigate. When it comes to Hollow Science it’s impossible to predict what they might be equipped with or capable of. Having watchdogs isn’t a bad idea, but they could just as easily draw unwanted attention while they’re meant to be watching for trouble.”
Vera considered that. “I’ll see what options are available in the area we decide on, if there are any Omens that stand out as being able to stay out of sight. Or I’ll experiment and see if I can Frankenstein together something more suited to being an unseen observer. Information and an early warning system is too important, I think it’s worth the risk.” Parker agreed, and offered to help with the brainstorming process if Vera decided to cobble together a custom Echo, her own knowledge of witchcraft coming from a different angle than Vera’s.
While the two of them considered options for defense and staying hidden, Ollie finished stuffing the last of her things into bags. She let Parker and Vera know, and they gathered all of their bags. It was a lot to carry around with them, but knowing that it was all any of them had to their names made it feel like it was a paltry amount. A large backpack for each of them, a duffle bag over Ollies shoulder, and three rolling suitcases contained everything the three of them owned. A twinge of emotion stirred in Ollie’s chest at the thought, quickly shelved away and ignored.
The three of them climbed out the window, taking one last look inside the library that had been their temporary home. Vera spoke, “Normally I would say burn the place to hide any evidence we might have left, but that would just draw attention to the building in the first place.”
Parker shook her head. “No need for something that extreme, I’ll take care of it.” She was dressed like she usually was, long sleeved concealing winter clothing. The layers were meant more to hide her tattoos than to protect against the cold, and Ollie knew that they would be hiding a faint glow from select patterns and diagrams on Parker’s skin. Parker directed the other two girls to remove the boards on the window they came in and out of, as she focused energy within herself. Once the window was fully unblocked, Parker stretched out both hands through the gap and past the windowsill. Vera bared her teeth in a wide eager grin, and Ollie watched in wonder as both she and Vera stepped back and out of the way.
All around Parker, the wind picked up quickly. Ollie could see through the window, and watched as the dust and dirt inside the abandoned library swirled in the air as a small dust storm appeared inside. At the same time, snow was being pulled from the alley and sent into the building through the open window. The white of snow mixed with the gray of dust in the air, a storm of bleak colors at Parker’s command. It swirled in complex paths and patterns, all according to specific small tweaks from Parker. After a minute or two, the snow and dust settled inside the building, leaving a layer of the elements to every surface.
Parker sagged with relief after exerting herself, still weak from the previous week. She turned to Ollie and Vera, pulling at her sleeves to make sure her arms were fully covered. “That should hide most little details. I moved the dust and dirt to make the place seem more abandoned and erase any footprints or clean spots where we had swept up or brushed at a surface, to anyone going in it should look like nobody’s gone inside for a long time. Letting the snow come in and add exposure to the elements, anyone who sees the place will have a hard time believing people were staying there. I also removed any loose hairs or bits of skin that got left behind, any traces of us got blown out the window and buried in the snow.”
Ollie was always amazed by the precision and versatility of the things Parker could do. She didn’t totally understand the tattoos or how they functioned, but the results were always plain to see. It was taxing for Parker to do, and there were definitely quite a few limitations, but she was adept at making use of her strengths.
Grabbing her luggage with one arm, Ollie’s free hand gripped Parker’s and pulled her along. “Alright you two, let’s go find our new home! I’m wanting somewhere with a view this time!” The three of them left the library behind, each tired in different ways, and ready to find a new place to be their temporary home.
Parker led them towards the deli to get breakfast they could eat on the go, each of their stomachs growling with hunger. Ollie split some sort of meat dish that she didn’t recognize with Parker, her stab wound screaming at her all the while. She ignored it and focused on enjoying the meal. They had five possible locations for a new hideout, and they were scattered throughout the city. Once they were properly situated she would let herself rest a bit, but they had only just started the day. She would try her best to keep them moving to decide on their new place as fast as possible. Hopefully the day would go faster than she was thinking.
