--- Kat ---
Forest Village was an impressive sight even from a distance. Granted, the group didn't realise the exactly what they were looking at until they got closer, but that just made it all the more impressive. From a distance you could see a circle of trees easily twice as tall as their nearby brethren directly in front of them. As they got closer it became clear that these trees weren't natural at all.
The biggest indication of this was that they had all been grown together. About a quarter of the way up the trees they all remained connected by thick walls of bark that acted as defences for the town. They'd clearly taken a bit of a beating over the recent days with all manner of claw marks and even a few burns.
Above them was a net of vines that wound its way between all the trees and extended up past the treetops. They were in much worse condition, with multiple sections being cut free while others were clearly withering away. If Kat had to guess the vine net was made in a rush and showed multiple signs of degradation.
Even with those defences that didn't mean the walls were unmanned. There were two people standing atop the walls closest to the gate, while others marched along the edges always keeping an eye out for potential dangers. As they approached one of the guards at the gate waved at the approaching demons.
Kat and Kamiko waved back and once they were closer the man yelled out, "Are you the demons we're waiting on? Kat, Kamiko, and Hunter?"
"Yes!" shouted Kat in return, not quite sure how they knew about them. If they even had their NAMES then somehow a message must have made its way there after they'd left which seemed a bit odd.
"Great! It seems like you'll need to get that horse inside the walls so you're going to have to wait a bit! The mayor sort of grew the gate back into the trees so we can't really open it anymore! If you just wait at the end of the path I shan't be long!" shouted the guard before stepping off the wall.
The group nodded at this and slowed their speed as they reached the base of the trees. The other guard didn't seem that interested in talking so they just waited around. Lily started to mess around with her paper magic a bit while Kat practiced with her water form. Kamiko was rubbing the horse down while Hunter filled up the water bucket for it to drink.
Kat did offer to help, but it was really only a two-person job.
Some time later the wall started to crack and break, leaving a gap just large enough for the horse to make it through. The guard waved them through and soon they found themselves inside the town. As soon as they were inside the wall started to shudder again as the bark slowly grew back together.
"Which I don't blame you for. You're here to deal with the issue so really it was just unfortunate timing, especially as the courier in question was delivering quite a few more things then just your papers. So really, they would've been here anyway. I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty or anything.
"Just wanted you to know you know?" Kat was about to nod in understanding but Stphn just kept speaking. Perhaps he liked the sound of his own voice? "Anyway with that out of the way let me introduce myself again. I'm Stphn the mayor, or maybe my wife Mry is the mayor? Technically we're just the land owners here. See my wife is a rather powerful earth mage, Rank 3 even!
I'm very proud of her. I'm only Rank 2 myself you see.
"Anyway, we just wanted this little out of the way place you know? Practice some magic without the city we were living in constantly riding my ass about illegal experiments. Which, they were only against CITY law, not kingdom law. And they were perfectly harmless! Sure a couple of building were demolished but that was NOT my fault. They lied to me when I enquired about the location of the sewers!
God those fines were such a bitch to pay off...
"Luckily Mry makes good money otherwise we'd have been sunk! Though I did feel bad. I mean, I don't want to just lean on my wife like that. Sure what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours and all that but it was MY fuckup you know? So like, I was ready to pay them back.
"Actually, I think the real reason my wife took over the debt was because the city lord wanted to use my talents for cultivating his grape crops. Big winemaker you see. So Mry insists that it was all a big plot to force me into working for him but really what do I know? I'm just a simple man you see..."
Stphn was not stopping. He just kept speaking. Words spewed forth from his mouth at a constant weight and Kat was really starting to wonder if his plant magic somehow helped him take in extra oxygen. "... so of course we decided to move out into the hills. Edge of the forest, dangerous area. Nobody to boss us around.
Oh it seemed like such a great idea going into my thirties.
"There was just enough work around here we could buy all the luxuries we wanted while having plenty of space to build up our own huge house. We could have a bunch of kids... well that was the plan. Took a bit of trying and hasn't really worked out but instead we got a town! Which... god it's a lot of work sometimes. And yeah, technically we're only sort of the mayor?
This is officially private land but we weren't just going to kick everyone out you know? People just kept showing up and sure we charge them rent but honestly I'm still not sure it's worth it. See..."