Chapter 61: Fifty nine

What happened to my lab? Standing on the last step leading down into the lab, I stared in shock at the room. 

The first thing I noticed was the tree that had somehow sprouted up along one wall, its branches stretching out across the room. Next I noticed the floor, which was covered in a layer of spongy green moss and entwined vines which formed what appeared to be a couch where the Dryad responsible for the greenery sat. 

“Kadia, you’re back.” Pia called out, and I glanced up to see her peering down at me from a hammock hanging from a branch of the tree. 

Four more hammocks hung from the branches above my head, and I felt a sense of childlike excitement at the thought of sleeping in a tree. 

“Finished with your ‘Great Wall of Eternia’?” Kip joked, appearing from behind the trunk of the tree.

I nodded, still just trying to take in everything in front of me. 

“I hope you don’t mind.” Rainy said softly, setting her book down and moving to where I stood gaping at the greenhouse that had once been an alchemy lab. 

“I thought the plants would help with the air quality, and mask the smell of sulfur.” 

Taking a deep breath, I agreed that the air quality had improved, as had the smell. As I walked into the room, I noticed more plants growing along the walls, and among them were four fire berry bushes. 

A soft whine from behind me brought my attention away from the room, and to the Leosaur cub who stood on the bottom step, staring at the greenery with a wide, fearful gaze. 

He probably hasn’t seen plants like these before. I realized, and moved to pick up the cub, who immediately tried to bury himself into my tunic. After some coaxing, I was able to extract Leo’s claws from the material of my tunic, and knelt to gently set him on the ground. In response, the little Leosaur cub tried to curl his legs up to avoid touching the mossy floor. 

“Aw, he’s scared.” Pia giggled from where she was watching in her hammock above us. 

“I don’t think he has seen many plants before.” I murmured as I tried to coax the Leosaur off my lap. 

“It is better for him to adjust in a safe environment like this, that way he won’t be so overwhelmed when we leave the desert.” Rainy said, coming to kneel beside me with a chunk of meat held between her fingers. 

“You’re both babying him. Just plop him down.” Kip said, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Rainy try to lure Leo off my lap. 

Ten minutes later, after dozens of failed attempts to gently coax Leo off my lap, I did exactly that. Setting the cub on to the mossy floor, I quickly stood before he could scramble back into my lap. I then did my best to ignore him as he tried to clamber up my trouser leg, while letting out frantic mews of distress. 

“Where’s Victoria?” I asked, not seeing her in the room. 

“She went to a captains training session with Commander Roderick.” 

Mumbling an affirmative reply, I looked around the room at the walls, which were covered in flowering vines. 

“Do you remember which section of wall I hid our stuff behind?” I asked, with the vines in the way I couldn’t see the marking I’d carved into the wall to identify it. 

“It’s behind the tree trunk,” Rainy said, gesturing to the tree. “I left that section of the wall bare.” 

 The rear of the tree’s trunk had a ladder made of vines hanging down from a branch and peering up into the tree I noticed Zosimos perched on one of the branches. 

Ignoring the crow for now, I turned to the stone wall that was marked with a very slight indentation, which only my team and I knew indicated it was the location of our hidden items. Placing a hand to the stone, I pictured it shifting away to merge with the stone of the walls, and to my shock, the stone resisted. 

What’s happening?  

“Something wrong Kadia?” Rainy asked as I pulled my hand away from the unchanged stone.

“I can’t change it.” I mumbled, staring wide eyed at the wall in front of me. 

The previous times I’d manipulated the sand, my power sunk into it, merged with it on what I theorized was a molecular level to bring about the changes I wanted to make. This time, it felt like I was trying to pour water into a sealed container. There was no opening for the water to pour into, so it flowed over the edges uselessly. 

“Well, they jumped on that pretty quick.” Kip replied with a chuckle, and I frowned, looking over at the dwarf in confusion. 

“Earth magic can’t be used on claimed land without permission from the land owner, I’d say it’s the same for transmuting earth as well.” He reminded me. 

“Corvus said they would claim the land, but I didn’t think they’d do it so quickly.” I murmured, tail twitching in annoyance as I moved back around the tree. 

After asking Rainy to watch over Leo, who’d stopped whimpering and was starting to slowly investigate the room. I left for the command tent searching for Corvus or Darius. Finding both in the tent huddled over a piece of paper, I cleared my throat to get their attention. 

“Come in Kads, we were just planning out how much land we should claim.” Darius called out, glancing up to see me near the tent flap.

They were what now?

“Didn’t you already claim the land?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Not yet,” Corvus said, marking something on the paper. “Dungeon settlements become very popular towns, so if we want to make some good coin we need to plan things out properly.” 

“Er, well, it’s just I tried to move a wall in my lab and couldn’t.” I informed the pair, causing both to stiffen.

“Are you out of mana?” Darius asked, a serious expression on his face. 

I shook my head, and Corvus swore under his breath before letting out a bellowing roar. The sound of the lion's roar had my heart racing, and my fur fluffing out like I’d jammed my finger into an electrical socket. 

“Someone else claimed the land out from under us, didn’t they?” I asked, shifting away from the lion Bakeneko as he paced around the room. 

In response, a snarling Corvus grabbed one of the wooden chairs and flung it at the canvas wall of the tent. 

“Calm yourself, Corvus, we’ll deal with this.” Darius coaxed, holding up a hand. 

How am I supposed to get my stuff out? 

“We need to find out who claimed the land. In the meantime give out orders for everyone to pack up camp as fast as possible.” The guild leader said, and the lion spun on his heels leaving the tent without a response. 

“Why wasn’t the land claimed before?” I asked, scowling at the guild leader who sighed. 

