245 Trees, Ruins and Settlements

"Sandraaaaaa!" Mindy yelled as she went down faster and faster.

"Sorry! You weren't supposed to jump from here! There's a clear spot farther down this branch…!"

"Too late." Gammie summarized with a grimace.

Speaking of clear spaces, it really was somewhat clear now that she'd gotten past that patch of branches. There was nothing beneath her for the next few hundred feet, all the way to the ground.

If there was a branch of something, Mindy might have tried to grab on, but lacking that, and seeing absolutely no human way to save herself from this predicament, Mindy gave up entirely.

"Forget this!" Mindy growled, and shouted up. "Sorry, Sandra, I'm going to have to destroy your business tools!"

"What?" Sandra herself was already in a panic and didn't understand what Mindy was trying to say.

Mindy didn't explain further. In a flash, wings of fire erupted from her back, and flapped once, twice, easily bringing her back up to the branch that offended her, then higher, back to the branch where Sandra and Gammie were staring at her.

"That… was NOT a good idea!" Mindy fumed. "A normal human would have died!"

"Like I said! You weren't supposed to go down from here!" Sandra defended herself. "You just jumped before we were ready!"

Meanwhile, thanks to Mindy's fire wings, the vest harness and indeed, the balloon itself, were on fire.

"Even if it had gone down from where you said, even if it made it to the ground…" Mindy shook her head. "The rate of descent was increasing! The hot air cooled as the balloon went down, and by the time someone reached the ground, the balloon would be almost useless! You may as well give them a parachute!"

"Ah, but that's the beauty of it! A parachute can't come back up!" Sandra cut in, once more in her salesgirl mode. "See, it takes one balloon to go down safely… and three to come up!"

"Come… up?" Mindy got the idea immediately. With enough air balloons, a person could use them to come up the tree using that same shortcut. It was a simple idea birthed from living in a tree and working on an airship. Going down a tree was easy. Going up… not so much. "But still! Safety is an issue!"

"We can increase the heat inside the balloon. Maybe make it stay longer with runes." Sandra paused. "And we might need to give the balloon some protection, just in case. Plus, heavier people might need two balloons, not one."

"Frames." Gammie pointed out.

"Right. Two balloons for people with Frames." Sandra nodded thoughtfully. "They'd need five or six to come up, though."

"Frames might actually be a basic requirement." Mindy told her straight out. "Most people around here use them anyway, and the landing is going to be very rough for someone without one."

"Frames, then." Sandra agreed easily enough.

"Also, you guys need some birds to help you out. Just in case." Mindy suggested.

"But I already have a Comrade!" Sandra protested.

"You could just hire them without bonding them. Or hire people with bird Comrades."

"Right, right!" Sandra nodded repeatedly.

***

Speaking of bird comrades, the Eagle Princess Aeyrie was over at her grandfather's place today, so Mindy didn't get to see her. Hmm. Maybe she should also go pay the Roc King a visit. The Red Fang was currently unloading goods, and she'd given Raven a list of stuff to pick up here as well, so they'd probably be here all day.

If she wanted, she could tell them they'd leave tomorrow and fly herself over to see her friend and her grandfather. The Roc King probably wouldn't try to eat her. Probably.

After all, he wasn't like the Eagle King who'd consider eating humans simply… beneath him.

Meanwhile, Mindy made her way to something else beneath the Eagle King, namely the Black Ruins at Three Pines Peak.

"Ruth?" she called as she arrived at the tallest building overlooking the Ruins. Ruth and the folks there had set it up as their command post and watch tower. "Remian and Phoebe are coming back in a couple of days."

"Good to know. How long are they staying this time?" she asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I think they intend to stay for a long, long time." Mindy thought back. "I don't remember them making any plans to leave."

"Huh. Forget about preparing a room, then. They'll want a house." Ruth mused. "Maybe… that one?"

She pointed to an elaborate, dignified building that might very well have been the old town hall.

"I'm thinking they'd prefer something a bit more discreet. Like… that one." Mindy pointed to a small cottage by the side of the road.

"No, no, that won't do!" Ruth immediately shook her head. "Maybe… that one…?" she pointed to an aristocratic looking villa.

"Maybe that?" Mindy pointed to something in between her cottage and the villa, a two-story town house around the corner.

"That's not even fully repaired yet! It's still missing half the roof and a back wall, hasn't been cleaned and doesn't have any intact furniture to speak of! It could take us a week to fix it up properly."

"Well, I think they might want to fix it up themselves when they arrive. I'm pretty sure they're not looking for anything too fancy or troublesome to maintain."

"We could always hire them some help."

"No, I suspect they're going to want their privacy."

"Oh."

***

As it turned out, Remian actually agreed with Mindy's first choice; a simple, small cottage.

Unfortunately, Phoebe sided with Ruth and almost went for the villa.

In the end, like Mindy and Ruth, they settled on the townhouse.

With a dining hall, a kitchen, a toilet and a store room on the lower floor, a study, two bedrooms and a washroom and a toilet above, the place seemed more suited for a family than a couple, but Remian liked the study, and Phoebe liked the garden space out front and at the back. Besides, the extra bedroom could be used as a guest room whenever Mindy or Tim or someone wanted to stay over.

Most of the time, though, Remian would be investigating relics at the excavation headquarters, while Phoebe would help out at the field hospital. Or at least, that was the plan.

Whether the plan would hold or how long it would last, nobody could guess.

After a few days of helping them clean house and settle in, Mindy headed back north to Kara-Goth.

***

Kara-Goth had certainly become more and more industrious as time went by. Mindy saw more and more tunnels and homes and workplaces than she ever thought could squeeze into the hills of Kara-Goth. There were so many people there, it was even starting to feel crowded.

Unfortunately, not all the changes were good.

"What are you doing?" Mindy asked a certain thug who held a knife to a stammering shopkeeper.

The thug barked a laugh. "I'm teaching you all a lesson! A lesson that's going to make me rich for teaching?"

"Oh? And what lesson is that?" Mindy asked, more curious than anything else.

"That the quickest way to get rich is to rob and kill!" the Thug laughed in an ugly manner. "All you naïve people, so secure in your ignorance! This place is a gold mine full of unguarded riches! I'm going to…"

BAM! Mindy's fist hit his head before he could even finish his sentence. The impact slammed that very head directly into the ground, the left cracks in both.

"This place isn't for the likes of you." Mindy said in a voice suddenly filled with steel. "Didn't you know? I grew up in a town filled with people like you. Haven't you noticed? None of them are here any more."

But obviously, the brigand did not notice, or even think to find out.

"George?" Mindy made a call.

"Hmm?"

"I have some trash for pickup on the second floor."

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"Mmm. I'll send someone over. Just how big a heap are we talking about?"

"About… five feet five, slightly chubby, with short black hair and eyes, and a lot of blood over his head. Oh, and a knife he was extorting a shopkeeper with."

"Ah. THAT sort of trash. Got it. I'll send a security team."