Despite the power that the various cities wielded along the Turmish coastline fronting the Sea of Fallen Stars as well as the Vilhon Reach, no one did anything involving the land without the consent of the Emerald Enclave. The druids' first order of business was to preserve nature, and if that meant no civilization could invade pristine, sylvan glens or wooded areas that could be harvested by loggers, that was what it meant.

Tethys spat and growled a curse that offended even Druz, as hardened as she was to the ways of mercenary men and battle.

"Is that right?" he asked the forest warrior. "Are you a druid?"

"I won't allow the killing of any more wolves," the man replied.

"You can't stop us," Forras said.

The forest warrior turned his deep green eyes on the man. The moonlight threw emerald sparks from them.

Druz acted immediately, seeing the druid's left hand twitch. She shoved Forras away. The man stumbled when he had to unexpectedly shift all his weight to his weak leg. He turned to Druz, lifting his sword threateningly.

"You damned fool!" Druz snapped.

"Are you siding with him, then…?" Forras's voice trailed off when he spotted the long, thin wooden dart quivering in the trunk of the tree he'd been standing in front of only a moment before.

"He would have killed you," Druz said, glancing over her shoulder at the forest warrior. "He still might." She studied the elf's hand, looking for a telltale sign that he had another dart ready.

Tethys took affront at the druid's action. "You'd kill a man over a wolf?" he demanded in disbelief.

"Yes," the druid replied. "The balance of nature must be kept. Your actions here unsettle that balance."

Forras regained his composure but stayed within reaching distance of Druz. "The wolves are feeding on the herd stock nearby."

"The cattle and sheep being raised here by the stockmen living in these lands have become-by rights-part of the wolves' prey," the elf druid said. "Those creatures, brought in by farmers, unsettle the balance of these lands by grazing. The wolves only make the sharing of the land more equal."