From the very front of the entrance, the chief brought the two into the center of the hall. There lay a giant round table with nothing on top of it, not even a tablecloth.

“Right here, Your Grace, we’ll be planning on handling the matter at hand with the invading humans.” Said the chief from the top side of the table, while Staas and Gytha stood right across him.

Gytha realized what they were about to do or discuss. She quickly walked to the chief to tell him a couple of advice.

“Mr. Chief, I know this is a strategy meeting… but can you please make your words easier to understand? Staas isn’t fully recovered yet, and he has as much vocabulary as a child. Although his understanding is somewhat amazing.” She said with a low voice so Staas won’t hear it and get offended. He probably won’t.

“Understood, I’ll try to not make it complicated.” Replied Nightfall as he grasp the situation.

“Thank you~” The girl then went back to Staas’ side with a smile on her face. Truly not the fitting expression in this warring time.

“Let’s just get all of this started shall we?”

The chief then joined both his index fingers together, and slowly pulled them away from each other. Green light started shining from between, and a long stick commenced forming itself, creating a pointer, solid and straight.

*Tock! Tock!*

He then knocked the table twice with his pointer, and that wooden plank starts trembling, with flickering green light sparkling on numerous spots.

Roots and branches began appearing from the lights, slowly shaping themselves into a miniature of what lies outside of this hall and town. A place that soon to be a battlefield filled with knights and fae, trying to cease each other existence.

“Whoa… will I be able to do that too?” Asked Staas to Gytha, while excitedly pointing directly at the miniature town walls made out of intertwined tree roots.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to use every nature spells out there… you’re its Champion after all,” Gytha answered with a calm smile.

“Champion? Are we really that powerful?” Staas looks a bit lost, he never studied about the 9 Champions as much as everyone should. Essentially, it is common knowledge that should be known by every inhabitant of this world.

“I’ll tell you more about them later, Staas. For the time being, let’s hear what the chief is about to say regarding the town’s problem.”  Said Gytha, reminding him of the current situation.

“Okay…” The boy nodded and diverted his attention back to the chief. Nightfall himself then constructed a bunch of tiny figures, representing each group and class of the soldier from both factions.

“Alright, I will now begin putting all the tiny soldiers in their place. The green ones are representing our soldiers, and the cyan ones are representing the knights.” The chief arranged every unit on each specific spot, with the fae mostly on top of the wall.

Every figure had a tiny weapon on their hand to make it easier for those who see them to understand. Especially for Staas.

Most of the fae are archers. They’re nested on top of the wall, guarding the west side of this town. Behind the wall are the melee units with sabers in their hand. They serve the purpose of assisting the archers if the enemy manages to get on top of the wall, and guarding the artillery units inside the town.

Outside are the enemy. The chief didn’t arrange them too well since he didn’t know how the humans fight. It’s not often for them to advance and take wars with the forest. This place is sacred, and inhabitants of this world respect and make peace with it.

For humans to suddenly invade is a huge anomaly, a violation of the norm.

The meeting went mostly about teaching Staas how each unit from each faction serves its purpose. The chief also told him about the winterstone, an uncommon metal that can be mined only in the human regions. They are strong and almost impenetrable, which made the human tough opponent for those who aren’t a seasonal warmonger like the nymph and the fae.

“So… you always represent your soldiers as a large group, why does my doll only me alone?” Staas asked, his figurine is chiseled as a tiny wooden statue resembling him, with a human spear carried in his hand.

“Because you’re unique Your Grace, and none of us here will be able to catch up to you if you start doing whatever you’re doing.” Replied the chief, recognizing his power.

“Am I that fast Gytha?” The boy looked confused with the statement.

“Crazy fast.” The girl almost laugh.

“Well, Your Grace, why don’t you take a good night's sleep for now. The sun is setting, and tomorrow… winter might come to us.”

The two agreed to the chief suggestion, one of the faes then guided them to a treehouse not far from the town military headquarter.

They walked in spirals around a giant tree above a wooden path until finally reaching the highest part of the tree where their room reside.

“Hmm… are we going to have the war held in those farm fields?” From the front of their room, Staas pointed at the outer west of the town, which was filled with plantations just like every part outside the wall in this region.

