The Prompt
For Amberyl
Inspired by the illustration
Had it been the punishment of the Gods? Had they themselves been guilty? Was it just a prank gone wrong by the Fates? A curse by the evil mages? Nobody knew for sure. Rumours there were enough of. It had started innocuous with the raining season gradually shortened. People had rejoiced. Less rain meant more time to grow crops and build the necessary wards without being afraid of flooding. People had prospered.
Then the rain had lessened by the end of season. No big deal. A variety of crops could now grow with the different seasons of weather. More work for the people and more time for celebration.
It was the druids that began to worry first. They sensed the change in the weather even before the rain season shrunk to periodic rainfalls. They held long vigilances in the moonlight and in the burning sun to try and understand what was happening. The Moon Goddess nor the Sun Daughter gave them a reply. The druids tried every old trick they could dig out of their archives but nothing worked.
The priesthood was next. They could no longer ignore how the changing seasons clashed with their rituals and people could not be blessed. Illness grew with the seasons, changed faster than the priesthood was able to detect, understand and cure. The people declined.
By the time the water had retreated, revealing the dry muddy earth and polished rocks that had never felt the heat of the Sun Daughter, Elois had been born. When patches of water was guarded more securely than piles of a dragons treasure, he had entered apprenticeship with the druids. Elois was about to choose his specialty when rain was just a story most young children had not seen nor experienced.
Elois stood before the great Tree whose root went so deep that it still had yellowed leaves on most of its crown. This was his final test. He would no longer be an apprentice but a master in his own right. Growing up he had never doubted this is where he wanted to be. He had seen the priests pray; he had seen how they had humbled themselves and sacrificed life to appease the Gods. He had hated the priests and the Gods when his youngest sister had succumbed to the dry air and hunger.
“Elois!” Master Curren said. “Pay attention! This is your time now. Do you pledge allegiance to all things natural?”
“Yes”, Elois replied, hoping that the Moon Goddess and the Sun Daughter could not sense his deception.
“Are you ready to take your pledge? Are you ready to enter the ranks of the druids? To protect and serve the land and the people?”
“Yes”. Yet another lie. Well not exactly, but Elois was quite sure his intention didn’t match what master Curren meant.
“Then how do you plead?”
Master Curren held out the dagger. Elois took it calmly even though his mind was anxious. Would this even work? He had chosen to join the druids as he wanted to learn as much as he could from them. Even if they were frauds, he could feel their power. A power he had not felt with the priests.
Elois took the dagger. Held his hand high over the stone font where his blood would gather and run down to the root of the Tree, binding him.
“I pledge myself – “ he hesitated a second before he continued. This was now. This was the point of no return. This was – if he was wrong – where he would die. “- to the Stone Giant, the father of earth and rocks”.
Then he cut the palm of his hand and let the blood drip down the font.
The shocked faces of the druids would have been amusing if not for the tense atmosphere surrounding the circle of men and women. Holding out the dagger in a defensive position, Elois dared them to make a move. He rather felt than saw how the blood ran down the stone and his hand cramped a bit when the shock of the binding took place. However, he stood his place.
“What have you done?!” Master Curren finally yelled. Loud and angry. He took a step back and Elois was not sure if it was because of the dagger or if to gather the power.
“I’m saving us!” Elois hadn’t meant to yell, but to see these frauds still not understanding was releasing all of his pent up rage.
“It is forbidden!” Master Tera said. “You cannot bind yourself to a dead thing! You can call upon the Daughter or the Goddess. They bring life into this world; they shape life and nurture every living being, animals as well as plants”.
“Do you not understand? All living things are dying. The power of the priests are waning. You fool yourself into thinking you can coax the Gods to change the world. And you refuse to use the power that you do have. Power that is growing every day, but your are deaf to it. The balance is changing but you refuse to do anything because you believe that the Moon Goddess and Sun Daughter will come save you. You have not learned from the priests at all.
“They think they can move the Gods by faith alone. You think you can move the Gods by persuasion. You could have been better. How many lessons have I not been taught, that were of no consequence but if shifted a bit off center, then it could have a real impact. But no. It was forbidden. “We do not have the knowledge anymore”. Excuses!”
Elois could see the anger in all their faces. They had all retreated, but he could now sense it was not because of any danger to them. They were drawing on their power. However, they were too late. He could feel the binding quickening. The Tree had accepted his pledge and power surged through his being. Power so ancient that he dropped the dagger.
The Tree twisted and groaned and Elois know that his former masters were attacking. The small birds exploded from the Tree even though there should have been nowhere to hide them. The druids began chanting, a chanting that Elois had heard hundreds of times. He had to catch himself to not join in.
The first attack from the diving bird Elois avoided simply by moving, but where there had been one there were two to replace it. The sound of the shrieking mimicked angry voices and they grew as more and more birds joined in the fray.
“Enough!” Elois shouted. He drew on his own power and felt the earth listening, eagerly as a caged animal. He unleashed and thousands of small pepples flew from the earth, targeting the birds. Blood and feathers rained down as the pepples impacted the flying birds.
The chanting didn’t stop but grew in power. Elois tried targeting the druids with his missiles but they got deflected by an invisible shield. He actually hadn’t expected the druids to be this powerful in their weakened state, but in a way that confirmed that he had chosen right in joining them.
He was one and they were many. They had accumulated experience, and already he sensed bigger predators joining from afar, lured by the chanting to do the druids bidding. It suddenly occurred to Elois he actually might die from other causes than the Tree rejecting him. He had to break the circle to escape.
“I’m a master now!” He said more to reassure himself as he drew on even more power.
The ground rumbled and the quake made even the Tree tremble. No cracks were visible but it was enough to shatter the druids concentration and shatter their shield. The birds fell down and Elois directed the pebbles towards the men and women he had almost called family for two decades. Without protection their screams cut through the air, as Elois turned from the Tree and broke out of the circle.