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It has been forever since the Player and I have worked on this story. Time to change that! I have a lot of ideas for Lantashi, and the adventures that take place after the campaign the story is based on.
If you want to read this from the beginning, use the following link to go straight to the story page, or just skip to "The Climb" section below
Before, Lantashi woke up to the forest warning her that a great evil was returning. She met up with her companion, and lover, K'valak. They had set out to warn their village of the impending danger. In the following scene, Lantashi and her companions reach the village.
Lantashi, K'valak and Foxy Brown walked in the western areas of the Wood Sea, itself along the western edge of the continent of Erie. The forests were thick here, the underbrush dense and thorny. But Sylvan and fox knew their way, expertly picking out those areas they knew would lead to the village. They walked openly, as they knew they were being watched by the guard, and did not want to give any reason for suspicion.
Anyone else approaching the village would just have marked it as another part of the wood. But if a traveler knew what to look for, they would not be looking at ground level, which appeared as tree and brush and clearing, but would look above, into the heights.
The trio made their way over to an ancient oak tree, hundreds of feet tall, wide, and majestic.
Lantashi stopped, and knelt down to talk to the fox.
"I cannot take you up there. Not at this time. Maybe later. Will you be okay here?"
Foxy whined, and pawed at the ground. Lantashi smiled, and reached into her pack to pull out a handful of nuts. She lay this on the ground beside the fox, who sniffed it, then pretended to reject it, turning her head away.
Lantashi petted the fox for another minute, then stood up and faced K'valak.
"She'll be fine," the woman said. "Foxy Brown is just letting me know of her displeasure."
K'valak smirked. "Your pet just needs to learn to climb. Let this motivate her."
Lantashi smacked him in the shoulder.
"You are mean, K'valak!"
"I'm just a realist," he replied.
Lantashi took off her boots, and her socks, and shoved them into her pack. She turned, walked around to the far side of the tree, and grabbed the hand-holds disguised to look exactly like bark. She hauled herself up, hand over hand, until she reached the first, massive branch. She crawled on the underside of the branch, her fingers and toes gripping into the hidden niches. After a dozen yards or so, she followed the niches to the upper side of the branch and stood on it. She jumped up, catching the next branch in her hands, and pulled herself up onto that one. She then walked back to the truck. She climbed around to the other side, found more hidden niches, and continued her climb.
Looking behind her, she saw K'valak following her lead, though more slowly and carefully. Foxy was now out of sight, somewhere on the forest floor below. Lantashi continued to climb higher, until she was on an upper branch, still massive, that was no longer within sight of the ground. She looked forward, and it was here she saw beautiful homes, built into the trees, shaped from the trees themselves through Sylvan forest-magic. Walkways, complete with railings made of vines, made their way from tree to tree. Steps made the same way led further upward, to the larger structures of the magistrates, the village elders.
A couple of minutes later K'valak was standing by her side. He was breathing heavily from the climb, but at this point, they could talk to where they needed to go.
"So, to the chief?" he asked.
"Yes, but I'm not sure my father will be happy to see me."
Lantashi and K'valak set out through the maze of walkways, and steps, working their way up to the highest buildings of H'shalyn.
Email: lantashi [at] protonmail [dot] com