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It took three days for the trees to figure out what was going to be the next mission… it wasn't like they lacked things that needed to be done…

“Wait!”

““Martha!””

But when a dog caught a particular smell, and it made him run straight to the forest with a redhead girl chasing him… again… they decided that the situation was good enough, to guide Brenna to the place of her last mission…

They seeing the sentry placed in that place, as unreliable, also affected their decision…

At first, the boar that had started to raid the fields between the cities, destroying the ground of many farms on its search for plants and seeds, had been nothing more than just another creature. A lucky one, due to not been seen seen since fall, and to not do that too close to one of the cities…

Until it raided Martha’s family’s field and her parents went to the city to complain about it

Her friends stayed with her to help fix the damage caused by the boar overnight, with the pet of the youngest snapping the rope holding him to the fence with a bite, starting the chase. Fi and Celia froze the moment they saw Martha chasing the dog, with her hat falling from her head before she reached the forest…

Still remembering what happened the last time they saw that same scene…

“Rash!!! Get back here!!!” the redhead remembered too, angry at the parents of her friend for getting her a dog that now reached the height of Martha’s chest, needed food from the three families to be feed, and that now she had troubles with chasing him between the trees… but…

A small part of her… wanted to see the snake again… to make sure the snake knew, that there were adventurers looking for her

She hadn't talked with anyone about how it was the snake that gave her family the Holy Blossoms, she couldn't betray her again…

‘Don’t tell me he is chasing her?!’ that thought made her try to speed up…

Bark!!!

Squeal!!!

Feeling some relief when she saw the dog jumping at the back of a boar, and not a snake… a boar that matched his size…

“Stop!!!” that relief was very short lived…

The blade-like tusks of the boar, cut the air as it moved wildly, dislodging the dog from its back and almost cutting him with a follow-up charge. The shallow wounds on its back from the bite, barely bleeding…

“Ah!” it was then that Martha realized that the charging boar now was aiming at her

Bark!!!

But the tackle and bite from the brown dog, made him a more pressing opponent giving Martha time to hide behind a tree-

Squeal!!!

Caw!

A surprisingly quick movement to gore the dog, made him disengage, with the tusks shaving some of the fur of his head… almost blinding the dog with that one swing…

“Stop!!!” Martha was in a frenzy, she needed to take the dog back, but she had no idea of how to stop him and the boar from trying to kill each other

Until a white sphere hit the boar on the back-

Squeal?!!!

Making it spin on place trying to remove… something… clinging on its back

The dog at that point was barking, unable to get close to the boar while he was also looking around, trying to find where that thing came from

Giving Martha a chance to try and get close enough to grab the rope-

SLAM!!!

“AH?!!!” getting interrupted by something transparent hitting the boar from above, and making her run to hide behind the tree again, forgetting about the rope

The impact made the boar fall to the ground exposing its throat with a squeal of pain, letting the dog charge against it. Sinking his teeth in the throat of the beast, drawing more blood with that attack as they struggled

‘How I’m supposed to kill that?!’ and an angry Brenna landed on the ground, with her wings open, ready to take flight again, leaving the creatures between her and Martha

-The mission was about finding Terror Stones-

‘Are you sure about that?!’ her chat was cut short with a yelp

The boar managed to get up and hit the dog with its belly, sending him crashing on the ground towards Martha

‘Ah!’ and the glare she got from the huge bleeding beast made her shiver as she focused on the next spell on her book

Crack!!!

