The project of carving the statues and decorating the grotto was time-consuming. Moving the three heavy stone statues was the most demanding task, and Bob's muscles were essential for this. Alex was amazed by Bob's strength when he effortlessly lifted and moved the statues, which weighed hundreds of pounds, to the spots Martha indicated. Although still unrefined, the statues' potential was already apparent to some, and their future dispy was clear.

  Kaide stood outside the grotto when a little bird descended on her shoulder. "It seems like Ki would like to talk with everyone. She has some news."

  "Oh, where should we meet her?" Fufi regarded the nymph.

  "She should be here shortly. Unlike me she can use treestride to travel quickly." Kaide sounded a bit envious.

  "Treestride? Is that a skill where you can jump from tree to tree?" Alex wondered aloud.

  "Some pnt themed magical girls have powers like that. It tends to work like they step into one tree and then step out in another tree." Fufi gestured a wing at a rge tree trunk.

  "That is a really good ability." Alex sounded impressed.

  "I wonder if I can learn it." Alex mused.

  "Well your best chance to learn it would have been to stay as a Nymph and you didn't want that." Fufi shook her head.

  "I umm…" Alex stammered a bit. Being forced to be a Nymph really caused him to reject it without even considering it. Being forced into anything was a good enough reason to resist.

  "I'm just kidding Alex, don't feel bad. Most anyone in your shoes would have wanted to do the same thing. No one likes to be changed without their consent." Fufi backpedaled a bit.

  An awkward silence followed.

  The silence broke when Ki stepped out of a tree overlooking the gorge, then walked down the stairs built into the wall.

  "Hello everyone, how are things?” The aspen nymph approached the group. ”It looks like you've been busy."

  "We dug out a grotto and were trying to figure out what would be appropriate for it to become a pce someone could ask Luna for a css." Alex brought Ki’s attention to the in-progress statues.

  "In town there was a big building that had various alcoves for popur deities. My understanding of the nomadic tribes is that they mostly only have csses given by the battle god, Senso. For him, holy relics are things associated with great battles. Shamans keep these items and their stories for rituals like asking for a css. They don't set up a permanent structure and instead have a tabernacle that they take with them from pce to pce." Ki expined. “I’m not sure if that is the case for Luna. Sakura didn’t go to a temple to get her css. Though she never talked about it much outside of meeting Funi.”

  "It has to be cute." Fufi stated. “As for csses from Luna, becoming a magical girl doesn’t require a pce of worship, but that is because the css comes from a contract with a familiar. Other csses are obtained the normal way.”

  "We could grow flowers along the entrance. Also, perhaps some mushrooms. It is quite dim so I don't know how well most pnts would do." Kaide suggested.

  "Martha and I don't know much about cultivating mushrooms." Bob looked to his wife who also shook her head. “That is more of a speciality-focused farmer css.”

  "It is okay, some of the other Nymphs said they would like to be in charge of gardening for the grotto." Ki said happily. “Is that okay?”

  "We could use the help." Alex gratefully accepted the offer.

  "There is something else I wanted to talk about too." Ki's smile faded, taking on a more serious tone.

  "What's that?" Bob and Alex asked in unison.

  "It is about the stone ax tribe. A little bird told us that the chief pns to just dey pnting the Aspens we gave Handverk." Ki sounded annoyed.

  Alex whispered to Kaide, "Does she mean that in a literal sense, like birds are telling her what is going on in the tribe."

  Kaide snickered and nodded to Alex. “Yes, animals often help gather information outside the forest. None of us nymphs would be able to know about potential threats until they entered otherwise.”

  "I don't understand why the chief is doing that.”Alex frowned. “I thought they wanted to make amends."

  "Are they warriors or bandits?" Fufi sounded frustrated.

  “This is not outside of expectation." Ki didn’t sound phased. "We learned a lot from the meeting. Handverk wants to trade. Chief stone ax is in charge but ignores his advisor. He thinks the weakness of us not being able to leave the forest is a shield that he can hide behind."

  "Is that not the case? I thought it was a show of good will to reveal that to them." Alex furrowed his brow. “Should the tribesmen that were transformed not be allowed to return after all?”

  "Dealing with them openly is a test as well as a show of good faith." Ki stated matter-of-factly. “It is not a mistake to give someone a chance to see if they’ll repay honesty with honesty.”

  "What else did they say?" Alex leaned forward.

  "The advisor thinks the game the chief is pying is too risky and he is right." Ki said smugly.

  Bob scratched his head. "What does that mean?"

  "It means that we don't have to rely on the tribe to expand the forest's domain. All these years we've been expanding away from the ruined town to not have to deal with people. Now our expansion pns may come back to bite us because we don't have access to the area. I guess that we can pnt trees along the edge of the woodnd but there are miles to the town. " Kaide sighed.

  "So we just need help from someone that isn't a nymph then Kaide. Also, there are pnts that can spread their seeds for many miles with the right wind." Ki made sure the younger nymph understood.

  "I don't know if we can get too close to the town but we could carry a lot of saplings in the carriage. I'm worried about the scouts spotting us." Alex felt a bit scared of the thought of going back towards the pce where they ran away from.

  "I don't think you understand. It is summer, the aspens have already flowered and the floofy seeds have blown all around the surrounding areas." Ki expined a little bit slower this time.

  "Oh, I understand. The whole pnting was just a test to see if they could be dealt with in good faith." Alex finally got it.

  "Yes, it is only the miasma left over from the demon army that keeps them from sprouting. Also, Sakura would have disagreed with purging it. She felt like the humans were not trustworthy and deserved to wander the wastends." Ki said though there was a bit of sadness in her tone.

  "So how can we help?" Alex felt a bit out of his league.

