“You already know about the Therianthropes, right?” Liros asked, correctly deducing the reason why Elise was interested. She nodded in reply, so he continued “They are divided into several tribes, each of them having their own traditional territories and cultures. There are some occasional conflicts between them, but the area is generally peaceful. All of that is common knowledge.

“What isn’t common knowledge is the fact that, from what I’ve heard, there have been some pretty concerning purchases made by forest inhabitants. Large amounts of food and other living supplies, materials used for building reinforcement, and there are even rumors of weapons and armor being bought.”

“And those are all signs of a war brewing.” Elise understood what he was getting at.

“Indeed. But if all of the tribes were preparing for war, I believe the circulation of goods would be a lot more obvious.” Liros continued “So instead of a united mobilization of the tribes to attack somewhere, it’s more likely that some tribes will be trying to subjugate others.”

“I see.” Elise said “Thanks for the information, it will definitely be useful.”

“So you’re still going there.” Liros spoke “If I hadn’t seen how powerful your fairy is, I would try to dissuade you from going, but you are clearly capable of protecting yourself, so I just ask you to be careful.”

“Of course.” Elise smiled and nodded.

The merchant then ordered for the caravan to begin moving again. Meanwhile, Nalia was sighing internally. She knew Elise was the type to head into dangerous places without hesitation (hadn’t she done that right after Nalia met her?), but she didn’t expect something like that to happen so soon.

+0+

Their journey continued on forward after that. The other caravan members and passengers began looking at the small girl and smaller fairy in a different way than before, but that didn’t change the behavior of the duo at all. They still kept mostly to themselves, spending most of their waking time training.

Nalia seemed to have been motivated by the incoming danger, so Elise put more focus on training defense spells, speed spells, stealth spells… Anything that could be useful for keeping themselves safe, as the fairy would improve more easily on them with her current state of mind.

Nothing else out of the ordinary occurred for the next three weeks, the time it took for them to reach the area of the Forest of Theremis, not only were there no other incidents to hinder their journey, the other people in the caravan didn’t bother the duo with questions or the like either. They had earned the respect of the others, who

could clearly see that the girl and fairy liked to keep mostly to themselves, so their wishes were respected.

However, when they reached the point where Elise and Nalia wanted to disembark, the merchant Liros took the initiative to talk to them again.

“There’s something I would like to tell you.” He said.

“Okay.” Elise replied, looking at him with interest.

“I’ve been talking to people in the places we’ve stopped at and from what I heard, it seems like there’s something going on at the northeast part of the forest.” He spoke “I couldn’t find out anything more concrete than that, I’m afraid.”

“That’s fine. Thank you for the information, I’ll keep it in mind.” Elise said.

Nalia echoed Elise’s thanks. The two of them said goodbye to the caravan in general and then left.

Seeing them heading into the forest, Liros wondered how that would turn out. They were entering it from the south, so they wouldn’t be running straight into whatever was going on in the north, but he could tell that Elise had no intention to simply make a quick trip in and out.

Perhaps he would hear about it the next time his caravan passed through this area. Shaking his head, Liros ordered for them to start moving again.

+0+

The Forest of Theremis was superficially similar to the Nalia had been born in. There were many of the same kinds of trees, since the environment wasn’t much different, plus the denseness of the trees and foliage were pretty similar, at least in the area the two went in.

However, that was where the similarities ended. The biggest and most glaring difference between them was how the Forest of Theremis did not have the same deep undercurrent of magic running through it.

Pretty much every other difference could be attributed to that fact. Many of the stranger trees and plants that could be found in Nalia’s birthplace made no appearances in Theremis. The soil was also less productive in general, so there was much less small plants and flowers among the trees.

Thinking about it, Elise found it a bit strange for there to be no sign of any organizations trying to profit off the fairies’ forest. There should be some kind of reason for that, but Nalia said she had no clue when asked. Perhaps they’d find out about it at some point.

Returning to the matter of their current location, there was of course the matter of the population being of a different species (or several ones), but they only came face to face with that reality on their third day there.

+0+

It happened during the mid afternoon, not long after the two had finished their lunch.

“Halt!” A female voice resounded from the branches of a nearby tree, and together with it came an arrow that hit the ground a few steps ahead of the duo.

Elise stopped in place. There was no reason to provoke their interloper, as they were outsiders in this forest and she had even released a warning shot instead of attacking them.

Seeing that, a figure dropped down from the tree, allowing the duo to see the archer. She was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties and the ears on top of her head marked her as a fox therianthrope, or as the popular term put it, a foxkin.

She had orange hair and was wearing clothes woven from some sort of plant fiber. On her right hand she held an arrow and on her left was a bow. She looked wary, but didn’t currently have an arrow notched in her bow, so it didn’t look like she would suddenly attack them.

Almost without thinking, Elise activated her ability.

'Hidden Fox. A type of beastkin that lives mostly in forests and mountain environments, who take advantage of their natural dexterity and agility by specializing in stealth and ambush tactics, wielding a variety of weapons for this purpose.' Were the words that came to her head, meaning their interloper was a stealth and ambush expert, but the same could not necessarily be assumed of her fellow foxkin.

