VI-The First Tree
Hours had passed since the party entered the forest. To everyone but the forest couple, time became hard to measure as the shadows of the trees danced to the natural song of the wind.
The early morning sunlight pierced the flora and gave way to creeping specters below. The great redwood trunks raced toward the heavens as various shrubs and flowers fought for scraps of sunlight.
The party crept their way through the tall bushes and leaves, feeling uneasy as they trekked through the unknown wilderness.
Maybe it was due to the strange-looking plants, or to the distant caws and roars of unknown animals. But everyone in the human party felt as if, from somewhere between the tall grass or from atop the high trees, something or someone was watching them.
The humans moved sluggishly as they judged every leaf and movement as a possible threat, while their two forest guides skipped through the forest like children eagerly returning home.
“Have no fear, east walkers. Acid drinkers dead, long ago,” Vania said cheerfully when she moved back to the human party.
“Excuse me Vania, but how long until we arrive in your city?” Miria asked as she and her guards cut through the shrubbery in their path and ignored her odd statement.
Vania and Agar looked around and when they noticed an oddly shaped rock with various vines and fungi on it, she exclaimed excitedly, “We are almost there!” Her accent betraying her as she ended with a singing voice.
The bard closely followed behind his faithful crewmember, Henrik, and as he became awed by the nature around him, he exclaimed, “I can't wait to see what your town looks like. And especially to hear your songs there!”
“Let's just hope they aren't too keen on spearing us,” Gilbert grumbled.
“What if they are all like these two?” One of the mariners asked in a low tone.
“Then by the gods, please, I hope they spear us.”
Another hour passed by and finally the walking library that was Stein spoke. “By Sigurd, my feet are killing me. Vania! How long?”
“Almost, I swear,” Vania said nervously. She looked to her stoic husband, oddly panicked.
“Something wrong, Vania?” Miria asked.
“N-no. Of course not.” the tree woman frantically glanced up to the trees.
Gilbert himself took notice of her strange behavior and as he looked to the trees around him, he spoke. “Something's wrong.” Gilbert raised his hand to stop everyone. “Men, listen.”
Everyone stood still and heard a faint and quick rustling of leaves. “You hear that ?”
“Something is after us,” the first captain said as he looked with anger and distrust toward the forest couple.
He started walking toward them and suddenly grabbed Vania and held his dagger close to her throat. “You dragged us into a trap, didn't you?!”
“Captain! Stop!” Miria shouted.
Agar was motionless and he dared not attack for fear of his beloved one's death. Instead he looked anxiously at Miria as he put his hands on the javelins in his quiver and awaited the queen's decision.
“Captain! Let her go now!” The order echoed through the forest.
“Your Highness, look around ya! We are surrounded by these forest folk—they are lurking behind us!” The captain said as he frantically looked to the slightest movement in the forest.
“He has gone mad with paranoia,” Rorrick said as he watched the first captain's shifty stare.
“What do ya know, ya bastard? I know an ambush when I see one! Ya can only trick me so much!” Gilbert said as the leaves shook and as his paranoia rose to the skies with the wind that rustled them.
“Gilbert! It's just the wind! Let her go,” Miria commanded as her mariners readied their weapons behind her. She made a small hand gesture and the retinues sheathed their weapons.
“The wind? The wind?! That's what me old mentor said in the Petty Counties before he was shot!”
“Captain Gilbert! As your superior, I order you to let go of Vania!” Miria’s hair started to shine a fiery red.
“I . . . My queen. I can't! I'm the only thing preventing the death of all of us,” Gilbert said as his hands started to quiver at the prospect of disobedience.
“Gilbert,” Miria tried to reassure him. “There isn't anything around us except for shadows and wind. Rorrick!”
“Yeah?” The bard said as he glanced between the two players.
“Check the bushes please.”
“On it, Miria.” The bard and his sailor walked toward the bushes, and with successive slashes opened the view of the shrubberies. “Nothing in here, in the sides, or in the trees from what I can see.”
“Now Captain, stand down, or I swear your punishment will be much harsher than what it already is,” the queen said as her scarlet rose hair flew in the wind.
