Carving the statues and decorating the grotto proved to be a long term project. Bob's muscles offered the best help with moving heavy things.  Three stone statues were chief among these things. Alex didn't think Bob could lift hundreds of pounds of stone statue but was proved wrong. Alex figured he'd need rock it back and forth to get the statues in the cave. Impressively, Bob was able to wrap his arms around the statue, crouch down, and stand up.  He took a few steps and set down the statues where Martha pointed out as a good spot.  Right now they were still lumps of rock but some people could see what they would become after some art and it made sense how they would be displayed before being finished.

Kaide stood outside the grotto when a little bird descended on her shoulder. "Hmm, it seems like Ki would like to talk with everyone she has some news with."

"Oh, where should we meet her?" Fufi asked.

"She should be here shortly. Unlike me she can use treestride to travel quickly." Kaide sounded a bit envious.

"Treestride?  Is that a skill where you can jump from tree to tree?" Alex wondered.

"Some plant themed magical girls have powers like that.  It tends to work like they step into one tree and then step out in another tree." Fufi explained with a nod.

"Oh, that is a really good ability." Alex sounded impressed.

"I wonder if I can learn it." Alex mused.

"Well your best chance to learn it would have been to stay as a Nymph and you didn't want that." Fufi shook her head.

"Oh, I umm." Alex stammered a bit. Being forced to be a Nymph really caused him to reject it without even considering it. Facing being forced into anything was a good enough reason to resist.

"Ha, I'm just kidding Alex, don't feel bad. Most anyone in your shoes would have wanted to do the same thing. No one likes to be changed without their consent." Fufi backpedaled a bit.

An awkward silence followed.

The silence broke when Ki came walking down the stairs built into the wall of the gorge.

"Hello everyone, how are things? It looks like you've been busy." The Nymph said with a smile.

"Yes, we dug out a grotto and were trying to figure out what would be appropriate for it to become a place someone could ask Luna for a class." Alex answered Ki.

"Well, in town there was a big building that had various alcoves for popular deities. My understanding of the nomadic tribes is that they mostly only have classes given by the battle god, Senso.  For him, holy relics are things associated with great battles.  Shamans keep these items and their stories for rituals like asking for a class.  They don't set up a permanent structure and instead have a tabernacle that they take with them from place to place." Ki explained.

"I hope this grotto being a shrine is a good idea." Alex wondered.

"I think so too. But it has to be cute." Fufi agreed.

"We could grow flowers along the entrance.  Also, perhaps some mushrooms.  It is quite dim so I don't know how well most plants would do." Kaide suggested.

"We don't know much about cultivating mushrooms." Bob looked to his wife who also shook her head.

"It is okay, some of the other Nymphs said they would like to be in charge of gardening for the grotto." Ki said happily.

"Oh that is good, we could use the help." Alex gratefully accepted the offer.

"There is something else I wanted to talk about too." Ki's smile faded, taking on a more serious tone.

"What's that?" Bob and Alex asked in unison.

"It is about the stone ax tribe.  A little bird told me that the chief plans to just delay planting the Aspens we gave Handverk." Ki said with a sigh.

Alex whispered to Kaide, "Does she mean that in a literal sense, like birds are telling her what is going on in the tribe."

Kaide snickered and nodded to Alex.

"I don't understand why the chief is doing that. I thought they wanted to make amends." Alex frowned.

"I don't either. Are they warriors or bandits?" Fufi said with a shrug of her beak.

"Anyway, this is not outside of expectation." Ki cleared her throat. "We learned a lot from the meeting.  Handverk wants to trade. Chief stone ax is in charge but ignores his advisors. He thinks the weakness of us not being able to leave the forest is a shield that he can hide behind."

"Is that not the case?  I thought it was a show of good will to reveal that to them." Alex furrowed his brow.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean there isn't other options." Ki stated matter-of-factly.

"I see. So what else did they say?" Alex leaned forward.

"The shaman advisor doesn't want to face the anger of forest spirits. He thinks the game the chief is playing is too risky and he is right." Ki said smugly.

Bob scratched his head. "What does that mean?"

"It means that we don't have to rely on the tribe to expand the forest's domain. All these years we've been expanding away from the ruined town to not have to deal with people. Now our expansion may come back to bite us because we don't have access to the area. I guess that we can plant trees along the edge of the woodland but there are miles to the town. " Martha sighed.

"So we just need help from someone that isn't a nymph then Kaide. Also, there are plants that can spread their seeds for many miles with the right wind." Ki made sure the younger nymph understood.

"I don't know if we can get too close to the town but we could carry a lot of saplings in the carriage.  I'm worried about the scouts spotting us." Alex felt a bit scared of the thought of going back towards the place where they ran away from.

"I don't think you understand.  It is summer, the aspens have already flowered and the floofy seeds have blown all around the surrounding areas." Ki explained a little bit slower this time.

"Oh, I understand.  The whole planting was just a test to see if they could be dealt with in good faith." Alex finally got it.

"Yes, it is only the miasma left over from the demon army that keeps them from sprouting.  Also, Sakura would have disagreed with purging it.  She felt like the humans were not trustworthy and deserved to wander the wastelands." Ki said though there was a bit of sadness in her tone.

"So how can we help?" Alex felt a bit out of his league.

"We are going to do a ritual at the forest's edge. You are welcome to join us. It should cause the whole area of land from the wood's edge to the river to sprout and grow.  After that perhaps we can go visit them, at least the ones that haven't ran off."

"I guess that means you have things under control." Alex said softly.

