The druid was sitting alone in the mage’s garden on the southwest side of the castle facing the castle wall. He had asked the plants to conceal him from prying eyes while he meditated. He had to remove a few pests from their leaves before they agreed to help him, but it was still very kind of them to help a human.
The druid had been sitting there meditating all night long, waiting for the appointed time when the two in his vision would appear. As he roused himself from his meditation, he glanced down to see that several spider webs had been crafted on his body in the night. He requested the spiders move to the leaves and waited for them to comply before removing their webs.
A short, pale, thin woman with raven-colored hair appeared out of thin air next to the castle wall. She wore a white robe with a red sash tied at her waist. She was looking around the garden while placing a necklace of some kind in her pocket.
Moments later, a blue bird appeared on her shoulder as if from thin air. He recognized his old body, now inhabited by the mage who had been experimenting on him several years ago. The last time he saw his body was just after the accident. He remembered looking down at himself, believing he was dead. He had been overwhelmed by the transformation, and made a portal to the woods, his home, and ran. He would have died if a group of Dardwain had not found him and taught him how to survive. They taught him the needs of his new body, and how to eat and drink. They taught him how to use the magical abilities of his new body, training him to be a human druid after their ancient tradition. They even altered his appearance so he could have a new life unencumbered by recognition.
Although his expanded intelligence from the accident was welcome, old memories came to the surface as he thought of his struggle since that day. Memories of pain, fear, confusion and darkness broiled together as his fists clenched. The ground around him rumbled ever so slightly, his connection to nature manifesting itself in the earth around him. The druid quickly gained control of himself, quieting his mind and the ground around him.
Revenge was not why he was here, far from it.
The woman glanced around at the slight rumbling, scanning the area several times, but she seemed to not notice him. She began speaking out loud as if there was someone else present. To anyone else, it would have looked like she was rambling, but the druid knew it was the bird she was conversing with. The bird responded in a perfectly intelligent and fluent voice, a voice the druid knew all too well. His anger flared slightly upon hearing the bird’s voice, but he quickly pushed it back down. The druid listened intently as the woman and the bird conversed.
“Jonathan, did you tell Jareth the traps are hidden from sight after you canceled the barrier spell?” she asked.
“No, I forgot, we were busy discussing … the trip” Jonathan replied somewhat sheepishly. “The rune door is probably activated, so I’ll have to use some of our equipment in the attic to tunnel through and communicate with him” the bird replied.
“Alright, their supplies should be at the stables soon. I’ll make sure their horses are saddled and ready to go while you head to the house to contact Jareth” the woman said as she turned to leave.
The bird lifted off the woman's shoulder as she began walking towards the south end of the castle wall. After a moment, the bird turned and flew directly into the closest tree and disappeared into its trunk.
He must be using like-matter to teleport to another tree somewhere else, the druid thought to himself.
That is a clever way to travel since it makes it harder to track where the traveler is going. Well, unless you could talk to trees that is. Between his life as a familiar living in the wild and the druidic training of the Dardwain, he was more than capable of communicating with nature. Most plants and animals communicate with images and emotions instead of a spoken language.
The druid waited until the women had disappeared around the corner, then stood and moved to the tree the bird had vanished into. He had learned long ago to be extra polite to trees as they feel superior to anything shorter than them, humans included. After a few courteous exchanges, the druid got around to asking which tree the bird had traveled to. He did not know how trees knew such things, but they did.
To his surprise, the tree only impressed the emotion of humor in his mind. The druid was a little confused at first, but then he felt someone watching him. He turned around and found Jonathan hovering in the air directly behind him. As they locked eyes, the bird's color changed from blue to dark black, and he grew visibly in size until he was half the size of a man. The force of the bird’s wings flapping in the air buffeted him, making it difficult for the druid to stay on his feet.
The immediate area around the druid became a vortex of gray and black, and it was obvious that the bird had previously prepared a powerful spell and was ready to cast it. The druid knew he had mere moments before he ceased to exist.
