Vienna soon found herself drawn back to the hot spring caves, where the waterfall covered over the rock portal. It was like a song was being sung at the back of her mind but it was missing a melody until she crossed over the portal’s entrance.

The melody grew louder until it rang clearly in her head.

The forest had changed, no longer was there a path, instead it was overgrown and the leaves had begun to grow dull. Only shimmering with some life when she ran her fingertips over them.

“What’s wrong with you all?”

The dull green reminded her of the seeds she carried in her back pouch, she pulled it forward to find that the seeds inside had regained some vitality. She reached into the pouch and ran her fingertips over them, an almost satisfied sort of hum coming from the small bead-like seeds.

She carefully planted the seeds into the healthiest ground by the portal and watched in surprise as immediately little green sprouts popped up from the earth as if ecstatic to meet her.

“Hello, little ones.” She felt the tops of their leaves and whispered, “I’ll be back.”

She looked back at the changed forest before walking through the brush, interspersed throughout it all were slab towers with an ancient language inscribed upon them. Somehow as she followed the outlines of the engravings they felt familiar but Vienna was sure she had never seen it before except upon the rock portal itself.

It wasn’t until she reached a small clearing that reminded her of the Meeting Place in the Secret Garden. A raised platform of stone and the slabs full of the script surrounding it. Vienna felt drawn to them as if a string was tied around her heart pulling her forward.

As she stepped onto the stone platform an almost static seemed to make her toes fidget within their boots. She took a deep breath before stepping forward and placing her hand on a particular indention that reminded her of a handprint in cement. Her other hand traced beneath the words and she found herself sounding out the letters as if she knew their rules. Bright light shined in her eyes causing her to blink continuously until she could adjust to it.

The back of her head itched like the feeling she got when she was being looked at, she turned her head and found the Old One’s sprig had grown even more now covering the whole staff, its small little limbs now reaching out to her across the stone.

The stone markers were glowing a white that then gave into more pigment until it was a pastel green then a gem-like emerald. It formed a column of light around her, Vienna tried to not grow afraid as she realized she could not move from her spot but as she saw the light sprout branch arms and then leaves she felt herself relax. Trees had never caused her harm. In fact, in all her time in Terra, she found they were a welcoming presence. She could believe they were alive and perhaps more. She had seen the Old One give a piece of itself to her when she left her home, she saw that sprig grow and protect her from herself at times and she felt the surges of reassurance from the natural life on this planet. She was not afraid. She welcomed it in turn.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A collective of voices seemed to speak from the stone, ‘Young one at last you have reached the age. The forest welcomes you. Now you can truly become part of everything.’

“What does that mean?”

The emerald light intensified to the point she could no longer see her hands in front of her, so she closed her eyes. Aching pains ran through her body and she felt as her muscles strengthened and lengthened, as her hair grew and fell past the small of her back. Her ears ached even but then she felt a warmth spread through her limbs easing all the aches and as she opened her eyes she let out a gasp as she saw the ancient words come up off the stone tablets like holograms passing through her being. As soon as they touched her face, a surge of information was downloaded into her mind. She saw a people that lived in the forest, their culture rich in nature, so much so that it seemed they could become one with it. Their bodies blended into the bark, their hair wild like the leaves blown about in a storm, and always a gentle kindness in their eyes. Hands reached out welcoming and loving.

Vienna now knew why she had grown up so slowly. Why her father’s eyes would glaze over, his features ever so melancholy. He had survivor’s guilt from a race of people that had mostly been forgotten, the Myndælfêt and the Forgotten.

A soft trill came from above and Vienna gasped as a creature with leaf-covered wings flew to perch upon her shoulder. Its mouth gaped in a lizard-like fashion. The other creature she’d seen before came out as well.

‘Everything’

She ran a hand through her hair only to have her hand falter over her ear to find it had changed.

A chattering sound behind her awoke Vienna from where she had fallen into a daze of her own. Her clothes felt tight against her body, and the aches throughout were still echoing. She found herself sitting down on the Inheritance place’s platform. Her mind whirled and as she looked up she found the creatures she’d seen in the other forest before it was overgrown. Before time had gotten away with it. A gust of air from above signaled the final to arrive, her gaze looking in awe at the wide wingspan of the creature made of what seemed to be bramble, wood and leaves.

“Spectacular.” The closest she could compare the creature to was an odd mix of a pterodactyl and a dragon if they were made from the components of the forest.

Vienna watched as the long limbering vine that had once come from the Old One stretched out to the rabbit-like creature with wide-winglike ears, the large land-locked creature with hunched bark back and moss sewn into its seams, the large bird-like creature and the ptero-dragon. The Old One’s piece reached out a limb to each and Vienna watched in awe as they all seemed to fold into one long branch becoming one with her old friend before forming into a new bo staff for her much longer and ornate than the last that seemed to have given up its wood to the collective.

The ground shook beneath her feet, “They can’t be all gone though, can they?”

She felt her eyes water and she kneeled on the ground even as it shook. Her tear fell into the soft earth, soaking it down deep.

Vienna touched the bo staff and smiled, “I’m glad you all are coming back with me.”

The bo staff could morph even more so than the part of the Old One could before and when it noticed her sorrow for her ancestry it wrapped around her like a shawl holding her tightly in a hug.

She ran back to the portal with her new companions. The sprouts that had grown leaped to join the others on the staff.

When the portal closed behind her that day, Vienna knew deep down it would not open again. It had already accomplished its task.

----------------------------------------

That evening as she lay resting in the Old One’s embrace, she used her new knowledge to reach out to her father.

“Pop, I’m coming home soon.”

A sigh of relief came from Vienna as she heard her father reply, “I’ll be waiting.”

~END OF SEASON 2~