Your struggles were for naught

You stagger into the Lair desperately searching for Dana. A wave of relief washes over you when you see her in the middle of the clearing with no trace of the spiders anywhere inside. She appears to be unharmed, but between her hunched shoulders and the legs clutched against her chest, you can't tell for sure. Her head snaps up when you enter to look at you with swollen eyes set in a pale, drawn face. Are you okay? you ask urgently with a ragged voice. Dana looks slightly shaken, but replies "I'm fine. Totally fine. I just..." she trails off with slight quaver in her voice. You notice she is shivering slightly, staring at the gap in the Wall of Thorns behind you with a fixed expression.

Then, she notices the state you're in. "Dear Anari! You're covered in blood!" Immediately, she gets up and moves over to you, walking stiffly. "Eh, I think it looks more like sap," you remark flippantly. You sway as you feel your adrenaline rush start to fade. "Whatever it is you're covered in it. Come sit down." She grabs an arm and guides you to sit against her bed. I'm fine. I'm fine. Just let me rest, you say as you collapse gratefully to the ground.

Your protests do little to convince Dana, and she spends several minutes checking you over, continuing to converse with you as she does. At first, you are quite happy to talk, rambling on at length as Dana tries to staunch your bleeding with strips of torn blanket and poncho. However as time goes on, it becomes harder and harder to form words in your mind, and the pauses between your responses slowly become longer. Even as you become less verbose, Dana becomes more so. She fills the empty silence between your words with constant chatter, all the while urging you to tell her more and elaborate. You try to answer her, you really do, but at some point it just becomes too hard to speak and you fall silent. Your muteness makes Dana even more determined to carry on the discussion, her voice becoming slightly **** as you still don't speak. Finally, Dana admits defeat and stops talking. With no more blanket or poncho to shred, she settles down besides you, and clasps one of your hands tightly.

You sit there for some time, staring off into the distance. You may not have felt the pain of your wounds before, but you certainly feel them now. Dull, constant agony pulses from the many gashes and cuts covering your body. Despite your natural health regeneration, your injuries have barely close at all, and the greenish "blood" continues to flow, soaking through Dana's makeshift bandages. You feel a small drop of water splash against your arm. You turn your head, and see Dana weeping silently. You struggle to try and reassure her, but nothing comes out. More time passes and your thoughts become even slower and more confused. Why are you sitting here? Wasn't there something important you had to do? Someone important you had to take care of? What was their name again?

You hear a voice whispering silently next to you; it sounds familiar. "Dear gods and goddesses above, I know have lost my connection to the heavens, but I beg of you, please don't take him from me. Please! I need him. Please, if any of you save him, I'll do anything! Anything at all!" Why is this voice pleading? Who is this "him"? Where is he going? Who is praying in the first place? Why is it hard to see all of a sudden?

Suddenly, a bright, silver light fills your entire field of view. A calm, cool sensation, almost like you're being bathed in liquid luminosity washes over you, banishing the pain. You feel a hand gently cup your face, and hear a high, clear voice murmur, "This isn't right; it shouldn't end like this." The voice pauses briefly. "So why should it? The others do it all the time, so why shouldn't I? If they have a problem, they are welcome to take it up with me."

A drop of water hits your bark, then another, and another, until you are being drenched in a downpour of torrential rain. As each raindrop hits you, you feel the water be absorbed, and strength fills your limbs once more. Awareness comes rushing back, bringing with it the answers to all your confused questions: you're in your Lair; you had to save her, save Dana; she had been the one praying, praying for you! You quickly look around for her. Dana has her arms wrapped around you, as she sobs into your chest. Her wet hair is plastered to her head and back, while her skin is covered in a slick sheen of water. You try to comfort her, but she just keeps hugging you and cries harder.

Eventually, your wounds close and the rain stops. You gently stroke Dana head, whispering, Shhh, it's okay. I'm fine. It's all going to be okay. Dana finally looks up at you. "It is not going to be okay! You were going to die!" she accuses angrily, "I could feel you fading away!" You start to protest, but stop. She's right; you were about to die. I know. I'm sorry, you apologize. Dana stares at you, struggling for words. At last she asks, "How did you get like that?" You give her a brief outline of what happened, focusing on the bare facts. When I got back from helping the forest spiders, I saw the Lair surrounded by those... things. They were trying to get inside, and I thought maybe some of them had. So, I kinda lost it. I pushed through them, trying to get to you, to save you. Then, I got to the Wall of Thorns and it... didn't let me in... You trail off, not knowing what to say next. Dana presses you for more. "What happened then?" Finally, you say "I thought that meant you were dead, that you were gone. And... so... I... you struggle to describe what happened next, **** to reveal the sheer brutality of your response. You take a deep breath. I slaughtered them; killed them all. I didn't leave a single, damm spider alive. You're can't look at Dana. You don't want to see the look on her face. What if she is disgusted, repulsed? What if she thinks you're a monster? What if she's afraid of you?

Dana reaches up to cup your face and turns your face to look at her. "They didn't get through. A little while after you left, I started hearing something moving through the trees, a lot of somethings. I didn't know what it was, so I just stayed in the Lair. I could hear them trying to get in, but it was like the brambles fought back. A few wormed their way into the hedge, but once they got in, they were torn to pieces by the thorns. Then, there was loud bellow, I guess that must have been you, and it sounded like there was a fight, a big one. After that..." here Dana pauses and stares at the ground as she recounts her side of the story. "After that, something changed. There was like this high pitched keening sound, and a bunch of... well, I think they were screams. That must have been when you couldn't get in. The keening didn't go on for very long, but the screaming did. The noise of the fighting got even louder, and I could still hear the spiders trying to get in, like they were ****. Eventually, it got quiet, really quiet, as if I had gone deaf, and I had no idea what was going on. Then, the Wall opened and you came stumbling in." She looks back up at you, happiness and relief joining the tears in her eyes. "I'm so glad you're okay."

You sit there with Dana for a while, not sure what to say; how do you talk about what just happened? At some point you see Dana give a shiver. "Dana, what's wrong? Why are you shivering?" you inquire, worried. "Huh? Oh, I'm just a little cold. I think it's because I'm wet." Shit! You forget humans were more sensitive to their environment. You send out vines to collect the excess water from Dana's skin. As it touches your vines, you can feel it being absorbed to top up your already full health. You turn to try and find the blanket, before realizing it's gone. You quickly start weaving a new one, and wrap it around Dana once it's finished. She tries to protest, but you're having none of it. You make sure she is completely covered, and then cradle her back against your chest. Eventually, you feel her drift off to sleep. You sit there supremely grateful to be holding her in your arms.