After securing the Shinto-like ropes around two more trees, Tender Hake and the Earthlings spent an equally long time returning to below the capital before a floating rock elevator carried them up to the city.

They tried to keep up with him, but after all of Kohn’s flattering praise, Hake jollily sped through the streets at breakneck speeds. Only once he returned to his store did Hake realize that he was alone and was forced to go back for the Earthlings that were looking for him. Eventually the whole group made it to Hake’s store.

“Come in, come in. Don’t touch anything! And take your shoes off.”

Hake paradoxically invited them in before snapping at four when he saw their curiosity. It might not have been much compared to other places in the capital, but to Hake his store was a thing of beauty.

“Wow!”

Not being mind readers, Kohn and the rest didn’t know that Hake’s store was typically made fun of. But nevertheless, their reactions of awe were genuine.

His store was actually quite large on the outside, but with all the trees, potted plants, and hanging magical equipment the store was quite cramped on the inside. Everywhere they turned the Earthlings could see different colored leaves, thorns that acted like motion detectors, and thick trees that looked to have been awkwardly grown inside the building. They bent at impossible angles or even looped around themselves to look like a giant’s mace.

The outside of the building was the same brick metal as the rest of the capital, but internally every spot that they could see was wood and dirt. And it smelled like a fresh summer’s breeze.

“Hake.” Kohn had honestly never seen anything like this. Where the forest below held a sense of wild animalistic nature, Hake’s store felt more like a beautiful paradise or work of art. “This place is beautiful.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“No. Why would I lie?” Kohn spoke in an awed whisper while the others remained mute. At least until Trevor’s hand brushed up against a Venus fly-trap like vine. It sucked up his hand with a big slurping sound, carrying him into the air unnoticed by his comrades and ignored by the Tender.

“Hey! Help! Let go of me you piece of-isn’t anyone going to help me? Whoa, what’s that? Oh, hell nah! Nnn. Get the fuck off me! Ack. Gross. Is that a tongue? Is the plant trying to eat me or make out with my hand? That’s it. I’ve had enough. Hake this is on you! AIR SHOCKWAVE! Oh. My. God. That is the most disgusting, ugh. Patooie.”

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“Oh, what’s up Trevor? What are you covered in?”

“Hake said not to touch anything dude.”

“You better replace that plant before you leave thumb-sucker!”

“Eww! What is that smell?”

“Thanks for your help guys. No really, everything’s fine.”

Kohn realized that he had completely ignored Trevor when he was in trouble. Looking at Sasha and Collins he saw that they felt the same amount of guilt as him. It was just that everything in Hake’s shop had been so distracting that they completely didn’t notice Trevor’s vine molester. At least, not until he called out a magic spell name and blew up the plant, covering himself in its incredibly sticky and horrendous smelling juices.

“I’ll be filing a complaint about your time here,” Hake said from the corner of his mouth “but for now let’s carry on.”

With a wave of his hand over a bench near the center of the room, a series of magic formations glowed visibly. The dirt floor just in front of the workbench moved away from a single point, almost like a circular dirt tidal wave. Exposed beneath was a circle with a series of waved lines meeting at the center.

Hake waved his hand over a different portion of the workbench, causing more magic formations to become visible and the circle to open. Each of the wavy lines split as the metal retreated into the sides while spinning. As it opened a sudden gust of wind came up causing everyone’s hair to flutter wildly into the air. A tube with light at the end stretched down a long way.

“This is a hole that leads directly to the forest below!” Hake had to yell over the roar of wind that was buffeting the room. “This is how we bring the wood up to the capital!”

The light at the bottom of the tube dimmed, but the disappearing light was replaced with the blue glow of magic formations running in double helix patterns all the way down.

Curious, Kohn leaned over the open hole. He stared at into it, noticing that black shadow at the bottom of the tube was coming up at an alarming rate. When it reached the top, Kohn was struck in the face by a massive force, throwing him into the air back towards the shops entrance.

Shaking off the pain he looked up and froze. One of the trees with the Shinto rope stood in the middle of the room as if it had been growing out of the tube the entire time.

Smiling at their shocked appearance, Hake sauntered over to the tree with a prideful waggle of his hips. “Mmm, hmm.” He hummed his satisfaction at them. “Now what do you think we do with this?”

Sasha raised her hand as if she was still back in school on Earth. Hake called her out.

“Yes! Missy thumb-sucker?”

“Cut it up?” She slowly asked.

“You might be right on other days, but today this one is replacing others that I cut up yesterday.”

“So then what are you doing with it?” Trevor had just barely managed to clean all the sticky fluids off his face, but unfortunately for him he could still taste it.

“We’re going to store it over there in that corner.” He pointed his thumb behind him. The Corner in question couldn’t have enough room to fit a hedge bush much less this tree.

Seeing their unbelieving faces he simply turned back to the tree. His hands glowed a faint green this time before he touched the tree trunk.

Before their very eyes the tree bent like warmed plastic. This way and that way Hake swiveled the tree and before they knew it he had bent the tree into a square shape. Then he calmly whistled while pushing the square tree into the corner.

“Any questions?”

Kohn leapt up back to his feet. “Yeah! Can you teach me that?”

Hake smirked back at him. “Whatever do you mean? The next one is yours!”