The day was cold, Uden was grateful for the new armor and cloak, even though it made it harder to move around. She had never worn armor before, and it was already chafing in almost every area imaginable. The human shaped leggings did not fit the pagnos physic, so she left most of the leather behind and instead just strapped on the guards directly to the leg. After reaching the bridge construction site she took the guards off too. She would have to adjust them before wearing them or the amount pain her legs were in would cancel out any protection they offered.

She felt extra jumpy and a little angry after the previous days encounter. She had spent most of her life watching her own back, but not even a week out in the woods and she got jumped. She tried to brush it off as being out of her element, on the thieves’ home turf, with a bunch of new life changes; but it didn't help.

She felt a little resentful at her new coworkers’ attitude towards the incident, that attitude being no change at all. It was hard enough to ignore they were dungeon monsters, and until now their personalities helped, but the way they just brushed off almost being erased from existence. Maybe they were too young to know the implications of bandits taking the dungeon crystal, dismissing it didn't make make them feel less alien.

The gnomes had a conversation with the new water monster, she couldn't remember what it was called, the flying monster joined in and was energetically adding to the discussion. She didn't see the twiggy Pappi anywhere, that one she didn't have much of a problem with for some reason. She had worked alongside many Sylvatica before, the transient race of tree like beings that loved to serve. No-one knew anything about them other than their love for work and inquisitive nature, the Dryad reminded her of the simple folk. A bee flew by on a mission, she wondered if it was one of Pappi's friends as the feeling of alienness caught up to her again.

A sharp voice brought her out of her musings, bringing awareness to her surroundings once again.

"What" The reply was angrier than she was going for, the pain from chafing returned with reality as she adjusted some straps.

"Sorry to bother you mam"

The little gnomes always caught her off guard when they talked, they looked like something an unusual person would fill their property with to add whimsy to in their otherwise unfulfilled lives. Thank the gods they were polite though; she didn't think she could handle it if random figures came to life screaming and cursing.

"...and you'll keep it steady."

"Good plan right" Shale finished without picking up that most the plan went unheard.

Uden just nodded in reply. Even though these monsters were out of her depth to handle, they were loyal to a fault, and that included her now too.

"This will take getting used to" Whether she knew it or not, that thought would become her life's mantra for the unforeseen future.

Pulling on a rope that was either intricately wrapped around the stone supports or just tangled enough not to slip, the three gnomes managed to roll the massive pillar over small stone rollers. Once at the river they slid it out onto a couple of logs laying over the water, two pulling from the opposite bank and the third carefully pushing from the back. The old logs creaked with the strain. About a third of the way across they stopped and swung the support until it was perpendicular to the logs.

"Your turn now mam"

Uden wasn't sure what was about to happen next, she hadn't been paying attention, but it seemed to involve getting out onto the logs. Pagnos were great at climbing, balancing and walking the fine line, but doing it over rivers on logs that were already bending far too much for her liking was a lot to ask.

"You want me to lower that into the river? I don't think I can do that without falling in."

"no mam, Kawn will do that, just keep it steady"

She gave a quick look at the srcappy bit of gray flitting about that was the sylph, watching as it settled on the bank like it was finally getting serious. "What is a little undersized person/dragonfly/monster going to do that I can't” She thought to herself as she grabbed the rope. Then again, they did more against the bandits than she was able to.

She felt a tug on the rope as the support started shifting, looking around on the logs she realized there was no-one out there to help her. She opened her grip the rope, a bridge support was easier to replace than her life but was surprised when the rope didn't feed out and the support didn't drop.

Silver hatchworks of lines started to glow on the support as it started to tilt over the edge and started to wobble. More and more lines followed, appearing, fading and glowing with the shifting weight of the giant stone pillar.

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Grabbing the rope again and helping to steady the support Uden watched as it slowly lowered itself into a muddy whirlpool that had formed in the river. Once the pillar was firmly in the whirlpool it started to keep itself steady, Uden was laying down on the makeshift bridge at this point, trying to keep everything steady, but it was in the waters gasp now.

The pillar finally stopped moving after sinking several feet into the riverbank, the whirlpool dissipated, and clean water replaced the murk. Uden had no idea what exactly happened, she bet the naiad was somehow involved. Looking over at the bank the sylph was sprawled out in the grass. Probably alert drained from whatever it did to lower the rock.

Whatever had happened the support was in place and looked straight enough, while the whirlpool created a hole in the riverbed it must have also helped keep it centered.

