Elowen rested his head against the carriage wall, watching as the human city drifted by. It had been a long journey here, and he was already ready to be out of the city yet again and back to the forest. It was stereotypical of the elven race to hate human cities, but Elowen found that stereotypes existed for a reason. The cities were so… dirty. Even more so than the literal dirt of the forest.

  Elowen raised his head as the carriage came to a slow and steady stop. He had ordered that they not stop for anything other than their destination, and it appears that they have arrived.

  Elowen turned to his partner and gently nudges her shoulder.

  “Silvan, we have arrived. It’s time to wake up now. We have work to do.”

  “5 more minutes,” she mumbled, rolling back into the corner opposite of Elowen. She tugged the heavy blanket over her shoulder and covered her head with it, her bright green hair disappearing behind her cover.

  “You know I would give you 5 more days, if I could, but we have a duty to uphold. We need to meet with the human lord and discuss the events that have transpired around our possible new recruit.”

  Elowen nudged her a few more times before she begrudgingly sat up. She ran a quick hand through her hair, untangling the knots while maintaining her usual curls. Elowen’s heart skipped a beat as he appreciated her beauty for what felt like an eternity to him. When she finished her wakeup stretches, she smiled at him and prepared to exit their vehicle.

  “Come now, my love. We have work to do, remember?”

  Silvan pulled his hand and he got up as well. When the couple exited the carriage, it started to shrink and fold in upon itself until it was the size of an acorn. No, it folded until it was an acorn. Elowen bent down and picked up the acorn to place it in his pocket, then the couple walked up the stairs to the lord’s castle and readied themselves for human diplomacy.

  Ruling class humans tended to have a certain edge to them that only an extreme amount of brown-nosing and ass-kissing could possibly dull. It was either that, or a large enough bribe that got the elves what they usually wanted. The elves rarely wanted more than to just exist in peace and preserve nature in all its intended beauty, which made what they had to do bearable.

  Elowen approached the guard by the gate and stopped as the armored man saluted him.

  “Lord Elowen, Lord Ostlan is expecting your presence. If you would please follow me, I will guide you to the meeting room.”

  The guard didn’t wait for an answer and instead turned around and started marching at a rate that few would be able to keep up with, if not for high levels and a high agility stat.

  The diplomatic duo was led through a maze of halls ordained with a variety of riches no doubt designed to showcase the lord’s wealth. It was all rather impressive, but neither of the two was very much interested. They much preferred scenes of nature depicted as though through a window. The art they saw was all geared towards showing off various scenes of war and battles that were either won or lost. Elowen reminisced how his job would have been easier if the lord had lost these battles, but that wasn’t his piece to say.

  Once they were paraded through a sufficient display of money, the guard brought them to a meeting room with a long table. On one end sat a large and ornate chair, decorated as yet another manner in which to display the money possessed by the lord. On the other end of the table sat a pair of crude and uncomfortable looking chairs that probably wobbled when sat upon.

  Elowen pulled the first chair out for his partner and tucked the seat in under her before going to the opposite side and taking his own seat. As he suspected, the chair was wobbly. Better than that though, it was enchanted to be wobbly. Elowen reached out with his magic to try and adjust one of the legs of the chair to prevent it from rocking back and forth, but the enchantment prevented any tampering. He could have easily broken the enchantment, of course, but this was supposed to be a friendly meeting, and he didn’t want to power trip before talks even began.

  The couple sat in the room for one hour then two. In the middle of the third hour, Lord Ostlan finally deigned to make an appearance.

  “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Ostlan. Tales of your magnanimity have reached far and wide, even going so far as to reach the land of the elves. We have heard of your service to your people after an attack by a giant, and we are honored to be in the presence of one as noble and kind as yourself.”

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  Ostlan just looked at the duo with an edge of disgust. Elowen knew then that it would be an annoying meeting, probably requiring more give on their part than should have been necessary.

  “Yes yes, magnanimous and generous and all sorts of pleasant adjectives. Now what is it that you lot have come here for? If you want the tree, then you can have it. Hell, uproot it and take it away for all I care. That thing has cost me thousands of gold and a mighty warrior companion. Burn it down for all I care. Hell, burn down the whole forest.”

  Elowen was shocked to hear the lord’s blatant disregard for mother nature and all her children. He stood stunned for several seconds before the shouting of his dear partner woke him from his stupor.

  “-DARE INSULT THE FOREST LIKE THAT? WHY I OUGHTA-!”

