The Quantum Wanderer

The portal leave us in a very lush forest. There is some mana here. Less than a ley line, but way more than the mana present in the human countries.

The trees look like rainforest trees, very lush, lots of leaves. The climate is very humid. The forest is alive around us, all sorts of animals sounds. I look around, and I can pin point a bird here, a butterfly there. The trees are huge, the trunks are tens of feet wide. There are vines around them. The soil has a lot of roots, we have to take care not to trip.

I throw a mana sense, and I can see that there is a lot more life than what I am seeing. A lot of small animals are disguised around the trees. Snakes, small rats, squires, nests of birds. It looks like the forest has a rhythm of its own. Almost like a heart beat.

We all sense that we are being watched, and the girls enter a fighting position, trying to pinpoint who or what is watching us.

The wind gushing through the leaves sounds like a high pitched laughter. Hearing a laughter that comes from no one is kind of eerie.

The wind changes, and the laughter becomes more of a song, a very calming one. I sense a spike in mana to my left. I look and there is a child there. A little girl. She has her hands together in front of her, her arms extended. She is looking down. It is a picture that would invite compassion from anyone.

I sense the mana around her. She has a kind of umbilical chord that is liking her to a huge tree. Cecilia reacts to her.

“How cute…”

Ruby snorts.

“A cute tree…”

“What?” Cecilia asks.

“She is that tree there.”

Cecilia looks at the girl, and taps into her mana sense.

“Oh, I see…”

I turn to the little girl.

“Hello, my name is Marcelo. What is your name?”

“You can call me Garapa, big brother… What are you doing here?”

The question sounds innocent, it is more of genuine curiosity than a policing.

“We are just travelers, we thought about visiting this part of the land. We mean no harm.”

She lets out a sigh.

“I appreciate that, big brother Marcelo. What do you want to see?”

“We were thinking of visiting the elves. Perhaps sharing a meal with them, if they would have us.”

She hops around us, looking at each of us.

“A human that wasn’t born, two girls that are dragons, two that are not, two crows that are royalty, and a human… What an odd group! Big brother must be fun!”

I smile at that. She has a musicality to her voice. Then she stands in front of me.

“But big brother choose the time poorly… It is a sad time for the forest…”

I can feel in my bones that there is going to be an ask out of this. But the forest is being kind to us. I don’t feel malice revenge. Just some deep sadness and acceptance.

“Why is that?”

She turns her head down. Leaves from the tree she is connected to start falling. She looks up, some tears are leaving her eyes.

“I was chosen to be the next sacrifice… I only have a big moon now.”

“What? Why? Sacrifice to who?”

“Big baddie dragon came appeared. He saw one of us from up above, and decided to eat her. She hid inside her tree. He burned the tree to the ground.”

She sobbed.

“We are all part of one, big brother… Can you imagine how the pain went through the roots?”

I nod, slowly. She continued.

“He said that if we don’t provide one of us each year that he would burn some trees around. And that he would do in a way to make us pay. This year, I…”

She starts crying, and hugs me. I pay attention to the mana around her, the mood. The sounds in the forest change, to something like a whine. Even the wind feels a little sadder.

“We have seen that big brother is kind! Can’t big brother help?”

Cecilia is doing this puppy face. She is staring at me. The dragonesses are not too impressed, though. I don’t want to stir too big a wave.

I pet the dryad on the head. She looks up.

“Let me talk to my wives. We will be back shortly. Just one question… What if we decide to not get involved?”

She takes a couple of steps back.

“What does big brother mean? The forest is going to be sad for Garapa, the other of us are not going to want to play…”

I look at the trees. Ever the givers. I throw my mana sense around, and I see how the roots are connected. How their slow but constant exchange of information is taking place in the soil, or in the air, through gas state hormones. The plants understand the cycle of life, the predation on plants all the way up to the apex, the dragons. But this is different. This is akin to having their soul ripped. It’s unnatural.

I open a portal back home. We go through, so that we can talk with some privacy. Cecilia is the first one.

“We are going to help them, right?”

“I want to hear all of your opinions first. I think I already know yours, Cecilia. What about you, Opal?”

“Well, if it is something on this continent, that means that it is not an elder or councilor. Most probably a hatchling that found a tasty snack. Eating prey is what we do. That is the natural law.

“That being said, the natural law also states that strong order and weak obey. Your will is more than enough to lay down a law, my lord.”

“Shandon, what is your opinion?”