Gilbert scanned the forest once again. There was absolute silence in the party; even the wind and the rare birds of prey silenced themselves.
Suddenly, the eerie stillness was broken by the clang of Gilbert's dagger as it hit the ground, unsullied by blood or sap.
Vania ran to the arms of her husband, and the first captain fell to his knees before the queen. “Your Highness . . . I'm sorry.”
Miria looked disappointedly at her highest-ranking subordinate and as she judged him, she spoke. “Rise, First Captain of Haven-Harbor.” Gilbert stood up as he kept staring into the floor with shame. “Your weapons.” The captain took out his weapons from his belt and gave them to the queen.
Miria then threw the weapons to the ground and spoke. “From now on, you are not to act without my express permission, and you aren't to even raise a finger against anyone in any circumstance.”
“But, my queen—”
“But nothing! This is an order from your queen!” Miria said, with a glowing fire burning in her eyes. “Do you understand me, Captain?”
“Y-yes my queen,” Gilbert said as he felt a searing heat from his liege.
“Good. Now pick yourself up and let’s get a move on.” Once the queen finished, the old Gilbert returned to the company of his mariners, who stared disapprovingly at the queen.
Miria noticed and as she stared back she warned the captain. “Make yourselves happy that my judgment was kind. Next time something like this happens, it won't be so light.”
“Vania, I'm so sorry about this,” Miria said as she walked toward the forest couple. “I swear this won't happen again. Captain Gilbert is just a bit uneasy in this strange land”
Vania was visibly scared by the captain's action. No one in the party had seen the couple before with such frightened expressions; even Stein noticed the oddity of it.
“It alright, Miria. Thank you,” Vania said with a distinctively uncharacteristic, apathetic tone.
“Let's all ignore what happened here, now, forwards march,” Miria said, walking beside the forest folk as the captain dragged behind with the retinues.
Minutes flew by after the incident with the first captain and there was an odd silence in the forest. The chirps of the exotic birds became a distant memory, the leaves stopped their dancing, and the wind vanished back into the realms of Ventus.
Even the forest couple, who were hopping through the forest just minutes before, trudged along, peering into the dark between trees. But it wasn’t because of Captain Gilbert.
Vania's and Agar's eyes shifted from left to right. Something was disturbing them, but no one in the party dared to ask what it was.
With a high note, the silence broke. In the distance, a figure slogged toward the party, emitting a haunting sound the party had never heard before.
It sounded like a summer night’s breeze, yet it seemed to echo the wailing of the damned but also the cheers and chants of the virtuous.
The figure got closer and closer and the sound became louder and louder. Then abruptly, Vania and Agar stopped and bowed on their knees.
The humans stopped too and looked in awe at the approaching creature.
It was a Fenian, like Vania and Agar, but he was odd. He ignored the party and walked through their ranks while he played the strange instrument that the haunting and beautiful sound came from.
He wore a suit of woven leaves and used a completely smooth wooden mask without any features, save for a small hole where his horn-like instrument connected with his mouth.
As he walked through the party, a strange feeling overwhelmed them. For a few moments, it was as if all the pain and the problems that clouded them suddenly vanished, and each one knew their place in the universe.
In that moment, nothing but the song mattered.
The strange player walked through their ranks, his half-wooden head remained still and focused in its song, except for a moment.
As he approached Rorrick the musician halted. But as he slowly lowered his instrument the song kept going, as if it hadn't quite caught up to its player.
The singer looked and moved his mask-covered face toward Rorrick, raising his hand as if to greet him. He lowered his head in reverence, and then slowly resumed his song and walk.
Before they had even realized it, the singer disappeared into the distance, into the dark green forest, and his song fading with him.
It took the party a few minutes to snap out of their trance, but as soon as they did, they met with another surprise.
They found themselves all trapped in a giant net,hanging over the ground. Upon closer inspection, a small party of forest folk armed with spears and javelins pointing at them and muttering to each other.
The humans slowly awoke to their situation and each uttered a yelp of surprise and confusion.