“Katerina needs your help” he hurriedly said.
Jonathan instantly stopped casting his spell as the area around him slowly returned to normal. However, he maintained his enlarged and darkened appearance.
“Speak quickly, druid” he demanded while continuing to buffet him with its massive wings.
“I had a vision where a woman stood before me in the air wearing a brown robe. Her golden hair flowed in the air as if she was underwater, and she had crystal chains around her body which pinned her arms to her side. Standing behind her was a tall, pale-skinned man with a flawless face. He was dressed in white robes and had long, dark hair that flowed the same as the woman’s hair. He was holding a strand of the crystal chain like a leash. He called her ‘Katerina’. Another man strode into view and broke the crystal chain that held the woman, and the two of them escaped into a portal."
It was all a lie. The druid had fragmented memories of Jonathan’s past, including dreams and plans involving Katerina, and the journey south to restore the Guardian of Time to his true form. He had used those memories and dreams to engineer most of this story. His goal was to gain Jonathan’s trust so he could accompany him on his journey south, and then use the time together to find a way to swap bodies with him. Swapping bodies was the only way the druid could return home to the astral plane.
Jonathan returned to his original size and color and alighted on the closest tree branch he could reach. From his breathing and movements, it was obvious that he was significantly distressed. As he started to calm down, the druid continued his story.
“Then I saw this exact garden at the School of Dule Van, and the same man that rescued the bound woman appeared with a different woman at his side. I’m not sure how or why, but I believe that you are, or were, the man that rescues the woman in my vision. I have sat in this garden for quite some time, waiting for you to appear."
This last part was partially true. The druid had used a spell involving a feather from his old body that he had found on his person after the transformation to discover where Jonathan would be at a specific point in time. He had been waiting for two days for the vision to come true.
The druid felt a massive surge of natural energy from directly behind him, stronger than anything he had felt before in nature. He turned around and found that the woman had returned from around the side of the castle, except her eyes were now pitch black and locked onto him. The druid felt her presence as she walked towards him and he could feel the natural energy emanating from her person.
She was not human, but a Dardwain from the sea. He knew who she was from his memories, but had to conceal that knowledge. He decided to stick with the tradition of the druids that he had been taught, and immediately fell to his knees and bowed to her. His deferment was partially genuine, as he was indeed grateful to her people for helping him.
“Founder" he said respectfully.
Instantly the surge of nature he felt before was gone. He glanced up to see her eyes had returned to their normal bright green and there was a small smile on her face.
“Student …” she said kindly with a slight pause “… I am deeply surprised to find a druid so removed from nature and aware of such ancient formalities. Please, stand" she said.
“What?! I get a story, and you get groveling and a title?” Jonathan exclaimed.
Hearing Jonathan’s voice in such a disrespectful tone made the druid angry, and the ground around him slightly trembled in response, but his anger and tremor quieted when he realized Izreea was laughing at the bird’s comment. Her laugh was loud and genuine, but it also let her guard down slightly. For just a brief moment the druid could see that she was physically exhausted.
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There was a slight chuckle from the bird behind the druid, and he realized the bird had made her laugh on purpose.
They must have a great relationship, the druid thought to himself.
“My vision was quite limited in its information. I would be most grateful if you could enlighten me on the journey we are about to embark on to save this woman."
“First of all, there is no ‘we’ on any journey as I have no idea what your intention-" the bird started to say, but the Founder cut him off.
“Jonathan, he is the one that received a vision about your friend, and I promise you his help will be required to bring the vision to fruition. That is just how things work with druids."
The druid realized the bird, Jonathan, must have been communicating with the woman since she was aware of the vision which he had only told the bird. His thoughts were interrupted when Jonathan continued speaking.
“My brother has asked for my help to fulfill an ancient prophecy to doom or save an entire species, and I cannot put that on hold to start my own journey to save a single person despite visions, druids, and the like."
