as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Others had come. They must have been drawn to the cries. Thothaga watched them from burrow woven by the Divine's roots. An eagle, one who reminded her of Glory, was the first to arrive, she was the one who called the others. Then, a hoofed creature appeared, one who looked vaguely like Giggle. He reached out to the tree and spoke to its past. Good. He must know.

Thothaga crawled out from her hiding place and crawled towards Serek, when the glint of a beetle's shell caught her eye. There! Like lightening, she leapt from the roots and hurled herself at the insect with the ferocity of a predator, but the beetle was quicker. It had already vanished into its hole by the time Thothaga clasped on the trunk. Her fangs dug hungrily at the hole in the wood, but The Divine's bark was stronger. "Blast!" She hissed.

Thothaga backed up then turned around, finding herself face to face with the newcomers.
"Hello, I am Thothaga." She simply greeted, her voice raspy and deep. "You come to eat beetles too?"

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Dragon @Naja @Serek @Ceicei @Sizzle @Hera

Serek flinched and cried out softly at the images and emotions and feelings that poured from the tree. He stepped back, tears collecting in the corner of his eyes and his ears twitched mournfully. As others came forward, he turned, his ears drooping with sorrow at what he had seen. "The tree," he began, voice shaking, "the tree is hurting! She cries for our help. There are beetles, hundreds, thousands, uncountable beetles eating away at her! She needs our help!"

Mellow, now, uncaring now for whatever revenge he had planned, he gave Septiezal a small nod. "I...understand. I think? It's okay. You burned off the mushrooms at least..." Realizing that he had pretty much given away his failures, the emotional wall suddenly smalled back in place and his head rose a little taller, proudly. "I mean, I forgive you." he spoke a little louder.

And as the giant spider came, he forgot everything and his mouth dropped open with awe. "Wow!" was all he could really say. An idea popped into his head, an impulsive, probably extremely stupid idea. "Hey, you eat bugs? Do you want to eat all the bugs infecting the Divine for us?"

@Thothaga @Septiezal @Hera @Sizzle @Naja @Cecei

Dragon listened closely, and looked to Serek with new appraisal in his eyes.

He hadn't known where the young one had been, but clearly Serek had been training very hard to be able to speak to trees!

"You can speak to the tree?" he bellowed, and his tone was fascinated, and full of approval. "This is good! This is impressive magic! It will help us! You have done well!" Every sentence was a bellowed exclamation, and after a moment, when he fell silent, it was only to think about what to bellow next.

After all, he had to come up with some sort of plan. He was a leader--of sorts--and he had to come up with some sort of way to help the... tree. Even though, from everything he could recall, it was an evil tree. He remembered it attacking them before--attacking his brother Ghanyarah. But if it was asking for help, perhaps it would give them something in return! Plus, when it was screaming, it was rather annoying. And all because of beetles?! Hah!

Well, they could just burn the whole thing down; that'd stop the mess. But it was better, he thought, to come to terms with the... tree.

Whatever.

He pushed the thought aside, for a moment, and concentrated on his magic. Imagery flickered up, heat-sense superimposed, for a moment, on his regular vision. He could see not the strong, red heartbeat of mammals or even reptiles, but he could see the faint glow of thousands of tiny creatures scuttling about beneath the bark.

Serek was right--and the situation was rather dire.

"I can see them," he told the others, craning his head back to look at the infestation where it ran almost to the tree's crown. "Do --hello, spider--do any of you have magic that can be used to drive them out, or draw them out, without harming the tree? Trick them, or lure them; sicken them, eat them, I do not care. Perhaps the thing will stop trying to kill us, as it has done before, if we aid it." He did not, however, sound particularly hopeful about this last.

As Thothaga's fangs drove into the wood, scratching after the beetles, the tree let out another howling cry. A single root twisted, thwacking the spider as the tree itself shifted to throw her off.

Clearly, being bitten bothered it, despite the spider's fangs not particularly piercing it; perhaps it felt itself under attack.

Other than this, it did little; the beetles continued to scuttle to and fro, driven into a frenzy by the sudden shifting of their home, their own movements audible still as the soft scratching of thousands of feet and carapaces against the inside of the bark.

@Septiezal @Thothaga @Serek @Naja @Hera @Sizzle @Dragon

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga screeched and jumped as the root smacked her abdomen. She spun around and hissed at the tree, rubbing her sore rump with her back legs. The quartz on her back lit up, bright blue with magicka, as she sent her frustrated thoughts straight to the Divine. Cursed tree! I'm trying to help you! Quit acting like a gemling and let me eat the beetles!
She turned back to Serek and huffed. "Trees..." Thothaga moved her cephalothorax from side to side, mimicking a disappointed head shake then perked up. "Why yes, I love beetles." The spider then gave the Divine an annoyed glnace. "Would love to eat them right now, but they are very fussy for a tree, very fussy!"