“Vania! Agar! What is this?” Miria said to the guides, who were also snared in the trap.
“Trap by forest hunters,” Vania said as the hunters below groaned in pain at their first contact with the human language.
“Fen Qae Fis, Qo Fus?” One of the hunters sang and pointed to Vania.
“Vania? Agar?” the most well-armored hunter said as he looked at the party.
“Kel! Fus Qo Na. Qot Folga Len,” Vania said to the supposed leader who wore full armor with a breastplate of animal leather.
The hunter inspected the weapons that the humans had dropped in the ground and had his party gather them. He gave what seemed like a stern order to his fellow hunters, and they raised their spears and pointed them at the humans.
He got closer to the couple and asked Agar something in their native tongue.
“Ee,” Agar responded with utmost seriousness.
After he had taken another good look at the party, he made a finger movement and the hunters cut the ropes of the net.
The humans slowly got their bearings and stood up, all while the forest hunters pointed their spears at them. Stein struggled to gather the books that had scattered on the forest floor.
“This is Kel, he hunter leader of forest folk,” Vania said to Miria as she too stood up.
“Did you explain about us?” Miria said, looking into the leader’s distrusting eyes.
“I say you are friends, you come with us. Guests to Alq Fen,” Vania said as Kel inspected each human before he crossed his gaze with Gilbert's.
“Your hunter leader doesn't seem very friendly,” Rorrick said as he feared the worst.
“You east-walkers aren't only ones with Gilberts,” Vania said, smiling at her own observation.
There was a strange chill in the air. Gilbert and Kel looked at each other with equally distrustful stares. For a second, both felt as if they were staring into their reflections.
“Kel?” Vania called.
Suddenly the starring contest between both seasoned military leaders broke and Kel walked toward his two old acquaintances. “Felq Nae Aa Uea Qe Ti,” Kel said with a judgmental stare to the couple.
“Qot Qel Qo! Felq Nae Uea,” Vania said with a heartfelt expression.
Kel only sighed, and after he told the couple what seemed like a warning, he ordered his hunters to follow him and escort the party.
“Kel agreed to take you to Old Tree. I convinced him to let you pass, but he will keep the weapons you took. He don't trust you yet,” Vania said, looking proud.
“That's alright. Thank you for your help, Vania,” Miria said with a cheerful expression, her praise increasing the size of Vania's grin.
“We have been walking for hours. How long until we arrive?” Rorrick said in a rather impatient tone.
“Should be, now.” As Vania finished talking, Kel opened the last of the shrubbery and laid open the entrance to the Alq Fen, the home of the forest folk.
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Before the party laid the heart of the island. Deep within the dense black forest they’d trekked through slept a great clearing with a colossal tree.
Its trunk, which must have been eons old, sprouted from deep within the earth and elevated itself to the skies with a weary and wizened deep brown color. Amongst its multitude of branches, a system of rope and vine bridges connected small wooden hovels perched on thick branches. At the base of the tree, a few bigger dwellings surrounded the trunk like moss sprouting from the safety of a bigger rock.
Lastly, the party noticed the glistening of the sun upon the trunk. Through various heights, there were elaborate panes of glass that allowed a temporary glance into the mostly hollow tree.
“Fel Qal Alq Fen!” Vania exclaimed excitedly as she pointed toward the tree. “Welcome to Alq Fen!”
“It's beautiful,” Rorrick answered with starry eyes. “Peace among the creeping forest.”
“It's amazing indeed. If only my old mentor could see this. She would have loved to study your, uh, what do you call the big tree?” Stein asked as the party started moving toward the clearing and the tree.
“That is the Alq Fen, the First Tree we call it! Don't worry Mr. Stein, you can learn as much you want from the talking bark,” Vania said as she merrily jumped up and down at the excitement of returning home.
As the party approached the ancient tree, their feeling of being spied on was replaced by a feeling of wonder as they noticed forest folk leaving their hovels to look at the party from above.
The male-looking ones were all of a dark green color similar to Agar's, while the more feminine-looking forest folk seemed were a lighter shade of green. The party noticed something they hadn't seen before: up in the houses above the branches, there were both elderly and young forest folk.
