Peek: Peace and Quiet

Deep in the wilderness, mana slows and eventually stops, giving rise to stagnation. The Rangers do their best to patrol and disturb the peace and quiet, but they are simply too few to mobilize for simpler, shallower stagnation. They concern themselves with the knots, where the still mana starts to fester and create true problems.

Here, it's not that bad, but it is still too quiet, too still. A minor disturbance makes the mana start to crystalize, creating a small beetle around the small motion, like an oyster encasing a grain of sand in pearl. But while an oyster will keep the pearl until it is taken, the new creature seeks to actively destroy the disturbance that created it.

The source is far, but the small invader is not dissuaded by distance. The disturbance cannot be allowed to propagate! All should be silent and still! It flies, too focused to even appreciate the fact that it can fly. The disturbance grows, glaring like a beacon in the invader's eyes, sound grating like nails on a chalkboard.

A dungeon, and a huge tree. That tree is the source of the disturbance, felt so far away! Even were the beetle on its own, it would still try to destroy it, but it is not alone. Such a disturber of the natural stillness calls forth many of the invader's brethren, and together, even something like that tree is vulnerable.

They fly without formation, all the better to force the dungeon to attack them individually, rather than rely on area attacks. Birds swoop through the beetles first, consuming the invaders by the beakful, but there are more than the avians can handle on their own.

Spiders offer backup, snagging beetles in webs that get too close to the leaves and branches. The greenery is vulnerable to attack, but it gives the defenders too much area to fight back from. Better to go for the trunk.

But staying in the air is not without risk, either. Bees and fey engage in brutal aerial melee, cutting through the beetles even as the beetles exact their own toll on the defenders. They will not be stopped! The moving mana grates and sears, prickles and burns at the beetles. It must be destroyed!

The trunk nears, the beetle nearly at its target. It slips through the melee, past the flying defenders, and alights on the vulnerable bark of the trunk. It can feel that its task is going to be more complicated that it seemed at first. Its fellows that attacked the branches and leaves must have seen it earlier, that the tree is more than one tree.

But it doesn't matter. The two are so delicately intertwined that disturbing the balance could be a good way to destroy the noise and the glare of the moving mana. It must get to work. It bites into the bark, working slowly yet steadily, relying on its natural camouflage to keep it safe while it attacks. The bark is thick, but with enough time, the beetle can get through anything! It can feel the pulses of mana through the tree getting closer, each bite of its mandibles bringing it closer and closer to its goal!

Pain. Pain! The invader loses its grip on the bark and is pulled away, made brutally aware of one more line of defense. Something thin and hungry pokes from the tree, and the beetle can feel itself being drained.

The sprig eyes the beetle as it drains the invader, soon leaving it an empty husk to be casually discarded. It watches a living vine come and repair the small hole the beetle made, before sinking back into the Tree of Cycles to hunt for more. The invaders will always come, but that is what the sprig is for.