The sound of a tree falling echoed throughout the grove. Taz winced as it hit the ground, looking into the forest as though Ban would smite him where he stood. When nothing happened, he wiped his brow and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “The trees are yours to take, Taz,” Ban said, speaking into both of their minds and giggling. “Rud will plant a new one. There’s no need to worry.”

  “Just strange is all,” Taz said, looking at the sky. Rud sympathized. It was hard to know where to look when talking to the Sacred Tree. “Uh… We thank you for this offering, noble tree.”

  Ban laughed again.

  “What? It’s good to give thanks. Right?”

  “Right,” Rud agreed.”

  The dwarf had a rough idea of how to process the tree and Rud spent the rest of his day helping. First, they removed the errant branches from the tree. Next came the removal of the bark, which Taz accomplished with something he called a draw knife. It was two handles with a blade between them he pulled toward himself, removing layers of bark. After that, arduous chopping came in. They were hours into the job before Rud had an idea. As to not dismay the dwarf, he kept his mouth shut for now.

  “I’m feeling mighty hungry. Don’t know about you,” Taz said, dabbing sweat from his forehead with a length of cloth.

  Rud agreed. The day had been long and the news of the monsters brought with it a draining stress. They left the unfinished tree where it was, heading to the Sacred Tree to find Sarya sitting.

  “Good wolf,” Rud said, patting her on the head. She whimpered.

  “Where is the guardian?” she asked. Her speech was getting better by the day.

  “You’re the temporary guardian for now,” Rud said, scratching her behind the ear. Sarya kicked her leg, itching at her underside.

  “I brought a deer,” she said, inclining her head to a prone animal in the clearing.

  Taz licked his lips. “Mind if I clean that?”

  “Please do,” Rud said. “Avoid the spots where she bit, please.”

  Taz bounded off, producing a small knife from his waist. He got to work without hesitation. Rud still felt strange about killing forest creatures, but it was part of the cycle. A balanced ecosystem wasn’t one where everything got together to have parties around mushroom circles.

  “The squirrels told me to return. They found me hunting outside of the grove.”

  “Wow,” Rud said, looking around to find a group of squirrels wringing their hands. He remembered his promise to them and placed several small piles of shelled nuts for them to take. He made them do so in order. Squirrels came up one at a time, snatching armfuls of nuts and running around. “Good job, Sarya.”

  “Thank you. Woof.”

  “Stick close to the tree, alright? Ban said you should look after us for a while. Until Mint gets back.”

  “I am very good at looking out for people.”

  “I bet you are.”

  Before long, Taz had the deer cleaned and ready to roast over some coals. He built a fire, using the pot stand as a spit and cooking it over the fire. Rud settled down near the flames, staring into them as they danced. Fat dripped down onto the flames, causing them to rush up and lick the cut of deer. Rud gathered plates for the group, setting the largest of the wooden dishes out for Sarya’s food. Once the dwarf was happy with the meat, he cut pieces for everyone and distributed the food.

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve had dinner with a wolf. Believe it or not.”

  “Really?”

  “Dwarves don’t like wolves. Not normally,” Taz said. Sarya growled, looking up from the plate of food she had devoured. “But I knew a dwarf who took one into his heart. Didn’t go anywhere without that mangy beast. Such a fierce creature… Saved his life more times than I can count.”

  “Wolves are ardent defenders,” Sarya said, sitting and wagging. Rud gave her some more scratches behind the ear. Even if she still smelled horrible.

  Rud would have liked some vegetation with his dinner, but he didn’t complain. Taz told stories about his home and how he could never return. The grove was his only chance at a new life, and he didn’t intend to squander it.

  “I might even sleep in the tree house tonight. If that’s fine with you, Rud.”

  “I built them for mortal guests, but they have beds. Go crazy.”

  Rud stayed by the fire long after Taz retired. The shattered moons hung above, painting the grove in shades of blue and white. Crackling with its last breath, the fire died, leaving the druid in darkness. He gazed out into the forest, worried about what happened to the guardian. With great effort, he made his way to bed and fell asleep without even feeding his own fire.

  ###

  Taz was hard at work on the tree before Rud even woke up. The druid had a breakfast of mushrooms and nuts, topping it off with his own blend of tea before heading over to the mine. The dwarf had done a great job of shaping the tree into a general shape, and was cutting it along its length to create boards. He pitched in, helping with his minimal Strength. Sarya was nearby, keeping a close eye on them as they worked.

  “Now, you’re going to be mad,” Rud said, trying not to laugh. They had spent the entire morning working on the boards, creating enough timber to support a few sections of the mine. “But watch this.”

