The distant figure stiffened. Even from afar, Isaak could see the unease that spread across their tanned features.

"Sister Lotus!" Crim cried. Her voice had lost all of its hesitancy, and it dripped with deepest despair.

"Oy!" Isaak exclaimed as the dark elf turned around and darted into the dense woods. He looked down at Crim, his eyes wide with confusion.

She tapped the butt of her staff twice on the uneven forest floor. She muttered a few words under her breath, and then the incantation swelled with a rush of emotion.

"👌︎♓︎♑︎ 👌︎□︎□︎♌︎♓︎♏︎ ☜︎♋︎❒︎⧫︎♒︎ 💣︎□︎⧫︎♒︎♏︎❒︎✏︎!" Crim chanted in the same incomprehensible gibberish. Isaak had not noticed the first time, but a trickle of red blood seemed to flow down from her half-moon eyes. "💧︎⧫︎□︎◻︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♍︎❒︎♋︎⌘︎⍓︎ ♌︎♓︎⧫︎♍︎♒︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ❒︎◆︎■︎■︎♓︎■︎♑︎!"

Isaak's head jerked towards a sudden noise. A woman had cried out in the same direction the dark elf had fled.

"Come!" Crim said, and she hastened towards the noise...

...but she stumbled forward as her left foot snagged on a thick gnarled root.

"Easy there," Isaak said. He was able to grab a handful of her crimson robes before she fell. He pulled her back, and was surprised by how light she was. Her small body flew towards him like a cannonball.

"M-Many t-thanks," Crim said as she fell into his arms. She looked up into his eyes, her face a bright crimson. "B-but!"

She shook free of his hold and hurried deeper into the woods. Isaak watched the flutter of her heavy robes and wondered for the first time what she would look like without them.

"Easy there," Isaak said, this time to the twitch of his lower Love Muscle.

He followed after Crim, his mind abuzz with curiosity.

"Sister Lotus! Sister Lotus!"

Crim's distant voice was laden with grief, and Isaak hasted towards the noise.

He found her beside the dark elf. Both of their faces were full of wet tears, Crim's own tinted red with the unusual blood that had flown from her eyes. The dark elf looked resolutely away from Crim, but there was no chance that she could flee.

The dark elf was covered in vines and the gnarled roots of trees. A thick ivy covered her tanned skin like rope and restrained her arms. Tree roots wrapped and swallowed the dark elf's legs, binding her to the forest floor.

"What has happened to you?" Crim said through the torrent of her tears. "Sister Lotus! Sister Lotus!"

Isaak had calmed the swell of his Love Muscle, but the sight of the dark elf bound with thick ivy was too much. She looked like some kind of demented BDSM fetishist, and he was filled with a host of impure thoughts. It did not help that the vines wrapped and kissed her fleshy molds. His eyes alighted on the monstrosity of her swollen mammaries.

"E-evil!" the dark elf said in a fearful whisper. Her tear strewn face contorted with horror as she stared... at Isaak.

"Sister Lotus?" Crim asked, her voice pleading. She looked between the dark elf and Isaak, and then her eyes fell upon the twitch of his Love Muscle. "A-again...?"

"That... that Rod of Impurity!" the dark elf shouted. "Goddess! Goddess! Deliver your light onto us!"

"Oh, Sister Lotus!" Crim said, and she wrapped her arms around the ensnared dark elf. Their tears mingled, and Isaak's Love Muscle started to deflate.

"Praise the Goddess!" the dark elf said as she looked between Isaak's confused face and his Restful Giant. "Crimson Sage! You must flee! These ones! They are... They are... Just look at meeeee!"

And she devolved into still more tears. The dark elf could not so much as scratch her nose because of the ensnarement that bound her to the forest floor. Her messy hair was captured in a small bun. A bundle of colorful flowers poked out above both of her pointed ears.

"What is going on here?" Isaak asked. He looked between Crim and the dark elf in absolute confusion.

Crim wiped some of her tears away, which had the unfortunate affect of smearing her face red with blood. She looked up at Isaak, the very picture of despair.

"Sister Lotus..." Crim said, and she squeezed the dark elf's bound left hand. "The, the Mother's Light... h-has fled, fled h-her."

"It was the human!" Sister Lotus said. Her tear streaked face snarled with hate. "He... He said it hurt. I only, only wanted to... to help."

"Sister Lotus. What has happened?" Crim's voice lost its horror and reluctance. She spoke resolutely and with authority. "What has happened to the Chosen One?"

Sister Lotus shook her head. Isaak could not help but notice the mature beauty of her thin lips and sharp face.

"Full of... taint," she said. "He said... He had... a swelling. He was in pain, and so I... He showed me..."

"Wait a minute," Isaak said as the dark elf's words clicked. He stared at her curvaceous body in slack-jawed jealousy. "Did that other guy trick you into jacking him off?"