Making a pillar of dirt hit the boar on the stomach, with enough force to lift the creature a couple centimeters from the ground, before it collapsed on the ground gurgling and with difficulties to breath

‘I aimed at the head-?! The mark!’ just as she was realizing why her spell was misdirected, Brenna saw the dog standing up. Growling between the boar and her ‘Don't look at me like that!’ but she closed her Grimoire and flew to a branch

Letting the dog decide to charge to the boar’s neck, to bite it again, struggling with the boar as it still tried to shrug him off, while bleeding on the ground

Leaving the two girls to wait until the fight was over. Brenna didn’t wanted to hit the dog, even with her mark still active, and Martha was unwilling to get close as the two struggled, because the remaining rope around the neck of the dog wasn't long enough, for her to be at a safe distance from them…

Ding

‘Ia Stop…’ they didn’t had to wait much, but once Brenna got the notification she stopped her magic, and the huge dog turned to the branch where she was to growl at her

The bubble that appeared on her beak scared the other girl into running towards the dog to pull the rope-

“Stop that!” but the stern voice that came from it, froze both of them “Bad dog! Not growling!” she flapped her wings angrily

“Ah…?” Brenna’s voice sounded like her adoptive mother’s…

“Sit!” it wasn't an exact match, but it was close enough to confuse both of them

The dog looked between the two girls, his whimpering got the attention of Martha and she snapped out of her stupor and grabbed the rope, glad that it didn’t got too covered in blood from the other creature. He sat next to her when she grabbed the rope

“Oh~ he is trained! Good boy~” Brenna flapped her wings close “Eat!” and made that last command pointing at the boar with her beak

Bark!

Which he eagerly followed while wagging his tail… making Martha grimace a little at the scene that followed…

“Ah, sorry about that” just as she was going to say something, Brenna made a bubble first “I was told that if a dog does something right, you should reward them at that moment”

‘Oh…’ and she realized something about her spell, when she interrupted the girl with it ‘Since I need to think about what to say, it causes a delay while having a conversation…’ as the girl was hesitating near the dog, Brenna used the time to look at her and think ‘I hope this doesn’t causes more… issues… damn…’

-Something’s wrong?-

‘Good thing Carmen isn't here… she would be, very, envious of this girl…’

She did her best to ignore the fact, that she was also a bit envious of the redhead… but remained a bit ignorant of the why of that envy…

“Ah…” Martha took a deep breath, she had a million questions that she wanted to ask… but everything that she was told about birds and the forest where she was, was keeping her from saying them… “What… what do you want…?” but this bird had helped her…

Just like a snake had helped her before…

The silence stretched for a few seconds, only the sounds made by the dog as he ate were breaking it…

“Nothing much…” until Brenna finished making another bubble “The trees told me that you two were in danger, and gave me the mission to tell you about three hidden objects near the edge of the forest” she pointed with a wing on the general direction were her house was…

The redhead realized at that point, just how deep inside the forest they where…

“W-what do you…? Ah…” Martha started to ask that, the same moment Brenna made another bubble… seeing the bird held it on her open beak, she hesitated “Sorry… you were saying…?”

“When he finishes, please follow me” Brenna made another bubble after she broke that one “Ugh… holding this spell is annoying… sorry about the delays while I speak like this…”

‘Ugh… I didn’t meant to say that first bit… how embarrassing…’ before that day, she was very proud of her spell…

Brenna preened her feathers once she was done talking… trying to now show her embarrassment

‘This must be a… mage using a bird to talk with me…?’ giving an idea of what might be happening at the time, to Martha… ‘A mage that receives missions from the forest…? Or… a… Ah?!’

“D-diamond Volcano…?!” her yelp made both the dog and Brenna look worried at her… but on the silence that followed, and when he went back to eat…

-She is talking about a famous person~-

“Who…?” Brenna asked both her Helper and the girl below…

-I’ll tell you after this is done~!-

“Ah…?” the question made the girl blush, both from embarrassment and from disbelief… “How can you not…?! Unless you do know and…” she muttered that last bit while looking at the bird…

Unable to figure out anything from her body language…

“Nevermind…” but she had never tried that with… a creature whose face was less expressive than a dog’s… so, she gave up on that “I’ll go with you… as long as you swear on the name of a god, that you don’t want to hurt either of us…” but quickly remembered a tale that her adoptive mother told her…

‘How… how do I do that…? Eh… Mor…?’

