Just being a dark elf in Warhammer

"Something is wrong!"

Daicha cursed and waded through the mud, flexing her crooked claws, eager to grasp at the source of the pain.

Flies gathered around her like a fog, circling in the hollows and tumbling on the low-lying paths. The flies looked like ordinary insects, but she was not easily fooled, she knew the seasons all too well, autumn was transitioning to winter, and swarms of flies were not supposed to be buzzing around the woods. As she pattered in the mud, more flies flew from the reeds, filling her eyes and gathering in her wooden mouth.

A sickening stench hung in the air, but she pressed on undaunted, struggling through another waist-deep bog and climbing up a small slope to get a better view. Yet the flies spread as far as she could see, blurring the air and giving the valley a strange ghostly pallor.

"What is it? What did you see? Elf?" Aru, the sacred tree ghost, followed Daicha's footsteps, creaking up the slope, dragging her tangled bark, accompanied by a series of convulsive movements. Twitching and jumping.

"No, it's a bear." Daicha stretched out her wooden claws and penetrated the cloud of flies. She let her thoughts flow among the roots and branches, feeling the pain and confusion in every tentacle. After a moment, she lowered her paws and her face cracked into an expression of pain.

Alu looked in shock where Daicha's claws had been, but she couldn't see anything.

Daicha and Aru stayed at the top of the slope for a while, listening to the terrible screams. It was a high, repetitive scream, loud enough to drown out the buzzing of flies.

"What could make that sound? What could make her so painful?" Aru walked around Daicha, constantly folding and unfolding her fragile limbs, making clicking sounds.

"The whole valley has become strange to me, and I can hardly recognize it. The places that should rot are growing, and the places that should die are full of life." Daicha shook his head and whispered to Alu.

"How can the forest be strange to you?" Aru folded and unfolded her limbs again, obviously uneasy.

"It was him! It must be him!" Daicha's voice was full of poison, and then she hurried to the other side of the slope and entered the quagmire again with a splash.

When they found the bear, the sun was directly overhead, and no shadow could obscure the horror of the scene. They stood there, speechless in horror.

Half-submerged in the mud, the brown bear lay at the bottom of a ravine, squealing like a hungry baby. The left side, although partially hidden in mud, is intact. However, the other side was horribly changed. Its fur fell off, revealing a pile of sores and pustules, and its flank swelled into an angry sac. Daicha and Alu, who were standing not far away, could clearly see the bear. There are shapes swimming under the skin in the pus.

Sensing danger, the brown bear tried to stand up, but it was too weak to move. The most it could do was stare at them and continue screaming.

Tears streamed down Daicha's cheeks, and she scratched her face frantically, scraping the bark off her face, cursing under her breath. Then she climbed down the gully and rushed to the bear's side. As she approached, the bear tried pitifully to fight back, but she easily dodged the attack before placing her tangled paws on the bear's chest.

As the brown bear struggled to raise its claws to attack again, Daicha began to sing, her voice dry and low, but the melody was gentle. A wordless lullaby came from the nearby trees, the copper-colored leaves rustling, and the melody made the brown bear fall back into the mud and finally stopped screaming.

"Sleep, great soul, and suffer no more." She approached the creature's broken head and gently scratched the brown bear's wound with her claws.

The bear's breathing began to slacken.

Standing Aru first wept, then climbed down the gully and joined in the rustling chorus.

Daicha stretched out a paw and held the brown bear's head with a series of snapping sounds. Then she raised her other paw and placed it on the brown bear's head.

"Sleep, you deserve the rest." She whispered first, and when her words fell, the paw she placed on the bear's head turned into a sharp thorn and stabbed out. As the sound of cracking bones was heard, the brown bear stiffened for a moment, and then its head fell on her arm.

The brown bear let out one last gasp and then lay down quietly.

Daicha stared at the brown bear for a few seconds, watching silently as its blood pooled around her knees. Then she fell back and screamed, her screams so violent that her neck cracked and vines fell from between her trembling lips.

Aru knelt down and grieved with Daicha, but for a long time they could do nothing but cry.

Finally, as the sun drifted across the sky and shadows began to lengthen across the flooded clearing, Daicha stopped crying and laid the bear's head on the ground.

"Even in my darkest foresight... AH!!! Look what they did to us! Look what he did to us!" Daicha choked and went crazy as he tried to comprehend what he had just seen. , she held her head helplessly with her paws.

"You think this is Orion's work?"

"Who else? That invader king is even more foolish than we thought. This is what he released to us, the result of his arrogance!" Daicha's voice was as fragile as her trembling claws, and she pointed at the infected corpse. After she finished, she scratched her face again, and her words turned into a string of incomprehensible curses, and then she closed her eyes and said in a calm tone, "The pain of our sisters will be much less than the pain I inflicted on him."

