Snare
“Coils around here…” Faint muttering. His voice is stronger after Amos speaks. “Safe to sleep…”
He doesn’t seem to stir even after Amos tries blowing on his face and shaking him. Torpor, or something like it, has taken hold of him. He mouths, “Safe to sleep here…”
There’s something that makes the Green Man’s fur stand up about this place. Nonetheless, he feels calm at the idea of resting nearby. If only to protect the child a little longer, would it be such a bad idea?

“Dryad will watch…”

Consecration
Vetoed by a majority vote Adun’s frowning face was the last one to close its eyes. They fell across his vision gradually as the night cooed him to rest; he hadn’t the heart to keep cursing four of his companions for forcing camp like this. Time passed before he finally realized he’d fallen asleep. It was still dark out. Either there was a hood over his eyes, or –
Harin’s iridescent wings shone in the darkness, pale feathers brushed Adun’s cheek. The half-angel was less than five feet away, calmly gazing not too far away. It was funny; Amos had to resist the urge to make a joke at his expense. Apparently Harin was smart enough to remember an old adage he knew.

Gaze not into the Darkness, thar Darkness gazeth into ye’.

An adage the Green Man apparently swore by, from what he’d said a while ago by the tree. Where was..?

Something landed with a loud sound just behind the three. They spun in less than a heartbeat to face the threat, hands already on weapons and prepared to kill. Just Radley getting up off the ground, the Green Man, towering above his stocky boss gave an apologetic shrug. He’d just dropped the man on his face. He realized, for some reason he’d just been carrying Radley on his shoulders.
For his part Radley didn’t fuss over his cut lip and glanced at something darker than darkness coming closer. A lone wolf stalked out of the shadows to join the gathering. Matthias just kind of… appeared, and with a stylish tip of his hat there he was.

Absalom cleared his throat, pointing up at the ‘sky’. Not a star in sight.

Looking around, in fact, not a thing at all; though there was ground to stand on and air to breathe. This was definitely not the campsite. A dark shape, an ugly, twisted, predatory shape sprang from the ground. Gnarled bark seemed to have eyes that stared at something impossible inside each man. Freshly woven, rough-to-touch ropes swayed gently from the branches of the tree by the roadside. On the ends of each a perfect hangman’s knot; except for… most were empty. Just the one that had less sway going for it was being used.
A beautiful woman with skin like tree bark, and leaves in her hair; leaves that were her hair, hung there dead with both eyes still blinking.

No breath left to speak, no heartbeat, “Let me die.” Pain.
Her tone was the very embodiment of that. “My tree was a good tree. I don’t deserve this. Answer me… answer me… Should have kept killing…”