"Hoo, hoo!" Oreb said.
"Yip!" Shiro nodded.
"Arf." Foxie chipped in.
"Hoo!"
Colin paused. "Look, the Benjamin Town logging camp isn't really that bad, right? They never had a logging agreement to begin with, and there was no Forester around when they sent people to set one up. Now that I'm here, all we really have to do is fix one, and then we can all be happy."
"Hoo, hoo!"
"I know they're cutting trees and planting the wrong ones. But we can just tell them, right? Look, it's not the same as Floras Town. These guys are planting trees, not laying foundations. I think they're being polite about it."
"Hoo?"
"I'll go over there and talk to them myself." Colin said. "But just to make sure, maybe you and some others could send some of your clan with me, just so they know that I really am the Forester."
"Hoo!" Oreb agreed. He hooted at the younger owls around them and sent messengers to each of the other Lords of the Wilds. Then, he paused. "Hoooo?"
"What about it?" Colin asked. "The logging camp at Lakeside Ville is completely legal, isn't it? The arrangements had been made long before I came here."
"Hoo." Oreb nodded. "Hoo, hoo."
"They've been sending people to the empty hut too?" Colin paused. "I guess I should meet them, see what they want."
"Hoo." Oreb went on. "Hoo, hoo…"
"What's the matter with the water?" Colin blinked.
"Hoooo." Oreb sighed.
"Of course there's going to be ash! We just burnt Flora Town to the ground! That's right at the source of the river!"
"Hoo, hoo?"
"Fine. Get the Oakin clan to build the filter. But there's still going to be ash coming downriver no matter how fine the filter is."
"Hoooo?"
"You tell me. Is there a better way to keep ash out of our water?" Colin asked.
Oreb thought about it. "Ho."
"Bury what?" Colin blinked.
"Hoo."
"The ruins? You want to bury the ruins?" Colin stared. "Just to keep the ash underground?"
"Hoo!"
"I don't even know if that will work…" Colin said. "And there's a lot of ash flying around tonight. That's a lot of ground to cover."
"Hooo…" Oreb said mournfully.
"Why not just cover the river instead? Build some sort of roof. We can use the broken wood left over from the logging camp." Colin suggested.
"Yip!" Shiro barked a laugh.
"Why not?" Colin wanted to know.
"Yii. Yiyip, yip."
Colin grunted. "We're really going to have to do something about the ash itself in the end, aren't we…?"
"Yip. Yiyiyip."
"Just the west side?" Colin blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Yip." Shiro got up. "Yiyiyi."
"The wind blows east." Colin stared. "So all the ash in our water now was from the burnt logging camp west of the river. The rest of it is blown east, away from the water."
"Yip." Shiro nodded.
"Then we only need to bury a small bit of it…" Colin realized.
"Yip." Shiro nodded again.
Colin gave Shiro a flat look. "Why didn't you ask them yourself, sooner?"
"Yip." Shiro laid down on the floor, drooping his ears. "Yiyip, yip. Yii."
"So everyone already knows what needs to be done and who needs to do it, but I have to give all the orders?"
Shiro sighed.
"Brilliant." Colin groaned. "Well, fine. Oreb, send the message. Get everyone available on the job. The sooner we settle the ash, the sooner we all have clean water to drink."
"Hoo!" Oreb said approvingly.
"Meanwhile, we should visit the Benjamin Town Logging Camp." Colin said. "Who's coming with me?"
Six Wood Owls and Oreb himself went with Colin, along with five from the Tree Cougar clan, four big blues from the Twig Lizards, three Oakin, a trio of Silver Bristle Boars and a smaller pink one with feathers instead of bristles.
Colin grinned at the pink feathered 'Bristle Boar'. "You're really a Streak Fox in disguise, aren't you?"
With a puff of smoke, the disguise vanished and there was standing a rueful yellow fox with two tails and a Gray Streak running down its back. It gave him a sideways grin.