  Elowen was quick to run around and subdue his love. They had received verbal permission to both meet and remove their target to a safer location, which is the entirety of their goal in coming here. The last thing they needed was to upset the lord and stir him into action.

  “Silvan! That’s enough!” he shouted at his companion. He hated raising his voice like that, but it was the only thing that could get her attention at the moment, so he had to. He tightened his hold on her until she eventually settled down enough to stop insulting the man who held the key to both their victory in their mission and the axe that could be their downfall.

  “Lord Ostlan, I apologize for my partner’s outburst. I thank you for your generosity and cooperation. We will do our best to remove the tree from its location and bring it back with us. I, along with the elven nation, thank you.”

  Elowen pushed his partner’s head down in a bow and promptly left the room. As the two turned and exited the door, the guard slowly eased his sword back into its scabbard. Elowen hadn’t missed that tidbit.

  The whole way back out, Silvan mumbled and grumbled about what she would do to such an impudent fool if he ever were to try burning down an entire forest. She threatened all sorts of torture and unspeakable acts that Elowen couldn’t help but chuckle at.

  Once they were outside, Elowen took out the acorn and tossed it on the ground. He then sprinkled some water from a small bladder he had hidden in the many folds of his cloak and watched as it grew to a full-sized carriage, complete with horses made of wood to draw it. When it was fully formed, he gave directions to the southernmost gate to the horse golems and prepared to leave. As they entered the carriage, Elowen activated a few enchantments on him that would ensure their privacy.

  “What is wrong with you? You didn’t even react when he talked about destroying an entire forest!”

  Silvan looked at her partner with a mix of disbelief and anger. She wasn’t usually the hotheaded one of the two, so Elowen’s lack of action made her severely suspicious.

  “We got what we came for, that’s what matters. All we need now is to make it to the clearing that high-lord Long-Feather’s grandson mentioned in his letter, and our mission will be complete. We need to keep our priorities straight, Silvan. I was just as shocked as you were, but I couldn’t let the life of a Great Tree be put in jeopardy due to our volatile emotions.”

  Elowen measured his words carefully. He didn’t want to accidentally call his love impulsive or reckless, but she also needed to understand his point of view. One of the downsides of having a long life is that relationships can carry a lot of baggage, if it’s allowed to build up. The reason these two have stayed together for so long is the level of competent communication between them.

  Silvan still pouted for a few hours, which Elowen fully expected. The fact that she didn’t argue back means that she knew he was right. This was just her way of calming down from such a highly emotional moment.

  At least, that’s what Elowen thought, until he heard his love start to snore. He chuckled to himself and set himself up to take a nap of his own. The golems that ran the carriage would take them to their destination with no problem. The energy they passively syphoned from the two passengers was enough to keep them running indefinitely, so Eowen had nothing to fear. Well, other than accidentally overshooting his mark. But he would be awake by the time they made their final approach. Besides, they still had just under a hundred miles to go before they reached their target.

  It was a good thing though that Elowen set a timer on his alarm. It went off just shy of a mile from where the duo wanted to end up. When the timer went off, signaling the end of the 10-hour journey, Elowen sent a command to the golem horses to stop.

  When they exited the carriage, they both felt the extremely large mana signature emanating just a few hundred feet from the road. Elowen turned to his partner, who seemed both scared and excited at the prospect of meeting the source of this power.

  “Are we sure the tree is only a few years old? The mana I’m feeling could be from one of the ancients in the grove.”

  Silvan turned to her partner. Her eyes softened upon meeting his.

  “According to the high-lord’s grandson, it should be less than 4 years old. It’s also around a hundred feet tall at this point as well, meaning it most likely has a few growth skills. If I had to guess, it probably turned carnivorous, which strongly fueled its growth. I can already smell blood and rot, though it’s not necessarily from that direction. This area went through a level shift recently, bringing in new monsters: Orcs. They provide a large amount of EXP to trees. I think between 200 and 400, if I’m not mistaken.”

  Elowen nodded his agreement. “I had forgotten that. Plants don’t have the EXP limiters that we do, so they can gain EXP from the same source an unlimited number of times.”

  Silvan smiled at him. Her partner was a smart individual, but he was also forgetful sometimes. She would always be there to remind him though.

  “Now, shall we go see what all the fuss is about? It’s been a while since I’ve met a wild Great Tree.”

  Elowen nodded and allowed her to take his hand and guide him. This would be an interesting encounter.