Rud blinked, wiping a strip of clay from his face. He spat on the ground, removing what pieces had been shot into his mouth by the rapidly moving pottery wheel. Somewhere in the distance, Sarya laughed. His only understanding of how to turn clay on a wheel was from a movie with a ghost, and that knowledge wasn’t helping. Taz had seen it done before and gave him a few pointers from what he remembered, but it wasn’t helping. The lump of clay on the wheel was still a lump. A jagged lump, as it had cast most of its mass off in various directions to paint the forest a lighter brown shade.

  “I’m done,” Rud said, removing himself from the wheel.

  A few steps into the forest and he was back at the wheel, a bucket of water and a pile of clay by his side. Kneading the clay, adding water, and tossing it on the wheel were as far as he could get. The moment he worked the foot peddle to get the wheel spinning, the clay went off balance and was thrown around the clearing. Just when he was certain that his hands weren’t suited for the job, he pressed his fingers into the oblong shape of clay and it rose. It took the vague shape of a cylinder for only a moment before slapping him in the face.

  “Is the final boss of the grove seriously a hunk of clay?” Rud growled. “You will not defeat me.”

  The process went on for hours with small steps toward victory. Rud took breaks by watering the stump forest and checking on Ban, who was burning through her energy at a concerning rate. That redoubled his conviction to sell delicious tea at Barlgore, driving him forward to create his first piece of pottery. It was wet, leaned to one side, and had protuberances sticking out of one side where clods of dirt had hidden in the clay. It was the single most hideous piece of pottery ever viewed by a person, but it could hold tea.

  “Success!” Rud shouted, holding it above his head. No one saw the action, but it felt good.

  The druid only stopped refining his technique when Taz came to see how he was doing. Fortunately, the dwarf brought five high-quality Arcane Crystal Fragments with him. Perhaps Rud’s efforts would have been better in the mine…

  “You could just make them out of wood,” Taz said. “Since you can form wood with magic.”

  Rud glared at the dwarf. “This wasn’t my idea.”

  “Yet here you are. Caked with mud.”

  “This is clay. Not mud. What, you don’t think the mortals would appreciate some pottery? It will look cute beyond anything they could imagine.”

  “Yeah, but… wood is easy.”

  Rud grumbled, not willing to admit the dwarf was right. A part of him enjoyed the challenge of forming the pottery, while another hated that Taz was right. His skill in shaping wood was far beyond his pottery abilities. Mint tossed a crate at his feet then moved on, going to stoke the campfire for the night. The denizens of the grove were assembling for their nightly feast. Dean lurked from the woods, arriving with Sarya just in time to watch the fire burst into life.

  Settling down by the fire, Rud narrowed his gaze at Mint. He realized something important. “The mortals like pottery more than wood vessels, don’t they?”

  “Of course,” Mint said, skewering a section of some dead beast and setting it near the fire. “Most are too superstitious to accept wood from a grove. That’s why they never cut into our area.”

  “See?” Rud asked, looking at Taz. “Always trust Mint.”

  “She could’ve said as much,” Taz said with a shrug. “Instead of sending you on a pottery side-quest.”

  Dinner was as delicious as always. Rud spent some time on his pottery skills while the fire still burned. He moved the wheel to his mushroom house, settling it into his storage area to work until he was tired enough to sleep in his new bed. The crate Mint had delivered was filled with large cubes of wax. He knew that glazing pottery was a thing, but dipping them in melted wax might work, too. Or perhaps she wanted him to seal the top with wax. He didn’t know.

  Drifting off to sleep was shockingly easy in the small bed. The only problem was the open windows, which let the chilly night’s air inside. Rud’s cloak helped with that, but his toes still got cold.

  ###

  “That almost looks like a pot,” Taz said, giving Rud a brave smile. Perhaps the dwarf had noticed how much effort he was putting into the pottery, and had corrected his way of speaking. Dwarves seemed like people that got straight to the point. But Rud was used to that.

  “That depends on how far to the left you lean,” Rud said, tilting his head.

  “The mortals will find it charming,” Taz said, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand. “I need your eye for the mine. If you don’t mind.”

  Rud nodded, agreeing to join the dwarf in the mine. The druid worked on his pottery skills from the morning when he woke until noon. Dean and Sarya gave reports that more mortals were going through the grove, which meant there would be fresh offerings at the tree. When he entered the mine, he saw Taz had reinforced every hallway. Those braces weren’t reinforced with metal, but they would do well enough for now.

  “There’s access to the lower levels at the T junction, but I wanted your opinion,” Taz said. They stood in the hall near the dwarf’s bedroom. “We could use this hall to head south, and the other to go north. Might be more work, but it's safer.”

  “Why is it safer?” Rud asked.

  “If we hit any of the deep places, we want to do it in different spots. Makes it easier to defend when an army of spiders comes flooding through the mine. I’ll use an old dwarven technique for collapsing tunnels, but I think this is safer.”

