I’d been keeping my aura tightly controlled ever since I’d taken on the humanoid form, assuming it was more than enough to ward off suspicion. I was wrong.

As I followed the group into an office, I felt an intense pressure against my aura, poking and prodding, almost like what it felt like when Dendra observed me with her roots, but far more intense. Without thinking, I firmed my aura against the intrusion, and moments later remembered to follow Dendra’s instructions on how to react to a threat. I growled, bared my fangs and flooded the room with aggression pheromones. I heard a faint whimper coming from Trella but paid it no heed. I locked my eyes on the source of the intangible assault.

Sitting behind a desk was a lean human with long ears, and a blank expression on his sharply angled face. Probably and elf or a half-elf based on Dendra’s descriptions. His raven hair was long and tucked back behind the protruding ears, and his skin was a deep brown color. He smelled like leaves and meat, and some kind of pungent smoke. His aura was far stronger than the others’, though it was difficult to judge its actual extent.

Dendra spoke with a stern tone that I’d never heard from her before as I shifted my stance and my grip on my spear. “Is that any way to treat an Emissary of the Forest or her envoy? And all without even introducing yourself? Your ancestors would cut their ears in shame at your behavior.”

The pressure immediately eased, though the elf’s features barely moved. The rest of the group had moved aside when I’d started growling, looking at me aghast. Vee had grabbed a hold of a shivering Trella and pulled the frightened fox girl to her chest, stroking the top of her head. Now, they just seemed confused, looking back and forth between the elf, Dendra and me.

“That’s a bold claim, dryad. Our surveys indicated no spiritual demesnes on this land.”

“Ask these fine adventurers, who have just verified my claim, yearling.” It was rather unusual to hear Dendra speak in a tone that wasn’t exasperated or sickly sweet. I relaxed my posture as she continued speaking and ceased to emit the pheromones. “Or perhaps you wish no information on the goblin hordes poised to descend upon this region. If so, my adorable companion and I will take our leave while the goblins close in on this place. Even their lowly kind knows better than to insult a servant of nature. I will just return to my new tree and shelter the creatures of the forest as the goblins pour through and strike at your feeble fortifications. As the blood of your kind seeps into the earth, the forest will flourish and drink deep.”

The elf’s face remained still, but his tone of voice changed. “No disrespect intended, Emissary, to you or your rather odd choice of envoy. Please, do speak of the goblin hordes you have seen.”

Dendra’s tone returned to a much more neutral one, though still somewhat cold. “As I was being transported by Shaper to the center of my newly claimed demesnes, we encountered many patrols of goblins to the northwest of here. He killed his way through all the normal sized patrols, while we avoided the larger groupings and camps. Shaper, how many of them did you kill along the way and how many did we avoid?”

“Killed maybe two hundred fifty. Avoided maybe ten thousand. Lots of them north of here too. Saw them before I met you. Some of them rode wolves. I killed maybe two hundred of them but was not there long.”

For the next ten minutes or so, the elf asked me questions clarifying the numbers and locations of the goblins, as well as when I’d spotted them, and wrote down the details on a piece of parchment. After he confirmed the details, he rolled up the paper, and stuck it into an odd-looking tube with sheets of cloth hanging from its side, then walked to the window and tossed it out.

To my surprise, it took wing and flew off. I could sense the magic patterns in it taking hold and manipulating it as it departed.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Emissary.” The elf bowed stiffly, then turned to the rest of the group, who had been maintaining an uncomfortable silence throughout the entire interaction. “Hunt Leader Vee, thank you for seeing the Emissary and her envoy safely here. I have some further business to discuss with her, so if you don’t mind giving us some privacy?” He gestured toward the door.

Vee and the others gave shallow bows to the guild master and filed out of the room. Once the door was shut, the elf turned his attention back to Dendra and me. “What sort of farce are you up to, tree spirit? Calling this — whatever it is — your envoy? I know not what sort of beast it is, for its aural defenses are impressive, but it is most certainly not one of the Ravager clan.”

I glanced down at Dendra’s tiny form, and she just looked back up and shrugged. “I was working from some really old memories. We had no intention of drawing attention, since I didn’t really think much of the goblin horde. They always exhaust themselves eventually. They are of no real concern to the forest. But you’ve had dealings with the Ravagers then?”

For the first time since he’d encountered the elf, emotion crossed that blank face, twisting his features into a scowl. “Unfortunately. The bone spurs on his arms were the biggest giveaway, far too white and they should sweep toward the wrist, not away from. After that, all the other minor inconsistencies started to stand out even more. What is this beast?”

I concentrated a few moments while Dendra continued speaking, that familiar saccharine tone returning to her voice. “This is Shaper. Isn’t he adorable? I don’t think there’s anything else in the breadth of this world quite like him. And he’s so clever!”

As she continued to gush with praise for me, I altered the bone spurs on my forearms, yellowing them a bit and changing them to project toward the wrist like the elf had mentioned.

“Some kind of shape-shifter, clearly. Where did you find such a thing?” The elf asked, interrupting Dendra’s useless prattling.

“He found me. Fell asleep right in the lap of my roots. He is sooooo adorable when he sleeps, you know? Why…”

“And what is with that abominable spear he carries? It practically oozes with hunger. It almost feels like it’s alive.”

This time, I spoke before Dendra could, “It’s my spear. I hunt with it.”

The elf’s face creased into a frown. “Is this beast actually sapient, or is it just mimicking speech?”

I decided that I did not like this elf. “Are your ears sapient? Is that why they try to escape your face?”

Dendra broke down into a fit of giggling laughter while the elf’s face took on a slightly darker shade and his ears twitched. He glared at me for several seconds before Dendra regained her composure. “I think that answers your question, doesn’t it? You kind of asked for it, talking about him like he wasn’t even present, and so snobbishly too. He answered all your questions earlier just fine, why is it that you would suspect he is anything but sapient?”

The elf scoffed at her. “For all I know you just trained it particularly well. Whatever this thing is, it’s not of the Bloodlines or a spirit. Everyone knows that sapience is vanishingly rare outside those groups.”

“As vanishingly rare as your wits?” I asked.

Dendra snorted. “Okay Shaper, I think he gets the point. And now that it’s not pointed at me, that sass actually is kind of cute. Anyways, Guildmaster, perhaps if you were to help us with some things, we may be able to provide you and yours with some assistance with a certain pending problem as well.”