Lee, Neia, and Ruven move closer and closer towards the open entrance in the tree. The entrance, situated in between two root offshoots, seems to be naturally made. Around thirty meters in height and twenty meters wide, the border of the entrance has been carved upon. The carving is very geometric, interlocking and repeating shapes seamlessly continue on without any noticeable break in the patterns.

Outside of the entrance, many Dark Elves are coming in and out, in multiple forms of dress. Some of the Elves are wearing what Lee assumes to be casual clothes. A male Elf is one such example, the clothes he dons are simple and functional. Dark purple pants that have crisscrossing black seems going down his outer leg, from hip to foot. They look fairly tight fitting, but Lee supposes that with their lean tall frames most clothes would. The Elven man's shirt is a basic white short sleeve tee which looks to be made from a coarser fiber, and he also wears a lighter purple sleeveless vest over the top. Basic leather boots with his pants tucked into them, finish off his look.

The female Elves wear things similar, but there are some dressed more freely. One such Elf wears a simple but beautiful sundress. It is a dark shade of orange, making it contrast greatly with her dark gray skin and white hair. The dress has a few white buttons on the front near her cleavage. She also wears what look like ballerina flats, the same color as her dress.

Taking in all the new sights, he was finally truly happy. From knowing you’re about to die, to not actually dying and being thrown into a world unlike your own, with so many things you didn’t understand, to have to fight off monsters and survive with nothing but the gown on your back. This is the first time he felt safety in what felt like months. Finally healed, given a new lease at life to do something good, and getting to experience the magic now accessible, Lee was ready to see where this path would take him. This is truly the first step.

Now close enough that some of the others notice them, the others casually glance over and away, only to whip their head back around and do a double take as soon as they see Lee. Lee, having expected this, casually waved at them smiling. The Elves that noticed him gawked and began to speak quietly among themselves.

Ruven walked up to an elf wearing leathers similar to his own, standing towards the side of the entrance. Neia followed him, so Lee did the same.

Ruven, reaching the other Elf’s side, speaks. “Please send someone to notify Elder Sono that a Human has arrived in Neldam, and to expect his appearance later in the day.” Waving his hand towards Lee. The Elf looked at Lee and his bright blue eyes opened wide, he replies. “We will send word, go about your business.” The Elf steps inside the entrance and makes his way directly to the left, disappearing around the corner.

Lee, willing to just tag along for the ride for now, waits for Ruvan or Neia to head inside. Neia looks at him smiling slightly and says. “First thing we do is get you some clothes and a bath. Let’s head inside.” Her slight smile turns wry as they begin to enter. The light from the outside made seeing into the dark hole in the trees side hard. Passing the threshold and letting his eyesight adjust to the darker light, they continue forward into the tree for a few moments. He is absolutely floored by what he sees at the end of the tunnel.

The carries on for only thirty meters in length ending in a concave overhand with railings delicately carved out of wood, off to the left and right are stairs, one set going up and the other going down. These stairs carved out of the very wood of the tree they’re inside, still seem healthy and are 15 meters wide, making them able to support a lot of traffic.

From outside, Lee thought that maybe the entrance was the beginnings of a burrow that would lead underground. He was completely wrong. The tree itself is hollow, stairs and pathways lead up and around all over the inside of the tree, rooms and buildings cut into the tree itself. Roped bridges go from one side of the tree to the other, hundreds of them acting as streets to cut across the tree, with purple, orange, and red lantern lights hanging below them. The mana being absorbed by the large Garbola tree, sends streams of blue light everywhere on the surface of the wood, giving a neon-like light to everywhere he sees.

Walking to the balcony he looks down. He sees the same thing until the bottom. The bottom of Neldam is what you’d imagine a normal city to look like, with proper streets and built up buildings, but the streets continue onwards into several pathways into the walls, leading off into the multitudes of caves. The buildings at the bottoms are made out of stone, probably dug from the caves surrounding the city, giving the buildings a medieval feel. The buildings, mainly squares and rectangles, have multi-colored roofs, just like the view of the forest floor, Each shingle a different color of purple, orange, red, with an added blue. The blue highlights the blue neon-like mana veins flowing through the tree.

