Our village name is just fine thank you! ~Mayor of Theehome
Bernin started to lower her broom as soon as the big tree came into focus. It was easily three times the size of the already regular trees. She lowered herself to just above the treetops and slowed to a comfortable pace. Opening her coat she took out a small tube, expanding it into a spyglass she zoomed in to check the tree.
There were indeed small houses on the side of the tree and some even in the top. They appeared to be made of wood and looked relatively large, especially considering they were literal tree houses. Some even appeared to be multiple stories tall. She shrunk the spyglass back down and fiddled with the front, attaching a new lens was always a little finicky. Finally having switched the lens she looked back. The lens showed her the magic in the area, the tree being an obvious spot of light, more surprising was that there was another source visible from this distance. She had expected a councillor to have more magic, sure, but this was kind of ridiculous. The only thing that convinced her was that the source was slowly moving. She had better prepare.
An hour's walk from the village she slowed further and finally set down. She immediately started doing stretches. Sitting on her broom for the full day had made her slightly sore and she couldn’t afford to look uncomfortable. She was a full mage of the university, nothing got in her way. It was likely useless, these people had lived around a mage enough to see him mess up eventually. That however, wasn’t the point. It was time to make her approach.
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Not even 10 minutes later, Bernin who had not a single clue how, was sitting in a pub being served some kind of mead. It tasted unique. That was for sure, slightly more herbal than normal, but it wasn’t bad. The bartender looked at her expectantly so she answered the unasked question.
“It’s great, more herbal than I’m used to, but quite good.”
“Ah thanks, I brewed it myself. It’s made from the tree’s syrup ya know. We have a dedicated tap setup for the town, I always make sure to buy quite a bit.”
“Doesn’t that harm the tree? I assume it doesn’t appreciate its syrup being drained.”
Bernin said this more to buy time. She hadn’t truly lost time, but that might actually be less scary. Getting into town, she had been spotted immediately and invited for a free drink. She had refused of course. But they had been quite pushy, in the literal sense even. Their enthusiasm had also helped and generally caught her off guard.
“... and that is why to this day dryad’s are given a cup of herbs as soon as they get into town. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here? Visiting family? Moving in? There’s this great open spot, on the bottom west side.”
“No, I’m here on business I’m afraid. I’m looking for Gregarious of the mountain, the local mage.”
“Well then, you’re free to stay for a bit. He usually comes here at night. Make sure to grab him before he starts though, unless you’d like him to forget about it in the morning.”
The bartender laughed heartily at his own joke. At least, Bernin hoped it was a joke, she had no idea how much ale or mead was required to make a dwarf blackout drunk, but she'd rather not find out.