Eva pulled up to the curb of their street, with Amy in the passenger seat. By the front door, Darren, Emalia and Elizabeth stood idle, until they spotted the car. They hopped to, heading for the car right away, and they piled into the back seat.
"Sounds like shit has really hit the fan," Elizabeth commented as she buckled herself in.
"Indeed, it has! I just hope that you have some serious energy reserves there, Liz. I can already feel this is going to be a long day!" Amy said as she blew out a heavy breath. "Have you been practicing with your magic, Darren?"
"Yes, I have been," her brother replied.
"I mean outside the bedroom!" she laughed.
"Again, my answer is yes. Have you seen the new walls of vines that cover the fences now?" he asked her.
"No, I haven't. Is that your work?" she wondered.
"It is. They're not just there to look pretty or to reinforce the fences. The vines have some pretty wicked defenses worked into them," he stated.
"Like what?"
"Let's see; touching the vines will make you disoriented to where you have vertigo, the pods on the vines, when triggered, will release a cloud of paralytic toxin that knocks you out for hours, and certain clusters are ones that will entangle and hold you in place. Even Jason would be hard pressed to break free of those," Darren told her.
"Wow!" Amy replied, truly impressed with her brother's initiative. "Those are some pretty badass defenses!"
"They only trigger when a non-Gaian gets too close, or tries to jump the fence," Daelina told her.
"Ah! You helped him with setting those up then?" Eva asked, as she drove the car onto the highway, heading for the house.
"A little," Daelina admitted. "I helped guide him and had to get him to tone down the defenses."
"Tone them down? What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked, curious.
"Darren originally wanted to have the plants exude a deadly poison and give off noxious clouds of deadly gas. I had to talk him out of those, as they could affect us too," Daelina stated.
"You wanted to do poisonous plants, to protect our home?" Amy asked, awed that her brother would go to such lengths.
"When we came to Elizabeth's house and kicked the door in, you had no manner of deterring us. So, I wanted to make it so that anyone else who tried to break in, would not find it so easy as we did," Darren said.
"I will say this much little bro; badass!" Amy told him as she offered her fist to him. Darren smiled and bumped her back as they headed to the house, wondering what the plan was.
******************************
"Going into the forest, with what little we know?" Sheena asked, cocking an eyebrow at her boyfriend.
"You got any better ideas? If you do, I'm all ears," Jason said.
"If we must go in there, we'll need to employ scorched earth tactics. Burn everything around us as we go. Don't want any surprises or traps coming at us where we can't see them," Sheena replied.
"I agree with Sheena on this, babe. Burning a path to the grove is the best option, if that's where you want to go," Phalmina said to him.
"A sound idea. Burn away the corruption, so that the Great Spirit can reclaim these lands once again," the Wolf Shaman agreed.
"Ema? Your thoughts?" Jason asked.
"I agree with Mina. Fire seems like the best way to fight these things. Carve a path to the grove and burn it down. Fire will burn away anything that rots," Emalia stated.
"Then we're in agreement. We should have some ice spells handy though, to slow down anything that attacks us," Jason replied.
"Slow them down or root them to the spot before burning them to ash? I like it!" Sheena enthused with a grin. "But our ability to use such spells is limited. Where do you expect us to learn how to wield such magic?"
Jason snorted a laugh before pointing at the house which left Sheena confused for a moment, before she facepalmed herself.
"Shut up!" she snapped at Jason.
"What? I didn't say anything!" Jason snickered.
"No, but you were going to," Sheena accused.
"Says who?" he asked her in a boyfriend voice.
"Says me, that's who!" Sheena told him.
"If we could put aside the bickering for a moment? While it is hot watching you two argue, we have a job to do," Phalmina reminded the pair.
Jason and Sheena blushed for a moment as some raunchy thoughts flitted through their minds, before they focused back on the task at hand. The entire group adjourned to the interior of the house, heading for where the books were stored. Xaera had pulled together a comprehensive list of tomes to go through, as she had little else to do while there.
While everyone moved inside, the Shaman moved to the front of the house, with Bert in tow. Though Sheena had magically cleared his arteries and a second heart attack wasn't in the cards for a while, the children had terrified him. Not wishing to see them again, he went and sat on the porch, with his notebook in hand, and resumed his questions for souls of the Shaman.
He sat there, jotting down everything they told him, his mood improving markedly as they conversed. Bert had grown up during a time when residential schools were still a thing and the memories still haunted him. The cultural genocide that his people endured was nearly complete, but with this knowledge he was receiving, it would soon be reversed. He continued to write things down as a car pulled into the driveway from the road.
"Hello?" he called out to the women who got out of the vehicle.
"Good morning! I'm guessing that you're Bert?" Eva questioned, as she neared the elder.
"Yes, I am. And you are?" he replied, smiling at the gorgeous woman.
"Eva Marston, Druidess in training," she told him.
"Ah! Another Great Envoy! Welcome! The others are inside, studying spells, I believe," Bert told them as he gestured to the door.
