Kira, still in her cat form, stalked back and forth, looking at the fire, hatred in her eyes for the beast and herself. She looked at the group, and lingered her gaze on Byron....her green eyes mirrored the anger and pain she felt.

But she remained in her cat form, wether on purpose or willingly is unknown

Byron looks at Charger then back at the cats.  His sense of loyalty to his trusted horse conflicting with his sense of friendship and maybe love for Kali and her big cat protector.  Seeing the hatred and something else in Kali's eyes when there gazes meet, Byron moves toward Kali slowly and cautiously and speaks softly, calmly, and for him with as much compassion and intelligence as he can.

Easy Kali.  Sometimes things have to happen to help nature return to the way it should be.  I see and sense your anger at what has happened tonight.  I can tell you are angry with me for taking away your chance to finish off that unnatural plant creature.  Right now, you need to let go of that hatred and anger.  The others need your help and knowledge about the ways of nature just as much as I do.

When Byron is close enough to touch Kali, he doesn't touch her, but holds out his hand in a friendly non-threatening way.  Hoping that both Kali and her big protector won't take it off.

She has learned new abilities granted by her deity that she needs to learn to cope with and to control. It's pretty difficult at the beginning, but she'll get used to it. Whatever creature was controlling these plants made them into abominations and it's not their fault or hers. We need to stop whatever or whomever is doing this, but right now we need to take cover just in case that big shape is a hostile dragon. We can deal with our personal issues later.

"Gather by me," Amara said, moving toward the horses. "I can cast an image to make all appear normal."

Aliana moved to be near her drow friend, but looked around for the human they'd found along the way.

Kali's eyes fall onto byron as he speaks, and holds out his hand. She looked at Raieylan (Who sat and licked his paw, almost as if ignoring the interaction totally), then loooked back at byron....the look of anger and fear leaving her eyes. The panther dropped to her haunches and sat with head bowed.

...then the form of teh panther began to shift again. The black hair began to moly and drop to the ground, showing milky white skin, the head changed shape and where black fur once was, a mop of orange hair covered the face of the now humanoid druid. She sat on her knees, her shoulders shaking as her hair draped over her face as it looked to the ground. All signs of the panther wee now gone, the little druid now fully back, her revealing leather armor and weapons still intact and where they were when she changed. She let out a sob and looked up at byron

...Her eyes red with tears and grief

She looked at Byron, tears running down her face. "I failed them....I couldn't save them."

She bowed her head and cried silently, oblivious to the danger that was to come, the urgency of the others. She only saw herself, Her trusted companion, and the man who reached out to her.

Byron understands Kali's tears and emotions more than she will know for now.  Reaching out and pulling her close to him then leading her towards Amara.  His voice calm and soft as he speaks to her.

"You can tell me all about it when you are ready too.  In the meantime we need to keep ourselves safe from a more immediate danger headed our way."

As Byron with Kali in tow reach the area Amara indicated he looks back at Raielyn.

She still needs you to be her protector my friend.

Kali allows herself to be pulled into the arms of Byron, her sobs silently on the mans chest. As Byron speaks to Raieylan, all conflict of teh man and panther are gone...the two seem to understand, and Raieylan silently walks beside Byron with Kali in turn, no glares at him touching or holding Kali.

Kali, however, stops her sobbing, and wipes her eyes, looking up at the man. "We will have that talk, but not now." She looks at the group, almost embarrassed by teh tears and all that has happened as they walked to the horses. It was clear in her grief she had missed something...some unknown enemy coming, and she looked at Byron and whispered. "Danger....what is coming?"

Byron whispers back to Kali as he starts to let go of her.

Aliana saw something big flying this way from the direction of the Forest.  It is Nolan's and Aliana's opinions that a dragon is headed this way to investigate the flashes of lightning and fireballs.

"I'm not sure that will work against a dragon," Myarra tells Amara as she moves in to the spot the drow indicated.  "But I suppose it's better than just standing in the open waiting to get 'et."

She's ignoring the whole drama between Byron and Kalli.  First she assumes it would be embarrassing to be observed in the state they're in.  Second, she has no idea how one deals with emotions like that.  Her method has always been to kill whatever is troubling her.  And if she can't for some reason, you take all the emotion and shove it down deep inside, where it festers and turns into an ulcer, which you then hire a cleric to heal.  Repression has worked just fine for her all these years, and she doesn't see any reason to change now.  Still, she has to hand it to Byron.  He's a brave man for taking the bullet on this one.

"Any idea where Lorrik and Twiggy are?  I'm no tracker, and I think flying right now would be a bad idea.  But I hate knowing they're out there on their own."

Lennox stabbed at the dead plant monster a few more times, just to make sure it was dead before collecting up his gear and loading it upon his horse,

"I honestly think we should just get the heck out of here. If that is a dragon, it will see this mess and fly around to find anything. But, I doubt it will go around searching for the unknown if we're gone from here."