“It felt like our lord wants to help the forest. That is a complete sentence, my lord.”

“Aquamarine?”

“I feel like we tapped into something we didn’t know. We have been avoiding killing sentient species, and there is now a situation that the sentience itself is being killed for a good taste. It feels… A little too selfish. I vote for intervening.”

“Ruby?”

“A prey blackmailed into dying? That is not a dragon’s way. I say we add some dragon meat to the cool room.”

I turn to Muninn and Huginn.

“We already three votes in. Are you against meddling in this?”

“No, papa, we would ask you to solve the problem. Being there, we could feel the sadness you felt, multiplied by our sensibility to it. They are not asking, they are begging. There is no ‘do this or…’ There is just a silent prayer.”

Not much of an option right now. It should be easy.

“Huginn, can you portal us to a clearing, close to where we were?”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“The only clearing close to where we were is the elven city. I can portal us there, but I don’t think this is what you want, papa. Other than that, there are no clearings. It is like a sea of leaves.”

“Ok.”

I open a portal to where we were. The dryad was sitting down on her tree roots. She had a branch, and she was drawing some lines on the ground. She looks at us, with puppy eyes.

“Will big brother help?”

“Yes. I talked with my wives. We are going to help. First thing, though, we need a clearing so that we can invite the offending dragon to talk. The only clearing around…”

“Is the leafers’ city! Of course. Follow the cat.”

An ocelot jumps down from tree. He lands in front of us. It purrs, and approaches us in a amicable way. It notices he caught our attention, turns around and start walking. We follow it. It starts to pick up speed, and we do that as well.

When we are close to the city, around half a mile, it stops. We can sense some elves on top of trees. They have their bows in their hands. Again the wind through the leaves produce a sound, a song. A calming song. Here and there a dryad puts her hand on their arm, and they lower their bows. The whole thing transpires magic, but not the kind of magic I have been seeing in this land. It is more of a symbiotic, collaboration magic. The elves have all disarmed themselves. Their bows are now across their bodies. The arrow is back in the pouch. Two elves insist on keep their bows drawn, but they fall from the tree branches and get knocked out in the process.

One of the elves jump down through the branches, landing in front of us. He looks at us, intrigued. I put my hands up, indicating we come in peace.

“Good afternoon. We come in peace. My wives and I are just visiting this fair land. My name is Marcelo.”

“Good afternoon, sir Marcelo. I see that the forest has… Accepted you…? I have never seen something like this. What do you want?”

The little girl we just saw approaches us. She is dressed in different colors, though. I extend my mana sense, I can see that she is linked to a tree nearby.

“Big brother is going to help sister! He needs a clearing.”

The elf turns to the dryad. He squats in front of her, so they are talking eye to eye.

“Why does he need a clearing? What does this guy intend to do?”

I smile.

“I intend on getting into an agreement with the dragon.”

The elf stands up. He looks at me.

“Are you daft?” He turns to the dryad. “He-”

The elf gets interrupted mid sentence, with Opal holding him by the neck.

“You DARE?”

The elf is flailing his arms and legs around, trying to hit Opal, but his neck doesn’t even move. I touch Opal’s arm, pushing it down softly.

“It’s ok, Opal, he is actually worried about us. He has no idea.”

She drops him on the floor. The other elves are flabbergasted, and get their bows out. They start falling from the trees. The dryad is poking the leader on the cheeks, he is unconscious. The elves that fell down the trees are held by the root. It looks like they entangled themselves, but I know better.

The dryad looks up to us.

“I am sorry for him. He is still so young… Only 500 years old. You know that age, that’s when children rebel…”

She opens his mouth, and kisses him. The elf leader recovers. He eyes us with suspicion now. He looks around and sees his group entangled in the roots. He looks at the dryad.

“What are you doing?”

“You were rude to big brother. Apologize.”

I can see the confusion in the elf’s eyes. Nonetheless, he stands up and bows.

“I am sorry for my rudeness.”

The dryad claps her hands.

“Great. Now that everything is solved, you can take big brother to the village. Show him into the square, and provide him whatever he askes. The forest demands.”

The wind once again blows through the leaves, and the phrase keeps getting repeated all around us. The elf is looking up, hearing it. His group is standing up from the ground, their entangling with the roots gone.

The leader looks around, and gestures towards his group. They all go back up to the trees. He turns around, and starts walking towards a part of the forest. The lack of references would normally get me lost. I have to use my sense of location to locate myself. We get close to a large tree. This one is probably 50 feet wide.

