Messenger, 2-4

chapter two starts out with the death of gatherer. He had tried to visit his home town but he, as the book puts it,"had been taken by Forest" he had been completely entangled by sticks and vines(see pg.14 of the book for the gruesome details.) there had been a keening ritual for him and he was buried in the cemetery.
Matty is called to delivery messages about a meeting to close village to outsiders. a petition had been signed by many people in Village,which was strange as most of the had come there themselves, and it had always been open to outsiders. It was lead by Mentor, the schoolteacher who had always been among the first to greet newcomers. They weren't themselves.
That night Matty tried to convince Seer to get a gaming machine like the one his friend Ramon got. he says it would be fun to have, that their nights would never be boring. But Seer looks past that to what the machine costs. Matty didn't know what the machine had cost his friend. Seer thought that Ramon's family must have traded something of great value to get it, and they didn't have anything to trade. Seer thought that something strange was happening to the ancient tradition of trade mart. it used to be simply trading items, but Seer fears it is something much more now(He doesn't know how right he is.)