  “I trust your dwarven instincts. As long as it brings you closer to crystals.”

  “That’s another thing. I’ll need to have more exploratory tunnels to find more crystals.”

  Rud nodded. “The one bright spot is that you have the mining skill. Even if you don’t have the Miner class.”

  “Exactly. I’m leveling that skill like my life depends on it. Because Ban’s life depends on it,” Taz said with a chuckle. He fiddled with his beard, nodding to himself. “Sorry about pulling your beard with that pottery stuff. Just seemed like a… like a silly idea at first.”

  “I think it's still a silly idea. We’re both out of our depth here. And those mortals from Sparwyn are superstitious to the core.”

  Taz laughed, slapping Rud on the back. “You’re right. My people would be happy to come and chop this entire grove down. Well, I’m certain they’d be eaten before they got close enough to do it. But they’d try!”

  Rud felt better after the dwarf’s apology, and joked around with the guy for a bit. The druid got too focused on what Mint and Ban said without thinking about why they said it. As the custodian of the grove, he needed to be on top of things. That included understanding the culture of the local mortal population. What few mortals had passed through the grove had shown him they were valuable trading partners.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Rud left the mine when it was polite, reforming his tea garden to become something closer to a tea farm. He stretched the fence out, adding more area for him to plant. The Druidic Attunement ability allowed him to tone the manage usage down, resulting in a constant flow of work that was never stifled by the need for more mana. The area went from a ten plant capacity to a fifty plant capacity, following the curve of the forest and mostly blending in with the scene.

  The squirrel army sprung into action, racing along the bank of the stream to find more tea plants. Rud wanted to expand his offerings of tea, but starting with something solid, like a sweet citrus tea, was a power move. The critters helped him source those plants, gaining piles of nuts in return before scampering back into the forest. Rud splashed double-enchanted water on the plants and watched them grow. It didn’t fill his entire farm, but it was a start. He collected more leaves and paused with them in his bag.

  “Mint, could you get me another stove?” Rud asked.

  She didn’t respond, but he assumed she heard the request. Rud stuck with the theme of mushroom houses and grew one of the delicious mushrooms to a respectable size. He had considered how he was drying the leaves and realized that his hot house was doing most of the work. If this was as profitable as Mint made it out to be, he wanted to work on his scale of production. He smoothed the interior of the new mushroom building out, leaving the area bare aside from a series of tall shelves. He would need a ladder to access those top layers.

  A wood-burning stove appeared sometime between the drying building’s construction and its completion. Rud lugged the thing inside, sending the exhaust tube through the ceiling and sealing it away with his Lacquer spell. He got a fire going and spread his newly harvested tea leaves out on those shelves. The tea plants seemed willing to create an abundance of delicious leaves if he fed them enough water. They also displayed no desire to grow larger than they were, making them the perfect plant for collecting tea.

  By the day’s end, Rud was producing pottery that looked more like pottery. He completed the first one before dinner started and etched ‘Gladesbale Grove Reserve’ on the front with a stick. The next morning, he was loading the mysterious kiln up with vessels and lids. Rud didn’t even ruin the first batch, and Taz helped him melt the wax down so they could seal the pots.

  “Just do this,” Taz said, holding one piece of pottery over the pot of hot wax. He dipped it in, swirling the wax around the inside before dumping it out. “That way, they can see the exterior in all its glory.”

  After dipping the pots and letting them dry, Taz helped him fill each one with whole tea leaves and seal the top with a lid and wax. The resulting product was messy. To Rud’s eye it had a charming aesthetic, but he didn’t know if it would pass the mortal sniff test.

  “Go figure. They were up to something,” Taz said, gesturing to Dean and Mint as they approached.

  “Are you prepared to visit the mortal town?” Dean asked.

  “Do we have enough daylight left?” Rud asked, bobbing his head to catch sight of the sun. It was about noon.

  “We do. Mint, Sarya, and I have cleared a path,” Dean said, bowing his head toward the guardian. “We can make the run in two hours now.”

  “How does that work?”

  “Climb on,” Dean said, laying so that Rud could climb aboard.

  “Okay,” Rud said, stuffing the last of the tea in his bag. He grabbed his staff, stuffing it between his back and the backpack so it wouldn’t tumble away as they sprinted across the countryside. “Guess I’m going to see the mortals!”

  Rud grabbed fistfuls of fur, pressing himself against Dean’s back. The wolf rose, nodding to Mint once again. In an instant they were off, dashing at an absurd speed. The druid knew better than to lift his head from the wolf’s back. At this speed, the wind was as likely to knock him loose as the constant jumping and sprinting across the landscape. He caught flashes of the things that went by in those two hours. At one point, Dean jumped over a river. He dodged a group of monsters that threw rocks and wooden spears. There was even a brief tussle with a larger monster that Rud couldn’t build the courage to look at.

