Everyone appreciated the fact that the woods were less hostile than the gcial area. Saying that they were safer wasn’t right. Early experience shows that if the fey caretakers of this pce didn’t like someone they better take the hint and leave or face the consequences.

  As the ticking of the carriage announced the group’s return, several nymphs came to greet the group and ask all sorts of questions about what it is like outside the forest.

  “Is it true there are no trees?” A leaf-haired nymph questioned.

  “Are there no pnts at all?” Another, a pine-needle haired nymph picked up right after.

  “Did you try pnting anything?” A third grass-haired nymph asked.

  “Are there seeds in the ice? Maybe the pnts are just dormant.” The first nymph bubbly added.

  Fufi and Alex tried to answer but the young excitable nymphs just kept cutting them off.

  Ki made her appearance. “Girls, calm down, you are not giving them any chance to answer any questions.”

  “So, who goes first?” Fufi asked.

  All three nymph girls raised their hands in unison.

  “Oh, this is going to be one of those types of situations.” Alex groaned.

  The fmingo was unphased. “Okay, I’ll try to answer all the questions quickly. After a while there are no trees. They can’t grow over a certain elevation. No pnts growing at all is a bit harder to tell. We saw some lichen growing on rocks where trees couldn’t. Also, with magic things that don’t normally grow can grow. That’s how the temple up there is able to keep an orchard and vineyard going.” Fufi paused, trying to see if she forgot any of the questions. “As for pnting anything, I don’t think we did. At least not on purpose, we could have got some seeds on us or the carriage I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you have seeds, the fur on the carriage is covered with all sorts of seeds.” The leaf-haired nymph interrupted. “I can feel them from here.”

  Alex gnced at the carriage. She furrowed her brows at how dirty it had gotten. There were all kinds of snags that had gotten stuck when they were going through undergrowth. She meant to clean it up but just wanted to focus on getting back first.

  “Anyway,” Fufi squawked. “For the st question about seeds in the ice. Let me ask you a question: how would I know? The ice is not transparent so we can’t see if there are seeds in it.”

  “You don’t need to see them, it is obvious that the pnts spores or whatever are there sleeping waiting for the right time to wake up.” One the grass-haired one stated matter-of-factly.

  “I think you have to be a nymph to notice that by proximity.” Alex put her hands on her hips.

  Ki shooed off the younglings. “That’s enough for now. We should let them unpack and get settled. They had a long trip and are tired.”

  “Okay…” The three nymph girls said in unison, using that guilt-tripping tone that only children can pull off.

  They ran off into the woods squealing about adventures.

  Alex thought it was weird that children would be allowed to run off into the woods unsupervised. Terre was not earth though and these were not human children so it wasn’t just how things were

  The group passed the grotto. There was a whole lot more pnt life around the ravine that the grotto sat in. Roots framed the steps going down into the grotto. Colorful flowers sprouted from vines that snaked their way up the rock wall. At the top of the steps some sunflowers with smiley faces grew. Next to them some oddly shaped bushes filled with seed pods grew. Whoever was tending to this pce grew a whole lot of stuff in a short amount of time.

  “What a bunch of odd pnts.” Alex pointed to the weird pnts on top of the ravine.

  “Oh, just some seeds I got from the dungeon. They are really useful at getting rid of waves of demons.” Ki waved her hand over the area.

  “Did you pnt them?” Alex asked.

  “Not these ones. I got them as a reward from the dungeon. I pnted some in Sakura’s grove to get started. They are weird, the pnts have a bit of a symbiotic retionship. There has to be enough sunflowers to support the seed shooters. Root strike is a really strong ability but it isn’t so great against flying imps. The seed shooters are good against rge numbers of weak enemies. This is a big step in fulfilling Sakura’s vision.” Ki excitedly praised the pnts.

  Alex winced at the mention of the mind controlling dryad. “Oh yeah, that’s right she and I have the same quest. Though her pn to clear it was to outst the demons.”

  “Sorry, considering what happened I probably shouldn’t bring her up around you Alex,” Ki gave Alex a concerned look.

  “It is alright mostly, I’ve had a few weeks to get past that. At the time she seemed like a horrible person. But now I know she isn’t human. You’d think the obvious thing would be to raise an army and defeat the demon queen,” Alex said.

  “That is exactly what the hero did. He failed.” Fufi added her two cents.

  “I’m gd you’ve had a bit of time to process things. It is no secret that my kind will always put the forest first. That doesn’t mean that it was right for Sakura to be so untrusting. I hope things can be more banced in the future.” Ki lowered her head.

