Nodas had a dream, where he was surrounded by waves of Undead Creatures like a tide. In the boundless and barren wilderness, skeletons with bones showing a calcified gray-yellow and flaming red eyes charged at him wave after wave from the Darkness.
In the dream, his comrades fell one after another, the battlefield was filled with arrows, corpses lay everywhere, and Erune's tattered Battle Banner hung exhausted, motionless.
Until the last mont, it felt like the world was collapsing upon him—
Then he awoke from the dream with a scream, sitting up from the reed-covered bed, the early morning in the Black Forest still carried a chill, yet as Nodas touched his own back, it was soaked, and his pale forehead was dotted with beads of sweat.
He sat panting on the bed for quite a while before regaining his senses and raised his head to see a strand of Dawn's Glow spilling into the small room through the windowsill—the window was actually a round hole carved into the tree trunk.
The furnishings of the room were very simple, mostly wooden items, and even the whole room was an excavation in the tree trunk, with so vines hanging down from above, forming a natural and simple Space.
Nodas held his head, recalling with lingering fear that he was far from that battlefield now, having been rescued by those strange people and brought here for several months, but he often had such nightmares.
He took a breath and stood up, feeling a bit shaky, when he suddenly heard a noise outside the window, and was puzzled.
This village has always been very quiet.
Has sothing happened?
Or has the Recovery Festival begun?
Nodas ca to the window, looking outside with a puzzled gaze—
...
The settlent established by the Druids on the outer ring of the Trade Wind Ring is a town called the 'Green Tower.' Although it is called a town, it indeed houses several thousand people, including many Centaurs, Tree Elves, and so Tanians.
Druids have lived mixed with other Races in the Black Forest for a long ti, creating many such villages where they grow fast-growing magical ancient trees and reside within these trees' trunks.
The village is built about twenty to thirty ters above the ground among these towering trees, the entire town connected by suspension bridges—those bridges are ford by magic intertwined vines, covered with planks, more solid than the strongest stone bridges.
Countless suspension bridges weave between ancient trees, creating a unique aerial cityscape. Druids work at sunrise and rest at sunset, but Centaurs have opposite habits, loving lively marketplaces, and even install lamps on the bridges—huge flower buds like lanterns, glowing at night, Lily of the Valley.
However, more prominently are those coarse upward spiraling vines leading to the upper levels of the town, the Druids' gathering places, and the eagle nests of the giant eagles.
Druids have allied with giant eagles for several centuries.
Brand followed the Great Druid Gray Crow's group slowly ascending along the lush vines, seeing these large birds with astounding wingspans flying back and forth among the huge trunks.
The huge treetops are like their clouds, allowing them to weave among these green clouds.
Of course, Brand also saw the Centaur Guards' patrols, their well-polished Armor, wearing serious sentry helts as they passed them—the Centaurs have coexisted with Druids for a long history, being a martial race whose individuals are even stronger than Cave Dwellers.
But like in the Black Forest, they too rely on Druids to survive.
Besides them, the town is ho to many Tree Elves, Tanians, and Bear Monsters. Flying Horses and Unicorns also inhabit here, anyone who worships Forest Goddess Nia is a guest of the Druids.
However, the daily operations of the town are not overseen by Druids. In fact, Green Tower's defense is managed by a Centaur Leader nad Zenya, while the daily operations are handled by an administrative Council consisting of Tree Elves, Tanians, and Bear Monsters.
Druids live on the upper level, the Druid area where they have their independent body called the Withered Wood Council to handle all internal Druids affairs.
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