World Walker Park [Magical Amusement Park Base-Building]

Luka mentally checked his list of reagents—moonshade dust, gorgon's fang, chimera heartstring, leviathan's scale, tannin root—unrelated to World Tree Tannin—blightvine sap, ash of the unmade, motes of life, water, and fire, hollowtwig dust, and much, much more.

Blomfum had pulled through and forced Sneerhome's Guilds branch to hastily bring over the park's shipment they were contracted for. The giant also shook things up managerial wise and was currently overseeing the branch until a more trustworthy sort was hired. Mage Whitiker was in the wind, so to speak, taking his firing with the same apathetic grace as the contracts he was attempting to push.

Was Luka expecting retaliation? Yes. How was that going to look? He had no idea—only that Sol said she would "take care of it," then smirked more devilishly than an actual devil.

"All good, sir?" the wagon driver asked, unloading the last box of reagents.

Luka flipped him a golden coin tip. "Indeed. You'll be back tomorrow?" The lad nodded and finished tidying up.

Flanking the World Walker, two park employees started the arduous process of sorting, labeling, and inventory keeping. The park's newest building, the alchemy lab, was a work in progress interior wise. Sol promised she would bring over her equipment, giddy as a goat about the prospect of setting up a dedicated alchemy station. Luka would supply the recipes, thanks to his artifact ring, and she would "brew" them up—even though alchemy didn't actually require brewing.

Luka oversaw the two employees' efforts for a few minutes before departing. He glanced at the sun—it was ten AM; an estimate that he figured was plus or minus two hours. Seriously, he didn't understand how others could tell the time down to the minute by looking at the sun. It was a talent, apparently.

With a sigh, he continued through the backside of the park, passing employees taking an early morning break or just arriving for the day. Some played cards together, others quickly hid whatever they were smoking from him—teenagers. He got plenty of greetings, a few had operational questions, but most were content with not talking to the boss, glad to stay away from his "bossly" gaze… whatever that meant.

There were about seventy employees at this point. Luka knew all the villagers' names by heart, but since Tram hired so many employees from Sneerhome practically all at once, their names were lost to him. A few crucial people, sure—like operational leads and branch heads—but not most of the entry level potions.

"Luka!"

He turned to the voice, finding a rushing Vlad. The human-turned-elf-from-another-world was someone Luka wanted to get to know better, which, sadly, was difficult. With so much going on at seemingly all times of the day, it was hard to make time. Still, he wouldn't turn his son-in-law away just because he was busy.

"What's wrong?" Luka asked.

"Nothing—I just wanted to tell you something. Well, ask you something." They walked together, exiting the behind-the-scenes area and venturing into the park fully. They passed guests and employees, a recently hired quartet of singing sirens, and a dragonkin magically juggling balls of fire. The park was lively and getting livelier by the day.

"I'm listening," Luka said, magically repairing a handrail section somebody carved a heart and their initials into.

"Yesterday, in the city, I was able to sneak away from Annie for a few minutes. I bought this." Vlad revealed a small box—a ring box. He opened it, presenting an iridescent gem the size of a small meteor. It was beautiful, and likely expensive. "I plan to ask Annie to marry me."

Luka froze. "I thought you were married?" Had he gotten the whole 'husband' thing wrong this entire time? He and his daughter were estranged practically their whole lives on Earth, but this was something he was deadly sure about.

"On Earth, yeah," Vlad said, having expected the question. "But I thought it would be nice to get married here, again."

"Oh." That made… sense, Luka supposed. At the very least, it was a knightly gesture—a real love song. But still, why was Vlad telling him this?

"And I wanted your permission—"

Luka gritted his teeth at that. "You don't need my permission. Annie's her own—"

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Vlad loudly sighed. "No. On Earth I never got the chance to ask her father, and I know on this world she would love to be given away by you. Tradition isn't just a fancy word."

"I don't think Annie would want me in the wedding—"

"Annie would love for you to walk her down the aisle." Vlad leaned in a hair closer. "She would never admit this, but back when I first proposed to her on Earth, I overheard her talking to a girlfriend about who was going to walk her down the aisle. In the end, my father did it. But she wanted her father to."