“I swear upon the name of Aufiea, that I mean no harm” she made another bubble after reading those two messages… with many questions filling her mind for later

The explosive sigh that came from the redhead, made Brenna worry for the girl, but the obvious relief on her face, helped her to not comment on it

Bark!

Eventually the dog had a full belly and turned towards Martha, his tail waggling happily behind him. Making her ignore all the blood by looking at Brenna

“Where do we go…?” she nearly screamed when the branches of one of the trees moved

“Follow me” and Brenna made another bubble before flying to that tree

Waiting for the girl and the dog to get close to it before flying to the next one that moved

The direction they were moving was taking them out of the forest, but not in a straight line to Martha’s home. It was to somewhere further to the east, without any landmark that signaled that something had happened there…

/////

The hidden sentry noticed the moving trees first, then the girl and the dog moving towards those trees… almost missing the black bird, and revealing his position with a scream…

Because a root was holding his bow to the ground…

‘Hmm?’ when Brenna landed on the branches of the latest moving tree, she looked around, but none of the trees moved again ‘Here…? It’s pretty close to the edge… where are these things…?’

-The trees want you to find them-

‘Of course they do…’ she looked towards the two following her and made another bubble

“Sorry, please wait. I need to make a spell to find the things” trying to keep a neutral tone… unaware that she almost made the sentry scream again…

Martha nodded quietly, she could see the farms on the distance, meaning that she wasn't worried about the bird… even if she sounded angry. She was worried about the dog to her side, he was sniffing around seemingly bothered by something, that neither of the girls could see, but making her think that the bird was feeling it too

‘So…’ Brenna turned her attention to the book floating in front of her… ‘I guess she can’t see my Grimoire…?’

-Seems that way! Your Status is also invisible, unless something really specific happens-

‘Remind me to ask about that later, please…’ Brenna decided to try to not move to much while making the spell, as to not worry the girl with her gestures. She added the usual drawings of her shooting something from her wings, before focusing on the projectile ‘Search… search… search what…?’

She looked around, just seeing the trees, some plants on the ground below, the grass from the plains that she could see between the branches…

‘Hmm… I’m looking for something that keeps animals away…’ she made a drawing of a transparent wall, appear on the page of her Grimoire ‘I will need to make a more generalized one for later… but these things… they must cause an… effect… or change around them…’

Her mind went back to the times she flew over The Line…

‘I feel nothing while doing that…’ and started thinking about the Items she might buy ‘Maybe that Sense Magic thing would let me feel it…? Wait… if I buy that, the stones are going to start stopping me…?’

-They don’t affect the Senses when they block a creature, from passing near them-

‘Hmm… so I need to detect the magic they have…?’ Brenna didn’t got an answer, and had to look back at the drawings ‘Do they work like a wall…? Can I “Scream” and heard the “Eco” of my magic bouncing back…?’

“What are we looking for…?” Martha asked after looking around for a while, after resisting asking about the snake, and eventually she got an answer

“I don’t know, it might be something stolen, something lost, something important enough to kill for, or, something worthless that was wasted. The trees want you to get it, that’s all I know…” her words were fascinating for the sentry…

To the point were he wondered if the idea of him being sent there, was actually to find whatever the bird was talking about…

While Brenna wasn't sure if saying Terror Stones was a good idea or not. She just wanted to finish with the task…

“Tell me if something changes then…” Martha looked around, becoming worried by being inside the forest for so long… unable to shake the feeling of being observed… “Can I return him home…?” the idea of not returning at all, popped in her mind after saying that…

‘Change… sure, let’s go with that…’ but her words acted as inspiration…

The whole spell was scrapped, now it showed her forming a sphere in front of her

‘Observe Space Inside, Ignore Light State, Memorize State’ she added the Ignore, to make sure that a shadow wasn't going to stop the sphere. Then she added the words to move the sphere, before adding the transparent wall again ‘Compare, With Change: Stop’

That part was drawn as two spheres moving forwards, one stopped as it moved through the wall, and the other floated away without touching it

‘Magic Sensor!’

