Ryn of Avonside - Chapter 100

“You have… how many people in your grove?” Cad asked with wide eyed excitement. “And you want me to come too? You want me to join your knights?”

I’d just finished explaining what the Order of Eleos was to him, and it had been an experience to remember. It was my defining memory of him, after all, his sense of innocent adventure. He was a romantic at heart, be it pretty girls or tales of adventure, he loved it all. So naturally, as I explained the idea behind an order of knights dedicated to doing good in the world… well, some of the pain in his eyes had transformed into excitement and wonder.

“Well, they’re not my knights,” I said, smiling indulgently. “We operate as a sort of council for big decisions, and then we have a commander for combat operations and stuff. The hierarchy is a little ambiguous right now, and I’m just an advisor. Obviously I have a lot of power because the base is in my grove, but… I try to just mind my own business.”

“Still…” he said, fidgeting with a clay cup on the table. “Gods, what would I even do? I can’t fight. I’m useless when it comes to that kind of thing.”

“There’s much more to running this kind of operation than your ability to stab someone with a sword,” I told him wryly. “My old best friend is training to become our smith and magitecht for example.”

Another ounce of hope lit behind his eyes, and he asked, “I don’t suppose you need a merchant?”

“Probably,” I told him. “Truthfully, I have no idea what kind of personnel we need, but I can get you to the guy who does.”

“Ah, I can answer that,” Otho interjected, his fluffy ears perking up. “We do indeed need a merchant. I could use someone to help me, as I am currently acting as one of very few quartermasters. You will of course need to learn some languages, but that can be arranged. There are already Anve, Aber, and Obrec language classes being taught in the grove.”

“I…” Cad began, bottom lip wobbling dramatically. “Thank you. This is…”

“How about we get you into my grove, then you can clean up, relax, eat, and think, yeah?” I asked patiently. Poor dude was about to have a meltdown in front of everyone inside the lodge.

He just nodded, clearly overwhelmed by the offer we’d just given him. I knew how that felt, too, when everything in life was just so fucking hard, and then someone swoops in to make it all work. The relief you feel is a physical thing, like stepping into a bath that is almost too hot to bear.

“Anything you need from out here?” I asked, motioning around us. “Or can I just drag you in now?”

“I have nothing left,” he said with a defeated shrug of his shoulders. “Except my cart, and a change of clothes.”

“Well, how do you feel about a warm bath and some hot food?” I asked brightly, reaching over to grasp his hand with telekinesis. I made sure to give the rope-like tentacles a subtle magenta hue so he knew what was happening and what they were, but even then his eyes widened with fright.

“A-ah… so long as I’m not the food,” he laughed nervously, eyes flicking between the tentacles and my face.

I laughed and gave him a cheeky wink. “Nah, you’re not the type of food I like, don’t worry.”

It took him a second to understand my little insinuation, but when he did, he went bright red. “O-oh, no! I wasn’t… I mean I don’t… I… would like a bath, yes. Food, too.”

“Want to come into the grove too?” I asked, looking at Otho.

He shrugged. “Sure, I can help translate.”

“Good, let’s all stand up first though. Don’t want to fall on our asses when we arrive,” I replied, following through on the motion as I spoke.

Once everyone had followed my lead, I slipped us all over the interdimensional threshold and into my grove. Since I was beginning to gain some moderate amount of control over where I appeared within my grove now, I was able to take us a little closer to the base of my tree within the new garden I had made. I still felt sort of bad for making anything as orderly and well manicured as the garden that surrounded the tree, but too many people disagreed with me, so… yeah.

“Wh-woah,” Cad gasped, dinner plate eyes flitting around from one fantastical detail to the next. “Oh my… by the…”

He spun in a circle and wondered at my grove like a little boy in a dinosaur museum. It was incredibly cute to watch, if I was honest, and gratifying to see. I’d put a lot of work into this place, and seeing that work appreciated with unadulterated enthusiasm was amazing and deeply fulfilling.

“It’s beautiful,” he breathed, grinning from ear to ear.

“It’s my baby. I put a lot of time and effort into this place,” I said, watching curiously as a bun I didn’t recognize hopped towards us across the grass. Unlike most of my buns so far, this one didn’t have big lopped ears, but rather small perky ones that stuck up and back out of its head like a pair of indignant radar dishes.

