Chapter 22: The Leshy

Dimitri had gotten a new pickup truck. Nikola didn't know if that should surprise him, but it did.

He got in the car, this time riding shotgun, and got his seat belt in place.

Jack went to sit in the back.

"Ok, here's the plan," Dimitri said, who didn't seem to mind that the ghoul was coming with them. "We will be doing some grocery shopping, then we will swing by a shop of the occult. To get Niki some stuff."

Nikola nodded. Even though he doubted that they would find anything which was more of value than the books Tangra had given him.

"Then we are going to go clothes shopping," Dimitri continued.

Jack snorted from the back seat.

"There is nothing wrong with my clothes," he said, even though the pants and shirt he was wearing were full of holes.

Dimitri looked back at Jack, staring him down.

"You are adopted," the vampire said because the alternative was not something he wanted to accept.

"Fine then, mom," the ghoul teased, as he relaxed in his seat. "Get me ready for school, ok?"

Dimitri snorted and turned back towards the wheel.

"I better not hear "are we there yet" from either of you," the vampire teased one last time, before driving off.

****

Nikola was staring out of the window. The sunrise had come and gone. But that didn't make their problem any less urgent.

"I can't believe that the bloody river has overflooded again!" Dimitri cursed under his breath.

"If you didn't want such problems, then you shouldn't have moved to live in the woods," Jack said, as he looked at Nikola.

"Do I look like Jesus Christ to you? Or maybe Moses?" Nikola was trying to come up with a solution.

"Can't you just make some trees carry us over?" Jack continued, as he looked out of the window as well. "This is grizzly bear territory. If we stay put, we'll get eaten."

"I will just go around," Dimitri finally said, as he kicked up the car in gear again.

He drove along the overflooded river. No one said a thing.

Until he finally saw a bridge.

A bridge which was also underwater.

Nikola sighed.

"I'll try it with the trees."

He took off his seatbelt and went outside.

There was life in the water. It wasn't going to pass easily. Nikola pressed his hand to the nearest pecan tree and took a deep breath.

"Ok, here's the deal," Nikola began. He felt silly, speaking to a tree.

Still, he decided that the effort was worth it.

"Could you please do something about the water?"

The tree's leaves rustled.

"All of you, please," Nikola continued. He let the trees have his mana and began to watch on as roots were being dug into the water.

Fumes came out of the tree.

Nikola had never expected that him being a druid would ever lead to him becoming a plumber.

But as the bridge was finally cleared of the water, he made his way back to the car.

Only to see something on the other side of the bridge.

It had the antlers of a bull moose. A face that not even a mother would love.

Not to mention that it had a leather loincloth.

The being waved him over. Nikola decided that ignoring something supernatural was going to cost him, so he made his way to the bridge.

The being looked a lot like the Leshy his mother liked to scare him with back when he was little. He had no idea why the being was here.

But he knew one thing:

Its main purpose was to restore balance. And Nikola, no matter how much he liked to believe otherwise, was anything but balanced.

As soon as he reached the creature, Nikola did a slight bow.

"What are you doing in my forest, shaman?" It spoke volumes about just how much Tangra had changed him, if the creatures didn't refer to him as a druid anymore.

"I live here," Nikola said, looking the being in the eyes. "And we are just going shopping. Why, did we bother you in any way?"

The creature bared his teeth at him. Nikola's hands went to his new bow. Something he was carrying even to the town but had the full intention of leaving behind in the car, once they went shopping.

"These forests have seen thousands like you! But you treat the plants so, as if they were your slaves!"

Nikola sighed. Man, he should have known that the green activists were going to crawl out of the hole they lived in eventually.

"I am trying to survive," Nikola said, as he tried to remember if he had seen a Leshy in the walkthrough.

"So is the forest! You kill the trees and turn them into your undead servants!"

Nikola nodded. Said like that, he really was a menace.

But the being was not showing any hostility.

"Then, by which rules should I live? I would like to remain in your forest."

The being blinked. It might not have expected such an answer.

And yet, Nikola was not willing to back down. He loved Dimitri's cabin. Jack lived across the lake.

If he ended up having to hide in a town, he didn't know what he was going to do.

"You can plant trees. The animals are hungry. It was a dry year. The trees must become heavy with fruit once more."

Nikola nodded. He didn't see any harm in that.

"So, I get to use my magic, but just for good, then?" He smiled, as the creature nodded. "Can you please do something about the river? If it is overflowing, we won't be able to go back home."

"Home? Is that what my forest is for you?" The Leshy asked.

Nikola nodded.

"You know, for a shaman, you are the good sort," the Leshy touched him on the arm. There was a tattoo with a tree on it on that patch of the skin soon after.

"If you don't seek trouble, trouble won't find you."

Nikola hoped so. Wished that the Leshy won't end up cooking him alive.

After all, Tangra had been all smiles and well wishes, before that point.