His mind immediately flashed to when he’d heard about it in Anailia. He hadn’t known what races had been hunted, but things suddenly made a fair bit more sense around the village. “Okay, I can see why that would give you some stranger-danger.”
“Well, there were around a dozen races that suffered from that sort of thing but we probably suffered the most for it. The world is large after all, and we mostly keep to ourselves. Even if a village of us was left alone, if our forests were destroyed then there’d be no more children being born, and even if any survivors put out searches for other villages there was always the fear that death and destruction would follow them so many hid away, leaving any stray survivors to a long, lonely death.”
“Joining a different community wasn’t an option? There are plenty of mixed towns and cities out there. I get it can’t make up for what was lost, but wouldn’t it be better than being alone?”
“I’m sure there are plenty who did, but for others… Well, would you want to risk the chance of living among the same group that hunted your people? Not to mention that they’d have to live in fear of word about their race and location getting out, even if they did find a safe community.”
“Mmh, alright I get what you’re saying. But your village isn’t exactly hidden, are you all okay with that?”
She only shrugged. “Once the gods became aware of what was happening they exerted their influence in a big way. From what I understand apostles were mobilized and templars were sent to rain chaos on the people responsible. Entire cities were burned to the ground if enough people were found to be involved, it left the survivors the chance to be open enough to find each other, but the history and fear still remain, not to mention the occasional rumours of dryads or members of other hunted races disappearing. Our bodies are still useful in alchemy and as materials after all, since the gods aren’t all-knowing there will always be some people who are willing to take the risk to get their hands on us. It makes you cautious of outsiders.”
“You don’t seem too worried letting a bunch in your house though?”
“My cousin vouches for you so you’re probably fine. Besides, we deal with merchants and I’ve known other non-dryads before. Sachel's father even lived in the village for years before he passed.”
So they’re cousins huh? But aside from that, if this village already had a non-dryad living in it you’d think things wouldn’t be this bad.
He’d never given much thought to the other half of Sachel’s heritage, he’d always been focused on the part that might aid him in his task of finding Myriad more followers, and aside from the horns on her head, there was nothing else to indicate what paternal race was that he could see. Her dryad heritage seemed to run strong except for the fact that she wasn’t born with the plant magic she desired.
“So are both of her parents…”
“Yes, when she was a child. Before she decided she wanted to be an adventurer and see some more of the world she lived with our grandmother.”
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“And Hentath’s willing to cut her off, just for changing her faith?”
“I’m not going to say our god is more important to us than any other race, but when my ancestors were being hunted there were two things they could believe in, other dryads and Jagal. It’s something that strengthens the connection between all of us, makes us a community. I don’t think grandmother was correct to act as she did, but as a change, it must be hard for her.”
“I don’t think it being hard justifies the way she acted, but fine. Thanks for telling me at least.”
“It’s the least I can do given how hard you’re trying to help the village. I’m sure if you keep it up the others will open up.”
They continued walking back to Fontesh’s house as Ben focused on his thoughts. If all of the discomfort he was seeing from his presence stemmed from the fact that they feared for their safety then he might have a lot of work ahead of him.
He sighed knowing things could never just be easy as he went to check on Skoe. At the very least the man had been making good progress with collecting oil, even if he did seem exhausted.
With a jug collected, he’d just need to test to see if it would even work for what he wanted, and with that in mind he took his hammer, chisel, and ax and went to one of the trees they’d prepared the previous day.
He’d need a brush to apply it and maybe he’d be able to make something better later, but for the time being he carved out the general shape from a chunk of the dried wood, and every so carefully split the top of it, separating each of the wood fibers from the others the best he could without splitting them from the handle.
With that compete he cut off another small chunk of wood and brushed it down with the oil before leaving it to sit. It was important to test that it would actually be able to both dry in a reasonable amount of time, as well as provide any benefits to waterproofing, but since it wouldn’t happen instantly he went off to try and find a suitable material to make resistance amulets out of.
A plain rock wouldn’t be good enough to hold the enchantment unless it was unreasonably large, and at that point nobody would want to wear it around their neck. The best material he thought he’d find around was a good quality animal bone.
He tried to ask Fontesh, but it seemed the village didn’t do much hunting, their diet consisting mostly of the plants they grew, so there weren’t any old bones laying around he could conveniently make use of. He could potentially wait until they hunted a single frost bat, but that would mean he couldn’t make them until at least tomorrow, and he didn’t want to wait, so he went to the forest once again to see if there was anything he could scavenge.
Even though there weren't any particularly large or dangerous animals in the forest, except for the current target of extermination, there was bound to be something. Some prey that had been taken down for food, a predator that had succumbed to age or tried to bite off more than it could chew, he’d just have to find enough to make use of.
He looked high and low, kicking up leaves and looking for borrows, but after over an hour of searching not a single bone could be found, though an alternative did manage to present itself.
A boulder of quartz, glittering in the sunlight that filtered through the forest trees. Crystal seemed to be pretty good at holding enchantments in his experience, and there was more than enough to make everyone an amulet. He hadn’t brought any tools with him since it wasn’t what he’d been looking for, so he had to carefully chip away a large chunk through his enchanting, getting a rock the size of two fists and carrying it back to shape into a more usable form, missing all of the proper tools he had at the shop the entire time.