Rud sat atop Dean, overlooking the wooden city below. After spending more of the morning taking care of wayward adventurers than he would have liked, the druid had approached Barlgore with his warnings. At the crest of a hill, he hesitated. The people below looked small, scurrying around the streets of the winding city as though they had no designation. Like an ant pile that had been stirred up, sending them scattering this way and that. Almost as though they were collectively searching for the disturbance.

  “Are we going to stand here all day?” Dean asked.

  Rud withdrew a single sheet of paper from his bag. It contained his scribbled notes about monster movements, and the locations of dungeons. Numbers, relative strength, and monster types were all written in poor handwriting. He sat on the edge of altruism and the need to protect his Sacred Tree.

  “Do you think the mortals would buy this information?” Rud asked, tucking the paper into his coat.

  “I understand nothing about the mortal world.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Dean jumped down the cliff, nearly rendering Rud unable to bear children. He dashed down the dirt road, slowing only when the pair approached the defended walls. The guards bowed their heads this time, performing the sign of respect before allowing them entry. They made a clean path through the town, which wasn’t difficult. Citizens darted in either direction, avoiding them not out of fear but respect. Word had gotten around about the ‘keeper’ and his wolf mount, allowing them easy access to the business that he had commissioned to build the saddle.

  “What do you think?” Rud asked, turning to Dean and smiling.

  Dean growled at the amalgam of leather, wood, and metal. “It looks uncomfortable.”

  But it was a saddle perfectly sized for the massive dire wolf. Dean rested himself on the ground while the artisan helped Rud secure the saddle. When the creator of the saddle held his hand out for a tip at the end, the druid placed a single mushroom in his hand and winked.

  Rud mounted the wolf, finding that he could do so even without Dean laying on the ground. He placed his feet in the stirrups, which were perfectly sized for his height, and sighed. The seat was plush. While it didn’t have reins for him to hold, there was a leather horn that allowed him to stay stable.

  “This is less obnoxious than I expected,” Dean said. “I can barely feel you.”

  “That’s quality craftsmanship for ya,” Rud said. “Here’s the fork in our road, Dean. Should we go see Lord Feather? Think he’ll buy my information?”

  Dean growled at some passing children. “Maybe.”

  Feather wasn’t a hard guy to find. Rud decided that the man was always walking through town with a few goons following close behind. Dean ran up on him, causing the group to wheel around in surprise. They released yelps of surprise, but soon bowed their respects.

  “An unexpected visit,” Feather said, having to look up to meet Rud’s eyes. “Can I help you?”

  Rud produced the paper from his coat and waved it in the air. “I have information to sell.”

  “What was all that about not buying or selling anything? Dean asked. To the mortals, it sounded like an angry dire wolf growling.

  Feather shared a look with his attendants, waving them away after a moment. “What kind of information?”

  Rud explained what was on the sheet. Lord Feather’s subtle shift of facial expression passed the druid’s notice, but not Dean.

  “He wants the information,” Dean said, sounding slightly surprised. “Mortals care about such things? It makes sense, I suppose.”

  Feather looked at Dean with concern, eyes darting between the wolf and Rud. He cleared his throat. “That would be… helpful to our cause. You’re looking to sell it?”

  “I don’t have a need for mortal money. Just high-quality crystal fragments.”

  Feather stood there, thinking for a moment. “Come. We’ll discuss this somewhere private.”

  The Lord of Barlgore led Rud through the streets. The druid had to dismount from the wolf before he could enter a well-maintained wooden building. Despite the lord’s objections, Dean squeezed through the narrow passage, catching the saddle a few times before standing in the sparsely decorated interior. Feather cleared his throat, gesturing for Rud to have a seat on a comfortable armchair. A fire was crackling in a red brick fireplace, and there was a familiar scent in the air.

  “Are you a crafter, Keeper Rud?” Feather asked, preparing some tea.

  “Yep. Kinda. Why?”

  “That’s the primary use for those fragments,” Feather said, winking up at the druid. He handed a cup of tea over. “Although it would seem your skill in cultivating empowering tea is more impressive than anything you could craft.”

  “Ah! You’re drinking my tea!”

  Feather smiled again, shaking his head at the druid’s surprise. “My people aren’t fond of tea. You’ll see us drinking ale more than anything else. But your tea has an empowering effect I cannot get enough of.”

  Rud sipped his tea politely, his toes lightly brushing the floor from his chair. He hoped Feather hadn’t lured him here to get more tea. More tea was coming, the mortals just had to be patient.

  “Glad you like it.”

  “We have a local mine that produces fragments. It’s a decent operation, though nothing compared to the dwarves. How did you scout those dungeons? Was it the wolf?”

  “Yep. Dean is really fast.”

