I sighed loudly once I finished reading the letter as I went to a tree and put my hand on it to think what I should do. The last thing we needed was another influence in vallenwood and we couldn't stand being in a war but it is true what he said, the altmer would sooner destroy our forest for their own navy then to protect us. After that damned dominion ended we never had help from them it was only because our moon sugar trade with the kajit that we became better allies. we would need to turn the profit into our favor but we would need our own allies as well so I ripped up the letter and I looked at the messenger " if your emperor wants us to secede then he will first need to agree that if he sends troops during a war then he must make sure that they don't dare touch our trees. if they do we will kill them ourselves regardless if they are allies or not our first allegiance is to the forest. we will secede but we will only allow your troops to be allowed here and to be used as a staging area for your assault so you can attack the altmer from the east, we can send some of our hunters by request but only if it is needed. if your emperor needs more then what I offered then we will open negotiations here in vallenwood." I told the messanger as I collected the bones and fur from my recently dead elk. praying to the forest that I did the right thing