Foxie laughed at that, taking a moment to imitate the pink Bristle Boar herself. The Graystreak Fox laughed along with her. The real Bristle Boars, silver and as big as vans, shook their heads.
A flight of Crested Falcons, seven of them in all, joined them as they neared the Lakeside logging camp.
When Colin stepped out of the woods with all those Wilds around him, he claimed everyone's attention immediately.
"Hi." He waved. "Who's in charge here?"
To his amazement, everybody ran for their lives.
***
It took half an hour of shouting from a safe distance to convince them he wasn't about to destroy Benjamin Town the way he supposedly destroyed Floras Town. It took an entire hour of talking to a nervous boy 'representing' the loggers before everyone believed that he was serious about fixing a contract rather than wiping them out.
Finally, they sent out a rather small man who wore a baseball cap as if for protection. He introduced himself as the mayor.
{Is this really the mayor…?} Colin didn't think so, but he did say he was, so…
"Sorry for coming so suddenly." Colin said. "I heard you sent some people looking for the Forester."
"Well, see, we wanted to ask you about cutting the trees, sir, and…"
"Please, mayor, I only started work last night."
The 'mayor', if anything, looked even more nervous, perhaps remembering what Colin's first 'job' was.
"I've no intention of destroying your logging camp, or your town." Colin went on. "We're supposed to make a deal, right? Isn't that how it works?"
"Yes, yes, of course!" the mayor said. "But… you see, we are a small town, and can't afford much…"
"Oreb?" Colin turned to the Lord of the Wood Owls.
"Hoo…" Oreb said.
"Kyah…!" the mayor jumped, as if expecting to be killed or eaten on the spot.
"It's a small camp." Colin observed. "And you've been planting… fruit trees…?"
"Um… well…" the man struggled. "We thought since… I mean, if we're planting trees, we might as well…"
"Are you intending to make an orchard here?" Colin questioned. "That's not quite replanting the forest, you know."
"I… we just… well…" the 'mayor' sweated.
"Are you really the mayor?" Colin asked next.
"Kyah!" the guy took off screaming. "Sorry! I'm not the mayor! Sorry!!"
Colin watched him go and scratched his head.
"Yip." Shiro told him quietly.
"Where?" Colin asked.
"Yip."
{The guard tower…?} Colin looked at it.
Someone was watching him from there through a pair of binoculars.
{The mayor.} Colin guessed. {The real one.}
"Look!" Colin called. "This would go a lot faster if I could talk to you directly, Mister Mayor…"
"Yip." Shiro nudged him.
Colin's eyes widened. "Or should I say… Miss Mayor?"
That last finally got a response. There was a bit of a fuss over at the guard tower, and then out from behind the town walls came a familiar figure.
{Lucy Ernst…?}
It really was her, herons, gulls and all.
"I am Lucanda, of House Earnest." She introduced herself. "The mayor of this town retired just last week and we haven't had time to hold another election. I'm currently in charge here."
"Lucy Ernst…" Colin stared.
Lucanda jumped. She spun around then hissed. "Where did you hear that name?!"
"I saw you at Windy Plains. You won the Blue Badge Singles." Colin reminded her.
Lucy gulped. "Who… are you?"
"My name's Colin." He said, "and I've just become Forester of West Lamico Forest."
"How is it that you've seen me at Windy Plains?" her eyes narrowed.
"I was at the Tournament." Colin shrugged.
Lucy's eye fell on his badge. "Green? You didn't challenge Destride for the title."
"I didn't challenge at all." Colin shrugged. "But never mind that. We're here to fix a logging contract."
"Right…" Lucy shook herself. "Colin, wasn't it? If you would be so kind, well…"
Colin waited.
"Could you… just… not tell anyone about the whole Lucy Ernst thing?" she asked softly.
"Why? Aren't you proud of winning the Tournament?"
"I am, but I can't let it be known here. If my family found out I was participating in a Republic contest, well…"
"Okay, so you snuck out to have fun. I get it." Colin said. "Don't worry. I won't blab."
"Thanks, Colin." Lucy smiled, a genuine smile. "So, what's the deal with the logging?"