______________________________________________________________________________
Nearly twelve hours later, they stood in front of their new hideout. They had taken time to check each possible location, and this was the decision they had finally come to. Parker and Vera had opposing views on a few of the other options, and initial scouting had disqualified the other completely. One of their considerations was a large section of the cities storm drains, which they had been considering because people didn’t often go down there and it would be empty of water during the winter months. That location was vetoed after Vera asked the local Echoes some questions and found out that there were irregular patrols in those tunnels done by the Peace Guard. The patrols were most likely for two reasons. The first was preventing people like them from doing exactly what they had considered, taking shelter in the tunnels because their circumstances made it hard to keep a proper place of their own. The other reason would be preventing the tunnels from becoming a hub for criminal activity. It would be easy for things like drug deals to happen down there away from the light and crowds on the street level.
Another good option that Ollie had honestly liked the idea of had been a brewery on the waterfront, which was apparently closed down temporarily after the company had gone under. It was big and spacious, and Ollie had absolutely loved the view of the lake from the windows. Parker had been against it, due to how easy it would be for the brewery to find new ownership and the building see use again, potentially taking them by surprise when someone came by to check the place out before buying it. It was only ever a consideration in the short term, Ollie knew going in that the brewery couldn’t have housed them long-term. But she would still have liked waking up to see the frozen lake out her window, people ice-skating at all hours.
The other two options had both been properly abandoned buildings in poor areas, like the library had been. Each had different issues, Parker not trusting the state of disrepair one building was in, while Vera had found too much evidence of other illegal occupants in the other. Vera had liked the idea of fixing up the first building, while Parker thought they could avoid the other squatters and just have one portion of the building for the three of them, simply keeping the other homeless people that used the place from seeing them perform any sort of witchcraft.
They had bickered over both options, never finding a solution to the problems with each building that satisfied the one who had the problem. Vera thought it was too likely that one of the other people living in the second building would notice something off about the trio and report them for a reward, while Parker didn’t think any amount of home improvement techniques they attempted would salvage the building that was a forgotten wreck of rotten wood. Eventually, Ollie had pulled the two of them away from each building to look at the other places on their list.
Once they had eliminated all the other options, they were forced to go back to their first choice, which they had originally thought against and wanted to look at all the other places first. Vera had found out about the place a few weeks ago, while she was out for one of her midnight walks. It was a warehouse, a small one that had probably once belonged to a more minor shipping company. She had been tailing some local hoodlums to see what sort of trouble kids got up to in this area, and found that they worked as drug mules for a local dealer when she saw them picking up a delivery from their ‘boss’. Changing targets, Vera watched the dealers place from across the street, sending echoes to scout for her. The drug dealer had some friends over and they had talked business, nothing too interesting at first, which nearly caused Vera to get bored and leave. When they said the word ‘dryad’, however, she settled in to listen more.
Apparently one of the activities this particular gang got up to was trafficking in illegal and rare creatures. They had been at it for some time, sniping different beasts and nonhumans before the authorities managed to secure them, and then selling them to collectors at a high price. They didn’t mention anything about where they got their information or how they got there before the Witch Hunters, but they apparently had a decent track record based on the memories of conversations Vera found stored in the house. They had trafficked in ogres, a yeti, a clan of vampires, and something they called a skinwalker, though Vera suspected they weren’t using that term properly. After all of the traffickers had left, Vera investigated more closely and found more recent echoes, which hadn’t had time to settle and stabilize. The gang had several different safehouses they used to store their captive creatures, and one of them currently held several nonhumans that they had lost control of.
Three total, one of them an experimental hybrid breed of dryad that they had somehow managed to actually steal from a Witch Hunter lab. It was by far their most valuable score yet, but it was out of their reach. The nonhumans in the safehouse were apparently dangerous enough that the gang was completely giving up on retrieving them, after nearly a month of attempts to clean up their mess. Now they were simply trying to erase all connections they had to the creatures and the building that housed them, destroying any evidence of their involvement and hoping that the authorities never caught wind of things. They were also trying to hide the situation from other local gangs, ashamed of the fact that they fucked up as badly as they did.
Vera kept looking into the situation, and found that the gang had made several attempts to recapture the creatures in the warehouse, each ending in disaster. Now, they avoided the building like a plague, leaving it in the control of its current occupants.
The warehouse had been the first potential hideout that they had looked at, but it had risks that had made the three of them hesitate to choose it. There were benefits to the location, such as the fact that the gang who had used it actively worked to keep the authorities from discovering it, and the warehouse wasn’t technically abandoned or for sale so there was no chance of new owners moving in by surprise. Even if the gang did discover them living in the warehouse by chance, they wouldn’t turn them in to the Witch Hunters for fear of drawing attention to themselves. The main risk was simply the presence of the things inside, which was why they had been unsure about the location.
