The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night. -
The Vision.
Eyla sat cross-legged on thedry earth in their tent. The sun was steaming hot and illuminated the camp. Ittried to enter their tent but Soriah had made her block the inside of the tentso that it was as dark as night. Eyla looked around at the many sheets of clothshe had tacked onto the original one. The air had a stuffy feel to it and layheavy in her lungs. She took another deep breath in hope that it would clearthat feeling. But it failed. She just ended up feeling more stifled. She triedto ignore the sensation and concentrate on Soriah. The blind woman was sitting oppositeher busy with preparing some herbs. Eyla slouched and leaned back on herelbows. Soriah looked up.
“Sit upright,” she commandedin a voice that held a note of harshness. Eyla raised her eyebrows and sat backupright. “We must always be in a state of reverence for the potions to work,”she said by way of explanation.
Eyla said nothing and Soriah paused for amoment, a brief look of concern crossed her face and then she bent her headback to her work. Eyla watch as the deft fingers moved automatically. Grab aroot, slice it up, drop into the bowl and then reach for water. Place a fewdrops and then sprinkle some grains of wild wheat and on and on it went. Eylasighed. After about an hour and a half the paste was ready. Eyla satstraighter. Soriah poured some hot water into the bowl and took a stick andstirred it up. A foul smell filled the air. Eyla gagged and quickly held her breath. When she dared to take a breaththe smell had changed. It was an earthy but strangely pleasant smell. She beganto feel a bit light headed. The tent seemed to be engulfed in a haze. Eylashook her head. Soriah was looking at her strangely. For a moment Eyla sworethat Soriah had eyes. Then the illusion cleared away and she was as blind asbefore. Soriah suddenly rose and splashed the water against her face.
Eyla sputtered and gasped.The water trickled down her throat. She swallowed and panted in disgust. Thetaste was horrible. The whole world seemed to be spinning and the tent wasgoing in circles. Then everything went dark. Welcome! A voice spokesoftly in her head. She gasped again. A color of green swirled out of thedarkness. It began to shimmer and suddenly trees began to emerge from thedarkness. She could see the broad trunks of the tall plants. Yet she knew thatwas not really there because the entire forest was tinted in different hues ofgreen. “This sure isn’t Hurfed,” she said to herself.
Her voice had an open airsound to it yet it also had a closed in sound to it. She glanced around. Therewas a nagging feeling that she was being watched. She turned around and therewas nothing but green mist and trees.
Suddenly a voice spoke toher again. “What do you want here Eyla,daughter of Berserkers?” She gritted her teeth.
“Who are you?” she called.There was silence. She turned around again. Her hair suddenly stood on end as ahand touched her shoulder. She yelped and leapt away hitting at what hadtouched her. There was a strange hissing sound, like the rustling of leaves.Eyla fixed her eyes on the creature that stood before her.
“My name is Bizantir. You are trespassing in our woods.” Thecreature said. Eyla stood before the creature with her mouth open. No words inthe world could have expressed her astonishment. The creature looked at herwith a frown on its face. Eyla had never seen a more beautiful woman. Her hairwas green which looked like strands of young twigs and her skin was as tannedas the trees around her. She was dressed in a very sheer green tunic. She wasnaked underneath. Her arms were strong and muscular and her fingers wereslender ending in sharp nails of white. Eyla felt incredibly ugly beside her.
“Well?” the creature asked. Eyla nodded. “You acknowledge this?” the creature said puzzled. Eyla could notbelieve that this was happening. The creature looked hard at her and thensmiled a smug smile. It strode up to her and slapped her hard across the face.Eyla fell to the forest floor a few feet away. The blow was powerful as if she hadbeen hit by a tree. Trees! The thought struck her almost as hard as the blow.
“You’re the trees!” she saidin awe.
The creature glided towardher. “Not the trees,” it said, “The spirits of the trees.”
“Dryads!” Eyla said. Thecreature nodded.
“Now that we know who the other is,” the Dryad said, “Answer my question; what do you want?”
“I don’t know,” Eyla said,“Soriah sent me here.”
The Dryad stared at her, “Soriah?” It asked incredulously. Eylanodded rubbing her face. The Dryad nodded, “Then you must come with me. I know why you are here.” The Dryadturned and began to walk away. Eyla stood still, was she able to walk in thisdream. The Dryad turned back, “Come on,”it said sounding slightly annoyed. Eyla swallowed and took a step. She moved.The laughing to herself for being so silly she followed after the dryad.