"As far as I understand it, there's supposed to be a fee involved." Colin scratched his head. "But it depends on how much you chop and how much you plant. Also, planting fruit trees doesn't really count as replanting the forest."
"Can we buy this land from you?" Lucy asked. "Make it our orchard?"
Colin didn't need to consult Oreb for that one.
"Sorry." he said. "The forests are not mine to sell. I have to take care of them, and protect them. I can't let you take any of it away. Why don't you plant your orchard on the other side of the river?"
"That land belongs to House Fervor." Lucy told him. "And they insist on keeping it clear for the sake of defenses."
"Well, I'm sorry, but this has to be forest land. You'll have to plant the same type of trees you cut down." Colin said. "Maybe one or two fruit trees in the mix would be okay, but this land is forest."
"What if we mixed it all up?" Lucy asked. "Planted all sorts of different kinds of fruit trees in no particular pattern? Other trees too. We'd have a really thick forest in the making, and you can't call it an orchard."
"And you're going to chop it all down again later, aren't you?" Colin pointed out. "What's the difference?"
"The difference is that we get to harvest at least a bit from what we've planted." Lucy said. "It's not the same as letting everything go to waste."
Colin turned to Oreb. "Is that okay?"
"Hoo." Oreb considered it. "Hoo."
Colin nodded to Lucy. "All right. But he says you'll have to let the trees go wild and the Wilds get to eat the fruit too."
Lucy thought about it, and sighed. "All right, we'll mix up the planting and leave the fruit unprotected, but we're going to be the first to nab them once they're ripe, believe me. So all that's left is the question of payment."
Colin turned to the great owl again. "Oreb?"
Oreb began. "Hoo, hoo."
"You've been logging here for three months and five nights…" Colin mused. "Which will have to be counted in the total charges…"
"Of course." Lucy agreed.
"And then there's the extra damages." Colin's head snapped up. "What extra damages?"
"Hoo." Oreb turned to the other owls. One of them stepped forward.
What happened next was more like a summary of crimes than a payment bill. Owl after owl listed the things done to the trees and Wilds of the forest and damages incurred by the loggers.
"Someone left a plastic bag stuffed into the hole of Half-ear's nest. Two hatchlings died the hour they hatched." Colin began. "A couple was kissing in the trees and kicked Speckleg's entire winter store down the trunk... five kids used a big slingshot to shoot stones at Rippla when that Twig Lizard was passing by… what {is} this?!"
It went on like that. "Someone used olive oil and six types of soap to bathe in the clearest part of the river and old Mudfoot got sick because of the water… a rotten sandwich got left behind in a broken picnic basket and little Coonie took a bite? What do you mean, she was sick for three nights?!"
That wasn't all. "Her parents flew to Quartz-spire peak to find a snow-petal flower to cure her and got caught in a storm… a broken leg and fluffed up feathers after a new feather styling that cost five acorns… hey, that's none of their fault!"
Lucy, meanwhile, was staring at Colin. "You… {talk} to them?"
"Yeah. Sure." Colin said. "Don't you?"
"And you understand what they're saying?"
"Don't you?" Colin blinked. "I mean, you tell them what to do and they listen, right? Why wouldn't it be the other way around?"
"I never thought of that." Lucy said slowly. "And except for the Mountain Princess, I've never seen anyone able to understand Wilds that way. I mean, I understand when my Comrades are hurting or what their moods are, but that's because they're my {Comrades}, and I know them that well. But that owl… that's Oreb, isn't he?"
"Yes. That's Oreb." Colin said.
"The Wisest of the Wood Owls. He's a legend around these parts." She told him. "Some say he actually has some sort of authority among other owls! Isn't that silly?"
{She doesn't know!} Colin realized. {She has never heard of the Lords of the Wilds! Wait. Is she supposed to know? Is their existence supposed to be a secret…?!}
Lynn, Colin realized, had entrusted him with a lot.
Lucy, meanwhile, was waiting for an answer.