"We must remove this abominable filth from its flesh, its soul is ancient and powerful, and we must ensure that it is complete and free of any contamination when it returns." After a moment, she nodded to the brown bear's corpse, and raised her claws after speaking, and her claws turned into sharp blades at her thought.

Aru nodded, and when her claws also changed into the same shape, the brown bear's corpse began to make a creaking sound. Then accompanied by a wet tearing sound, they began to work.

"The pollution is strongest in the heart of the valley. If this filth can infect a noble soul like this, imagine what it can do to the fragile souls of outsiders?" Nearly an hour later, the two of them climbed out of the gully, covered in blood and debris, and Dai Cha pointed to the woods, where the cloud of flies was densest. She licked her ridged lips with her tongue, as if she could already taste the violence.

Aru looked at Dai Cha in some surprise, and just as she was about to say something, Dai Cha moved, wading through the mud and flies, bending over through the swamp. After a moment's hesitation, she followed.

When they reached the center of the clearing, the extent of the corruption became obvious. The trees were covered in yellow spores, and several of them were bent and swollen under huge fungal growths. The pungent smell penetrated the branches and trunks.

Da Cha stopped in front of a bent maple tree, and she could see the bark ripple like water in the wind. She took a step closer, shaking her head in disbelief, and scraped the bark lightly with her claws. At her touch, the tree burst like overripe fruit. She stepped back, watching the slippery shapes tumble down the hole, hundreds of maggots tumbling into the mud, and the tree began to spasm and tremble.

She had no time to think, and she had to shield her face as the trunk fell to one side and broke apart, spraying her with larvae and rotten berries. The swarm of flies became thicker and it was almost impossible to see ahead. She turned and ran, sprinting along another trail, followed by Aru.

They rushed through the mud, splashing water, through stagnant water and rotting tree debris.

As they ran, Daicha felt the fluctuations of magic shuttle between the branches, and her thoughts made her steps pause. She seemed to have felt it somewhere, in some existence, but she couldn't remember the specifics for a moment, her mind was filled with hatred and malice. Soon, she stopped thinking because she saw something, and she nodded to Aru. Then they slipped into the cover of the trees, becoming shadows and thorns, approaching the watcher silently like ghosts.

Dacha was bound by her master, and she was not allowed to hunt the Asrai. She had promised not to attack the Asrai hall openly, but after her encounter with the bear, she could hardly stop herself from jumping on the watcher. Just as she was about to attack, Aru grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the ground. She glared at Aru, but Aru gestured for her to look at the branch where the guardian was.

She looked over there, where there were a lot of flies, but when she looked through the mist, she understood why Aru had asked her to stop. She frowned. In her opinion, Ariel's fools were always clumsy, but the scene before her was beyond Asrai standards. The watcher's legs were hanging from the branches, completely exposed to the view below the path.

No longer in an attacking posture, she quietly approached the tree where the watcher was. As she approached, the stench became stronger. She knew where this smell came from. She had smelled it around brown bears. Obviously, the watcher was dead. She squeezed out of the ferns and looked around to see if there were any living watchers. After a moment, when she was sure it was safe, she climbed up the branch lightly and came to the side of the hanging watcher.

She let out a disgusted hiss. The watcher in front of her was swollen and covered with pus like a bear. His face was gray, his cheeks were sunken, and his eyes had been replaced by two broken holes. His limbs were swollen into liquid sacs, and larvae were crawling under his skin. His chest had collapsed into wet mud. Where the lungs should have been, it turned into a pile of pale and squirming shapes. The pile of paleness was blindly rummaging in the rotting skin.

There was a crow on the tree, protesting to her angrily. She knew where the watcher's eyes were. The stench was unbearable for her, so unbearable that she fell to the ground.

"I'm sure that what Orion released was not just a simple soul. He released a fragment of the Plague God. He released the ancient filth." She said to Aru, who was supporting her, her eyes were empty and her voice was flat.

Aru shook her head, but before she could respond, Daicha, who had already stood up, ran along the trail without any concealment.

"Orion was wrong!" When Daicha stumbled back into the forest, she trembled, almost unable to suppress her anger. She looked at the drooping and rotting woods around her and said, she shook her head and waved her claws at the rotten trees, "What's the use of Ariel's promise? Those proud declarations of protection! What are they guarding? Pretend, it's all pretense, they will die in the winter, killed by their own king, and by the spring, there will be nothing left!"

"The forest is eternal."

"We were betrayed, we became strangers in our own homeland, we became playthings! I will not die so easily, I must find a way to make them pay for this!" Daicha roared, roaring hysterically. , she closed her eyes, trying to see through the spores and diseased wood. After a moment, her twinkling eyes opened, "He knows what to do!"