With the other options removed from the list, the three of them now stood in front of the warehouse, warily taking the features of the place in. It was in good shape, properly maintained by the gang which had used it in order to make it resemble an actual business. Alchemically treated wood, the structure was stronger than if it had been made with concrete and rebar. The bay doors of the loading dock were solid and sturdy, the only way to open them without destroying them was to remove the padlock inside. A large sign on the wall facing the street read ‘Surefire Shipping’, the name of the fake business the gang had used as a front.
The three of them approached the main entrance, a thick oak door with the businesses logo on it, a roaring blaze of fire around the company name. Ollie paused at the flaming imagery, provoking thoughts she would rather not dwell on. She shook herself to return to the present moment, watching as Vera took several thin metal objects out of her pocket and began picking the lock.
“So how confident are we that this plan is going to work? They’ve been running off the gangsters whenever they tried to come inside, why would we be luckier than they’ve been?” Ollie asked, a little nervous.
Parker answered. “Dryads are territorial because they have to be, protecting the plant they draw their life force from so that nothing harms the plant and kills them. Our best bet is to just show that we don’t mean any harm, and try to form a peaceful relationship with her. Dryads are intelligent creatures, so they can potentially be reasoned with. And the two beasts with her are at least intelligent enough to live peacefully with her, so they might follow her lead.”
Vera spoke up as she finished with the lock on the door. “If things go poorly, we can always just hoof it and get lost, find somewhere else. But if we make this work then we get a hideout that comes equipped with a live-in security team that’s already invested in keeping out intruders. You have the bag?”
Ollie nodded and hefted a large burlap sack. “Okay, let’s go in then. I’ll take the lead, you two stay behind me.”
They fell into step behind her, Parker on her heels and crouched to try and move quietly, Vera in the rear with one hand in the pocket of her overalls gripping her gun, just in case. The interior was warmer than the chill outside, enchantments likely in place to keep the building at a set temperature. It was dim inside, the bioluminescent fungi in the lights dead after not being properly maintained since the humans left. There were skylights letting in sunshine, but only certain areas benefitted from those rays. The loading dock had wooden pallets of various sizes stacked high against the walls, though quite a few pallets seemed to be in pieces on the floor. There were several aisles of high metal shelves, with pallets and crates lining the racks, as well as various empty cages. Many crates and boxes had been broken open, their contents missing. Off in one corner was a shipping container that would need to be loaded onto a truck to move, laying on its side and with several enormous dents in the side, where something large had collided with it hard enough to nearly cave it in.
Curiously enough, Ollie noticed a number of potted plants at the highest points of some aisles, arranged so the light from the skylights would hit them directly. Vines grew along the metal racks, large leaves stretching out to drink in the sun. She started looking more closely, and saw that the high metal catwalk ringing the walls of the warehouse had been decorated with glittering baubles, bits of scrap metal and glass tied to the railing to sparkle slightly in the dark. The rafters had vines hanging from them in places, almost forming a jungle canopy of plant growth. In places, the walls had been covered with paint in a mish-mashed mural of vibrant colors, a nonsensical display of artistic expression. The colors swirled and spiraled, even as they blended together and ran through each other.
Ollie was still admiring the interior when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked back to see Parker, staring straight up. Ollie craned her neck, and nearly missed it in the dim light. One of the dryads companions, up in the rafters. A griffon, staring at them with huge round eyes, completely silent as it observed them. It had a sleek body, similar to a leopard or a jaguar, all black ‘fur’ and ‘feathers’. Parker apparently had read up on griffons in the past, and had briefed them earlier. They weren’t actually related to birds or felines in any way, the resemblance was purely coincidental. They were covered with something resembling fur or feathers at first glance, but the material is actually completely different, a uniquely lightweight and insulating covering that sold for high prices as material for clothing. Griffons were intelligent, built for perching at a high position and swooping down to ambush prey after using their powerful eyesight to observe them for a long time. The beasts five taloned ‘fingers’ were dexterous and flexible, allowing it to climb in complete silence with ease, and its wingspan was massive enough to be able to support such a creature. The wings were shaped more like a hang glider or a kite than anything, built for catching the wind and soaring from high perches rather than flapping to gain altitude.
