Sneaking, Snacking Snikchs [S'Lon]

[Nimh]

Season of Spring

They had come in droves overnight, skulking along the ground and through the trees, their small brown or black bodies almost invisible against the terrain through which they wandered. They weren't exactly uncommon in Natura for there were several family groups to found throughout the forests...but they were spread out, giving the trees ample opportunity to thrive despite their tendency to gnaw and gnaw and gnaw away at the bark that curled around their trunks. But these...

This was an infestation.

In one night the snikchs, a small rodent no more than half a foot in length and three inches tall, had managed to devour acres of bark off the beautiful, ancient trees of Natura. Stripped from the base and nearly half-way to the top, they looked naked in the dim light that peeked through the trees as the suns crested the distant horizon. The alarm came not from a ranger or a druid, but from a narrow-waisted dryad wrapped scantily in vines and blossoms. Her dark green eyes were wide and shone with tears as she flit nervously at the door step of the Ranger Hall, the dawn light reflecting against her silver-tan skin and brown-green hair that flowed in messy ringlets around her bare shoulders.

"My tree," she keened as she reached the steps. "The trees!" She seemed to ghost into the hall, her footsteps quiet as she moved, her eyes distressed as she peered around for the aid she needed.

ooc: if you could provide me with a timestamp that narrows down the time a little, that'd be great

[S'Lon]

S'Lons legs ached from the run the darkening before. He'd pushed himself hard and this morning he'd paid the price for it. As a result he had slept somewhat fitfully and had finally given up and got up on the rationale that the walk down to the range might stretch his legs. A cup of tea slowly brewed on the banked fire in the kitchen part of the Hall and an intermittent gossip with the ranger who was busy baking the loaves for the pracenda had settled him somewhat so he'd stepped out of the kitchen and into the Hall in a contemplative mood. As a result he was neither prepared for the sight of a dryad nor to hear her news.

A dryad was distracting at the best of times and it took a moment for his mind to take control of the more primitive urges which kicked in at the sight of the nearly naked female.

"Your tree?" he asked, trying to focus and understand just what she might be there about. "Whats wrong with your tree?"

[Nimh]

The Dryad took glimpse of S'Lon immediately as he emerged into the Hall, the smell of tea and hot bread following after him as he left the kitchens. She shifted over to him, not at all mindful of the fact that she was naked in some fashion or other and he might be otherwise distracted by it. Her expression was agonized, her mouth twisted into a frown of something bordering despair and confusion. She reached out towards him, clasping at his arm as she neared him, giving it a squeeze as if to secure his presence in front of her rather than chasing him off.

"The trees, have you seen them? Come!" She tugged at his arm, maintaining her somewhat tightened grip, as she begged him to follow her off into the woodlands beyond the doors of the Hall.

"S'Lon, is everything all right?" Ranger-Mistress Owaten Aspenpath stepped out into the large room, adjusting the fit of her cloak around her as she if she'd only just emerged from her bed chambers after a long night of sleep. Indeed, there were slight, darkened bags under eyes that fogged with indication that she had in fact just risen, and her clothes sat slightly rumpled on her frame, as if she'd just tugged them on and hadn't gotten a chance to really freshen herself up. "Lhessa'h...it's not like you to be here." This she spoke to the dryad and with obvious concern sliding over her stern, thin-lipped mouth. She looked back to S'Lon, as if seeking explanation.

"Mistress, I was just about to show him what has happened. Please, it's urgent." The dryad looked imploring up into S'Lon's eyes, then back at the Ranger-Mistress. She was not ready to wait for aid.

[S'Lon]

To be grasped by the half naked creature wasn't something that S'Lon was averse to, though her distress was clear enough to override any other thoughts that might have occurred to him. Still though he couldn't but help but be influenced by her distress and undress, both allowed him to be dragged along behind her when physical force might not have done.

He saw with some relief that he wasn't alone in being around and that the Mistress of the Hall had been alerted. Whatever the problem was, if it was too much for the dryad to deal with then he suspected that there was a good chance that it might also exceed his abilities.He shrugged in some perplexity at her implied question for the dryad, Lhessa'h, as apparently she was called, still clutched at him.

