PART II - WAITING FOR GAIA

Tazrok Thunderfist was sitting. He had been sitting for a while now. He was getting bored. Around him sat the three other Druid recruits, likewise sitting. Likewise getting bored. Bratig was asleep in fact, or he was until Trainer Rowani walked by and smacked him lightly on the side of his head.

Earlier, when Tazrok had arrived at the Druid flag, Rowani was already waiting. Once the three other recruits arrived, she led them into the forest. They hiked as a group through the trees for about fifteen minutes before coming to a clearing with a single tall tree standing in its center. Rowani had them all take sitting positions with their backs against the tree and proceeded to teach them all how to ask the brain slug questions, just like she had Tazrok do the day before. Tazrok had then spent some time asking his sluggo about his skills, but a lot of them didn’t make sense or were confusing, requiring him to know his animal forms. But, Tazrok had learned a little about Healing Berry, and Entangling Roots and turning his skin into bark and even how to create water from nothing. His brain slug flooded him with the knowledge of surviving in the wilderness and how to get wild animals to be friendly instead of trying to bite him.

With Rowani’s guidance, the Druids all reviewed what Tazrok was now calling ‘The Rules’. Tazrok had learned that all the Druid skills and perks had rules, as did his racial traits. Even his Berserker and Barbarian skills had rules, although he already knew what most of those rules were, even before he was told by his brain slug. It was interesting to know what the rules were in detail, and that, more importantly, the rules would change and get better as he reached higher Tiers.

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But one new skill is where they all stopped and were to concentrate today. Wild Form. This is the one that made the Druid extra special and let them turn into animals. There were lots of rules for it, but Rowani said not to worry about them yet, and just to concentrate on meditating. So they did that, waiting for some woman named Gaia to come and choose the animal forms for the new Druids. Tazrok had no idea who Gaia was, and kept waiting for her to arrive. Maybe Gaia was like Tree Lady who had danced with Vanis Elf and made the Little One’s heart race with an extra-fast pitter-patter, and would emerge from the tree. So far, there had been no sign of her, though. He hoped she arrived soon, because he wanted to ask one last time about being a Wolficorn, hoping she could overrule the trainer. After all, it really did seem the most-efficient animal he could be.

Tazrok and his fellow recruits sat some more, trying to meditate as instructed. Supposedly, the harder they meditated, the sooner the mystery woman would arrive and give everyone their animal forms. Tazrok remembered how Callie Gnome had taught him to meditate, and did all the slow breathing like before, thinking about wind and trees and little streams of water, but nothing happened. He tried to meditate harder and better, but still no Gaia. So, now Tazrok was bored, and so were the other three baby Druids.