Grove of the Druidic Conclave

Having received permission from his parents, Huata and Beaver trekked their way to Va'nei's newly grown enclave. He had all his books with him, as well as several large leathery binders full of crude notes. Huata was surprisingly strong given his lanky frame.

He was in awe of the massive trees. Not that such trees were rare exactly, but the fact that Va'nei had grown them in such a short time was impressive.

He was going over everything he knew about building a civilization close to nature. His was apprehensive. He knew he wasn't very bright, but he read diligently at least five hours a day from the moment he could read.

"Poplar trees, poplar trees are important. So is bamboo... why are they important again?" He said this as he continued to stare at the amazing trees. "Ugh, Beaver help!"

Beaver looked up at the trees that Va'nei had grown and cried out. EEAAK! He was trying to give Huata a hint.

"Wah? Oh, yah, Va'nei's trees are awesome. But I'm trying to concentrate. Why are poplar and bamboo trees important?"

Beaver fluttered his wings and cried out towards Va'nei's trees again. EEAAK!

Unfortunately Huata still didn't understand. "Yah, they're pretty. But what does that have to do with it?"

If Beaver had palms, at least one of them would be slammed against his feathery forehead right now. EEAAK!

"Yes, they have! They think it will help me with my training. Look, I brought all my books!" He proudly let his haul hit the ground with a mighty thump which caused Beaver to hop with a flap of his wings. Huata walked beside Va'nei and examined the warding process. "Ah, I see. So you must have used magic to grow these trees so quickly. That reminds me of how our tribe does it, but we're not as powerful as you, so we can mostly only do it with bamboo and poplar trees, which have a naturally rapid growth rate. That way we don't exhaust the soil as quickly."

Huata suddenly tilted his head up, lost in thought. "Huh, I was trying to remember something about bamboo and poplar trees, now I can't remember what it was. Oh well." He shrugged.

Beaver made a reticent cooing sound which seemed to be directed at Va'nei. If she spoke falcon it would translate into something like "See what I have to put up with?" (The falcon could only be understood by Huata if he wanted to be understood, which thankfully was most of the time.)

Huata grinned as Va'nei worked his magic. Feeling very much at ease, he grabbed his favorite book, an old treatise on the theoretical benefits of underwater river and ocean farming written by Elder Havador himself. He laid back and relaxed.

Beaver could softly before leaving to go catch a mouse.

***

After about half an hour of sounding out difficult words, Huata decided to take a break. He pulled out some special seeds from a pouch and planted them into the ground. He focused onto the ground, and a faint green aura appeared around him. Slowly the seed began to sprout into a vine. "There, should be ready in a few minutes."

Huata then looked up to Va'nei. "I just remembered, my parents wanted me to ask you, what were the very first Land-Tillers like? A lot of our original history's been 'lost to the ages', which I guess the smart people like to say."

By now Beaver was returning, a dead mouse in tow in its claws. It remained a respectful distance away from Huata as he and Va'nei spoke.

Huata thought for a moment while staring at his little vine. The plan very slowly spun upwards and outwards, and little buds were beginning to form on its stem in between its leaves.

"There are, what do you call them, records? Of our history in the... Guardian Wizard's Tower, but they only go back so far. I think a lot of books were destroyed during the necromancy wars. Bad people don't want good people to become smart. Everyone knows about Lynx the chaos mage and how she lead the... resistance! Against the necromancers, and how she fought the dragons that tried to invade from the East. But in our long history there were dozens of chaos mages. Some might have been more powerful than Lynx. Some might have been good and helpful, while others were evil and punished the Expanse for its supposed wickedness. But hardly anyone knows about them."

By now the seedling had grown into a decent vine, and was starting to bear fruiting flowers.

"There's a legend, about how there was once an evil god somewhere in the Saskatoon mountains. They say that this was before humans. All the other animals that existed rose to fight the evil god, the birds of the sky, the creeping things, the bears, great mighty lizards, and even fish, who tried to swim up the stream into the mountains. There was one type of animal... a... trie-low-bite, a small crawling thing, like a cross between a crab and a centipede, that rose out of the water and slowly crawled towards the mountains. All the other animals told it to go back, that it would never make it, that it would be useless. The trilobites ignored them and kept climbing. Eventually the altitude got to everyone. The air was too thin for the birds, the rocks too steep for the bears, the fish ran out of streams, the lizards were too heavy and fat and got tired. But the trilobites kept climbing until they finally made it to the top. There they fought against the evil god alone, and somehow they won."

The vine was ready. Several medium-sized orange fruits had sprung from the vines. Huata picked one and peeled it in half, removing a large pit. He popped the rest into his mouth and smiled. Then he pulled out a trilobite fossil inside a small glass sphere, considered a high form of currency in the expanse. "That legend explains why there are these skeletons at the very top of the Saskatoon mountains. Of course, I don't know if it's true, but it's an nice story and a lot of people like it."

Beaver gave a little shriek. It was proud of him for remembering the whole story.

Huata snapped his fingers, having remembered something else. "There is a rumor that a golden trilobite lives somewhere in the expanse, immortal and impossible to kill. They say it was brought back from Isra by some diplomats, as a sign of good luck. A lot of Land-Tillers think that our new friendship with the outside world was ordained by... the earth itself? Hard to explain."

