Book of Tales

Dirt and Water

There are many things in this world that we don't know. From how much life is in the universe to how much power one soul could have; things like the quantum state of ghosts or maybe you're more like me. Wondering whether or not trolls use dead adventurers' swords as toothpicks...

But a common question I'm asked is if magic is real?

Of COURSE it is! How else do you explain strokes of random bad luck or tripping over flat ground? Those moments you have Déjà Vu or have certain days be weirder than others, it's all to do with the world's intense magical field. This is just fact, but it has this tendency to be like a chameleon.

If it doesn't want to be seen, it hides in plain sight. It still affects the world around it, just in "unseen ways".

And sometimes these "unseen ways" have a story to tell...

-{}-

The one I'm talking about in particular is one of many to have come from a place called Duskwood.

A rather small town next to a forest that went up a slope on the outskirts. There have been many reports of strange creatures and happenings, especially in Duskwood High, but that's a different story.

The one we'll be following starts in Gull Forest, a place the locals say no one goes to, at a river that cuts clean through it, where a boy was filling a water skin.

There wasn't anything particularly odd about him, maybe a little sheepish around the eyes, but other than a head of messy, black hair he was your average-looking teen. He lived in the forest and was an outsider to the going-ons outside of Gull. His name was Caligo.

He got up and looked hesitantly ahead,

"Today's the day...", he said taking a deep breath, and walked across the river like it was a bridge.

He held out a hand and a blue gem glowed from his necklace. The water arced sideways from the river and flowed underneath his bare feet, making him a pathway to walk on.

He walked to where they said they'd meet. The Dancing Couple.

Two trees intertwined by the branches, making them look like they're doing an earthly waltz.

As he got further away from the River, he could feel the strain he's become accustomed to. A sharp mental twang ringing in his subconscious. It was always worth it though, for this. He heard a familiar hum belonging to Enim. The Earthen girl he met so long ago, he leaned against the Couple and smiled. Listening to it while smiling,

He could still remember that day as vividly as a fully developed roll of Kodachrome...

-{}-

He was making his normal rounds along the River, alone as usual. It was a good time to relax and think. To sort out all the stress everyone's been facing to try and keep the River safe. After all, it is what gave the forest life.

He seemed to be at the forefront for every traditionalistic Aquill to teach about how to protect it. This was usually part of a three year initiation you start at 18, but with current events, he had to start at sixteen.

He got to the halfway point and saw a girl fill a clay bowl full of water, being careful as not to touch the liquid. She was a young, roughly the same age as him and fully dressed in an earthly themed dress. He watched curiously, they could never visit the Erthens because they lived so far away from them and only ever came whenever they needed to refill their Mother-soil banks with fresh River water. So to see one so up close was interesting.

She got up, looked over to Caligo and bowed in respect but accidentally leaned over too far and slid on the bank-

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