"Is that lady downstairs?" Ruger casually put away the mushrooms and glanced around.
"If you mean that lady who keeps shedding, go down here, turn right, and take the first room on the left," Tuzel said with a cold snort.
Ruger raised his eyebrows. These Little Ones really were full of energy.
Seeing that Ruger seemed to have business elsewhere, Tuzel stopped Strange Hand and began asking about his teacher Immanuel, hoping to clear up his confusion.
Ruger glanced over, then stretched again as he walked. He gazed at the distant scenery, at the towering Giant Trees surrounding him. So immense, yet so tiny. An unfamiliar, wonderful feeling came over him. Seeing this scenery, experiencing this tranquility, standing amid it in such a small body-it was as though even his perspective on things had begun to change.
The broken tree beneath his feet, tall as a Tower, could only be called a stump amid this forest of towering trees.
As he passed the long dining table connected to the stump itself, the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a meaningful smile.
The moment he passed that table, he thought of the enclosed space, the sealed chamber with twelve stone chairs and a stone table.
Yet when he had first landed on this enormous stump, no such thought had occurred to him. He had merely given instructions to the lively Spirit Fur knights without thinking. Now it seemed that place, and those events, had left a deeper impression on him than he had imagined.
The stairs were no longer as crude as before. Some of the patterns were clearly Tuzel's work.
Ruger blinked, considering whether to cut off this section of trunk and take it with him when he left. After all, it was the fruit of his companions' hard