The Dryad led her at a quickpace. Eyla reached out and touched one of the trees. Rough bark grazed herfingertips.
“Yes, you can feel them,” Bizantir said. Eyla looked at the Dryad.She had stopped and was watching her. Eyla looked at the Dryad. Eyla quicklypulled her hand away. “No need to feel self-consciousBerserker,”Bizantir said, ‘everything is equal inthe forest. For everything depends on one another.” Eyla looked back to thetree and nodded. The dryad then turned and started to walk again.
“Bizantir?” Eyla asked.
‘Yes,” the dryad answered without turning back.
“How do you know Soriah?” Eyla asked.
“Soriahcame to us as a young woman. She had eyes like the river water, clear andstrong, but green. She wanted to learn of the forest and use its secrets tohelp others. Our queen helped her willingly. Then there was came the GreatIllness of Gashad. Many Dryads were being killed for their trees were dying.Soriah used what we had taught her and saved our trees. Not only did she savethe trees but she also found a way to fuse their sap with her herbs making themimmune to all diseases. And thus making us immune. We owe our lives to her.”
The dryad paused to cross a small stream. Sheskipped lightly over the small stones. Eyla tried to follow her but just endedup splashing through the water instead. Bizantir looked at her disapprovinglybut decided not to say anything. Eyla smiled in apology. The dryad thencontinued, “However in the process,Soriah lost her eyesight. She hadmeddled with many poisonous herbs and stayed within their fumes for days. Itwas a miracle that they did not kill her. She was greatly distraught for manydays but she got over it eventually got over it. And it was then she haddecided to go and see the world. And that was the last we ever saw of her. Butthe trees will never forget her. Neither will we.”
There was a silence thatfollowed. Eyla was lost in thought. She never thought that Soriah had been withDryads, no wonder she so much. But her poor teacher; losing her eyesight. Eyla’seyes filled with tears and a spam gripped her chest; that was a horriblepayment for her help.
“We are here” said Bizantir with a note of proudness in her voice. Eylalooked up from her dismal thoughts and gasped. In front of her was a hugeclearing. There were trees lining the clearing but these trees were unlikeanything she had ever seen before. They were as tall as the other trees but theirtrunks were thick and white. Not like a dead white but a milky white warm andliving. The trees rose with broad branches which all converged and formed aheavy canopy across the entire clearing. The trees cast a golden glow undertheir branches for their leaves were gold. It was their natural color, Eylacould tell from the look of it. She took a deep breath. Within the clearingwere more Dryads. They all looked at her. She looked back at them. Then withina moment, she was surrounded by the tree spirits. They were shorter that her,reaching only her waist. They were all tugging at her and touching her skin. Theirhand felt like rough bark and their nails were pointed and stuck her flesh.When she hissed in pain they scattered and viewed her with fright. Bizantircame and stood in front of her.
“Shame on you children,” she said, “Hurting a guest!” She gazed accusingly at them all. They cringingand then one spoke out.
“Sorry Bizantir,” she said her high and trembling, ‘we didn’t mean it. We were just curious.”Bizantir frowned. They all backed away and ran behind the white trees. Eylasmiled, it was funny to see them. Suddenly there came a tinkle of high voices.And a large group of older Dryads swept into the clearing. They were allbeautiful women. Eyla felt ugly again. Suddenly Bizantir dropped to one knee andplaced a hand behind her back and the other on the ground before her. Eylaglanced at her confused. Then she realized that all the laughter had stopped.She looked up and saw that all the dryads were kneeling in a similar fashion.She gaze swept up to the Dryads. There standing in the middle of the clearingstood a tall woman. Her hair was fire red and her skin was as white as thetrees around her. She wore a pale green tunic as the rest of the Dryads but itwas loose and draped her body beautifully. There was also a broad band of gold leavesaround her head. Eyla knew who it was even before Bizantir got up to announceher.
Bizantir swept her hand dramatically. “My Queen, this is Eyla of the BerserkerClan, she hails Soriah. Eyla this is our Queen Rashizvia.”
Eyla dropped in the fashionof the Dryads and knelt before the Queen of the Dryads.
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