The more ancient-looking had completely lost their shade of green. Instead, their skin was a hard tree bark and they moved slowly as they became impaired by their aging and heavy bodies.
The younglings, on the other hand, seemed quite energetic. There was no sign of bark on them, and both boys and girls sprouted flowers in their hair. There was no consistency to it; various designs and types seemed to change from one child to another, however as they passed by below, the party could see that the flowers seemed to become smaller and smaller the more adult the younglings became.
On the ground there were a few forest folk, both adult and young, who curiously but carefully started to poke the humans as they wondered what type of tree these newfound visitors were.
“Niq Seq Qot!” Kel yelled to his fellow tree folk and they quickly returned to their work as if they had been given a death threat.
There was however one forest folk who did not move away, and as she got closer to Vania she yelled, “Falga Vania!”
“Falga Lega!” Vania answered in return before both tree women hugged and started talking excitedly to each other.
“Sister Lega . . .” Stein murmured and jotted down as the party, and now the new Forest Woman, walked together.
“What is it, Mr. Stein?” Miria asked as she looked around at the natural beauty surrounding her.
“Hm? Oh, I have caught a few words and a little bit of the language of our . . . friends, while I was teaching them ours.
I believe if my skills are correct, that woman is Ms. Vania's sister.”
“Well, they certainly act similarly,” Miria chuckled as she noticed that Agar was frowning even more than usual as he heard the incessant talk of his wife and her sister.
The party came to a halt as they approached the front door of the great tree. The human explorers noticed something odd.
Close to the tree, but still in the grass of the clearing, there was a large rectangular table with clear signs of wear and tear. As of now, the table was somewhat empty, with the exception of a few old dirty bowls and a tired-looking forest folk.
He slowly ate a strange mix of both vegetables, fruit and raw meat from his own bowl, and looked sleepily at the party, not knowing if what he was currently witnessing was a dream, a hallucination, or reality.
He stood up and started shuffling clumsily toward the humans. His tone was a darker green, similar to the other males like Agar, but unlike the hunters or Agar and Vania, he wore an elaborate tunic and pants instead of armor.
As the humans waited for Kel's instructions to move, the groggy tree started to poke and inspect each human, taking a special interest in Miria for both her beauty and her regal clothing.
Before he could touch Rorrick's golden hair though, Kel broke from his own formation and started to yell and point at the sleep-dazed tree.
“Ms. Miria, you want me to translate from now on?” Vania asked as everyone in both the party and the walkways up top looked to the midday ruckus.
“Of course. It would be a great help if you could,” Miria said, giving Kel and Gilbert a judgmental stare.
“What the dreggers did I do?” Gilbert asked as he noticed the queen's stare.
Vania nodded her head respectfully and started to translate the squabble between her brethren while her sister simply sighed at the scene.
“Get away from them, Aele! No one is to talk or even touch them before the felq does!” Vania translated as she tried to keep as faithfully as possible to the conversation, even going as far as to try and mimic the tone of voice and gestures.
“Bah, paranoid Kel as usual. You have been seeing too many shadows in your forest. No need to worry, great captain. In here all our shadows are visible. Who are these trees anyway? Coming from the desert?” Aele asked as he started to lean on Kel.
“Get off of me! It's for the felq to know and not you, you lowly leech.”
“Leech? You’re just jealous of my skills as a stringmancer. Poor little Kel was never good with his musical bow so he picked his hunting one instead,” Aele said with a smirk.
“Shut up!” Kel said, aiming a punch at his nemesis, but before he could land it his own hunters held him back.
“It's alright Kel. Maybe one day you will defeat me and get your horn back. Too bad you can't challenge me with your javelins instead,” Aele said as he poked Kel's nose while he was still being held by his own hunters. “Say hi to the felq for me,” Aele announced with a mocking tone before leaving.
Kel almost broke free from his subordinates, such was his anger and need to punch his tormentor. To calm down, he let out a single, rage-filled yell.
His shout echoed through the treetops and the leaves and carried with it the distinctive forest folk melody.
