After spending the rest of the day enjoying the harvest festival with Mileena, the two returned to the castle and relieved Maya and Azura of their babysitting duties.
“Was there any problem while we were gone?” asked Mileena.
“No more than usual,” said Maya as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.
“It was nothing that we couldn’t handle ourselves!” said Azura proudly sticking out her chest.
“We already gave them a bath so you don’t have to worry about it,” said Maya.
“Thanks for the help,” said Mileena as she walked to the sleeping Silvy and Wyt.
Azura and Maya both left after a few more words, leaving Akira and Mileena alone in the room with the sleeping twins.
“How long will you be staying in Kodria this time?” asked Mileena.
“As long as I can. I hope that there are no other problems that call me out of the city. I want to stay here and spend more time with you and the twins,” said Akira as he placed his arm around her shoulder and watched the sleeping twins along with Mileena.
Fluffball sat next to them fully alert and also watched the babies as well.
“With the warm months ending there will be a high chance of something happening so don’t get your hopes up just yet. Until we have taken care of the demigods for good, there is no way we can rest peacefully.”
***
The harvest festival was going to last an entire week so many travelers and seasonal merchants continued to arrive and join the festival when they arrived a few days late.
Akira kept his word and spent most of his time with Mileena and the twins only spending a few hours a day taking care of pressing matters and checking up on the new building projects that had started up after the completion of the main walls and buildings.
There was no major work being done just yet due to the festival, but the materials for the projects such as additional floors to the many large apartments and inns were all being gathered and ferried over to the outer city as well as the main resources and tools needed for the new secret project.
Akira was now waiting at the outer city’s docks for the dwarves that would be arriving from the mountain clans. It was a last-minute thing that he had not planned for as he did not know the exact day that they would be arriving and had only recently received a notice from a naval messenger that they would be arriving soon.
“I have to take care of this so you three can go hang out together and have fun,” said Akira as he looked to Mileena, Maya, and Azura who were all waiting nearby.
“Work, work, work, that’s all you think about,” Azura.
“Come on, let’s go see what the new merchant stands have. Maybe we can spend all his money while he is stuck here,” said Mileena.
Akira let out a long sigh as he watched the three pass through the outer city’s main gates.
“Yap!” said Fluffball.
“Don’t say that!” said Akira with a sharp stare at Fluffball. Fluffball only stared back at Akira with a wolfish grin on his furry face.
After a half-hour wait the boat transporting the large group of dwarves finally arrived.
“Blasted boats! I want to kill whoever made those torture devices,” said Humdol after his feet landed on the sturdy stone docks.
Humdol was an old dwarf with a long pointy gray beard. Currently, his face was almost a shade of green, and looked ready to blow out the contents of his stomach.
“I hope your trip was uneventful,” said Akira as he grasped Humdol’s rough calloused hand. He was the leader of the group of dwarves and had been the person that the grand elders had negotiated with during the few talks about the secret building project.
“Old Humdol, if we didn’t take them up on their offer for a ride, we would still be traveling and would be greatly hindered by the coming snowfall and malicious wandering demigods,” said a younger dwarf.
“I can still feel the ground swaying back and forth! Am I really on land?” asked a third dwarf who was slightly swaying back and forth on wobbly legs.
“You guys have no stamina! How can you call this a bad ride? The rivers are at one of their calmest points of the year! If you want a rough ride you should try sailing when the warm months first start and all the snow and ice is melting into the rivers,” said a rough-looking werewolf who was the ship’s captain.
“Now that I know that, you won’t catch me anywhere near a boat during the beginning of the warm months!” said Humdol with a glare at the ship’s captain.
He turned to Akira and said, “Before we talk business, we need a few drinks to recover. Did you get the ale we asked for?”
“It is waiting for you at your new lodgings. But since there is only a limited supply you will have to be careful with it,” said Akira.
“Of course, we know that. We won’t waste a drop!”
Akira, Fluffball, and the royal guards led the group of dwarves into the boisterous outer city that was still in full swing celebrating the successful harvest.
“Kodria is far different from what I heard described before. And far more lively,” said Humdol.
With well-trained eyes, he and the other dwarves were inspecting the ground, walls, and buildings as they walked toward the center of the city.
