The Warden's Wood

Hardwick arrived at Westwatch with his twelve-foot staff in hand, ready to fill the town’s need. Westwatch needed a Warden. Someone steady, practical, and willing to repair broken gates, brace sagging walls, organize supplies, and help the town earn its long-delayed Sanctuary Charter. Unfortunately, Westwatch took one look at Hardwick, his horns, his height, his very noticeably large staff, and decided what it really needed was a legend. Now Hardwick is trying to do honest civic work while the town turns every repair into rumor, every measurement into a debate, and every innocent comment about woodcraft into something Guard Captain desperately wishes he could ban. The staff is twelve feet long, the story is not. And beneath Westwatch, something old has started listening to every word. The tale grew, the wood did not.