“Be that as it may; you must not ignore his vision” Izreea responded.
There was an awkward silence of two wills being tested as they stared at one another. Maybe not such a great relationship after all the druid thought, just before deciding to break the silence.
“Jonathan, could Jareth’s journey be intertwined with your own? A nomad druid in the uncharted wilderness could be a boon. I can find water by speaking to the animals, listen to the winds foretelling of the weather, help avoid settlements and … "
The druid’s words trailed off into silence as he noticed the countenance of his audience had changed. While he had been speaking, the Founder had moved in a half circle around him to stand next to the tree Jonathan was perched on. Her face was not quite as friendly as before, and the bird’s feathers were slightly ruffled.
The druid realized he had given himself away. He had waited to call Jonathan by name until he had heard him called that by Izreea. However, he was not supposed to know Jareth’s name, and he was certainly not supposed to know they were journeying towards the uncharted wilderness to the south, regardless of his vision.
The druid looked at the two of them as he considered his options. For a moment he thought about coming clean, but then he remembered Jonathan’s desperation to be restored to a human body. The desire was palpable, and there was no telling what the jilted mage would do to his current body to attain such a goal. Should he run and follow them later? How would he hide himself? These thoughts shot through his mind in the blink of an eye.
“Who are you?” Izreea said cautiously, her eyes returning to their pitch blackness as the druid felt her reconnect to the forces of nature. “There is something … familiar about you, and a spell on your f-”
As she spoke the druid used two fingers to pull a small object from the fold of his sleeve, just above the bottom part of his wrist. It was a magically imbued rock designed to create a flash of light as a distraction. The druid closed his eyes, flung the rock to the earth, and immediately transformed himself into a hummingbird. The moment he felt his body complete its transformation he darted away from them as fast as his wings could carry him. After one hundred paces or so he looked back at the two. Izreea was rubbing her eyes, and the bird had fallen to the ground from the shock. With guilt, he realized Jonathan’s eyes were more sensitive to light in his current form.
The druid put this thought aside and took his bearings. He was well away from the castle and hovering about three hundred paces above the ground. He immediately saw a large two-story stable on the opposite side of the castle from where he had been moments before. There was a small wagon drawn by a pair of horses approaching the stable. He knew this was where Izreea was heading to ready the horses for their journey, and that was probably the supplies she needed. It was going to be close, but he still had a few minutes.
Without wasting time, the druid darted directly towards the stables and in a few seconds was at the closed door. Above the large double doors was an open window to the second floor. It was not a glass window, but a piece of wood with hinges on top rather than the sides. The window opened outwards from the bottom like a canopy and was propped open with a pole.
The druid darted into the window and found that the second story was a loft holding bales of hay that could be thrown down the open half of the ceiling when they were done curing. The druid flew down the open half of the loft into the main floor and found a long row of thirty stalls on each side of the building.
The druid lighted on the ground and turned himself back into his normal form. He then started at one end of the stables and silently began talking to the horses. Wild animals were always far smarter than domesticated animals, except for maybe cats. Domesticated animals typically only responded with impressions and feelings, sort of like instincts that one could interpret.
However, the druid knew Izreea’s horse would be different, and she most likely used her connection with nature to calm and soothe her horses naturally, allowing some of the wild to stay in the horse. He needed to find that horse that was different than the others. The druid decided to place the image of Izreea holding an apple out for the horses as a treat, to see their reaction to the image.
It took only a moment to project her image to the horse’s mind, feel the horse's reaction, then move on to the next horse. For the most part, he felt jealousy or longing as a response, most likely due to the apple she was holding. After about twelve rows of twenty-four horses, he found one that responded with something other than an emotion.
Izreea the horse thought to the druid. The horse was completely white and was obviously not native to this land. It had slightly longer legs than most horses and a slimmer body in general, and two tails rather than one. There was a majesty to it that told him it was undoubtedly Izreea’s horse. He thought there was more the horse was going to impress upon him, but after thinking of Izreea’s name, it fell silent.
