Melody

"Where in the abyss is he..." Melody tended to mumble to herself a bit. She was currently searching the camp area for Davis. He'd gone into the forest the night before to gather food and check for good building lumber for additional buildings but hadn't felt up to talking about the venture until he'd had a night’s rest.

"Aha! Davis, do you have a moment?" She watched the tall man walking back to camp and shouted at him, beckoning him over. From the look of the matted on his arms and face, she guessed he must have been bathing in the river. While she waited for his approach she admired their work so far. In a single day they'd managed to build a functional town square out of fist sized stones that interlocked via earth magic, and the inn was well on its way to being complete. She ventured a guess that they may even finish it by the sunset the next day.

"I suppose you want to ask about the forest then?" Davis' ears were back a bit farther back than they usually were, and something about his posture seemed defensive to Melody.

"Yes, did you manage to verify the creatures were as Jeremy described? Also, were there any trees that looked like they would make good building supplies? Basically, what did you see in there last night?"

His eyes flicked back towards the forest before he began speaking.

"The forest is definitely magical or magicked, though I do not know which. From the moment we approached it we could feel something was off, almost like the trees themselves were watching us. There was also a beaten dirt trail through the forest, and much thicker brush between the trees otherwise than we were led to believe. Neither of the twins recalled feeling the sensation when they checked for a clearing in the willows two days ago, but they weren't really trying to sense anything at the time, just checking on trees.

"Between the three of us we decided sticking to the path was a better idea, figuring it was probably made by larger game of some sort considering the lack of other visitors out this far. After walking for about 20 minutes we came into a clearing filled with fruit trees, that’s where we got the fig-apples, and we even managed to get a couple of those monstrous hedgehogs who were wandering around the clearing."

Melody remembered the hedgehog they'd eaten the night before, it was really fatty but not terrible to be honest.

"There was another path on the other side of the clearing, but I decided we should head back. On the way back, we gathered some of the wild sage we saw in the brush as well as peppergrass for seasoning. We would have checked a bit deeper along the side but there was this weird chittering noise that got louder the longer we were off the path. It was almost like the animals were mad at us for not following it.

"Right before we exited the forest I decided I'd test to see how malleable the Oaks were, maybe start chopping one a bit to finish off today. Instead, when I swung my axe at the trunk it hardly gouged it and before I could go for a second swing three giant fucking rats jumped out and attacked my ankles. Do you know how hard it is to hit a rat with an axe when you're as tall as I am?"

Looking down Melody realized that Davis did in fact have bandages wrapped around his ankles and lower calf. She'd missed them before because they blended in a bit with his matted fur coat.

"Right, sorry about that. So, we aren't going to be able to harvest wood locally from the forest then, damn. We knew it was a possibility, but I really hoped we were wrong. At least we brought enough for the inn though, we are going to have to do a bit of hunting for pelts and trade those for more wood in Ostlind." She started running the numbers in her head as she walked away.

"I don't like it Mel, this place gives me the creeps. I know that I haven't seen an enchanted forest before this one, but it feels wrong here. If I weren't so damned wet my fur would be standing on end!" Davis' shouting at Melody's retreating form didn't weigh much on her thoughts at the moment and went mostly unnoticed. He was just being a baby because he got a couple mouse bites, but that was nothing compared to what they endured in the human settlements.

With a shudder at the thought she set off to get the story from the twins as well. Their recollection of the events was much the same but neither of them thought there was anything wrong with the forest. 'Must be something he smelled' they joked. She could only be so lucky if that was the issue.

* * * * * * *

The inn was finished much earlier than Melody had expected. It had taken the rest of the day, and half of the morning following but before lunch their first building stood there staring at them.

Standing proudly at four stories tall she was sure it would be one of the largest buildings in the town. Even if they lost their rights to run the town for some reason, Melody felt secure in knowing that they'd be running the tavern and inn and would not go poor.

"She's a beut innit she?" One of the dwarves, Geim maybe, had walked up beside her to admire the building as well. It was a large spruce building, with shuttered windows on each floor and a smoking area outside on the first floor. Each floor had 8 rooms, except the first which was the tavern and kitchen, and was sparsely furnished for the moment.

"Yeah, she is, what're you planning on doing next?"

