Somewhere
A bird born of wood would find a large seed, and spirit it away next to the sea.
Somewhere
The seed would settle into the earth, and after a time, a man would be born of it.
Somewhere
The man would think long and hard about where he should be.
Somewhere
The man would stare out to the sea.
SOMEWHERE
The man would find family and friends, and grow a great tree. They would carve from it a modest ship to sail the seas.
SOMEWHERE
The man would meet with his brothers, and sail off as if looking for the edge.
SOMEWHERE
The man would meet more people and gather more ships to follow him.
SOMEWHERE
He would come to a stop, upon a very large island never before seen.
The people here, his brother, would help him plant a tree. A tree that would grow to a size those new to him would have never seen. Great plums grew from its branches, and it would give protection from some of the monsters people had seen.
The people he brought with, would listen and soon see. The way he saw the world, and what he sought to seek. One by one over the years they would take to clear waters, and come out with a new way to see. And they'd take their own boats out, to see and help all the damage left behind on the sea.
The island would stay quiet, despite how it seemed, and never sought more than what it needed to continue peaceful means. The nature folk who came to be on it would simply come and go as they'd need, and live as they sought, and when their time was up, be floated out to the sea.
Where the man who watched over the island came from, it was like a wind rolled through. Dust covered furniture, a chill through the tavern. His footprints disappeared, the Tree by the Sea faded away. By no means did he die, but by no means did he stay. From this island he'd set out to continue his work, in a new way.
Hareven Lorenthus was always a strange man, and only grew stranger with time. He made good decisions and bad, he did great things and sometimes blew off his own hands. He lived and would continue to live, but not near the evermoving people he was from.
He decided on a new path, and so. He lives among the sea. And so he stood side by side with his daughter and wife, and sent Vaki out back across it.
A Letter Left Behind
Years soon after Harevens disappearance, the wooden bird would arrive with a letter cluster. Individual names are delivered, and a letter generalized to his people of the Druids is as well.
"I'm not ******* dead. Starting off with a high note. It's been a very long time that I've been a druid, and it's been a very long time since I should have died. But I didn't and I kept on and on. Most of you know me. Some of you have heard of me. I don't like either of these things. We've new generations popping up and idolizing those who came before them rather than looking at themselves and standing up on their own two feet and judging who they want to be, for themselves. So I have left.
I am not coming back.
And yeah I'm tired but we all are. Anyone like me can testify; we are tired souls. But I don't want to die yet, so instead, I have founded a small island, a Grove, and set to doing a new path of work. It'll probably kill me eventually, I'll be honest, but it's better than just laying down and dying. I've assembled people from sparse settlements I've found along my way, and set about heading back in and out of Unseen Lands and lands that might have the stamp of descendant destruction on them, and returning them to nature the best we can. And so if it kills me. Then sure. I did my best. And if it doesn't, and centuries from now people wander up upon this place I've found, I'll see you then. But this is all. And this is it.
I love you all, even the ones I hate, hated, and hate me. And I pray that you do the best you can to be the best you can be, every day."
---
Liri
Sonna
Damien
Nenar
Valmir
Miven
Astarte
Este
Rosa
Tailesin
To The Rest of the Family
And to everyone else.
"Y'all be fine without me around, there'll be another crazy ***** like me at some point and there are so many good souls in our people that they'll turn out to be a better druid than I ever was. And I was a damn good druid. I pray you all fight strongly and that at the end of time, the world is consumed with green and we can all rest our heavy heads on the ground and know deeply that we did our job and we did it well. No dragons, no deep dark evil gods, no weird armies of the past. Just the Balance and Nature..
I'll miss everyone. And if anyone wants to do as I am, and leave behind the Migration and work on fixing up what all we've left behind, the path'll be clear, but only when you are truly and utterly ready. How I got here, is unclear, but resolve seems important, as some who have left, don't come back if they lose it, and the sea takes them.
Oh. As well, I have left important things behind for some of you. You'll find them in the bottom floor of my brewery.
Damien, take care of The Perch.
Sonna, take care of the village.
But until then, or until even further. I'll eventually see most of you in the Forest. Don't be ******* daft now that I'm gone."
-Hareven Alard Lorenthus, The (Former) Bluejay and (Current) Mountain Druid.
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