  "We are going to do a ritual at the forest's edge. You are welcome to join us. It should cause the whole area of nd from the wood's edge to the river to sprout and grow. After that perhaps we can go visit them, at least the ones that haven't ran off." Ki expined.

  "I'd rather just stay at the farm. It hasn't been long since we saw our daughter." Bob stated.

  Martha nodded in agreement. “Also, we can't leave the farm unattended. Maybe one day after things calm down a bit it might be nice to take a trip to town just to say we've done it. But not right now."

  "I suppose." Alex agreed, still feeling uneasy about returning.

  "Do you want to come with, Merumeru?" Fufi asked the slime girl.

  Merumeru shook her head. She pointed at the grotto and said "Meru!" Apparently the diminutive slime girl wanted to stay here and decorate the grotto.

  The group ascended the stone stairs, leaving the gorge and returning to the farm. Martha readied supplies in the carriage to prepare a meal for a group of nymphs. Ki, in a parting gesture, waved and smiled before disappearing into a tree as if it were water.

  "She is such a show off." Kaide compined, apparently jealous of Ki’s treestride ability.

  "Fufi and I best be off. I don't think we can make it out of the forest before we have to make camp but that is okay. Hopefully it won't be too hard to figure out where to meet the rest of the nymphs." Alex wound up the key on the cart.

  "Merumeru is staying here to decorate, so it looks like it is just you and me for now Fufi." Alex waved to the pink fmingo.

  "Sure, let's get going." Fufi perched on top of the cart.

  The group made their way down to the gorge and said a quick farewell to Merumeru. Alex noticed several unfamiliar nymphs already there, presumably working on the decorations. Unsure of their specific pns, he decided it was best not to interfere.

  Progress was once again hindered by the carriage's inability to handle steep terrain. They were only able to take the carriage out of card form and ride it briefly in a few spots before darkness fell, forcing them to stop and make camp.

  Throughout the journey, Alex remained vigint, his nerves causing him to jump at the sight of creatures passing nearby or venturing deeper into the woods.

  While cooking dinner for the two of them Alex asked, "Fufi, what do people normally use for transportation in Terre?"

  "Well, you've seen a little. There are carts and horses. The less nd locked areas have boats as well. There are more fshy ways of getting around but they get less common the more exotic it gets." Fufi expined.

  "So is Ki's treestride ability rare?" Alex asked.

  "Yes, she must have worked really hard to learn it. I guess a comparison might be that a wizard who studied spacial magic might be able to learn teleportation at level 9. Though it is not an apples to apples comparison because Ki is not a wizard." Fufi nodded.

  "Hmm, that is really impressive but I doubt I'd be able to have something like that from my css any time soon. After taking the carriage along in the woods a few times I keep feeling that it is not the right tool for the job as it were." Alex leaned back in the carriage seat, pulling a bolt of cloth he was using as a bnket over himself.

  "I guess someone going off a road would just ride a horse. Is that what you were thinking?" Fufi asked back.

  "Something like that. Though I was never really one for taking care of animals. Do they have flying mounts in this world?" Alex asked with a yawn.

  "Hmm, like winged horses or big birds? Yeah though they are even more difficult than learning magic to fly." Fufi said with a nod.

  "Why is that?" Alex wondered.

  "Well, rather than beasts of burden they are more like companion creatures. A dire eagle for example only eats meat and also, they imprint on whoever they see when they come out of their egg. Someone wanting to be an eagle knight would have to raise the dire eagle from birth and train it for years. Like how Bob and Martha can't leave their farm alone, an eagle knight has to change their life to include taking care of their bird every day." Fufi said.

  "Well, I had this idea about how it might be better to just try to fly over the treetops." Alex sleepily said.

  "Pnning on being a winged magical girl?" Fufi chuckled. “Some magical girl transformations provide wings.”

  "What no! Wait, those actually exist?" Alex boggled.

  "After your transformation into a nymph you should know that staying a human isn't a certainty. One of the races of elves in the past were winged elves. " Fufi stated.

  "That is a shocking bit of possibility, however I had more mundane ideas. I have tailoring skills and if we could find another one of those magic springs and some other things we could make an obscure flying device from my world. We called them paramotors. I was thinking that perhaps we could make one for Lily and if it works okay try to make another bigger one that would work for the size of a person." Alex told the fmingo.

  "If we could get you back in the dungeon maybe you could win another one of those magic springs." Fufi seemed optimistic.

  "That is something not for today. I'm sleepy." Alex sighed.

  "Then let's get to bed." Fufi giggled.

  Alex slept deeply, only disturbed by dreams of being pursued through the woods by a creature of roots and branches. He had to leap from tree to tree to flee the monster. The dream was so vivid, that when he awoke he felt as though he had actually spent the day in the forest, running from the creature that had haunted his sleep.

  "At least I didn't dream of strange forest women this time. I'll count that as an improvement." Alex stretched and sat up from the bench. He greeted Fufi, got dressed and wound up the key for the cart they slept in. They had some boiled oats and water from breakfast with a side of forest-gathered berries.

  "Bad dreams?" Fufi poked.

  "Just something I've come to expect from sleeping in this forest. After we clean up, do you think you could fly on ahead and see if we are headed to the right pce?" Alex asked his winged familiar.

  "Certainly!" Fufi beamed.

  Alex, seated on the driver's bench, steered the ticking carriage towards town after closing the panels that were used for cooking. Fufi took to the skies, and Alex followed closely behind.

  The rest of the journey was uneventful, and they reached the ritual site in the evening. A group of about a dozen nymphs had formed a circle around a strange root circle and were carefully pcing moonstones in specific locations.

  melchi