Chapter 56: There's A Deapir In The Woods
'What the hell was that, it didn't look like anything I have ever seen before.'
[System was able to partially scan the lifeform, appears to match the description of a Deapir mentioned in book 'Races of Alner']
'Seriously, are we trespassing on Deapir land then? No, that can't be, they were on their own, they wouldn't patrol with single people.'
James had now closed some of the distance between him and the Deapir, with the smaller gap between the two he was able to see that it looked mostly humanoid but its skin was a darkish green similar to the leaves around it, they really were suited for living in forests, it was a natural camouflage. They also had a thin body which seemingly held a lot of power judging by the speed they were travelling.
"Please wait, I mean you no harm. I just want to know why you were watching our camp!"
The Deapir responded but it didn't sound like anything James had heard before, he had no way to communicate with this person and so would only frighten them if he continued to chase them.
He was about to stop but realised that up ahead of him was a large number of trees covered in houses that appeared to have been made by influencing how the trees had grown then filling the gaps with natural materials.
It seemed that in their fright this person had led the potential enemy straight to their home, this didn't bode well for James though as they might decide to kill him just to protect themselves. Clearly, they didn't want to be found being built so deeply into the forest.
Realising the situation he was in James took the only measure he could think of, he ran straight into the base and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Does anyone understand me!"
This shout startled all of the Deapir who were currently going about their jobs in their small village. James' presence had already been noticed by the guards of the town who had rushed over at an incredible speed to stop him; they held their weapons to his neck.
The weapons appeared to be made out of some type of plant, but just from the minimal contact James had he could tell it was just as dangerous as metal when put against his neck.
"I mean you no harm, I followed someone who was spying on me to here, I apologise for the intrusion."
James heard the same language he had heard earlier, and the guards took a step back from him, they still kept their weapons up, but they didn't look like they had any intent to kill him for now.
"Welcome outsider, It's been a while since any humans have made their way to our land, so most of the people here are wary of them, I suppose history doesn't help with this though."
A man who looked to be older than the rest almost like he was wilting came forward, hiding behind him was the smaller Deapir that James had chased earlier, the young Deapir seemed both interested and afraid.
"If you don't mind my asking, can you tell me about the history you mentioned?"
"I don't mind; it pretty much began when our two races were placed together, the human's so-called superiority made them want to take control of all of the land and force the Deapir out.
We fought for hundreds of years until eventually, the Deapir came forth with a proposal giving the humans the majority of land provided they no longer bother us.
Unfortunately, with humans ingenuity, they were able to make more and more complicated magic circuitry to make weapons to defeat us, so we had to concede."
'Well, nice to see humans are any different in this world' James let out a heartfelt sigh in frustration, In his past life whenever he had thought about how to advance humanity as far as possible he would always come back to the same problem.
Humans were inherently weak; they mostly felt they were superior to everything and that they were owed the world just for existing, this had led to countless wars over history only to control a particular resource or even because the two rulers simply didn't like each other.
If humans couldn't even work together in his last world how were they going to work with a different species in this one?
"On behalf of all humans, I would like to sincerely apologise, and offer this as a gift."
James took off his bag and fished out something he had been tinkering with now and then in his free time; he had managed to regulate the quartz crystals he had to play a short melody.
He had begun with simple tunes, but as he became more proficient, he was able to input one of his favourite songs from his last life. While he was sad to part with it, James felt that it was made for him to give it to the Deapir at this moment.
James activated the device, and it began to play music, all of the Deapir turned towards it with keen interest, they all began to sway along with the music and seemed to be genuinely in love with it. Even the old man James was talking to had a fond look when he looked at the music box.
"This is a gift I'm sure we will treasure forever; it is a beautiful melody, does it have a name?"
"I call it 'Leaves in the Wind'. Its name seems to fit your people perfectly; so I decided it would be better suited to give it to you rather than keeping it in my bag."
"May I ask your name young man, mine is Kellert, and my grandson here is called Arborel."
"I am James Reel; it is a pleasure to meet you. I am afraid I won't be able to stay too long as the people I am travelling with may start to worry and I'm sure you wouldn't want them looking around the forest too much."
"I appreciate your concern, but allow us to give you a gift before you set off, I can feel that you are a magus as the humans call them and I'm sure you will find this to be a helpful tool."
Kellert pulled out a sword that looked like it was made of leaves but had a metallic sheen to it; the sheets appeared to be sandwiched together layer after layer, there had to be thousands of them.
"How can you give him our spring-steel my lord, a human does not deserve the right to carry our weapons."
"You saw how he has treated us so kindly and even gifted us something so precious how can we the Deapir not return this favour, this man shall be seen as a friend of the Deapir, I can tell that he has no ill intent towards us."
[Title: 'Friend of The Deapir' Unlocked]
"Yes my lord, I apologise for speaking out of turn."
"If I may, I have a gift for your grandson as well."
"Please James, we have taken enough from you already."
"I insist, please take this, young man. I hope we see each other again someday."
When James was showing the music device, he had noticed that when the music was playing Arborel wasn't mesmerised by the sound; he had gotten lost in the structure of the invention.
Apparently, he had a significant interest in it, so James decided to bundle up a starter pack of sorts, he handed over everything Arborel would need to start producing his own devices to play music.
James also described the basics of using the equipment he had given him, Arborel soaked it all up like a sponge. The entire time he was listening there was a massive grin on his face. Evidently, he really liked his gift.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
keyboardcoronary
keyboardcoronary 2nd chapter for today.
This is the melody I had in mind when writing this, by the way, the name fits them perfectly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ArOjEEWs5k
And once again, as always, votes, and reviews are appreciated.
Check the main page of the novel for the new goals for a mass release, there are quite a few of them so I need to get writing I guess.
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