G
20 years ago
Arch 13.
**Whispers, partings.
It is hard, after so long, to start writing afresh. So much has changed in the lands around Norwick, and perhaps, more in myself.
I have found myself accepted into a family at last, the Druids of the Circle, under kindly old Andu’mien, have made me feel welcome, a sister, a part of them that is hard to explain.
I would never have dreamed that Nature’s blessings, it’s raw power, could pass through these poor scarred hands. I could not have guessed, on that day six years past, that the voices I heard were coming from the trees themselves, beckoning me to them, asking me to listen to their quiet messages.
I went to Lady Adriell, and asked for her advice, as she is wise in matters of the wood, and it was she who first knew what haunted me. She suggested that it was perhaps Mielikki and the Forest calling, that my path might lie as one of her priestesses, or on the path of a druidess like herself.
In truth, I have always doubted myself, and it made the turns in my path difficult for me to see clearly.
I went then to wise Grivel, the old wolf, who has always acted as a quiet mentor to me, and we spoke long.
He told me I should follow my heart, and not think too hard about my choice, as that it was this that was blinding me to the truth.
Little did I know it would be our last campfire together, this one time that our meeting was not by fate, but by my purpose.
I had become so familiar with seeing his fire ahead on my trail from time to time, I fear that I had become complacent, and thought in my heart that for many years hence, I could look forward to enjoying this wise man’s council and friendship.
When he was slain on the Nars in battle, alone but for his companion-wolf, all of the forest-folk weeped. When it occurred, I felt struck down where I stood, and I know that our Woods became less for his loss, and that the place where Mielikki dwells was blessed with his arrival there.
I have heard from the ranger-folk of the Wolve’s Den saw The Lady, in all her beauty and kindness, when she came and took the old Wolf to her bosom.
The Great Tree that grew on the spot where Grivel lay is a reminder to us all, that our paths only seem to end, and that another journey awaits all who are true and good and walk their path in this world with honest hearts.
Now, in the wood, when I near the crest of a hill, and see a lone star shining through the darkened wood, I cannot help but remember his fires just ahead on my trail, gleaming through like a beacon guiding my way.
I miss him.
Several of his closest companions seemed terribly effected by his death, and young Bilbow, who was the very first person to welcome me openly into these lands, followed Grivel shortly thereafter, as did the enigmatic Chiero, whose grief was too awful for me to think about still.
The loss of Grivel, it’s seems to me, signaled the beginnings of much change in the lands around Norwick. For long, the great evil force in the Rawlinswood, long hidden and building it’s power, seemed to at last find the confidence to strike out in an attempt to topple the balance between light and dark.
Even as I strived to find my place, as an apprentice to the Archdruid, things in the Woods south of Norwick became ever more terrible and dark. The Circle was besieged by night-marish creatures, some that seemed parodies of the Druids themselves.
All of this evil was spreading and slowly engulfing the Woods, the Elven Encampent, and Norwick itself, and it was plain to all who lived in these woods, that if action was not taken against this evil menace, The Defiler, a mighty fallen Druid himself from ages past, that he would overwhelm the Balance that makes up Nature itself, and all things would be corrupted, and taken, and we would all be no more.
Thus I found myself, as yet only a fledgling druid, trying to learn as quickly what I must to help The Circle to survive.
My journals from this time were destroyed in the cataclysm that was The War for Balance, and long I have been unable to speak of what transpired, but, I feel I must try and relate here what happened to myself and my new family, and the others who sacrificed so that the region would not fall utterly into evil.
For, if we force ourselves to hide the pain of those days away, we will forget those who gave all that one can give, in this terrible time.
My words are poor, journal, and time has passed since this dark time, but I shall do my best to retell some of what happened here, as I remember it.
I must.
