Rush broke through the soul space and appeared in the trees behind the territory that was running in front of him. Rush momentarily stared at Ruth(the territory), watching him thrash and flail through tree branches and jump over bushes and logs. Rush was pleased that his territory seemed to be aggressively expanding. It was like the territory itself was constantly acquiring more territory for Rush to lord over with every step it took. Rush also took a moment to admire the tail that sashayed expertly behind Ruth.

Rush briefly looked back at his own tail and found with some disappointment that it was a bit thicker and seemed less dexterous than that of his vassal. A small reptilian frown accompanied his perplexing thought; why was it thick like that? Was this like the wings?

He pounced on a pixie, casually pinning it to a tree. Ignoring the swarm that was starting to fly frantically toward him, he looked over casually as he bit the rest of the head of the pixie off and munched on it. Rush really liked this new place where he was also lord, the food that came toward him was much better than the small things with sharp hands in the dark place.

The buffet seemed to be endless and that was also a good thing.

Rush disappeared back into the soul space and was about to leap back through the window when his front foot faltered and missed. He tumbled slowly through the air and hit the bottom of the soul space, bouncing high and slow as if he were tumbling in a low gravity environment. He bounced twice and landed on his back. Rush gazed lazily upward at the window thinking about how tired he was getting all of a sudden. It made sense since he had been eating nonstop for some time now. It was hard to fight the dizziness and full tummy. Rush was also astonished to discover that even a lord of all could eventually get tuckered out dealing with tasks all day!

Rush rolled slightly to the side, pushing himself over with a much longer and slightly thinner tail. He smiled at the tail and the little heart-shape near the end waved back at him.

Shake shake shake.

Yes, this was right. The heart shape near the end was still the noisemaker that he liked but now the tail was thinner and longer like the tail of his vassal.

Rush was lord of all in his territory. This was known.

Rush hopped back up into the air after a moment of concentration and then the uncertainty reappeared in his eyes for the third or fourth time in his life. It wasn’t confusion based on fear or any sense of danger, no. Rush just wasn’t sure he was benevolent enough to keep doing all the work for his vassal!

One more then sleep.

Rush turned his head slightly and eyed the darkness around the soul space. He did not see the trouble-making thing that liked to perch nearby, therefore there was no need to admonish it.

He did it anyway.

Come closer. I eat!

Rush popped through the window and out into the forest of the Ten Year Wood just as Ruth was starting to turn around to charge another shock toward the advancing wall of Cannibal Pixies. With the reappearance of Rush, he hesitated, stopping for a moment to see what the small creature would do.

Rush was pleased. His vassal must know intuitively that when his lord was present, respect and attention must be given!

Rush narrowed his eyes slightly as he noticed the horns on his vassal. They were slightly less of a solid spiral than his were and ended with points hooked upward. Rush liked that style and made a note to improve upon it when he was taking his nap later.

For now, something had to be done so he could take said nap. The purple lights fluttering through the trees hummed through the air with an intensity that was starting to annoy Rush.

Rush did not believe that anything had the right to try to out-noise him in his own moving territory.

His tail curved near the base, now nearly a meter long with the heart-shaped rattle organ near the end. It uncoiled with speed, not unlike a whip, the end snapped straight producing a truly prodigious blast of volume.

SHAKESHAKESHAKESHAKESHAKE

The sound caused the ground, trees, and even the leaves and ash falling through the air, to push outward in a clearly visible wave. The wave folded through the trees and everywhere that it touched blessed silence fell.

Cannibal Pixies stopped beating their wings the instant it touched them. Their black eyes rolled back into their heads revealing a surprising amount of whiteness. The only sound in the immediate area was the soft thumping noises as every single Cannibal Pixie in sight dropped like a stone.

Be good, dumb. Rush was actually quite pleased with the territory's initiative to expand but he didn’t want to encourage the stupid thing too much.

