She heard sounds around her but had to trust. If there was danger they would respond. If it wasn't danger than they may just be amazed at what she was doing. She refused to open her eyes until she was done.
When Lana opened her eyes, she was very dizzy. Blaine helped her up to her feet and everyone joined them in the new treehouse, where it was dry. Blaine had her lean on him while taking things out of her bracelet. Using telekinesis, he soon had a living and dining area set up.
"I thought we were out of room in there!" She said weakly.
Blaine smiled at her, "I made room. I'm glad you made such a big space. I bought a table for twelve. With the living room furniture, we can all sit but I'd rather the wet people not sit on the couches…." He then led her to the couch and allowed her to sit, taking the bracelet off her.
Inside the door they entered, there was a wall going down just left of center. The bottom floor had a bedroom suite with a nursery, their room with closet space, and a bathroom which could be accessed from the living area. Blaine disappeared into the bedroom. He had also purchased a foam bed for them and two more for upstairs, so Dobin and Tanisha would have their own room. He also put most of his clothes in his closet, leaving what he thought he might need for the rest of school.
He then went upstairs and put in the other beds. He didn't purchase any dressers or anything. He figured once they were ready to live here, they could use what was in the bracelet. There were no closets upstairs, so he moved what was left of his clothes into hers and put his empty wardrobe in Dobin's room and put all of his clothes in there.
He went downstairs to ask him to go through and see if he wanted to keep anything in the bracelet. Lana heard the plan and decided to do the same thing. That would remove two wardrobes. It would be less storage space, but she could put in cabinets instead. Right now, more floor space in there was great.
She let Dobin go first. When they returned, she removed most of her things as well as the wedding presents into her closet. Blaine hardened the earthen floor to make sure the moisture outside would stay outside while Lana went through everything.
"So, we will need to put in plumbing and such?" He asked when he was done.
She nodded, "we will but I'm not overly worried about that at the moment. We are just in here while we wait for the rain to stop."
"Do you have an idea of how long that will be?"
"The trees are not good at providing such information…. Wait… Didn't you buy rain gear when you bought the cold weather gear?"
Blaine chuckled, "I forgot! It's in the same wardrobe!"
"Well, I'm done, I think. There are some things that may be useful so I'm leaving them in there plus the really expensive stuff. We can take those items out once we start living here or have the area manned while we are traveling."
With their clothes plus Dobin's combined into one wardrobe, Blaine went upstairs to put the other empty in the room designated for Tanisha. At the top of the stairs, there was a circular area that could handle some chairs for a sitting area. There were six rooms. Blaine assumed at least one would be a bathroom, so he put a bed and wardrobe in the rooms immediately to the left and right of the stairs. He was amazed by how smooth the flooring looked but the walls were obviously made from branches, with bark and the curve of each individual branch clear.
Back downstairs, "I realized I have rain gear but only for 11. That covers my team and Lana's team. I can give that out and you guys can change into something dry and wear this over if you'd like but…"
"We have rain gear," Sergeant Rage stated.
"So does my team," Paul chimed in. "I bought it when I found out where we were going last night."
Lana smiled. "Well then. How about we get changed and we can head out? There are rooms upstairs as well as in our room."
As Blaine handed gear out, people went upstairs. "Where do we put our wet clothes?"
Paul replied to the question from Sam, "well, it just so happens… Lana, where is your bathroom going to be?"
She looked at him curiously and pointed. She followed him to see what he was up to. She watched as a washing machine appeared out of nowhere, seemingly coming from his hand.
He winked at her, "our latest model. But now everyone can clean their wet clothes and then we can go."
Lana smiled, "you are full of solutions."
He chuckled, "give me enough time and I'll figure out the plumbing for this place without harming the tree!"
She smiled, "sounds perfect to me!"
An hour later, they were ready to go, able to stay dry on their journey. The backpacks were also stowed away in the bracelet to keep them dry.
To keep Kent dry, Lana carried him. While she understood she needed to go through the Purple Forest, where she needed to come out was something none of them knew. She was already working on that before they left her tree house.
The Purple Mountain was almost due south from her new home. The trees told her she needed to go south-southwest. Every step they took in the area outside her tree was an exercise in not sinking into the mud. The military had trampled the area, leaving nothing living in the whole area. They used vehicles to tear down paths and drive through the forest. This meant rain equated to mud.
By the time they got to an area of vegetation, their feet were covered in mud, but it didn't last long with the rain. Lana wondered what kind of mud would stick in such a deluge. She lifted her feet outside the radius of her hair piece so her feet would get cleaned off. This also meant they were wet.
Once everyone was in a non-muddy field, Lana turned to everyone. "I need everyone in a formation of two columns. You don't need to march. Blaine needs to be with me, I want Chekof and Karlen at the back. The teachers need to be in the middle to guard the students from the sides. There are no threats yet, but they come quickly on this planet, so we need to be ready."
She watched as everyone listened to her and got in position. The rain stopped just as they started moving again. Soon, they were on the move, and it became difficult to move without ducking, jumping, or climbing. Lana smiled because it meant they were getting close to the forest. The clouds cleared off and the sky was a perfect shade of blue.
Squap!
"Raptors, the squap, incoming!" Lana called out even though she hadn't heard or seen anything. She had been told how scary these things were. They traveled in groups of high numbers and blended in with the environment. When in flight, the bottom of the squap looks to be shades of blue and white to match the sky. When on the ground or in a tree, the folded wings are in shades of green. Their beaks were hooked for the purpose of tearing flesh. These birds were about the same size as Sven even though he was a higher level. They were built for speed and death.
While everyone was watching the skies, Kyle switched with Blaine, dropped Lana's hand and cast a fireball that would have made a demon proud. It filled the sky in front of them. Suddenly dozens of beast crystals fell from the sky. Ashes and charred flesh drifted slowly as gravity pulled them down. Jessy and Dobin went to gather the crystals and examine the crazy remains that had become fertilizer in mere moments.
The teachers just looked at each other.
Behind Nis, he heard a feminine voice mutter, "showoff."
He looked behind him to see Tanisha with a smirk on her face. "This is why he's the family head," and she left it at that.
After about two hours of walking, Lana heard all kinds of stories from the trees that were unrelated to her purpose there. She had told everyone that it was okay to talk quietly but few showed any desire. Kyle had killed an entire flock of predatory birds that most people didn't even see. They decided it was more prudent to keep their eyes on the sky and the terrain around them.
Lana, meanwhile, was laughing at things that only she could hear periodically. She found it interesting that this planet had animals and beasts on it. It made her more excited to explore because most planets only had one of those.
As they approached the edge of the Purple Forest, a rather large panteri stepped out, followed by others. It was Kent's father.