Turning to look at Neia and Ruvans silly smiles with his jaw to the floor blurts out. “This is fucking insane, what the actual fuck,” Rubbing his eyes still not quite believing what he's seeing. Neia, laughing openly with Ruvan says. “Turns out people can do great things when they live for such long times.”

After a moment of laughing at Lee they motion for him to follow, he sends one last look over the balcony and then joins them at their side. On the way down, Lee says almost numbly. “This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I can’t even find words to describe your home.”

Ruven perks up, goofily smiling and looks towards Lee. After a moment of looking at him, Ruvens face begins to morph from his goofy smile to honest appreciation. “You honestly believe that. In that case thank you, it means a lot.”

Traveling downwards on the stairs, they pass several other people going about their way. Every single one of them does a double-take when they spot Lee, and every single time Lee tries his best to look friendly and wave back. Hopefully once he gets some real clothes people won’t stare so much. A few of them pretend they never saw him and continue normally, and a few of them hesitantly wave back a small wave.

Before they reach the bottom, Neia leads him into one of the rooms carved into the side, it seems to be a business, with the amount of traffic the stairs receive, it's probably prime real-estate. Heading inside, it appears to be a nice clothing store. Following Neia up to the front desk she rings a bell. Soon after, coming from behind a draped doorway, a female elf walks in with a smile. “Hello, what can we do for…” Looking at Lee basically in rags, she slowly turns her gaze to Neia. “Neia… what can I do for you?”

With a tight smile, she replies. “We would like some clothes Sarum. Something able to fit this Human.” The Elf, named Sarum looks Lee up and down and says “We might have some clothes for younger elves around, but if he wants something for himself it will take awhile.”

Neia asks “How much for both?” Sarum immediately responds with “Fifteen silver.” And just as fast as Sarums reply, Neia turns around and heads towards the exit. Hurriedly Sarum shouts. “Ten! I’ll do it for Ten!” Stopping, Neia smiles, turns, and walks back to the counter dropping ten silver coins onto the table.

Sighing, Sarum heads to the back for a moment. Neia turns to Lee and whispers “She’s a greedy one.” managing to finish the whisper right before Sarum returned, carrying an above average set of clothing. A nice teal, blue jean colored pair of pants, which were most definitely too long by a few inches, and a basic white long sleeve shirt, with matching teal wooden buttons on the sleeves and neck. Lee looked blissfully at the clothes, and noticed her slide some underwear in as well. Lee is about to run over and kiss this wonderful Elf when Neia scoops up the clothes and leads Lee outside.

Lee was almost about to plead his case for the clothes when Neia says “Bath is at the bottom, you’ve gone days without a bath you can last a few more minutes without clothes.” Reaching the bottom after a few minutes of stairs, they begin to wind their way through the fairly busy streets. While walking Neia begins to speak. “Usually when we return from hunts we aren’t allowed into the nicer baths given how disgusting Ruvan always is.” Ruvan immediately shoots her a heavily exaggerated offended posture and face. Neia smiles and continues on “So we usually go to the public baths. You most definitely won't be allowed in the nicer ones.”

Accepting the fact that he is too rank to even be allowed in the nicer baths, he examines the surrounding people. This is kinda unfair… They’re all just as beautiful as Ruven and Neia. Lee, before cancer, wasn’t the most attractive of the lot, but he was above average. His blue eyes and sharp jawline did most of the heavy lifting, but he couldn’t compare to any of these Elves. Weirdly enough, Lee felt zero amounts of lust, they're just purely and objectively beautiful.

Reaching the baths, Lee discovers that it’s a mixed bath. Being an American, Lee never experienced any public or mixed baths so he was a tad nervous, as well as massively self conscious when comparing himself to any of these Elves. How am I supposed to compete with these people? Shaking his head they head ruefully, he steps inside the doorway, the bath appears to be free of charge, as they each go their separate ways in the changing room. Not having much to change out of Lee is done first and waits near the entryway with a nice orange towel that was provided on entry.

A few moments later Ruven walks up with his red towel protecting his modesty. Reia arrives shortly after with her large towel being yellow. She carries a smaller blue towel along as well. They all head in together, Walking inside Lee see’s that the bathing situation is similar to what he saw in some of the Anime he watched when he was younger. All three eager to finally be clean after days, or possibly weeks in the case of Ruven and Neia, go about their business.

