"I see everybody has already gathered here, that's good as it saves us time." Lorn said as he looked out into the crowd of people. A few of which were mumbling to the others in shock at the sight of their leader walking around. "Ahem, this man's name is Sydra, and he came to us from the surface. He was also the one who healed my legs, and he will be the one to bring us all back up to the surface. He will also provide us with a map so that we can begin trading with other settlements. Now, I'm sure most of you do not wish to leave the homes you have lived in for so long, which is why we will be building a set of stairs to the surface. Sydra will be providing us with the material to build this staircase, and we will be using our powers, as well as manual labor, to put it all together," Lorn said as Sydra began to pull out a large amount of wood, and precious minerals he had picked up in the past.
"Is there a blacksmith here, that can turn these ores into nails and hammers?" Sydra called out to the crowd, glancing around at all the ecstatic faces. A young man with black hair, and a toned body stepped forward, smiling at the fact that so much attention was directed towards him.
"I am the blacksmith here, and I can certainly make those things. Leave it to me, and I'll have it done by tomorrow," The young man said as he strolled forward and began loading all the ores into a cart that was beside the stage. Once all the minerals were placed inside the cart the young man began to manipulate the ground and created a large horse from it. After hooking up the cart to the horse made from dirt, the young man manipulated the horse back to his forge and immediately got to work.
"That was Kio, and he learned blacksmithing from his father. As you just saw, his ability is to create creatures out of dirt that can mimic the same powers as the creatures they resemble. Sadly, he has only ever seen creatures that don't have any powers, so his power will be slightly limited until he sees more creatures," Lorn explained as Sydra shook his head in understanding. If Kio could replicate creatures that could use other powers, such as a Fireback turtle, then he could utilize that creatures power.
"What can we do while we wait for Kio to finish his work?" Someone in the crowd yelled out, speaking for everyone who was excited to go to the surface.
"Well, we need to figure out a good spot to build the stair case, preferably somewhere that is in a wide open area. The staircase will be a large one, that many people can travel at once, and it will also need a ramp that is not to steep so that carriages and vehicles can travel up and down it. This way, people won't have to carry things back and forth on their backs, as that wouldn't be practical when there are large shipments involved," Sydra said as people began to talk back and forth about the best possible place to build. Although many people were excited to get to work, not many people wanted to give up their land for it to be built on it.
"I'll do it, I am to old to do much in the building process, and my land hasn't been used for anything for a long time. If I can help our people go back to the surface by giving up something I don't need, then I happily will," Said an old lady as she stepped forward.
"That is Nana, and she is basically the grandmother of everyone in this town. She also owns a large plot of land that her family use to farm on. I think her ground is also the most flat, so we won't have to do any work to get it ready," Lorn said, motioning for some people to come forward and carry the wood to Nana's land. As people began to head over in that direction Sydra hopped down and walked over to his group.
"Hey, I need you guys to help out with the building of the staircase to the surface. I'm sure you know what should be done, and where best your help can be used," Sydra said as pulled out a blueprint for how the staircase should be built. Sydra explained about how they should use the settlements people who could manipulate earth to build a foundation, as well as create scaffolding so that the wooden beams could be set up without worry of things falling. Once all the wooden beams were set up, and Kio finished forging the nails, they would nail in al the wooden beams to each other before taking the dirt away. Then Sydra would pull out large stone bricks and have the bricks placed into the staircase to keep it stable.
"That makes sense, but why are you telling us this like you won't be here with us?" Robert asked, wondering why Sydra kept saying they would need to do this by themselves.
"I need to bring the parents of the children that were experimented on out to see their children. After that is done, I want to head outside and start cutting down trees so that there is an open space for these people to begin work on the surface," Sydra said as he looked around for the queen. "By the way, have any of you seen Sophia? I wanted to tell her I was headed back towards the palace, and also see if she wanted to head to the surface with me,"
"Yeah, she met up with us a little bit ago to tell us she had to pay her respects to a friend she had that passed away," Erich said, pointing off towards a small cemetery where Sophia could be seen kneeling on the ground.
"Oh, then I better not disturb her. If she asks about me, just tell her that I'll be back shortly. By the way, why is Silf still here? Were you unable to find her parents?" Sydra asked, patting Silf on the head.
"No, it seems they have gone missing from the settlement, and no one else was very close with the family. We decided to keep Silf with us until we find them," Cidre said.
"Hmm, that's odd, I wonder where they went... Oh well, just keep her safe until you find them," Sydra said, before leaving to meet up with Lorn and the parents of the two boys that were in the glass rooms.
"Are you here to take us to see our children?" A crying mother asked as Sydra walked up to them. Standing next to the woman was a middle age man, that was probably the father. He kept quiet as he stared off into the distance, a small tear collecting in the corner of his eye.
"Yes, and if you don't mind I would like to send you four into my inter-spatial island. I can reach the place where your children are much faster that way," Sydra said, planning on sending the parents to his Arbor Sanctum so he could use his lightning speed to run the distance.
"I guess that is okay... What do we have to do?" The other mother asked, looking slightly hesitant about being sent somewhere by a stranger. The other parents also quietly nodded in consent, wondering where the place Sydra would send them was.
"Just stand still, in a few seconds you will appear on my island, so please don't touch anything," Sydra said, before placing his hand on them and sending them into his Arbor Sanctum. Lorn looked shocked at seeing the parents just disappear into thin air, and turned to look at Sydra.
"Just how many powers do you posses?" Lorn asked while using his power to look at Sydra's aura again.
"I have a few, but the one I just used I wouldn't really consider one of them. The place I sent them to was the island that my tree is situated on, and I usually use it as a home base. I'm sure if this wasn't such a sad occasion for them, those parents would be surprised to find themselves high in the sky above the surface," Sydra said, before activating his lightning aura and looking in the distance towards the entrance he had come through. "Anyway, I should get going now, but I will be back sometime tomorrow,"
"Alright, by then we should have some of the staircase already built," Lorn said, before Sydra raced off into the distance. Lorn shook his head and sighed, felling sad that his friend had lost his only son. After a few moments, Lorn walked over to Nana's property to see how things were progressing. It seemed that everything was going as planned, and the dirt scaffolding was already fifteen meters high.