  “There it is,” Dean said, not even panting.

  They had stopped running and were now walking down a dirt road. The landscape was sparse. Small saplings rose from the grassy areas near the road, interspersed with larger trees that needed some druidic attention. The druid pushed down the desire to care for the plants, locking his eyes on the road ahead. In the distance, he saw a wooden wall that was pointed at the top. At this distance he could see dark figures standing on that wall, looking down at the road. A bell rang long before they reached the gate.

  Rud held his special staff high above him, waving it even as a group of people wearing armor and waggling weapons at them approached.

  “I am Rud! Keeper of the Gladesbale Grove!” he shouted, holding his arms wide. When Dean growled, the druid bonked him on the head.

  The group shared a confused look. The soldier in front spoke up first. “No, you’re not. The keeper doesn’t ride a wolf.”

  “I do now!” Rud proclaimed. “Behold. His name is Dean!”

  “If you’re the keeper, why have you left the grove? Don’t you need to… keep it?” the same soldier asked.

  “I come to sell tea.”

  A ripple of whispers rolled through the group. Rud caught pieces of their hushed conversation. They had heard of his tea. A booming laugh erupted from the rear of the group. Mira pushed her way through, beaming up at the druid.

  “Fancy mount you got there,” she said, approaching and waving up at Rud.

  “His name is Dean, and he is fast.”

  “Most folks in town will not want a dire wolf in town, Rud,” Mira said.

  “He is a guardian of the grove,” Rud said, raising an eyebrow. “Surely you wouldn't deny a guardian respite in your humble town.”

  “Come on,” Mira waved. “I’ll show you around.”

  “Commander…” one soldier said.

  “Deny the keeper entry to our town at your peril, Parn,” Mira said. “I promise the other guardian of the grove is much bigger.”

  That was enough to give Rud entry into the town. Dean didn’t want to come in, but Rud forced him to come along. People scattered when they saw the wolf but they had to get used to it. There were a few things the druid wanted to get done while in the mortal town, and one of them involved a saddle for the wolf. The tea wasn’t a pretense, though. Gladesbale needed the mortals to trade with them if they wanted to keep Ban alive.

  “This isn’t much compared to the grove,” Mira said, gesturing at the town.

  She wasn’t lying, either. The paths were made from dirt—mud, really—and the houses were all made of wood. Their construction was shoddy, and everyone within the town looked downright dirty. But Rud spotted businesses lining the streets here and there. Those streets were winding things, snaking their way in random paths through crowded buildings.

  “Just be ready for them to go crazy when they realize who you are,” Mira said, shaking her head. “I’ve been too busy with the reconstruction effort to do much of anything.”

  “The town looks… Well, it doesn’t look damaged.”

  “Hmmm. That’s one way to put it. So why are you here?”

  “I want to sell tea,” Rud said, producing his hand-made pot of tea from his bag.

  “Tea from the grove?” Mira asked, laughing. “Seriously? You’re doing exports, now?”

  “I need to buy a saddle for Dean,” Rud said, looking back at the wolf. Dean was trying to look as small as possible, but was nervous. His slouched haunches made him look like a hungry wolf.

  “Well, let’s get you sorted.”

  Mira knew everyone in the town. There were likely a thousand people living here, all spread out over rolling hills and crammed into crappy buildings. A local dealer of herbs almost crapped his pants when Dean tried to get inside his building, but he bought the entire lot of tea when he learned it was from the grove. Sure enough, the handmade pottery was one of the biggest selling points.

  “How much money is this?” Rud asked, jangling a sack of coins.

  “A lot. Let’s get a saddle fitted for the dire wolf.”

  “My name is Dean,” the wolf growled.

  The group approached an area with a wide paddock and stables. There was a nearby storefront that claimed it belonged to a leatherworker. Rud wasn’t sure what kind of mounted beasts he expected, but there were no mules or ponies. There were giant flightless birds, horse-lizard hybrids, and even insect-like critters. The druid burned most of his money there. After the leatherworker calmed down at the sight of a dire wolf, he measured Dean and committed to a rush job on the saddle. It was fortunate that the man was familiar with making saddles that fit a canine’s frame. It was just the scale that was different.

  The saddle drained half the funds, and twenty low-quality crystals drained the other half. Mira thought it was amusing enough that Rud wanted to be rid of the strange mortal money, which came in coins of various shades.

  “This was easier than expected,” Rud said.

  Mira watched with amusement as a small human child approached the group and bowed. She held a crown of leaves, woven together with sticks and sized perfectly for Dean’s head. He bowed low enough, nose touching the muddy road, for her to place it on his head. The girl scampered off before Rud could say anything, sending both him and Mira into a fit of the giggles.

  “Told you it wouldn’t take long.”