ARC 3 - Putting Down Roots

  The m was hot before the sun was even fully in the sky, but we were optimistic for the day. Most of us anyway. Luvetra was nervous because she wouldn’t be staying with the Vardo, she was heading into the city with us all. But I squeezed her hand and told her she was going to be fine and she responded with a blush and a smile.

  Flyt was also nervous, because as excited as she was to find her group, she was also well aware that she might not. Or worse, she might find some of them but not her sister. Encingly however, she sought fort by holding Luvetra’s hand as we walked towards the city gates.

  The city itself was absolutely insane, even just from the outside. There was a wall of stacked sto least twenty yards high and it looked unnaturally perfeo cracks, no wear or corrosion or discoloration. It looked new, aside from the obvious long term growth of vines and patches of moss on it. What’s more, it tinued over the water, and I do meahe city itself seemed tered in a stretch between two major rivers, or rather, kes. Both had enormous beaver dams downstream of the city proper and the water was far, far too calm for a river as wide as it was. But either way, the city tinued a good mile or two over the water to either side, there must have beeire districts that existed purely on the kes with no solid ground in sight, but with the wall blog my view I had no idea how that worked.

  The walls themselves had some kind of fence, rating, or something. Just at the water level and going down. It would keep people from sneaking in but let water and small animals through, but damn, building that must have been quite a feat.

  As I was w how they ma Carmil perked up “Oh how hey seem very happy, that is wonderfully encing.”

  “Who seems happy?” I asked, trying to see any happy people. Mostly there was just a line of a few dozen folks who looked miserable in the early m waiting to be checked into the city.

  “My cousins.” She poi the wall, and then gave a friendly wave to it. To my shock, one of the lengths of vines lifted and waved iurn. “The wall has elementals bound to it, hundreds of them it would appear. They all seem quite pleased so the ditions must be very ameo them.”

  Dekarru smiled and nodded “Oh yes, more than three thousand elementals are bound to the prote of the city, all on terms that make the Green Mother happy. She is a friend to nature spirits after all. So the moss, ivy, stone, mud, river, and breeze elementals that protect Beaver Valley are all under her care and thus treated quite well.”

  “Elementals tract with objects?” I asked.

  “No, but with pces and groups? Yes.” The shaman corrected me “In fact, by terms of the tract, if the capital had to be moved for some reason, the elementals would follow and tiheir duties in the new location.”

  As we grew closer and I started to move to get in the back of the line, Dekarru pulled me along with her as she walked past it. “ht. Oracle.” I muttered with embarrassment. Ahead of us was the wall and… no gate? ra all, the line e a couple of soldiers and directly behind them was just more of the wall with moss and ivy.

  Before I could ask, a guard called something out and the wall suddenly shifted. The ivy and moss crawled away and theones just rolled bad aside to create a d enough for one group to walk through. I was gaping at it and Dekarru just ughed. “Oh that’s nothing dear. Observe.”

  As she spoke, we started to approach the wall a bit to the left of the line and the guards. Just as one guard noticed us and started to head over, the wall in front of us rapidly shifted away, leaving massive entrahat the entire vardo could have fit through had we been riding. She didn’t have to say or do anything, I saw no magic, felt no power being used, it was like, the wall simply knew who she was. Which, actually, yeah the elementals probably literally did know her. Maybe even personally.

  The guards seemed to pick up on things and turned baind their own business immediately. A few pints were raised from people in line, but the guards yelled something about elders and they all shut up very quickly.

  Once we were all through, the ut itself back together and Dekarru stopped to turn to us. On this side of the wall was the city, though here it was mostly a guard post and what looked like a s booth I think? Deeper in I could see buildings made of stone and wood of at least four different styles. And that was just what I could make out from the entrance.

  Several guards inside had seen the wall open and apparently knew what to do because we had an escort waiting. Fourteen men and women in green and brown uniforms with actual rifles as well as the swords on their waists all lined up and very patiently waited to be addressed.

  Our shaman ighem at first however and focused on us. “Alright, I have to go speak to the other old farts and start getting things rolling so we have to split up for now. I want you girls to take our frieo the refugee ter and find her people, theo the encve district. I will meet you tonight, don’t wait up for me, I’ll likely be te.” she said and then turo speak to the soldiers waiting.

  I was gettier with tagakra, she told them she was annoyed with this nonse wouldn’t get them in trouble by refusing. The guard captain (I assumed since she had more bits on her pel and was doing the talking) called her a cat… or thanked her. The two are very simir and I was still learning.

  She waved before heading off, then Redagga sighed and motioned for us to follow. Once we started heading in I noticed some iiails. The ground was not paved at all, certaihs that I assumed were main roads, had tightly pced ft stohs, but otherwise it was natural ground. Most of which had thick, soft moss, which robably elementals e to think of it.

  Also of note was that there seemed to be yle for stru, every building seemed like it was just whatever the builder personally liked, the hell with the look of the surrounding buildings. On smaller scale it would probably have been jarring to see simple, unadorone buildings o intricately carved wooden ones both across the street from a building that was mostly steel and gss in more modern style. But here? It was so stant it just worked somehow. It also made it easy to tell where you were when the buildings didn’t blend into each other I bet.

  There was more room between buildings than I was used to, alleys were all rge at the least. No crowding here, it made it feel more open and inviting than Parandra looked, though to be fair I saw little of it. Here we passed through a business district with shops and stalls and open air cafes and a small park with people listening to radios as they y in the grass o a pond.