Just when we get near, some bulges start growing on the side of the tree. These bulges are flat on top, they make for a circular stair around the tree. We go up. We keep going up for a long time, until we reach a solid canopy.

There is a whole in the canopy, that we go through. What I see on the other side is impressive. It is a whole city, elevated from the ground. The houses and pathways are grown. Branches and leaves keep a very soft sun light over this place.

The temperature is a lot cooler than the forest floor, and the humidity is a lot lower as well. Some birds are flying through above us. They notice Muninn and Huginn, they land on the nearest branch and assume the submissive position the dragons use.

Our leader looks at the scene, and tries to guess who the birds are saluting. It seems like this is making him a little uncomfortable. We enter a of the city that has more movement. Waiting for us is a group of elves. They have white hair, as opposed to the blond our guide has, and a couple of them are actually using a cane.

“A human that wasn’t born, two girls that are dragons, two that are not, two crows that are royalty, and a human… It looks like a prophecy that came from an ancient book.” The old lady comments.

“Yet… Look at their shadows.” Says one of the guys.

A third one sighs. He extends his hand.

“Good afternoon. I am sorry for my friends here. Apparently millenia was not able to teach them good manners. I am Autumnstart. How may I address you?”

“Good afternoon. I am Marcelo. These are my wives. Cecilia, Opal, Aquamarine, Ruby and Shandon. These are my… kind of adopted kids? Muninn and Huginn.”

“Well, that being said, we are the elven council. Welcome to our little piece of paradise. The trees are speaking a lot about your group. Some tales were hard to believe, but seeing it first hand… Well, not much to say. How can we help you?”

I shrug.

“Not much to say either… It’s more of we are what we are. That being said, do you have a clearing? Something that could hold a couple of dragons?”

“Certainly. Our main square. Just that… Well… You are kind of talking about dragons kind of casually. You do understand that is nervous subject around us, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do we have to worry about it getting angry, and kind of… Burning everything to ashes?”

“It’s ok. We are not going to let that happen. I do suggest that you give us privacy, just because we are going to have to bring it down a peg. Having people watching a talking down can be… Humiliating. My goal here is to avoid conflict.”

Ruby hangs on my shoulder.

“I am amazed how calm and clement you are, my lord! If it were on me, I would just get rid of this one and be done. Sometimes I don’t understand why all this trouble.”

I pass my hand on her cheek.

“I prefer to avoid going that route. You know why. We can never say what is going to happen tomorrow. It might just happen that we are going to need his help. There are only males in the Nursery, right?”

“Right.”

I open a small portal to Piotr’s cave, enough to be able to talk.

“Piotr, are you there?”

“Yes, my lord. How can I be of service?”

“There is a dragon that has been hunting in the land of the elves. He has taken to eating dryads. I am currently in an elven city, “

I gesticulate to the elves, one of them mention it.

“Southleaf. It is the southerner one, closest to the great river.”

I repeat.

“Southleaf, the southerner one, closest to the great river. Bring him here.”

“Of course, my lord. What if he is… Unwilling to cooperate?”

“Just let me know. I also need to know if he is Skylar’s or mine.”

“Of course, my lord.”

I close the portal. Autumnstart walks a couple of steps ahead.

“Was that… A dragon, lord Marcelo?”

“Yes. He is a dragon that resides in the Nursery, he helps me sometimes. Now, how far is the Nursery-the dragon land from here?”

“A little over 1000 miles, my lord. It can be done in three hours of a fast flight. Even less if they want to hurry.” Opal answers.

“Ok. What happens if the offending dragon is Skylar’s? Would I have to talk to him before talking to the dragon?”

“It’s not like you are trying to pass a message or anything of the sort. I don’t think he cares about a hatchling or an adult, for that matter.”

“What if it is his hatchling?”

“The ones he truly cares about would not be in the Nursery, my lord. The ones there are… Just safer there. You don’t have to worry.”

“Ok.”

I look to the elves, they are watching us. Not much to tell them.

“Well, we will talk to them once they get here. No need to wait out like this. Muninn can tell us when they are close by. What do you say we do some snooping in the city?”

The girls agree, with different levels of enthusiasm.

“Would that be a problem, sir Autumnstart?”

“Not at all.”

