CHAPTER 111 What It Takes to Be the Commander General

CHAPTER 111

What It Takes to Be the Commander General

Rufus

This wasn’t my first time seeing the forest moving around, but it was my first time seeing the actual Green Oak Tree uproot and boss-monster itself on a city. The fact that it was its own city was all the more fascinating.

The tendrils were so delicate with the houses, gently unlatching a window before snatching a spy hiding inside. No carriage overturned, no herb garden disturbed, no shop damaged. If anything, the place was cleaner than before. A canopy from a shop down the road that had collapsed under the weight of the torrential magical storm-giant rain was righted and tidied. A new roof magically appeared on someone’s house, and an old trellis near the community gardens was refurbished to look like new.

When a Blackfog spy tripped over a flowerpot in their attempt to escape, a nearby tendril was utterly offended at the mess. It scooped up the fallen spy, scolding its captive by wagging its root tip in the spy’s face and then pointing at the pot. Another root tendril came forward and quickly righted the pot and fixed the flower.

At this rate, the forest would have everyone sorted shortly. Bronwynn smiled up at me and waved.

I sighed.

“Knolith,” I said, staring at my adorable bard but addressing the lizardkin who was standing beside me, mouth agape.

“What?” The general closed his mouth and promptly stood straighter, as if he hadn’t been shocked by the colossal forest monster hunting down interlopers. It was a good hunter; I counted almost forty people haphazardly piled up around us.

“Do you think you have what it takes to be the commander general of the Dark Enchanted Forest?” I asked .

Knolith lifted Duke Lector and dumped him unceremoniously onto the ground beside the others. He took a deep breath and said with unwavering conviction, “I do.”

“Prove it.”

“What?”

My eyes moved between the rampant forest and the bard standing there, waiting for me.

“Prove it,” I repeated, lifting my paw toward him. He flinched, but I just grabbed the lizardkin’s shoulder in camaraderie, smiling at his confused face. “Deal with all of this.” I waved my free paw at the mayhem before us. “Meet with the nobles, file the reports, transport the prisoners to the Black Fortress, and prove it. You have only ever run your own domain, but the commander general deals with everyone . Do this, and I will accept your challenge. You can duel me for my job.”

General Knolith picked my paw off his shoulders and daintily dropped it as he had the elven duke earlier. Then he cracked his neck and smiled, showing all of his sharp, pointy teeth. “Deal.”

With a swish of his robes and the noble bearing of a leader, the lizardkin swept forward to join in the heated conversation between Lady Amy and Lady Hazelglade.

I waited half a second longer to make sure they didn’t just throw him in the pile of prisoners with the rest; the Hollow elves were notorious for their independence. When Lady Amy happily welcomed the general and mentioned teaming up, I turned and walked away.

Quickly.

Out of the combat area and straight into Bronwynn’s awaiting arms.

“I’m happy that that quest is done,” I said, nose buried deep in her surprisingly dry hair. Behind me, a spy cursed as they were being detained by the knights, shouting something about being right all along and “I told you so.” Turns out it wasn’t just Barry who wasn’t too keen on their current assignment.

Bronwynn looked over my shoulder. “Are you sure it’s done? It doesn’t look done to me?”

“General Knolith is handling it,” I stated, pulling back and smiling at her. I took her hand and started walking down the road toward a nice inn with a tavern and a kitchen and a stage that I’d stayed in previously. “Shall we go grab dinner?”

A giant tendril traveled past us as I continued escorting Bronwynn down the main road, Donna following behind us. The wagon was somewhere in the chaos, but I didn’t care to go back for it. That was tomorrow’s Rufus’s problem. Right now, I only cared about dinner and a bath and bed. In that order.

“I would love dinner,” Bronwynn replied with feeling. It had been hours since we’d stopped for lunch. Donna neighed behind us, and Bronwynn added, “Yes, I’ll buy you some of the special elven horse feed. ”

“What’s so special about it?” I asked. The forest seemed to be calming down now, as less roots were combing the city and some even returned to their place in the ground, sinking back into the earth. As each root did so, a light tremor rumbled under our feet.

Brownie squeezed my arm and said, “Donna and I have sorted some things out, and I’m paying her in enchanted food now.”

I looked over my shoulder at the horse, who managed to look both proud and sorry at the same time. And I didn’t even speak horse. “Oh?”

“We had a good heart-to-heart, and our bond leveled up!” Bronwynn said, trying to reassure me.

I was not one to judge a murder horse in the secrets, since I didn’t want to be a raging hypocrite. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” Bronwynn replied while Donna huffed, looking away.

“And here we are!” I opened a door just in time to catch a frying-pan-wielding elf innkeeper bent on protecting their inn from whoever was dumb enough to walk around during Lithnilheim’s rampage. The tree was almost completely settled at this point, though, so I wasn’t worried about more assassins or spies myself.

“Lovely to see you again, Hemlock,” I said, lowering the pan as I gently pushed the elf aside so we could go in. “I’m looking for a room, and board for a horse.”

Donna neighed again.

“And some of your best magical feed,” I added, guessing what Donna was going to say even before Bronwynn translated.

“And a bath,” my bard spoke up. “And dinner.”

Hemlock lowered his pan and stared between the three of us. The tavern part of the inn was full of elves, a catkin, and a wolfman, all staring out the crescent windows deathly still.

Since he wasn’t responding in a timely manner, not that I blamed him, I looked back at Donna and said, “The stable is over there, if you wanna go in out of the rain.”

She didn’t need to be told twice.