[center][h2][color=lime]The Emerald Empire/Kingdom of Shenra[/color][/h2]
The Vitium - Emerald border[/center]
An hour before the dawn of the day of the Vitium invasion the various Calid scouts who had creeped round the rear of the border forest decamped from their hiding places in the marshes and villages to go meet their destinies. 

At the heart of the forest into which the scouts where to venture where two great fortresses, bastions of the dreaming forest made of many Trees that had grown together, forming a hub or focal point for the Dreamscape that bound the forest together. At the center of these fortresses, in the most secure place in the forest, where two small Trees that was not their own individuals. Instead these two trees where branches of the Great Tree Yaval, head of the emerald empire, that had been transported from their homeland and planted to forge a psychic link, leading all the way back to their distant home.

It was towards one of these fortresses that Severo and what remained of his Calid Cohort slowly crept as dawn crested the horizon. Despite being so close to the fortification and surrounding settlement, the terrain was still as heavily forested and overgrown as it had been on the way in. Barring a large clearing some way off that featured a single building at its center, from which smoke could be seen emerging, the rest of the settlement had more or less been built around the existing vegetation. The some of the loose knit series of structures used living trees as their central supports, while in others snaked their way in and around the trees, carefully avoiding disturbing them. None of the buildings appeared to be used for housing, but rather they were storehouses, armories, libraries, workshops, meeting halls, markets and so on. The kind of urban housing sprawl that would normally fill the gaps between these buildings was entirely absent, in their place the Dryads seemed perfectly willing to simply hang around outdoors while not working. Standing in groups or sitting up in the branches of trees or on rooftops, the wooden people added to the uncanny feeling the place gave off. A mimicry of the familiar lacking several vital features that left everything strange.

Getting here had not been easy Severo thought to himself, they had lost many to the attrition of the forest’s dangers. Jos had never even rached the forest, a leech like thing, twice the size of a man and covered in spiny armor, had ambushed him while they were traversing the freezing cold swamps behind the forest. When Niene had tried to save him, one of the spikes on the leech’s head had shot out and pierced through her shoulder. She had dropped dead minutes, killed by a combination of severe poisoning and blood loss. Widreth, Burwena and Eerik where tore apart as they walked through a flower bed near the entrance of the forest when small plants with snapping jaws and lashing thorny vines had popped out of the ground without warning to attack them. Asmo and Petra had been stung to death by several giant bees who dive bombed them with drill shaped stingers. Villi had been knocked over by a flying rabbit and subsequently cracked her skull open on a rock, moments after she told Severo about a weird 4 eyed deer she had seen. Putrael, frioc, Rosenwyn and Gurci simply hadn't re-joined the others after they had to split up to hide from a Dryad patrol. Severo was pretty sure they had deserted, but couldn’t be entirely certain. He couldn’t blame them if they had. Only a few minutes earlier Amalia, Cuarto and Nerita had been impaled on the branches of a seemingly mundane tree that had come to life as they passed by. 
 
In the end only Servero, Oto, Patrik, Narella and Saba had made it this far, but now that they were here, all they had to do was pick a good few spots for their arson and then get the hell out while avoiding the dryads bustling about in the settlement.
Those same said dryads where getting rather agitated. There had been a feeling swirling around the dreaming since just before dawn, a feeling that something was wrong that had been building over the past half hour. Atop the battlements, or canopy, of the fortress proper Lord Enzar, (the jury was still out on whether “Lord” was a valid name or not, some suggested Enzear the Lord would be more in line with tradition, Enzar claimed that the “the” was superfluous in this instance) passed to and fro restlessly. The dryad, 8 feet of (literally) sculpted muscle topped with flowing grassy hair that went down to his shoulders, had already responded to the feeling by sending out additional patrols and psychically asking the Trees for guidance. So far neither of the these had yielded results. He was about to try mentally shouting at the Trees again when there was a sudden sense of pressure in the dreaming that welled up from the center of the fortress, a presence so vast and ancient it was almost physical. 

[i][h2][color=lime]Awaken children of the forest! Vitium has sent its torchbearers into our lands to bring death and destruction in an act of war! All leave is hereby suspended! Prepare for battle with ember and animal alike! I am assuming direct command of operations in this area till the Vitiums are made to pay for their desecration![/color][/h2][/i]

The messages was clear as day in the minds of all those in the forest, from sapling to ancient colossus, they all heard it, and they all obeyed without question. As Enzar received more specific, and thankfully less deafening, instructions from Yaval the settlement became abuzz with activity. Personal projects were carefully set aside as armories where thrown open, armor donned and weapons retrieved. The children of autumn join their brethren of spring in preparation to do what they were where all built to do. In an around the settlement, sleeping eyes cracked open as the ents awoke from their slumber. Right behind Servero a seemingly innocuous tree began to move, its branches becoming arms, its leaves  wings, its once ridgid trunk a serpentine body. As Nyranda The Serpent awoke her body slammed down behind the scouts, powerful arms supporting her weight as she withdrew her roots from the earth, the tendrils coiling them together to form a long tail. In the dreaming, meaning and power twisted and danced together as she flexed her magic. Despite her blindness she could sense them all clearly, the intruders, bearing tools of flame. 
In response to the cacophonous sound behind them the Candid scouts turned to find a humongous wyvern of bark and moss where moments earlier there had moments before only been forest.