“If you would like, you can enjoy the festival before starting your work on the project,” said Akira.
Humdol shook his head, “No. We came here to work. I want to complete the job and return to the tunnels of my home city. It’s too wide open here.”
Akira had heard of dwarves like Humdol who did not like the outside world due to its wide open spaces.
When they arrived at their destination, a newly built inn without a name, the handful of city guards that were standing guard around the inn quickly saluted Akira and stepped to the side.
In the Inn’s large common room, they found several wooden tables had been placed together with enough chairs for each of the dwarves with a few extra for Akira and other guests.
Klyn was already waiting inside the common room with a few of his subordinates.
“Did you gather everything?” asked Akira as he sat down next to Klyn.
The dwarves all rushed over to the large barrel of ale that had been set up on a wooden counter and grabbed one of the several dozen clean wooden mugs that had been placed next to it.
“It’s all here,” said Klyn as he slapped a pile of documents in front of him.
Humdol, now with a full mug of murky ale, sat down next to Akira. After he took several quiet sips he let out a long sigh of satisfaction.
“That’s much better,” said Humdol as his face slowly relaxed and regained some of its vigor.
Akira searched through the stack of papers and pulled out a few of them. He unfolded them making sure they were the correct thing he was looking for before sliding them over to Humdol.
“This is just an idea of what we want. Do you think you can do something like it?”
After another long sip, Humdol smacked his lips and then looked down at the neatly drawn plans. They were clearly not drawn by Akira.
“This project may be extremely ambitious and the first of its kind, but I have never faced a project that we were unable to finish! We have the talent to build anything… but…” Humdol paused for a moment, hesitating as he tried to find the right words.
“Is there a problem with the terrain? Or is it because the city is already built atop the project site?” asked Akira worried that all their plans and money spent were all for nothing.
Humdol waved his calloused hand dismissing Akira’s worries, “That’s nothing to us, even if it were a swamp we could complete the task. The problem is that tree of yours.”
“You saw it?” asked Klyn.
“I did, as it is kind of hard to miss. But before that, I and the others had already heard about it from the rumors that reached us in the mountains.”
“It’s only been a short time since it was planted, how could that be?” asked Klyn.
“Rumors have a way of flying to the ends of the world before you even know it. The rumors are not the problem… the problem is the roots of the [Child of the world tree]. It may be impossible to work on the spot you want without damaging the roots. I would suggest we move the project to another zone.”
Akira smacked his forehead at this major blunder that had completely gone unnoticed by him.
“That would defeat the whole purpose of the project if we move it to some other place,” said Akira disheartened.
“There is no need to move to another spot!” said Klyn confidently.
“How so?” asked Humdol. “Everyone knows that if you damage the world tree and its offspring you will gain bad luck. We don’t want to work anywhere near it if we can help it. We want to save ourselves from any disaster happening.”
“These two gentlemen next to me are the best shamans we have in Kodria. They are skilled in various chants for nurturing, controlling, and communicating with plants,” said Klyn pointing to the men next to him.
“What?” asked Akira and Humdol at the same time.
“We have the skills to ask the young tree to move its roots out of the area,” said Casat, the shaman on the right.
“But being able to talk to a world tree or its descendants is just a legend,” said Humdol.
“We will prove that it is not a legend but fact!” said Popill, the shamen on the left.
“Big words, but unless we are 100% sure there are no roots in the project zone, then we will not begin the project no matter how long we have to wait.”
“You can count on us to take care of that for you!” said Casat.
“I won’t hold my breath,” said Humdol.
“While they are sorting out that problem we also have this project that I was wondering if you can help us with,” said Akira, sliding another piece of paper over to Humdol.
“This is for your castle?”
“It is.”
“Seems fairly simple. If you want, we can complete it quickly before we start the main project. If they actually get the roots out of the way that is.”
“That would be great!”
***
During one of the nights that had a full moon, Akira found time to once again induct the new demigod members that had passed all the tests and strict monitoring.
With the new members, the [Full moon] guild its strength was increased no longer being the size of a small hunting group.
All of this was another happy thing for Kodria to celebrate as it meant more powerful fighters on their side in the future.
