Chapter 696: 693. The Ancestors' Kin
On the morning of October 32, Halcala, the Wood Elf, had just woken up in the Great Forest Palace when she hurried over to her Healing Garden.
As soon as Halcala's High-Rank Priest saw her, he quickly said, "Princess, you're finally here! Three subordinate tribes of your own Oak Clan have sent over 75 injured Guardian Trees. They're just waiting for you to receive them!"
"What? More than seventy? Are we at war with the Lizardmen or something?" the Elf asked, baffled. But since these were relatives from her own clan, Halcala quickened her pace.
In the open space in front of the palace, dozens of withered trees of varying heights had been arranged in five rows. Their bark was covered in wounds of varying severity, and most had lost their leaves.
A few of the worst-hit trees had even lost the upper halves of their trunks. Only a few green branches sprouting from the middle of each trunk showed that they hadn't died completely.
"Good grief, did these trees fight in the war three hundred years ago?" Behind every tree stood a member of the Elf Royal Family. So many reduced to broken trunks meant their owners had met with terrible misfortune. The thought made the Wood Elf's heart ache.
"It wasn't the war three hundred years ago. It was the war a thousand years ago," a voice called from near the gate.
At the back of the cluster of damaged trees, a group of High-Rank Elves surrounded a richly dressed woman. The moment the Wood Elf heard her voice, she instinctively wanted to run away.
"Where are you going?" the woman asked.
"Uh... Mom, what are you doing here?" Halcala's legs trembled, and her face showed an unprecedented degree of deference.
"Hmph.