“Pretty much, why you ask?” Replied Gytha.

“Won’t that be… dirty?” The boy curled his hands a bit. Clearly, he doesn’t like the idea.

“Oh, right… you haven’t taken any bath today, huh?” Said Gytha. “Why don’t we head to one then?” She suggested.

“Right now?”

“Right now!”

“Alrighty then…” Staas quickly carried the girl with both of his hands and jumped straight to the ground from the peak of his tree.

*Tap…*

And they landed smoothly like a falling feather.

“The fae must have some kind of public bath or pond or whatever. They look pearly clean and extremely fragrant. Not to your level though…” Said Gytha as Staas slowly put her down.

“Can we just like… ask them?” Suggested the boy.

“We could, let’s go!”

The two proceeded to run around to find the nearest fae and ask them whether they have a place to bathe or not in this town. All the faeries immediately understand why they needed them and direct them to a bathing house.

It’s not the first time they ever dealt with nymphs, they knew how important bathing is to these spirits. Although usually, nymphs go on a bath when the sun is up in the sky.

“W—Welcome!” The girl serving as bathhouse keeper greeted them. She’s shocked and trembled in fear. Even though the chief already warned her about Nymfrik being present in their town and might want to take a bath, she couldn't handle how powerful the aura Staas emitted was.

“Hey lady, the faes outside told us we can go bathing here.” Said the boy to the keeper.

“Yes, o—of course! Please come, the right side is for males and the left side is for females.” Said the lady, showing the location of each bathing area.

“Hm? Why would they split the bath between the two?” Gytha was confused.

“It’s just the norm, miss.” Answered the keeper.

“Is there any way for us to be in the same bath? Staas usually have hydriads to clean him while bathing.” Questioned the girl.

“There is. A mixed bath is located just behind me. Although the faeries rarely used them, nor the visiting nymph.” Warned the keeper.

“So that means we can have the bath to ourselves!?” Gytha was rather quite excited when she pointed that out.

“Y—yes…” Meanwhile, the keeper's poor mind is on a trip right now, even her green face turned bright red.

“Thank you!”

Gytha wasted no time and quickly grabbed Staas’ hand and took him away to the mixed bath. On the other hand, the keeper is still tainted by her imagination.

Inside, the two quickly undressed and put the clothes given by the elders on the shelves provided by the bathing house. They then entered the water— which is a hot spring— butt naked, without taking any towel with them.

Of course, this is normal for nymphs since they absorb water with their body just like every plant do.

“Want me to wash your back?” Gytha offered. This is not the first time the two see each other naked, they often took a bath together after all.

“Sure.” The boy seated comfortably in the middle of the spring, showing his back for the girl to clean. Gytha however, went all the way and cleaned every part of Staas’ body. All the nymphs who went bathing with him always do this, so he doesn’t mind and just enjoys not doing anything.

“It has been a tiring day for you huh, Staas?” Said Gytha as she began to massage his body.

“I think so… I just… didn’t expect humans to come and prisoned all of the dryads in ice.” Staas then leaned himself back to rest on Gytha’s chest. The girl can feel how drained he was, although mostly emotionally.

“I never taught you the word prison before, where did you learn that?” Gytha asked while continuing her massage.

“I don’t know… probably when I saw the stream of memory after receiving the essence from you.” His eyes were sleepy, he was done doing anything for the day.

“Did you see my memories too?”

“Every one of you, from the day I fell to my slumber until when the knight shredded your back.”

“There’s not much to see, huh?”

“Yeah… all you do is sleep with your head on my bed.”

“Hehe…”

For a while they both went silent, enjoying the warmth of the water, and how peaceful the night was. Yet, they can’t quite fall asleep even with how much the spring spoiled them.

“Do you really going to kill the humans tomorrow?” Gytha suddenly asked.

“I guess so… I mean, if I’m the one giving them lives, doesn’t that make me allowed to take it back too?” Those were some scary words coming out of his mouth, but Gytha didn’t mind it. To her, he deserves everything this world has to offer. "Besides, I felt like... I wanted to protect this town somehow..."

“But you never went to battle before…” The girl reminded him.

“I’ll adapt, just like how I do so when I carried you to the Garden of Time.”