I gradually woke up, to the "sounds" of Meadran and Lumiar talking. Their minds were bussing back and forth. I couldn't quite make out what they were discussing, but meadran seemed upset at Lumiar for some reason. The golden wolf's voice was calm and gentle, as if talking to a child.

My eyes slowly pried themselves open, only to be greeted with a deep darkness. Night had fallen while I slept. I wasted no time performing the Ritual of the Bright Moon. It only took a few minutes, though I was worried about being able to draw the circle properly. My unsteady hands nearly fumbled one of Meadran leaves that I kept in my pocket just for this purpose. It was stressful but I finally succeeded, and being able to see clearly was worth it.

Lumi's tail started wagging as he noticed me finishing up. Of course, he had been able to see me the whole time but did me the courtesy of not messing with me while I was nearly blind. Still I could help but feel that his wagging tail was a lie, or an empty gesture. As if he wasn't happy to see me at all. No, there was more, I got the sense he didn't want to deal with me, if he could avoid it.

"Everything Alright? You two seem upset." Lumi's ears flicked. A nervous twitch. However, I wasn't going to push the issue with one of my only potential allies right now.

'Yes, Young One. We have been setting things up. I hope you approve.' Meadran's mind felt full of vigor, like he had just had his fill of coffee. Though I caught an undertone of something like anger or perhaps disappointment. I couldn't help but be curious, what would be like coffee to a Tree? A special kind of water, or a particularly filtered form of light? No it had to be the increased Mana levels in the air, right?

'Small Brother, the flying metal fish have been quite busy.' He gestured with his head, and I turned towards the south bank of the pond by where the path curves around to get to the bridge from the Moon Well. Now there was a structure there. It had a circular brass platform for its base and hovering over that platform was a brass sphere slightly larger than me. A large blue Crystal shaped like a lens was scanning around the area but it paid extra attention to the sky. Even further south right next to the Moon Well, I saw a new Pylon floating. I turned back to look once more at the new Structure.

My embedded arm Branch, my Tree Connection... My Branch Tree Connection or BTC twitched. I wondered if I would ever get used to that sensation. While it wasn't unpleasant, it was almost impossible to ignore.

[ Photon Cannon

Defensive Structure

Armor: 20

Shield: 10

Damage: 15

A Psi Powered Weapon Platform. It can detect Stealthed Units. ]

Nice. A Tough Cannon that can find hidden targets? That's the dream right there. I think I had like 1 armor... Oh right I could find out.

'System'

[ Name: Ryan Crestwood

Class: Druid of Renewal

Level: 1 / XP: 300

Race: Human (Terra 213,451)

Stats - Body: 5 / Reflex: 4 / Tech: 5 / Intelligence: 3 / Cool: 3 / Will: 5 / Spirit: 11 (+3 Modifier)

Abilities - Sense Mana / Ley Line Sight / Shape Mana

Skills - Rituals: 2 / Concentration: 1

Spells - Regrowth: 1 / Blessing of Nordrassil: 1

Free Points: 0 / Company Points: 1000 / Tree Points: 13

Weapon: Staff of Beginning - Damage 1 / +1 Spirit / +5% Mana Regen

Armor: Starting Cotton Clothes - Armor 1, Stating Druid's Robe - Armor 1 ]

Alright, I had 2 armor, so yeah the Photon Cannon is a hell of a lot tougher than me. And could blow me into smithereens. I hoped it would work, against whatever's out there.

'Meadran, do you know anything about these points?' It was silly of me to not have asked about them earlier. These game like elements were foreign to me. Thought they weren't too hard to make guesses about, as long as I took the time to examine them. However, I was certain that assumptions could get me killed.

'Ah yes. The Free Points are given when you level, and as a reward for some rare quests. They are used to increase your Stats. The Company Points are given as Quest rewards and for defeating certain Enemies. You can spend them in the Company Shop, once we obtain one. They are use to gain Powers and Items. It might be a while before we can build the store though. Tree Points are given when we plant trees, you can spend them, with me, to get rare seeds. Sometimes the seeds are of rare plant or trees perhaps even Elder Treants like myself.'

