WoodSong - Act III: City of the Elves

That next morning I woke to see a thin layer of fireflies coating the ceiling of the room the elves had picked out for me. Their glow warmed the midmorning room even though all the windows remained covered by a dense fabric that let in only the least amount of light around its edges. Rising from my cot in the small room, I noticed that the firebeetles had similarly congregated under my bed, providing enough light that I could see the uneven floor well.

 

I raised the fabric that covered the one of the windows to find that the hole was quite uneven as well. In fact, after further inspection I realized that the hole had not been carved at all, but it appeared that it simply grew like that. Both windows were the same and I opened each to see the bustle of elves working outside. It appeared to be only midday. They would've been awake for hours. I felt instantly ashamed. I had overslept, and I had an appointment.

 

I moved the thick fabric that covered the doorway and stepped outside. Beside my door was a sleeping elf. I nudged him with my foot and when he was awake I asked, “can you show me the way to the TreeMage, I have an appointment...”

 

With a spy energy he leaped to his feet and said, “thank the spirits, I thought you would sleep forever.” And then hastily guided me though the confusing web of bridges between the treehomes until we had found our way to a large, well aged sequoia. “Inside,” he said and motioned me in.

 

I was a bit nervous when he did not follow but still I continued inside to meet the TreeMage. He called to me from a room to the ream of the grand entry-room and I followed his voice inside. He was at the far side of the room, sitting and as I entered he motioned to a chair that seemed to be rooted to the floor. I sat and he began to speak.

 

“I have no doubt you came here for little more than simply refuge, but seeing the way the Kodama ushered you in I now have no doubt that it is a part of your destiny to learn a bit of my magic.”

 

“I have no interest in my destiny. I only wish to live in modest comfort and peace until it comes my time to die.”

 

“I see, however, you have a great, untapped potential in magic and I believe that beyond its usefulness you could find a great deal of peace in PlantMagic. Do you wish to learn?”

 

I thought about that for a moment. The elves here seemed to be just as content as the people of Maureen. There was little grandiose to their magic, it just seemed to foster their simple lifestyle. Perhaps if learning a bit of it was a part of becoming a part of their culture and living here in harmony, than it could not hurt. So after careful consideration I accepted the offer, much to the TreeMage's delight.

 

“Well then, if you are to be my student please, call me Oak.”

 

“Yes sir. Oak. Sir.”

 

He laughed. “So, as you may know, most elves have in some way mastered SproutMagic, and I would like for you to do the same. But before you can be considered a master in that field, there is one test ahead of you.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“You must tend a garden into success...” Here I cut him off, as I believed I was already capable.

 

“Living in Maureen I tended many a successful garden year in and year out.”

 

“Ah, but did you plant the seeds? Did you gather seed yourself from the proper sources? Or were you given a successful start to nurture?”

 

“No and no. I suppose I did more of the latter, but I still have many years experience in gardening...”

 

“And yet if I asked you to start a garden now, could you? With no seed or hands to guide you?”

 

“No.”

 

“then the test has still to be past before I can teach you more. Go to a FloraMage and ask which plants are past maturity and ready for seed and then you may a Sprout mage how to properly plant the seeds you have gathered. I'm I correct in assuming that your expertise comes in about here?”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

“Good, then when your garden is in season ask a FloraMage to inspect it and see that it is up to their standards of growth. Then when you have succeeded in their eyes, I will train you to become adept in the ways of a SproutMage. After that, if you are yet suitable I shall train you in the ways of becoming a FloraMage.” And as I bowed and turned to leave he added. “Being an outside it must feel very alien here. Allow me to teach you a custom that will allow you to feel more at home.”

 

I returned to my seat and looked to Oak eagerly. “We have a tradition of using a three part braid at least once in our hair.” He raise a long braided trail of hair from behind his back. “This is to remember the three Great Spirits that watch over the forest. One is for Gaia, the spirit that watches over the very soil our homes take root in. Another is for Horizon, who bathes our trees in light and carries pollen on his winds. And the third is for our sacred spirit herself, Lady Kushii, the mother of all trees. And even though we hold her sacred, her lock of hair is no thicker than any of the others because it takes the blessing of all three spirits in equal parts to grow a healthy forest.”

 

So with that advice I left. That night I tied the only part of my hair long enough, a part of the right side of my bangs into the traditional braid and fell asleep.

 

The next morning I woke and began hunting for a FloraMage. The search took the better part of a day but well before nightfall I had gathered a garden's worth of seed from aging plants.

 

The following day I searched for an adept SproutMage. The search took only minutes and was conducted over breakfast in the great hall. I still wasn't one of the guys per say but there was a growing group that was willing to help in my quest. Taking careful, and sometimes repeated instruction from my new friend, the young but wise Mage Roe, I tended the earth in such a way that would make it fertile to an ideal degree. This part took two days.

 

Next, Roe told me how to plant the seeds of the various plants at just the right depths and I was able to finish seeding my first plot of land by the end of my first week.

 

For the next two months a tended my garden daily picking more sprouts of weeds than I ever saw sprouts of my plants. I worked and even overworked the garden, pouring in care and love with each dose of spring water. Yes, the same spring as I had seen the first night. I had picked a location close to there hoping to see her again.

 

For either my desire to see the girl once more or my desire to grow a garden that would make even a FloraMage proud, I took to spending more and more of my free time daydreaming in my garden. Occasionally, I would scare away a nibbling animal or two or squash a bug or so, but mostly I just hung around to watch things grow. A time or two I accidentally got a nights sleep in the garden and was the source of amusement when I entered the hall for breakfast in panting in old clothes and covered in a thin sheet of dew.

 

So when the flowers were in bloom, the vegetables had just left blossom, and the herbs were at the peak of their aroma I invited a FloraMage into my garden. And though she said I had done well she commented that many of the plants, the vegetables especially, had been planted too late in the season and wouldn't reach full maturity before the frosts came in. Such a shame she said, for I showed tremendous promise.

 

I waited out the frosts and studied among the Sprouts for the season. At the first signs of spring I started again doing the same as I did before, though by now I paid less attention to the spring, waiting on my lady of mystery to return, and a little more on the plants.

 

By the end of the season I had the approval of a FloraMage who took charge of my garden with myself and a few other Sprouts, Roe included, working under her. I spoke to Oak again and he congratulated me on becoming a Mage at last.

 

My next test was to impress the FloraMages I would now be working under until they considered me an equal. I was warned that such a distinction came rarely, and most elves lived their entire lives without receiving it. Yet, by my eighteenth summer I was considered to be as good as any.

 

Some Floras left most of the grunt work of tend the gardens to the Sprouts. Though they provided expert knowledge and care and seemed to be able to miraculously fix any gardens ills. At first I had thought this was the result of some healing magic , but in time I realized that it was nothing more than the same love and compassion I had poured into mt first gardens.

 

I had always been left wondering how they spent the remainder of their time, but I wouldn't know the real answer until I was nearly twenty and had become adept enough that other Floras often came to me for advice or just a hand and miracle. This was when TreeMage Oak accepted me into his group of adept Floras which he took on walks through the wood during the day. We learned to spot ailing trees through such subtle clues as the shading of their bark, and then came my favorite part. The wise Mage Oak would put his hands to the trunk of the tree and whisper to it and if you watched above you could actually see the branches themselves shifting to better take advantage of the light from the sun. If was as if he was commanding the trees himself.