Caduceus was never an easily saddened individual. His life had taught him much of the balance of nature, The Wildmother had a purpose for everything. Life and Death all had to happen for there to be a balance. The sadness of some led to the joy of others and visa versa. There was no evil without a small glimmer of good and there was no good pure of evil ramifications. Such was life.

So, when immersed in sleep Caduceus found his dreams centered around a familiar grave, he wasn't saddened but instead rather happy to see the life that had grown since his last visit. New flowers, grasses, and mosses spotted the grave of Mollymauk Tealeaf, covering the scar in the earth like a soft green bandage as the earth reclaimed what was hers.

Caduceus knelt to the ground and reached out a gentle hand to run his fingers through the moss and grass. It flourished here where, just a bit below, the corpse of a missed friend lay. Caduceus had never met the tiefling but every so often he would gain some knowledge of the man either through a slip up by one of his new party or by a solemn conversation shared in the flickering embers of a campfire as his new friends relived old memories. There were times that either Jester or Caleb spoke so warmly as they reminisced over their lost friend that Caduceus felt that, if he closed his eyes, he knew the tiefling as well as those he was surrounded by. 

He knew that Mollymauk was a scar that would never heal for the Mighty Nein. He would always be in their worst nightmares and fondest dreams. He would follow them in memory as long as they lived, and all of them carried his death on their shoulders as a glad burden. He was a friend, and they would rather die a thousand deaths then forget him. Such loyalty was something that Caduceus found was only reserved for the best of people.

There were times when the firbolg wished he had met this "Molly". Wished that he too had seen his mischievous grin and heard his infectious laugh as the tiefling swindled someone or handed gold to thieves who, a moment earlier, had been trying to kill him. He wished he had met this tiefling whose life seemed to burn twice as bright but was snuffed out far too early.

As Caduceus placed a hand on the grave, he felt connected to the earth in this vivid dream and a strange urge came over him, one he gave in to.

"Your friends are doing alright," Caduceus told the grave. "They've gotten themselves into a few issues but they've been able to fight their way out. They still very much miss you and I see guilt in all of their eyes whenever you are mentioned. You may not think it, but I've never seen such a good thing. For them to mourn a friend so truly and mull over your death, which was no fault of theirs, just shows what good people they are and what good they can and will do in the future."

The wind blew softly in response, making the grasses above the grave shift and dance.

Caduceus looked up at the soft blue sky and smiled, marveling at the lucid dream that seems so very real.

"I'll watch out for them, as I should. It's my job to take care of them," the firbolg assured the grave, keeping his soft eyes on the white clouds ahead which drifted in the bright sea of blue above.

There was no response but Caduceus smiled softly to himself.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When he awoke the next morning, he allowed himself a small smile as the smell of dirt and grass left his senses. He slowly sat up and looked over the group sleeping at the campfire's side. Fjord and Yasha stood watch, and when he stirred they both looked to him.

"Mornin'," Fjord greeted with a smile.

Caduceus looked to the horizon and indeed saw that the sky was beginning to lighten with the pale light of sunlight.

"So it is," Caduceus nodded. 

"Another day on the road for us," Yasha murmured, her eyes on the cloudy horizon to the west. "Seems as if it may get a bit stormy."

"Who said what about storms?" Nott yawned as she stirred.

"We may want to head out soon, there's a storm brewing," Fjord elaborated for the small goblin.

"Ah. So then, let's move really fast and try not to get wet," Nott explained.

"Don't worry, if it pours too much I'll just..." Yasha lifted up her arm and tried to awkwardly explain with gestures that she would be an umbrella for the goblin.

"Thank you," Nott nodded eagerly. She then looked over to Caleb, who was still asleep. "Caleb, Caleb," she urged, elbowing him in his side.

"Hmm?" the wizard groaned, sitting up and blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

"We've got to go," Nott explained.

"Hey, Jester, Beau," Fjord called to the two girls. "We've gotta get a move on."

Jester sat up with a large pronounced yawn and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"You guys, I had the craziest dream," she explained as she stretched, nearly hitting Beau in the process.

"Oh? Do tell," Caduceus smiled.

"Okay, so there was this field right, and I was running through it... and then suddenly 'Boom'! There was this HUGE unicorn, but it was like, super fat and super squishy and... Beau, you remember those hamster unicorns I told you about?" Jester asked.