She then turn to the giant lizard who greeted her."Thothaga-- I am Thothaga." She interrupted, to correct him briefly. He asked if she knew any magick that would drive out the beetles, without hurting the tree. "Hmm.." Thothaga pondered, stroking her fangs. "A spell that can slip through the cracks like air and leave the Divine untouched.." She knew a few spells, nothing like what this lizard described.
"Afraid not, big lizard."

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Septiezal stared at Serek, surprised to here those words come out his mouth. Forgive me? But I--
Suddenly a commotion grabbed his attention. A giant spider, one bigger (and bluer) than any cave spider he had ever seen chased after the beetles. To his awe, the tree came alive as root lifted and whacked the spider for touching its bark. Septiezal's jaw dropped and he looked around for any one who had just cased a plant spell, but them came to realize the tree did that on its own.

It's alive??

That explains the screaming, but it left Septiezal with an uncomfortable feeling. How alive was it? Did it watch him draw those embarrassing pictures in the mud with his new claws that one time he came here? He hoped not. Don't tell the others! He silently pleaded with the tree.

There was more pressing matter at hand however, this tree would not stop screaming unless they got rid of the beetles, without hurting. Septiezal pondered too, tapping his talon on his snout. Then and idea came to him. He knew a spell that could probably help. "Hey Dragon," He said. "Perhaps we can smoke them out, can you make smoke from your skin?"

@Serek @Dragon @Naja @Sizzle @Hera

The alligator glanced at Septiezal in some surprise. Now that was a good idea, and one he might not have ever thought of.

"This is a good idea, brother. I am proud of you both!" This, apparently, meant Serek and Septiezal both. Truly, to Dragon's mind, his Children of Rot were performing admirably. To the spider he gave a slightly more wary glance; he'd had bad interactions with the cave spiders of Cetus in the past. This one was talking, but still, he remembered their bites--the scarring and near-defeat he'd had at their hands as a tiny hatchling.

Never mind it, now; he crawled up alongside the tree, closing his eyes and concentrating on his magicka.

The alligator's command of fire was generally strong, and it answered to him now, to his satisfaction: his hide lit like glowing coals, smoldering, the stench of burning flesh malodorous in the air as smoke billowed from him. It poured up, black and thick, some escaping into the sky and some pluming into the damaged tree's hollows where he pressed his thick body against the trunk.

"Aid how you each can. Kill them, if they come out!"

@Serek @Naja @Hera

Unsure of what to do, Serek stepped back as those that were better with magic stepped forward. He started pacing impatiently, knowing that he couldn't do anything to get the beetles out. He couldn't squeeze under there and he had no fire magic to smoke them out. But...he had an idea. If he couldn't smoke them out or force them out, maybe he could help by baiting them out?

It wasn't much but he summoned a few of those strange magic bananas. Not as many as he wanted but it was something. He placed them around the roots of the trees. If Dragon's magic got them to come out, maybe they would go towards the bananas, make them easier to take out...

As the smoke poured up into the tree, the skittering slowed. A good number of beetles rushed out; many skittered off into the muck and the reeds--unless stopped--and a few others paused, lured out to or drawn toward, after fleeing, the bananas. Soon enough the fruits were covered with them.

Others, though--in droves--simply fell lifeless from the bark, not dead but knocked quite unconscious by the smoke. Hundreds--thousands, perhaps--falling with myriad quiet clinks and thwacks into a pile of rainbow-glittering, leg-jutting carapaces at the tree's base.

The forest itself seemed to sigh with relief, a fresh breeze blowing softly around the Gembound present--but it wasn't over yet.

The bugs still needed to be disposed of, lest they awaken and reinfest the Divine.

@Thothaga @Septiezal

Septiezal slithered on the other side of the tree to summon this smoke, his long, cylinder body could slink places Dragon's could not. Perhaps he could get the stranglers, and add to his brother's thick, black cloud.

The serpent's scales charred black much like Dragon's, visible, on patches of orange. Strong, thick smoke billowed from this body as he slithered around the trunk and roots. Any beetle that crossed his path, he snapped at, or clawed. Despite adding more smoke, there was only so much Septiezal could do in actually killing them.

He saw Serek make bananas from magic alone. They seemed to draw in more beetles. Septiezal, lifted his head gave him a snakey smile. "Nice, brother, can you make more?"
"speak"