  Then residential, with a few tall buildings that had to be apartment plexes, but they seemed so much less oppressive than I expected apartments to be. Larger windows and wider and deeper balies than I would have thought. Lots of pnts growing everywhere on the buildings, including several fl vihat paihe area in pink and blue and e and violet. It looked nice, I’d live there.

  Eventually we passed to a part where the outer wall of the city seemed to suddenly turn and swell out. Wen saw where I was looking and expined “Whearted getting so many people, we tracted more elementals and asked them to expand the wall to a new area. We didn’t want to leave the people unprotected outside the city. There are monsters in the region along with the occasional demon. It wouldn’t be right to make them face that after they came so far for safety.”

  “That was kind of the elders.”

  “Well, it’s not perfect. Healthy folk are pretty much forced to work. Though they’re paid for it, they don’t have a lot of choice. It’s not as bad as that sounds, but it’s not great either. The city needs more people w to keep things running with a few thousand new people in it. At the very least though, it’s kept things from getting ugly. People have food, medie, shelter, they’re not jammed together in packed emergency structures, they’re able to support themselves, and plenty have even moved to a residential distrid made a home here. But I won’t pretend we’re paragons of virtue, just… less shit than some other nations.”

  I sighed and nodded. We walked out into the district, a good couple of miles wide and filled with mostly rge yurts, but a few other kinds e tents popped up here and there. It expanded just a few yards over the water to one side for a det stretch, giving people access to the ke for practical or recreational use. As Weren had said, they weren’t packed tight together and there was room for people to move around easily betweehere were some at least semi-perma buildings as well that from what I could see seemed to be for medical care, food preparation, and hygiehe mood felt more or less upbeat, even if most people looked worn out.

  I looked at Carmil and raised a brow. She gruired. Very little aggression, less siess than I was expeg. People seem mostly healthy but I think a lot could use better rest.” I nodded.

  “Do they have some kind of list of who’s where?” I asked and Weren shook her head.

  “sus folks keep some track of people arriving, but just things like race, in, gender and age. If they move into a residential area or leave to join a vilge or nomad group, more details will be recorded. But otherwise it’s just too many people for over’s anemic offices.”

  I looked at Flyt who was looking around with growing worry “I don’t, I don’t see them.”

  “This area is huge, it will probably take a while.” I said as I rubbed her back softly.

  To all of our surprise, Luvetra was the oo do the most when she lifted the elf up a her down on the giant’s shoulders. Flyt squeaked and gripped Luv’s head but looked around from the new perch “Thank you, okay, I see more noalked around, gaining a lot of looks from people at the half-troll carrying the elf. But no ohered us. In fact we had a wide berth as we looked for Flyt’s people.

  Two hours passed and Flyt was holding her sobs back but not her tears as we covered most of the area without success. But we were not pletely without the grace of dy luck because just as she started to ask Luv to set her down, we heard someone scream.

  “LAFY! LAFYYY!” auro see a woman that looked a great deal like Lafylit running towards us with tears in her eyes. Luv set our friend down quickly who stumbled as she rushed towards the woman screaming as well.

  “RELA! Oh gods Re!” They hit each other at full run and nearly khemselves to the ground, arms squeezing one aight as they cried “I was so scared! I thought you were gone!”

  We stayed bad let them make sure they were both real for a few minutes. I looked at Luv and she was smiling sht, so happy that we found her. I stepped forward after a bit “Lafylit? I assume this is your sister?” I said softly with a hand on her shoulder.

  She turned and looked at me and nodded, reag an arm out and suddenly pullio the hug with her sibling. “Re, this is Esme, she and her friends are the ohat brought me here.”

  And in a moment I had two women huggiightly. Re ging tightly to me as she cried “Esme, thank you, thankyou thankyou thankyou. I thought I’d lost my sister. I thought-” She sobbed and squeezed me.

  The g and huggi on for a while. But eventually they pulled apart, or at least enough that Flyt could introduce us. Her little sister’s name was Vatretta and they were of a minor noble family called the Du’Renuras. Not that it meant anything anymore.

  Vatretta gave each of us a tight hug as her sister introduced them, giving very emotional thanks. I smiled as she didn’t eveate to squeeze Luv tight and press her fato the tall woman’s stomach. My giant love blushed and stuttered but seemed happy. It warmed my heart to see her like that.

  “Are you both gonna be okay? Do you have somewhere for your sister to stay?” I asked the younger sibling who immediately nodded.

  “I’ve had ara cot and supplies ready for weeks, even after they said-, It doesn’t matter what they said because they were wrong. My sister is here and I’ve been ready for her for a while now.” she nodded and smiled through her sniffles and tears.

  Redagga stepped forward and hugged the older sister “Flyt? If you or your sister need us for whatever, we’ll be in the encve district. Tell them you’re looking for Dekarru’s encve and ahere will bend over backwards to help you find us. Don’t hesitate to ask us for help if you . We’ll be more bothered by a friend suffering than by needing to stop what we’re doing to help her. Alright?”

  She nodded “I promise if I need your help I’ll ask for it, and I swear I’ll find a way to thank you.” she said and hugged Red again before turning to entwine her arm with her sister and walk off to find her new home for now.

  I could hear a bit of what they were saying as they walked.

  “Flyt?”

  “I like it. It’s fun to say and sounds dirty.”

  “Dirty? You like dirty now?”

  “We’re in Beaver Valley, dirty fits.”

  “I don’t get it?”

  “Beaver is a euphemism for pussy, Re.”

  “Lafy!?”

  They ughed as we turned and headed away to find where we would be staying for a while and I felt like this was going to be good. There was already so much joy and we were about to go somewhere to be free and fortable again. I timistic as fuck.