"Huh?" Beau asked, still half asleep. "Oh, yeah, yeah. The ones that only you can see?"

"No, everyone can see them, silly. You just have to know to look," the tiefling corrected.

"Yeah. Uh-huh. Hey Fjord, we gotta go, right?" Beau asked, looking for an out in the conversation.

"Yeah, come on, let's load up!" Fjord beckoned as he mounted a horse.

As they packed up camp, Caduceus smiled and listened to the rest of Jester's dream, slowly forgetting his own in the back of his mind.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When Caduceus fell asleep once more, he found himself back at that familiar grave. There was some new plant life now as a few small buds of flowers had begun sprouting from the earth. The cloak was still there. It was as if the wind didn't have the heart to blow so viciously to rip that piece of cloth away from its owner who lay beneath the earth. The sun broke through the cloud cover and illuminated the grave and all of the flora that covered it, giving it an ethereal effect.

Once again, Caduceus was called to the grave and he sat beside it this time, speaking to it as if it were a living thing with full consciousness. He told Mollymauk's grave of the day's adventures and of his old friends. As he spoke, a warm breeze blew that filled Caduceus's senses with the familiar smell of the earth. As it blew, the cloak on the stake in the ground danced on the wind, twisting and turning like a living thing in Caduceus' peripheral vision, straying from its somber position but never going so far as to leap from its post and fly on the wind. It merely stayed there, as if waiting for something...

Or someone.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Caduceus found himself with that same dream, over and over again, for days, weeks even. The grave with the cloak by the side of the road. Every time, Caduceus did the same thing and sat or knelt beside the grave and spoke of the Mighty Nein. He did not know why he did it but it seems like it was necessary, like it was what The Wildmother had called him to do.

Mollymauk's grave grew many things and Caduceus watched them all grow in wonder. A soft, hardy moss covered the grave like a blanket with thick patches of soft grass poking out of it. Those spotted patches of grass held guest to gorgeous rich purple flowers which had poked out of the grave and turned their faces towards the brilliant blue sky, welcoming the sun in their large, rich petals as they swayed in the wind.

Every time Caduceus visited he felt as if the Wildmother herself was tending the grave for no weeds or native grasses so much as crept close to the grave. Only the softest grasses, the greenest mosses, and the most vibrant purple flowers dared to show their faces near that grave. Soon enough, they were joined by soft golden flowers that popped up around the perimeter of the grave, giving it an uneven outline of gold. 

Yes, the Wildmother was very much present at that grave, though Caduceus did not know what his purpose was yet, or what the Wildmother desired of him. So, he merely did what he always did, and told the grave of adventures and of the Mighty Nein who undertook those adventures.

Then, Caduceus would wake up in a state of peace and serenity with the smell of fresh grass and dirt in his nose, the soft breath of a breeze on his face, and the feeling of warmth in his chest.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The dream was always the same. A day time visit to the grave as his body slumbered. A gentle caress in his unconsciousness would awake him and he would feel revitalized and peaceful after a night of speaking to a grave in his dreams.

He was unsure of the purpose of the dreams so he said nothing to the others, less it gets their hopes up only for them to be dashed. He knew them all, he could see into each one of their faces; if he gave them hope, they'd cling to it like a lifeline only for it to be cut and they swept away once again by sadness and mourning.

The Mighty Nein were strong in combat, but mentally, all of them were walking a very dangerous line. For them to suffer twice would be just as cruel as the first time Molly died. No, Caduceus would not torment them until he was certain of what the Wildmother was trying to tell him.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A few weeks later, the dream was very different.

Caduceus found himself at the grave as usual, save it was night and the sky was clear. Stars flickered in the sky and the moon, in her full glory, bathed the earth in a silvery sheen of light, illuminating the purple and golden flowers on and around the grave that didn't seem to close, even when the sun went down.

A cooler night breeze danced through the valley, chilling Caduceus but not making him uncomfortably cold. The aura of this place was different this time. It was as if the whole earth was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

And something did happen.

The flowers, the moss, the grass... Everything suddenly wilted over the grave, its life force that had been so carefully crafted by the Wildmother suddenly flowed down, into the earth, desperate to enter something else. The flora willingly gave their life forces to the earth that had made them, following her directions and using what short vibrant life they had to breathe new breaths into a long-still corpse.

Caduceus watched this in uncertainty as the greenery wilted and he waited. The wind grew quiet, the cloak stopped dancing on its post, the grass around him grew still and the whole world seemed to wait in trepidation. 

