When Rud woke up the next morning, the grove was alive with activity. The birds were singing in the trees by the time he breathed life into his fire, and squirrels edged closer to the Sacred Tree in search of nuts by the time his tea was done. The only thing missing from the scene was the Sacred Tree whispering information into his mind. But she was still asleep as she created the Smelting Workshop. More than a little guilt flooded through his chest as he considered her vulnerable state.

  But that’s what a custodian and guardian were for.

  The mortals had a funny way of thinking about a grove’s dynamics. Mira had used the right word for Mint, but not Rud. She called him a keeper, not a custodian. He found that alternative title to be more pleasing. As the druid sat, sipping his tea and snacking on roasted mushrooms, the head of a massive wolf poked her head through the door.

  “Ban needs more energy,” she said, sniffing at the food. She licked, trying and failing to reach the food on the oversized stove. “You pulled more fragments out of the mine, right?”

  Rud had already told her he hadn’t. “Nope. I’m waiting for a mystical dwarf to show up. Maybe if a cool wolf accompanied me…”

  “No. Too busy,” Mint said, drawing her head out of the house and vanishing.

  Rud was happy to have carved an entrance only large enough for himself. Once breakfast was done, he fed some of his reserve fragments to Ban. He checked her over, inspecting her bark and the quality of her leaves to make sure she was doing alright. After a few trips to the pond, she had perked up slightly. Her leaves didn’t seem too droopy, and the energy flowing from her body came off in clean ribbons. None of this broke her hibernation.

  The smelting workshop was coming along, but it was slow. It had only taken the mining building a day and a bit to form itself. But the smelter? It was barely a circular building covered in roots, swirling with the same magical energy found on Ban’s trunk. Rud had to wonder how far her roots spread, or if that even mattered for a magical tree. He went back into the mine after accepting the Aspect of Gug and probed around the bat area some more. As with last time, the area was expansive but held few fragments for mining. When the bats stirred, he exited without disturbing them further.

  Instead of lingering on their dwindling supply of fragments, Rud stuffed buckets of water in his backpack and headed off to the stump field. He stepped through the bushes near the clearing, pausing as he heard voices and people cracking dried branches underfoot. He crept to the edge and watched.

  Mira had summoned her people to collect the trees he had nurtured. Rud was happy to see that no part of him was saddened by the removal of the trees. There was a part of him that worried he would become completely tree-hugging, but the grove understood the importance of lumber for the mortals. It was willing to give its bounty to those that helped. But the cat-woman wasn’t there with the workers. Five people worked the trees, laughing to themselves. They joked about how big the tree was, and wondered how they would get it back.

  The surprising thing about the woodcutters was that they were humans. All five of them weren’t beastfolk, which shed a strange light on Mira. Thinking better than to abandon his duties because of social anxiety, Rud revealed himself by stepping out of the underbrush and thrusting his arms into the air. Spirits normally loved that move, but the mortals weren’t as impressed. They stopped what they were doing, touching their foreheads and bowing. All conversation died as he withdrew his first bucket of water from his pack, spreading the life-giving water over nearby sprouts.

  When the sprouts grew before the woodcutters’ eyes, excited whispers spread through them. Rud couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he summoned a small forest before the mortals. One human man, with a scraggly beard and about four teeth, came over and bowed as the druid did his work. He muttered prayers and thanks for the replenishing forest.

  “No problem,” Rud said, smiling up at the man. That got a reaction. The man stumbled back, bowing several times before scampering back to his companions. They all laughed at him.

  “Not everyone is as superstitious of the spirits!” an older woman shouted from the back. Rud nodded at her, smiling. “I got Bent’s keeper drunk back in Sparwyn!”

  Rud basked in these people’s reverence of the world’s forests. What brief history he had learned of the people of Sparwyn said they revered the Stag Spirit Bent. There was likely some reason buried in the history books, but the result was a culture that respected groves. The druid wouldn’t blame them. What little he had seen of this place spoke of power and strength. But also balance. So they hadn’t deforested the northern side of the area. They had selected a small area to cut clear, leaving a majority of the trees untouched.

  “Watch this,” Rud shouted, rubbing his hands together. Two more trees had grown large enough to get the Plant Growth spell. He activated the spell, gripping the bark of a pine and leaning back to watch it grow. The woodcutters went wild, cheering. When he used the spell on another tree, nearly draining his mana to empty, they flipped out again. He tied red ribbons around both, bowing several times before making his exit into the underbrush.