“Hey! I asked-! Ah!” Martha started talking just before a white sphere, not bigger than one of her fingernails, appeared in front of the bird and floated forward, to the edge of the forest…

‘Yes!’ where it stopped for no reason, making the dog growl once he saw that, focusing on that, instead of the weird smell nearby ‘More of them!’ but Brenna didn’t noticed the growling, making five more of those and launching them to cover a wider area, having them at different heights

Each of them stopping at different distances away from her… forming an angle if seen from above

‘Of course! It’s a triangle!’ she pulled some of them back, making them go around until she got pass those two walls and found the third one. Some got close, but didn’t reached the spot where the sentry was…

By that point the dog started barking loudly…

“C-calm down…” and while Martha tried to calm him

“Quick! Look at the corners of that triangle!” Brenna made a last bubble while arranging her Sensors above where the Terror Stones were hidden by the first human that Miriam killed… “Under them, is where the things the trees want you to take, are!”

“You want me to dig? I can’t just let go of him- Ah?!” as she was saying that a root moved up and coiled around the rope she was holding

Freezing the dog, the redhead, and the sentry, from moving at all

““Martha!!!”” until matching screams came from the outside

‘Ah!’

-Flee!-

Making Brenna escape, before the other two girls saw her…

“Wait!” and making the spell vanish once she was far enough “Damn!” thankfully, Martha saw where the spheres gathered, but she almost screamed when she saw her two friends crossing that triangle… unaffected…

“We saw some lights-!” Fi spoke before Martha could said anything, immediately screaming and rushing to the dog “Rash?! What happened to you?!” trembling at the sight of the blood on the fur of her pet and dropping Martha’s hat for Celia to pick up, and nearly crying due to the shaved spot near an eye…

“He killed the boar that my dad saw…”

““WHAT?!!!””

Martha decided to lie, not wanting to talk about the bird… just in case that, would be another betrayal… and making the sentry wonder if that was the same boar he had seen…

Without saying anything else, she moved to a corner of the triangle and knelt on the ground, before digging

“You can’t just leave it at that!” Celia was the first to recover, glancing around “And what were those lights-?! You can use magic?! Were you practicing-?!”

““AH?!!!””

Both her an Fi screamed, nearly dropping the hat again, when Martha found the glowing Terror Stone. The redhead was about to scream too, but managed to take a deep breath and hid the stone on her apron’s pocket, so it didn’t bothered the dog as much as it already did

“The tree isn't going to let Rash go, until we find the other two” she stood up, hoping that the lie wasn't too big for her mouth, before she pointed to the root and the other two girls gasped, just then realizing its existence “Celia, please dig by that tree… near that mossy rock…”

The other girl nodded, and while Fi calmed her dog, her friends found the remaining stones. The tree played along, and let go of the rope by then

Martha’s sigh of relief was the loudest of the three… but when the other two looked at her, she realized that she had no explanation for what had happened with the lights… nor how she knew about what the tree intended to do with the root-

Rustling

But she didn’t couldn't think about that at the time, all of them shivered at the gesture coming from the trees around… feeling that the forest was becoming darker around them, with every second the trees moved

“We need to leave” Martha hid the three stones in her apron “Now!” and didn’t needed to say anything else, for them to leave… the dog staying far away from her, for the whole rushed walk towards her home…

All of them had the impression that the day and the forest, became brighter once they were out of the shadows made by the trees…

The sentry remained in his hiding spot, not moving until a root poked him in the back, helping him realize that his bow had been released…

‘I… need to report this… but I suppose, that first I need to make sure the girls are going to be safe…’

He was annoyed by that… even if that was supposed to be one of his jobs…

“That was the place where… that lord got killed… right…?” Celia whispered to Martha as they moved on the plains, using the distance made by the dog, so his owner didn’t heard her talk about that topic as they walked to the road

“Ah…” Martha looked around trying to remember what happened that day, and recognizing the house in front of the spot where the carriage stopped… “Yes…?” remembering the cryptic things the crow had said before…

“Do you think it's related…?” Celia’s eyes shone with excitement that she was trying to keep out of her voice…

Excitement that Martha didn’t felt at all…

“I hope not…” she placed the hat back on her head “And honestly? I just want us to be told that we can move away…” that was something the three families had decided together…

“Come on~!” something that Celia wasn't happy about “Where is your sense of adventure?!”