At the back of the line, Vera quietly urged them to continue on, all of them keeping the large predator in their field of vision. It seemed content to watch them for now, showing no immediate signs of hostility just yet. The three of them walked further into the warehouse, nerves clearly visible on each of them. Ollie carried the large sack on one shoulder as she led the way. As they walked, Ollie spotted a huge cage against one far wall. It was large enough to fit both a carriage and its horse comfortably, and it was utterly ruined. The thick metal bars had been smashed open from the inside, the steel bent and twisted like paper. Ollie swallowed nervously at the sight, her mouth very dry. She heard a noise high above them, in a different direction from the griffon. Her eyes darted around to find the source, and seeing nothing but swaying of the leaves and vines on the high shelves.
The warehouse wasn’t a large one, and they reached their destination before too long. Veras ghosts had scouted the place ahead of time, so they had known exactly where they were going. At the center of the warehouse, beneath the largest of the skylights, surrounded by mirrors to focus the light on one area, was a garden. The concrete floor had been completely demolished, smashed and moved aside to reveal the soil below, allowing the greenery to grow there in the pit. Dryads drew their life force from a specific plant that they were intrinsically bonded with, a special plant that they were connected to the moment they came into being. This was the plant that the dryad they sought was connected to, the one which she would do anything to protect. It was a small field of densely grown vines and leaves, the plants moving slightly under their own power, like a pit of snakes sliding over each other. At the center of the field was an enormous sheep, its white wool irregularly spotted with leaves of the deepest green, growing from beneath the fur. The sheep turned and looked at the trio, before ignoring them and continuing to walk about the garden. The vines on the ground moved to allow the sheep easy footing, the creature moving to a spot with more sun. Ollie could see how several vines reached up to the sheep’s back, where they slithered and slipped past fur to slot into openings in the animals body and connect to its spine. As the sheep walked, vines would disconnect and be replaced by vines which were closer to its destination, the great mass of plant-life always maintaining a connection to the animal.
Parker had been astonished to hear the reports of this that Vera relayed from her ghosts, as she had apparently heard of this creature before. She had told them that she’d read about something called the Scythian Lamb, a species of plant that grew a living animal in place of any fruit. The lamb was attached to the main body of the plant by vines which acted almost like an umbilical cord, feeding nutrients from the soil to the lamb. If the lamb was disconnected from the vines, it would wander and eventually die at another location, where the seeds inside it would grow to create a new plant. When predators come along and eat the lamb, they ingest the seeds hidden inside. The seeds are either deposited in the predator’s leavings and grow from that, or the seeds grow inside the predator, killing it and using the meat to quickly grow a new plant as well as a fresh lamb. While the lamb dies soon after separating from the vines, the plants main body functions like any other flora, simply existing until it gathers the nutrients to birth a new ‘fruit’. They were supposedly native to Asia, which Parker found interesting, because the very fact that this was here in the Americas meant that the Orphic States had been making forays into the countries belonging to the United Nations, capturing and collecting nonhumans from foreign soil despite the tenuous peace between the Orphic States and the rest of the world. Moreover, Parker had said that this plant was far larger than they usually ever grew. The creature bore the name ‘Lamb’ for a reason, and apparently the attached fauna never grew beyond the size of a small young sheep. Moreover, Parker had never heard of a dryad that was linked to anything other than a perfectly normal plant, such as an oak tree or a berry bush. This one, however, found her life force bound to an inherently mystical form of plant-life that was distinctly unique from those found naturally. Parker’s eyes had burned with curiosity by this point, wanting to learn more about the creature.
Now, Ollie held out a hand to motion for the other two to wait where they were, and approached the mass of vines in the warehouse floor. The sheep continued to ignore her, apparently its survival instincts weren’t nearly as strong as a real sheep, since its primary purpose was to die and spread seeds. She moved the sack from her shoulder, sliding it down onto the ground, and taking out a large knife that Vera had lent her. She cut open the sack, and the smell of fertilizer was immediately released. Their plan was to show the dryad that they were friendly and safe, by bringing fertilizer to ensure that the soil of the garden had enough nutrients, and hoping that the dryad convinced the other creatures in the warehouse to not attack them. It wasn’t a great plan, so they were prepared to run for it at the first opportunity. So far they had only seen the griffon, the dryad and the third creature that the gang had trafficked in were nowhere to be found, which Ollie found unnerving. Looking around for the missing creatures, she knelt down to begin pouring the fertilizer. That was when she more clearly saw the soil beneath the vines.