  Mira had left a note in the mailbox, which he picked up and took back toward the sacred tree. Instead of using Thicket Travel, he walked through the area for a while, reading the letter as he went. There was nothing odd about this section of the forest, although the squirrels took an interest in him. Rud read the letter as he walked, gaining a troupe of squirrels behind him as he went. Mira expressed her gratitude for the large trees, and claimed there would be a team coming to collect the lumber.

  Rud held one fragment in his hand. A low-quality one had been sitting on the letter, holding it in place. This was a down-payment for the lumber, and something she promised to bring more of when she had the time. Things had gone from moving fast, to slow, and back to fast again with the administrative powers that ruled the mortals. She was assembling teams to tackle the dungeon. Well, she said ‘dungeons,’ but Rud was only aware of one. The druid stopped to stuff the letter in his pack causing a procession of squirrels to run into the back of his leg.

  Ten squirrels darted in every direction, finding safe places to hide while they waited. Rud couldn’t talk to them yet, despite his Animal Communication skill, but he knew what they wanted. He withdrew a handful of shelled nuts from his pack and set them on the forest floor. As the nuts rustled the leaves, the creatures perked up. The druid didn’t leave, waiting for them to be tempted enough to cross the distance and grab some food for themselves.

  “You need to trust me if you want food,” Rud said, waiting and watching.

  One brave squirrel broke ranks, crossing the distance and picking up a single nut. It bowed its head before walking off with the nut in its mouth. The others came shortly after. They would grab a nut, bow, then leave. By the time the squirrels were done, the pile of nuts was almost depleted. He stood, leaving the rest of the pile there and heading off. The sound of ten squirrels following close behind graced his ears and a system message appeared.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  [Skill Gain!]

  Your Animal Communication skill has increased to level 3!

  Skill gains were something that Rud had been eager to define since he arrived in this world. Things like Animal Communication were easy enough to understand. It didn’t bring him magical insight yet, but it helped him be understood by the animals. And the other way around. He wasn’t sure if the squirrels were actually bowing, or if that was the skill interpreting their thoughts and intents. It required more research, but the procession moved on.

  The squirrels followed Rud through the area, climbing up trees ahead as though they were scouts. When the creatures all moved in one direction, seeming to lock in on something, the druid followed. The area east of the Sacred Tree was the least explored, and was expansive. Before long, they arrived in a clearing. At the center of the clearing was a stone, pulsing with unfamiliar magical energy.

  “What is this?” Rud asked, drawing closer to the stone. The squirrels chittered, warning him of impending danger. The druid backed off before anything could happen, holding his hands up. “Something bad?”

  The squirrels made all kinds of noises, trying to relay information he couldn’t understand. Something about a magical stone and getting hurt. That’s all he could get between mad rodent ramblings about nuts and the dangers of hawks. All these words came as feelings rather than concrete things. But the message was simple. Don’t touch the magical rock.

  “Thanks, guys,” Rud said, digging out mushrooms from his pack. He gave each squirrel a mushroom. When the first one took one, it looked at him with confusion. After some back-and-forth the creature understood this mushroom was safe. They had avoided all mushrooms after an incident. “You need to avoid the blue ones.”

  Rud rested on a stone near the edge of the clearing. He observed the area, making a mental note of everything that seemed strange. The air above the offending rock was clear, although the trees could creep into that area. All around the stone, the grass had died. Even the air smelled slightly foul, especially pungent when the wind picked up. At the end of his inspection, one thing was evident.

  “Mint. There’s a haunted rock in the forest,” Rud shouted.

  Mint emerged from a bush, sniffing the air. Her hackles raised when she spotted the rock, eyes darting between it and Rud. “How did you find this? How did it evade my detection?”

  “I don’t know,” Rud said with a shrug. He looked to his squirrel friends, who had retreated to the trees. “The squirrels showed me.”

  Mint looked up at the squirrels, growling. “Good work, squirrels. You are ardent defenders of the grove.”

  They chittered their approval back.

  “Do you understand them?”

  “No. I do not speak squirrel.”

  “So, what is that?”

  “Malicious intent,” Mint said, scanning the forest’s edge as though to find an enemy to bite. “A dungeon seed. You need to get the humans to move, Rud. Only the mortals can remove such an affront to the forest. And we’re lucky you found it so soon.”

  “Well, dang. Should we patrol the entire grove?” Rud asked, scratching his belly.

  “I could help more if I wasn’t busy with the other dungeon.” Mint’s eyes went unfocused. After a moment, she sighed. “Make note of this location. The seed has time to grow. There might be others.”