  Taz folded his arms, a confused look on his face as Rud approached a tree. The druid had never considered how hard it was to make lumber from raw trees. Those few times he needed a bit of wood he just walked into a hardware store and bought it. They even cut it up to the right size for him, which seemed like a neat service. With a mushroom in one hand, imbued leaf on his head, and a stick in the other, Rud shaped a tree.

  “Oh, come on,” Taz groaned. “You didn’t tell me sooner?”

  Rud shaped the smaller tree into a perfect rectangle. He stepped away, wiggling his brows at the dwarf. “Druid magic. Pretty neat, huh?”

  Taz grumbled, coming over to look at the odd tree. The base was round, but at a point just above the trunk it pinched in, appearing as a normal support beam covered in bark and branches. “That’s cheating.”

  Rud gestured to the pile of supports they got from the large tree. Four usable ones for almost an entire day’s worth of work. “Wouldn’t you rather be mining?”

  Taz grumbled again, but nodded. “Alright. New life. New me.”

  The shaped tree was far easier to work with. It was smaller than the first one they worked with, only taking a few strokes of a saw to bring down. They removed the branches and bark in a few minutes and had two supports ready to go within fifteen minutes. Rud watched as the dwarf measured the supports by eye, heading into the mine a few times and sawing sections of them off. He brought three supports in, having Rud hold one side as he wedged the ceiling support between the two pieces of timber. A few rusty nails later and the support was in.

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  “Alright. I’m gonna need a few shaped trees, Rud,” Taz said, stepping away and admiring his good work. “A metal brace for the crossbeam would be better, but we got what we got.”

  “We have metal production, but nothing to shape the metal.”

  “A task for another day, then. I’m going to search for the soft stone and start my bedroom. Shout if you need anything.”

  Rud nodded, heading out of the mine. He found Sarya waiting for him, looking up expectantly. “Seems safe enough for now. How about you run a circle around the grove’s center? Maybe do some scouting near the edges? But you need to come back and report to me. At least hourly.”

  “Got it,” Sarya said, growling. “Woof.”

  Things had been crazy, but Rud needed to test something. He took the Spiritual Infusion upgrade for his Growth Magic, but hadn’t had time to test it. There was no difference that he could see in the trees that he had grown, but he wasn’t a tree guy. The hope was that some difference could be observed in the other plants, like the tea plants. The upgrade claimed it would infuse plants with power from the Sacred Tree, but what did that mean?

  Rud fed a few fragments to Ban, which she thanked him for. Without the rain, she was sucking a lot of energy from the sun. With so much energy, she planned to siphon some of it into her upgrade energy, which would send her closer to Level 10. At that point, she would get a new upgrade and something more exciting. Every 10 levels she had the chance to ascend to a new rank. Each rank would provide a spike in power. While Rud didn’t know exactly what that meant, he was excited.

  Rud messed around with the new tea plants he had added to his garden. A few still hadn’t felt the touch of his Plant Growth spell, so he used those as an experiment. Those that got the Spiritual Infusion upgraded spell had slightly more vibrant leaves. The druid looked close, spotting flecks of something within the altered ones.

  “The potency of those plants will be greater,” Ban said, clearing up the confusion. She still wouldn’t speak out loud. “For your tea, that means more energy. More bolstering of the soul.”

  “Neato!”

  Rud ran off to grab a bucket of enchanted water. He stopped by the stump field, a small voice inside him hoping that the loggers had returned. There were no mortals in sight, but he watered his plants there anyway. After returning to the pool to fill his buckets again, he teleported back to the Sacred Tree to work on a fence for his garden. The druid planted a seed near his tea plants, watering it with the enchanted water. Moments later, a green sprout burst from the ground. He held his hands around it, invoking his Plant Growth spell to urge it into a sapling.

  “What are you doing, silly little Talen Por?” Ban asked.

  “I’m making a living fence,” Rud said, holding a stick in one hand and a mushroom in the other. He balanced a leaf on his head.

  The druid urged the sapling to bend, then twist around his plot of land. He stretched the tree as thin as it would go, making sure the leafy parts were pointing upward to catch the most sun. He spent most of the day working on three trees that worked together to create the fence. His staff made the process much easier, as he didn’t have to wait long for his mana to regenerate.

  “How common is this, Ban?” Rud asked, taking a rest and admiring his work. The fence looked decent, but served no other purpose than looks.

  “Creating living structures? Quite common. I saw you considering a tree walkway.”

  “Yeah. That was outside of my skill range, though.”

  “Give it time. You’ll rise in power quicker than you’d expect.”

  Rud’s level certainly wasn’t shooting up as fast as Ban’s level. Without the mortals in the stump forest, he found himself without a direction. Instead of lingering on that, he considered his next course. The druid followed the flags set by Mira for a while, finding a stretch of ground that wasn’t so hilly and was more sparse with trees than the others. The walk wasn’t bad, taking only a half hour. Now that he found the spot he could teleport back to it with Thicket Travel.