The druid looked at the gate on the horse’s stall and saw a piece of wooden plank on it. The plank was held in place with a short, slightly curved metal peg in the shape of a shallow hook. He realized that all of the stalls had these planks near them, all with different symbols. The pegs would allow the symbol to be moved around and replaced as horses came and went from the stalls.
On the gate with the horse that had thought "Izreea" there was a plank with a large, curved, seashell and a single rune in the center. He did not know what the rune meant, but he now knew what the symbol for Izreea’s house was. There were four stalls with this same symbol on them in a row.
Three of them were obviously for riding. The white one he had noticed before, a cream-colored one with brown patches on it, and a black horse with a white spot on its forehead. The last horse was a muscled pack horse and was light brown all over. This is the one that he wanted.
The druid suddenly heard the sound of the approaching wagon and knew he was running out of time. He quickly opened the gate to the brown pack horse and politely impressed upon the horse to follow him. The horse had been in captivity for its entire life and was used to obeying instructions, so it followed willingly. He quickly walked it down to the first empty stall he could find, not caring what symbol was on the gate, and placed the horse in the stall. He then went back to the empty stall, walked in, and shut the gate.
The druid heard someone lifting the large wooden latch on the door. He immediately recalled the image of the pack horse in his mind and began transforming himself into the animal.
Druids remembered the shapes they had taken in the past and could almost instantly transform into those forms. He could have become a horse in the blink of an I, but he needed to become a specific horse with specific markings on it. This made the transformation process take more time, but he was done before the stable door was fully open.
The druid took a few steps back and forth in his small stall, adjusting himself to being on four legs again. Suddenly a man was opening his stall, cooing softly in the familiar manner of someone who had been around horses their entire life. He walked alongside the druid, using a wide hand on his side, which is what humans do to let the horse know they are not a fly landing to bite them on the flank. The man pulled a brush from a toolbelt at his waist and started brushing his coat in preparation to be saddled. It was like a gentle massage and the druid was debating how this sensation compared to a massage in a human body when he saw Izreea walk into view.
She put her hand on his flank, almost absentmindedly as she conversed with the man, rubbing the druid's back. He was concentrating so heavily on making his mind as simple and animal-like as possible that he did not hear what they were conversing about.
Then for a brief moment, her mind entered his, which he was prepared for, and he felt the simple emotion of happiness. He recognized it as the domestic animal equivalent of “good morning” or “pleasure to see you again" He responded with a similar emotion, being careful to guard his mind, so nothing else slipped through. As he did so, he nuzzled her hand with his nose as a physical distraction, just in case. She rubbed his head a few times before moving out of his sight towards the entrance of the stable.
After a few moments she returned with a small sack of supplies in one hand, and a stool in the other. That couldn’t possibly be a tenth of the supplies needed for the journey, but it was most likely some of the more important supplies she wanted to prepare herself.
She set the stool down to the left of the stall so that the druid had to turn his elongated head slightly to the right to see her with his left eye. She sat on the stool and began rummaging through the sack, eventually removing a sturdy cloak, needle, and thread. She began sewing something on the back of the cloak. After a few moments, it was obvious that her fatigue was catching up with her, and the tedious task of sewing was becoming frustrating. She closed her eyes, let out a long sigh, then the needle began moving on its own accord in the air faster than the natural eye could follow. The magic required was so low that the druid could not feel her connection to nature. Within a few seconds, the sewing project was finished. She placed the cloak in the sack and then removed the second cloak to work on.
The druid felt the weight of a saddle being loaded onto his back. There were also several very large empty saddlebags on the ground waiting to be filled and loaded onto his back as well. He had been correct in guessing that this horse was the pack horse for the journey.
Only then did he allow himself to relax. He decided to put his mind into a meditative trance, the first lesson he had learned when becoming a druid, so he could fully hide his human thoughts from Izreea until they had departed.