  Mint dashed off explaining nothing else, leaving Rud with his new squirrel friends. The forest creatures weren’t sticking around just for the nuts, of course. The Animal Communication skill allowed them to understand each other, even if it was just a bit. There also came some authority from his position as the custodian.

  “You guys mind looking for more dungeon seeds?” Rud asked, turning to the squirrels in the trees. “More bad rocks like this?”

  The squirrels shared a look, nodding shortly after. They scattered to the forest floor, running in all directions. Rud just hoped they could find him again. He also hoped they wouldn’t forget about their task five minutes into it, being distracted by mushrooms or nuts. Thinking about food made him hungry, so the druid withdrew a mushroom from his bag as he passed through the underbrush, appearing at the stump field once again.

  The woodcutters had already brought one tree down and were sectioning it into smaller pieces. Rud stumped out of the bush, approaching the group like a lost child. They performed the sign of reverence again, the toothless old man coming to the head of the group to meet with him.

  “You know Mira?” Rud asked.

  “Commander Mira?” the old man asked, looking back at his friends for support. “Of course. She defends the northern coast. Been keeping us safe for years.”

  Rud thought for a moment before continuing. “Do you guys know anything about dungeons? Or dungeon seeds?”

  “We’re woodcutters,” the old man said, his face melting into an apologetic grimace. “I’m sorry, forest spirit.”

  “When you see Mira, could you tell her that I have a dungeon seed I need her to… remove?”

  The old man bowed and nodded.

  “Okay, thank you. Enjoy the trees.”

  Rud fell through the Thicket Travel again, appearing near the enchanted pond. He placed his buckets there, heading in a random direction to think. The mortals needed to put more pep in their step. Mira was throwing her weight around, he could tell that much, but these weird things in the grove needed to go. The druid settled on a direction to the west and walked in a zig-zag pattern. He collected nuts and mushrooms along the way, shelling the delicious nuts as he walked.

  The landscape to the west was considerably different than that to the east. The only feature he had discovered in this direction before today was the stream. Now he ranged over valleys and cliffs. It would have been impossible to make good time if he didn’t have access to the Thicket Travel upgrade, allowing him to step into a bush at the top of a cliff and appear at the bottom. For all the interesting terrain features, Rud couldn’t find any dungeon seeds. There were few squirrels in this area, and the birds were all too rude to strike up a conversation. They flew away before he could get two words out, flapping off like they owned the place.

  Temperatures changed dramatically as he went from clifftop to valley, finding that the low places were more humid. Those areas got less of the crisp mountain air, and held the smells of vegetation more than anything. Using teleportation, he reached the western edge of the grove in good time. Rud stared up at the slow rise of a mountain in the distance, peering through the gaps between trees. The area to the east had been mostly uninhabited, but this place seemed far more wild. Clouds hung near the rising mountain, clinging to it like flies in the marsh.

  Rud stepped through a bush, appearing near the Sacred Tree. Ban was still asleep, so he settled into his mushroom house for some lunch. The warm fire banished away the cold that had seeped through clothes, hot tea scouring the rest of those uncomfortable sensations away. The druid looked up to his ceiling, watching as the shadows cast by the fire danced across the smooth surface. Once the second floor was completed, he would have a comfortable place to sleep. Not that the first floor wasn’t comfortable, but he’d decided that the second floor would be better.

  The druid languished near the Sacred Tree for most of the day, enjoying tea and collecting nuts. A squirrel approached his mushroom house in the late afternoon, chittering some information. Rud listened to the message at least four times before he understood the loose meaning. The squirrels had banded together with other forest creatures, searching the western side of the grove. They had found no more offensive dungeon seeds.

  “Now that is a good employee,” Rud said, patting the squirrel on the head. He brought a handful of shelled nuts from his bag and set them on the ground. “Share those with your friends, alright?”

  The squirrel nodded in response and dashing off with a single nut. A few minutes later, deer, squirrels, badgers, and a salamander came to collect their payment. Rud wasn’t sure that the salamander would enjoy the nuts, but he realized it didn’t matter. There was a bond between him and the animals that lived in the grove. They shared a connection with the Sacred Tree, and fell into line together to keep it safe. Their payment was a formality, not something they actually needed. He realized this when the squirrels seemed so excited for the nuts. Nuts he often saw them pulling from the forest floor, shelling them in moments and eating just as quickly.

  Rud settled into his bedroll for the night, listening to the sounds of the forest outside. Night had settled in and the forest creatures had gone off to do their thing. As he drifted off to sleep, he realized how important such an unassuming skill as the Animal Communication skill could be.