"The Ancient One? He is elsewhere, and his thoughts wander on paths we cannot follow." Aru's voice was full of fear and excitement.

"He will remember me. His dreams are long and full of omens. He will foresee this day. He knows what to do." Daicha's mood improved when she thought of her master.

"That false king will die, and I will watch him die!" Daicha ignored Aru's confusion and started running, whispering as she ran.

The seasons linger within the boundaries of the wild forest, and even the cold dare not enter. The leaves were still smooth and dense, covering the intertwined branches of the trees with a thick and impenetrable coat. It was already dusk when Daicha arrived at the so-called prison. But even at high noon, the Wild Wood is a gloomy abyss, a realm of shadows and heavy, ominous silence.

Daicha stopped before entering and signaled Aru to stay where he was and wait. She knew that Aru also wanted to go in, but she couldn't let Aru go in. Not every sacred tree ghost could come out of the wild forest like her. Then she began to move forward, and even in the darkness she could see the slender stone pillars at the edge.

The witches of Ariel have devoted all their craftsmanship to these rough granites. Almost no soul can pass through the net woven by the granite, but she is no ordinary soul. Her memory goes back further than Ariel could have imagined, and she cracked the secrets of the stones in just a few decades, and she can now travel through the wild woods with the same ease as ever.

She never quite gave up on her dark home, which held magic far more interesting than the wards that imprisoned it, and within which lay beings that spanned countless worlds and a hundred different pasts, one of which meant more to her than the one in the forest. any other resident of is dearer. Despite her anger and pain, she smiled as she passed the rune-engraved stones, knowing she was back in the true heart of the forest.

The Urku winds surrounded her, and she allowed her body to dissipate into the slow breeze, merging her voice with the willful screams of the eagles above her. The path unfolded under her feet, but she ignored everything. She knew that Huanglin had its own consciousness, and its goals were rarely the same as those of the guests. She listened to the song of the forest, the bewildering, labyrinthine rhythms that she had learned so many years ago, during the first years of her imprisonment.

Each stanza suggested in some indirect way a different route from the one before it, and she went round and round as she listened, following the rhythm of the words through the forest, ignoring the most alluring sights. The Shadowglade was a poison to her untamed soul, and even the smallest imbibition was enough to intoxicate her, so she followed the ancient melody like a rope and let it pull her back to her The owner's side.

After spending three days and four nights in the darkness, she found her master.

The master is huddled at the base of a natural amphitheater, surrounded by maids who are as devoted as she is. The maids knelt in the trees, twitching and moving with excitement, as if watching their master perform a grand monologue. She was surprised by this. She had never seen so many believers gathered together to worship her master. Maybe she was not the only being who heard the call?

Her master remained motionless as ever, and she staggered to a halt, unable to approach her master for a moment. It had been many years since she had enjoyed the company of her master. Even now, surrounded by a group of devout believers, she could still feel the master's peace that directly touched her soul.

Over a long period of time, the environment gradually stripped Cordial of his form, leaving only a shadowy mountain and the vague rustle of leaves. The song of the forest radiated from it, filling the amphitheater and filling Daicha's courage.

"As long as the Ancient One is alive, there will always be hope." Daicha thought before running downhill, letting her master's melody soak into her tired limbs.

Some of the sacred tree ghosts raised their heads and glanced at Daicha who was kneeling next to them, and then quickly lowered their heads, immersed in their worship of Cordir. Daicha could see that their prayers had probably been going on for years, their legs had taken root deep into the ground, and vines had reached their backs, binding them to the ground.

"My lord, what shall I do? Guide me." Daicha assumed the same posture so that she could bend to salute her lord. Her wooden knees clicked as she knelt, and her wrists clicked as she extended her paws in prayer.

She heard no answer, but the silent song grew in splendor, soothed her trembling limbs and dazzled her with visions. The images were a jumbled patchwork of faces and colors, but she understood the point, and she relaxed her limbs and took a few deep breaths of the cool forest air. As the heartbeat slows, the Master's singing begins to make more sense.

Beyond the borders of the Wild Wood, time flies by, its impatience casting the stars across the sky and pushing the sun across the sky, but in the deepest reaches of the Shadowwood, time is forgotten.

Daicha gave herself over to the song, listening to the slow, undulating rhythm. As grass grew on her quivering limbs, the Old One's consciousness became clear.

Cordier sings of the endless web, the nature of the forest that connects the present to the past and weaves it into the future. As the melody washed, she saw everything clearly, what the elf did to the forest, he did to himself, a promise here, a betrayal there, all things would be remembered, changed and guided the elf destiny, and reflected back in the lakes and springs of the forest.

Then the tune turns darker, the threads of connection are torn apart, the filaments that connect each other hang, sending the natural order into a swirling vortex of chaos. In this moment, Daicha thought of her enemy, and she was filled with hatred, but the Ancient One soothed her with his cold and majestic song.

