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0.6

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Through the canopy of trees.

Across the dense leafage and the winding branches of the Wood Clan’s village, it wasn’t often that you saw someone running. Elves were, by nature, a patient folk who delighted themselves with enjoying every second of every minute of every hour. Though many were those who expressed dissatisfaction with the everyday mundanity of their lives, those were by far the minority.

An elvish village was a thing of beauty.

Working like clockwork.

The locals woke, set about accomplishing their daily tasks, before turning int to sleep.

What hurry was there?

Every project had decades to be achieved. Ever life, from the youngest of children to the eldest of adults could be measured in the span of generations for those whose lives were tragically short.

The envy of their barbaric kinsmen, the Orcs.

As self realized as their clan was, most felt there wasn’t much need to engage in petty politics and matters of governance. What one wished to achieve, they had ample time and skill to achieve themselves. What training and learning there was to be had, was freely offered by the eldest of their people seeking to dull the aches of boredom.

Elvish rules, as it so turned out… were often bored themselves.

It wasn’t a hard job after all.

Keep track of numbers. The number of people, their ages, what they could do and where their efforts were allocated. From the young boy who peddled wood carvings at the side of the road, to the one who sold freshly squeezed juice to the guards who passed by his home everyday.

The bounty of nature was their ally.

Mana had chosen to bestow its gifts upon them.

As such, Governor Caladium found there wasn’t much to do.

He’d already had his office refurbished five times over the past 20 years. He’d made and sent no less than fifteen letters addressed to his superiors with proposals for legislation and suggestions for improving the village’s infrastructure. Not that he ever got a reply to those papers.

He didn’t expect any, really.

What reason was there to spend any time and effort into a vanity project?

‘The ceremony of gifting is still so far away. Maybe I should come up with a reason to have it earlier this year?’ He hadn’t received any messages from deeper in the Greenhold from the Noble Families who usually sent a priest to oversee the preparations.

Maybe then he might get an answer from them that didn’t start with ‘no’.

Those who’d appointed him to the seat of Governor and allowed him to keep track of activities in the little slice of territory they’d granted him seldom cared to actually pay attention.

Pineskeep was an average village, after all.

It had average citizens.

It wielded average results.

As with most villages, nothing was expected of them.

What need was there for guards, when they had warriors capable of repelling enemy invasions? What need was there to artists, when mages could weave from their imagination wonders that befuddled the mind? What need was there for a governor in a town where everything worked as intended?

Just another day in Pineskeep.

What should he prepare for?

What would be the point of an expansion? There hadn’t been any births lately. Nothing to congratulate or reward anyone for. Their enemies were far and away from them, even the beasts who rampaged through the Greenhold seldom approached them this far inside their own territory.

‘I should have picked a different job.’

Because he’d been lazy, he didn’t pick up any weapon.

Because he was a coward, he refused to join the expeditions and hunting parties when he had the chance. Consumed by his boredom, he turned into a useless bureaucrat whose job was to scratch parchment with ink and send the useless numbers to the capital, as if they somehow expected his influence to bring about any meaningful change.

There was a knock at the door, bringing him back to reality.

“Come in.’ He coughed into his hand, putting his quill down.

As if he’d actually been doing something.

“Governor, you have a message.”

His adjutant, a young woman with hair spun from fresh straw and a professional countenance that at times intimidated even him, walked through the heavy doors carved into the interior of the great tree where his office was located carrying on her hand what looked like a very simple and hastily put together construct.

Not that he could comment, of course.

Anything that alleviated his boredom was a work of art in his eyes.

He offered his assistant a smile.

“Thank you, Jasmine. That will be all for today.”

Crossing her arms behind her back, the young adult completely ignored his kind offer, instead standing by the door, eyeing the bird-shaped clump of mana like one would a dangerous beast about to strike.

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He tried again.

“I hardly doubt this piece of shoddy work is a threat to my life.”

She ignored his reasonable point.

“Regardless. We must remain vigilant, governor.”

He could never tell whether she was being serious or if she was just as bored as him

“Well, let’s see what song this little bird has for us then.” Offering his hand to the construct, Caladium allowed it to climb onto his finger as one would their priceless beloved pet. The mana creation rubbed its heads against one of its wings, before the information that comprised its ‘core’ unraveled in the form of spoken words through its beak.

“Alert the guard! Alert the guard, squawk!” It squawked, nearly knocking the governor off his seat.

What was… happening?

“Mana beast spotted! Mana beast spotted, squawk!”

Looking at his assistant, who appeared as stone faced as before, Caladium tried to reclaim what was left of his dignity. Whoever had made this construct likely had a… unique sense of humor, even if the message was indeed quite important.

Nay, he dare say these were dire news.

“Guard fainted. Fainted, squawk! Send help! Help, squawk!”

The governor coughed awkwardly.