Thirty minutes later, finished in the baths, all three emerge from the entrance. Neia and Ruven are both wearing their leathers, which had been cleaned and dried by someone who works there while they bathed. Lee, when given the same option, told them to throw his gown away. Lee finally in some clothes and clean, feels like the day can’t get any better.

Neia appraises him. “Much better, we should find you a mirror later so you can see for yourself.” Swapping her focus from Lee to Ruven she says to him. “Let's head on down to Sigurds and get ourselves something to eat. Then we can take Lee to Elder Sono.” Ruven sighs. “We always go to Sigurds, let's go somewhere else.” Completely ignoring Ruven she smiles and leads the way.

Lee decides to ask. “Is Sigurds a place or is it a person who owns a place?” Ruven sighs and answers. “It’s a place, the person who owns it is actually called Thalin, no clue why he named it Sigurds but that's what it’s named.” Lee then asks an important question. “Is this Sigurds place better than that bland and frankly bad Jackalope?” Ruvan barks a short laugh and replies. “Way better, I just get tired of getting it so often. You’d get tired of a place too if you went there for over a hundred years.”

Touché. Eventually they arrive at Sigurds, a large stone building with wide glass windows on either side of the large wooden double doors, some plants are hung outside on planter boxes attached to the windows. The large sign above the door is simple but well done.

Heading inside the place, Lee discovers that it’s very busy and has a tavern-like atmosphere. Reia leads them to an empty booth and as soon as their fully seated and male Elf appears at their table to take their order. “Hello Neia. Hello Ruvan. The usual?” Finally he notices Lee. His eyes go wide and then asks Neia, “And what about him? What would he like?” Lee responds instead of her, “I’ll have what he’s having.” Pointing to Ruvan. The Elf's eyes nearly pop out of his sockets. “I’m terribly sorry, I just assumed you did not speak our language.” Lee, in a good mood for being able to eat, waves his apology away. “It’s fine.”

Reia and Ruvan both get their usual. Around ten minutes pass before the food arrives. “Here you are. Yell if you need me” The elven waiter then moves to another table. Looking at the food, Lee’s mouth begins to water. Neia’s usual meal appears to be a platter of kebabs, with meat, peppers, and pineapple chunks. It also comes with a side of nice warm and buttered bread.

Ruvan and Lee both got a hearty pot pie, filled with meat, carrots, and peas. Breaking open his pie steam rises into the air. Taking a bite, Lee almost tears up. Perfectly seasoned with a perfectly flakey crust. Lee wholeheartedly approves of Ruvans “Usual”. Filled to the brim after their meals. They head out to meet with Elder Sono.

Following Ruvan through the streets this time, they make their way through the bustling midday streets. Hoping to get some kind of heads up, Lee asks Neia a question. “So what exactly am I meeting with Elder Sono for?” Responding Neia slowly says. “He is one of our Elders, being an Elder means you were there when we built this place, he is the Elder who is in charge of diplomatic relations. I don’t know what you will talk about specifically.” Understanding that this is probably some sort of protocol, Lee understands he needs to meet with this Elder Sono to prove he’s not a threat or something.

About half an hour later, they arrive at a large, multiple storied carved building, with a large staircase leading up to the doors, the building itself is built into the wall on the bottom floor. It has large stone double doors carved with similar carvings to the flora and fauna on Neia’s sickles.

Entering the building, Lee sees that it is almost empty. The interior is reminiscent of a bank's lobby, with chairs for sitting and waiting along the wall, and small booths with forms and papers. The three of them walk up to a receptionist reading from a book. “We are here to see Elder Sono, he should be notified of our coming.” Ruvan states in a friendly manner.

The receptionist looks up from her book with a jolt, obviously not knowing they were there, too engrossed in her story. Pushing up her pair of glasses she says. “Ah, yes. He is in meeting room number two. Right down the hall and to the left.” Pointing to a doorway at the other end of the room.

Moving towards the door, Lee pauses and turns around. He sees Neia and Ruven waving him towards the door and them walking over towards some of the chairs by the entryway. Suddenly aware that he is going to be meeting this Elder alone, his palms get a little sweaty.

Well, it’s just a meeting. I’m sure everything will be fine.