[Praise, Befriend]
I walked over to the farm site because I wanted to talk to one of the talking trees. But as soon as I got there Mas came over and wanted me to tour the lumber mill. It was very loud inside and all the gnomes running the machines that feed logs into blade, all wore little earmuffs. It was very impressive and seemed to be turning out lumber at a terrific pace. But after a few minutes, I’d had enough of the whining saw blade to last me for life. So we went outside where we could talk.
“Mas, what are all the gnomes wearing earmuffs for, it’s nice and warm, under the magical field.”
“That’s ear protection Rose. Loud noises like that can damage your ears if you are exposed to them for long periods of time.”
“Oh well when the families move into their new homes, we’ll have to agree on some hours of operation. You could never sleep with that blade ripping through wood. Speaking of which, your gnomes aren’t cutting down any of the talking trees are you?”
“No, certainly not, Rose, I’m a scientist, a zoologist, their intelligent, sentient creatures, I just wish I could bring one home.”
“Mas, you’ve done me an incredible favor, coming here designing this lumbermill, if you can talk one of the trees into going back to Tregaron, I’ll create a magical field for it to live in. At least I’ll try, according to Nyx, Earth has hardly no magic left at all. But, I’ll ask Draco and Opal to help as well.”
“I didn’t mean Tregaron, Rose, I meant the tower.”
“Oh well in that case just convince one and I’ll be happy to bring it.”
“Well maybe you’d ask on my behalf, they’ve been asking for you.”
“Asking for me? How do they know who I am?”
“Well they didn’t know your name, they were just asking for the Bibliomancer who bid the Demon Lord to wake them. So I told them your name was Rose. They’ve been asking all day when you’d get here.”
Then suddenly I noticed a grove of trees headed our way. I started walking towards them to get away from the whining of the sawblade. Something was going to have to be done about the saw mill, I thought all things electric were silent or at least quiet. Maybe we could move this to Hilltop after the farmhouses have all been built.
I don’t want to hurt Maz’s feelings but I don’t want to live in a world filled with noise pollution. Humans on Earth have to deal with trucks, planes, sirens, honking horns and the cacophony of all manner of machine. Maybe there is a silence spell, I’ll ask Draco he’ll know, or EG he could tell me if there is a spell in any of our books at the store, or Doug if EG comes up empty handed.
Suddenly I was surrounded by a grove of trees, not crowding in but respectful of personal space. Out of the thirty or forty trees one stepped forward, bent stiffly into a bow, which I returned.
“Knock, Knock.”
“What?”
“No the correct response is ‘Who’s there’, “Knock, Knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Tree.”
“Tree Who?”
“Tree more days till Full Moon. Isn’t that fun, Bibliomancer Rose, ma’am, a little farm girl taught me that. My name is Woodrow, but please call me Woody, ma’am. Do you know any more knock knock jokes, ma’am?”
“No, I’m sorry, Woody, I don’t know any knock knock jokes, that’s only the second one I’ve ever heard. Please just call me Rose, all of you.”
I heard lot’s of murmured Hello Roses, a few Hi Roses and a couple Just ask her you wooded headed excuse for an oak.
“What’s the first one you heard, Rose?”
“Oh it was just something silly a friend made up.”
“Please tell it, Rose, please.”
“Knock, Knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“McCracken”
“McCracken who?”
“McCracken up”
A few of the trees, ‘Hooted’ but the rest remained silent, except for a couple of comments in the back ‘Son of a beech. We told you not to let this twig witted idiot speak for us, she’ll think we’re all saps.’”
“Very funny, Rose.” Woody hooted. “That cracked me up, can we please meet the famous actor, some of the Birch’s would like to appear in the Birnam Wood scene when they do the Scottish play at the new theater. Could you make him use them, Rose?”
“Well he’s the director, so I can’t tell him what to do, but I’m sure that he’d consider it a feather in his cap to have a live moving Birnam Wood in Macbeth.”
“Rose it’s bad luck, to mention the name of the Scottish play, and they were already attacked once today.”
“What do you mean Woody?”
“There was a fight between the theater company and some bad men.”
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“How do you know that Woody?”
“The trees that saw it, told other trees, who told other trees, who told other trees and pretty soon it was all over the forest.”
“Sorry, I have to go.”
“You never even asked her, you made an ash of yourself, you stunted maple.” Came from a tree in the back.
I portaled to the tower and ran to the gate, Bob and Mike were inspecting a wagon, but waved me through.
“Bob, Mike I heard my friends may have been attacked out on the road, please rouse the guard.”
Mike came over to me.
“Easy Rose it’s alright, they came into town and were headed for the guard house about twenty minutes ago.”
“Thanks, Mike.”