Twiggy hears the rustle of vegetation after he called out to Lorrik. Looking that way, the little Halfling spots the teenager and waves to him to get his attention. Lorrik moves over to Twiggy,

"Is everyone OK? I feel so ashamed for running away."

You're about 1/4 mile from the camp.

Spot Check

Twiggy is relieved to see Lorrick alive Everyone is fine but we need to get back to camp.  They had something in the distance.  It is safer to stay close and running away will only get you into more trouble. Stay close and let us move quickly."  Twiggy looks to the sky to but is unable to see around the dense vegitation.

 Today: Twiggy Flinch rolled 13 using 1d20+7.  Spot

Twiggy and Lorrik travel back to camp, but Flica makes it there long before they show up and lands on Amara's shoulder and informs her of Lorrik's situation. While that is happening, everyone at the camp is quickly packing up their stuff, just in case the large flying creature comes this way.

It doesn't.

Lorrik and Twiggy make it to camp with no problems.

OK, the possessed Treant, or what ever you want to call it, came from the North. I noted that there was brief moments were the being seemed to be its own self again, then it was lost with those red, evil eyes, as if something was controlling it. Do we want to continue? That's very powerful. I can't even do such a thing and wonder what we'd be facing with something that could.

Kali, standing close to Byron still, having tear stained face and red eyes, all of a sudden lost her grief, replaced by anger. "Something that controls nature is a perversion. To cause such pain..." She pauses and bows her head for a moment, a slight catch in her throat, then continues

"We need to find out what caused this. If they are in league with the cult this is bad, but if they are something else, that is worse...two enemies closing in can be bad. Plus....i don't want that to happen to a tree spirit again."

Byron looks over at Raieylan.  Seeing the I'm going with her look in the big cat's eyes Byron's words to him are left unspoken.

Looking at Nolan, Byron says what is on his mind.

"I'm not the smartest or the wisest among us.  However I feel that we are going to have face what ever it is sooner or later.  I really don't want to leave now and then have to fight everything again just to get back to where we are now at a later date.  So I'm going to side with Kali on this one."

Sister Aliana nodded, if reluctantly
"I don't often seek trouble, but I agree.  We need to deal with this sooner rather than later"

Myarra is sitting on a large bit of fallen tree, carefully sharpening her sword, not that it really requires it, not after the work the dwarf ghosts did on it.  But still, it helps her relax.

"It's attacked us twice now. And it's gotten me eaten. Mystra knows I'm not perfect. I'm not all powerful, and I'm far from invulnerable.  I'm rude, and crude, and generally socially undesirable.  But I am very very good at making things die.  I really think Mazmular needs to die.  And I'm certainly willing to give it a go."

Maybe we will get lucky and find the stone of balance and restore it before we run into any more trouble here too.  That could help us in a number of ways as well.

Byron looks over at Myarra and teases her to lighten up the mood.

Myarra, your being rude, crude, and socially undesirable is what makes hanging out with you a lot of fun.

Kali had a serious look, one that you had not seen on the usually happy druid. "I don't willingly seek out death and destruction, but whatever is causing a peaceful treeant to attack and behave as it did must be stopped. This is more than balance....this being has perverted nature itself and must be paid."

The look in her eyes was simular to that when she was a panther....a burning hatred and anger. "...and when i find out what did this, I'll call nature herself to tear their still beating hearts from their chest."

<OOC: Just in case you haven't noticed....Kali is pissed.>

Roen just stood silent with his hands behind his back listening to what everyone was saying. His knowledge was limited in this circumstance and really didn't have anything to add to the conversation. He agreed with Nolan on the amount of power somebody would have to have to be able to control these plants and wasn't sure if he wanted to go looking for it.

Amara glanced around at the others as she gave her hummingbird some honey. "If we don't think we're going to get more rest tonight," Kalliyan and Lorrik, at a minimum, certainly weren't likely to. And the rush of adrenaline likely would make it take some time before any of the others could either, "Then let us be on our way. We can rest sometime in the day."

Lennox had his horse packed and was ready to go. He wanted to be away from this place before more danger arrived. The sheer power of that creature surprised the hell out of Lennox and it was his transport power that saved him from being killed. That scared him. He watched Kali and knew she was upset, with her being a druid and all, but there wasn't anything Lennox could do about it except reassure her that she was doing the right thing.

"OK then. I agree that we should head north where the Treant came from. It probably left a nice trail for us to follow."

Well I'm certainly up for the day already.  No since in staying here.  I guess we should continue on.

Byron packs up his belongings and prepares Charger for the day ahead.  While he does he talks to Lorrik about his running away during the fight.  Making an effort to stress the importance of staying with the group.

OOC:  Is it beginning to get light outside?