Beneath the vines, mostly hidden beneath the soil, were torn strips of burlap which were in the midst of decaying. Looking more closely, she saw that there were quite a few spots with the same thing. She groaned under her breath, upset that Vera’s ghosts had missed this. Their plan had been to make themselves invaluable to the dryad, by being able to leave the warehouse to gather things for the garden which she couldn’t get herself, in order to keep it healthy. But the strips of burlap likely meant that the dryad had no difficulties leaving to gather her own supplies. She had been using sacks of fertilizer identical to what they had brought for her, and then cut up the sacks to use the burlap to improve the soil structure and slowly release nutrients into the earth as it decayed. She didn’t need their help, so she had no need to trust them.
Ollie turned to face her friends, ready to tell them what she’d found, and finally discovered the location of the dryad. The woman was small and slight of figure, and had a somewhat Asian cast to her features that were barely noticeable beyond her other unusual traits. She had skin that was a deep green matching the vines of the garden, and in place of hair she had thin green vines which she seemed to have cut into an imitation of a short pixie-cut. She had yellow eyes with rectangular pupils, identical to the sheep wandering the garden. Her ears were also similar to that of the sheep, long and broad, and slightly droopy. Though dryads were technically plants and therefore sexless, she wore clothing to partially cover herself, specifically men’s trousers and a fully unbuttoned white dress shirt covered with dirt and grass stains. She had white wool on some parts of her body, visible on the backs of her hands and the tops of her bare feet, as well as down her exposed chest and stomach in a kind of Y shape. A long vine stretched from the ceiling down to the floor next to where she had descended to, next to Parker with a knife to her throat. Vera stood behind the dryad, smiling confidently with her gun pressed to the back of the creatures head.
“I told you guys this plan was dumb.” Vera said in an almost teasing voice, her finger off the trigger but ready to fire.
Parker scowled, frozen in place with the knife to her neck. “Not now Vera, seriously. Besides, you wanted to come in here just as much as I did. Let’s just get out of this alive, then you can tell us all about how smart you think you are.”
Ollie’s heart was pounding at the sight of Parker in danger, but if she moved to do something about it then she would only make things worse. She flinched as she heard a slam of impact against metal, and looked up to see the griffon had dropped from the rafters and was now prowling the shelves of the aisles, climbing down to get closer to the ground. While it had been stationary, the griffon had perched almost like a hawk, standing perfectly still as it watched patiently for its prey to be vulnerable. Now it moved like a beast, its powerful muscles rippling as it climbs slowly down the metal of the aisles. Ollie can see its tongue dart out, wetting its beak which she can now see is almost serrated, teethlike edges to tear at meat. Frantic to look for something she can do, Ollie Sees the griffon, using her Sight to try and find a weakness. Immediately, she sees that the griffon is completely grounded, its wings deliberately clipped so the tendons that would allow them to support the beast in the air are completely useless. In the same way, this information is useless to Ollie, since the creatures inability to soar won’t stop it from tearing its way through her friends.
She looks back to the others, her Sight still active. The dryad gives no information whatsoever, simply a plant that is very good at appearing human, and therefore unaffected by her special Sight. The creature held its knife firm against Parker’s throat, and Ollie could See that the flesh was just shy of being cut, the blade pressed in hard but not enough to break the skin yet. Ollie’s eyes focused on that point of contact between metal and throat, her imagination filling in the blanks, her heart screaming as she envisioned arteries severing and Parker going cold.
“Nonononono, not again!” Ollie’s mind howled at her, desperately searching for a solution as she panicked at the sight of her friends in danger. She didn’t know anything about the psychology of a walking plant, she knew that dryads were sentient and could potentially be communicated with, but that didn’t mean she understood how they thought. How do you reason with something that isn’t human? If she raised her hands in surrender, would the dryad react as if Ollie were making herself appear larger and more threatening, the way an animal would? Its expression was unreadable, lips pressed firmly together and eyes utterly unconcerned, as if the creature wasn’t thinking about the present situation in the slightest.
