The Phases of Decay - Hues of the Crimson Moon

[TwilightWolf 883]

 

"You can't see it... but you can see where it's been.

It's the lightning that starts the forest fire,

or the rain that will douse it.

Fate's a funny thing... but I've seen stranger."

 

A Huntsman's Grimoire on the Faerie Legend of the Windrunner

 

One of the more abstract faerie tales regarded by the Mother Circle is the story of the Windrunner, oft depicted as either an eerie winged beast as the shadow of death, or as a guardian of the harvest boughs and abundant life. The Mother Circle druids regard this faerie as a Fae of the Wild Hunt, but more specifically one of the hunter's preservation and destruction of life. Some have claimed to be haunted by the cold eyes of the faerie after surviving a near-death experience, courting with paranoia of the thing after cheating death. Thought to be associated with the wordless will of fate within the Balance, the faerie is believed to manifest as the creeping cold of winter, or the autumn feast for the hunter. One will never give unless the other takes, as it is with the Balance and the perpetual flow of time.

 

 

The Mother Circle, during the height of the Crimson Moon's passing, a great feast is held. It is a time of thanksgiving and toasts to good health and fortitude for the coming winter, but also a day to remember those whose fates had been decided. The toll of death is best not forgotten, for the harvest of the now is seldom achieved without sacrifice. At the end of the feast, offerings are given to the sculpture of the faerie in hopes that the rejection of excess might align themselves further with the Balance, and to honor the aspect Cernunnos and his Wild Hunt. As it is in the Huntsman's Creed, the druids of the Atoll remain humble in harvest. Only when the dead have been honored and the feast concluded, the Mother Circle druids prepare for the frosts and hardship left behind from the Crimson Moon's arrival.