The Second Moonrise Part 5: Severed Hate

I bounded towards the echoing calls of the boy's lost mother. I'd seen what the Ashvine did. I wasn't going to let that be the fate of those kids. Bjorn would kill me if that happened, and I didn't need to give him more of a reason to hate me. Like it or not, I had to live with the monkey.   As I sprinted through the Forest, I tried to process what I'd learned from the old man. Lobsters... why was that familiar to me? My memory had the information and ideas of two people, but lobsters was ominously missing. But also... not. There was something there, but it wasn't called a lobster.   My musing was cut short as the smell of smoke and burnt flesh grew stronger. It was almost overpowering now. How anyone got taken in by these things with that smell, I'll never know.   Up ahead was a woman. I guessed she was the "mom" these kids were crying for. I wonder what that's like, missing your parent. I wonder what it's like having a parent that didn't try to kill you moments after you were born.   She was about the same height as Ron. Hardly surprising, most humans are about that size. Sandy hair, just like the kids. The same kind of ragged clothes, patched up with woven plant fibers. She'd been in the Forest for a while. Odd. Most people me and Bjorn found were lost in the Dark Forest for only a few days, a week at most. But this group seemed to have been here for years. How had they survived? Maybe I'd ask the Tree later. There wasn't much that went on in the Forest that it didn't know, but it also wasn't in the habit of volunteering information.   I slowed down, staying just out of sight behind one of the massive Dark Forest redwoods. Stealing a trick from the old monster, I coaxed some ivy up from the ground to cover me as I clung to the trunk.   "Karen sweety, where are you! We managed to fight off the vine, Lostling's Hope is safe again! Come home!" That confirmed it. These kids had run into the Ashvine. But what was this about Lostling's Hope? A thought squirmed in my head. There were still things about the Forest that neither me nor Zephnos knew about. I didn't like it.   If I didn't know better, this thing was just incredibly foolish. But it wanted to be found. I'd seen Forest guardians snap up vinebound before. It never ended well, as the guardian would quickly be overtaken by the Ashvine's plant mass and become an even bigger vinebound. The Ashvine was slowly consuming the Forest, one guardian at a time, and there was nothing me or the Salamander could do about it. Unless...   I looked for the telltale umbilical. Every vinebound had one. There. It was rustling along underneath the dried leaves, attached to the back of the left ankle.   "Where are you? Do you have Howie too? I miss you so much! Everyone's waiting for you both to come back!"   I'd have to shut her up. Either kill her or silence her. She hadn't seen or heard me yet. You humans have such trash senses, it's amazing this one had lasted this long. I tensed my legs and let the ivy die around me.

It was then, as the greenery died, that I noticed something had found me. Snaking along the trees, a small, slightly smoldering vine had wormed its way into the ivy. As it died, it struck and wrapped its its thorny mass around my hoof. I lost my grip on the tree, but kicked off as I did so, removing its grip.

HATE. HATE EVERYTHING, AND BRING THEM TOGETHER IN A SINGLE--.

The words seared through my head as I fell to the ground. I hit the ground less than gracefully, but at least it wasn't touching me anymore. I sprang to my feet, only to see the mom-bound had turned towards me and started walking my way. My eyes scanned the tree down to where the Ashvine had started its climb. It barely made out the five pointed reddish leaves in the undergrowth. They were near me. Time to move.

I sprang to my feet and tried to get some distance. As I moved, the trail of moonflowers followed. I rolled my eyes. Of course they'd fucking found me, my trail literally glowed. I knelt and jumped as high as I could, catching a tree branch and pulling myself up. Turning, I took a breath. Below, the mom-bound was looking up at me, and I could barely make out at least five other vines that were following her, just under the dead leaves and plant life. I locked eyes with the mom-bound.

"What's going on? You're not my daugh-" I tapped my hoof and one of my tree's roots snapped around her neck and squeezed. The woman shrieked, her eyes bulging, but was quickly silenced. I slipped off the branch and dropped to the ground, jumping towards her. Immediately all of the other Ashvine tendrils burst out from the ground, racing towards me. I held up a hand. They stopped, almost as if they weren't sure.

Something snaked into my mind. A raging inferno of hatred emanating from the Ashvine tendrils scorched through my brain. I gritted my teeth and took a few staggering steps towards the vinebound woman. I needed to know if this could work. With one hand still outstretched towards the other Ashvine vines, I dug through the undergrowth by the woman's feet. This close, I could see she still had on weird shoes humans like to wear. I followed the vine in the back of her left ankle into the ground. The vines struggled against my control, and I sensed a pounding urgency, not unlike wardrums.

I smiled. "I guess you're just as scared as I am." I stamped on the exposed umbilical, and roots speared through the elastic vine in several areas.

Pain seared through my head, joining the molten inferno that rolled across my brain like lava. I was barely aware of the vines breaking from my grip, one by one and darting closer. I AM THE ONE FORGOTTEN, THE ONE TROD ON, THE BACKGROUND CREEPER. THE HANDHOLD, THE COVER, THE UNDERGROWTH. MY STORY WILL BECOME THE FOREST. I WILL NEVER BE IGNORED AGAIN. WHAT RIGHT HAVE YOU TO CONTROL ME? I WILL CONSUME YOU AND THIS FOREST. I AM THE--

I am Mindburner, Iceblesser, The Occult Moon, Eldest Sister, Godmaker, Dark Mother. I am the ruler of life and death. You are nothing to me.

The roiling magma began to cool, then crack away. I screamed and fell to the ground. The fire in my head dimmed and was snuffed. Ice formed on my skin and rushed through the vine my foot still stood on. The air itself began to frost and I could see snow forming. I looked up at the vines that had moments ago been rushing towards me. They thrashed on the ground, and even as I watched they began to putrify. The air, which once shimmered with heat, was now ice cold.

"Nononono, give me back! Take me back!" The shouts of the woman in front of me jolted me back to my senses. She yanked away the root with strength she hadn't possessed mere moments ago. The vine that had connected her to the Ashvine mass was now a frozen block of ice which fell away as she moved. She grabbed me and slammed me against the tree that I'd been standing on moments ago. "TAKE ME BACK!" she screamed at me. No, not at me. Towards me. She stared into my eyes, then let go. I slid down the tree and wrapped my arms around my knees.

I was barely conscious as the woman turned and ran off into the gloom. "I want to hate! TAKE ME BACK!" It was then that I realized she'd walked right through my moonflowers and was still awake.

She wasn't human anymore.