“It would seem we have a small emergency.”

Jasmine was, as always, unflappable.

“It would appear so, sir. Shall I send for the guards?”

Caladium considered it. Obviously due process dictated that he send the ones most capable of resolving whatever problem this was. Clearly someone was hurt and a mana beast wasn’t an enemy to take lightly. Just a single one could take half a dozen mages working in tandem to kill.

Which would mean calling in the hunters to deal with it.

‘Hmm, maybe we could make a competition out of it?’

This could be what finally put his village on the map. A rampaging mana beast, attacking people and setting fire to their precious forest. It was bound to catch the attention of one noble or another. Better yet, if there proved to be more of the creatures around, Pineskeep would be put on the map as hunting grounds.

He was getting ahead of himself, of course.

“Governor?”

But he could work with this.

“Of course, I’m sure the good Captain should know that one of his volunteers was hurt. Please, if you can, also send for a physician in case there were any maladies or injuries involved.” The message was a bit sparse after all. It only mentioned that someone fainted, and that a Mana Beast was somehow involved in the whole mess.

The damn thing wouldn’t stop squawking.

“Could you please…”

His capable assistant wordlessly removed the mana construct from his arm, its shape warping before dispersing into fine mist with a final squawk as the young woman erased its form. Truly a terrifying youth, Jasmine was.

Writing down a brief missive with the pertinent details, the governor felt newfound energy fill him excitement. Why, this was the most important event in the last decade. Outside of that brief invasion of Myconids. But that had been before he became governor, so it probably didn’t count.

He coughed loudly.

“Sir?”

Considering his words carefully, Caladium let nothing show in his face.

“If possible, I would like you to follow up on this incident for me. We have very little information on this case, and I will, of course, see fit that you are properly… rewarded for your efforts.”

Bowing in acceptance, the assistant retrieved his missive with a terse nod before leaving the room.

The older elf let out a sigh of relief.

And smiled impishly.

“Hmm… what to call this. The Great Beast Hunt?” A good name attracts attention after all, and if he wanted Pineskeep on the map he’d have to work his hardest to sell this to his superiors. He could already see it, all the attention and resources to build and rebuild as he saw fit.

Good things, indeed, came to those who waited.

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'What an unpleasant job.’

Walking down the spiral staircase, the assistance tore the Governor’s missive as she passed the threshold leading out of the office and to the exit, the smell of morning dew and fresh mint a welcome respite from the rigors of maintaining a professional facade near a man who never demonstrated one ounce of responsibility ever since taking the post.

But that was fine in its own way.

Caladium’s delusions made for a perfect cover. And his slothfulness meant he never asked any questions regarding whether she actually fulfilled his orders or not.

A waste of space, as far as she was concerned.

For elves, jobs were a necessity not for the sake of their livelihoods but because most of them were bored and thus took on responsibilities to occupy their spare time, and then peddled those services and knowledge to one another. A marked difference from the traveling merchants of the Redhold, or the great craftsmen of the Ironhold.

There was no real passion in their endeavors.

Be it traveling, hunting or learning magic.

The Greenhold was a peaceful land for the most part. And their clan stood atop all others as its uncontested rulers. But in order to maintain that status quo, it was required of them to remain vigilant. To maintain the peace that so many would toss aside if it meant breaking up the lull of their daily lives.

That was were people like Jasmine came in.

Her job was to stand guard and watch.

Not the village and its people, nor its governor and his delusions.

To remain vigilant was to see threats to the precious peace her ancestors had worked towards so long ago. It meant putting up with the whims of a petty bureaucrat who believed in his own importance and rebelled against the pleasant, mundane, everyday life that allowed quill-pushers like him to work in peace.

That was the reason she listened to the message before approaching him.

It was the reason she modified the messenger to distract him with an incomplete report.

‘Call the guard, a mana beast is rampaging and a guard has been incapacitated. A lost traveler has also been retrieved. Please send help.’ That was what the full message had been when simplified. Hemlock, one of the locals, reported the presence of a Mana Beast in the outskirts of their village following his meeting with a mysterious traveler from an unknown clan.

It was a suspicious message.

And thus she’d elected to keep this stranger a secret.

‘How to handle this?’

Of course, the Beast would need to be dealt with before it causes damage to their land, or wandered closer to the village. Hemlock would, of course, receive compensation for fulfilling his civic duty. Allowing Jasmine to fulfill her own obligations now that her whimsical and foolish boss had pawed off his work to her… yet again.

First, she would visit the guard’s barracks.

Then, they would pick up a physician on the way to the outpost.

Perhaps this was just paranoia on her part, but they definitely would have felt the Mana Beast if it had moved near the outpost. Creatures like those were incarnations of raw power and destruction.

Why then… was the guard injured?

Had he left his post?

And if not… was there another reason for it?

Jasmine didn’t know. But she would soon find out.