The woman began to speak:

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” She asked.

“My name is Elise, I am a Contractor.”

“And I’m Nalia, her partner.” The two of them introduced themselves and then Elise continued “We came to this forest for the sake of visiting the tribes and perhaps forming a new contract.”

“I understand.” The woman replied “But I suggest you turn back the way you came from. This is not the right time to seek contracts among the tribes.”

“I already knew things weren’t peaceful when I came in here.” Elise replied “I would also appreciate it if you were to introduce yourself.”

The woman went silent for a bit, considering her response “My name is Hiroka, member of the Manari tribe.”

‘Not very imaginative’ Elise thought to herself. Her name literally meant ‘orange (the color)’.

“May I assume that you were watching us for fear we might be part of the events going on in this forest?” Elise asked “And that you revealed yourself after concluding that we weren’t?”

“You knew I was watching?” Hiroka asked, surprised.

“Yes.” Elise confirmed “It started about two hours ago, right?”

The two weren’t just walking around carelessly. They knew that there could be danger afoot, so Nalia had been constantly using scouting spells in order to have advance warning about possible threats. They had been aware of Hiroka ever since she reached close enough to watch them. Elise had decided to wait and see what their observer would do.

Nalia had been prepared to throw up a shield spell in case they were attacked. If such happened, she would follow up with a counterattack aimed at disabling their enemy, whereupon they would interrogate her about what was going on.

“And since you were able to conclude as such, it must mean you have a good idea of what the threat actually is.” Elise continued “Does that sound logical to you?”

“That, I mean…” Hiroka was caught off guard by how sharp that little girl seemed to be, but then rallied “What do you intend by saying all this?”

“Simply put, I would like to obtain information about what is going on in the forest.” Elise replied “I don’t want to change my plans simply because it might be dangerous, but it would be stupid not to try and learn what I can in order to protect myself.

“Saying all that was just a way to get you to take me seriously so we can negotiate. Explain to me what’s going on and I will find a way to repay you.” She finished.

The foxgirl began thinking seriously, Elise waited patiently for her decision.

She then sighed and looked at Elise before speaking:

“I guess telling you what I know is fine.”

+0+

Hiroka got close to the other two after placing the bow on her back. She then leaned onto a tree and began speaking:

“I believe it all started a few weeks ago. Something happened to the Oka tribe of wolves, who live in the north of the forest. No one seems to know what exactly it was, but it resulted in none of the wolfkin being seen for almost a month.

“That was very unusual, and so their neighboring tribes spread the word about it even as they tried to investigate and discovered some unusual clues. It seemed that the wolves were called back to their tribe for some emergency, as there were signs of them abandoning half-finished wood crafts and such.”

“So it was something serious enough to get the wolfkin to rush back to their home, and they remained busy enough with whatever it was to be unable to leave their village for a while.” Elise summarized.

“Yes. And the situation became even more serious when some scouts sent to try and get information about the state of the village failed to return.” Hiroka shook her head “The tribes were still trying to figure out what to do next when some of the wolfkin suddenly began leaving their village again.

“They refused to talk about whatever had happened to the scouts and tried to go back to their usual activities as if nothing had happened, but everyone who interacted with them was able to tell that there was something wrong.

“And after that, groups of strange individuals started being seen in several places around the forest, at first only in the northern parts, but eventually everywhere. They were a mixed group of humans and elves, all of whom had something in common: They carried the smell of a particular tree that doesn’t grow anywhere around this region.” Hiroka looked at Elise “And that’s how I figured out that you weren’t part of them. You don’t carry that same smell.”

‘Very interesting.’ The girl thought “Does that mean the members of those groups were varied enough in appearance that one couldn’t find any identifying mark other than the smell?”

“Yes. Different ages, genders, clothing styles… Some of them looked as young as you, others had unusual physical traits, others were missing limbs… The only thing they had in common besides the smell was the fact they were all either humans or elves.” Hiroka confirmed.

“Which really isn’t unusual nowadays.” Nalia said.

Relations between humans and elves changed many times throughout history. Elise’s sister Miona (an elf herself) had been born during an era where it wasn’t unusual for elves to be hunted down and killed by humans, but they were currently in a period without any big conflicts between them, so the fact that they were a mixed group of humans and elves wasn’t useful information for identifying them.

“Yeah. But returning to the story, this group, which we began to call Strangers, seemed to be searching for something, based on the way they acted, yet they never interacted with the tribes during their search, or at least that was what it seemed at the time.” Hiroka sighed.

The expression of the foxgirl turned heavy, so neither Elise nor Nalia spoke at that point.

“As all that was happening, the abnormalities with the wolves increased. More and more of them were seen heading out of the forest, which is very rare for them to do normally. And soon enough it was discovered that they were buying enormous amounts of goods from merchants coming from far away.” She took a deep breath.