"I think Mistress that perhaps I should find out what the problem is?" He wasn't entirely sure that he had any choice in the matter, but then again he would volunteer regardless and since the Mistress seemed to know the Dryad, presumably she would know where to send anyone else to follow up if she wished.

[Nimh]

Mistress Owaten looked between the two, concern furrowing her brows, her lips pressing tight as if she contemplated the knowledge that, yes, there was clearly a problem, and also that she had no reason to believe S'Lon would solve it with the same ease as Rangers she was already familiar with and certain about. But then wasn't this a good opportunity to show that he, in fact, was worthy of the Hall, same as all the others? "Yes, if you would do that it would be most helpful, S'Lon," she responded after a moment with a slight bob of her head, her manner slow and thoughtful, not at all in the same rush that the dryad most obviously was.

"Should you find that you need something beyond your own means, do not hesitate to return here and seek it." She hesitated a moment longer before curtly nodding and turning around to head back into the depths of the Hall.

"Come on, come on." Lhessa'h did not possess the elf's same patience and she wrapped her arm around S'Lon's tightly, practically pressing against him as she leaned up towards his face to get his undivided attention. "The trees, you need to see them. You need to stop those little..." She trailed off with a noise of frustration, releasing him and taking a step back to gesture in annoyance. "This way. Please!"

And then she was off, her feet light and swift over the turf as she strode outside and through the foliage. They made no sound as she tread over leaf and twigs, but she was one with the forest whereas he simply had to tread quietly should he wish to. They did not have to go far to find the damage, for just a few feet into the dark depths of the woodland the evidence was there to behold: Tree after tree, rows upon rows of them, stripped completely bare of their bark so that they were naked and white to the afternoon wind.

But she didn't stop to explain there, simply grabbing up his hand and drawing him deeper into the woods until they came upon a small stream. She followed this for a time until the destination became clear: a slender-limbed birch tree that arched over the stream. She wrapped her arms around it, resting her cheek against the stripped trunk. "Do you see it? It's never like this. Never. Just a little bark they take, just a little. They nibble away at the branches and that's fine, that's fine. But...the trees! My tree!" she wailed and she might have cried were she less than what she was. "There's so many of them. It's not...it's not right, you see. There was just a small group of them, just fourteen, I think, and now...now there's..." She shuddered and stroked the smooth tree trunk where silver parchment-like bark should have been. Her tree, the one thing she held as precious.

[S'Lon]

He returned the Ranger Mistresses searching look with one of bland confidence, and whilst he accepted the truth of what she said, it would take a good deal to overcome his determination to sort this out on his own and without aid. It was a stupid determination he knew deep inside and one which risked the dryad who was so plaintively asking for his aid and only for her might he soften that inner core of pride and relent if need be.

He needed little urging and followed her outside, keeping pace with her easily, his practised strides making more noise than hers but not so much that a casual observer might have had his attention drawn to the pair by the sound. His eyes widened at the damage that confronted him. This sort of thing he hadn't seen here and he wondered at the druids before realising that likely some of them cared little for it so long as it was a natural force that forced it. He knew that She took a long term view and that the druids sometimes shared that view, knowing that She would repair the damage, sometimes using it as a way of sweeping the board clear for something new she had in mind. But he found it harder to maintain the same view sometimes and certainly he failed when confronted by the dryads distress. Had it been a farmer, likely he would have been less sympathetic, but the dryad needed his help. These trees would likely die with the bark stripped like this, dead and yet still standing, the tree perhaps not even realising that it had been killed.

He rested his hand against the tree briefly, anger flaring for a moment before he controlled it. Whatever had done the damage perhaps followed Her instructions but the Rangers were wont to meddle where the druids weren't, taking decisions about what She might want into their own hands. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Trouble yourself not, I will deal with these," whatever they were, plans formed in his head, but first he needed to find them. "Where are they now?" he asked, hoping that she might know.

[Nimh]

Lhessa'h exhaled a breathy, relieved sigh as he announced that he would indeed deal with the problem at hand and she wrapped her arms tightly around the stripped trunk of her tree, her cheek practically burrowing itself into the heart of the thing. So relieved...so incredibly relieved. "They came through here last night and went underground. A few tried to burrow under my roots, but...I stopped them." Her forehead furrowed slightly as she nudged at the dirt with a naked toe with a fierceness--as if she'd been contemplating horrible ways to tangle with the rodents as they dug their way under her tree.