But maybe that was the clue? Ollie looked closely at the dryad, eyes darting over every part of it. Zero emotion shown on its face, its body language slack and limp aside from the hand holding the knife, and even there the fingers seemed almost relaxed as the palm bore most of the pressure against the handle. Ollie thought back to what they’d seen so far in the warehouse, all the decorations and art. With that, things clicked in her mind, a twinge of comprehension.
Ollie let her hands fall loose to her side, fingers utterly still. Her posture became relaxed and listless, even her neck lolling to one side slightly as she stopped holding it straight. Her expression changed to match that of the green woman, utterly unconcerned with the current circumstances. She turned on her heel, slowly and calmly stepping into the garden, dropping the short distance into the pit. As she walked, she undid the buttons on her pink parka, dropping it into the tangle of vines. Nerves still screaming at her, she forced herself to move in a relaxed manner as she removed the blue turtleneck Vera had picked out for her, now covered by her bra and the mess of crimson bandages around her stomach. By this point, she stood a foot away from the enormous white sheep that was now lying asleep in the center of the garden. Expression still uncaring, she turned to look at the dryad once again, her gaze meeting its strange yellow eyes. It hadn’t moved an inch, the blade still held to Parker’s neck. With her Sight, Ollie could see that both Vera and Parker were prepared to move at any moment. Parker’s body temperature fluctuated, heat focusing in a spot on her stomach as she gathered power in one of her many tattoos. Vera had one hand holding the gun to the dryads head, but Ollie saw through her entire being, and could see her other hand behind her back preparing something as her fingers moved quickly and precisely to manipulate whatever she held. Both girls had strange expressions when looking at Ollie, Parker seeming bewildered by Ollie’s actions, and Vera with a look of intense fascination as she watched Ollie intently.
Turning back towards the sheep, she began slowly undoing her bandages, peeling them away from her torso where they were sticky with blood and cold sweat. She had stitched up the injury, and sped up the healing process a bit by sacrificing her health in other ways. But she also hadn’t been letting herself rest like any good practitioner would insist for a patient. She had been up all day, when she should have been in bed resting. She wouldn’t tell the girls, but she had popped her stitches that morning while wrestling with Vera, and had been putting on a calm face as she used the blood seeping into the bandages as a sacrifice to staunch the flow and keep her steadier on her feet. She couldn’t help it, she had known she shouldn’t be exerting herself but she had wanted to enjoy the morning. Proper rest and recovery would come later, she could power through for the time being. The last of the bandages came away, a tangled red and white web. Her stomach was being actively held shut by magic, the blood in the bandages being tapped for power to temporarily close the hole. It wasn’t large as stab wounds went, and she had been careful to keep from hitting anything vital. Maybe two inches across and inflamed from the agitation of moving all day, positioned so that it would bleed as much as possible while still relatively simple to patch up. If she let herself recuperate then it wouldn’t be a problem at all.
Instead, she dropped the bloody wrappings to the ground and knelt beside the sheep. When she lost contact with the red bandages, the hole in her abdomen opened and began bleeding freely once again. Wincing slightly, she never dropped the lazy way her body was now moving, her expression still blank as she brought her hands to her stomach and brought them away slick with blood. Desperately hoping she had properly read the dryad, her hands went to the sheep’s side, painting its white coat crimson. Thinking back to the spirals of paint that she had seen earlier, Ollie spread red patterns of swirls along the sheep’s massive side. The animal slowly changed color, the blood seeping in and dripping to make the spiral design weep.
Ollie felt cold, but she was too busy, she would get warm later. Maybe she could make some hot cocoa to share with the girls. That would be nice. She smiled slightly at the thought, but a sound at her side reminded her to keep her expression neutral. Turning her head, her eyes met the dryad, who had approached to kneel beside her. The green skinned girl, her face still unreadable, stared at Ollie as if searching for something in her eyes. Her knife was gone now, her hands as empty as her gaze. Slowly, unbearably slowly, the dryad reached towards Ollie. Her hands went to the bloody gash at her stomach, cupping hands around the injury. The pain made it hard to tell, but the dryads hands felt rigid against Ollie’s stomach, like green wood pressing into skin.