Oh neat, definitely something to check out. I'd have to earn a ton of those, especially the Company points. Powers sound useful.

I examined the Statue of the Keeper across the bridge. My BTC twitched.

[ Statue of the Keeper

Defensive Structure

Armor: 15

Damage: 5 Ranged, 10 Melee

A Statue built to honor Cenarius. Can detect stealthed Units. Becomes Stealthed in woodlands. ]

Not as good as the Photon Cannon, but easier to construct. Though maybe, being stealthed in woodlands makes it better? At least here in the Valley. Anyone would have a harder time killing what they couldn't see. I'd have to think about that more.

My eyes searched around and saw two new trees near the one we had grown before my nap. One looked somewhat like Meadran, have the same coloration, but obviously wasn't a treant. The other new tree had red leaves and yellow gold bark. Golden Wisps had bonded with both already, dancing their lazy circles around the trunks of the trees. How many more until this area becomes a "Woodland"? Probably many more than I would have assumed.

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Meadran told me he had some of the new Probes excavate a Mine and had already had some silver Wisps entangle it. That meant we had lumber and ore rolling it. Also, some new minerals like that first Quartz deposit had been found and a natural gas pocket was located deep in the caves, the Probes were taking care of those.

Everything seemed to be well in hand, so there wasn't much for me to do here right now. Until the Mana Density was greater, and we found the right seeds, we couldn't build most of the Kaldorei Buildings. So Meadran would make another Moon Well as soon as we had enough Silver Wisps.

In the Nexus Alina could direct the Forge to upgrade the Armor, Shields and Weapons of Khalai Units and Buildings. That sounded great. Then at her suggestion, we queued up a Cybernetics Core.

'You must construct additional Pylons.' Alina intoned.

We set a couple up to the west of Meadran's island and placed another Photon Cannon over there as well. That's the direction the flying car went and the direction that I could see a city's lights.

I gathered up a couple of Probes to aid the two Elder Wisps in guarding me.

With these issues out of the way, I thought it was high time to go see what was out there.

At the end of the western path up into the Mountains, was a cave. Its opening was framed by a purple wooden archway, seeming vaguely Japanese in shape but with Celtic-like knotwork carved into it. I could feel some energy in the wood, but it was faint. Or trying to hide maybe? Was this part of the Veil Meadran had mentioned?

My two Elder Wisps checked it out, while the two Probes stayed near me. They dived into the cave first. The logic there was they wouldn't be seen, or at least they shouldn't be seen. They came back and flew in a circle, that meant good or all clear. We had worked out some simple signals before I marched up here.

As we walking through the cave, I took note of a few branches. There might be minerals or metals down each of them, but now was not the time. It was nice that the Bright Moon ritual work in these conditions. Otherwise the Probes would have had to guild me.

We came out into a nearly barren wasteland. It looked very similar to the setting for the Mad Max films. Pathetic, half-dead looking plants and trees, almost no biodiversity. It broke my heart to see it. The plants were at least something, but ultimately, it was mostly just sand and rock out here. The air was dry, and since it was night cold. A true desert.

I could make out some roads and quite a few scattered buildings in the area, the moonlight gave everything and eerie cast. But off in the distance behind another set of mountains was the source of all that light, I had seen the day before, and there was a ton of it. A large city of some description was waiting for me.

Scanning around there was a canyon with a torn up bridge, roughly a mile or two away. I wondered how I'd get across that.

'Meadran, checking in. It's so lifeless out here. It feels more like the ruins of a civilization, than something I might be able to save.' I was sure he felt my sadness. Though I was thrown off by how much the sights bothered me.

'Worry not, Young One, we can fix it.' He sent hope.

"Well nothing to do, but to start walking." I had begun to carefully pick my way down the mountain. While there was no path, it wasn't as steep on this side. But hey, my staff came in really handy as a walking stick.

I got to the bridge, and the wide canyon gaped before me. The shadows kept the secrets of its depths hidden from my sight, regardless of my rituals. There was a northwest to southeast road in very poor repair running alongside that canyon. I found a chuck of shattered asphalt and threw it into the canyon, listening for the clunk. It took over a minute before I heard the sound I was waiting for. Yeah that canyon was deeper than I thought. I had the thought that if we could get down there, it'd be a good place to hide a little outpost. In fact, I glanced over at one of the Probes.

