89 Ch 89. Tanzania 3

Kun'in'ans was heading to his farm in the middle part of the Mother Tree. He was very proud of himself for being able to procure it! After all, it was a sign of his high social standing in the tribe! Nobody was allowed to make a farm on the upper part so the people who had it in the middle one were usually influential and rich! As he finally reached the small plot of his bark, his body froze in fright. In front of him was a black bird he never saw before, pecking into the bark of a branch above his bark-field. The atmosphere around the bird was soul-rendering as it was giving out a chilling vibe. Kun'in'ans gulped with his eyes wide when the bird momentarily stopped pecking the bark and raised its head in his direction. His eyes met the blood-red eyes of the bird and... he fainted.

Later when he woke up, he found out the branch was pecked out up to the core and instantly ran off to the chieftain to inform him about this disaster! The Bird of Doom descended!

...

In his room, Hadrian was stroking the feathers of Rowena who clutched a blue crystal-like branch she pecked out of the Mother Tree. This was the core of it. Or at least a small part. It was a very important thing to Hadrian and the main component of every artifact the natives crafted. It was an energy source. Hadrian needed it because it was actually a part of crystalized Leyline and it would help him tremendously. "Good girl." He praised Rowena who cawed at him indignantly at having to do such a menial task for him. Hadrian just gave her another owl treat... surprisingly she quite liked them... and chuckled but didn't take her 'protest-caw' seriously which earned him a halfhearted peck from her.

He opened the storage rune made by Narcissa and deposited the crystallized core inside. This was the twentieth Rowena gathered this past week. If the villagers knew, they would probably take pitchforks and hoes to chase Hadrian to the end of the world. These cores were almost sacred for them and taking them is strictly prohibited unless it's from a branch that fell off. And even then... if they found out that an outsider had the audacity to take it! It would surely cause a headache for Hadrian. One he didn't really need so he decided to be sneaky about it. After all, to whom could they complain if the 'thief' was a bird? Mother Nature?

"You say you were seen..." Hadrian stated to which Rowena nodded. "Hmm... okay, stop with it. We got twenty samples already, no need to get more." Rowena just cawed in agreement, happy she was released from the task she considered below her station. Hadrian could only sigh in exasperation at his feathery friend. So much complaining but in the end, for an owl treat, she would reluctantly do it... But he supposed he was happy about that. Without her, it wouldn't be so easy to get the cores.

...

It was the last days of their stay in the village and Hadrian laughed hard as the village still panicked about the Bird of Doom or whatever insanity they came up with. According to the latest rumors, the end of the world was coming! Juma was actually unable to accompany Hadrian on his daily stroll to the Mother Tree in the evenings since he was busy helping the villagers investigate. They were searching for Rowena all around the village but Hadrian sent her away long ago. Right about now, she should be somewhere near London... Juma being busy however meant Hadrian couldn't approach the tree without setting up alarms and getting into trouble with the locals. Not that he overly cared, he had enough of the cores stashed away for his purpose. Their leaving wasn't even noticed much in the turmoil Rowena's sighting caused and so...

It was early afternoon and they were about to leave the village. Juma was frowning as the chieftain didn't even bother sending them off... But the trio didn't really care. They all had things to ponder about and were busy going through their gains from this little excursion.

Narcissa was quite happy about this trip as she learned a lot of new methods of crafting. While artifact creation wasn't really her forte but the principles could be used to create new runes. To her eternal happiness, the tribe even had knowledge about some really old runes that would make her own runic spells progress leaps and bounds. Hadrian already feared for the poor bastards who annoy her enough to smite them. Narcissa started to for some reason like making really nasty and irritating runes. She didn't go for max damage, instead, she went for the ones that could annoy the hell out of the enemies.

In exchange, Narcissa taught the natives some minor runes. After a year of being married to Narcissa, Hadrian had a clear image of the kind of person she was. She would never give them any substantial knowledge in runes. Not when they had no clue about the things she was teaching. In her mind, if they asked about specific knowledge, she would teach them but since they did not, she gave them some basics and flashy but useless runes and the rest was up to them.

Dora on the other hand learned flesh-crafting. It was mostly in tomes as no one from the tribe focusing on druidic magic would even touch the discipline with a stuffed dead skunk and these tomes were very, very old but she got the hang of it eventually. The chieftain even gifted her the tomes as it was useless for them.

Now... Hadrian was certain Dora would never use these skills for what they were meant to be... but she learned a lot about handling ingredients... especially those made out of humans, and she also learned very advanced rules of alchemy, no matter how 'dark' they were. They would later be applicable for other things too and that was the main reason why she learned it. Flesh-crafting was, after all, an incredibly advanced alchemical field and the underlying principles of it were up there with the hardest spells and mostly forgotten. If one tried to learn the craft in the modern age, it would be nigh impossible. Not because of lack of understanding but due to insufficient learning material! Dora really lucked out with these tomes. Also... they destroyed them the second she got all the knowledge stored in her mind through Occlumency. No way would they risk it being stolen! Hadrian, however, told Dora to make a copy for the black library in the safety of Grimmauld Place 12. With Narcissa's defenses, that place was almost unbreachable.

Hadrian spent the time studying the Mother Tree and Leylines and his ritual was coming along quite well. He had almost everything he needed and knew how to make sure the effect was what he desired but wasn't yet confident enough to actually perform the ritual without somebody learning the art near him. He would have to show his results to Bellatrix as she was the most knowledgeable in the field out of all of Hadrian's trusted acquaintances.

The way back towards the city was quiet and uneventful as the girls leaned on Hadrian, enjoying the time together as they quite neglected each other due to being busy learning. It was then the old van Juma rented abruptly stopped, pulling the trio out of their thoughts.

"What's up?" Hadrian asked. And saw Juma's furrowed eyebrows and worried expression.

"The road is blocked..."

(Cliff-kun! Sorry, kinda lost my drive so I will end the chapter here and continue in another...)