The dryads hands came away soaked, and the girl stared at them for a moment before turning to add her own designs to the sheep. Ollie suppressed a sigh of relief, joining her own efforts to that of the dryad, their canvas slowly filling with color. She was beginning to get tired, why was that? Her body felt heavy and sluggish. Should she do something about that? Maybe she should stop and rest. But she was still busy, right? Once she and her new friend finished, then she would give herself a break. Maybe take a nap, wrap up by the fire place with a cup of cocoa. That sounded so nice.
______________________________________________________________________________
“Put another blanket on her, she’s still really pale.”
“She’s got plenty, I don’t want her to overheat with this fever she’s running.”
“That doesn’t sound right, aren’t you supposed to get the patient warm so they can sweat out the fever?”
Ollie stirred, the voices causing her to drift back to consciousness. Her bleary eyes opened weakly, looking around and seeing that it was Parker and Vera kneeling over her. Parker looked so worried, and Vera’s brows knit together in an uncharacteristic frown, her arms crossed as she nervously bit at the skin of her thumb. She had made them worry about her, damn.
“Oopsie, guess I might have overdone it, huh?” Ollie chuckled weakly. That seemed to break the tension a bit, Vera rolling her eyes and shaking her head in an exasperated smile while Parker groaned and covered her face with her hands in frustration. That was better, annoyed was a step up from terrified with worry. She felt herself relax more, as the two girls settled down now that she was awake and speaking.
“What happened? Last I remember is undoing my bandages.” She looked to Parker as she asked.
“You and the dryad started painting together, it looked like a murder scene by the time you blacked out. Vera and I were freaking out from all the blood so we just had our weapons trained on the dryad since she was just standing there watching you bleed to death. She just stood there staring at you like she expected you to wake up and start painting again if she waited long enough. What the hell were you thinking? What made you do something so stupid?” Parker’s eyes were red while she talked. Had she been crying? Fuck.
“To be fair,” Vera said, “I’m genuinely thinking we might have all been holding the idiot ball on this one. Gotta ask guys, are we stupid? I thought it would be kinda cool to come in and meet some monsters, wasn’t really expecting how intense that got.”
Trying and failing to sit up, Ollie freed one hand from the pile of blankets covering her and set the hand on Parkers own. “I think I figured it out after the dryad snuck up on the two of you. She’s not a person, or even an animal, she’s a plant. She doesn’t respond to things like body language or a convincing argument. She responds to her environment; her feelings are expressed externally through changing that environment. All the decorations, the murals, everything else. That’s how she communicates and expresses herself. She’ll defend herself against threats of course, but if you want to show that you aren’t aggressive, you do it through harmless changes to her surroundings. I think using my own blood as paint showed that I was willing to weaken myself too, I wasn’t there to take from her, but to give. Seems like it worked on some level, I’ll need to get to know her more before I can really understand how she thinks though.”
Vera smiled and scooted over to sit closer to Ollie and slide her feet under the warm blanket with her. “So, you made a wild guess and hoped like hell it would lead to more than just you bleeding to death? You’re nuts, you know that?” Vera practically cackled, sliding back to lay on the hard warehouse floor.
Parker wasn’t as amused, and her hand grips Ollie’s tightly. “That was way too close, you know that right? It worked, sure, but what was your plan after that? You’re clearly too weak to properly heal yourself right now, and you were completely blacked out anyways. Vera and I don’t know anything other than some basic first aid, I hope you weren’t counting on us being able to patch you up.”
That last part confused Ollie a bit. “Wait, so you didn’t patch me up? What happened then, that much bleeding wouldn’t have just stopped on its own.”
“So you really didn’t have a plan to keep yourself alive then?” Parker was starting to seem pissed now, her face turning red. I’m still out of it, Ollie thought to herself, not choosing my words as carefully as usual. “The two of us couldn’t do anything, the only reason you didn’t just bleed out in front of us was because of him!” Parker turned and pointed off to the side.
