“Your Furtong is even better than mine. You must’ve been taught since you were an infant,” the father added, before letting out what Lucius could only describe as the fakest laugh he had ever heard.

~Are interpreters that respected? Or is it just because he thinks I work for the council?~ Lucius pondered to himself. However, this was to his benefit as he doubted they would’ve spoken to him any other way.

“Yes, thank you. I was sent out here to ask everyone if they know anything about what’s going on at the wall,” Lucius began.

“Do you know anything about the red flower?” he asked afterwards. He wasn’t actually interested in this information, however, it would seem suspicious if he just started asking the questions he was actually wanted to, so he was forced to beat around the bush like this.

However, the reaction the mole creatures gave was quite a curious one. He had expected them to give their answers immediately, after all, what would low-tier creatures know about the fire? But the adolescents in the group gave very suspicious expressions, which made Lucius suspect that they may actually know something about this.

“Red flower? We don’t know anything about it,” the father replied firmly. Which in itself was suspicious since just a moment ago he was speaking in a very submissive manner

~Are they affiliated with the Arsonist group?~ Lucius thought to himself, acting as if he didn’t find the way they were acting at all strange.

“S-Sorry Speaker, perhaps you could ask someone else these questions. I have to get back to my work, I only came along with my family to make sure nothing happened to them,” the father added immediately after. Apparently aware that he was indeed acting suspiciously.

~Work?~ Lucius thought to himself. Forest creatures hadn’t struck him as the type to go to work.

“And what work is that?” Lucius asked, now allowing some scepticism to seep into his tone. After all, if he acted too oblivious they would realize something was off.

“I am part of the tunnel sub-council, sir. I’m currently working to rebuild Councillor Eikthyrnir’s den,” the father replied hesitantly. From the way he was moving his claws around, Lucius could tell that the creature was getting ready to defend itself.

“Ah, is that the case? You may go then. I’ll ask someone else,” Lucius said finally.

~Eikthyrnir, where did I hear that name?~ he thought to himself as the family hastily made their retreat. Just then he remembered what one of the deer humanoids- or Venari as the mole had called them- had said.

~Councillor Eikthyrnir was the one the Arsonist group poisoned not long ago, huh? Well, these moles obviously know something about it,~ he thought to himself.

His short mission was beginning to look like it was going to take a lot longer than he had expected. And although he was running out of time, he had a feeling that after he was done with all this, he would have more than enough materials to get his work done.

~Besides. If the Arsonists are actually my children, then it’ll be well worth the risk of keeping Granovarish waiting,~ he thought to himself, before slowly following the mole family. Making sure to give them enough space so not as to notice him following.

*

After following the family for nearly an hour he was led towards a part of the forest he had never seen before. It seemed that the alien-like plant life and vegetation were only restricted to the earlier parts, as most of the environment in this section seemed like a relatively more similar version to the green forest.

Well with a few major exceptions. For one, the trees were unnaturally tall, some of which Lucius couldn’t even see the top off -and he had hyper vision. If not for the fact that the leaves of the trees in this area were oddly translucent, no light would’ve reached the bottom surface.

He collected a few of these translucent leaves and put them in his pouch for later study. They seemed to have a slight magnification property to them, making the surface warmer than it should’ve been otherwise.

This translucency also caused the third major difference between the green forest and this section. The leaves created a sort of kaleidoscope light effect, making different coloured rays of light bounce around. It was only a slight hue, but due to the diversity of colours, it was like there was a permanent light show going on at the bottom levels.

The family was currently hanging around an odd-looking rock, and scanning the area as if to make sure that nobody was around. Though from the tree that Lucius was hiding in, he doubted they could see him.

~Still, I’m not the only one watching them,~ he thought to himself in slight pity.

He could sense at least four other creatures in the vicinity, even though he could not see them, he could guess that they were probably higher up in the trees. Though perhaps with the odd colours the leaves were creating they couldn’t see the family – still he heavily doubted that.

Once the family was confident no one was around, they began digging at an area close to the rock, before everyone except the father quickly went in. The father looked around one last time, before covering up the area they had just dug up and walking off deeper into the forest.

~Where are you off to?~ Lucius wondered, before following.

*

The deeper in they went, the taller the trees became. In fact, he was beginning to wonder how he hadn’t noticed a whole section of the forest had trees at least 10 times taller than everywhere else.

Though the downslope of the ground made him guess that it was perhaps linked to that. And with the odd light properties that these leaves introduced, he wouldn’t be surprised if they created some sort of optical illusion for the rest of the forest.

*

After about another 30 minutes of travel, the pattern that the trees were planted in was beginning to show some order.

Instead of their former haphazard arrangement, they were now arranged in columns, which created pathways in between them, that seemed to have been smoothened out by some device.

~What is this place?~ Lucius wondered in awe, as he stared at the structures that were coming up in the distance.