Some hours ago, Griswold had been in a situation where he had seen two people die in very little time, as well as being thrust into place where he had to do his best not to let one of those two people kill anyone else. It was a wacky situation for sure, in which some demented mind had taken it upon herself to blow up a store in the middle of another town in the common region not too far from here. After the explosion, the owner of the store had been brutally murdered and torn apart for all to see, after which Griswold moved in to take the villain down. Had it not been for his vice-captain arriving at the scene and stepping in to finish it, chances were that Griswold would have just taken her down and had her sent to jail. In a way, he was not quite sure whether or not they had handled everything correctly that day, as settling a murder with another murder seemed… unproductive.

Even though death was not the kind of thing that should come as much of a surprise to someone who had willingly joined a squad that more or less acted as both a police force and as the military, the fact that things had happened the way they did just made him rather closed off from the world for a bit. It was for that reason that he had just continued on his travels, this time reaching the town of Kikka, a place that had been built like a fortress and did not seem like much of a town at all. As he passed into the town, he came across a notice board along the main road. What with him being the kind of person that he was, Griswold always checked them to see if there was anything there that he might be able to help out with, or something interesting that he did not want to miss out on. Whether it was some kind of cooking competition where the people would get to taste samples and put out votes, something he had the pleasure of encountering once before in Nairn.

Unfortunately for him, he would have no such luck here today, though he did encounter another rather interesting note that had been pinned up regarding manual labor. As it turned out, there was a crafter of notable skill living in Kikka that supposedly made many of the brooms used by the magic knight squads with his own two hands. Griswold personally did not really mind using a borrowed broom whenever he had to go somewhere in a hurry, though he would want to get one of his own some day. Taking the note and following it to where it told him to go, the elven mage arrived at a quaint little store that did not really seem like much from the outside. That said, the inside of the place was quite different. It had the look of a real workshop, what with there being a massive amount of saw dust on the floor and various brooms with unique and interesting appearances adorning the walls on both sides. It was clear that the stories had not been an exaggeration in any way.

When the older man in the store, the one that had most likely put out a call for assistance on the notice board, approached him, he looked him over as if trying to see whether he possessed the required physique to lift and carry around a bunch of stuff. After a little while, it seemed like the guy was plenty content with what had presented itself to him, enticing him to get down to business right away. Before Griswold could even mention it, the craftsman already knew that he had come for the purpose of helping him as he dug around in a bunch of wooden chips and sections of unfinished broom. Bringing out a strange little device, the man claimed that it would allow the magic knight to locate special, magically infused trees that he needed in order to make new flying brooms. Along with the device, he also gave Griswold an axe that could supposedly cut would without hurting the tree itself, allowing him to keep using it by the time the pieces that got cut off grew back.

Even though this process could take years, for some reason, Griswold was quite happy to see that this man cared about his art and his materials this much. With the device and axe in hand, the elf quickly went on his way. While on his way through the forest, there was really no way for him to turn off his mind, nor the images that popped up in them as he went about his business. During his career as a magic knight, which had almost been a month long endeavor by now, the scariest thing he had ever been thrust into was a forest that looked like this one in a lot of ways. It was a place that seemed just like any other forest to those that were not used to being around one. Hell, it seemed just like any other forest even to those who knew a lot about such places, up until it suddenly wasn’t anymore. Unnaturally dark, devoid of life and overall scary, that was the best way for him to describe the things Griswold had seen in the place dubbed by many as the “cursed forest”. Were it not for the fact that this place had natural light breaching through the treetops, it was much the same at first.

Luckily, this forest did not seem like it was going to be getting increasingly more dark somewhere up ahead. That, and one of the most pleasant things about this forest when compared to the one he dreaded even now was the fact that this place was full of life. Squirrels running up along the length of trees to forage for nuts and berries, birds flying out and about above his head while singing out loud the song of their people. Badgers rooting around in the undergrowth, burrows that seemed like they had been made by foxes in the past but were currently uninhabited, even snakes slithering around across the floor in hopes of encountering something they could grab and devour whole. Every now and again, he could even hear the distant howling of wolves and the grunting of deer. Even though some of the creatures around here were potentially dangerous, Griswold knew that if he gave everything the space it required, he would most likely not be forced to put an end to anything here today.