“Hiding from the dread of having to tell mom that they need to go back to the city, and cancel the hunt of the boar” she pointed at her apron “And to return these…” seeing the expression on her friend’s face she added “And stop trying to give me that title!”

Making her pout… but the families agreed that: Loved by the Forest, was a terrible title to get… so, she didn’t felt bad about that

/////

Brenna had escaped back to the remains of the boar, annoyed by the interruption of the girls…

‘Those hats were huge…’ hoping that the mission hadn't failed… wishing with all her strength, that she didn’t needed to go back and save the girls from something else…

Even so, she was looking towards their general direction, just in case

-Birds when they see them from above, see eyes. This illusion makes them stay away-

‘Ah…? Really?’

-It might not work with you, but it usually does with the rest-

She had no idea of how something like that worked, but decided to ignore it

‘Then… who she was talking about?’

-Diamond Volcano is a famous person that lives inside the forest, she has done a lot of things. That girl must have thought that she was talking to her, through you-

‘I’m not a speaker… does this world has mikes on it…?’ she closed her eyes for a moment ‘I might need to figure how to make both of those… and how to teach people to play instruments too…’

Ding

‘Status?’ she opened her eyes once she heard the sound

‘Yes, it makes the trees get annoyingly insistent in getting me to kill things…’ that was the reason she was angry with the trees

In the three days that had passed before she got that mission, she had tried to make new spells. Getting some… “Suggestions...” coming from Sunny and the other trees, and many comments speaking about using those spells on creatures…

‘The dog and I shared the exp of the kill…?’ one of those spells was the pillar that struck the boar…

-Yes, even if you had been the one that killed it, the “Exp” would have been shared, because he started the fight-

‘Is Miriam getting exp too…?’ Brenna had thought, jokingly, about the trees teaching her Miriam’s spells…

-She wasn't part of that combat. So, no, she didn’t- and was still angry at being told that the trees, were in fact, doing that… -Congratulations on the Trait! It should help you!-

‘Thanks…’

It was just an irrational prideful thing, and Brenna knew it… still, she couldn't help but feel bothered by it. Even after all the trees, and Sunny, had admitted that her spells were better than Miriam’s, and she got a level up to her Magic Knowledge thanks to doing them…

‘Ugh…’ she felt bad about feeling like that, but wasn't ready to talk about it… ‘Traits…’

She was relieved with knowing, that she had managed to make spells that Miriam couldn't… at first, her pride was starting to get even more annoying, as time passed without her admitting it was there…

‘Why use “Aufiea…”? Wouldn't be better to use the name from the goddess of the forest where we are…?’ but that wasn't the only thing she was focusing on ignoring…

‘So they don’t know you are the goddess of… of…’ she tried to remember what Carmen had told her before “Transgender people…? And… hatching eggs…?” she couldn't remember everything else, she wasn't interested enough at the time… only because Carmen had been insistent about those two things, is that she remembered them…

‘Ah… sorry for forgetting your name…’

‘…’ Brenna felt bad about that too, but didn’t knew what to say and turned to look at the boar below

-How about you buy the Magic Organ now? You might still become unconscious, but there is going to be food when you wake up-

She was going to buy it before, but her Helper had told her the side effects from the purchase and decided to hold back

‘I probably should…’ the circumstances were good enough, and she wasn't able to complain about the idea…

It would also let her stop talking about a topic, that was bothering her…

‘EP Shop…’ looking at the things there, she confirmed the price before moving to a wider and more open spot between the branches, laying on top of it to not risk a fall ‘Buy Magic Organ…’

The heat on her chest grew quickly…

/////

And she didn’t realized when she fainted

‘Ugh…!’ she just could feel hunger and how stiff her body was ‘Ugh…!’ specially on the joints of her wings and legs, to her torso

-Are you okay?-

‘Hungry… ugh… dizzy too…’ she tried to, but was unable to stand without pain ‘What happened…?’

