The vole, a bard in a hideous garb of a patchwork quilt, addressed the crowd. He flourished his hat and with a bow, he began his recitation.

“When Raven first came to this world he saw everything in its breadth and the world was dark. Raven decided that the world could use something more. All across the land were giant bulbs. So Raven chose a bulb and landed on it. Raven used his magic to bring life to the bulb and mole was born. Mole pleased him so he landed on another bulb and a mouse was born. And Raven kept opening bulbs and creating creatures until the greater Inurajg came to join Raven. Inurajg wanted to be left alone, and Raven had made all of these creatures in his domain.”

The first vole in full red body paint had a tiny black raven painted on his chest. The other vole had antlers, along with full green body paint to represent the shifter, Inurajg.

“So Inurajg argued with Raven that it had created too many creatures, and Raven argued that it hadn’t made enough. Raven would be lonely without its many friends. They ended with a compromise. Inurajg would make one more group of creatures, the Inujag. The Inujag, though few, would work against the creatures of the raven, and the two would keep each other in check. For many years they would fight back and forth until the Inujag retreated from civilization.”

The two voles representing raven and shifter play fought each other. The shifter appeared to lose.

“The creatures rejoiced! And for a long time, the Inujag stayed far away from the woodland creatures. Until one day, back when tigers used to smoke…”

A smokescreen dropped on the base of the stage as the two voles representing gods disappeared.

Another actor appeared on the stage. His eyes were surrounded by red glowing paint and he had a pair of antlers, but otherwise, he looked like a mole. He slinked around the stage, hiding behind the tree props.

“One day, a shifter named Worden decided to return to the land of the woodland creatures. He walked for many miles to find a pool of purest blue. He saw a young lady mole there, brushing her hair as she watched the fish dance.”

A female mole appeared in a high-waisted costume dress. Ribbons and bows adorned her hair as she sat contemplatively next to a shimmering pool. The crowd oohed and ahhed. Freya remembered this story as a mouse next to the pool, but she wasn’t going to argue the point.

“At that moment, Worden knew that he would do anything for this beautiful lady mole. For her part, the lady mole, Diantha longed for a mole she could love. She, more than anything, wanted to become free of her family’s expectation that she should settle for the farmer’s son. She dreamed of falling in love with a strong digging mole”

The crowd booed at the mention of the farmer’s son.

“Slowly, tentatively, Worden approached her, hiding his eyes behind a mask, knowing that his red eyes would give him away. He shifted, became a mole in truth.”

The actor smudged on a blindfold with narrow eye slits as he walked up behind her, apparently having lost the antlers on his way.

“Then Diantha looked at him and for the first time, she felt whole.”

The vole brought out a flute and began to play a light happy tune for which a tear was brought to every face in the crowd.

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Freya watched as the pair courted, then were drawn together. Diantha found out his secret but professed her love for him anyway. She made him a blindfold and made him pretend to be blind, as that would be the only acceptable way for other moles in her clan to even know him. They spent the rest of the first act dancing and singing to the bard's song.

The bard broke the assembled crowd for the intermission and Freya watched as Da Seung grabbed a round of snacks for all four of them. Freya couldn’t help but notice that her Old Gran had quite a few tears on her face.

She plodded over to stretch her legs. Lady Raina was making small talk with the bard. Freya made a mental note that she seemed to know far more woodland creatures than any other she had met.

“It’s a great story, Old Gran,” she said.

“Story? Ah yes,” Old Gran said, sniffling. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a play like this. It was very moving.”

“Grandpaw left the rangers for you, so he gave up a lot, didn’t he? That seems kinda poetic if you ask me!” Freya said.

Old Gran smiled.

“He gave up more than you could ever know, my dear. That is part of the reason that I’ve loved him so much over the years. When I went to become a druid, because I thought I was talented, he said that he would follow me. For six months, while I attempted to do even the slightest cantrip, your grandfather spent every waking hour training to be my ranger, my sword, and my companion. As the two actors in this play, we were.”

Old Gran sighed, adjusting her grey shawl.

“And when I failed, they gave him the option to find another druid. They told him that he had promised and that he would make the rangers proud. He said”—she choked back tears—“that if he couldn’t have me as his druid, that he wouldn’t be a ranger.”

Freya was almost crying at this point.

“And when we came back, he’d lost his entire fortune, like his brother, his father had both contracted something. They were delirious before we returned and his estates defaulted to his cousins. He had to bury his father and brother with money he made as a guard for a lesser noble house. Thankfully, my family took me in, even though we had less to offer.”

Freya hugged her grandmother.

“I think… your cape is wonderful, Freya,” she said.

“Thank you,” Freya held back tears.

Da Seung returned with water for them and Bard began a loud imposing musical interlude to indicate that it was time.

The “curtain” went up for act two, as a smokescreen again imposed darkness.

The mole upfront began his soliloquy with a flourish of his patched cape.

“Then upon meeting the family of Diantha, she cried as they rejected Worden as a blind beggar mole. Only Diantha knew his secret, but she could not tell her family. Diantha’s father drove them apart. It could not be, he said. He brought other lords to try and tear his daughter away from the blind beggar, but it was for naught.”

A lord mole, a separate actor, arrived on the scene to try and break up the couple but try as he might, he couldn’t break the chain. A few scenes showed the actors trying to express the confusion and the courtship for a long time until Diantha drove the new suitor away. Only the two remained.

The two actors from before acted out the scene of Diantha and Worden being torn apart after holding together for so long, then running away.

The bard explained how the two ran away together and had a child. But shortly after the child, a healthy mole, was born, Diantha's family tracked them down, as they were penniless and destitute. Diantha's father shoved Worden causing him to remove his blindfold, and in a rage, he killed her father.

Unable to bear the stress of this, Diantha drowned herself in the very pool where they once met. Finding her, Worden could not bear to leave their daughter alone in this cruel world, but neither could he ever love again. He raised her to be the first druid, draining all of the powers Inurajg gave to him throughout his life, until she was an adult and his final act was to turn into the tree guarding the pool where Diantha died so long ago.

The crowd clapped as the assembled actors took a bow.

Freya saw her chaperones getting up to stretch their legs as the crowd of moles milled around. A few flowers were tossed to the bard and his troupe.