The Wind of Impermanency

[Pithirendar]

Trees rose up behind the temple. Elms and birches. Aspens and maples. All with their branches stretched upwards towards the sunny sky. They dappled the plain temple in shadow. The leaves and boughs casting patterns of dark and light over the white stones of its construction. Undressed, sun bleached stone made up a small ramp that led to an equally plain alter. Smooth pillars of matching stone formed up a half circle around the altar. Their only ornamentation delicate climbing vines festooned with bright white flowers.

The temple was old. Far older than the towns that dotted the countryside around it. Dark green moss filled in cracks where some of the stones had worked apart from each other. Creepers embedded themselves around part of the ramp as though they belonged. Neither intrusive or harmful to the structure. A breeze pushed through the air. It made the shadows dance. Filling the air with a soft, sweet scent.

Halfway to the altar, on a small flat section of the ramp. Sat a woman. Bathed in both sunshine and shadow. The breeze tossed her hair across her forehead, but the woman paid it no mind. She sat perfectly still. Hands in her lap, cross-legged on the warm white stones. With her eyes closed and dark lashes against her cheek she might have looked asleep. She was too still, even for that. Her chest did not rise or fall with the rhythm of a sleeper. Nor did her eyes move beneath the closed lids like that of a dreamer. She was perfectly still.

Time slid by. The halfling guards paused when returning to Leodera . They looked curiously at the woman who sat in the same spot as when they had passed by that morning. The sun soon sat behind the horizon and the wind blew cooler. The evening stars began to twinkle in the sky as darkness spread across the woman and the wood grew quiet.

The woman was unaware of how much time had passed. For weeks she felt unwell. Something disturbing her balance. There was no great pull in one direction or another. Rather a constant vibration that scattered her thoughts and left her unable to find any sense of calm. She had struck for the temple when things did not right themselves on their own. Now, as she had for the past three days, she sat, meditating. Turning her thoughts over and over in her head.

Several times she had been close to reaching peace. The nagging vibration, like an undertow in the sea snatched her thoughts away. No matter how hard she fought against it the tide was too strong. It dragged her calm away into the seemingly endless current.

[Pithirendar]

Over a moon ago the council requested her presence. The druid arrived to find her people milling about in chaos. After speaking with several there she learned her sister had been taken by lizards. The woman bid the council to take charge and gather those left. She did her best. Seeking information and delving deep into the old forests. The demons and lizards were stronger than those on the outskirts and many of the group fell.

Thoughts moved on. It was then that she remembered Kraag of the Rue. After recalling how he accepted the promised reward her mind focused on to something almost forgotten. It was as though a fog shrouded the memory. Concealing it from her self. It was an effort to remember.

Walking down the road the woman hummed happily to herself. A brisk wind had picked up off the water. It blew a sharp air through the chest high grass that spread between the well-travelled road and the shore. The stalks of grass swished against each other. The soft noise and fresh air-filled her with joy.

As happy as such simple things made her the joy was soon forgotten when she spied a man whom she had only met a few times before. He greeted her as she approached and asked her to join him in the shade of a strand of trees. They sat and talked for a time until the man lead the conversation into his true intention. Cautiously, he spoke of shadow. A threat to the powers within the great forest. The shadow held sway over reptilian creatures and other dark forces. The man cautioned the druid not to ignore his warning. Should the shadow summon more darkness into the woods. Much of their work could be lost. The druid agreed and parted ways with the man to speak of it with her sister and the council.

The almost forgotten conversation was the missing piece in the imbalance plaguing the woman. While she did not begin to understand the greater meaning behind the events. The events none the less joined themselves together. A smile touched her lips. The first movement from the woman in three days. Her features relaxed as she regained the peace and direction that she had been lost without.