  “I did nothing of the sort,” Dean growled.

  “A single report is excellent. I just fear it's not the fortune you’re seeking. Could you provide regular reports?”

  “Oh, yeah. I can send you daily reports,” Rud said. He cleared his throat, forgetting he was trying to play hardball. “So long as the fragments are good.”

  “Let me see what you have written,” Feather said, holding his hand out. He noticed how Rud hesitated and nodded. He withdrew five fragments from nowhere and pushed them across the table. “I’m a man of my word.”

  Rud handed the paper over, scooping the fragments into his backpack. Feather read over the report. It even included information about the local weather, which would be sunny for another few days. That part of farseeing was still difficult.

  “This is extremely detailed,” Feather said. “You could provide a daily report of this detail?”

  Rud thought about what he had to do to generate the report. He smiled to himself as fond memories of his first office job came back. He was so clueless that it was a miracle he did anything right. In his mid-forties, he was an expert at generating fluffy reports that made internal and external stakeholders blush. The report in Feather’s hands took about half an hour to make. That included time the druid had spent looking at frogs in the marsh, observing a badger he had never seen, and watching Taz scratch his butt for exactly five minutes without stopping.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The most valuable thing Rud had learned on Earth was setting expectations. One should never claim that any task given to them would be easy. Especially when the asker was in the dark. If a task would take a day to complete, one should always double the time, then add another day for good measure. When the task was done, that person should then finish it in the doubled time and claim to have worked their butt off.

  “That might be too taxing on my spiritual powers,” Rud said, allowing his shoulders to slump. “I can try to get you a report every three days.”

  “I think we can come to an agreement on that.” Feather placed the paper on the table, relaxing in his seat to sip his tea. “With that out of the way, I’ll say that we have no good way to track the monsters or the dungeons. When we find a dungeon, it's always a surprise. Those surprises lead to losses. Especially when a dungeon has been festering for too long.”

  “Did you play this guy?” Dean asked. He sounded more surprised than he should have. “He just told you the mortals are dying.”

  Rud cleared his throat. “We can ensure you won’t be surprised again.”

  “We can spare five fragments for each report. But you know I need to confirm the contents of this one.” Feather gestured to the report on the table before taking a sip of tea.

  “Of course.”

  “One last condition. Please come to me first when you bring more tea.”

  Feather had more to say about his town. Rud found that a vulnerable side of the leader was unexpected. But the position of lord was given to him as a jab for some past slight against Sparwyn. Like Taz’s journey away from the mountains, this was penance for a past transgression. It was a colony expected to fail. The Hornfen Region was a wild place brimming with magical energy. That magic caused the eruption of dungeons that plagued the area. The continent of Aiswyn wasn’t much better, and had been a no-go zone on maps for a while. But Lord Feather was making it work.

  “And a grove pops up. Right near my town,” Feather said with a shrug. “You can imagine my surprise, excitement, and fear. But here we are. Drinking tea and talking amiably.”

  “Is there a reason to fear the groves?”

  “Only if another grove like Aegael’s pops up.”

  Rud left that where he was. He had only seen Aegael, the Fire Aspect, once. But he took the spirit’s aspect to do his smelting and didn’t want to gain a poor impression of the spirit. They chatted briefly, but the druid was feeling the effects of the mortal world. Dean seemed to be drooping on the spot, ready to collapse into a deep sleep at any moment. He excused himself from the meeting, claiming grove business before heading outside.

  Dean squeezed himself through the door, yawning and stretching out on the dirt road. “That was eventful,” the wolf said.

  Rud stretched, then assumed his position on the saddle. “More fragments. That’s big.”

  Dean trotted down the dirt roads, leaving without dramatics this time. They passed through the western gate without seeing Mira. Rud wasn’t sure how they would find her, but couldn’t linger in the mortal world for much longer. He felt himself waning by the moment. The wolf kicked off the moment they cleared the gate, racing down the road at full speed. The druid held onto the horn. If that guy who made the saddle had online reviews, he would get five-stars. The comfort was one thing, but the way it moved on Dean’s back made it so that each jump didn’t come with a butt-breaking shock.

  The duo entered the grove’s boundary, passing through a thicket to arrive at the Sacred Tree. Rud removed the saddle from Dean, dragging it into his storage area to keep it out of the elements. Ban giggled at them, the way she often did, but kept whatever comment she had to herself.

  “May I leave?” the wolf asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” Rud said. “We’re done. Thanks for the help, Dean.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Of the things that needed to be sorted in the grove, the traveling adventurers were the most important. Some had filtered onto the road the day before, and were working their way through the various rest stops. Barrow’s team hadn’t returned, but Rud saw enough evidence of their travel to assume they were safe. Rud teleported to the tower and took stock of the adventurers in the grove.

