Skild had said there were five other bases, not that there were five in total.
This caused the preoccupied pnt to only go looking for four other bases, completely ignoring the existence of the sixth. This sixth spared base knew perfectly well of her existence, however, having sought out the remains of the first base after they’d lost contact from it for a week, and stumbling upon the poor broken down Skild, who’d been hiding nearby. He ranted about the horrible things he’d seen, and the awful betrayal he’d chosen to make. He’d long wanted to leave the area, and go far far away; The only reason he’d even still been nearby was purely because he'd had to hunt down the man that the pnt had ordered him to, which had surprisingly proven tougher than he’d expected.
And so, you can imagine Skild's surprise when he was brought back to the st remaining base and was ordered to lead troops to the town that the pnt had told him about.
Skild had begged and pleaded with them not to make him go to such a pce. For all he knew, the monstrous pnt might have already returned there and was waiting for more prey to come her way; After all, hadn’t she invited him to live there with her? But the base’s leaders wouldn’t listen to him, belling him a weak half-breed traitor, and saying that this was the only way to atone for betraying his own kind. They didn’t believe his cims of how terrifying the monster was, and only held greed in their hearts for the massive amount of people that they would be able to ensve. They firmly believed that they would be the first to conquer this treasure trove, before the other bases got to it!
And that is how Skild found himself going to the one pce he’d promised himself never to go.
***
Oren had lived a dutiful life since Mellily had left, much like he did after the first time he’d met her. He’d returned once again to taking care of a precious little pnt in secret, hidden away from the eyes of others.
At least this time the bush he was growing was in a convenient pce where few would ever find it. His grandfather had helped Oren to erect a small protective fence around the precious heart-covered pnt, just big enough to keep it away from the view of any prying eyes that might visit the house. And every day, with the excuse of coming to help his grandpa clean, Oren would come by to give the pnt the most meticulous care that he could manage.
It was during one such time that he was on his way to his grandpa’s house that the attack happened.
Screams echoed through the edges of the vilge. Oren could hear the sounds of swords and other bded weapons swinging and cshing in the distance, the sound of horse-hooves beating against the dirt, and the sounds of people and other heavy objects falling to the floor.
It didn’t take long before the cause of all the chaos chose to identify themselves.
“We’re from the Oroboros coalition! Surrender yourselves to us now and present your best people, or suffer our wrath!”
The name struck fear into the hearts of many of the townsfolk. It was easily recognizable as the same name that they’d been given by the sleazy svers who’d tried to ransack their town before. There were even refugees from the first few bases that Mellily had destroyed that had made their way to the town and had chosen to live there, so of course they also recognized the name of their captors. And what’s more, many of them recognized Skild, who had been shackled and brought along forcefully on this raid.
“T-they found us!”
“I thought this town was supposed to be safe!”
“Oh righteous Spirit, please save us from these menaces!”
Many of the broken and beleaguered refugees immediately gave up and knelt down, while a good number of the townsfolk began to desperately pray to their beloved Spirit of the Forest for salvation. A few of Cythia’s ex-vilgers rushed over to uphold their end of the bargain of protecting the town with their magic, but in the face of the lizardfolk’s strong fire magic, they were at a great disadvantage. Perhaps if all of them had joined in they would have succeeded in fending their attackers off, elemental differences be damned, but a little under half of the devout ex-vilgers hadn’t come to fight, and had instead flocked back to the shrine to eagerly pray to the sacred bush there, vowing to protect it with their lives should the lizard menace find their way to it.
Amongst all of this, Oren scurried to his grandfather’s house with the most grave of looks upon his face. He was surprised when he opened the door to the garden and immediately spotted his grandfather already standing there next to the bleeding heart bush.
“…Oren, you’re here.”
“Grandpa! You’re not hurt!”
“No, I was already in my house when those horrible men came to the vilge. I tried to come over to use the flowers to protect us right away, but… Well, I can’t seem to get them to work.”
From what he was told, his grandfather had tried pressing, squeezing, praying, yelling, watering, burning, absolutely anything he could think of to make the flower do as it was supposed to, and yet it still would not sprout into the protector that they’d been promised.
“...I fear that we may have been fooled by a false flower once again.”
“No! Miss Mellily wouldn’t have done that to us! She’s the Spirit of the Forest’s representative!”
“Even if that’s true, young Oren, this bush and its flowers are useless to us if they won’t save us in our time of need.”
Oren clenched his teeth, getting more and more scared by the second as he saw the resignation appearing on his grandfather’s face. He might have been young, but Oren had seen firsthand the anguish on everyone’s faces as they’d had to give away their people to the awful svers. He’d even seen how terrible his grandfather had felt afterwards, having been the one who had to pick out the sacrificial mbs from his own people. Oren never wanted to witness something like that again.
And he refused to believe that the pnt who’d been his savior would have lied to him like this.
“Let me try!”
Oren quickly snatched the flower out of his grandfather’s hand, and began cwing at the loamy garden soil, swiftly digging a hole to plop the flower into. He covered it up like a seed and stared at it unblinkingly, shaking his fists up and down as he gravely willed it to grow.
“Come on, come on… Please, Miss Mellily, Spirit of the Forest, anyone; You have to save us!”
But as he watched on, still nothing changed.
“...I’m sorry, Oren, but I also tried the same thing before too. It just doesn’t seem to be working.”
“No no, it has to work! They’re hurting people out there, grandpa!”
Tears began to spring from Oren’s wide eyes, but he was so determined to stare at the mound of dirt that he absolutely refused to spend any time wiping them away, letting them fall in drips and drops from his face. The sight of it hurt his grandfather’s heart greatly.
“I know, Oren, I know… Someone as young as you shouldn’t be forced to watch such horrendous things. For now, why don’t you-”
“G-grandpa! Look!”
“…Hmmm?”
In front of the pair’s wide open eyes, the mound began to swell and grow, sprouting at wild speeds and growing into the shape of a beautiful young woman. The gorgeous silvery fronds that made up the pnts ‘hair’ seemed to shine in the sunlight as they swayed in the breeze, and the peachy-gold color of her ‘skin’ looked rich and appetizing, like a delicious fruit. Perhaps she looked a bit younger and smaller than the woman they’d just met, and maybe her head was missing a few of the flowers that she’d been wearing before, but to Oren it was absolutely unmistakable who this pnt must be.
“...Miss Mellily?”
The pnt woman crossed her tentacles-turned-arms, looking absolutely unhappy. Her face was completely unmoving, and yet her displeasure was practically palpable. The Chief, ever the diplomat, quickly stepped in to mediate the situation.
“Ah… P-please forgive my grandson’s mistake, oh sacred pnt! What should we address you by?”
Unfolding her arms and pcing her ‘hands’ on her hips, the pnt woman struck a haughty pose.