Walking past a whole bunch of trees on his way deeper into the forest, he kept the strange device in hand, pointing it at various trunks to see if it would do anything. Even though he would likely be able to tell the difference between a regular tree and a magical tree that was needed in the creation of a flying broom, he felt better knowing he had this thing handy and could use it to discern whether his gut feeling was correct or not. That, and it served as a decent enough activity with which to just pass the time until he actually found what he was looking for. Besides, there was no telling if any of these ordinary looking trees might in fact be magical in nature too, he wasn’t a tree racist or anything after all. So with the device in hand, he kept walking on while admiring the way in which most natural life here just thrived without the intervention of humanity. Though most of the animals seemed in some way used to seeing someone like him, they at the very least knew enough to not stick around or get too close, which was good.

The more comfortable animals got around humans, the more they would get themselves into tricky situations that would often not work out well for them at all, so that at least was good to see. After several more minutes of walking, pondering and enjoying nature, Griswold finally made his way over to a massive willow. Even though he had seen far bigger trees in and around the Shadesinger enclave, it was quite massive for a tree that was located this close to a human settlement. Normally, they would have long since chopped it down for firewood or for means of construction. After all, humans were an ever expanding race that would bulldoze anything that stood in the way of that expansion. Though there were some examples to the contrary, Gris knew well enough that most humans did not care for nature nearly as much as they cared for money. Holding the device close to it, it started glowing, proving that this was exactly the kind of tree that he would need to bring back to the old craftsman.

With the axe in hand, he was looking at the willow wondering how he should use the thing, as he had not exactly bothered to ask the man at the time he received it. Because he did not want to chop the entire tree down, he started climbing into the thing and looked for some sturdy and thick branches. Taking the axe and bringing it down upon them, it was like a hot knife passing through a stick of butter, feeling little to no resistance at all. More than that, it was as if the place he chopped off had bark growing right back over where the branch had been severed. Clearly the story about the axe had not been an exaggeration, as the bark was what kept the tree protected and healthy. Repeating this process several times so he could bring the craftsman back a couple of thick pieces of magically infused wood, Griswold dropped himself down from the tree and started collecting the severed branches to take back with him to the old master. Now that he did not have to search for something, he returned to Kikka a whole lot faster than it had taken him to actually find the special tree.

Returning the stacks of wood to the man at his workshop, Griswold handed the device back to the craftsman, just in case he had forgotten. Looking over the wood that had been brought to him, it seemed that he was quite pleased with what he had obtained. Because of his age, it was clearly going to be hard for him to get any of his own from the forest, which was also why he was no longer taking on new orders without getting someone to first deliver his materials. With these new stacks, he could go ahead and make various new brooms before he would have to send someone out there again in order to collect more. Turning his attention to the young elven mage, the old craftsman made it clear that he would get to work again soon, and that he was looking forward to creating a special broom for the one that had made it all possible. Even though Griswold had just been doing his job, which was to help out those who had trouble helping themselves, the idea of having his own broom had been on his mind every now and again as he would have a much easier time getting from one town to the next.

Knowing that he had a mission to tend to the other day and still needed to actually make his way over to Hapshass, the elven mage told the man to take his time as his duties were about to take him elsewhere. Promising that he would be back as soon as he finished up his assignment, the two said their goodbyes so they could both get to doing their respective jobs. Soon, he would need to take part in a mission that involved a potential attack from a nearby settlement of Goblins that had yet to be located. What was worse was that his partner for the job was to be one of those stuck up nobles from the Ravencrest family. Even though the one he knew was not all that bad, she had shown herself to be rather bloodthirsty. In a way, he hoped that this one was somewhat more held back, though he also hoped that it would not be one of those sheltered kids that had never made their own food and could not even locate their own ass after they had performed a number two without a lackey to wipe them down. Releasing a deep sigh, Griswold turned his eyes to the horizon as he made his way over to Hapshass.

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EXIT