Benimaru and Gnicholas along with Noctus came out of hiding behind the brush and approached Branchbeard who was now sitting in a grove. They joined Brone, sitting on an elevated slope so they could be closer to the treant’s face so he would haven’t to struggle to speak to them. The demeanor had changed, though he gnome found it odd, he was glad the dwarf was able to open communication with the forest spirit.
“Humans have been cutting down the trees within the forest” Branchbeard explained, now calm, sounded like a giant old man with centuries in his voice. There was a hint of sadness in his face, showing pain.
”But people cut trees down all the time, and beavers do it too” Brone said, he crossed his arms. Gnicholas tried to signal to the dwarf, trying to inform him to try and be more sensitive to the spirit, but even if the dwarf noticed him, he wouldn’t waste his energy trying to beat around the bush and soften the blow when he could be straight forward.
“Yes, living beings need trees, but there are humans who have been cutting too many trees too fast, not allowing enough time to pass to allow more trees to grow and take their place” There was now a hint of anger to the treant’s voice and Brone understood.
”Aye, I hear ye; there’s a story of me kin, of a clan of dwarves who got so greedy and dug too deep into the earth to find more jewels and gems that they unearthed an evil that swallowed them whole” Brone thought back to when he was a child and his mother told him this tale. He was sure the story was probably just a simple myth to teach young dwarves to not get too greedy. As for Gnicholas, he never heard of such a tale in the dwarven history books he’s read, albeit the history books he’s managed to get his hands on were dated and barely covered all of dwarven history.
”So what do we do? Report this to the King of Fiore so he issues an order to stop lumbering?” Benimaru asked half-jokingly.
”Well that’s the only legal option to do” Gnicholas replied.
”Where’s the lumberjacks?” Brone didn’t add to the conversation, he wanted to go straight for the issue and solve it. Gnicholas tried to explain to him such things aren’t so simple, that there needs to be a process, but the dwarf wasn’t listening. Branchbeard pointed south west saying that the other trees had told him where the ‘danger’ was. Brone then stood up and mounted Noctus. Gnicholas, hopping into the dwarf’s bag, tried to warn him not to attack the lumberers for doing their job, that Paradise Dawn could be fined, ”Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna kill them” is what Brone promised, but that didn’t assure the gnome that no fight will break out. No matter how much Gnicholas warned him, Brone just simply ignored him.
After Benimaru mounted the black pegasus, he took the reins as the dwarf put on his blindfold, and after Branchbeard gave them a wave, they took to the sky and flew south west.
It was for some time, but after several hours of searching, by the time the sun broke through the horizon, Benimaru signaled that they found what they were looking for and his voice wasn’t joyful at all. This worried Brone to the point the dwarf removed his blindfold despite his fear. When looking down, he saw a horror: three large metallic machines were bulldozing through the edge of the forest, razing the trees down with large buzzsaws. Several large acres were already cut down, leaving hundreds of stumps, the land naked of its beauty.
The anger in the dwarf was enough for him to overcome his fear for just the moment as he directed Beni to fly close to one of the machines. Once again Gnicholas warned Brone not to attack, but suggested to report this to the king, and once again, Brone ignored him. Once Noctus flew over one of the machines, Brone leaped off the Pegasus me pulled out his black axe. The workers below weren’t aware of what was coming until he heard the dwarf shouting. Brone landed upon the top of the machine while slamming the axe into it, slicing it in half. The gears, wheels and saws stopped working as the dwarf tumbled away.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” The driver of the machine burst out from the driver’s seat to see the disaster and shouted at the dwarf. Brone walked up to the lumberer and head butted him, knocking him out. He then immediately ran towards the next machine. The other workers were confused and frantic, trying to figure out what had happened to the first machine that was now in two major pieces. When the second machine was cut in half, they all became aware of the dwarf who was destroying their equipment. They shouted at him, but Brone simply divided the machine in fours this time.
As Brone was running towards the last machine, several of the workers stood in the way, three of them pulled out spellbooks and began reciting an incantation. A big magical circle formed, conjuring a blanket of fire, but as it descended, Brone drew forth his green axe and cut the blanket of fire, causing it to disperse. As the mages who were hired to help the lumberers gasped in shock, Brone rammed into them, defeating them easily. The lumberers did what they could to stop the dwarf, but they weren’t strong enough to stop him from slicing the last machine in several pieces.
After that altercation, Brone, Beni, and Gnicholas flew back to Branchbeard who thanked them heavily. Brone shared a laugh with the tree spirit who soon faded, seeing his job was done for now. Gnicholas however found this troublesome because now he has to write a report to the local magistrate about this incident, otherwise Paradise Dawn would end up having to either pay a heavy fine or send Brone to prison for destroying property and interfering with a lumbermill.
None of that worried Brone, but what did bother him was the machines. He asked Gnicholas about where they could have come from and the gnome gave it thought. He said that such technology was too advanced to have come from anywhere other than the Island of the Future. Once again Taz Lagar is behind a troubling event. This put a bad taste in Brone’s mouth, but he was glad it was all done.
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[Exit]