“Firepots!” Servero screamed while reaching down, grabbing, lighting and then hurling his own at the monster in a single, swift, practiced motion. But it was too late. Amber lines of power flared all along the surface of Nyranda’s bark and the winds responded to her call. The flames intended to ignite the fiery weapons were snuffed out in an instant, while the pots themselves hung suspended in the air between the scouts and the Ent. There was a quiet moment of awe before the scouts tried to scatter, only to be hauled skyward like the firepots. Servero tried to scream, but the air had already been forcibly torn from his lungs.

[hr]
From her position in the north eastern foothills of the frozen cliffs Queen Rosabella, riding at the head of her small army of loyal humans, allied harpies, foreign adventurers and well paid mercenaries, could see that the Matharanian plan has succeeded despite the brutal attrition the forest had inflicted. In the north several areas at the periphery of the forest could be seen either ablaze or smoldering. In the south, where the colder climate seeping down from the frozen cliffs which left the vegetation dryer and the inhabitants more sluggish, several fires had been lit deeper in the woods. The Calid scouts there had also had the opportunity to gathered information from local royalists and poachers who lived in land loyal to the Kingdom of Shenra, which had helped them navigate the strange and deadly woods much more effectively, leading to several successful escapes by entire southern Calid Cohorts post firestarting. 

Yet the woods where awake now, and the initial individual attempts at firefighting rapidly became coordinated on a forest wide scale. Enchanters worked together, using specially made magic items to douse the flames with torrents of water. Ents used massive swords to cut down mundane trees and then dragged them away to deprive the fires of fuel to spread. The one of the Emerald Empire’s only fire mage, Saberath the mad, started a counter fire around one of the larger edge fires, leaving a semicircle of smoldering wasteland in the south but preventing the fire from reaching deeper to Fort Cher. Other Trees that were threatened by encroaching flame or fires started at their bases activated tiny amber trinkets tied to their branches which acted like a magical sprinkler system, sparing them while the wood around them was consumed. Other fires where smothered, starved of oxygen by wind mages. The battle against their most ancient foe was not without casualties but roughly 20 min after Yaval had begun the forest wide response most of the fires had been extinguished.

[hr]
As the armies of the emerald empire amassed to respond to the inevitable invasion by Vitium army, two ravens flew out of the forest baring messages. One was a declaration of war headed for the Vitium encampment, a force that had been watched by dryads from the forest's edge and by creatures whose minds had been bound to the will of enchanters and mages. The other few onwards, seaking out a tiny encampment hidden in a rocky outcropping somewhere behind the enemy encampment. After passing by the cave entrance and the ring of swords stabbed into the earth and stone therein the bird, a well kept creature sporting a collar which had an amber gemstone as its centerpiece, found only one of of the people it was expecting. Standing at 6 and a half feet tall, the Ent know as Yarvost the Bold was incredibly small, both for his species and age. He wore a rune covered mask sporting 4 red glowing eyes and, somewhat oddly for an ent, a thick padded robe with a belt sporting 13 scabbards  The raven landed on his shoulder and, after a short delay during which the distant mage controlling the raven cast another spell, asked: “Where is Xuna?”
The Ent carefully put away the sword it had been sharpening and then pointed back behind himself at the cavern wall. The raven cocked its head to one side in confusion before deducting. “She's in the vale again?” Yarvost noded. “I will never understand how you or the animals can cope without the dreaming” the Ent shrugged “Can’t be trusted to do their duty, the Dreamless. She was supposed to be here for when Vitium made their first move” 

“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled, I’ll be here when the time comes” said a young human woman who walked in past the warding ring. The raven fluttered in alarm at the sight of the intruder before the woman touched a hand to her face, revealing the human form to be an illusion, and that she was in fact Xuna the Brave. The 4 ft tall dryad, whose face was obscured by a matching rune marked horned mask who’s two eyes glowed a deep red, was one of the oldest dryads in the entire world. She pointedly refused to act her age.
“That time is now Xuna!”

“And here I am like I said I would be.” she spread her arms wide as if to present herself “You should be more trusting of us ‘Dreamless’ bird brain. Plus I think you'll find my little excursion will serve us all well in this latest war”

“I don't really care what you dug up out of the vale, just get moving already. Yaval’s instructions stand as they where given”
“We’re going. We’re going. Can’t disappoint family after all!”

The raven simply rolled its eyes as Yarvost silently stood and began to march out of the cave. As he passed by the entrance several vines snaked out from behind is back, each grasping one of the 12 unique enchanted blades ringing the entrance, pulling them all free simultaneously and sheathing them all in their respective sheaths. Xuna followed after, carefully stringing her ancient bow with its newly acquired bowstring, a hidden smile on her lips.