As I drifted to sleep the mellow scent of honey surrounding me brought me back to my father’s tavern. My father tended to the regular bar patrons and mother prepared the food for the jolly crowd. The room was brighter and warmer than I ever so vividly remembered. Then the temperature dropped below freezing, the lights vanished, an unfamiliar voice beckoned me further into the abyss that laid ahead.
"Come to me child of nature, come closer, so that I could see your greatness…"
A stinging pain pierced my gut, telling me to walk no further. The voice growing ever louder, the pain increasing tenfold, the darkness becoming thicker and more suffocating. The voice started growling, the smooth velvet voice turned into a wild growl.
"NO! WHO ARE YOU ? WHAT DO YOU WANT OF ME?" I cried out, but my voice seemed to have gotten stuck in my throat and a gargle escaping faintly.
"I am your beginning, your fate, your purpose and your DEMISE! You can’t outrun me, you will never be able to stop me, your future efforts futile, your existence meaningless."
At that moment the darkness enveloping me shattered, I laid in my bed drenched in sweat, the morning sun shining softly through the thicket of leaves. I won’t tell Gray about this, not now at least…
As I went out to do my daily training, I looked to the sky and saw a bearer of bad news. A raven. Ravens were fond of me and I fond of them, never talking to each other directly, just passing glances thoughtfully. This time will be different I thought to myself. The raven perched on the low hanging branches of the old white oak.
"You know of why I have come, don’t you Burden bearer?"
"Not yet, but I suppose you will tell me then."
"Hurry back to Qarth, be swift for the sake of your own ease."
The raven fled to skies, but before it left I saw woe and worry in its eyes. He left me a parting gift, a feather from his tail.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I rushed to tell what happened, but Gray told me to go to Haman and Morsaine, for he will pack our belongings.
Haman and Morsaine saw the feather and spoke in unison.
"Follow us."
We rushed in the direction of the mountain range which shields the forest from the unrelenting gales of the sea. Haman and Morsaine running faster and faster.
In minutes we reached the mountains, I’m being led somewhere but they won’t tell me where to. As I stepped into the cave the sudden realization hit me.
The process of becoming a fully fledged druid will be done right now,
Ghosts of millenia past joined me in the cave. Kindred souls, brethren of lives past. Friends, family, kings and queens bowing or kneeling all of them conjoining and pointing towards the middle. Neither Haman or Morsaine muttered a word or made a sound. But there was awe and terror in their eyes. They both took their places in the interwoven pattern of ghosts in the room, the room’s temperature changed, mist enveloping all that is unnecessary. Cries of women, shrieks of children orphaned in wars their fathers were mercilessly slain, resounded through the hollow. The sky dark, unbridled fury scarring its naturally beautiful face, the storm rages above me. It wants me dead or to join him, to help him send the world into eternal turmoil and darkness. In death druids shed their body and let the spirit guide the young, the unborn and the dying to death, life and peace.
My body torn to smithereens from the lightning crackling through the skies. My eyes blinded. My limbs scorched by the turmoil of kingdom wars. My soul poisoned by the treachery of Nizhalgal. Haman and Morsaine forging my body anew through the night, instilling souls that surround me into one rejuvenating force, which awakens me for one last battle, one last journey before eternal rest. Triumph or Death. It will not matter, in the grand scheme of the world.
Countless voices with their own vices brimming in my head. They whisper of triumph, countless tips, the kings making wagers whether I shall meet my doom or send the world into a new age of peace and prosperity. Souls of druids dead for centuries telling me their knowledge and lending me their most secret techniques. Whilst I lay broken on the bloody floor of the hollow, Haman and Morsaine lay unconscious from exhaustion. My hands torn by the lightning still crackling with it, steady streams of intense jade lightning tattooing my arms up to my elbows. Ironic isn’t it? The one element that struck me down and destroyed huge trees is in my blood and empowering me to achieve my goals.
My eyes are burning, I can barely keep them open. Something’s wrong…