Chapter 140: Six Hundred Trees and a Perfect Pastry
Sha'Rona strides up beside Vuvi, straight into a huddle of chattering dwarves, and every single one of them goes stiff and nervous at once as soon as they lay eyes on her, throwing her looks of mild, well-worn irritation.
"Don't look at me like that," Sha'Rona says, sneering at them.
One of the dwarven forewomen steps forward anyway, arms crossed. "What are you doing here? You and your tree-hugging furballs have been making our lives hell for months." she scowls before turning to Vuvi, "They're a menace!"
"That's what you get for destroying our forest." Sha'Rona scoffs, turning her back to them.
"We're just doing our jobs! Following orders!" replies another, "We're not here because we want to be!"
"What exactly are your orders?" Vuvi asks.
The dwarf scratches the back of her head, hesitating like she's weighing his job security against his own curiosity. "I'm... not sure I can share that, I'm afraid. Wouldn't want to get in trouble, y'know."
Vuvi pouts, tilts her head and looks at Pip with sad eyes. "I came all this way just to bring the Pleasure Prince himself. We were on our way to your kingdom… " she sighs and shakes her head softly, "but these poor beast-kin told us how you're destroying their homes. And our Prince just had to help them… it's his divine purpose. Will you deny the Prince his purpose?
The dwarf visibly fights the urge to spill everything at the mention of Pip's name, and loses spectacularly. "Six hundred trees," she blurts. "That's the order. That's why we're out here today. Six hundred, no more, no less."
"And the beast-kin?"
"Never harm them. Got a strict rule about that. Get the trees and leave the forest-dwellers alone." She shoots Sha'Rona a sneer. "Not that they'd extend us the same courtesy."
"We haven't harmed a single one of you!" Sha'Rona snarls back.
"What about two weeks ago?" A dwarf asks, stomping a foot into the ground between them.
"We didn't… harm you. Technically." Sha'Rona scoffs as she rolls her eyes.
"You pelted us with glowing mushrooms that stole our sense of taste for an entire week!" I couldn't enjoy a single thing I ate!"
Sha'Rona chuckles in response.
The dwarf stomps her foot again, scowling before Vuvi quickly steps between them calmly. "I'm sure Sha'Rona's very sorry about that. Right!?" she asks, turning to the bunny-kin warrior, eyes wide and eye brows twitching, waiting for a confirmation.
"Absolutely not!" Sha'Rona says without a hitch, causing Vuvi to clutch her forehead.
"Why cut down the forest so suddenly?" Vuvi asks instead. "This has only started recently, hasn't it?"
The dwarf shrugs, spreading her hands. "Honestly? No idea. Just doing the job, lady."
Vuvi pouts, considering. "Then we need to speak to whoever is giving the orders."
"I can arrange that," the woman says, stepping forward and holding up the business card Vuvi had pressed into her hands earlier, clutching it tightly, like a winning lottery ticket. "The moment they hear the Prince himself is this close, they'll send someone proper to welcome him. The whole Kingdom's been waiting for his arrival."
Vuvi grins, delighted with herself, and elbows Sha'Rona in the ribs. "You see? We're famous."
"You're famous for owning a pleasure construct."
"I'm famous for owning the pleasure construct. There's a difference." Vuvi smirks, turning to Pip, "This construct is going to save the world."
"Through orgasms…" Sha'Rona chuckles, despite herself.
"Life saving orgasms. Orgasms that have been heard by the entire continent, apparently." Vuvi gestures broadly at the swooning dwarves, still whispering excitedly amongst themselves.
Sha'Rona just scoffs and looks away deliberately, though not before Vuvi catches the corner of her mouth edging on a smile.
"Tomorrow!" The dwarven woman says, "Promise you'll return with the Prince! They'll have a proper welcome ready for him. I'm sure of it!"
"Deal!" Vuvi grins, offering a hand. The dwarf shakes it with startling enthusiasm, then leans in and whispers, "Any chance we could get a… demonstration as well?"
"No promises," Vuvi says, laughing. "But knowing our little Prince, I wouldn't count it out.."
Every female dwarf in earshot cheers.
A few of the male workers mutter among themselves about the Promised One finally arriving, the Golden Prince of prophecy, here at last.
"By the way," Vuvi smiles, tilting her head toward one of the steam-powered contraptions. "Is that an Angstrum Voidtracker Mk. II… " The dwarves' mouths shoot open and they immediately pivot into an animated discussion about pistons and pressure gauges, eyes bright like kids in a candy shop built entirely out of gears.
Sha'Rona groans, whistles back toward the treeline, and flicks a string of hand signals. Her team cautiously emerges from cover.
"What's happening?" one asks and she steps into the clearing, a bewildered look on her face.
"Change of plans," Sha'Rona mutters, jerking her head toward Vuvi, who's now gesturing wildly with both hands to illustrate some kind of gear ratio.
"...Is she… making friends with them?" one of her scouts asks, squinting incredulously at the scene ahead of them.
"Yep."
"So we're not sabotaging them?"
"Nope."
"So what do we do now?"
Sha'Rona pinches the bridge of her nose, watching Vuvi cackle at something the dwarven engineer just said, both of them now crouched over a diagram scratched into the dirt with a stick.
"We wait," she sighs, "and we see how much worse this gets."
A siren suddenly blares across the clearing and every beast-kin flinches, ears flat, bracing for the worst.
The dwarves beside Vuvi grins, rises, dusts off her overalls, and hollers, "LUNCH!"
Every tool drops around them.
Every machine grinds to a halt.
Within minutes, the workers have a long table assembled in the center of the clearing, creaking under an absurd spread of food and pastries the likes of which the beast-kin have clearly never seen in their lives.
One of the workers notices a fox-kin staring, drool edging at the corners of her mouth, and waves them over. "Plenty for everyone, if you're hungry."
Sha'Rona opens her mouth to decline on behalf of the group, but her own people are already scrambling for the table. Within moments beast-kin and dwarf sit elbow to elbow, trading playful insults about their little ongoing war between mouthfuls, a cat-kin scout already three pastries deep in what looks like a genuine truce with the dwarf who she'd pelted with numbing-shrooms just a week ago.
"You're guys are a menace," the dwarf tells her with a mouth full of cream and honey. "Those numbing mushrooms had me wobbling for a week!"
"It was pretty funny though." the fox-kin replies, equally full, and they both laugh like old friends instead of sworn enemies for the last six months.
Sha'Rona shoots Vuvi a look sharp enough to curdle milk, but Vuvi just shrugs it off, grabs a pastry off the nearest plate, and lobs it directly at her face.
Sha'Rona catches it on reflex and bites down out of pure spite and opens her mouth to say something non-complimentary, but her ears shoot straight up, eyes twisting over each other as she slowly chews, melting completely against her own will into the single best fruit-based paster she had ever tasted.