Rud didn't know nothin' about fancy mage rituals. He watched as Elm withdrew items that weren't leaves, sticks, beans, or acorns from her magic bag of holding. He might have held a brave face, but he felt a shiver of nervous energy spreading through the grove. It wasn't Ban herself that was anxious about the ritual, but Mint and the other spirit animals. They had been the ones to battle the giant bugs, after all.

"This druidic energy may obstruct me," Elm said, clearing her throat. She stacked items on the dirty ground, just outside of Ban's clearing, before starting work on a ritual circle. "Hmm… There might be something else as well."

Rud cocked an eyebrow, looking upon the woman with concern. "Something else?" he asked with a nervous chuckle. "I have a magical observation tower and I haven't seen anything else in the grove."

Elm simply shrugged, drawing out an absurdly complex ritual circle. She pressed the butt of her staff into the ground, etching those complicated parts from memory. As if that wasn't impressive enough, trails of mana were left behind, filling the grooves in the earth. Things were coming together faster than the druid had expected. That nervousness spread by the spirit animals flooded into him.

"I can't guess what's going on until this ritual," Elm said, arranging the items onto her magic circle. "If you could defend me while I channel it, that would be lovely."

"Major? Dean?" Rud asked, looking into the forest. The giant dire wolf and the bear appeared a moment later, both tilting their heads.

"Wussup?" Dean asked. The wolf had scampered off to follow Elm's deer-horse to the blacksmith shop, but was prompt in his return. Like a good killer wolf.

"Could you keep her safe for me?" Rud asked. "She wants me to defend her, but… Well, just look at me."

Rud might have made progress on his body during his time in this world, but it was minimal. Maybe some more levels and a rank would make him look buff… Until then he had to deal with a scrawny body. At least he wasn't chubby…

"Yes, you are incredibly weak," Dean said, snorting.

"I could kill you with a breath," Major said with a yawn. "Yes, we can defend this little one… Hmmm, does she have forest elf blood?"

Dean trotted over to Elm, sniffing the air around her. Thank the spirits that her eyes were closed as she focused on the spell. "Yes, I think I detect some forest elf blood. Perhaps only a few drops," the wolf said.

"I really don't wanna know what that means," Rud said, holding his hands up defensively. "Instead, I'm going to check on Taz."

"You do that, puny mortal," Major said, yawning. "I shall defend her with my life."

"If he doesn't fall asleep first," Dean grumbled.

"That's why I have you."

With a shrug, Rud dove into the nearest bush. He appeared near the blacksmithing building a moment later, the sound of a hammer on hot metal ringing out through the forest. Daffodil was standing near the smithy patiently, following the simple orders the druid had given her to start.

"Okay there, Daff?" Rud asked, coming up to stroke the impossibly soft coat of the beast.

"Yes, but this one is smelly," she said, snorting and pawing at the ground.

"Oh, he's not half as bad as he could be," Rud said with a snort. "I've heard some horror stories about dwarves."

Rud shifted into his flying squirrel form, climbing up Daffodil's leg and perching on her saddle.

"Am I having another episode, or did you transform into a squirrel?" she asked.

"I'm a druid," Rud explained. "Your mommy is doing some important work for the grove. She's pretty cool, you know."

"Is she?" Daffodil asked, seeming skeptical. "I couldn't say. Haven't known her for long, and I don't truly trust her. She never once got my saddle right. Not until you told her."

"Well, you're intelligent," Rud said, shrugging his little squirrel shoulders. "You can show her in other ways than words. Try nibbling on her next time. Or snorting derisively."

"Yes, that may work… And I am intelligent, aren't I?" Daffodil asked.

"Smarter than you know, I think," Rud said. "I've talked with a lot of wild beasts, and they're… uh… what's the best way to put this? They dumb."

"Hah! Oh, do go on…"

Rud told some stories about the animals he had interacted with in the forest. The squirrels were unintelligent. Those creatures were always concerned there was a hawk about to dive bomb them without warning. Well, they had reason to worry about the hawks. Those hawks ate the squirrels, so it was a fair concern. The druid was still impressed with how smart Daffodil was. Perhaps she was the refined elven mount Elm claimed she was.

"I've only seen them do this," Taz said, coming out of the shop with a cooled horseshoe. "Tell her to give me them paws."

"If you would be so kind," Rud said, gesturing to Daffodil's hooves. "The dwarf is ready to put your new shoes on."

"Oh, those are excellent shoes," Daffodil said, pulling her foreleg up and presenting it. "Are they enchanted?"

"Indeed, they are," Rud said, puffing his chest out with pride. "I enchanted that metal myself. Anything made with those will be of excellent quality."