I pulled out the portal wallet and portaled to the Guard House, where I saw officers of the watch unloading bodies from the wagon. Draco was standing overseeing the operation. I ran over to him.
“Draco, what happened, is everyone all right, Aah, where is Opal, I should have kept her with me.” Then I saw Opal walking out of the Guard house, licking a huge ice cream cone. I ran over and hugged her, almost knocking the cone from her hand.
“Oh, sweetie I thought something had happened to you, I’m so sorry.” I saw the guard pile up the seventh body carefully on the ground. I started to cry, what had I done with this stupid war with the cartel. Opal hugged me back tight.
“It’s okay Rose, we weren’t hurt, it was fun, really and I got to play a fairy, and I met some farm kids, don’t cry Rose. Really I had fun, McCracken said we’re going earlier tomorrow.”
“Oh, no, no one is going out the gate tomorrow, or ever again."
Then Groucho came bounding down the guard house steps.
“What’s with her, petit poucet, why is she crying?”
“I don’t know Groucho, Rose, why are you crying?”
“Sweetie, I’m crying because I put you in danger, because men are dead, because I thought I could beat some rich cartel, because I was afraid my friends were hurt or worse. I’m sad that I caused people to die.”
Groucho grabbed me and started shaking me back and forth, he really is as strong as people say. When he had my attention, he said.
“Rose, no one is dead, no one is even hurt.”
I looked over at the seven bodies. The guard, one on each side of the dead man, held him upright by the arm in front of Draco. Suddenly the man sputtered to life and would have run away if the two guards hadn’t had him firmly in grip. They dragged him up the guard house steps, McCracken was exiting the building he had his usual goofy grin plastered to his face.
"Did they tell you yet, I wanted to tell you, we got thirty seven farmers to sign up, Rose, you better start building more houses."
"What are you talking about, I thought you guys were hurt or dead."
"We're all fine nothing to worry about."
“Well this ends today, no more trips outside the gates, I never should have started this.”
Groucho said. “Yeah Rose, what were you thinking, who cares if poor kids go to bed hungry or even starve to death, as long as the cartel can make a few more coppers right. Maybe we should send back the farmers to the mean lives they had living off the scraps that the cartel left for them. Yeah Rose what were you thinking?”
Dead silence no one said a word they just looked at me. Groucho frowned.
“Well Rose, are we going to tuck our tails between our legs, because those bullies over there didn’t make it to within ten feet of us before Draco just froze them dead in their tracks. It earned him the biggest round of applause the entire day. You give up now and the bullies know that they can do whatever they want because you let them do it once, and it’s an everyday thing from here on out. Those bullies lying on the ground work for the bigger bullies, the ones bullying the town.”
Opal hugged me harder and said. “Rose, I don’t think it’s right that people go to bed hungry, if we can do something about it. What’s the point of learning magic if we aren’t going to use it to defend people.”
She hugged me tighter. It was all starting to sink in now, no one was really hurt from either side, Draco had just frozen them, of course he had. He’s a world class magician, no seven thugs stood a chance against him.
“I’m, sigh, sorry everyone, I let my emotions get the better of me. Of course we are not going to quit. I’m sorry Opal, we won’t ever let people go to bed hungry if we can do anything about it. But there is no need to go outside the gates to fight, if you are up for another day of advertising. We’ll hit the rich people where it really hurts in their pocketbooks.”
“What about recruiting farmers?”
“We only need ten to fifteen more after how many you guys signed up today and it’ll be weeks before their farmhouses are even built. So tomorrow I need you to advertise in the market for our vendors and for farmers. The portals threw some stable hands out of work, let’s get them new jobs and homes if they want them.”
“Rose, can I go please, I want to help, besides it’s so much fun.”
“You and I will talk to Ruby tonight and tell her everything that happened today and if she agrees then yes you can but only if she agrees and if you promise me that at the first sign of trouble you portal to either the store, the bakery or the tower.”
“I promise Rose, but I saw those men beating on the farmers and their kids, trying to get them to stop watching us, and they couldn’t portal away because that is their lives and they have no where to portal to.”
“I know sweetie and it’s sad, but those men are locked up, and won’t be able to hurt people anymore.”
Lottie popped up in the portal.
“Lottie thanks for coming, but it’s okay, no one got hurt.”
“Yes they did, Rose I have a couple kids with broken bones, a farmer with a concussion and some women with either broken bones or badly beaten. My clinic is filled with the injured. I’m here to get a guardsperson to come down and take these peoples statements. I think there are some people in the hills that deserve to be turned into toads Rose.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Well I need an x-ray machine, but we have no power, so no, I’m afraid not, but maybe Opal can help Arjun heal some after the guard sees just how badly injured my patients are.”
After all that emotion flooded through me. I had to do something, I grabbed Lottie's arm and jumped to Blackpool.