"Parents have authority over their kids, don't they?" Colin offered. "Oreb's got quite a few kids."
"Ah. That makes sense."
The list of 'damages' went on. "A water bottle left behind got damaged and leaked, causing mushrooms of the poisonous variety to sprout right near Snortwart's favorite resting spot… the boar almost died just breathing the spores… Oreb isn't this going a bit too far?!"
Oreb hooted in retort.
"Yes, I know that's all a result of humans messing around in the forest, but we can't blame them for all of it!"
"They remember…?" Lucy stared. "They remember {everything}?!"
"Not everything, Oreb says, but it sure sounds like it to me." Colin grumbled. "Really, you don't want to hear the sillier ones. Wasps going high on left-behind candy! Of all the dumbest things to count as 'damages'…"
Oreb hooted again.
"So they disrupted their transportation lines and Wasp traffic was in chaos for two hours! How bad a set-back was {that} for the hive?!"
Oreb hooted.
Colin stared. "Five {days}?! What do you mean they had to re-sort the wrongly-placed nectar?!"
Lucy burst out laughing. She just sat down right there in the middle of her logging camp and laughed until tears started leaking out of her eyes.
"What?" Colin grouched.
"Oh, Colin! I haven't heard anything so funny in ages!" Lucy gasped. "Everyone's always talking about war and politics… it's the first time I've heard about… {Wasp traffic}!"
She collapsed into helpless laughter again.
Colin scratched his head.
"I'm sorry." Lucy said. "I know, the damages done by our people must have been terrible, for you all to remember so much. But it's just… {Wasp traffic}!"
"Five days of re-sorting nectar." Colin mused in wonder. He allowed himself a small chuckle. "That is kinda funny, I guess. And even Wilds who died just respawned again."
Lucy's laughter slowly dwindled. "Okay, okay, I get it. There's a lot of complains. So… how much?"
"You're desperate for the wood, aren't you?" Colin pointed out. "Benjamin Town's logging camp is the main source of lumber for the Protectorate. With the Union's Floras Town burnt to the ground, even the black market's having a shortage of lumber, especially with the Scopic Pirates all over the seaport. This is one of the Protectorate's lifelines, and everyone knows it."
"I can't comment on that. You know I can't." Lucy said, wiping her eyes.
"What's a fair price, Oreb?" Colin questioned.
Oreb mentioned Lynn's estimate from last night.
"When we talked about Floras, Lynn mentioned 50k in compensation, and 2000 cr per week for a small logging camp. Later, we found out that they were using heavy machinery, laying foundations for more buildings instead of replanting the forest, and that they did so in full knowledge that they were breaking their contract."
"Was that why you destroyed Floras Town?" Lucy asked.
"That… among other things." Colin said, remembering the axe swinging down at his face.
"I'll double that." Lucy offered. "100k in compensations, and 4k a week. Under those conditions, I'd like permission to expand our logging operations here to about twice the size."
Colin glanced at Oreb. "This is really quite small. Twice the size for twice the price sounds reasonable."
"Hoo…" Oreb shifted uncomfortably.
Colin sighed. "Lucy, the price isn't really the issue with the Forest Wilds. The problem is the human activity, and how much they'd mess up the forest. Twice the size means ten times the trouble, Oreb says."
"We need the wood." Lucy said slowly. "Look, Colin, I'll set strict rules for the woodcutters. Anyone caught littering in the forest would be heavily fined, possibly even fired. I'll send someone to monitor the logging camp so that we'd do everything we can to avoid causing trouble for the forest."
Colin turned to Oreb. "How about that?"
Oreb hesitated.
Colin understood. "Lucy, it's your word against everything that's happened before. We're willing to give you this chance, but we'll hold you to it."
"I know." Lucy said. "But as you said, we're desperate. I'll stick a reminder of Floras Town right in front of the logging camp so that everyone knows that treating the forest right is of life-and-death importance."
"Okay. We'll agree on those terms." Colin said. "But please remember, Lucy…
"We really are going to hold you to it."