Rud watched as Taz hammered the shoes made from Spirit Iron Ingots onto Daffodil's hoof. He was actually great at it, but that might've been because the deer-horse worked with him. There must've been a lot of skill that went into a farrier who didn't have that advantage. The druid was watching with amazement when something rippled through the forest. His magical senses registered it as little more than a tickle at first, but it grew to something greater.

"Woah! Gotta check this out," Rud said, dashing away from the blacksmith. "Just be good, Daffodil!"

"I will!" she shouted after him.

Rud tumbled through the thicket, arriving at the ritual site an instant later. Waves of blue and green energy rolled out of the ritual circle like an oncoming tide. The air was thick with magical power, stinging his skin as he approached. The druid pushed back his green hood, his mouth hanging open.

"Is it working?" he asked. Elm's eyelids were pressed closely together, and she held the staff out before her. Orbs of errant light floated from that staff, falling to the ground to create tiny, harmless explosions. "Doesn't look like it's working."

"I'm unsure," Dean said, prowling around the circle. "I understand nothing about magic, but she isn't in distress."

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"Yet she asked for a bodyguard," Rud said, tapping his chin. Only now did he notice Major, napping under a tree. "Lazybones…"

If Rud understood more about non-druidic rituals, he could tell how things were going. There was a lot of magic coming from Elm's ritual circle, but he couldn't identify what exactly it was doing. The woman herself had her eyes pinched tight, as though putting every ounce of her concentration into the spell. At one point, Major awoke and yawned lazily. It didn't seem as though anything interesting would happen until it did.

Mint burst from the forest, grabbing Elm by the scruff and jumping out of the ritual circle. A cage of roots sprang up around that circle, encasing it in an interweaving pattern. A moment later, a sound like a dull thud came from inside. The elven mage let out a shriek of terror, flailing for only a moment before realizing what had happened.

"Well, that was unexpected," Elm said, standing to her feet and dusting herself off..

"What happened, mortal?" Mint growled. "Your magic threatened to detonate!"

Rud cleared his throat, translating for the scared elf. Unless Mint transformed into her human form, it was just a series of angry growls to the woman. When the giant spirit wolf noticed the difficulty in communication, she transformed into her human form, folding her arms and shaking her head.

"This ritual may be powerful, but it shouldn't have exploded," Elm said, a look of confusion washing over her face. "I've cast it several times before, but as I was searching through the grove, I felt something strange. I've detected about 12 cursed objects throughout the grove, but this was different."

"Different how?" Mint asked, giving Elm an appraising look.

"I'm afraid that's a scholarly question." Elm said, "I will give you the location of what I detected, but strangest of all, I think it's underground on the western side of the grove."

12 cursed objects was nothing to sneeze at. Rud didn't know what to think about that. At least he had the ritual spell to take care of them, although he wasn't looking forward to collecting each of them, performing that ritual, and sealing them in a tree. At least they could now know where they were. And there was absolutely no reason to delay in finding them all, and the druid now had access to a team that could help with the excavation.

"We need to know what this object she speaks of is," Ban said, speaking into the minds of the animal spirits.

"Agreed," Dean said, prowling around the area, "We should go to the site she speaks of, but somebody must remain with the elf."

"I'll take care of her," Major said with a shrug and a yawn. "And I promise not to fall asleep."

Rud knew that Major wouldn't shirk this duty. He could be lackadaisical at times, but when it counted, he could focus.

"Before you run off to some unknown, magical signature, I'll draw a simple map of where I found the cursed objects," Elm said, withdrawing parchment from her bag and getting it to work. "This is the location of the energy I detected. It's hard to say how deep it is underground, but... this is as close as I got before the ritual was interrupted."

"What could be powerful enough to interrupt your rituals?" Rud asked, walking over to kneel where the woman worked.

"It honestly wouldn't take too much. I didn't erect the proper defeses because I didn't expect to encounter the arcane here," Elm explained. "When I cast a ritual like that, I can lay your other defenses on top of it. But druidic magic isn't very good at counterspelling, so I didn't think it was necessary."

"That's almost more concerning," Mint said with a sigh. "I've already sent Sarya to inspect the area. She'll be there in moments."

As Elm drew the map, the others waited anxiously. The cursed objects were scattered throughout the grove with no logical placement. Rud couldn't see a pattern on the map, but he could tell it was going to be a pain to extract each of them.

"This is going to be a lot of cleansing rituals," Ruts said, scratching his head. "Gonna be a lot of acorns."

"We can help collect the acorns," Dean said. "Worry not."

Rud put on his big boy pants and delegated. The spirit animals might have been eager to go and collect all of the cursed objects, but he wasn't. If they weren't currently causing problems, he wanted to investigate what the energy signature was first. He relayed his orders, and Ban agreed, although he didn't expect her to.

