[Terquem]

Chapter 3 part 2

The girl swung the switch toward Lisa’s head.

Alan, thinking quickly, dove at Lisa, enfolding her in his large arms and rolling across the grass away from the rooted girl.

It was like the girl did not see him move Lisa out of the way and she continued to violently swing the switch from side to side. She snarled and hissed like an animal in a cage. Her reach was not far and due to her small size and young age her strike was not powerful. The switch made a soft swishing sound as it passed through the air around her.

“What is this?” Lydia asked. “Is she under some strange spell, or is this some natural disease the likes of which we’ve never seen?

Alan came to a stop some fifteen feet away from the girl. He held Lisa above him in a tight embrace. Her dark reddish-brown hair fell over his face. He held his eyes shut and said, “Are you alright, Lisa?”

She was panting hard. Lisa’s breaths came quick and fast. Her heart pounded in her chest. She could feel the cold unlife-like radiance from Alan’s skin. She brushed her hair aside, and placed her hot, flushed cheek against Alan’s.

The feeling of her warmth calmed Alan. He pulled her closer to him, and then she whispered into his ear.

“Thank you, Alan. You’re quick, for a man who doesn’t know if he is alive.”

“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” he said.

“You didn’t,” Lisa whispered. “Let me up, please.”

Alan pushed Lisa into the air. She seemed lighter than she looked, but maybe it was the adrenaline. His trainers had told him to be careful of the strength that came from fear or anger.

She was able to draw her legs up under her and stand easily from the position Alan had lifted he into. Lisa then stepped over him with one foot, took is right hand in both of hers and tried to pull him from the ground.

“Oof,” she huffed, “You’re heavier than you look. She heaved again and Alan let her help him get to his feet.

“You’re much lighter than you look,” He said.

“Thanks. I think,” Lisa said.

The others had moved in around the small farm girl still swinging the switch to-and-fro.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Fairlyn was shaking her head with her arms crossed. She had but her strung bow across her back and was slowly circling the girl, keeping out of reach of the switch. “I don’t think she could have hurt you with that branch, but I guess caution was called for. Lisa,” she called, and pointed to the ground by the girl’s feet, “look at this.”

Lisa brushed herself off and walked behind the girl to where Fairlyn was standing and looked in the direction the elf was pointing.

The plants tying her feet to the ground were beginning to snap. Small vines curled with a life all their own up trying to tie her down to the ground even as larger vines were torn apart. In only a few moments the girl would be free.

“She’s Breaking free, Alan,” Lisa said. “I don’t want her hurt, but do you think you can subdue her? Do you think you’re stronger than whatever it is that is animating her?”

“I can try,” Alan said.

He moved to the same place as Fairlyn and Lisa, then gently encouraged them to move back even more. He gestured to the others to also move back, saying, “Stay clear, everyone. I don’t know what will happen but I’m going to try and pick her up.”

He crouched low and held his arms out wide to his sides. Alan watched then girl’s swing, back and forth, back and forth, and then just as the switch was as far to the girl’s side as it could go he lunged toward her.

He came at her from a low angle and wrapped his arms around hers just below her shoulders and then with a loud grunt he pulled the girl off the ground. The plants binder her snapped loudly and as they tore they cut into her flesh. The wounds were not deep, but they began to bleed a dark thick green tinted blood.

The girl went limp immediately in his arms.

“Alan, get away from there!” Lisa shouted.

Alan tried to step away and felt the plants wrapping around his boots. With a more determined effort he lifted one foot after the other and took giant strides away from the place where the girl had been trapped.

He was about to break into a run when Lisa cam up beside him and said, “Let’s move a hundred feet away, back the way we came.” She placed her hand on Alan’s arm and guided him as the two moved quickly but not at a run back away from the place.

When she believed it was safe, Lisa said, “Stop, here. Put her down.”

Alan lowered the girl to the ground.

Lisa had pulled a cloth from her belt and was wiping the blood from the girl’s ankles. She pulled the last bits of green growing things from the girl’s low soft shoes. “Lydia, come here,” Lisa called. “Bring some water.”

In a moment everyone was gathered around the girl, on their knees and trying to help.

Lydia lifted the girl’s head and tried to wash away the film in her eyes. Gwenna and Cooper each held one of the girl’s hands, Fairlyn helped Lydia by moving the girls matted hair away from her face and Tewelden was gently rubbing the girl’s legs above the cuts and scrapes she received from being freed.

Little by little the girl’s breathing improved. She began to blink her eyes, but she did not speak. Lisa had gotten bandages from her pack and a small jar with a salve and was beginning to dress the girl’s wounds.

“She squeezed my hand,” Gwenna cried out.

With a start the girl suddenly bent upright and let out a curdling, long, agonized scream.