Between the Veil and Crown

Kylin 50

It was only a matter of days before the materials for the building arrived. Ofjaet and Jyl went through the village, picking out trustworthy villagers who had skill in building. Or at the very least, could follow instruction.

Kylin had partly assumed that he and Rei would've moved on, but the project became an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation, and he found himself helping where he was called to while Rei was constantly dealing with disputes, as soldiers came by to watch.

Though it was an amazing and huge gift from the dryads, it did come with the flaw that the dryads let their imagination with it run wild. It resulted in a grandiose design, one that was "the simplest I could convince them to get," as Ofjaet told Kylin. It would have one giant room that the front doors would open to. It would have side rooms of varying sizes, some lined with bookshelves. Stairs would lead to a spacious second floor with a couple of big rooms and rooms with bunks. If Kylin had to guess, he would have to say that the dryads were inspired by cathedrals and castles, bot of which they had never seen and never understood the purpose of the rooms occupying such buildings. They had insisted on at least two secret passageways, and several areas where one could hide in the walls. Each room was to be given elaborate decorations, carved into walls, doors, shelves, sills, and anywhere else a dryad thought it needed something. Every dryad of the clan had chosen one design motif to be put in the building, which was touching. But while a good portion of them had put thought into their motif, it was evident that some of the dryads had picked the first thing they could find in their excitement, creating little motifs of twigs, acorns, and spiders.

On the front doors were to be the design of three cedar trees, a tribute to the dryads who now made the very walls of the building. The doors were being done by the dryads themselves, to be delivered when they were done.

Since the center was too big to be made entirely of the dryad wood, only select parts were made by that wood, focusing on the exterior and load bearing walls, and the front doors.

Its unusual design definitely provoked questions from the villagers, in which the only answer that could be given was a resigned sigh, a shrug of the shoulders, and a "It's just how dryads are."

Despite all the odd requests, progress was made, leaving a giant structure surrounded by the brown and bare ground where a village once stood. The builders jokingly called it the Castle of the Veil, which evolved into a few crowns being twisted from dried vines. Anytime someone was deemed "too bossy" without good cause, a crown was placed on his head and he would mockingly be called "Your Majesty" until the crown was removed for someone more fitting.

Of course, the guidelines for crowning became looser with time, and Kylin found that even simply passing on a message could result in being crowned. In one morning, he had successfully dodged six crowning attempts.

Soon, not even the likes of Ofjaet and Rei were safe. Ofjaet merely passed on the crown with a gracious smile, a "Oh, but I couldn't, I must abdicate" while gently placing it one the one who attempted to bestow him with it. Rei went a completely opposite direction. At first baffled and perhaps a little annoyed, he warmed right up to the joke, and then some. He appeared to be attempting to collect the crowns, demanding to know the reason one was removed, pointing to his stack if anyone questioned him, and unabashedly wearing them when talking with the soldiers causing problems.

Unfortunately, Rei's fun had to come to an end. He had informed Kylin that he was intending to leave sooner rather later, after he was confident that things could be handled without his constantly telling the soldiers off. The morning of the day he planned to leave, he strutted around the building area, enjoying his final moments of having the most crowns before passing them off.