Struggling to turn her head far enough, Ollie looked towards where Parker was pointing. Off towards the far end of the warehouse, standing near the bay doors, was the dryads other companion. Broad and powerfully built, as tall as a draft horse but with a wider chest and thicker legs. Its fur was a brilliant white, fading to silver down the legs and at its mane, which was long enough to drape over both sides of its head like a curtain. It had large eyes, white like pearls, and its snout lacked a mouth, simply a blank expanse of fur along its jaw. Its horn was long and thick, with small curling barbs branching off, like the tines of a deer’s antlers. The barbs were iridescent, glimmering as light seemed drawn to them. The beast watched the three of them, not with any intensity, simply casually observing.
“The unicorn.” Ollie whispered. They hadn’t seen it anywhere when they first entered the warehouse, which had felt like a blessing because of the incredible aggression they were often known for. Vera’s scouts had confirmed the presence of the dryad, griffon, and unicorn before they had come inside, but all three were clever creatures that could stay unseen if they felt like it. The dryad had seemed like the most approachable of the three, or at least the easiest to fight off if necessary. By winning her over, they had hoped her companions would follow suit.
Parker was still gritting her teeth with frustration as she spoke. “After you passed out, while we were trying to figure out what to do, he came out of nowhere. I have no idea how something that big can move quietly. The dryad stepped out of the way and he just… walked up to you. He stared at you for a little bit and I thought he was just going to stomp you to death, but then he knelt down and, he healed you I guess. His horn touched your injury and the blood stopped, then he sat there until Vera and I pulled you away to make sure you were okay.”
Ollie nodded along. “Makes sense, unicorn horns have always been known to have healing properties. They absorb energy from their surrounding through the tines, which they use both to sustain themselves and heal injuries. That’s why poachers try to go after them so much, since the horns still function the same way even after they’re cut off the unicorn.”
Parker just shook her head, one hand rubbing at her puffy tear-stained eyes. “No Ollie, that still doesn’t make sense. Because why would it just heal you like that? I thought there was a chance that it would leave us alone if the dryad gave her seal of approval, but it went out of its way to heal you? That’s not normal, unicorns are famously aggressive, more poachers die trying to get near one than any actually manage to succeed in getting a horn from one of them. There are rare cases when a unicorn will approach and be friendly with people, but nobody has figured out the pattern yet. People used to think they only approached virginal maidens, but they debunked that theory after too many virgin test subjects got impaled. Plus, that wouldn’t be a factor for you anyways.”
Ollie blushed, a deep red contrasting how pale she currently was. “Well, actually…”
While it took Parker a moment to process Ollie’s response, Vera burst into hysterics, all tension suddenly gone. Parker began blushing a moment later, letting go of Ollie’s hand to clasp both of hers together awkwardly. “Oh, sorry I just assumed, since you’re so outgoing and everything- I just thought you had, um.” While Parker stumbled over her words, Vera just kept laughing her raspy cackle. Parker scowled at her, grabbing a pillow from the floor and throwing it at the smaller girl. “Shut up! I just figured she had, you know…”
Still blushing, Ollie giggled along with Vera. “It’s okay, it’s not a big deal. I still haven’t even had a girlfriend yet, I’ve just always been too busy with other things.”
Vera’s laughter changed pitch as she and Parker momentarily glanced at each other, practically wheezing at this point. Ollie giggled right along, enjoying how dramatic and over the top Vera’s laughing always was.
Parker cleared her throat. “I haven’t really dated too much either, if I’m being honest. So much effort, and it’s not like I can ever know for sure if I can trust them to keep a secret and not turn me in if they see my tattoos. It’s hard to get close to people when you’re always worried they’ll turn on you if you open up to them. So, I mostly just kept to myself.”
Vera had run out of steam now and was panting a bit from being out of breath, still with a big smile on her face. She took the pillow Parker had thrown and tossed it back at her. “Buzzkill. Just trust us then, if nobody else. We’ve seen your tattoos, we don’t give a damn since we’re in the same boat. Open up to us if you feel like it, what are we gonna do, report you? Ha!”
Ollie looked up at Parker, smiling as sincerely as she could manage. “She’s right you know. Maybe other people can’t relate, but we’ll always be able to. We’re in this together, we should make the most of it.” Yawning, Ollie could feel sleep approaching again. She could see Parker’s eyes watering, was she going to cry again? Oh no, Ollie thought, I hope I didn’t say something to upset her. She would need to make it up to her when she woke up.
She felt exhaustion take her, and her dreams were pleasant and warm.
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