-It’s just how the purchasing of that Item works: if you had an organ that isn't used, then it gets repurposed, in your case: a new one was made. Plus the connections from it, and your Focuses, are new too! So, your body needs to get used to a lot of things-

Brenna closed her eyes, trying to not think about how her insides looked now. Quickly realizing that she had somewhere else, to store her magic… it wasn't her Inner Sea, but the new thing felt connected to it…

‘Ugh…’ but the hunger was horrible, and doing her greatest effort yet, she stood up

Gliding to the ground, almost screaming with the landing, not noticing that something else had eaten part of the boar while she was unconscious, before she turned to it, and started to tear bits and pieces to eat…

/////

Once she had finished eating, and… realized… what she had done, she cleaned the blood from her body on the river and went back to Sunny quite late on the afternoon

Buzz!

‘Hi…’ she didn’t felt like doing anything, not even flying the rest of the way to the nest, making Sunny ask her about it ‘I just… wanted to talk with that girl for a bit more… having someone that doesn’t wants to kill me for being a bird, sounds good right now…’

Buzz?

-Sunny…-

‘Fine!’ Brenna cawed angrily ‘I freaked out by eating meat again! Happy?! I never had to do that before! I never had to push my face into a carcass to eat!’ she nearly gagged at the memory and covered her face with a wing ‘Without the brothers to do… that… for me, I would have starved… if I had appeared with my body in this stage… I would have died…’

Buzz…?

She didn’t looked up when Sunny made that sound…

-Yes, Miriam might have felt that way too. They came from the same world, remember?-

Meaning that she didn’t saw that message addressed to the ladybug, before it closed

After a few seconds Sunny made a soft sound, different to the ones she had made before

‘Eh…?’ making her look at Sunny

-She is apologizing-

‘Ah… no, I’m sorry too… I shouldn’t have screamed at you…’ a few moments of silence passed ‘I know that I… I need…’

The idea of “Manning up” sickened her…

‘I know that I need… to survive… until my last evolution…’ but managed to find a better way of saying what she meant ‘So, please be patient when it takes me time to eat…’ it was her Helper the one that spoke next

-If you wait too much, a creature might steal your food… making you kill even more, for a meal…-

Sunny buzzed in agreement

‘Ah…’ she couldn’t find a fault on that logic ‘True… ugh… s-should I look at my spells…? Now that I have that Instinct, maybe I can make them better…?’ so she tried to ignore it until later… ‘Apparently, I came from a world full, of battle junkie gods…’

Buzz~!

Brenna didn’t got any answer other that Sunny’s laughter…

And that…

‘Hi Trickster…’

Which made her feel a bit better, and let her laugh…

Because… she was unaware of the terrifying meeting, that was going to happen the next day…

 

////////////////////

Interlude 13 – Winter Prank

////////////////////

Two robed figures were slowly walking north between the trees, making a lot of noise against the snow with the heavy footwear they had

The first one just needed to be ahead of the other, stopping when he was told, and to remain quiet as much as possible

The other one was holding a map and had many tools attached to the gauntlets his Doll was wearing

“Stop…” after looking around and consulting the map and tools, he struggled to speak through the Doll and the mouth of his body at the same time “We are south of the natural bridge on the map, but the map is incorrect, we are at a lower elevation than indicated in it”

“Then, the tree is further away than expected…?” the other puppeteer asked. In comparison he was struggling to figure out, how to not speak using both bodies…