Everyone started to speak over one another in a mad jumble of excitement.

"Jakt... Oft...?" Crim said with a sniffle. "Who is this... Jakt King Oft?"

"Who is this human, Crimson Sage?" Sister Lotus asked in a low hiss.

"You know," Isaak said with a blush as their words fell over one another. He made the appropriate motions with his right hand. "Masturbation...?"

The dark elf's face alighted with panic. She thrashed against her ivy bindings and bared her brilliantly white teeth at Isaak.

"That! That evil incantation!" Sister Lotus shouted. "I swallowed his milk and the Mother's Light left me!"

"He got a blowjob, as well?!" Isaak exclaimed, his eyes wide with jealousy. "That luc... I mean, that enormous scumbag!"

"Chosen One," Crim said, and Isaak jumped. He could not bear her innocent half-moon stare. "Thou seem to have, h-have knowledge of these dark arts. What h-has happened to Sister Lotus?"

"Chosen One...?" Sister Lotus said, the words slow and distant. She looked up at Isaak, confused. "What do you mean...? Who is... But then..."

"Oh, Sister Lotus!" Crim said. Her determination seemed to crack and she threw her arms around the dark elf as the two women once more devolved into tears.

"My name is... was Sister Lotus," the dark elf said with a pitiable sniffle. "I was to guide the Chosen One to the Cave of Beginnings..."

The two elves had cried and cried and cried until there seemed to be no more tears inside them. Crim had undone her ensnarement with more gibberish, and Sister Lotus had made no further attempt to flee. The dark elf was taller than Isaak had realized, and the sway of her massive monsters seemed all the more animated with her arms and legs freed from the thick vines.

"I see..." Isaak said, his words slow and careful. Crim had thankfully not pushed him to explain more about jacking off or blowjobs. "Just to make sure I understand... You noticed the other guy had... a swelling. You wanted to help him, and he showed you how to help him..."

Sister Lotus nodded, tears tickling the edges of her sharp eyes.

"You helped him with your hands," Isaak continued with a blush. "And when he finished... in your mouth, this Mother's Blessing left you tanned like a swimsuit model?"

"I only wanted to help him..." Sister Lotus said, and Crim squeezed her hand.

"That scumbag!" Isaak shouted, his eyes glued to the sway of Sister Lotus' breasts. He could not help but compare the massive mammaries to the washboard surface of his future wife's chest, though most of her body was covered in crimson robes. He could be in for a surprise one day.

"T-this is, is most g-grave," Crim said. Her earlier shyness had returned soon after Sister Lotus had been freed from her ensansement. "W-word m-must, must be s-sent to the, the All-M-mother."

"I told you lot that other guy was an imposter," Isaak said, though the look of horror that spread across Sister Lotus' face made him regret his words. "B-but I'm sure things will turn out all right...?"

Neither Crim nor Sister Lotus seemed enthused by his words.

"T-these events, events m-mark y-your own, own t-trial with greater i-import, however," Crim said. She snatched a look at his face and hurriedly looked away. "We, we m-must make a-all haste, h-haste to the, the Cave of B-beginnings."

Isaak nodded absentmindedly. His thoughts were still consumed with jealousy and shame. He had been giggling to himself with glee over holding hands with the Crimson Sage while that other guy had been getting a sloppy handjob from a bodacious dark elf. Life was so unfair.

"C-crimson Sage...?"

Both Isaak and Crim turned towards Sister Lotus. Her shoulders stiffened, and she looked for all the world like a lost puppy.

"What... What is to become of me...?" Sister Lotus asked, which did tickle Isaak's interest. He still had no idea what this Mother's Favor stuff was, but it seemed important to the tree house crew.

A pained look fell over Crim's hooded face. She raised her head high and clenched her half-moon eyes shut.

"You are without the Mother's Love," Crim said, her voice full of recited authority. "You cannot remain within the Glade."

Sister Lotus' breasts shook with a jolt of horror. Her body sagged as if the strings had been cut.

"I... What will... How will I... live...?"

Crim's head remained titled back, her eyes clenched shut. A few errant tears trickled down her face. She did not answer.

"Hold on a minute," Isaak said, his brow furrowed. "You're... kicking her out? Because of the color of her skin?"

"Be quiet, human," Crim said, and Isaak was taken aback by the force of her words. "You... cannot understand."

Isaak looked between Crim's resolute sorrow and Sister Lotus' vacant horror.

He still did not understand this Mother's Favor business, but it kind of seemed like the Goddess turned those she did not like into black people, which seemed awfully racist. He knew that wasn't what actually happened, but it still seemed messed up.

At the same time he had no idea who this Sister Lotus was. Why should it matter to him if she was thrown out of her magical tree house?