We enter the city. Behind the gate that we used to get in, there is a street. The floor is made of interwined wood, so close together that it looks like a single piece of wood. The street is a little higher in the middle, and at the sides it has holes. The houses simply sprout from the streets. The houses are connected to tree branches.

This city is big. It is about half the size of a human capital, apparently. Bigger than Orora, smaller than Ironhold. There is a lot of commerce around. From jewelry that involves stones held together by a very strong piece of wood, that interlocks in a collar, to spices, and food in general. There is a lot of fruit being sold, but there is some fish and some meat as well.

The girls find a store that sells cloths. We enter it. The basic cloths are made of what looks like cotton. The way it is weaved, though, is impressive. It looks like the threads were created interwoven as opposed to captured, seeds removed, twisted into threads and then woven. The cloth is a lot finer, and a lot more resistant.

They also sell some other finer cloth. Silk that is cool and comfortable to the touch. And spider silk, a very fine and very light cloth. The seller tells us that it is more resistant than steel. The girls are looking all over the store, selecting cloths. They are talking about new dresses they intend to have made. The bigger drivers on this are Cecilia and Aquamarine. Cecilia knows how to push the other girls’ buttons, and they all join looking at what is available.

Fall season images are apparently very in right now. A lot of the cloths around depict brown leaves. It gives the whole store a somewhat sad tone. At some point, Aquamarine and Cecilia also experiment putting some cloth on top of me. They may be planning some new clothes for me as well.

The girls choose a lot of different rolls of cloth, mostly spider silk. I get to the counter, to pay.

“Good afternoon, human.” The elf keeps staring at my ears.

“Good afternoon. So, my wives chose some cloths. Are you aware of what was chosen?”

“Yes, it is that mount in that table, correct? Let’s see… 12 rolls of spider silk, 20 rolls of silk, 20 rolls of cotton… The roll of spider silk is 2 gold coins, the roll of silk is 5 silver, and the roll of cotton is 1 silver. 36 gold coins. Heh.”

I didn’t like the soft laugh in the end. We do have money to cover it. I grab some coins from my bag of holding and place them on the table.

“We don’t accept human gold coins. There has been some… issues with them.”

I pick back the gold coins I tried to use. I pick the same value in dwarven gold coins this time. The salesclerk brows shoot up. He apparently didn’t expect this.

“It is a pleasure doing business with you, sir. Let me know if you need something else.”

The girls bag the fabric they bought, and we leave the store. We walk around on the hard wood streets. Elves that see us gossip around. After we have walked a little bit, I stop and take a look around. There are a lot of elves, mostly females, entering the shop we just left. Way more than normal. I should probably charge a marketing charge.

We continue walking around. I buy some fruits on a stand. We are told that eating them as they are is safe, that they are clean. I pay with a silver coin, I receive several elven coins in return. They look like modified seeds. I keep them around, until I buy a new common bag to hold the elven money. The bags made of cloth are way cheaper, and the cloth seems resistant enough, so I opt for that. It makes me feel a little vegan.

We enter a weapons shop. To one side are the bows, to the other are the arrows, and in the middle there is an assortment of daggers and light swords. I go to the bow stands first. The girls roam around a little bit.

A sales clerk sees us taking a look at his wares, he comes closer.

“Good afternoon, adventurer! How can I help you?”

I turn to talk to him. He sees the front of my armor, and his demeanor changes completely. He turns around and goes back behind the counter.

“Let me know if you find something you can afford.”

He disappears in a back room.

The change in mood was palpable. I don’t understand what happened. I get back to examining the bows. They are all one piece of wood, it looks like they are grown. The chord used feels like spider silk. I test some of them, and they are ordered by pressure they stand, from weak to strong. Even the strong bow is a little weak for me, though.

The bows are all symmetrical, and I can see that there is a part in the middle, the only place where the wood was worked. There was some cutting and sanding at the very middle of it. There is a lot of design on the bows, though. Wood knots and veins depict elves with varied scenes. The bows are provided in several colors as well. Tones of green and wood. There are even some white ones.

I move over to the arrow section to take a look. The arrows are also a single piece of wood. But the the arrow itself enclose a piece of the tip, made of other material. It’s as if the arrow has claws that hold the tip in place. The base of the arrow has a different, stronger wood where it would go on the string. Instead of a feather to keep it straight, it uses rows of cotton, in natura. It grows out of the arrow. I pass my hand over it, and I feel how soft it is. But as soon as I let it go, it goes back into shape.

At this point, Muninn turns to me.

“Father, the dragon is coming.”