“I’m surprised that you figured that out…” while the Doll couldn't show a glare, the voices did an excellent job with implying it “Go on, cross the bridge. After this is over, you can leave, or be recruited…”

An obvious lie, both of them knew it as he walked away… but the first puppeteer had the hope, that there could be a minuscule chance of actually being recruited

He, like the other one, already had been rejected by the System, for a very different reason, but since they were in the same boat, he had no trouble working with a necromancer… even if he had no idea what their nonsense about a “True God” meant…

“How much is far enough?” he said from the other side, there wasn't any trouble while crossing the stone and dirt forming the bridge above the river

“Try to stand between those trees in front of you…” the gap between those seemed to be big enough, to not be hit while walking

They didn’t needed to scream, both of the puppeteers were in the same room and at that distance, the double voices didn’t bothered either of them-

Clank!

But before he got close enough, one of the two trees flung a rock towards the first Doll, barely giving the puppeteer a chance to block it with a gauntlet… and after waiting quietly for a few seconds he continued walking…

“And now…?” reaching the spot without problems

“Wait…” the voice he could heard, was angry… and turning to look at the other Doll, just showed it hunching over the map, using the tools it had…

Before it too crossed the bridge… looking towards the gigantic tree on the distance as he did so…

“I crossed to the other side too…” he informed, before looking at the Doll between the trees “Keep walking…” he had stopped just as he finished crossing “We are going to maintain this distance between us… for two hundred meters…”

They did that, both of them deflecting and dodging a rock flung by a different tree as they moved, when they reached the fifty meters mark-

Sunny killed both of them…

At first, she hated the idea of not killing them immediately when they entered her range, but after the Trickster told her to make them waste resources, by making them guess her true range…

Sunny, and the rest of the trees, admitted that it was funnier that way

/////

Deep below the city, once they stopped shaking, Ken asphyxiated the two mindless bodies while Grim marked the bridge with an X, and used his own tools to use that spot to make another circle in the map…

Smaller than most of the circles around Sunny…

He looked calm, with no expression on his face… but the blond knew him better than most, and was certain that he was furious…

They had already used fourteen Dolls trying to figure out the maximum range of the gigantic Guardian Tree… but between the inaccuracies on the adventurers’s made maps, the different work ethics of each of the puppeteers, and the fact that the trees moved, deliberately making measurement… difficult… by making everyone work with guesses…

Grim made another circle in the map, with a radius that started from the edge of the forest, to the tree…

“Is this less wasteful?” and asked him that… “Or should we waste more resources on this…?”

With a gesture, Ken made a skeleton drag the two fresh corpses away, before looking at the map. Paying attention to the few marks that showed the location of inactive Dolls

Some of them were inside the enormous circle, but some of the Dolls they had lost, were only destroyed when a puppeteer tried to make them move, not before…

“With this circle, the number of lost Dolls increases to twenty…” he pointed to one somewhat close to the spot where Justice had died “If we don’t count this one as lost… do you still want to send Titan to go looking for that snake?”

“If the False Ones want it. We want it more…” that was the answer he got

“Then once he is back from the north, we can send him close to this one. The tree shouldn’t destroy it at this distance, but Titan should be able to tell us…” Ken’s finger moved along the map to the edge of the next biggest circle and tapped it “Where that Doll will be destroyed, and in case this tree can attack the living… then he can use the destruction of the Doll, to be safe by going around, this circle” he pointed back to the last one to be made “Or this one”

“Twenty-one…”

They stayed in silence for a few seconds, before Grim looked at him in the eyes

“We are going to need more materials…”

“Our best provider can do a delivery by spring…” Ken tapped a Doll outside all the circles “We’ll need to do the deal in a new place… probably behind The Line, their current boss is that distrustful”

“It fits… seeing how he became their new boss…” Grim nodded standing from the chair “With some luck, Titan will be here before we do the deal, and be the one that brings the goods to us…”

With that, both of them left the room… each with their own plans for the future…