  The first group had blown past the Sacred Tree and were already exiting on the western side. Two more groups had entered, traveling together down that long road. Rud checked the magical energies in the sky. Clouds of glowing blue told him the current weather, and messages appeared to predict upcoming weather. It predicted it with low confidence, but it was better than nothing. No monster movement. No new dungeons within the grove. At least there was that.

  A small bird landed on the railing to the tower, chirping away. Rud was never good with birds back on Earth. This one was small with a fat-looking belly and a stunted beak. It hopped on the spot as though trying to get his attention.

  “Hey, buddy,” Rud said, swapping on his Clear Communication upgrade. “Is Timmy caught in a well?”

  “Timmy? No Timmy. Sick! Bird sick!”

  “Are you sick?”

  “No! Bird sick. Not bird. There!” The bird poked its beak in a direction.

  “Oh. You’re serious,” Rud said. He allowed his Farsight skill to take over, driven by the Aspect of Bent. “Fly on over there. I’ll watch you go.”

  The bird took off without another peep, soaring through the forest. Rud kept his sight on him, finding the task effortless with his skill. The bird dodged through trees at an absurd speed, landing on a tree branch. His vision assumed the top-down perspective, giving him a view of the area. The bird had landed on a branch, and there was a nest. Rushing from the tower, the druid passed through a bush to arrive at the area. He climbed the tree, his new nimble body moving easily over the branches.

  “Oh, hey,” Rud said, poking his head over the next. The same fat little bird was chirping constantly, spouting all kinds of stuff. Within the nest was another bird, sucking in breaths but otherwise motionless.

  “Poor thing,” Ban said, speaking into Rud’s mind. “They were preparing to lay eggs.”

  “In this weather?” Rud asked, shaking his head.

  “For the spring. They prepare in advance.”

  Rud scooped the injured bird up, cradling it in his hand. He looked for a way to descend from the tree, but couldn’t find anything. “Meet me near the Sacred Tree. Alright, dad bird?”

  “Yes. Tree. Okay.”

  Rud used the Thicket Transport upgrade to pass through a dense area of the tree’s branches. He almost tumbled when he appeared near the Sacred Tree, but maintained his balance. He brought the bird into his mushroom house, placing her on a table. There was nothing he knew about taking care of birds, let alone nursing them back to health. He poked at the bird for a moment until the other bird flew into his house, perching on a shelf.

  “What’s wrong? Is she okay? Are you qualified!?”

  Rud switched off his Clear Communication upgrade, pressing his cheek against the table to get a better look at the bird. He stared at her for a long time, finding nothing. Her wings seemed fine, and there were no visible injuries on her body. The area near her beak was devoid of anything that would indicate poisoning. But her breathing wasn’t improving, although it wasn’t getting worse.

  “Any ideas, Ban?” Rud asked.

  “Hmmm. Ask the other bird if they traveled from afar.”

  Rud switched on Clear Communication, relaying the message.

  “Afar? Yes. New here. New nest.”

  “They must have nested too close to a source of magic before. If you had the Purge Magic spell you could help her,” Ban said.

  “But I don’t.”

  “Bring her to me. Nestle her near my root bed. I absorb negative magic through the soil, turning it into energy.”

  Rud shrugged. He had no better plan. Scooping the injured bird up, he carried her over to the tree. The other bird swooped at him, screeching something about helping his mate. “I’m working on it, you crazy bird,” the druid grumbled.

  Once the bird was placed between two sections of the Sacred Tree, Rud ran off to get some bedding material. He found dry leaves and sticks to pile around the bird. A few minutes between Ban’s roots had the creatures breathing more evenly. The other bird calmed down when he saw the effort was working. He took up a post nearby, tilting his head to angle one eye at his mate.

  “This should work,” Ban said with confidence. “I can feel dark energy flowing into my roots.”

  “Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

  “No. It's delicious.”

  A bird getting sick from some random magic outside of the grove was troublesome. “Hey. Mister bird,” Rud said, waving his hands to get the male bird’s attention. “Think you could sniff out other critters that have this problem?”

  “Others? Okay. Where?”

  “In the grove. Just go find them and tell them to come to the tree.”

  “Okay. Yes. Alright. I can. I can do.”

  The bird flew off without another word, and Rud appreciated that. The more he pushed his Animal Communication skill, the better things would get for the creatures in the grove. Searching for injured animals—even with the tower—was off the table. There was too much area to cover and not enough time. Before heading to pitch in at the mine, the druid checked on Ban and topped her off. The Energy Nodule Efficiency entry had increased from fifty to seventy-five.

  Rud left the Sacred Tree, content with his work for the day. Dealing with the mortals was exhausting. Some light mining was the perfect thing to relax.