In her effort to completely translate everything, Vania too joined in Kel's scream.
“Woah, that's new,” Rorrick said as he witnessed the oddity of the pitch-perfect, melodic screams. “It's like two single beautiful low notes on a cathedral organ,” Rorrick said to Henrik, who stayed quiet and wondered what a cathedral organ was.
“Uh, it's alright, Vania. You don't need to perfectly translate everything. Just the essential conversation parts,” Miria said with a shocked look at Vania's dedication.
“Oh, very well,” Vania said, as Kel himself seemed to have finally calmed down.
“What was that all about?” Rorrick asked Vania as Kel returned to formation and knocked on the front doors of the Alq Fen.
“Kel hates Aele because when they were young, Kel challenged Aele to a music duel. But Kel lost and Aele took his wind horn,” Vania whispered, trying to not call attention to herself.
“He lost a musical instrument? What’s so bad about that?” Miria asked. Rorrick looked at his beloved one with a disapproving stare.
“Well, in forest folk society, learning to play is very important!” Vania said with a rare serious expression. “There aren't many rules in forest folk society. If you want something . . . or someone,” the tree woman said with a sly expression as she looked to Agar, “then you have a music duel with them. A flowerless forest folk must challenge another and say what he wants. Then the other can accept it or not. If he or she does, then they must also say what they want from the other. Then the two forest folk play against each other on the holy stage and the crowd decides the winner.”
“That sounds . . . awful,” Miria said as she thought of the potential breaches of morality such a system allowed for.
“Yes,” Agar said with an annoyed expression as Vania started to hug him.
“I challenged Agar when we lost our flowers. If he lost, he would become my husband. I have never accepted any other challenge from him since,” Vania said as she squeezed her forced love slave. Agar merely sighed and patted his captor in the head, conforming himself to her and accepting his fate.
“Huh, a society where one's status is based on their musical skills? I like it,” Rorrick said as various ideas started to cross his mind. “Let me guess though, that “Aele” took Kel’s musical instrument and now he can’t do anything?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, it seems Kel can't play anything else,” Vania said as Kel started to lose his temper and started to kick and bash the front door of the first tree.
“What about singing?” Rorrick asked with a curious posture.
“Oh the natu—" Vania was cut short as the great door to the Alq Fen opened.
Kel then raised his hand and gave an order. The hunters entered and signaled for the humans to follow them into the great old tree.
“I will explain later,” Vania said before she bid farewell to her sister and entered the Alq Fen with the party.
For the first time since the dawn of men, humans had finally set foot inside the primordial tree.
The humans were overtaken by the strange fragrance of eons-old dry wood and honey. The natural capital of the forest was well lit, and various rays of light peered through the multitude of small and medium glass panes embedded in the wood itself.
The party felt a great sense of peace as they walked inside the hollow tree. The floors were the innumerable rings that dated the great tree, long back to the times before even the gods.
These rings led to the very center of the Alq Fen, where, still connected to the natural world, was an ancient, untouched stem, similar in diameter to that of a normal-sized tree trunk.
It grew from the ground and raised itself to the very top of the tree, to the leaves and branches and gave life to both itself and its peaceful keepers.
The great tree was divided into floors, each with a circular platform surrounding the ancient stem.
Various light brown planks circled around the edges of the tree and stem.
On the same floor, the planks were connected by a system of bridges made from ropes and vines similar to the branches outside. Connecting the various floors together was a long diagonal ramp that circled around the tree, up until the very top which was hard to see as the various cords obscured it, like an intricate web.
Kel listened to the gasps of awe and wonder from the foreigners, but as much as he wanted them to look away, he couldn't do anything about it.
“My gods, I have never seen something like this before,” Rorrick exclaimed as the party started walking to the ramp and commenced their slow climb up to the felq's chambers.
“The designs are beautiful,” Stein said as he noticed various wood-cut markings on the walls of the tree.
Some of them seemed to depict scenes of ancient forest folk; others seemed like single ornate designs of various angular shapes and patterns, and some resembled some sort of alphabet or writing system.