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“We weren’t planning on this location being our permanent encampment, we were only staying until we scouted a new location. When you built the wall, we planned to use the land to make some extra money.” 

“Oh, er, sorry. I should have asked before just building the wall,” I murmured, cheeks flushing in shame as I realized I was the reason we were losing not only our camping spot, but probably a lot of money.

“You’d best go pack, I doubt whomever claim this land will be willing to allow us much time to vacate. I’m sure they were intending to take us by surprise and evict us without allowing us to properly gather our things.” 

“I can’t.” I said, biting my lip. “I hid my team's things behind a wall in the lab, and now I can’t move the wall.” 

“Fuck.” Groaning, Darius scrubbed a hand over his face. “How thick is the wall?” 

“Not very, it was only to keep Leo out.” 

“Right, clear your team out of the lab, and blow up the wall with the thing you’re not allowed to let Tink have.” 

“Just the one in the lab, or?” 

“Or.” He said, staring at me with a firm look. “I’m not letting the fucks who took this place from us have a free wall.” 

“A rival guild?” 

“Likely.” Darius grunted, looking up as three people ran into the tent and began frantically packing. 

“Go now.” The guild leader ordered, and I nodded, spinning on my heel to run through the encampment back to my team.

Victoria was already in the lab when I returned, bellowing orders for them to get packed and fetch the horses. 

“Foxy, is there anything you can do to get our stuff out?” The captain demanded, pointing to the wall hidden behind the tree. 

“Yes, you all need to leave the lab though.” I said, plucking Leo up off the ground and giving him to Pia who was about to leave the lab. 

“Zosimos, out.” I told the crow, who took off for the tunnel. 

“Why do we need to leave?” Kip asked, as he scrambled out of the tree with the hammocks slung over a shoulder.  

“Guild leader's orders.” I said firmly, as I scanned the room for anything not packed.

In minutes, the lab was cleared of my team, and I took a deep breath before kneeling in front of the wall. Pulling a finger sized tube made of vellum out of my bag, I coated one side of it with a sticky adhesive liquid and pressed it against the wall. Backing out of the lab and up the tunnel, I slowly unwound a long cotton fuse until I reached the top of the stairs. 

Kneeling outside the tunnel entrance, I glanced over at the nearby teams who were working to pack away their tents as fast as possible. Covering my ears as best I could, I lit the cotton fuse and waited anxiously as I watched the burning light of the fuse disappear through the tunnel. 

The ground shook, and a loud sound filled the air as the explosive detonated. Several people froze in place, glancing around in confusion for a few moments before quickly returning to their tasks. Jumping to my feet, I dashed through the tunnel to inspect the damage in the lab. Chunks of stone littered the moss covered floor, but it appeared Rainy’s tree and vines had helped keep the lab from collapsing completely. 

Navigating through the debris, I made my way to the tree whose trunk looked like Victoria had been bashing her shields against it. Unfortunately, the room we’d stored our bags in collapsed, and I was left digging through heavy chunks of stone to retrieve them. 

“Foxy, you okay down there?” Victoria shouted, down the tunnel.

“Yes, come help me get our bags, the rocks are too heavy.” I yelled back as I struggled to move one of the larger hunks of rock. 

“Damn Foxy, how d'you do this?” Kip asked as he and Victoria came into the lab.

“Don’t ask questions I can’t answer.” I snapped in frustration as the rock I was tugging on refused to move.

“Out of the way.” Victoria ordered, and I quickly gave up my position in front of the crumbled wall to the Kijo.

In minutes, Victoria had cleared away the debris, and the three of us were rushing back up the tunnel. As we reached the top step, I turned to glance back at the lab. 

‘Pyr.’  I mentally called, bringing forth my wisp and sending him down into the lab to wait in the tunnel until I gave him more orders. 

Seeing Rainy and Pia nearby with four horses, I moved to sling my bags over Arion’s back, ignoring the white paint decorating his fur in a striped pattern as I did so. 

“Can you lead Arion out for me? I have something to do.” I asked Victoria who gave me a questioning look. 

“And what’s that?” 

“I have orders from the guild leader. So I’ll meet up with you all later.” I informed the team captain with a smirk, before running to the nearest section of the wall. 

At the wall, I set to work, partially burying a dozen Vellum tubes that were thrice the size of the one I’d used in the lab at regular intervals. Jogging around the last section of wall, I found Darius and our guild commanders facing off with an armored man. Slipping into the group of commanders, I stood partially hidden behind my brother as I eavesdropped on the conversation. 

The man in front of Darius seemed all too pleased with himself, even mocking our guild's stupidity and thanking us for fortifying his guild's new encampment for them. Darius didn’t bother responding to the man, as he watched the last of our guild leave the walled off area. 

“Is that everyone?” He asked, seeing a guard running over. 

“Yes sir.” She said, and he nodded, glancing over at me. 

“You done Kads?” 

“Yep.” I confirmed, peering around my brother's bulky form to give the guild leader a thumbs up. 

“Let's go.” Darius ordered, not giving the large group of land thieves so much as a backwards glance as he led us out of the encampment. 

“Do it.” Darius instructed once we were a few feet away. 

I nodded, and focusing on Pyr who was still inside the tunnel. I directed him to burn the plants inside the lab, hoping the smoke would make the land thieves rush inside, which it did. I watched with a smirk as the armored group who I assumed must’ve been the rival guilds guards sent to evict us went rushing into the encampment. The moment I lost sight of them, I ordered Pyr to leave the lab and had him fly a lap around the wall as fast as possible, burning everything around him. 

The ground beneath our feet shook as an explosive sound reminiscent of thunder filled the air and the horses being led by our guild members let out fear filled whinnies. More explosions sounded in quick succession and the wall surrounding our former encampment crumbled to the ground. 

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