Yeah, no argument there.

Thanks.

No problem.

So she starts keeping an eye on the kobold while Nidela is busy in the stables. She's good enough at keeping herself hidden that the kobold doesn't notice her very often.

And he comes by the stables occasionally - doesn't bug Nidela, all of this must be overwhelming on its own - and occasionally asks Ila what's up?

(Nidela is doing well, actually! Animal care is her jam, so long as this is the only thing she has to deal with she's fine. Even the more willful horses - she's used to wild animals, this is nothing.)

She's sad, reports the lynx. I don't know why.

And then, a few days later, kobolds have their heat in the summer, and she isn't.

And that's a bad thing?

It's a thing? They usually smell like this, and in the summer they smell like this or this, and she smells like this instead and it's not changing.

I'm pretty sure it's none of our business.

Okay.

And he goes about the things that are his business.

And time flows on. The kobold continues to be a little withdrawn, and elusive when asked about it, but overall basically fine.

And eventually he sits down with Nidela to ask everything they should know to approach the elf city.

Well, it depends on what they want to do there. She's not sure how they'd arrange to meet the queen or the princess - going to the home tree and asking might work, but that's just a guess. If they want to meet the druid, they should ask at the meditation gardens, and bring Tyelkormo or at least mention him and his ability to speak to animals - be prepared to have to go through at least a couple levels of bureaucracy anyway, though. If they just want to look around, having her with them will probably help - she can't actually guide them much - well, she can read the signs, that'll help - but people will assume she is, if she's there.

You willing to do that?

The idea is to get them to stop, right?

Of course.

Then yeah. I've put up with worse.

So they get a teleport out to the city.

Part of her advice was 'don't teleport directly to the city'. They're about a day's journey out at an elf's slowish walking pace; perhaps half that for their group.

When they've been walking for about half an hour, a patrol spots them through the trees - does a double-take at the Quendi and sends one of their members to report in - and comes over to greet them.

"Hi," the person designated to lead the group says. "We are Quendi. We met Nidela in the elven outpost north of here. We believe in the same gods as you and some of our people can speak with animals." He gestures at Tyelcormo. 

"All right. We'll escort you in." Outrageous claims are Not Their Problem, they're just there to make sure nobody gets attacked by kobolds or goblins or werebeasts or anything.

They are appreciative of their escort in.

Their escort passes them off to a different squad around midday, and a few hours after that, they reach the city. Their first view of it is dominated by the tall hedge laden with poofy yellow and white flowers that surrounds the city, and the wooden archway - enspelled to detect magic, they'll notice if they take the risk of checking - where the hedge meets the road they're on. Beyond the archway, the tree trunks are gargantuan, and the undergrowth changes - it still looks messy, like the plants grew there naturally, but the plants are healthier, and more of them look interesting, like they might have been designed.

The city itself is high in the tree branches; the lowest sections are still easily sixty feet up, made of tree branches magically flattened and widened to form platforms, connected by rope bridges made of thick, gently-glowing vines and wooden slats. The nearest tree has a platform on a pulley system hung from its lowest branches, currently bringing a group of elves to the ground.

Their escort points out where the stables are - they can bring Huan and Ila with them if they want, but if not that's where they should stay - and also the marketplace, if they'd like to exchange any trade goods they may've brought for coins, and then they return to their patrol.

Some of the animals in the stables are bored, or miss their elves, or are nervous to be in an unfamilar place, but none of them have any complaints worse than that. There's also what appears to be a veterinary facility a couple miles deeper into the city with the expected variety of complaints present among the animals there, and a zoo, whose animals have a similar collection of issues to the ones in the village, except most of them aren't native to this forest.

They're here to stop the habitual genocides; he is only here because he has-locally-regarded-as-religious abilities.

He grinds his teeth.

Nidela thinks reassuring thoughts - the captial's zoo is a more complicated problem than their village's was, she's sure, but they won't be any less cooperative about fixing it - and leads them to the marketplace to find the right section to trade in their metal jewelry and tools.