"But our relationship was long over by then."

He nodded. "And yet, on one of the most important days of her life, she wished to have a father to share it with."

Luka mulled that over. Honestly, his and Annie's relationship had been going great! Sure, at times there was awkwardness, but it was almost endearing. They both wanted to be part of each other's lives, almost to a fault. And yet, both had lived entire lives independently of each other. Maybe—just maybe it was time to finalize this "fatherly" thing and do something he should have done on Earth. Something more than he had done in this world.

"I'd be honored to, Vlad," he said.

***

Hours later, Luka stood with Eve, Annie, and Sol in the forest near Ressen. It was the location deeded the Bestial Grove, and soon to be under construction.

With a roll of magical power, and a hint of eldritch god flare, Annie terraformed. Trees, soil, moss, bushes. Everything moved, transforming under the weight of World Walker magic. Space collapsed, twisting on itself, shrinking. She murmured to herself, singing a tune. Likely a placebo, the song did little to ease the tension her magic called—but it did calm her nerves and center her mind.

Like an anchor, Annie affected reality. The spell she was copying was God Neb's, and it showed. In minutes, from where they stood to the edge of the basalt lake cliffs was simply gone—flattened into loose dirt and sandstone. But she wasn't done.

Hovering before her were the ripped-out trees, soil, moss, and bushes. They took up the volume of a rowboat and were close to the same surface area. The reality they occupied, however, was impossibly deep—like a bottomless bag. The forest was still alive in this rowboat-sized mass of magic, waiting for Annie's control to slip and snap back to size.

But she wasn't going to let that happen. Instead, she split the mass of space into several dozen. They were to be keychains, little pockets of the forest. The trees would be safe, her World Walker magic mixed with Vale's godly empowerment, guaranteeing the fact. With some water and sunlight, anyone could have their own grove of emberwood trees.

"Are you sure the dryads are cool with this?" Annie asked, inspecting her work.

Luka shrugged. "Mrs. Leafsong didn't say anything about it last I saw her."

"Dryad, smyrad!" Sol snapped, her raven headdress cawing to emphasize her words. "Ignore the tree huggers and let's get to work! We've got an alchemy hut to design!"

"You mean 'I've got an alchemy hut to design,'" Eve mumbled. Since this morning, the village mystic had not let anyone into her lab, going so far as to enchant the door so only she, Luka, and the two villagers who unloaded the shipments of reagents could enter.

Sol looked at her niece, a flare in her eye. "Exactly! You get it!"

Eve rolled her eyes.

Soon, a pile of keychains was put into Annie's backpack. "What now?" she asked.

Luka eyed the wide flat land. He was never good at estimating square footage, but this was a lot—easily double, or even triple, the size of the park. It was an expansion worthy of the park's mantra: step into another world.

"Foundations," he said. "Lots and lots of foundations."

Everyone groaned.

"What?"

"It's just, watching you make rectangular reinforced squares of stone got boring after the dozenth time," Eve answered.

"Agreed, and I've only ever seen you do it a half-dozen times," Annie added.

Luka blinked. "But magic is so awesome."

"It is—but like, so are those magical crunchy things that make you breathe fire for a few minutes. After the third or fourth time you eat them, they're not as special."

He blinked again. "What magical crunchy things that make you breathe fire?"

It was Annie's turn to blink. "What do you mean?"

"I have literally no idea what you're talking about." He looked at Eve and Sol for help, both looked away.

Annie said, "Todd sells them at the bar. Are you telling me you've been living in this world for almost triple the length I have, and you haven't looked at Todd's menu?"

"People usually just bring me food…" Luka didn't like how that sounded. "Or I make it…" He didn't like how that sounded either. "Or they just order for me."

"People order for you? What are you, five?"

He sighed. It was going to be a long evening. But one way or another, by the time Luka went to bed, the skeleton of Bestial Kingdom was complete.