"Korin, Helg, and I figured we ought 'ta check the forest ourselves since Kala finished her rope bridge. Ya know, ta' verify that we cannot chop some trees down ourselves. Want ta' tag along, we could have a nice little picknick in the clearing."

Melody rolled her eyes at the dwarf who was furiously waggling his bushy eyebrows but agreed to tag along all the same. If she was going to make a go out of living here she should get to know the forest as well and try to gather some pelts. Although she was not very combat oriented the dwarves had an extra crossbow they let her borrow and she knew how to skin an animal. She'd eaten too many rats while living in the city to not have picked up that skill.

On their way to the forest Faeryl decided to tag along to gather some more herbs and see if she could spot any other useful plants. Although the drow were not particularly talkative, Melody had come to admire them both. Although they were both elves technically, they'd been treated far worse than she ever had based purely on the color of their skin. That and their race’s tendency to have magical affinities on the darker side of the spectrum. It was an ignorant human way of thinking.

No, that wasn't right. Drow were distrusted by the humans, but they were treated far worse by their fairer skinned brothers and sisters.

With little else to look at while they walked, Melody found herself admiring Faeryl's figure, not for the first time either. She didn't think she was attracted to her but her long, slender legs always seemed to catch her eye. Both sisters were beautiful in every sense of the word even with their purple tinted skin. They were tall and had curves in all the right places. Even their faces were perfect, with high cheekbones and beautifully pointed ears accented by hair so dark it seemed to drink in the light around it.

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk." Melody's face flushed as Geim caught her eyes wandering and patronized her with an exaggerated slow shaking of his head. After a few seconds however, he just started heartily laughing and gave her a little shove.

A few short minutes later, they crossed the deceptively strong field-grass rope bridge and began entering the forest. Instantly Melody understood what Davis meant about the trees following them with their eyes. Still, apart from that slightly unpleasant sensation there didn’t seem to be anything else wrong.

The merry group of dwarves led them steadily farther along the trail, gwaffing and joking the entire way.

"Hope you're ready for the picknick of your life ladies, nobody parties like the dw.." Geim trailed off as he entered the clearing and slowed to a stop. Just a few seconds behind them Melody passed him noting the look of confusion on his face.

"Now, that’s not what we were told ta' expect."

Korin was right. Although the fruit trees were still there like Davis had said, there was also a scattering of isolated trees that did not have fruit.

"Is that mahogany? What in the abyss is going on in this forest!"

"Dun look a gift dire goanna in the mouth girly. Ta' forest was probably pissed about Davis tryin ta' chop it down and gave us some trees ta' chop. Let’s get ta' it boys."

Over the next few hours the dwarves chopped down the seven mahogany trees in the clearing and tied them together with spare grass-rope from their packs.

Faeryl spent the time collecting more sage and peppergrass pods, and even showed Mel how to identify wild tubers and two flowers with slight medicinal properties. As far as game went, although Melody missed more shots than she landed she managed to bag 3 hedgehogs and one of the squirrel monsters.

As they packed up and got ready to return to the inn, Faeryl stopped and approached the center of the grove. Melody followed her, curious what she was getting up too.

"Thank you for your plentiful bounty, sacred forest. We appreciate all you have given us and ask for safe passage through your forest once more."

Faeryl was crouched in front of a relatively large apple tree and seemed to be offering thanks to the spirit of the forest. Seeing no harm in it, Melody walked up and crouched beside the drow to offer her thanks as well.

After a couple minutes meditating there they got up and joined the dwarves at the path.

"Looks like a tight fit but we should manage. Helg you're up here with me, let’s go."

The journey out of the forest was uneventful. Whether it was because the forest accepted their thanks or because the critters were scared away by the racket she did not know. Geim and Helg, the towns resident earth magi, were pulling the trees behind them by using their magic to subtly shift the dirt beneath the logs to make them feel lighter.

They made it to the river and Faeryl helped the dwarves swim the logs across the river rather than risk the rope bridge.

Sparing a glance back at the tree line, Melody found herself once again appreciating how lucky a find this had been. She made plans with the dwarves to go back in tomorrow to see how fast the trees would grow back, if they would at all, dropped the game off with Elvaer, and retired to her room in the inn.