“I-is that a giant bunny?” Cad asked when he noticed the bun arrive.

I nodded and crouched down to scratch at the bun’s forehead in greeting. “Yeah. They’re my helpful little tenders. What’s your name, little one?”

Her little fluffy shoulders shrugged, indicating that she didn’t have one, then she stood up on her hind legs and placed her hands together in a begging gesture. It took me a second, but then I grinned and asked, “Oh, you want me to give you one?”

I got an enthusiastic nod in reply, and a gentle bonk to my knee from a paw.

“Okay… well… how about… Lua?” I asked, watching for her reaction.

Enthusiastic nodding from her cute little silver furred head, and I knew I had guessed right. I always felt like I was discovering their names, rather than thinking them up. “You like Lua?”

More nodding. “Well, that’s good then. What can I do for you, little friend?”

Lua twitched her short ears and looked up at Cad, who was staring in wide eyed fascination. The three foot tall bun hugged herself, then pointed to Cad and mimed the same motion.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, surprised that my grove had already picked up on the need for Cad to have a guide and support bun. “You’re here to be Cad’s helper bun?”

Lua’s excited nodding had me laughing, and I stood back up and launched into an explanation. Cad listened with confusion and more than a few questions. He wanted to know how my buns were so smart, what Lua would be doing, all of that. I couldn’t blame him, my buns were very incredible.

From there we went inside the tree, where I gave him a tour the whole way up to the guy’s common room. Nowadays the tree tower was a bustling hive of activity, with several of my friends lounging in the balcony room, buns behind the bar serving drinks when needed.

We saw Catherine in the library, scribbling away on an expanding array of paper, open books scattered around her. She was working on synthesising more medicines using our magically engineered plants. Getting quite good at it too, which was exciting. Hopefully she’d be able to carry that skill forward into more arcane works.

I made sure to introduce him to everyone too, so that he at least knew who everyone was. He still couldn’t speak to them, but it’d hopefully help.

Unfortunately, I did have to leave him once I showed him to the bathroom. I still had a lot of work to do, and Lua was there now to make sure he didn’t get into too much trouble.

****

Later that day, after I was finished dealing with all of the day’s tasks, I dropped back into my grove, tired and hungry. I was about to head back into the tree to check on Cad, when I noticed a small huddle of people over at the newly created upper plateau workshop.

Made out of stone brick and a heat resistant wood I had developed, the workshop was nestled amongst the roots of the great tree. I’d made it so that Claih and Bray could tinker with private projects and ideas without too many people getting underfoot.

It seemed, however, that they had managed to gather a crowd nevertheless. Grace, Troy, Kelsey, Bray, Cad, and Claih all stood outside, with my girlfriend at their center.

As I approached, I began to see why. Grace had a bandolier across her chest, and a crazy looking cannon of a pistol in her hand. It looked pretty jank, if I was honest. Obviously a prototype, but it had a rugged appeal to it as well.

Its two barrels were almost as long as her forearm, while the rest had no casing to protect the inner workings of the gun. It had a revolver-like cylinder area, but instead of housing bullets, it had a slot for little vials of magical energy.

Grace sensed me approaching first and looked up with a smile. “Hey Ryn! Look what Claih made for me!”

“Hey, I helped!” Bray grumbled loudly. “It was me who figured out how to make the bore to add the rifling.”

“Does rifling even help with firing magic?” I asked, accepting a sideways hug from my girlfriend.

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” she grinned, leaning down to give me a short, sweet little kiss. “We were just arguing over the best place to test it out.”

Smiling, I gazed up into her beautiful, expressive green eyes and asked, “Do I need to whip up a quick firing range for you?”

If you’d asked me five minutes ago if I had it in me to create anything out of magic, I’d have told you to fuck off. I was exhausted, but having my girlfriend’s arm around my shoulders and her smile leaving an afterimage in my minds’ eye, it had given me a second wind.

“If you have the energy,” she said with a hopeful puppy dog expression.

Oh goodness, my girlfriend was so cute when she wanted something. “Depends,” I said slyly. “Will you kiss it into me?”

QuietValerie