—–
I checked the map right after Titania said those words, as she was right, it was named “Earthen” but it never showed in the map until we arrived here. Is it a secret area players cannot really access normally unless they’re guided by an NPC?
“This village is hidden with the magic of the Gnomes, because of that, unless you’re guided by someone that already knows where it is, you will never be able to find the village, losing yourself in the woods and walking in circles.” Titania explained.
“Is there such magic?” Wondered Nieve.
“Indeed, it is special of the gnomes, who can create magic items with what they had learned from the dwarves, their close cousins.” Said Titania.
“How are gnomes and dwarves related aside from being little bearded men?” Achlys wondered.
“Well they were once the same tribe, but they separated in the past. A group decided to live in the mountains extracting ores and forging, polishing their mastery over weapons and more. Meanwhile, the other tribe decided to connect more with nature and the spiritual essence, being close to plants as well, and forming an alliance with the little Brownie, who are similar to us fairies, born from the forest.” Said Titania. “Gnomes over the years have specialized in alchemy and magic item creation, but only small items. Unlike dwarves, who like to create big things and constantly push themselves towards something innovative.”
“That’s quite interesting, so how were they called when they were a single tribe?” I wondered.
“I don’t know, but some called them Gnomies. Their creation was around the same time as my own. They were made by the Goddess of Earth, shaped from mud and soil. Ancient Gnomies might live somewhere, but their descendants separated into the Dwarves and Gnomes.” Titania said.
“That’s interesting, they sound funny.” I laughed a bit.
“Yeah, I suppose. Now let’s go. The village seems to be protected by a nature magic barrier erected by the Brownies. It is made out of the many plants they have taken care of, which they connect their magic with and form powerful spells.” Said Titania. “It is a specialty of Brownies, apparently.”
The Spiritual Projection of Titania led us to the entrance, an old-looking rock sitting right in the middle of the forest. She told me to touch it three times.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
The rock shone brightly three times, as it suddenly shot a flash of green light, covering my body and that of everyone with me. A few second passed and nothing happened. However, after around ten seconds of waiting, the stone suddenly opened, as if split wide open, and the village interior greeted our sight.
A group of five Brownies were guarding the entrance from the other side, immediately noticing us. They had weapons, maces made out of bones and wood reinforced with magic runes. They looked tough for not being made of metal, perhaps the gnomes made those for them.
“Intruders?”
“No, if the rock allowed them to enter, they must be people that are connected with the forest…”
“Huh? A big woman! No, two big women!”
“A big… walking tree? Ah, an Ent?!”
“That’s a big squirrel, hehe…”
“Fairies! Two of them!”
“And… is that a big fairy made of light? Ah… There’s only one big fairy!”
“QUEEN TITANIA!”
The Brownies all recognized her; they were acting very playfully despite being startled that we showed up out of nowhere.
“Hello, dears, I have come to check how things are. These are all my friends; they saved my country from the menace of the Snake Queen. I was worried about your wellbeing. It seems that the snakes were unable to find you, thankfully.” Titania said with a gentle demeanor. “May we come inside and meet with your chief?”
“Sure thing! But we first need to know who exactly they are. Telling us what they did won’t do the job, Queen Titania.”
“Yeah, a bit of information wouldn’t hurt.”
“Please.”
“Sure thing… Everyone?”
Titania quickly made us say our names and introduce ourselves.
“I am Planta, a Hamadryad, and a Player, I am good at using healing magic and making plants grow and develop, and spirit magic as well! I hope we can get along.”
“I am Titan, a Treant and a Player. I am a Druid that specializes in invoking the spirits of beasts in their elemental forms. I am also close to nature. I am glad to meet you all.”
“Name’s Achlys, Night Elf and Player. I like to absorb the malice of people, heheh…”
“Achlys be more gentle!”
“Ahem! I mean… I hope we can get along.”
“I am Nieve, a Magic Knight Commander of the order of magic knights of the Country of the fairies, loyal servant of lady Titania, my queen.”
“I am Florie, nice to meet cha!” .𝘯𝘵
“I’m Acorn, an Alchemist and Medic of the Squirrel-kin tribe. If you have any sort of disease or curse to deal with, I would like to help you out.”
The Brownies looked at our entire party and nodded.
“I have never seen Players before, but you all seem to be nice people and good hearted. You can pass!” The brownie that seemed to be in command easily let us enter after our introductions.
“Much like some of us Fairies, Brownies can see through people’s hearts and their truest intentions. They trusted us all because they knew we came in goodwill.” Said Nieve.
“Amazing, spirits are really something else…” Said Titan. “But how were the fairies tricked by that one Player before?”
“Nor all of us fairies have such an ability, I was weakened back then as well, so I couldn’t completely see through that man’s true intentions, our artifacts were stolen due to my own foolishness.” Sighed Titania.
“Well, that’s on the past, let’s look for Lily now!” I said, looking around as the Brownies guided us through the large village.
We quickly noticed something as we walked around, a lot of people looked like they had just came from running a marathon.
“Was there any monster attack recently?” I wondered.
“Oh, how did you guess?” Wondered the brownie.
Ah, I knew it…
—–