“Indeed, I wonder what all of this is for,” Miria said as she too noticed their surroundings. The first floor seemed to be both a hall of sorts and storage. She noticed the various chests and shelves filled with all manner of tools, bowls, and other forms of general equipment.
The humans kept climbing and walking through the ramp, passing the various levels and platforms of the great tree. They noticed that each floor seemed to have a public or communal function for the entire Alq Fen surrounding the tree.
The second level had all manner of artisans and craftsmen tables, and on it, various forest folk toiled away, either repairing or making new tools for the use of the village. The forest artisans were so focused on their work they hadn't even noticed the alien race inside their home.
The third level had a much smaller amount of forest folk in it. This level hosted a variety of bookshelves, filled with wooden tablets adorned with the mysterious forest folk script.
“Their archives,” Stein said as they passed through the almost-empty level. His eyes glistened with the possibility of learning their secrets.
The fourth level didn’t seem to have any forest folk at all. Instead, there was a variety of bunk beds, all masterfully carved in wood with leaves for mattresses. By the dust on it, the humans deduced that these beds had not been used in a very long time.
The fifth level seemed to be entirely a pantry of sorts. Chests, barrels, baskets, and shelves held all manner of food, from berries, fruits, vegetables to raw and dried meats.
There didn't seem to be any sort of cleaning control to them however, as some baskets with raw meat still leaked the blood of the fresh kill in them.
“How peculiar,” Miria said as they passed through the food storage of the forest folk.
Finally, on the sixth and final floor, the party arrived in the chambers and hall of the felq, the leader of the forest folk.
At the end of the ramp, there was a single slab of stone and in it, lines inscribed with the strange forest folk runes, to the right of the slab, lay the doorway and entrance to the felq's chambers.
The doorway was heavily decorated with beautiful wood carvings and paintings of various colors. The door was half-open, as if to signal the party to enter. Kel gave a command and the party passed through the ornate yellow door, into the chambers and hall of the felq.
The human captains were awed when they saw the hall and chamber. Opposite to the door laid a great throne, barely carved or ornate as various branches and roots seemed to sprout out of it and connect to the rest of the tree through the floor and ceiling.
The throne stood sideways, with its right side facing the entryway, and the left side facing a great glass window from where one could see the entire clearing and even a small hint of the coastline and human ships’ masts.
There was little else in the room besides a plain double bed and a small chair and table with two wooden tablets on it.
The light of the sun shone brightly through the window. The wind accompanied it, for the party could hear the soft summer breeze dragging itself through the leaves, the branches and the glass outside. As they approached the throne, the humans smelled honey and nectar.
For a few moments, the party was surprised as they saw no one in the room. But upon closer inspection, the humans saw a slight movement coming from the throne.
Almost as if camouflaged by his natural appearance, the Felq of the Fenians sat in his throne and breathed heavily to keep himself awake as he noticed the arrival of the humans in his home.
The felq was extremely elderly, the oldest of any of the forest folk the humans had seen yet. His skin had lost any semblance of green or softness, replaced entirely by the heavy natural bark that grew with forest folk age.
His clothes were mostly comprised of an ornate cloak with various symbols in it and a tunic and pants made from a large amount of fur. He wore around his neck a pendant made of four golden leaves, and upon his ancient head, there was a crown of silver twigs.
As they got closer, the party noticed a feature they had not seen in any other forest folk before: from the sides of the felq's head sprang two large branches that arched vertically and formed tree-like antlers.
Almost as soon as they had entered, Kel stepped forward to explain the situation. Vania dutifully translated for her human friends.
“Felq Veln. We have captured these so-called East-walk.”
“Silence!” The old tree chieftain's yell reverberated through the woods with an extremely deep and harmonious tone. “Bring them closer to me, Kel.” He said as he eyed the strange creatures.
Kel begrudgingly obeyed the old tree monarch and brought both the human leaders, as well as the tree couple.
“Vania, Agar . . . you reckless children,” The felq said to them in an amused tone. Kel looked with envy and anger at the couple for not being reprimanded. “Speak with them for me . . .” the felq said as he gestured for the captains to step forward.
