Manning

At last I finally had a steady supply of sapients traversing my forest. Over the last few days I'd used my Owl to watch the town on the other side of the river explode with growth.

It was slow at first, with thirty or so people showing up at once with the adventurering party from before. More than a few of them departed again the following morning and they'd returned over the next few days with even more people. Entire families started building homes and starting farming not too far from their town.

The idea of the farming excited me more than it probably should have. I knew that the edible foods wouldn't be the best thing to grow inside of my forest but every plant that I gathered was a new chance to evolve the ones I already had. Luckily the mutant and I had come to an understanding, one where he gathered odds and ends from the town while I provided him opened nuts. I tried to give him just the edible part of the coppernut, but he was very adamant about wanting it within the shell still, just opened for his ease of access.

With farming families came young farmer children who wanted to explore. At all hours of the daylight Manning could expect visitors in his forest, be it the dwarves chopping trees or Mary Sue collecting flowers and herbs. There were even a few rash young men I'd seen attempt to raid the dungeon with farming tools for weapons. It didn't turn out very well for them, but so far there hadn't been any new casualties as they stuck to the first room or two.

"Come here boy, Rocky!"

If I had eyes I would roll them. The small blue haired girl ventured in more days than not, trying to beckon the mutant out to become a common house pet. I knew better than most that he was a wild animal, albeit one capable of 'higher' thinking, and would not do well to be domesticated.

The Sylva still had not appeared from within the pear tree, and the growth of fruits had not yet started. Everyone who passed the hill seemed to wonder what the tree was for but luckily nobody had tried to chop it down yet. All who laid their eyes on it knew that it was not there to be harvested for lumber, and more than one person had begun trekking to the hill just to meditate beneath its branches.

I looked forward to the day that I had trials for the sapients to complete rather than just being used for renewable lumber and a trip to Cara's dungeon. Ash warned me that the trials may give away my nature as a dungeon, but unlike the impulse to dig down instead of buildup, this was one I couldn't suppress. Luckily Cara had already given me an idea for the first micro-forest I was going to grow and I just needed to evolve a suitable guardian. Oh, and a reward for completing it.

That being said I'd been keeping my eye on the male boar I'd captured so many weeks past now. He was still living in the un-explored part of my forest and had become a sort of king of his area. He was very close to evolving and I was ready to interfere and lead the evolution the way I wanted when it was time. After my practice with the trees and the mutant I felt confident in my ability to help the boar become something fearsome.

... Or at least more fearsome than a shiny pear tree and a thinking hedgehog. What a high bar I had set for myself.

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Melody

"I'm telling you that creature is going to make it impossible for anyone to grow anything here! It's already destroyed my field at least three times in the two weeks since I arrived."

Melody could not be more tired of dealing with people. Who knew being the self-appointed mayor of a frontier town could be so much of a hassle. Well, they'd just passed the population required to be called a village, so maybe not a town quite yet.

"Look, Farmer... what was your name again?"

"Ralph. You'd think that the mayor would remember my name by now considering how often I come here and tell you the same thing. Your Rocky is a menace, not a pet. I am going to start setting traps for him."

"Okay, okay. Calm down Farmer Ralph. I understand that you are frustrated, but like I told you last time it isn’t Rocky. Your farm is one of the northern-most plots we have here, and the hedgehog would have to travel the entire town just to get to you. Why would it go all that way when there are other farms closer?"

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"Because it's evil. I don't know why you would want to make it a pet, there is nothing good about that hedgehog. I knew it from the first day I caught it digging up seeds after I'd planted them. I chased it away with my hoe myself, that's how I know who is doing it."

"Right, well I will tell you the same thing I did last time, unless you can prove that it's the hedgehog, have money to pay for a hunting license, or want to place a bounty, there is nothing I can do for you. Try building a fence, it's probably just some of the kids who moved in with their families playing a prank on you."

Melody watched the balding man leave in a huff. In truth she had remembered his name and just wanted to annoy him as much as he annoyed her. Not a great quality for leadership, she knew, but man if this farmer wasn't just insufferable. Time and time again they'd had this conversation and still he wasn't convinced. The hedge-coon, that is what she was calling him, was not that bad!

Not willing to give it another second of her time today, she closed up the office and told the drow she was out for the day. The Greensong's had finished building their clan home, and Jorn had invited her over for dinner. He was obviously sweet on her, and she'd tried letting him down several times. Still, he was nothing if not persistent and good company.

The clan house was located farther along the same road that the town square was built off, closer to the forest. In exchange for the central location to build, the clan offered their services protecting the town from anything that might wander out of the forest. They were built next to the wild plains after all.

Instead of the wooden aesthetic most of the town had adopted, the Greensong clan house looked like it was a miniature stronghold. It had walls of grey stone, with a slight blueish tint, and took up at least three regular sized building plots.

Melody wandered up to the large door, it stood at least 3 heads taller than her, and knocked as hard as she could with her small stature. There was a reverberating thump that sounded like it carried down the hall, far louder than she thought it would be. It was then that she realized that the door was build out of a metallic wood, red veins running along the grooves in the oak door. Ironwood, if what the dwarves believed it to be checked out.

Within a few minutes the door opened to reveal a very sweaty paladin. Melody tried not to get distracted by the scars running across his body, or the fact that he was shirtless and breathless. After finally catching his breath he greeted her.

"Sorry for the wait, Mayor Melody. I was sparring in the courtyard with your Captain. Come right on in, the food should be ready soon."

She stepped in as Jameson moved aside to let her pass, and admired the building. Whereas it looked very Spartan from the outside, the foyer was decorated with all sorts of pelts and statues. There was a staircase in the center of the room that led up half a flight of stairs before turning into two sets of stairs going left and right. There was a chain hanging directly overhead from the high ceiling, most like for some sort of light fixture that had not been installed yet. There were heavy looking doors on the left and right of the foyer on both floors.

She followed Jameson as he walked towards a door next to the staircase, a regular sized door, and headed out into the courtyard with him. There was an equally sweaty Davis out there holding a long wooden staff smiling crazily. The courtyard was about the size of most shops in the town so far, and had various ivy and saplings growing in it. Apart from the two sparring, Melody noticed Pak and Liam meditating under one of the trees they were growing. Scratch that, Liam was meditating and Pak was sleeping, given away by an extremely loud and abrupt snore that broke Liam out of his meditation and earned the Satyr a glare.

Jorn was sitting at a wooden table with Faeryl and Jeremy while Ragnar cooked a roast boar over a fire nearby. They'd found a couple of the boars wandering near the dungeon entrance that morning and managed to catch one. With a smile Melody joined them at the table, happy that the town was coming along so well even if there were a few annoying farmers to deal with.