Silence descended on the land, even the bugs seemed to have grown silent as Caduceus watched the grave, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, the silence was disrupted by a new noise; a muffled, repetitive, rhythmic thumping. Something that sounded like it could be so soft that Caduceus shouldn't have been able to hear it, but the Wildmother did and she lent him her senses.

It was a heartbeat. A soft, heartbeat that lay below the earth, under the grave where the flora had wilted. It started soft and weak but slowly grew in strength. Pumping with revitalized strength as it moved fluids that had long remained dormant. No living thing had dared touch the body below, following the Wildmother's wishes and leaving the corpse be so that there was no rot or decay when the body below the grave twitched.

A breath. A muffled breath full of soil and then a panic. A primal emotion that raced through every ounce of the body below and spurred the new life to action.

The heartbeat thumped faster now, full of fear and uncertainty. The breaths Caduceus heard were raspy and hard, full of struggle as the life below tried not to drown in soil. The firbolg quickly went to try and help dig and free the new life but he was nothing more than a spectator. His fingers could grasp no dirt, nor could he shift any aside. He was permeable and instead of grasping earth, he could reach right into the earth like a ghost. Without hesitation, he did so, hearing and feeling the struggle ensuring beneath the grave.

His hands reached into the dirt, shifting nothing aside but searching through the earth like a ghost in an empty room.

The new life was terrified, the struggles were growing frantic and wild as if the body didn't know what it was doing or if it was unsure of the next move. 

Caduceus plunged his hand through the soil, and finally, his hand touched something solid, another hand. Certain of what he was doing he grabbed that hand firmly and pulled with all of his might. Pulling the life out of the soil where it was trapped and into the air.

A lavender hand emerged from the soil, releasing Caduceus's hand and gripping the earth as it pulled the rest of its body up. A being emerged from the soil, coughing out dirt and rasping as it tried to get oxygen into its body. With only his upper body above the ground, the lavender tiefling let out a few pained breaths, his red eyes full of panic that slowly subsided along with his frantic breaths.

He looked around in confusion before trying to pull the rest of himself out of his grave. His chest was covered in scars, one drew Caduceus' attention more than the others and that was the huge discolored portion of the tiefling's chest, a wound that had somehow healed over and now was nothing more than a pale spot on the being's chest. His clothes were covered in dirt but still extravagant and his horns were still decorated with all sorts of baubles and jewelry. 

The tiefling let out another long breath when he pulled himself from the earth, his tail flicking in the night air, happy with its new breathing room. The tiefling stood crouched over his own grave, clearly trying to decipher what had just happened.

Caduceus knelt down before him and tried to study him. The being couldn't have been more oblivious to his existence and was only struggling with himself and what seemed to be an empty mind.

"Mollymauk?" Caduceus spoke in wonder, reaching out to try and touch the revived corpse of the man whom he had heard so much of.

The tiefling's head shot up and looked around, hearing the voice but unable to tell where it was coming from. Instead, something from the shifted dirt around him drew his attention and the tiefling grabbed two things from the disturbed loose earth, a familiar moon tarot card, and a letter. His dirtied purple fingers picked them up gingerly before his red eyes shifted over to the cloak on the stake over his grave. The tiefling stood up, struggling with his body that was still not used to moving after its long dormancy, and stumbled over to the stake. He pulled the cloak from it and studied it intently, rubbing his fingers over its elaborate designs and struggling with himself as he looked at it. He looked around again, his tail swishing with his uncertain mood before he let out a deep breath.

"Molly," he spoke softly, uncertain of his voice or his words. He looked up and around, scanning the horizon uncertainly. "Molly?"

Caduceus watched this in wonder and got to his feet as well, looking at the tiefling in wonder. He had cast Decompose on this grave himself, and yet, here the tiefling stood, covered in dirt and shaky from fatigue but very much alive.

Suddenly, the tiefling's eyes darted over to where Caduceus stood and for a moment, their eyes met and they saw each other. Their eye-contact lasted only a moment because the next minute, Caduceus was sitting up in bed, the memory of those fearful red eyes burning into his vision.

He looked around and found himself in an Inn with Fjord sleeping in the other bed in the room. Shaking his head and holding it in his hand, Caduceus pondered on that dream... no, that vision.

Could what he saw be true?

Mollymauk Tealeaf was... alive?