Rush disappeared back into the soul space. He was satisfied when he looked up at the window and couldn’t hear any of that racket anymore. The window closed as soon as he lost interest and the pseudo-darkness of the space covered Rush once more. He moved through the air in slow-motion, turning around three times before looping his tail over his shoulder. He closed his eyes and started to nap. His face and claws were still bloody from all the pixies that he had torn into and eaten but he made no move to try to wash or clean them.

Judging from the way his claws flexed and unflexed he was still dreaming about a great victory.

Contented snores began to occur infrequently with the faintest tinkling from the rattle on his tail as his chest rose and fell.

↢↦

King Rush has developed mental attack: ★★★★★SHAKE SHAKE

The effects of SHAKE SHAKE do SHAKE SHAKE, arguably a powerful SHAKE of SHAKING. Weak-willed creatures will SHAKE SHAKE, often succumbing to a long SHAKE.

Ruth lowered his hand completely and stared out across the expanse of quiet forest. He could still hear the humming but it seemed much further away now. The creature had come out and blasted some sort of attack that dispersed through the trees. Whatever it had been, it hadn’t had any effect on Ruth himself. To the pixies it seemed somewhat devastating.

Ruth walked forward a few paces and knelt down. He picked up the unconscious Cannibal Pixie and stared at it hard, getting a real good look at them. Ruth had initially thought they were nude but found their torsos were actually covered in an almost transparent gossamer leaf of some sort. Their heads had wild hair flowing upward at all angles, a consequence of flying all the time he supposed. Their wings were very stretchy and flexible, almost like the sticky tree sap Ruth had enjoyed when he was a dragon. Their feet and hands ended in digit like toes and fingers that seemed to be sharpened unnaturally. To Ruth, it looked like they had mutilated their own hands and feet in order to turn them into deadly weapons.

Ruth sniffed the Pixie and was surprised when he didn’t smell the bad affliction that was on many of the other creatures he’d come across.

Ruth shook his head and casually bit the legs of the pixie off. He crunched thoughtfully as he picked up another one and started heading in the direction he had been going. Despite how fast things had happened Ruth had been running for some time.

Ruth popped the top half of the pixie into his mouth and doggedly chewed. It tasted like crap but it was making his stomach do something other than growl at him. He started eating the second pixie and picked his way quietly forward.

“Do you think there are many Cannibal Pixies left?” Ruth addressed the immortal and deadly text that floated nearby.

No.

“No you don’t think there are more, or no you don’t want to answer?”

No.

“King Rush would want you to answer me,” Ruth said soberly. One of these days he wouldn’t have to resort to base trickery to just get a simple answer.

The immortal and deadly text froze for a moment as if he had caught it in the world’s biggest dilemma.

Many more.

“Should I hide?”

Many, many, many more.

“Okay,” Ruth scratched the top of his head, immediately finding that a great deal of what had been long hair came off with the scratch. Disgusted with the discovery, Ruth raked his fingers around his horns and over his head and pulled off caked and burned hair. Some of it came off quite painfully because he had to pull the damaged ends from the ones still attached to his scalp. In the end, he suspected he had only about a small finger’s worth of hair left on his head in unattractive patches that were sometimes longer or shorter than their adjacent counterparts.

Ruth glanced upward to see where the sun was, but instead of locating it he was distracted by a tree that seemed to be several times larger than the others protruding through the canopy in the near distance. It was a large tree and might have hollows or something he could hide in.

Ruth didn’t like the idea of stuffing himself into another rock hole if he could help it.

↢↦

Malika slammed the door to the Haberdasher’s large tree shut behind her and two of her brothers who had managed to race through with her. The Cannibal Pixies were not far behind, but for the moment the area around the tree seemed clear of them. She had lost a lot of family on the journey through the woods when the calamitous Cannibal Pixies had descended. Having survived a similar event once in the past, she knew of the danger they represented but had been completely unprepared for their sudden arrival. One minute she was walking through a burned out patch of forest where they believed the kinslayer had walked, the next they were all running and everyone was screaming.

Malika shuddered, opening her eyes and twitching her whiskers as she detected several familiar scents. The first was her mother, who she immediately found in the room frozen on a couch with the Haberdasher. They were sitting comfortably close together having tea and almonds, the two of them staring at her with open curiosity and a bit of… what was that expression? Malika felt herself becoming self-conscious under their gazes. Reproach? They were angry at her for appearing?