"Can you get down there, and then get back up?" I really hoped it could.

It beeped, "Yes. Why?" I was a little startled by its curiosity.

"Can you zap in a Pylon down there?" If we could get some infrastructure rolling down there, we'd be much more difficult to detect.

"Yes."

"Alright, how about a Pylon and a Photon Cannon?"

"No Problem."

"Do it, please."

Fifteen minutes later, the Robo-Buddy returned. I could see the shimmering of the warp in progressing down below.

Down on the flatter level of the land, it was much harder to see far away. It didn't help that it was a hilly area. The continuing state of the plant life was terrible. This could just be the normal state of things her, though my mind didn't want to accept that.

'Hey Meadran, can you get a sense of what I'm seeing?' Maybe he could shed some light of this environment.

'Sorry Young One, it will be some time before we have that level of rapport.' It was harder to get a sense of what he was feeling from here.

'No Worries.'

Should I try to go around, or can we build a...no, I doubt we could manage a decent bridge right now. At least not safely. I started walking to the southeast following the broken road.

Twenty or so miles later, we found an east-west multilane road in a much better state of repair. The Canyon had petered out about a mile back. But I had decided to keep following the trail, I figured it had to go somewhere, and boy, was I right. The new road was super busy even at this hour. Cars were zipping along, some at crazy speeds, but I didn't recognize a damn one of them. Where was I? When was I, might be the better question, judging by the nature of the vehicles.

I had made exceptional time because I kept casting Regrowth on myself, now and then. This kept my stamina up and I was able to walk at a very fast pace. Perhaps double my old walking speed, maybe even more. I shrugged, and chalked it up to the fun of magic.

The only reason I had any real clue as to how far we had traveled, was because of the Probes. Their internal sensors included telemetry readings. I had them give me reports every few miles.

I could see what was likely a small town out to the east, but nah, let's head towards the larger City.

I walked well off to the side of the road, because people here drove like maniacs. I had to jump out of the way a few times to avoid being hit and had witnessed at least two wrecks. I threw some casts of Regrowth in there but didn't stop to see what happened. I had a bad feeling about all this.

I also kept hearing gun shots in the distance, and a lot of them. I sure hoped my Probes can protect me, because I was quickly put on edge. Not having any protection from gunfire was freaking me out.

As I traveled further west, I passed several buildings but most of them seemed abandoned, dilapidated. They few with people gave me bad vibe, and the people themselves were disheveled, poor, desperate. Interesting note, some of the people had metallic limbs, an even smaller number had other parts made out of metal. Cybernetics? Still, just like everything else out here they were in terrible shape.

I was certain that the Probes were the only reason that no one approached me. A few times they pointed guns in our direction, but it didn't come to anything, thankfully.

One place we walked by was called the Sunshine Motel, but the folks standing around the building looked like mercs or maybe private security. A far cut above anyone I had seen to date, but they gave me the creeps. I didn't think it would be wise to interact with they, and thankfully they didn't seem to be interested in me.

I was getting the idea that nowhere was safe.

I was able to see brighter columns in the field of light coming off of the distant city, then I could make out the tops of buildings. My impression was that they were really tall. My bad feeling was rapidly becoming full blown dread. Everything was wrong, off, twisted. An atmosphere of decay, tainted this place. No wonder I was sent. I still wasn't sure I could do anything to help. Even the gradually lightening sky, could restore my spirits.

Then, I came to The Sunset Motel. Right at Sunrise, in fact. Heh.

It was just as bad as everything else, but at least there was a Bar. Up stairs, strange. Sure, I could see some mess up looking people hanging around, but they lacked the same sense of active hostility.

I paused to examine, discretely, some of the cars. So familiar, but still not quite right. They were kind of cool, even the more obvious junkers. Later, I'd have to figure out a way to get my hands on some of these.

I moseyed into the Bar. The worst dive bar I had ever been to before, was a 5 star experience next to this place. Filthy, about to fall down, and full of thugs.

A huge guy was behind the counter, he tsked at me. "Hey Choom, leave your little Drones outside, eh."