  “What are you planning, custodian?” Ban asked in a sing-song voice.

  “Feels weird letting the mortals stay so close to you,” Rud said, sizing up the trees in this area. He would need to clear out quite a few, meaning he would need to plant more elsewhere.

  “Why the sudden caution?” she asked.

  Ban knew exactly why he was feeling this way. The mortals had enough trouble being near the tree, and with the monster attack on Barlgore, the fragility of those creatures came to mind. A comfy little spot on a separate piece of land made more sense to him. And the mortals that worshiped the groves would feel more at ease that way. He didn’t answer at first, getting to work on clearing away the smaller trees with a simple handsaw. The druid counted those trees he destroyed in his mind, moving rocks out of his way. He didn’t just want a cluster of houses, but a communal area they could gather around.

  “What’s going on here?” Taz asked, forcing his voice into a polite tone.

  “Did Ban send you? I’m fine.”

  “Well, she said you were clearing some stuff away and needed a big strong dwarf.”

  Rud looked over his shoulder, scanning the forest dramatically. “Where’s the strong dwarf?”

  “Har-har,” Taz said, slinging a pick over his shoulder. “What are we doing?”

  That’s all Taz asked about the project before getting to work. Instead of forcing structure onto the landscape, they worked with the open area to create the layout of this mortal village. It was a rare place in the grove with few trees, but there were plenty of rocks. The dwarf took care of those as Rud focused his efforts on picking the perfect trees for his design. To start, he would make a semi-circle of four tree houses, all arcing around a central tree which he would form into the shape of a pavilion.

  Fifty trees needed to be regrown after the effort, which dragged on into the late afternoon. Rud created a border of trees, numbering far more than fifty and likely close to one-hundred, as a backdrop for the tree houses. He had an idea for a tree tower, giving people a pleasant view of Ban, but shelved it for now. Instead, he worked on seeding the nuts into the ground, and dousing each with a fair sprinkle of enchanted water.

  Taz puked in a bush, bringing his head up to give Rud a lopsided smile. “Can’t get used to that sky…”

  “Head back to your cave,” Rud said, chuckling. “I’m heading to bed soon enough.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” Taz said, wandering into the same bush where had just vomited. He vanished into the greenery.

  “Poor guy is doing his best.”

  Rud got to work on the tree houses, having no intention of sleeping until at least one was completed. With the area clear, he couldn’t think of anything else. After snacking on a few mushrooms, he twisted the shape of the tree to suit his needs. The layout of the houses he had used near Ban was acceptable. Those mortals loved the common living space on the first floor, and didn’t complain about the bedrooms. Future models might have an enclosed sleeping area, but a loft was fine for now.

  The druid took a break from shaping the building, feeling his Construction Magic on the edge of a breakthrough. He popped mushrooms into his mouth, idly chewing nuts as he stared off into the darkness. Light wasn’t needed to form the trees. He had a sense with his magic that transcended sight. Rud raised his head as something came crashing through the bushes, panting and howling as it skittered across the open ground.

  “I’ve come to report, sir!” Sarya shouted.

  “Anything interesting?”

  “I circled the grove until I passed out. I then ran to a hilltop and observed monsters heading southeast. The guardian was fighting!”

  Rud clenched his teeth, nodding. “How was she doing?”

  “That wolf is a demon! They didn’t stand a chance.”

  At least that was good news. Rud tapped his staff on the ground, pushing pebbles along the forest’s floor as he thought. He would leave matters of war to Mint, losing himself in the construction of the tree buildings.

  “Get some rest, Sarya. You look like crap.”

  “I rolled in some!” Sarya said, bounding off into the forest.

  Rud shook his head, reaching to pinch the bridge of his nose. The druid put the final touches on the first tree building, satisfied and drained enough to call it a day. Of course, as he was leaving a message appeared informing him his Construction Magic had hit Level 5. Rud passed through a bush, appearing near his mushroom house. He breathed life into his fire as he read through his Level 5 upgrade options. One stood out.

  [Grove Weaver]

  Construction Magic Upgrade

  Description:

  The essence of a Sacred Grove flows through you. Become its conduit.

  Effect:

  Casting Construction Magic spells within a Sacred Grove you are attuned to is easier. You gain expanded access to free casting spells, decreased mana costs, and increased effectiveness while within your grove.

  This wasn’t a hard pick. Rud selected the Grove Weaver upgrade, feeling it slot into his Construction Magic skill. He could feel a faint heartbeat somewhere in the distance. Something within his chest reached out to touch it, and they met as friends. A moment later the sensation subsided. The druid reclined in his chair, listening to the sound of the forest outside and the crackling of his fire as he fell asleep.