"The forest is eternal."

"Everything done will be undone."

“Everything was foreseen.”

Daicha escaped the control of time, and her soul was connected to her master's song. She had been kneeling in prayer for weeks, but she was still unaware of some things, just as she was unaware of the bird perched on her shoulder.

Her anger subsided as she realized how insignificant Orion was before the bottomless wisdom of the Old One. Outsiders were like insects, barely noticeable in her master's grand vision. The song of the Ancient One showed her for the first time what Orion had done. Orion's mistake set off a chain of events so wide-ranging that she had never imagined. .

As the songs of the Ancients echoed silently in the amphitheater, various images continued to emerge in Daicha's mind. The verses of the Ancients surged through her soul. She realized that this was an ancient melody, and everything was connected. , everything is part of the great weave. The threads cut by the false king whipped through time and space, even reaching this remote corner of the forest.

Daicha's heart began to beat wildly again, and a new vision of the future emerged in her mind, in which the branches of the wild forest extended beyond the forest. The Ancient One let the idea settle in her mind, then the Ancient One changed the melody, taking her thoughts in another direction, and she fell into a dream of rotting flesh and bloated growths.

She walks through the Black Plague, watching in horror as the flooded forest twists, corrupts, and destroys everything she loves. The vision made her dizzy and horrified, but the Ancient One did not stop, and the Ancient One cast her thoughts further, through swarms of flies and crows, to the borders of a sickening labyrinth.

It's a spiral garden of towering fungus mounds and boiling larval lakes. At the center of this gorgeous scene sat a being she didn't know she had captured centuries ago, a being whose horror she had not fully comprehended when she first saw it. How could she, then young and naive, capture the true nature of that being?

But now, through the bitter eyes of aging, she understood that being was more than a monster, more than a villain, but the claws of a god.

The melody changed again, and she watched in horror as the rotten garden grew, spreading its bright, rubbery tentacles, transforming everything it touched. She flinched, she was scared, she finally knew what she had done, was there no hope?

The ancient one remained silent, but the inky body rippled in the hollow, caressing her twisted body and quelling her cries. She returned to the dream again and saw the master's answer. As the rotten garden expanded, the wild forest quickly greeted her. As the borders weakened and the Garden of Rot spread its tentacles freely, the Wildwood cut off the tentacles, suppressing the demon's power and placing the entire forest in blessing.

Daicha gasped, awed by the idea, murmuring as the shadow touched her. It was more than she could have dreamed of, a way to lock the entire forest away, a way to regain everything that had been lost. She was dazzled by the visions of the Ancient Ones. If these dreams came true, the plague would no longer be a threat, and the forest would have a new look, its original look.

She stood up unsteadily and gave a silent thank you. When she opened her eyes, she saw more than just shadows surrounding her, other sacred tree ghosts rose from their prayers and formed a circle around her. She became aware of hundreds of sacred tree ghosts, emerging from the shadows with twisted claws stretched out. The Shenmu Ghost's jagged mouth opened, moving in sync with the Ancient One's silent song, and the Shenmu Ghost's existence was suddenly explained, as the Ancient One had prepared it for her.

Cordir raised an army for Daicha.

Time passes, and each morning the trees give up more leaves and retreat into the cold, hard wind, until only their cold bark remains. Aru waited for Daicha's return, watching the successive pale sunrises, each one weaker than the last, and she felt the souls in the forest begin to slip away.

She keeps a silent watch, so still and unmoved that she becomes invisible even to the most observant animals that pass by. Vines crawled up her limbs, hardened her joints, and covered her eyes, but she still didn't move. In an unknown amount of darkness, the vines crawled away from her eyes, and she moved with a creaking sound.

The boundaries of the wild forest have changed.

The trees moved in the headwind, and she watched in amazement as the trunks bent and trembled, then began to move. At first, she thought the entire wild forest had become mobile, but she soon realized she was wrong. She hissed with pleasure as she realized she was watching hundreds of sisters marching into the icy dawn.

The sun flickered on a row of clenched claws and bent, fragile backs, then retreated into silhouette as her sisters expanded to touch the forest and cast shadows. It was an army of roots and thorns, with terrible pride and anger, and it was Daicha who led the sisters.

Aru stumbled through the ferns to meet them.

Aru's face showed a ruthless smile, and she stopped when she reached Aru, and locked her fingers with Aru.

"What does this mean?" Aru asked.

"Orion failed, and he will not appear again. The new king, the real king, has appeared. The ancients will be reborn in another way, and we must take back what belongs to us." Daicha stared at Aru, with a wild light in her eyes.

"It's time to expand our roots." Daicha ignored Aru who was immersed in joy, and she waved her hand to signal the army to move forward. (End of this chapter)