<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#804080">âIâm Melaina, Melaina Belarri nice to meet you Nall. Iâve heard you Magewood people are pretty powerful; must be to pass the entrance tests I guess.â</span>She smiled slightly and turned her gaze to the forest ahead.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#804080">âYou donât look like your headed to Ferazi; you heard the rumours about that wild boy attacking people?â</span><br/><br/>-------------------<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffff00">âYou may be a slave, but youâre also my employer. You gave me a job to get you home safely and that is what Iâm trying to do. Besides, even if this is all some kind of trick and you donât plan to pay me, youâre still my slave and Iâd rather not have those sorts of people going and ruining you. You deserve better than that.â</span>Cal smiled and started walking again, the bags of gold safely hidden away inside his large pack.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffff00">âGuards here are trouble. Not just in Seranto, but everywhere in Ferazi. There is no army the way you might think of an army, with a set chain of command and formal training. This whole kingdom is ruled by wealth, and the army is no different. The guards arenât trained soldiers, theyâre mercenaries, and that makes them far more dangerous. They are unpredictable and lack structure. They have no code of conduct, only a very loose set of rules. Their main concern is to eliminate any behaviour and activities that may disrupt the business of their employers. Take a look around and you will see guards in all different colours of uniform. Each part of the city has its own mix of colours depending which Magnates are in power in that particular sector. The result is you have a very unpredictable military force that is very good at keeping order at any cost.â</span>His gaze moved over the various store fronts as they walked.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffff00">âIf the guards connected us with that body, we may be arrested for disturbing the peace, but likely only if they found out about the gold. In that case, we could try to pay them off, but it is just as likely they would steal the cash and arrest us regardless. The safest place for us to rest is by the north gate. There is a small inn there that isnât very popular, except with those who are trying to avoid attention. Itâs inside the city, but far enough from any major market not to attract much business from traders.â</span><br/><br/>-------------------<br/><br/>Sean looked from the dryad up to the trees that were slowly bending towards him. They looked menacing enough and scared him at first, but he quickly regained composure when he noticed that they werenât moving fast enough to pose a real threat. He could easily step out of the way long before any of the jagged branches would reach him. This far from her home, Lyniseâs powers were clearly enough to cause the massive trees to move and disorient unwary travellers, but making large trees fight on oneâs behalf was a much more complicated and strenuous endeavour. The strain on her meant that, although the trees started to move as normal, the movements quickly slowed as she exhausted herself from the effort it took to get them to do so. She was too far from home, and the young sapling didnât provide much of a battery for her to draw energy from beyond what was needed just to keep her alive with only the most basic of her otherwise impressive abilities. Such was the trade-off Nymphs who wanted to wander must make: power for mobility.<br/><br/>Sean pushed the overexerted nymph down and drew the dagger from his boot.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00bf00">âIâve heard Nymphs couldnât be trusted! I thought I was being nice, and you try to scare me by making that tree grab for me. Well your tricks arenât going to intimidate me that easily.â</span>He watched her on the ground, clearly tired from trying to brings the ancient trees down as if she were at home in her own grove.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00bf00">âIâve heard dryads were scarier though, able to bend the forest to their will, but you look worn out after making that tree move barely at all towards me. And all because I youâre your sapling here? I said I would find a good home for it to growâ¦â </span>He looked from her to the small tree sticking out of the bag.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00bf00">âUnlessâ¦ is this little thing your home tree?â</span>He looked back at her in disbelief.