"That's as close as I'm gonna get," Elma said, presenting the sheet of parchment to Rud. Although she claimed it wasn't good, it was just about the most detailed map of the grove he had ever seen. Perhaps that was an effect of her spell, or she was just a secret cartographer.

"Remain here until we inspect the site," Mint said, nodding at Rud before shifting into her wolf form. "I will tell you through our link if we find anything worth note."

Without another word, Mint and Dean dashed off into the forest. Major trundled over, taking a seat on his big, bear butt and yawning.

"We might as well go check on Daffodil," Rud said, patting Elm on the shoulder. "That might not be a consolation, but I think you did a great job."

"I'm afraid I'll be dealing with the shock of the feedback for a while," Elm said, nodding as she cast her eyes to the ground. "Thinking back to it, I think the forest spirit saved me. The force of that explosion wouldn't have been good. I don't think I would have survived."

Rud did everything he could to offer her comfort and led her north toward the mine. It was a bit of a walk without the power of thicket travel, but they arrived eventually. There had been no report from Mint or Dean as they headed that way, but the sound of iron ringing out through the forest soon graced their ears. Daffodil was standing outside the blacksmith, prancing around on three brand new horseshoes.

"Look how pretty I am, Mommy," Daffodil said, prancing and cantering around the clearing as though showing off a brand new outfit. Of course, Elm couldn't hear her.

"What do you think?" Rud asked, gesturing to the prancing deer-horse.

"They look wonderful. Do they have any special effects?"

"More effects than you can shake a prancing pony at." Taz said, coming out from the shop. He held a new horseshoe between a pair of tongs. "Increased speed and decreased fatigue, mostly. They're a fine pair of horseshoes, I guarantee you."

Elm watched in amazement as Taz fitted the last shoe to the beast. Once she had all four on, she pranced even quicker and performed some strangely acrobatic moves for such a large beast. The group couldn't help but smile at the joy the deer-horse displayed. And eventually, it was Rud's time to translate between the two.

They talked about their differences and how they were similar, but Elm was mostly interested in discussing ways that they could work better together. Daffodil suggested that they come up with a system of communication that had nothing to do with words. Apparently, the creature hadn't thought to use nonverbal communication with her master. She was too set in her ways, and that's when Rud realized she hadn't had this level of intelligence for long. It was a recent thing. It was after she had been shipped from the mainland that she gained her intelligence.

"This might have something to do with the grove," Rud said, scratching at his chin. "I know the druid magic in the air has an effect on animals, but I haven't noticed an increase in the local population. Not by much, anyway."

"Are you sure about that?" Major asked with a chuckle. Both Dean and I are good examples of creatures that were drawn to the grove and given intelligence after arriving.

"That has more to do with the contract you made with the tree, right?" Rud asked.

"Perhaps, but I definitely recall having a spark of intelligence in my mind after I arrived in the caves. I took the underground area to arrive here, so I think the effect was less intense than what Dean experienced."

"This is fascinating," Elm said. Rud looked over to see that she was scribbling something in a notebook. She looked between Major and Rud with great interest.

"Are you studying us, lady?" Rud asked.

"Indeed, I am," Elm admitted. "When you communicate with the spirit animals, there's a small puff of druidic magic that comes out of you. It's different from the type of magic I sense when you talk with animals that aren't part of the grove."

"Yeah, there are two different modes of speaking," Rud explained. "When I'm talking to the animals of the grove, I'm using our bond with the sacred tree. But when I talk with mundane creatures, I'm using my skill. The spirit animals can understand me. Most of the time, anyway. I don't have to switch to their language for them to hear me. The only time they can't understand me is if I'm speaking with a creature."

"I've been learning the squirrel language," Major said, puffing his chest with pride, "and I'm getting quite good."

What happened next was what you would expect if a giant grizzly bear attempted to imitate the sounds of a chittering squirrel. It was equal parts hilarious and confusing, and Rud found himself doubled over and laughing. Elm was soon to join him.

For a moment, it felt as though there wasn't some magical threat buried beneath the grove. But as the group stopped laughing and Rud was given a moment to think, he made a connection in his mind. He turned to Major with his brow furrowed.

"You said you arrived here through a series of caves and tunnels, right?" he asked.

"That's right. I've been wandering around in them for quite some time."

From what Rud understood, there was no underground connection between the grove and the dwarven homes to the north. But there was a random energy that appeared underground, relatively close to where they stood now, which meant there was likely a connection. "Do you remember anything about the caves?" Rud asked.

"They were caves," Majors said, seeming to think that was enough to explain everything away. "Many twisting turns and confusing passages."

"You'll want to see this," Ban said, speaking into their minds. "Bring the elf."

Rud turned to Elm and Major. "Mount up. They found it."

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