Calanor’s POV

 

Forty nine. That was all that was left of a village formerly of over 300. They had 44 adults and 5 children in their group, joylessly marching through the forest as they fled their home. For many, it was the only home they had ever known.

 

Thus is the whim of the dryads. The true rulers of the forest. Those who live in the forest spend their whole lives appeasing the dryads and it is said that even the queen acts as a servant of the great tree. They were unlucky, and that is all there is to it. Perhaps the fact it was master Eirlathion’s tree that had birthed the dryad that was the small light within their misfortune. If it had been the nursery tree under the same circumstances, the results surely would have been far worse.

 

They were truly exhausted, both physically and mentally. The dryad had been generous enough to allow them to safely travel through these lands, and allowed them the time to gather personal belongings and weapons to protect themselves, but they had stubbornly refused them even a single human to bring with them. Every one of the humans of the village were kept in the dryad’s grove. If this area were not near the Heaven’s Scar, it was questionable as to whether they would even be able to keep moving to this extent.

 

They had managed to hunt and forage enough food in order to sustain them, but the spirit energy they gathered was small compared to normal. It was enough to barely keep them healthy, but not enough for them to thrive. Although, considering their current state, the question of their ability to thrive hinged on a lot more than just their consumption of residual human thoughts.

 

Calanor quickened his pace a few steps to walk astride their master hunter, Eizeril. She had been one of the hunters to protect him along with all the other mages of the village in the other night’s events. Thanks to this, she had survived. “Hey,” He said to her, getting a glance and a nod from her before her attention returned to the forest around them. “How are you holding up?”

 

She gave him a glare. “If you want to console me elder, I do not think right now is the best time.”

 

Calanor sighed at her cold response. “Eizeril, you are the strongest force standing between us and the demons of this forest. I can tell you are bothered, and I mean by more than just the general grief that plagues us all after the events from the other night. I can’t have your sword arm going dull before we reach Saniel’s village.”

 

“Don’t be concerned about that elder.” She says in a bitter dismissive tone as she palms the pommel of the sword on her back. “I have the village’s treasure sword for the sake of this trip. If anything shows up, this monster of a sword will be able to cleave it in half. I won’t even need a great deal of skill unless we wind up fighting the thing this sword was designed to fight against.”

 

“Eizeril, as the master hunter you ought to know better than anyone there are demons where just having a longer sword is not enough to give you a strong advantage.”

 

“The only thing we are really all that likely to see that fits into that category is imps, and we have plenty of hunters armed with bows at the ready. A hail of arrows is all it takes to handle a wing of imps. If you are talking about the tainted ones though, well, you don’t have to worry about me with that. It’s them who should be worried if they dare to show up.” She had a dangerous glint in her eye as she gripped the sword at her back tighter.

 

“The alra-slayer has a long reach for certain, but it is meaningless against the spells and arrows our tainted brethren will be using.” Calanor warned. “You see, this is exactly why I was concerned.”

 

“Well, we are getting close to the village anyway from what I heard from the lady. So, our concern will be over soon. You can have your talk with me once we arrive if you insist on it.”

 

Calanor wrinkled his brow at her tone. “That’s master Saniel Eizeril. She will be our new master magus once we arrive in their village.”

 

“Hmph. If they accept us that is. I’ve seen the way the hunters from their village treat us. They absolutely refuse to cooperate with our watch. That’s why she had to take them ahead and separate from our group, isn’t it?”

 

Calanor breathed a heavy sigh. Indeed, this was going to be a problem. “Saniel will be dealing with them on her end,” he said, “I am going to need you and the other hunters to cooperate on this end as well. Cooperation is a two-way process after all.”

 

“I understand what you are saying elder, but I think you are talking to the wrong person on this subject. You can tell me, but the others who actually fought against them are not going to be so easy to convince.”

 

“Well, I would like it if you could do your best to help me in convincing them.”

 

“I will elder. Believe me, I do understand the need. I just don’t see this going well regardless of what you or I do.”

 

“It will be a painful process, but we will still have to try.”

 

“Hmm…” Eizeril’s posture suddenly changed as her walking speed slowed and her head jerked upward.

 

“Huh?” Calanor stopped and followed her gaze and quickly saw the reason. Lakira trees. That meant they had reached their destination. And, standing in front of the grove of lakira trees was none other than Saniel. “Well, we’ve arrived it seems.”

 

“Something’s wrong.” Eizeril said. “That expression on her face is very troubled.”

 

“Well, let’s just hope what she’s going to tell us is not that she had to reconsider her offer to take us in.”

 

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

 

“Hmm…” Calanor was preparing himself as they continued to grow closer. “Well, I suppose it’s going to be my place to go meet her. I had better get out ahead.” He quickened his pace. He considered calling Jedon to be present since this was official business, but he ultimately decided against it. Jedon would have nothing to succeed him on any longer, so what was the point in it anyway? At this moment, Calanor was just a respected face among this small group of refugees. He was no longer the elder of anything, and the only reason he was still being called as such was out of respect. If anything, Eizeril would make for a more appropriate leader under the present conditions.

