Abby was half-screaming when Satrox got off the phone with her. Satrox sat down at his desk in his rented room at Windy Plains and let out a soft groan.
{Blast it, Colin, since when did you get so powerful?}
If he'd held the Purple Heart, he most definitely had a Purple Badge now. {Does he even know what new abilities he's gotten? He's jumped straight to purple from green!}
How did he even get that far?! Did he command the Forest Wilds to help him in?
Was that {possible}?!
Satrox sat down and thought. He frowned. He scratched his head. And then, ten minutes later, he called Abby again.
"WHAT?" Abby shouted. "What did he do this time? Is Lamico Town still standing?! Has he destroyed the whole continent?!"
"Whoa, slow down! I just wanted to do an investigation on the powers of Foresters." Satrox said.
"We don't {know} what they can do! We all thought they were just tree-planters who brought in wounded Wilds to get treatment at Comrade Homes from time to time! Nobody said anything about commanding hundreds of Forest Wilds!"
"That's why I wanted to run an investigation. Is there any Detective Knight stationed near a forest?"
"I'll check." Abby groaned. "I'll let you know in an hour. Don't call me; I'll call you."
She cut the link.
Satrox got up and stretched. "I need to take a walk."
Sora was in the hall outside when Satrox got out of his room. He glanced up from his datapad and saw Satrox's face. "Trouble?"
"Colin's moved the Purple Heart to the Spike-back Den." Satrox told him.
"Spike-back…?" Sora stared. "Isn't that in Lost Paradise?"
"Just outside the ruins themselves." Satrox nodded. "It's an acceptable place, all things considered, but until now, I never thought such a thing was {possible}."
"Neither did I." Sora admitted.
"I'm going out for a walk, and then I'm off to another meeting." Satrox said. "I should be back in a few hours."
"Want your Comrades fed?" Sora asked.
"No, it's okay. You've already done a lot for me, letting me stay at your place and all." Satrox grinned.
Sora laughed. "It's not like it's the first time, or the tenth! How many times did you come over, back when the Elder Sage was still teaching us stuff?"
"Every night, wasn't it?" Satrox mused.
"Something like that." Sora remembered. "We used to wonder which of us he'd pass on his legacy to. Shawn kept saying it was going to be him."
"Shawn…" Satrox remembered. "Where's he gone off to, do you know?"
"No clue." Sora said. "Anyway, I got a call from the Protectorate. I'm headed to the ruins myself."
Satrox eyed Sora sideways. That stiff stance… the way his feet shifted, and his hands were stuck deep in his pockets…
Even though he tried not to show it, Sora was knee-shaking nervous.
"Good luck." Satrox half laughed.
"I wish." Sora set his teeth and marched off.
***
It was half an hour since he spoke with Satrox that Colin got the call. Sitting there by a pool of fresh water with six Lords of the Wilds, three dinosaurs and three forest creatures, he was feeling quite bewildered at how well these neighbors were getting along.
When his watch beeped and flashed red, Colin's immediate thought was that Satrox had gotten ready and was waiting. "Satrox?"
"No, Colin, it's me."
"Katrin?" Colin blinked.
Katrin fell quiet for a while. "Hey, um… can we talk?"
Colin felt more nervous about that than about meeting the Lords of the Lost Paradise Wilds. "Uh… what's it about?"
"Abby's asked me to investigate the powers of Foresters." Katrin told him softly, then fell silent.
"Are you sure you should be telling me that? I mean, isn't your missions supposed to be a secret to your target?"
"You're not my target!" Katrin flared. "You're… you're my… well…"
"I'm your target." Colin said. "The only reason someone's ordered an investigation is because of the things I've done. In the end, the purpose of your mission is to find a way for the Justice Knights to stop me."
"That's NOT…"
"That's obvious." Colin said. "What's not obvious is why they asked you to do it. I mean, you're not even here. And last I checked, we were quarrelling again. Isn't Rita a Detective Knight too?"
"We're NOT quarrelling!" she barked at him. "We just… need time. That's all. We just need some time."
"You're right. I'm running short on time." Colin agreed.
"What… what happened to you?" Katrin whispered. "We used to be so close… we could share anything and everything… but now…"
"A lot's happened." Colin said slowly. "And right now, I don't think I can tell you any of it. Katrin, I'm leaving the Justice Knights."
"Why?" Katrin gasped.
"Obviously, they're going to kick me out because I destroyed a village. And if that wasn't enough, I destroyed a town too." Colin said. "But before they do that, I'll quit because they put me under investigation. The secrets of the Foresters are ours to keep, Katrin. It's not right for me to tell you about them so that you can score more mission points with the J-Knights and get promoted."
"That's NOT it!" Katrin struggled. "Why do you think I told you my mission?! I wanted to share with you…"
"Nice try." Colin said, and cut the link.
***
"IDIOT!" Katrin kicked the door of her half-built farmhouse and the wall fell over.
