Interlude in the Nightmare Cow Level

I can see a dark cloud rising behind us. We begin to discuss strategy and Miro has a spell that can camouflage the wagon while I will fly to the demon and attempt to send her off to intercept and fight the hell bovines and hell woolies. I fly up and over the ridge and fly towards where the plant army should be massing - leaving behind me chaos and confusion as the others attempt to drive Dabnabbit fast enough to reach the corner where Miro can cast the spell.
 
I fly over the ridge and as I circle around to see Oatman Pass. The army is on the north side of the slop and they are basking in the morning light. I see five walking jack-o'lanterns. 60 of the briarseed children walking in groups of three to five. I see two patch fields of rolling cabbages (200) and of course the demon. She is starting to stride towards a mesquite tree and everything else is following her. I spiral down and start talking to her while I am coming in. I am a bit excited and talk in common, but she responds in zuyan saying that unless I want to get everyone in trouble I should speak in the correct language. I switch to her tongue and I tell her about the hell bovines out and ready for attack since the sun is up and their power is weaker while the plant army is stronger. She tells me her master has assigned her a task today, but she also has a task to destroy the interlopers - which apparently are the hell bovine. She goes on to say that her master is trying to do good by saving the townsfolk who have somehow lost their neutrality status. They have orders to capture everyone there and take them to a safe place. If they don't get them out of town before the dark comes, then they will be taken for experiments. Even though the cows were the first ones changed, there were other experiments. The rabbits - which were a failure and the sheep - a success. Now, who can have sheep without a shepherd? She asks me where the herd is and I give her rough directions. She then requests me to drop off a bundle in the middle of the front of the herd. The two briar children who have become a giant seed will die and in their death, there will be planted the seeds of victory - and a beacon to lead the demon and her army - what isn't headed towards town - to them. I offer to drop off the bundle and then fly to town to work as an interpreter so that the townsfolk will be rescued - and I can go along to see the hideout of this mysterious benefactor.
 
I hear bells ringing and then I see the herd. I make a power dive and drop the bundle off where requested. I then pull back up and circle round to see if I can see the cart. I can't which means Miro's spell is still working. I zoom off towards town to assist with that catastrophe in the making.
 
As I enter the town, I see a Jack and some briarseed children and a LOT of cabbage rolling around. Each of the briar seed children is taking all of the doors off the hinges and the jack is just standing by the area where the big cookpot was set up. I can hear Ms. Roselli and children in the schoolhouse. I attempt to have a conversation with Jack. He either doesn't know much or I don't know how to pull the information out of him. All I can find out is that he honors his ancestor by obeying the master and doing what he says. He doesn't know how far away the master's place of safety is, he doesn't know how long it will take to get there, he is not really of any help at all. I leave him and go talk to Ms. Roselli. She flat out refuses to go to a place of safety and insists that the schoolhouse is the safest place around. She also will burn any fae that comes to close and keep everyone in the town below the schoolhouse. I hear them on the other end of town where they are unable to enter the holy ground of the church, yet they still keep trying to get to the door so they can open them. I go back to Jack and I see that they have set fire to Ms. Melinda's shop and the tree behind it. I take him to task for setting a fire and manage to convince him that he has disobeyed the master, dishonored his ancestor, and must go immediately to get further instructions. He leaves the briarseed children in charge and hovers in the air and we fly off to I am not sure where.
 
I fly further into the canyon and it is hot even with no sunlight. In the beginning, I see small signs of life, but they become fewer and fewer as we get deeper into the canyon. There are glossy black rocks and the air and land here are extremely dry. The strangest thing is that, while I can feel magic in my bones, this area turns magic into static - like a field of pine needles turn snow into small, random patterns. It feels kinda prickly and there is no way I can see that anyone or anything would be able to live here. Any magical or even living being would prefer to leave here soon after arrival. Jack is flying a certain path and avoiding certain things, but I can't tell why. Then we enter a natural tunnel and suddenly we are in an eerie, alien, perfect place with a waterfall to the north. I think that might be one that I heard last night and it seems to be falling without any source and drops like a sheet of crystal into a pool and then divides into other waterfalls and then into a small pond. There are four perfect lilypads with perfect glowing lilies on each pad. Small buildings appear to be random, but upon closer inspection, they are perfectly placed, and then I notice people. They are shackled and trying to avoid notice and each has a crown of flowers. Jack continues past them onto a path up behind a waterfall into a space carved into the walls of the canyon. I follow him and, as I get higher the falling water almost sounds like a chant. Then into the tunnel with smooth sides - almost like melted crystal. Now I can see that this master has figured out how to grow crystals that capture the sunshine and allow it to flow deeper into the tunnel. There are curtains made out of vines and living bamboo that should not be able to be grown in this environment. As we pass deeper into the area we discover sculptures that look like treant - almost. Some have books, some scrolls, some lanterns. They have freckles and maybe callouses so that they are true to life. But this is truly wood shaping - not petrified or people turned to stone or wood Past this gallery of art, I see a reading nook and the other side has a bed-chamber which will always get moonlight. The highest point of the cave which causes Jack to stop first and it is filled with the perfect amount of sunlight. He returns to his normal shape, bows his head, and waits. The last statue is not a statue, not a treat, it is a man who has turned into a plant - almost. He has tree limbs, twigs for fingers, a face like a potato, but with hair and eyes of a human. Just short of beautiful, a bit creepy, and no sure way to tell what he is trying to be.
 
I discuss the current situation with him, but he doesn't tell me who asked for help. He is convinced that what he is doing is the right and perfect thing to do to solve this situation. He is positive that only he can "protect" the people until he has managed to eradicate the infestation. After all, they consorted with demons and therefore they are in error. What he creates is perfect and therefore cannot do anything that is evil. After all, death is part of life and without death, there can be no life. He was very patient with my lack of understanding and refused to admit that there was any other way of looking at the events. I finally get frustrated and leave. I check the people in the meadow and do not recognize anyone so I fly back to town and fill in everyone else on what happened on my travels. We all spend some time exchanging information and making sure that everyone knows what the others have experienced. I follow Bart and Lee to talk to one of the ladies that wasn't too interested in being rescued. We enter the livery and see all of the rescued people working together - not happily - to make things safer, stronger, and more durable.
 
Bart starts talking to the lady with the orange hair and the conversation is not going well. Lee Chung convinces him to give her the half-hour she has requested and we feed the others and we start talking to the others to find out their experiences. They are happy to talk about her behind her back, in front of her face, and care not at all that she can hear. The first person I talk to is just a bit crazy. I listen to him for a while until I decide that everything that has happened has put him off his rocker. I talk to another person and they mention they had seen the mayor two or three days ago and even witnessed the mayor talking to one of the cows in a different language - and the cow answered him!! I then find one of the caravan members so I can tell them about the jar buried in crates outside of town. They also tell me that they had seen a pisky early on - but not in quite a while. I leave all of them eating and resting to meet back up with Bart so we can talk to the lady with the attitude. She is ready to fight and has a lot of justification for the actions her family has taken in this fight. There is an exchange of a lot of information and then from outside the livery we hear Jesse's girl........