Miria, Rorrick, Gilbert, and Stein knelt before the felq, and in a respectful tone, Miria began to talk. “Great King of the Forest, we are refugees and we seek safe passage.”
Felq Veln heard as Vania carefully transformed the simple human words into a beautiful Fennic song of her people.
“Yes . . . I know. Please step up, Miria, Felq of Ships.” Miria stepped up and looked to the old tree in wonder as, she heard her name before Vania could disclose it
The old tree leader grabbed a heavily-decorated walking stick and raised up and walked toward the human queen. “I have seen this day long ago, and I have dreamed of its destinies,” he told her in his native forest tongue. “Now we must see which one will take hold. . . . I just wish you would have taken a bit longer . . . “ The felq said with a tearful and saddened expression. “So tell me, are you really Miria of Roseport?”
The queen merely nodded. The felq sighed and looked toward the tree branches above him.
Afterwards, he looked to the right and saw the curious Rorrick and the lute upon his back. He stepped down and after he had placed his bulky bark covered hands in his shoulders, he pulled him up and hugged him.
Everyone in the room, Kel and the tree couple included, was confused by what the felq was doing. But no one was more stunned by his actions than Rorrick. Especially as he heard the felq murmur in the human tongue with a terrible forest accent: “Please, keep our people safe.”
The felq then stepped back, everyone still in shock as to what had transpired, and Veln spoke to Vania. “Tell the humans they may remain in the Alq Fen for now. We will discuss their dealings in the gathering. Show them our people, Vania.”
Vania dutifully translated, as Kel protested to his superior. “My felq! I—”
“You will accompany them, Kel. They have my permission to visit anything they desire in our town.”
“But—”
“No complaints . . . please, Kel.” The felq pleaded with a humble expression, which Kel obeyed, as he did not wish to break the old tree's heart.
The felq then gestured and instructed them to leave.
“We will discuss more later then,” Miria said as she bowed down and prepared to leave with the humans.
As the party exited the room and left the old tree to his devices, Rorrick glanced over his shoulder. Right before the door closed, he saw the felq seem to cry as he looked down at the clearing through his window.
“That was rather odd,” Rorrick admitted to the party as they started to descend the stairs. “Is he always like this, Vania?”
Vania's expression changed to one of sadness and answered her human friend.” Felq Veln is very old. The felqs are blessed by the first tree to live longer than normal forest folk so that they can rule well.
But even for a felq, it seems Veln will not live to see another spring.”
As Vania pondered the fate of the only leader she’d known, Agar held her hand and hoped it would comfort her.
Without a word, Vania held back Agar's hand and felt momentary relief from thoughts of the future.
Kel heard the humans discussing the felq and kept a close distance to them. Soon enough, they arrived at the base of the Alq Fen and began to prepare.
“I hope you can still show me those musical masters of yours, Vania,” Rorrick said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I too would very much like to get to know your people and your customs better. If we are to cooperate as allies, its vital,” Miria said, using the diplomacy she’d studied so hard as a princess.
“We can show you around, of course!” Vania exclaimed as she pointed to herself and her husband as she swung their joined hands.
“Should we go back and tell the rest of the camp what happened, Your Majesty?” One of the mariners said.
“Yes, of course. Tell the settlers and officers what has happened so far. Captain Gilbert and a small number of you will remain with us for security while, Rorrick, Stein and I acquaint ourselves with our new friends’ way of life,” Miria ordered.
“Huh, actually Your Highness, you may go on ahead and interact with the Fenians yourself. I think I will remain here in their archives and read a bit. I believe I can familiarize myself with their script,” Stein said, wanting to keep his true intentions of finding his savior a secret.
“Oh, very well then. Let us regroup by sundown. And may Aqua protect you on your journey back, gentlemen,” Miria said to the three mariners that would leave as they bowed, and started to walk back to their encampment.
By now Agar and Vania had explained the intentions of the humans to the hunter's leader, and, reluctantly, Kel gave his hunters leave for the day and disbanded them.
“Let's move then,” Kel said in his native tongue, as Vania translated.