Pressing further into the woods, there was quite frankly no time to waste as the damage that was being done to this forest might very well be irreversible if things kept up the way they were going. And for obvious reasons, that would be an incredibly bad thing for both nature itself, all of the creatures living within the forest, and the nearby town of Hage, even if they might not realize this just yet. Roughly a year or so ago, Griswold shared a lot of his views with the boy. And when he said ‘shared’, he more or less meant that he was ‘told’ and basically had to sit out the lecture until he had heard everything the man had to say to him. And as if that was not enough, he had to repeat most of it back to him just to ensure that he wasn’t daydreaming and took everything he heard to heart.

The man had been rough like that, though Gawain always imagined that he had meant well in the end. One of the things he remembered very well from those lectures was the black knight’s love for nature, and how he always claimed that life in the north needed to be balanced out in both human and natural life. The way he put it, if the region where animals thrived was to be destroyed, cut down, had homes and such built upon it or got otherwise disturbed, it could spell great hardship for the kingdom. Not so much for the nobles down south, but for the poor that dwelled in the boonies, as well as the magic knights that would need to be taken from their stations as they would need to be re-stationed in places like Hage. This was due to places such as the Fringe being quite close to many of the northern towns.

Shifting his pace into a sprint, the more he thought about it, the faster he seemed to move. Because if the warnings he had been given were to be believed, once the balance of nature was upset or somehow broken, all sorts of calamities could be born from it. Without wolves to keep certain other species in check, others might in turn run rampant. Without the animals ordinarily living in their own territories, there was no telling just what might come down to fill the void. And if all kept changing around and shifting, it would only become a matter of time before you’d run the risk of rats swarming basements, food storage and barns, leaving their droppings in what food they left behind and potentially causing a massive health risk to the already poor communities that lived in the forsaken realm. And that was perhaps one of the less bad outcomes.

Perhaps the worst outcome was when mana beasts from the fringe started coming in and populating the vacant areas, as they would then be but a stones’ throw away from towns like Hage. And if there was one thing he knew, it was that a single mana beast could wipe out an entire village and get back into the woods before the magic knights would even have the slightest idea as to something happening. So by the time they’d mobilize, it would be far too late. It was a saddening thought for a plethora of reasons, meaning time was very much of the essence. And with that thought in mind, the boy entered into the deeper regions of the forest, a place far closer to the fringe than he had been in a long time. When last he had entered the fringe, he had gone inside of a massive walking tree, which was more than enough fringe to last for a lifetime.

He wasn’t like Griswold. He didn’t hate nature, though he didn’t want to live out the majority of his days in forests, mountains and meadows. He could live without luxury, but preferred to sleep in a bed over sleeping under the stars in a sleeping bag next to a fire. He didn’t hate the poor, but he wasn’t going to patrol the forsaken region day in and day out like some wolf prowling his own territory to check it for any potential interlopers and threats. No, there were plenty of factors that made the two of them considerably different from one another, though they also shared a bunch of values and both at times showed signs of having… questionable morals. But while they might be questionable to some, Gawain had always understood very well where he stood. He was on his own side, doing whatever it took to make a place for himself where he felt he belonged. And as long as the answer to that question was “Clover”, he would do his best to keep it safe. All of it.



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