Inside, a lone woman sat rigid on the woven seat, her gaze fixed on the blurring landscape outside. Her dark skin absorbed the last vestiges of the fading light, and her simple black dress mirrored the raven hue of her loosely coiled hair, each curl vibrating with the carriage's violent jolts across the uneven terrain. Sadia had abandoned her work in the capital, her work concluded with an unexpected swiftness, but it wasn't the allure of home alone that propelled her onto this breakneck journey. A disquieting certainty, a chilling premonition, whispered that the protective spell she had woven for Leander, her husband, had unravelled, leaving him vulnerable.

The rhinoceros finally lumbered into a small village, a cluster of round huts nestled beneath the sprawling canopy of acacia trees. Dust swirled around the carriage as it shuddered to a halt. Sadia stepped out, her heavy black cloak swaying around her, and strode with purposeful steps along the worn path leading to the largest hut, its thatched roof a dark silhouette against the twilight sky. She paused at the intricately carved wooden door, her hand hovering over the smooth surface. The unnatural silence of the village pressed in on her, amplifying the gnawing dread in her heart – the spell was broken.

She entered the hut. The main room was dimly lit, shadows pooling in the corners like spilled ink, black masks decorated the walls. Usually, the house hummed with a chaotic warmth – Leonotis' half-finished experiments bubbling on the hearth, the air thick with the aroma of his questionable but enthusiastic spellwork, and Leander... Her husband, Leander, should have been underfoot, a whirlwind of questions and restless energy, ready to berate her (affectionately) for her absence. Tonight, there was only silence.

Sadia's hand instinctively moved to the hilt of the skull staff concealed beneath her travel cloak. "Leander?" Her voice, roughened by days on the road and the constant rasp of dark magic, echoed in the stillness. No answer.

Then, a thin figure emerged from the gloom of the dining room. Leonotis. He sat alone at the heavy wooden table, a half-eaten plate of stew before him, his face pale in the candlelight. Relief that he was unharmed warred with a fresh spike of unease. He should have been in bed, asleep.

"Mother?" Leonotis's voice was small, hesitant. Too quiet.

Sadia knelt beside him, her cloak pooling on the cold stone floor. She reached out, her slender fingers gently brushing his dark orange hair. "Where's your father?"

He met her gaze, his eyes fixed on her black ones. "He went to the cellar."

The cellar. A shiver traced Sadia's spine, a coldness that had nothing to do with the damp earth below. Leander rarely went down there. It was her domain, the place where she stored her more volatile ingredients, the artifacts she preferred to keep away from prying eyes... and, of course, where it was kept.

"What is he doing in the cellar?" Sadia asked, her voice low, each word measured.

Leonotis looked at her. "He said he heard... voices. Calling him. He's been going in there ever since you left."

Sadia had been gone a week. The nature of her work didn't allow for contact between her and her family, so Leonotis had no chance to warn her of his father's excursions into the cellar. Calm down, she told herself. There was no need to worry. The creature was under an imprisonment spell. There was no way it could escape its glass orb container. Or could it?

Sadia went outside, to the side of the house, to the cellar door. The door, which she always kept locked, was slightly ajar. She noticed her son had followed her, eager to see whatever reprimand she was going to give her husband. "Stay up here," Sadia said. 

Sadia descended the cellar stairs, leaving Leonotis at the top. A knot of unease tightened in her stomach. She'd told her son to wait, but the scene unfolding below was beyond anything she could have imagined. Her husband, Leander, was cradled in the Tree creature's grasp, its limbs entwining him. His lips pressed on the creatures bark face. His arms were wrapped around it's slender waist.

The dryad, Oko Egan, a denizen of the foreboding northern Dark Forest, was a creature cloaked in bark and vines. Though its fundamental structure remained woody, a disturbing veneer had been meticulously crafted upon it – a perverse imitation of Sadia's very form. Soft curves, a hauntingly familiar hourglass waist, and even the delicate swell of her breasts were crudely replicated in hardened wood and clinging vines. It was a skin of bark stretched taut over a silent, twisted jest designed, she reasoned, to prey on Leander's desires and longing. The monster had not simply assumed a shape; it had painstakingly mirrored the most intimate contours of Sadia, perverting her form for some design.

"Leander, what is this?!" Sadia's voice cracked with disbelief and disgust. Leander's head snapped back in surprise, his mouth moved, but no words came, only a pained, helpless expression.

"You… you traitor! After all I have done… all the sacrifices… you defile our house with this… this *abomination," Sadia said.

Oko Egan shifted, its black eyes focusing on Sadia. It lumbered towards her, its movements heavy and menacing.

"Leonotis, run!" Sadia shrieked, fear overriding her shock. She barely saw her son scramble back and flee as Oko Egan tore through the cellar door, splintering the wood as it escaped its former prison.

Chinakah, jolted awake at her desk in the healing hut, rushed to the window. She saw Leonotis sprinting across the field, his mother close behind, and Oko Egan crashing through the undergrowth behind her. Her heart seized. It escaped she thought. She scrambled to her feet. She had to help somehow. She knew that creature wasn't one that could be defeated alone. 

