Scout’s arrival interrupted the party. He informed them about a great number of buildings he spotted on the trees half an hour walk ahead of them.

It looked like some kind of strange town. The lord summoned captains to his clan house for urgent consultation. He invited Lillium to attend the meeting. She wasn’t a captain, but she played an important role in past events. The old lord knew that her magical knowledge could be of great use.

It wasn’t long before she came back and informed her friends, “I volunteered five of us to scout the city.”

Schnew rolled his eyes and stressed, “Thanks for asking us first!”

“You are welcome. I need to gather information about the city and people living there. It will be useful for future relations with this community. Be quick, get ready!”

“I like when a woman is bossy, it’s a challenge,” he said grinning.

“Let’s do it in a grand style. I’m sure they already know we are here. Everyone get into my clan house. We will fly there. That way we will have an exit option if things go bad.”

The travel to the place which scout described was a short one. They hovered over many houses on the trees made of a strange white matter.

The tree house

Lillium ordered a group of archers to assume a position on the clan house roof. Then she sent another unit of warriors on dogs to descend to the ground. She thought it was a good idea to prepare another exit option just in case.

Five of them tied ropes around their waists and their companions lowered them on a tree. They had to climb a few branches up to the nearest house. Groups of curious residents looked at them from their windows. Many of them jumped on the branches and moved across them. They moved by grasping branches with strong hands while swinging from one tree to another. Lillium took her notebook out to write:

“People in this city are shorter than Ulans. They have long arms and no hair anywhere on their body. I assume they have long arms because most of their life is spent on the trees. Their eyes are green and their skin is darker than ours. Their homes are built from the strange white material.”

The heroes moved around the tree for a while until they found a rope which connected it to another tree. Hanging on the rope was a basket made from the same material as the houses. They boarded the basket and crossed to another tree using a winch at the top of it. No one approached them, but a lot of residents crowded surrounding trees following them.

The townsfolk could not decide if the strangers were dangerous, so the heroes considered it best to wait a little longer before engaging in communication. After a while the crowd reduced; they were losing interest. A quarter of an hour into the town and the number of people in baskets increased.

At first they were reluctant to share their baskets with them, but later on they took little notice of the strangers. Lillium noticed a few people that were always driving with them. These were the bravest of the crowd which followed them.

She addressed one of them. The poor creature almost fainted. Lillium smiled and offered him bottle of suind. Cautiously he took a sip. When he was certain it was not dangerous with a big smile he poured half of the bottle down his throat.

“He is good,” Schnew stated with respect.

When he finished the bottle he became a lot more talkative. Alas, they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.

Lillium nodded knowingly and whispered to her friends, “Let me try something. His language has certain resemblance to old Ulan.”

She said her greetings in Old Ulan. It was a language Ulans spoke before migrating to the island. It had evolved over the years into the language they spoke nowadays. The stranger answered in a similar fashion.

“I was right.”

Schnew sighed and said, “Aren’t you always right?”

Not paying attention to him, she wrote in her notebook:

“The language in this forest city has a lot in common with Old Ulan. This confirms a theory that everyone before the fog used the same language.”

Schnew peeked over her shoulder. He said to her, “Ulan names are unexplainable in Old Ulan. I heard that somewhere. Perhaps they are from some old, forgotten language. The conclusion should be that people in this part of the world spoke the same language.”

“Stop doing that, you creep! But, your statement makes sense.”

She wrote what he said. Lillium spoke to the stranger for a while. Then she turned to the others that were staring at them with blank expression on their faces.

She said, “His name is Urmead. He lives in this beautiful city called Hul Term. He wasn’t aware that there are other humans inhabiting this world. They never leave the shelter of twister or trade with others, even though there is developed trade in town. The wind barrier that protects them from the fog is the work of Wind Wizards. They live in the inner city and never mingle with others. I assume they are the ones that brought us here.

“He invited us to his house as his guests for a small reward in the form of a few btaris. In this city, btari is common currency just the same as in Ulan.

“If you try harder you could understand at least half of what he is saying. That is if you manage to ignore his accent. You should also ignore words we Ulans took from Utrikat language.”

“Yes, I noticed similar words. Some of them are very interesting,” Schnew said and smiled.

Lillium tried to suppress a smile, rolling her eyes. “He was talking about the food. The word has the same root as our word for breast.”

“Yes, stick to that story. I would have to agree with him about the beauty of your breasts.”

She made a firm decision not to pay attention to him. Instead she slipped a few btaris in Urmead’s hand. Petrified flowers used as currency had the same magical power all over the world to make a person which is holding them happy. Urmead was happy, but he didn’t hold btaris for too long in his hands. He tucked them into his inner pocket as fast as he could. The reasons for such behavior revealed themselves in no time.

When Lillium reached to put the bag of btaris back into her pouch, the basket got to the next tree. A young boy, about eight years old, seized the opportunity and snatched the bag from her hands jumping out of the basket to run away.

Schnew didn’t hesitate. He threw himself over the basket edge, supporting his entire body weight on one hand. In his other hand was a knife from his boot. With a swift motion downwards, he nailed the poor boy’s foot to the tree below. He choked him till he dropped the bag into his open hand. Not even looking he returned the bag to Lillium. Then he focused back on the boy. Now he strangled him with both hands.

He looked at the boy who turned blue and moved slower with every passing moment. In a soft voice he whispered into his ear, “Choose who to attack! Look, now you got yourself killed. You are bad, bad boy!”

Miratur jumped out of the basket and pushed Schnew away. She took the little boy in her arms like mothers take their babies. For the first time in her life she felt a mother’s instinct. Subito looked at her with admiration. The strange light emanated from her face.

“Thank you,” the boy said when he could catch his breath, “if you hadn’t been merciful enough to stop him, he would have killed me.”

“It’s all right now,” she murmured while petting his hair.

He shook. Hul Termians scattered with initial shock were now crowding them. Menacing looks in their eyes promised nothing good. The crowd was approaching the overturned basket. These strangers dared to come to their city and attack a child! This had to be punished.

After he noticed a shift in the mood of the crowd, Subito positioned his sharp scythe between Miratur and the crowd. Schnew stood next to him twisting his two swords in circular motion. Dance with the swords. Stories told all over the island spoke about single warriors who would fend of dozens of Utrikat pirates using this technique.

Alma was behind them hissing and cursing in the Utrikat language. She blasted the tree few times with her stone club, causing the big shards of bark and wood to fly all around her. Lillium climbed the basket’s edge throwing magical seed stones from her pouch. Severak tentacles like plant roots sprung out of each stone swirling around and seeking someone’s leg to grab on.

The crowd was not up against a girl and a man with a knife anymore. In front of them was a whole band of warriors. Among others there were a sorceress and a monster. The crowd retreated. They never saw Utrikat before. To be honest, Utrikat fits the human idea of a monster, especially when he is angry like Alma was now.

Most of them scattered, swinging from branch to branch. Schnew looked at them running away and spat on the ground showing his contempt. Miratur bandaged the boy’s foot. Unsecure on his feet, he limped away. The boy turned towards her once more to show his gratitude before he leaped onto the branches. In no time he disappeared in the tree crowns. Miratur passed next to Schnew rolling her eyes.

She turned around and hissed, “He’s just a child, you animal!”

Subito gave her a comforting hug.

He has good reflexes. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to have him around. Anyway, it’s better to have him on our side than against us. Lillium thought looking at Schnew.

He stretched like an old cat, nibbling on a twig.