A Song of Roots and Ash

Part 2

                Once inside the door closed behind them, startling the rangers. The green woman simply placed her hand on a stone in the wall, and its swirling rune lit up with a blue light, causing several pods above them to glow with a yellow light. They were in the midst of a room, all made of wood, but not timber, cut and shaped, it was wood that had been morphed somehow into its current shape. There was a bookshelf, and some tables that had emerged out of the wood and an oval doorway into another room, but in the middle of this room was a large open space. From outside they heard it, and inside they could see the walls move like ripples across a still lake as the tree shifted again.

"And we're safe in here?" Savi asked.

"Safe is a relative term." Zoe replied "You should be 'safe' in a town, but you're more likely to be stabbed there than in the countryside."

"A simple yes, or no would have sufficed."

"Indeed. Would you lot like a snack of some sort, I have berries, fruits, or tea."

"No meat...?" asked Derrick

"No, sadly I'm not a hunter."

"How is a thing like you connected to the Shell Clan?" Savi asked rudely, her companions looking at her as she stood with her arms crossed and a glare.

"Huh...straight to business..." Zoe replied. It was difficult for them to tell her reaction, surprise at the question, or trying to hide her annoyance. "Well that is a story best told over tea, come along." She said walking into the next room.

The two male rangers looked at Savi somewhat nervously and decided to walk off after her, followed by Savi who came pouting. Zoe was in the next room, where there was polished stone on the arch way, and a block of stone with ditches for starting a fire.

Zoe placed a kettle on a metal frame over one of the ditches, it was perhaps the only piece of metal she had in the house. From the center of the ditch came a light, a glowing rune that shined right up into the kettle.

"So what brings you lot through my woods, chased by demons no less...?"

"What business is that of yours...?" Savi asked.

"Hmmm, what business do you have going to see the Shell Clan...?"

"You just need to take us there demon..."

"Hmmm, no, no I don't." Savi reached for a knife when Daniel stepped between them.

"Hi, I'm Daniel..." he said "this is Derrick, my friend here is Savi, and we need to send a message to your leader, a message from the White Queen herself." Zoe's cheerful expression melted into a frown, as she rolled her eyes at the mention of that name. "And you are...?"

"I am Zoe, Uth Zoe-Brar."

"Zoe, Wizard Zoe the Maker...?" said Savi.

"You know the tongue of the Night Folk?" Zoe asked with a sense of excitement.

"We rangers often interact with the elves."

"How wonderful, you must such stories to tell!"

"Don't you have a story to tell, like how a demon of all things is associated with the Shell Clan, a clan of druids?!"

"Oh that's simple really, I ran away from the ashlands, the Shell Clan allowed me to stay, and I've been studying their magic ever since then."