  “We can find a way to work through things together.” Alex smiled brightly.

  “By the power of friendship!” Fufi cheered.

  They parked the carriage next to Bob’s workshop.

  After some greetings, everyone went to the farmhouse and had some dinner. Martha cooked up a storm. Luckily, Ki went ahead and told everyone about Alex’s test transformation. It was a bit awkward being in the body of a different person but no one pressed Alex on the issue. After they ate, Merumeru bee-lined it to the chicken fort.

  “Merumeru ru ru me.” She expined her pns to everyone.

  Everyone followed her, thinking that she had something important to show them. However, she just hopped in one of the pipes and vanished.

  Alex looked down in the pipe and confirmed that it just dead-ended into the ground. “I guess she had somewhere she wanted to be.” The priestess-looking magical girl hopped into the pipe as well but didn’t appear anywhere else.

  “I guess these are Merumeru only portals?” Fufi guessed.

  “Maybe? I bet she was trying to expin them to us but I don’t quite get it.” Alex shrugged.

  The next day was spent cleaning out the carriage and repairing the damage from the ice demon fight.

  Kaide helped make some new boards to repce the damaged ones.

  Alex took off the damaged bunny hide covering. Now that they were out of the cold area the bunny furs covering the carriage made it a bit too hot.

  When it started raining, they moved the carriage inside the workshop.

  “I guess summer is at its end,” Fufi said.

  “I suppose if the seasons are simir to earth then it would make sense. How long have we been here on Terre? Maybe five months?” Alex folded some of the rabbit pelt coverings and set them on the shelf.

  “I think it is about that. Expect it to get cooler and rainier,” the fmingo said.

  “Does having a bunch of the pnet ruined by demons affect things?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know a whole lot about all this stuff but the mountains still get snow. Otherwise the rivers would dry up. I think it still rains in the wastend, at least the pces close to the woods, the same is true for the demon occupied pces to the south. The nd there would be more blighted but the nobility that they keep around have css skills that keep the popution fed. Though pces with too many demons turn into a wastend just like the wastes.” Kaide helped repce a board on one of the carriage panels.

  “It must be really rough on humans living over there.” Alex helped Kaide put another repcement board in pce.

  “I imagine, though if you really want to know more I’d suggest heading to the swamps and asking the nereids. They keep a better eye on what is going on down there.” Kaide stretched after they got the panel finished.

  A slightly soggy Bob entered workshop. “Hey Alex, Fufi and Kaide, how are things going?”

  “We are just about finished fixing Alex’s carriage,” Kaide said.

  “What are your pns after this? Are you going to head back to town?” Bob asked.

  “We could. Do you want us to take anything like st time?” Alex looked to the farmer.

  Bob nodded. “Yeah, Ki said that they could use some of the stuff we make. We could load you up on rope and some of the harvest. Back in the day grandpa used to take an oxcart to town and sell the harvest for coins but from what Ki said they don’t really have much for coins so I guess we are just trading. The nymphs helped put all those strange pnts by the ravine. Ki said that if anything attacks the farm we can just flee to the grotto and the new pnts there will protect us. Next year they should have some more seeds and will spread those new pnts around more pces.”

  “I guess that even magic nymphs can’t take a single pnt and spread it over the whole forest in a few weeks.” Alex mused.

  “I can do that, though without wings it won’t be same day delivery.” Alex chuckled.

  “That’s fine, you didn’t want to be a harpy anyway so I can’t compin,” Bob said solemnly.

  “Is it okay if I leave the furs here? I don’t think I’ll be needing them anytime soon and truthfully I’d rather build a new one. This one is rather beat up and sewn together haphazardly.” Alex scrunched her nose at the pelts on the shelf.

  “They are not that bad. You don’t mind if we use them as bnkets? They would be nice to have around when it starts to snow,” Bob said.

  “That’s fine. You can keep them.” Alex waved a hand.

  The next day they stocked up on trade goods and headed back to town. The trip was uneventful. When they arrived back at town, Alex expected to find some kind of outbreak of clockwork girls, spider girls, or void beings escaping from the dungeon but it was business as usual. They offloaded at the warehouse near the adventurer’s guild.

  Alex saw that the pce was well stocked. However, there was a distinct ck of rabbit pelts compared to when she st inspected it.

  “Well, I guess I know where that troublemaker was getting all the pelts she kept handing me from.” Alex grimaced.