Sadia stood her ground. What was once a clearing behind their house was now a riot of unnatural growth. Twisted vines, thick as a man's arm, writhed across the warped remains of what might have been a garden. At the center of this grotesque display stood Oko Egan. Watching the creature closely was Sadia, her dark skin a stark contrast to the sickly green of the encroaching blight. Her eyes narrowed as Oko Egan's once slender body began growing towering over her.

She found it a grotesque parody of life, a towering mass of gnarled wood and grasping branches. Its roots tore through the earth, leaving trails of blackened soil. Two hollow black eyes fixed on Sadia. A low, grinding growl emanated from its woody depths, a sound that promised only pain. 

Sadia could tell by level of mana emanating from this creature a single direct blow would spell her doom. She couldn't afford to hesitate. She spread her hands, whispered the harsh words of black magic, and a visible wave of dark energy pulsed outwards. The nearest vines recoiled, their unnatural growth halting for a moment. "I will not let you spread your filth any further," she said, her voice a low hiss.

Oko Egan roared again and lunged. Its massive, root-like fist crashed into the ground where Sadia had been standing a moment before, leaving a crater of earth. Sadia reappeared several yards away, her movements fluid and swift. She extended a hand, and a stream of viscous, black liquid shot towards the creature. "Withering Grasp!"

The liquid struck Oko Egan's trunk, and a patch of bark began to blacken and crumble. The creature howled, a sound of splintering wood and tortured life. It swiped at Sadia with its branch-like arms, each tipped with points as sharp as obsidian.

Sadia dodged, twisting through the air with an almost unnatural grace. She fired another volley of dark energy, this time weaving threads of purple into the black. "Entropic Assault!"

The energy struck Oko Egan, and the decay spread rapidly. Its movements became sluggish, its once-swift strikes now clumsy and telegraphed. Sadia pressed her advantage, moving in close. She leaped onto the creature's trunk, her bare feet finding purchase on the rotting bark.

"You are going to die here," she hissed, her voice filled with disgust. She placed her hand on Oko Egan's surface, and dark energy flowed from her, tendrils of black and purple spreading like veins across its wood. "Death Bloom!"

Oko Egan convulsed, flinging Sadia off. Cracks appeared in its trunk, and a sickly green light pulsed from within.

Sadia extended her hand, black poison swirling around it, thickening into a grotesque, bubbling mass. Oko Egan reacted, a surge of green energy erupting from its form. It thrust a mass of leaves from its head, creating a large shield of leaves shimmering with green energy. Sadia launched her attack.

The force of the blast sent Oko Egan staggering backward, but its shield deflected the worst of the poison. Razor-sharp leaves, launched from the creature's head, tore through the air towards Sadia. They struck her in the gut, and she cried out, collapsing to the ground.

Oko Egan, wounded but relentless, turned its attention to Leonotis, who had frozen in terror. Black poison erupted from the boy's mouth and eyes, and he fell. The last attack from Sadia had been deflected to the boy. The creature paused as if thinking of it's next move then carefully reached into its core and pulled out a pulsating green seed.

"Wait, no—" Leander began, but Oko Egan only growled, a sound of savage determination. Leander backed away, fear etched on his face. He looked at his son and spoke. "Son, do not worry. It won't hurt at all and will be over soon."

"Mother..." Leonotis whispered, his voice fading.

Oko Egan thrust its arm, now a mass of writhing branches, towards the boy's chest.

"Stop it! You will not touch my son!" Sadia screamed. She lunged, grabbing Oko Egan's arm. The creature's arm sprouted more appendages, plunging into her flesh. Sadia screamed in pain, and with a desperate surge of effort said the words, "Dark decay," and the deadly magic spread forth, severing the arm of the creature.

But it was too late. The seed was already embedded in Leonotis's chest. As if having a mind of its own it buried itself into the boy leaving a gaping hole in his chest.

Sadia fell, the severed arm of Oko Egan withering into dust beside her. Leonotis, lying on the ground, saw his mother unmoving, her face contorted in agony. In the distance, he saw his father being carried away by the monster. Then, his vision blurred, and he lost consciousness.

Oko Egan, weakened and maimed, turned and lumbered towards the forest, dragging its injured form. Leander watched it go, then turned to his dying wife and still son. He began to walk towards Leonotis, but Oko Egan's branch-like tentacles snaked out, grabbing him and pulling him into it's branches.

Chinakah reached the fallen mother and son. She began to use her magic, trying to heal them both.

"No, don't, Chinakah," Sadia gasped, her voice thick with blood. "You don't have enough mana to save both of us."

Sadia stretched out her arm, placing her hand on Leonotis's chest. The black poison within the boy began to flow out of him, drawn into Sadia.

"Now heal him," she said, the black poison now pouring from her own orifices. "Save... my son... Take care... Of him."

Sadia's body went limp.

Chinakah, grief warring with determination, focused her remaining energy on Leonotis. She performed chest compressions, channeling healing magic into the gaping wound in his chest. Slowly, miraculously, the hole began to close.

Chinakah's arms fell to her sides, her mana utterly depleted. A weak smile touched her lips. The boy would live.

But the smile faded as she took in the scene: the dead mother, the stolen father, and the monstrous creature disappearing into the woods.