“Mother, the purple lights have appeared!” Malika said breathlessly.

“Yes, it is unfortunate. I myself was nearby and decided to take refuge here since it is one of the safest refuges in the Ten Year Wood.” Mother Chaka put her teacup down smoothly and then smoothed an imaginary fold in her long flowing dress.

Malika was, for a moment, startled when she heard the calmness in her mother’s voice. She knew?

“What would you have me do, dear?” The silence had stretched on long enough that Mother Chaka gave a soft reproachful comment.

“Nothing can be done,” Malika finally admitted. A part of her was feeling upset because her Mother was displaying a calm that was probably the same carefree attitude she had been displaying when Malika herself was a hair's breadth from death.

“Indeed, quite so.” The Haberdasher smiled and stood up from the couch. “You are actually, all three of you, here at a very good time!”

“Are they now?” Mother Chaka glanced at him, eyes widening somewhat in surprise and anger. It was only a moment before they softened once more into understanding.

“Aren’t they?” He stopped in front of the small fireplace that was carved into the tree itself where a small chute would expel the air through winding holes within the tree. The fireplace was ringed with stone and the hearth itself was comprised of stone so that the fire didn’t spread throughout the tree.

“I suppose they are,” Mother Chaka said tiredly.

“Come, sit in the foyer here with us. I shall light a candle to calm nerves and we will talk until the danger passes!” The Haberdasher’s lips curled slightly showing yellow and discolored teeth. Matching his words he took a small stick that was jutting near the edge of the fire and pulled it out. He moved to the candle near the couch table and pressed the red-hot ember end, blowing on it softly until the candle flickered to life. He cast one knowing look at Mother Chaka, who nodded back.

Mother Chaka reached out to a small bowl of candied figs near the candle and pulled one out. She put it in her cheek and seemed to be nursing it. Moments later the Haberdasher did the same. They did not offer any to Malika or her two brothers.

“Rest, rest…” The Haberdasher motioned for them to sit on the spring moss carpeted interior of the tree foyer.

Malika and her brothers could do nothing other than comply. There wasn’t enough room on the couches and they were very tired after their life and death ordeal. They sat on the carpet and rested their backs against the wooden walls.

The candle, Malika decided, did smell very good. Her eyelids began to get heavy and her breathing had returned to normal. There was no reason to be worried anymore. Everything would be alright.

Malika blinked a few times noticing that the Haberdasher and Mother Chaka had ceased their conversation. Instead, they were staring at the three of them coldly -- loud sucking noises being produced from their mouths as they nursed their candies.

The longer they watched her the more unsettled she became. It was a look that she had seen before but couldn't quite place it...

Her eyes widened fractionally.

It was the gaze of the Goblins as they approached prey. It was the look of someone who was only looking at meat.

Her body felt heavy and she started to slide to the floor. The side of her face felt cold on the moss carpet, and a familiar scent near the door started to waft over her nose for the first time.

When she had entered she had scented many familiar things. The Haberdasher, the scent of tea, her mother -- and now Farnik!

Before her eyes could roll completely into the back of her head she managed one last look at her mother and uttered the final words she would ever speak to her, “kin...slayer…”

Immortal and Deadly Text Update

Planar Tiefling: Ruth (Level 9) (Delicate/Lord Rush) (Lightning Specialized)

★★★★ Limited Electrical Immunity.

Intelligence Favored

★★ Shock: Jolts targets within line of sight with a moderate to heavy shock, killing or incapacitating small to medium creatures. (Mana Consumption 2)

★★Thunder Struck: Channeled spell, discharging localized lightning under user direction after sufficient channel time. Due to the volatile nature of spell, effects on targets largely uncertain. (Mana Consumption 10)

★Generic Magnetic Field 50%: Repel or attract metal to a certain degree using the caster as a base. Lasts until spell slot is restored or canceled.

Mana: 10/20

3 of 5 spell slots