Championhold

The next few days were.... Awkward to say the least.

Ezma had known of course that Lily was not going to come back with berries and had wished her success in her endeavor. However, based on Lily's barely contained tears and Shiro's look of dismay when they came back from the water it had been a down right catastrophe.

 While this development made the evening meals rather terse it was not life threatening levels of disharmony. Ezma thought to herself as Shiro threw himself in front of yet another beast that was hell bent on taking out an unnatural amount of aggression out on the humans in its domain.

Shiro intercepted the hoof aimed at Lily, angling the magically manifested shield to glance the blow rather than take it head on. He had almost broken his arm to learn that lesson.

The beast staggered back and Lily hurled a spear of her new dark purple and black magic into the creature, the force of it driving even a creature of that size back.

It recovers quickly and charges, Shiro readies to block another attack that never comes, for the beast decomposes before their eyes mid charge. The momentum not dissipated sends a shower of giant bones tumbling around the pair.

Lily looks at her hands in mixed awe and concern. Her new powers, while the complete opposite in effect to her old, were just as powerful and had saved them several times this journey.

The whole group had noticed the fact that, as they had headed farther on south and west, the frequency of running into aggressive wildlife spiked with every mile and with the signs of well worn trails and droppings it felt like every creature in the Deep Woods was going the same way as them.

So it was great relief to all when they emerged from the leaf diffused light into the blinding full sun reflecting off a lake in front front of them. Neither Shiro nor Lily had seen a body of water this vast before with an enormous mangrove like tree dominating the center of it.

Circling and roosting in the tree were hundreds of thousands of birds representing every size perceivable from this distance. Nearer at hand packs of beasts roved the shoreline in agitation, predatory and prey mingling unnaturally.

For signs of habitation, what at first appeared to be vines trailing from the mangrove tree to the wood line, were rope bridges and cook smoke at regular intervals around the lake. "Now to just find a village with access from the forest floor that will not look to closely at three humans wondering in from the wilderness.' Ezma murmured to herself.

It turned out that there were more travelers coming in from the the forest  paths than just them, according to the rumors they heard while waiting to go through the checkpoint the massive migrations had brought creatures of legends out of their normal territories to casually devastate major bridges and walk ways that had never been designed to accommodate their passage.

Lodging had not been much of an issue either with Ezma being willing to trade her services as a musician for that.

"Yes sir!,' the innkeeper beams at Shiro as he taps his foot in time with Ezma's lively reel; 'just what we needed to lighten the mood, what with all the beasts gathering round and all the young folk getting dragged out to defend the eastern border."

Shiro nodded, amazed that this elf was talking so freely to a human, and took note of the faces filling the bar. The younger faces were dressed in some clerical looking garb that Ezma said showed they were attendants in the Sanctums of Championhold. The rest were made up of parents and those to old to be in war.

Deciding to take a risk Shiro spoke up "Is there anyway an outsider like myself could pay respects to the Champion?" nervous that he was about to trigger the same hostility that had dropped him off the highroad.

"Well' the jolly inn keep replied 'I hear the custodians are having a heck of keeping ole Miss Beastsoul calm lately, she must be having herself a pretty bad dream to pull so many critters out of the woods. To keep the public safe they have moved the regular services to the outer terraces till she calms down. As to you being a human, any true follower of the champion's way knows that harmony is strength and that her honor was known to take a human lover from time to time. Heck there is a faction of clerics of the Champions way that are considered heretics because they have texts that hint at some of the great gatherings of champions being nothing more than a giant 'sampling of goods' if you catch my drift."

The innkeeper laughed heartily at Shiro's blush at the insinuation, "All that to say lad, as long as you stay polite no one will have a legitimate reason to deny your reverence." His attention was quickly diverted as the servers plopped mugs of various size made from assorted horns in front of him for refilling. The beverages in this establishment were unique in ways Shiro had never considered. It seems the elves had taken advantage of their long lives to develop sophisticated fermentation processes for both their hard and soft beverages, creating more flavor in one sip than Shiro had dreamed possible, but also ran the risk of accidentally picking up a cup of drinkable psychedelics.

The elves were different from what Shiro had expected, less stuffy and formal than his world usually portrayed, all of them had some sort of pet or animal companion nearby at all times and they seemed to be more earthy and grounded. An unexpected disposition for a race who lived so far above the ground.

Underneath it all, they were all tense though, the animals in sight could not fully relax, every now and then someone would laugh a smidgen to long and all eyes would turn to the great tree in the lake before breaking the tension as best they could.

Lily came out of the hallway leading to the lodging rooms and Shiro caught his breath. The clothing Ezma had helped her find were nothing more than a simple tunic and breaches, a welcome replacement for the worn sack Father Goodwell had given her. Yet the new clothes did something more than just cover her, they were the first garments Shiro had seen her in that she had a voice in picking for herself and did not have any obvious relationship to her station and or her worth as a person. She could, and had, relaxed into them more than anything Shiro had seen. He just wished he could give her what she had asked for.

That talk on the river bank had been rough to say the least, her earnest confession contrasted with his word spew of reasons they could not be together. Unfortunately focusing on his role as Hero and not wanting it rumored that he had used his status to force her into a relationship. What he had really wanted to say, and had hinted at but could not say out right, was that something had felt…off, about his body since arriving in this world and the feeling was only getting worse the more time passed. Making any thought romance… hard to stomach, like a slug had traveled across a sandwich.

Now from the bar he watched as she was caught up in a swirl of dancers and hoped she found someone to make her happy someday, since he could not. He glimpsed Ezma's bright eyes also watching Lily and discreetly toasted that they might be each other's some days.

***

After the lunch rush died down the innkeeper dismissed Ezma for the day "Remember there is a curfew on so be back before dark. That will also eat into my dinner rush so never you mind needing to work during that." he said with a grin. So they joined the light stream of pilgrims on the rope bridge to the sanctum.

The view was spectacular as the the bridge ascended from the canopy up into the boughs of the great mangrove tree, out on either side the great woods spread to the edge of their vision with only elevation allowing the barest suggestion of the mountains in the east and something else to the west that no one could make out.

Below the lakes glinted like silver in the direct afternoon sun, occasionally blemished by the jumping of fish that looked massive even from many stories above. Around the walk way directly were swarms of birds trying to get at the people on it, but each sally of airborne beast was met with down drafts from Elf wind mages harnessed at intervals to the bridge.

Once they arrived among the boughs of the great tree the pilgrims were counted off and placed on various terraces that could only hold a few hundred at a time on temporary benches or prayer rugs and cushions.  These platforms were placed in intervals around the Tree's girth and appeared to Shiro's eye as if their normal function was as observation platforms and meditation areas.

Shiro's eyes roved as the service got underway, though he did not understand any of the words the gestures and how the crowd interacted suggested to him some sort of pet handling seminar rather than a traditional religious function, taking in that most of those elves around him and his group were younger looking as far as his untrained eye could tell.

A few minutes into the service a movement that did not match the nodding attention of those engaging in the service caught Shiro's eye as four hooded figures peeled off the back row of the audience and scurried out of sight around a bend in the walk way.

Nudging Ezma he nods in the direction the figures went he started to get up, She put her hand on his shoulder holding him back for a moment until the speaker's eyes turned to another section of the audience, then their trio headed for the walk way.

Just out of sight of the platform a cunning door etched into the grand tree hung ajar.

Not pausing to marvel at the workmanship that had probably hid hundred of such doors all around the tree:

 One group followed the other into the depths.