Huata blinked and looked at Va'nei quizzically. "Sorry, what was your original question?"

As beaver pulled apart his little mouse carcass, he made a rasping "kack kack kack" sound which Va'nei might recognize as a sort of avian chuckle.

(Sometime after Jun's training in Esdara, but before the war between Isra and Goraia)

"Ok... easy, easy... easy..." Jun carefully directed the convoy of wheelbarrows into the Druidic Enclave. It was a daily contribution from the rest of the Expanse to support the Guardians of Gaia. The barrels were filled with fruits, vegetables, dried meat, and sea food. The convoy was a little larger than usual because Jun had decided to make a personal offering to Va'nei in exchange for her pending druid lessons.

"You know, you could probably wear whatever you want." One of the tillers said to Jun. "Those robes are way too big for you."

"Well, I mean I wanted to look the part. Besides, they're... I mean they breath nicely." Jun was wearing brown, oversized druidic robes which were supposed to help her be in more in touch with earth energy. Unfortunately they dragged on the floor. The pointed hat blocked her vision. If only she had known that the hat was completely superfluous and had mostly been given to her as a prank.

"Ok, hope you're not busy saving the world or something..." Jun muttered to herself as she used the crystal she had been given. A beacon of green light shot out into the sky.

And just like that Jun's feigned confidence in her attire came crashing down like so many branches in a furious monsoon.

"I forgot to do laundry today." She said red-faced and a little cross. The pointy wizard's hat slipped down and blocked her vision at the very end of her sentence.

"Miss Jun would humbly present you with this offering, as a token of gratitude for all that you have done, and wishes to receive training in the druidic arts." The escort had with him a particularly large wheelbarrow containing several pots filled with food. There was an assortment of seasoned cooked grains, such as rice, millet, and bulgur, as well as baskets of fruit and stews made of fish. They were surrounded by wards floating about in the air, obviously designed to help keep things fresh.

The attendant looked towards Jun and suppressed a giggle. His lips visibly flattened into a restrained smile.

"Miss Jun also needs a new set of druid robes." Jun muttered to herself before responded back with a sarcastic grin. The grin would appear genuine for a split second afterwards as the pointy wizard's hat yet again collapsed forward and concealed the top half of her face.

"What the, what are you- Eeek! Hahaha! What- what are you doing?" Jun giggled uncontrollably as the vines wrapped around her. She especially squealed when the vines touched her more sensitive areas. When it was all over she was pleased with the results.

"I guess I'm a sexy vegetable for today." She chuckled and did a twirl.

The attendant bowed and saw to the rest of the offering to the Guardians of Gaia, though he occasionally stole some glances at the sexy vegetable.

"I'm ready to go when you are."

Jun followed the Earthwarden deeper into the grove. When they arrived, Jun plopped herself onto an adjacent tree trunk. The waxy vines still felt odd against her skin, but she found herself getting used to them quickly enough.

"Druid magic, druid magic... Well, my understanding is that druids use magic to commune with living things. My school of magic works something like this: All magic is based on the life force found in all things on the earth. When we cast spells, we communicate with this life force to get it to bend to our will. I used to think of the life force as a weapon, something to harmonize with to unleash its destructive power. But when I received training from Fundor, I learned that the magic itself is alive. He taught me to absorb heat energy from my surroundings to cast my spells, by trusting the energy from the heat to help me when I was out of mana. I learned that the communication of magic works both ways, if that makes sense."

Jun thought for a moment. "So, fundamentally, druid magic is people's way of 'talking' to living organisms, with our magic, and also unleashing the full potential of life. At least that's how I understand it."

Jun shook her head, a little bemused. "I hope that wasn't completely wrong."

"Right, got it."

Jun reached down and brought her legs up so that she was sitting in a relaxed, not-quite-lotus position. (Mastery over druid magic wasn't worth her ankles.) She began to relax and breath deeply. Breath by breath, bit by bit, she silenced her thoughts until she could feel all the different magical energies around her.

She felt them as clearly as one feels the location of a piece of furniture in a familiar room, when one gets the sensation that they are being watched. It was all around her, swirling around her, waiting for her command.

"I feel... warmth... I feel... fire... fire energy... It feels like it's close by... all around me... And light, I feel like... and darkness... anger... hate... and... coolness... water... and in the floor... there's something in the floor... and even the air... but..."

What Jun was sensing was the magical energies that she was most familiar with, or rather the elements that were most familiar with her. Like guardian spirits, these energies were close to her, enveloping her like music, ready to spring forth if she was in danger. Fire and light were first and foremost because those were the elements she used most often. Fire was the energy that most attracted her when she was little. The others became more familiar with her as she practiced with them, like old friends.

But there was a certain energy she wasn't actually very familiar, one that she rarely "sang" with. "There! In the trees! Oh wow..." She could feel it. Almost as if she had been afflicted with synesthesia, she could sense the energy like it was a smell, a color, and a temperature all at once. "It's warm, but also cool, and it smells... mossy... green? It smells green? I can definitely feel it but it feels so far away..."

Because she had rarely practiced druidic magic, she could not feel the aura anywhere near her. The other presences were in the way, so to speak.

There was a caveat to this. Because of whatever the Earthwarden did to her back in the library, "unlocking her potential for earth magic", she did feel as if the energy was watching her, taking notice of her, waiting.

"There's... some of it in me too."