“Soon after that, the wolves attacked the Zou tribe of raccoons and destroyed it in a single night.” Hiroka’s tone became angry “There were barely any survivors. The only objective of the wolves seemed to be killing as many as possible. No bargaining, no mercy.”

“Such a…” Nalia didn’t have any words.

Elise’s gaze became sharp.

Hiroka took another deep breath before continuing “They had crossed the line, so a band of warriors from different tribes attacked a group of wolves that were transporting trader goods back to their village and discovered what it was that the wolves were buying.”

“War supplies.” Elise spoke.

“Exactly.” Hiroka replied “After that, the whole forest became chaotic. Many of the tribes began to stock up on supplies of their own, buying from any merchants who were available.”

‘This must be when the rumors began to spread.’ Elise thought to herself. ‘The wolfkin must have been special-ordering their purchases, given that their merchants came from “far away”.’ She told Hiroka about what she had heard from Liros, as well as her conclusion.

“That’s probably right.” Hiroka agreed.

“And there’s absolutely no way that the Strangers had nothing to do with all this.” Nalia piped up.

The foxgirl nodded and began speaking again “There’s no question about that, given what happened next.” She shook her head “Remember when I said that ‘at the time’ it seemed like they never interacted with the tribes?”

The other two nodded.

“Turns out that wasn’t the case. The monkey tribe was suddenly split in half by a coup that was influenced and aided by them, forcing the other half to leave their ancestral lands.” Hiroka continued “Soon after that, the bears were attacked by the deer tribe, which had seemingly been fully subverted, like the wolves had.”

“A real mess.” Elise said.

“That all happened in the northern areas of the forest, but soon there were incidents involving tribes in the center, including one case where less than two dozen members of the Strangers attacked and destroyed the skunk tribe by themselves.” Hiroka said “They had already shown their strength during the monkey coup, but that definitely proved it.”

“So it seems like they want to take control of the forest for some reason.” Elise spoke.

“Partially, but their overall strategy is a bit strange for that.” Hiroka replied “Even now, the northern region isn’t in a state of all out war. There are some occasional skirmishes, but no serious attempts at taking over or destroying the remaining tribes.”

“So are they just trying to take control of certain areas, perhaps in search of something like you said before?” Nalia spoke her theory “And keeping the forest in a state of caution is a way to keep the tribes too busy to interfere with what they’re doing?”

“Good thinking. That’s more or less the prevailing theory among the Alliance.” Hiroka said.

“Alliance?” Nalia asked.

“An alliance of southern tribes which was created in response to all of that.” Hiroka answered “We’ve been trying to prevent the Strangers from repeating the things they’ve been doing. There are multi-tribe parties spread around the area, keeping watch to prevent them from subverting tribe members and to reinforce any villages that end up being attacked.”

“And you have the duty of keeping watch in case the Strangers attempt to infiltrate from the south.” Elise said.

“Yes. And that’s pretty much the way things are right now.” Hiroka concluded.

“I see.” Elise spoke out loud.

‘What do you think?’ She asked Nalia via their bond.

‘Those Strangers are definitely bad news, and whatever they are planning can’t be good.’ The fairy replied ‘But this situation might be too much for us, so I don’t know.’

‘I think we should be able to handle it fine. Those people have nothing against just destroying tribes, so why do you think they went through all that effort to subvert the wolves and everything else they’ve done?’ Elise asked.

‘Because they’re not strong enough to fight against the strongest tribes on their own!’ Nalia realized after a moment ‘Wolves, monkeys, deer, bears… They’re all among the strongest beastkin in the forest, while the skunks are one of the weakest tribes.’

‘And yet it took more than a dozen of them to destroy the skunk village. Meaning that, while their individual strength should be on the high end by the standards of the tribes, it is not at a level the two of us can’t fight against.’

‘High end by the standards of the tribes, huh… It’s a bit weird to say that, but I guess we’re around that level. Still, I wouldn’t want to fight entire groups of those guys.’

‘Their numbers should be limited as well, otherwise they could simply send more people to attack the strongest tribes en masse.’ Elise pointed out.

‘That does make sense. And they must be pretty busy with trying to take over this huge forest by themselves while apparently also looking for something… Urgh, I’m starting to think getting involved with this might actually be reasonable…’

‘I don’t want to let those Strangers get away with what they’ve done and I know you don’t either. This is also a great opportunity to get some combat experience and become stronger. And we should be able to at least get away safely if things turn bad.’

‘Gah! Okay, you win. Let’s give those Strangers what for.’ Nalia was finally convinced.

Hiroka had realized that the two were talking to each other, so she waited patiently for their conversation to finish.

Elise smiled and looked at her “Can you send a message to the people in charge of the Alliance?”

“I could, but what sort of message do you wanna send?”

“Tell them there’s a mercenary willing to work for their cause. And that payment can be discussed after this situation is over.”

And so, the contractor and her partner became involved in the conflicts occurring in the Forest of Theremis. Their inclusion would have a drastic impact on the events that would follow.