Keeper of Life - NaPoWrMo Entry

As Coal looked up at the arching branches she could only reflect upon the irony. How long did it take her to get here, how much had she sacrificed and how many lives? She'd lost half of her underlings just reaching the barrier. How foolish she had been. It was stupid of them to send her, why didn't they just send Scar, someone who knew the land better, who knew battle better. She forced herself to see reason, and knew it was because she could get past the barrier, that was the only reason they sent a broken broodmother.

“No,” she told herself. Scar would have scolded her for such thoughts. He would have told her that keeping the mind that low would bring them all to death. Yet hadn't she already? Hadn't she sold them all to that final door? Perhaps there was hope, Fang was her most capable, he was her only brood and he had the rod. 'If only I had it now,' she thought, then reflected on her previous words. 'It wouldn't work now anyway.' Again she shook her head. It was as if these thoughts were creeping into her mind, eroding her will.

“Why?” she asked. Why did she have to be so stupid, why did she have to be so weak? If only she'd trained longer, if only she was better prepared, if only she could just lie down and be a good obedient... “Argh,” she bellowed and uttered a string of curses under her breath. “May the stars show me the way,” she said.

“You will find no stars here,” Valor said, her voice dripping with satisfaction.

“You,” Coal said, though her words were tinged, tapered even as the back of her skull lit up with pain. It eased itself suddenly and lulled her into a relaxation she forced herself out. “What is this?” she asked.

“It's The Tree,” Valor answered. “It can help cleanse your mind, free you from all your worries, from all your fears and despair. But you have to let it,” she said.

“Is this what you did to Lance?” she asked.

“Oh, is that it's name? Then yes, we just allowed him to find his own way, The Tree freed him of all those dark thoughts,” Valor answered. “We hold funerals here, of course there's the obvious reason, but the other is because The Tree pulls the pain from our hearts. The Tree leaches our pain from us, our suffering, and takes it into itself.”

Coal just scoffed and flinched as something seemed to smash into the side of her head.

“It'll hurt if you keep fighting it,” Valor said.

Coal forced herself to breath, to think of home, of her underlings, and to maintain the fragile hold over her mind. 'Focus Coal, focus,' she said in her head. She repeated mantras and laws of the sand that Scar had told her. She ran through the different beasts of the desert, their numbers, locations, sizes and weight. 'Five legs, two hundred and fifty pounds, can pounce up to distances of ten lengths. How I wish I was fighting them now instead of being here. Not that it's bad here, there's no sand, no poison. It feels so safe here, there's nothing to-' She twisted her head violently. The shackleds that bound her rattled against each other. The collar strapped to her neck biting in even further. Small glass bulbs jutted from the side and forced her body into throws of pain if she tried using any magic.

“You won't win.” Coal said.

“Why would you want us to lose?” Valor asked. “Are you that spiteful? Does your kind still vow revenge?”

“You know why,” Coal said, pain causing her neck to twitch.

“The Tree has cured hunger, eliminated poverty. There is no disease or sickness here, and death comes with mercy. The Tree eases our pain, the suffering in our hearts, and it has unified us as one. Look around you demon, look at what The Tree has allowed us to do, how it's protected us. We could have shared this.” Valor shook her head and looked down on the suffering creature. “Soon you'll be at peace. Just let go, you're safe here, we can take care of you now, we can give you everything you've always wanted,” Valor said in a sweet calming voice.

“I want to see you burn,” Coal returned. “I will break free, and when I do I will break you, I will shove you into the ground and see you suffer. I will watch when you beg for mercy. And when you look up and tell me to spare your life and I will say, 'No,'.”

Pain lit through her body then darkness as the roots rushed up toward her. Valor scoffed. “We'll have to be more aggressive with you then it seems.”