Eventually they finished lowering the final support in the riverbed so they created a square. Uden laid down in the grass, exhausted while Shale started to add stones to the tops of the pillars and forming larger cornerstones on the banks to keep the bridge secure during high water season. A light tapping on her shoulder startled her out of her rest.

Pappi stood there, a bee on the shoulder adding a bit of flair. A motion to follow, and Uden was up again. She wasn't fully rested yet, but a walk would be a nice change from all the monster antics around the bridge. She pulled out her axe, in case there was danger, a quick shake of the head from Pappi and she put it back.

They walked on the other side of the river and eventually started to climb the mountain about ten minutes down from the waterfall. Pappi was walking carefree, leaves crunching underfoot, the leaves crunched under hooves right behind drowned it out anyway. Bees kept coming and going around the dryad, the larger bee still on its shoulder perch.

They arrived at a natural hollow formed in the mountainside, it was covered by a large oilcloth that was dyed to match the color of the stone. It formed a large tent and inside were four sleeping rolls and crates of supplies.

"This could be where those bandits where camped, who knew they were so close." It made sense; they were far enough away from the road that if anyone went looking for bandits, they probably wouldn't find them. It was also close to the river that they could get water, but far enough away to make it unlikely anyone would stumble upon them by accident.

Pappi nodded in agreement.

Since there was no-one left to claim any of it they started digging. The crates were sheltered under the overhang, safe from rain if the oilcloth ever failed. Among the stolen shipments was cloth, spices, barrels of wine and meade, nails, copper pipes, crates of tools, clothes, cheese... All together about eight large crates, fifteen smaller boxes and a dozen barrels.

Pappi went over to one side and shoved a large rock, a root poked itself out of the dirt.

Uden started searching through the personal bags and gear, collecting some low-quality backup weapons, armor repair parts, arrows and bottles marked in a way that only the thieves knew what was in them. Each of the thieves also had sets of cloths, she changed into the set that fit the best. There were also cloaks, she pulled one out. It was high quality work. The whole cloak was a dull mottled gray except for a dagger with a coin balanced on the point embroidered on the arm. They were made to blend into the shadows but she felt it would draw too much attention to herself, so she just added it to the pile.

By now the root Pappi was playing with had turned into a swarm of roots pushing out of the dirt, and in the middle was a bag.

"What is that there?" Uden pulled the bag out, it was full of gold, silver and copper coins along with gold jewelry. "Look at that treasure! I could live off that for years!" She looked wildly around, paranoid at holding so much in her hands.

She started to slowly count them out, trying to figure out the math of each. Pagnos were well renown merchants, so she had some exposure to money as a child. "A gold is a hundred silver, a silver is a hundred copper... and there are half gold, quarter gold, ten silver, half silver, quarter silver, ten copper... no ten gold, but I have only heard rumors of them, they might not even exist." She tried to match the jewelry to the coins the best she could.

After a bit of organizing and reorganizing she came to a final estimate. "Twelve gold, thirty eight silver and seventy three copper. That is more than I have made in a lifetime! I could probably buy a small bit of land with a cabin for this much." She noticed Pappi standing at the doorway, scouting and buzzing with bees. The impulse to take the money and run was strong, but she knew she hadn't earned it as much as the monsters had.

Still though, dreams of a nice shack on enough land to plant a garden seemed like a lifelong dream, although arguable she had a good thing going at the cave too. Eventually she decided, she would return with most of the gold, and would tuck a third of it away in some secret spot nearby, just in case things at the cave took a turn. That seemed fair enough, a third for Gina, a third for the monsters and a third for the boss monster.

She piled the split into the bag and loaded it into a bag with some of the better gear, hiding the rest in a crack in the stone and covered it with more stones. She grabbed the bag, slinging it onto her shoulder along with a bedroll, grabbing a smaller crate she turned to Pappi. "We will come back for the rest."

Pappi just nodded and they left to go back to the cave.

The stonework for the bridge was coming along, although Uden still had to cross on the logs, now carrying a smaller box it was more difficult but still manageable. Pappi stayed behind to keep watch, almost melting into the brush, becoming one with nature.

Uden finished carrying the box to the cavern, thoughts heavy on her mind. The bandits had to have been stealing all fall with amount of loot they had built up, she didn't know if someone was coming for them or not, they would have to get the rest of the goods right away. The bridge should be finished in the next three or four days, she could grab the smaller boxes and bags, move the gold too. They would move the crates as soon as they could get the wagon over.

One question still nagged at her. She could destroy and hide the camp and hope the thieves were paranoid enough to not have shown anyone else where it was. But what if they had.