"They crossed the stream here," she gestured around her and indeed there were little footprints scattered in the dirt, less than an inch in length and undoubtedly belonging to a rodent. "Where they went, I don't know--my tree! I had to look after her--but I saw some go underground...beneath the trees that way." She gestured past the stream, in the direction they had gone.

[S'Lon]

It seemed that there was little he could do to help the dryad with her tree and nor were there any rodents visible.

"Look after your tree then, I'll see what I can find for you and fear not, we will cure this for you." He smiled a reassurance that he didn't quite feel and leaving her to do what she could he set off, kneeling quickly at the stream to investigate what he could find of the tracks. If there were many of the creature then he guessed that they shouldn't be too hard to find.

He rose, crossing the stream, following the tracks as best he could and then reached for clara, finding the familiar essence of Her plane. He cast the familiar spell, seeking to detect the presence of the rodents. He wasn't sure yet of the best way of dealing with them, but he knew he could do little until he found them and his plans would likely be shaped by how and where they were to be found, assuming he could find them.

[Nimh]

Lhessa'h nodded in that quick, eager way that children do when they've been reassured that all will be well. She sat down at the base of her tree, legs tucked under her, her hands in her lap, and she watched him leave with wide, strange eyes, her lips trembling a little at the upset of it all. Her tree had been attacked and while her tree had not faired as bad as others, she was still quite mortified at the damage the little rodents had caused her.

Moving away from Lhessa'h and her tree, S'Lon found tracks fairly easily. The trouble was, that there had been so many of the little rodents that the tracks seemed to go in every which direction--leading towards trees, away from trees, through a variety of different avenues under branches and bushes that it seemed that they truly had been everywhere and all at once. Scores of them had roamed the forests, their droppings left behind in trails in small trails. There were holes in evidence, however. Lhessa'h had mentioned that some of them had burrowed under the trees to attack at the roots or perhaps to nest beneath them. Here they had found a place of plenty, had they not? But would they still be there?

It was only when S'Lon cast the spell around the near vicinity that warm bodies became present to his senses. There were some few in the trees above, about five or six, with their bodies curled up along the crooks of thick tree branches well out of reach of the ground below. They snoozed, twitching occasionally, but otherwise did not seem a threat at all. Whether or not there were any below ground, that was something he could not determine, but at least above him he could see the beginnings of this Snikch hoard Lhessa'h had reported.

[S'Lon]

It was something of a puzzle and one that he hadn't at that point any inclination of how he might begin to solve it. He sat for a moment after the spell had worked itself. There were some of them but hardly enough to be considered the sort of swarm that had done all of the damage and he was fairly sure that Lhessa'h was quite capable of dealing with these few.

It brought him back to the quandary he faced. He could start killing them, and to some that might be a perfectly justifiable thing to do. He suspected that the dryad wouldn't be too upset if he chose that course of action. Certainly it would curb the excess that currently pushed the balance of things askew and if they were left then the rodents would kill the trees and perhaps then start to starve. In that light it would be better to kill them now and save the trees.

And yet that course of action niggled at him for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. The death of the rodents would serve no purpose and to kill them as some sort of punishment didn't suit him. There must be another solution, one that would solve the problem and leave all parties satisfied.

That however was somewhat easier considered than put into practice. What had made the snickhs come together like this? If he could find that reason perhaps then he could change it and allow them to disperse back to where they had come from. But he knew very little about the little animals and couldn't imagine if it was food or something else.

He squatted down for a moment to collect his thoughts since there wasn't an immediate urgency it appeared to do anything. "Your aid i seek," he addressed Her, not that he expected an answer, indeed he'd probably be dumbstruck if he did get one, but he trusted Her to help him for She was the only one who had stood by him when all others had sought only to use him. "I don't see the way forward. I know that You can See where I cannot and that I can't see the forest for the trees. Open my eyes so that I may see. Guide my feet so that I may follow the path that You have set for me." He bowed his head, closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

What to do now he wondered. If he could flood the burrows he might force the rodents out, but what would they do then? He decided that he might as well start by learning a bit more about the ones who he could find. Pulling out one of his long knives in case they turned out to be aggressive he went towards where he'd noticed the ones asleep and tried to get a closer look.