"Kat…?" Edward, dear old man that he was, looked shocked. "What's wrong with the door?"
"N-nothing…" Katrin said. "I was talking to some idiot."
"Ah." Edward nodded knowingly. "How is Colin, by the way?"
Katrin marched off without answering. {I can't ask a Forester. They're all supposed to protect their secrets. The only way to find out what they're capable of is to ask their boss. I need to talk to the Forest Princess. That means setting up an appointment at Forest Village.}
She shook her head as she left the half-built farmhouse and took a moment to look around their land.
The new farm she and Edward were building together at Hot Sands was an expensive affair; wood was pricey because nobody was allowed to cut trees from the Forest of Legends. With the five towns east of here all reduced to ruins, the only stable source of wood Edward could find was the airport itself; imported wood from Maro City, of all places.
{Blasted forests and foresters and princesses… there's so much wood right in front of me, and I need to import from a city on the southern end of continent?!}
It was an expensive affair… and slow. The source of wood was stable, but there were too many people buying and too few traders willing to transport it. Most people around these parts were all fighting Frenzieds rather than carrying goods around. Their supply came in bit by bit and they had had to leave many things half-built. Edward had to make a few cargo runs himself just to get the materials.
{Blasted Frenzieds, and blasted Green Men for unleashing them on us!}
Yet wood was precisely what they needed, especially since the flow of water from the mountains kept shifting. The water levels of the new lake at Hot Springs just never stayed the same. The entire village was built to float rather than remain at any specific height, just to cope with the constant changes. When the water was high, they all floated high, anchored to several tall pillars. When the water was low, they all ebbed low, and Edward's new Home Base had to float too, because they were building their farmhouse on the water. They wanted every bit of their new land for crops.
{Blasted broken dam! Why isn't anyone regulating the source of the water?!}
At least Edward still had most of his old Comrades. Katrin was bonding new Farm types, but it was slow going, because she didn't dare bond more than two or three each night. Already most of the new ones all looked like they were on the verge of Abandoning her. They had been bonded to be put to work and they all knew it.
{I need time with them…} Katrin thought to herself as she called her Comrades to her. All of them, even the ones Colin gave her, looked like they expected more work.
Katrin tapped her watch and called Edward. "Ed, I'm taking my Comrades out for a bit."
"Right. Take care." He replied. He didn't say a word about how much this was going to slow down their project.
"Thanks." Katrin said, and cut the link. She turned to her Comrades. "We're going to Travel for a bit."
All of them looked surprised.
She headed for Forest Village, fighting a few regular Wilds on the road to get there. The Wilds on the road south through the Hot Sands Desert were familiar, and didn't cause her any unexpected trouble. The Wilds on the road from Riverside leading west were easy to get past.
The Wilds she faced when she entered the edge of the Forest of Legends, however, were something else entirely.
"Mercy…" Katrin grunted, five minutes into her first battle with a walking tree. "This thing is tough!"
Colin, she remembered, had gotten through this very road at Green Badge, with just Fireheart, Shiro and Raiki.
{How in creation did he manage to get past THESE guys?! I'm at Blue Badge and we're fighting it fourteen to one, but it's been five minutes and that thing isn't even slowing down!}
That tree was firing a rain of sharp twigs at her Comrades again. Warc, Meek and her new Sandy Moles were already out of the fight and sent back to her Home Base.
{Never mind that tree slowing down, what if I'm actually LOSING this fight?} Katrin worried.
Her new Arachnids and Cactopi went next, then Bubba and Gera at the same time when a powerful swipe of a branch hammered down on them both.
{Cripes! Gera was my strongest…}
Fireheart and Rall were on side of the tree, hitting with claws when the roots swept up and tripped them both. More branches crashed down and they vanished also.
Left with Junrei and Mika on his back, Katrin gulped. "Pull back!"
They ran for it. More twigs shot down after them.
Junrei vanished.
"Miik!" Mika panicked, dashing right for Katrin. The youngest of her Comrades, the little Lynxmouse scurried up to her shoulder as she ran for safety.
But the Wild didn't strike her. It let her run with the weakest of all her Comrades on her shoulder, then went back to standing still and enjoying the sunlight.
Katrin growled with frustration. {Blast it! I can't even get to Forest Village! Why?! How did HE get through this road when I can't even get past ONE of the Wilds here?!}
"I have to go the long way around." Katrin said to Mika.
"Mik." Mika agreed wholeheartedly.
"But first… we better get back to the Farm." Katrin sighed. "And wait for the others to recover. I need to get to Forest Village to set up a meeting with the Forest Princess, and getting there safely, even taking the long way around, is going to be tricky."
Not to mention the fact that getting back to the Farm with just Mika for protection was going to be very tricky in itself. Katrin gulped and hoped the Wilds she'd defeated on the way here hadn't recovered yet as she ran for home.