 

But still, he was their contact with Saniel. He had a better relationship with her than anyone else in this group, so that made him the natural choice to maintain the role of acting representative for at least the next little bit until they secured refuge within this village.

 

He took a deep breath as he approached the magus. “Master Saniel, I do hope that there is no bad news in regards to our invitation into your village.” He said, approaching her.

 

Saniel shook her head. “Well, that’s not it. I heard some other disturbing news upon arrival and I wanted to be the first to tell you. It seems that our nursery tree has awoken as a dryad, this happened just last night.”

 

“What!?” Calanor responded.

 

“I was just about to go and greet them, but I had to stop and warn you first. I really do not like the timing on this, our nursery tree should have been nowhere close to awakening, and yet it happens one night after what happened in your village.”

 

“Hmm… was your nursery tree close to awakening before you left?”

 

“That’s exactly the problem,” Saniel responded with a harsh glare. “It was nowhere even close. It hadn’t even gained the ability to manifest its nymph form yet.”

 

Calanor had a troubled expression upon hearing this. If that was the case, the chances this was unrelated were almost zero.

 

“I had to let you know as soon as possible.” Saniel said. “If something happens from this, I am sure your people will be blamed.”

 

“Hmm… well, if that’s the case, I would like to be there when you are greeting the dryad.”

 

“Of course. I thought you might say that.” Saniel gave a nod and lead the way.

 

-

 

No, there is absolutely no doubt. This one looks exactly the same. They were sitting inside the nursery tree, treated to the sound of human children playing and yelling upstairs on the higher floors. And, in front of them stood the projection of the dryad who had awoken from this tree. And, this projection looked absolutely identical to the one that had appeared before master Eirlathion’s house. The same one that had instigated them to fight and kill one another, and the same one that had cast them out of their home.

 

Calanor could feel his heart rate rise as he felt the gaze of the dryad’s projection on him. He could not even look at this spirit’s manifestation due to the uneasy feelings their mere appearance created.

 

“So,” Saniel said with a heavy tone. “Let’s not pretend we do not know what is going on, why did you come here, I thought you would be staying in your own village and wanted nothing to do with elves.”

 

The dryad’s projection in front of them smiled. “Yes, our leader who dwells in our main body did say that, they were the closest to the grey elf child and was quite upset.”

 

“What!?” Saniel actually staggered backward a step at the implications of what the dryad in front of them just said. Calanor was quite stunned as well. Does this dryad mean to say… “Do you mean to say there are more than one of you!?” Saniel voices the exact thought that was running through his mind.

 

“Hehehe! Of course! The manner in which we awakened was… quite special.” The dryad had a dreamy smile on their face as they spoke these words.

 

“Ok, I am going to need more details than just that!” Saniel bites.

 

“Oh, getting quite bold for an elf, aren’t you?” The dryad taunts back. Saniel has a certain fire in her eyes at these words.

 

“Ahem!” Calanor clears his throat loudly, drawing attention to himself. “Rather than that, how about we return to our original question. By your words, I take it your main body is back in Cundo village. So, why are you all the way over here?”

 

“Well, we needed to extend our root network. And besides, this here was originally my tree when I was a nymph, so I volunteered to come back.” More stunning information. Calanor and Saniel looked at one another, and then back to the dryad.

 

“So,” Saniel spoke up, “this is your original tree, and yet you went all the way to Cundo village and awakened in master Eirlathion’s tree? That would mean…”

 

The dryad smiled and nodded. “Yes, this village is also inside of our territory. Don’t worry though, our leader has decided to make a point of not paying attention to other villages within our territory. That is part of why it is us who have come here.”

 

“What exactly is your intention in this village!?” Saniel demanded.

 

“There’s that tone again. But, I will answer you this time if it means you will stop making trouble. My main intention is just as I said, it is just to gather power and extend my roots downward. As for all of you up here, well, I will be like most dryads. I will have my demands, but for the most part I will allow you to do as you like within my territory so long as my small number of conditions are met.”

 

Saniel could be seen breathing a sigh of relief, and Calanor felt the tension easing off of his own shoulders as well. If that was all, then this was a real load off their shoulders. However… “And what are your demands exactly?” Saniel asked.

 

“Well, for one thing, I will not allow you to bring in any more humans to this village. The ones already here are fine, but you will not capture and bring in a single one beyond them.”

 

And there it was. It was strange, this dryad, or rather these dryads, seemed to have something very odd about humans. Did they even realize how tough a demand like that would make things for them!? Well, it was better than being kicked out of this village as well, especially for them being refugees. It would be hard on them to have to move again, but it would be even harder that the members of this village would likely blame them for loosing their home as well. It would definitely be bad all around if they were forced to leave.

 

Well then, if those were the conditions then that’s simply how things would have to be.

---

 

"Dryad Mafia?"

"Wait, I got one better. Dryad's the Godmother!"

 

                                                         -meowingLexi

 

"watch it take over world tree next >_>"

 

                                                         -Roy

---

Ehh... not quite, but I didn't really say anything this chapter to give any different impression, so....