Chapter Text
Abolish had set his course for the ruins of Oakhurst with a good amount of hope in him. He knew it was a bit of a project — rumors of sickly plants and a lack of people were almost certainly true — but no freshly matured forest spirit was going to be able to claim prime territory.
Abolish wasn't afraid of spending a few years tending to a sick forest, nor did he shy away from the idea of needing to lure humans over. He'd rebuild the town and make it the perfect spot for his future humans.
The first thing he did was a quick survey the land. Sure enough, he found d a sick forest just as the rumors had described. Luckily, it was separated from the other trees by a river which the sickness didn't seem to be able to cross. Abolish noted where it was and would come back later to start healing it. He had never seen a blight quite like this one, but it couldn't be too hard.
The rest of the woods covering his territory seemed excellent as far as Abolish could tell. The forest surrounding the ruins of Oakhurst was happy, welcoming Abolish with open arms (as his new home should). There was plenty of wildlife roaming around already and the soil seemed rich in nutrients.
The ground also whispered tales of silver underground which would be an excellent way to lure humans onto his land. If Abolish could get an entire town set up because people wanted to mine, that would be great. He filed that idea away for later.
It was time to take a look at where his humans would eventually settle.
From far away, the ruins didn't look bad. The main problem was the ground. The dirt in the town's walls — if one could call the sad things that — wailed about blood and ash. It was certainly unpleasant for Abolish to be walking around on, but he knew humans wouldn't have the same problem. He would leave rebuilding the town as one of his last chores, that way the ground would have some time to calm down before he had to spend significant time there.
He also found a strange, magical object in the central tower. A beacon of some sort. Abolish touched the cool glass, but nothing happened. It didn't seem to be poisoning his land, so he decided it wasn't worth worrying over. If it turned out his future humans didn't like it, he'd get rid of it.
Suddenly, Abolish heard voices. He stepped outside and saw a handful of humans entering the town. The forest spirit was delighted. It was only three people, but that meant they could do quite a bit of the repairing of the town for him. Then, he might be able to use them as a way to lure other humans over.
Abolish's mood only increased as more humans arrived into town. He counted thirteen in total. It wasn't a lot, Abolish would definitely need to get more at some point, but it was a good start. Genetic diversity wouldn't be a real problem for at least a decade or two so that would be a future task for Abolish.
He would need to move enchanting the area surrounding Oakhurst to the top of his priorities, though. It would do no good to have his humans wandering away from his town. He'd let them have a bit of wander room — humans got restless if their enclosure was too small — but not a big enough area that Abolish could lose them.
He introduced himself to his humans and listened to all their backstories, becoming even more pleased when several showed potential of making his life much easier.
First, there were the three most useful people for his town.
Owen was a lumberjack which would be good for rebuilding the town.
Cleo was a farmer, a very necessary thing when one is trying to establish and sustain a town.
Legundo was a doctor which was also useful. Even though Abolish would be doing his best to prevent many sicknesses, humans had a tendency to get hurt. Also, when his town eventually grew large enough, Abolish would have a hard time using magic to keep every human healthy. He supposed Legundo was on the older side for a human so Abolish may end up needing to stretch his lifespan to make sure the doctor was still around when his town became that large.
Then, there were other humans who were still likely to be useful in the future.
M was a writer which would held keep his people entertained as long as Abolish made sure his town had supplies to make books.
Shelby was another promising writer, showing potential to help just like M, and she also seemed to have the ability to cheer others up. She seemed to be looking for something called Bigfoot. It wasn't something Abolish had heard of before, but maybe he'd get one in his forest as a treat for her.
Drift was a detective and Pyro was a scholar, both likely to be smart enough to improvise solutions to any problems that may occur.
Pearl appeared to be a competent hunter which would help make his people feel safe. Even though Abolish wouldn't let any predators, especially werewolves, near his town, humans tended to need strong ones around to feel safe. Besides, Abolish had been told that the undead were restless here, so she may be necessary for a little while until he could find a way to stop that.
Apo, Ren, and Martyn were three humans Abolish didn't see unique worth in, but they'd be good for tasks around the town at the very least. More humans meant less work for him anyway.
Unfortunately, Abolish did have two problems: Scott and Avid.
Scott was the lesser of his problems. The man was unhelpful for building his town with his hatred for labor, which would have been fine if he wasn't also a noble. Nobles had a terrible habit of trying to take control of land and demand the people's attention. The humans were going to be worshiping Abolish and giving him tribute, so he didn't need a noble trying to consolidate power.
Avid was his most immediate problem. He was disruptive to Abolish's town and the forest spirit knew that such disruptions could halt a town's development. He did not need his humans getting into fights or, universe forbid, Avid's paranoia spreading to the rest of the population. Abolish had seen towns fall apart due to infighting and he would not be letting that happen to Oakhurst.
It was convenient that Avid was claiming Scott was a vampire, though. With the way he was acting, it was only a matter of time before Avid took a swing at Scott. Scott would get upset in some way which would give Abolish the opportunity to take a soothing walk with him into the forest. Scott would simply never reappear and people would blame Avid. If the town didn't deal with the paranoid man themselves, Abolish would stage a way of getting him killed. It was simple, really.
As Abolish heard his humans starting to investigate the beacon, he closed his eyes and focused his power. He muttered under his breath and his fingers twitched as he pulled a barrier up around the land.
He opened his eyes back up just as the humans consecrated the beacon. He smiled as he saw them liking its light. Good. This was all going to turn out perfectly.