"You all are welcome to come and observe though." Ki added.

"Sure, if nothing else I could cook." Alex smiled weakly.

"I'd rather just stay at the farm.  It hasn't been long since we saw our daughter." Bob stated.

Martha nodded in agreement. "I feel the same. Also, we can't leave the farm unattended. Maybe one day after things calm down a bit it might be nice to take a trip to town just to say we've done it.  But not right now."

"I suppose." Alex agreed, still feeling uneasy about returning.

"Do you want to come with Merumeru?" Fufi asked the slime girl.

Merumeru shook her head.  She pointed at the grotto and said "Meru!"

The group headed up the stone stairs out of the gorge and back into the farm.  Martha prepared some supplies to prepare food for a group of nymphs that they packed in the carriage. Ki showed off by walking into a tree like it was made of water and vanishing, a wave and a smile were all she gave as a goodbye.

"She is such a show off." Kaide complained.

"I guess so.  Well, Fufi and I best be off.  I don't think we can make it out of the forest before we have to make camp but that is okay.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to figure out where to meet the rest of the nymphs." Alex wound up the key on the cart while he talked.

"Merumeru is staying here to decorate, so it looks like it is just you and me for now Fufi." Alex waved to the pink flamingo.

"Sure, let's get going." Fufi said from her perch on top of the cart.

They headed to the gorge, climbed down and gave a quick goodby to the slime girl still down there.  Several nymphs who Alex didn't know were also there doing their thing.  He wasn't quite sure what their plans were for decoration but didn't want to get in the way.

Again the same problem with the carriage not doing well in steep terrain slowed progress. They had only a couple spots where they could take the carriage out of card form and ride it before they had to stop and make camp when it got dark.

Alex kept an eye out for any signs of trouble. There was a few times he jumped at some creatures crossing near them or heading deeper in the woods.

While cooking dinner for the two of them Alex asked, "Fufi, what do people normally use for transportation in Terre?"

"Well, you've seen a little.  There are carts and horses. The less land locked areas have boats as well.  There are more flashy ways of getting around but they get less common the more exotic it gets." Fufi explained.

"So is Ki's treestride ability rare?" Alex asked.

"Yes, she must have worked really hard to learn it. I guess a comparison might be that a wizard who studied spacial magic might be able to learn teleportation at level 9. Though it is not an apples to apples comparison because Ki is not a wizard." Fufi nodded.

"Hmm, that is really impressive but I doubt I'd be able to have something like that from my class any time soon.  After taking the carriage along in the woods a few times I keep feeling that it is not the right tool for the job as it were." Alex leaned back in the carriage seat, pulling a bolt of cloth he was using as a blanket over himself.

"I guess someone going off a road would just ride a horse.  Is that what you were thinking?" Fufi asked back.

"Something like that. Though I was never really one for taking care of animals. Do they have flying mounts in this world?" Alex asked with a yawn.

"Hmm, like winged horses or big birds?  Yeah though they are even more difficult than learning magic to fly." Fufi said with a nod.

"Why is that?" Alex wondered.

"Well, rather than beasts of burden they are more like companion creatures.  A dire eagle for example only eats meat and also, they imprint on whoever they see when they come out of their egg.  Someone wanting to be an eagle knight would have to raise the dire eagle from birth and train it for years. Like how Bob and Martha can't leave their farm alone, an eagle knight has to change their life to include taking care of their bird every day." Fufi said.

"Well, I had this idea about how it might be better to just try to fly over the treetops." Alex sleepily said.

"Planning on being a winged magical girl?" Fufi chuckled.

"What no!  Wait, those actually exist?" Alex boggled.

"After your transformation into a nymph you should know that staying a human isn't a certainty.  One of the races of elves in the past were winged elves.  Though no one has seen them in a long time, they might have gone extinct." Fufi stated.

"Oh, well that is a shocking bit of possibility, however I had more mundane ideas.  I have tailoring skills and if we could get another one of those magic springs and some other things we could make an obscure flying device from my world.  We called them paramotors.  I was thinking that perhaps we could make one for Lily and if it works okay try to make another bigger one that would work for the size of a person." Alex told the flamingo.

"Well, if we could get you back in the dungeon maybe you could win another one of those magic springs." Fufi seemed optimistic.

"Well, that is something not for today. I'm sleepy." Alex sighed.

"Well, let's get to bed." Fufi giggled.

Alex laughed and pulled the covers up to his chin.

Alex slept soundly through the night with only dreams of being chased through the woods by a creature made out of roots and branches and having to jump from tree to tree to escape. It was enough to make him feel like he had actually been in the forest all day with a monster that might have been the same creature from his dream.

"Well, at least I didn't dream of strange forest women this time.  I'll count that as an improvement." Alex stretched as he sat up from the bench.  He greeted Fufi, got dressed and wound up the key for the cart they slept in.  They had some boiled oats and water from breakfast with a side of forest gathered berries.

"Bad dreams?" Fufi poked.

"Just something I've come to expect from sleeping in this forest.  After we clean up do you think you could fly on ahead and see if we are headed to the right place?" Alex asked his winged familiar.

"Certainly!" Fufi beamed.

After closing the panels that were opened for cooking the ticking carriage headed in the general direction of the town. Alex sat on top and drove it from the drivers bench.

Fufi took to the skies and Alex followed after her.  

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  The pair arrived at the ritual site in the evening.  A gathering of a dozen or so nymphs circled around a strange root circle placing moonstones in precise locations.

melchi

Sorry for not posting for a while.  I had a house guest and didn't want to be a bad host.