You decide to examine one of the houses. This one has two fallen trees that make up either side of it. The far wall of the house seems to be where the two fallen trees were pushed together, making it v-shaped. The front wall has been constructed out of other kinds of wood.
A white face pokes out from behind the door, which appears to be covered with a sort of blanket made out of leaves. "Welcome!" shouts a female voice. "I am Elmnash, please, come into my home."
Unable to say no, you enter under the leaves to see that the house is rather comfortable inside.
"You must excuse my rudeness for having added a door, but everyone has been ordered to do it," she says sadly. "Before, we never had doors. We were opened day and night."
"What happened?" you ask, being curious.
She gapes at you. "You mean, you don't know?" she asks. You shake your head. Sitting back on her haunches, she says outloud. "Soon my mate will be back, he can better explain all this. But what I can say is that bad things are happening in the Wood."
She explains to you that the Wood shifted magically, not long ago, because the magical powers were not balanced. Still, however, an evil lurker is causing trouble. Families have been split, and order needs to be restored.
As she does this, another white tiger walks in. He looks very proud. She stops and introduces him as Stradar, her husband.
"You want to know about the trouble in the Wood, eh?" he asks. "Well, I'll tell you this. There is a wizard about, called Fri-on. You'll want to stay out of his path, I tell you!"
He stomps his feet. "If that wizard would just leave, we'd all be all right, but ever since he has arrived, bad things have been happening. Actually, he's been around for quite some time, to be honest. But every since he's been making moves, thinks have been looking bad for those honest people as us." He leans closer. "But don't take it from me. If you want an insider's opinion, I can get you into the Book Shoppe and then you can really hear a story..."
Elmnash steps in, "Stradar! Do you honestly think that is wise?"
He looks back at her, "Why wouldn't it be?" She does not answer.
Take Stradar up on his offer
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