That's Another Story For Later

Always

A man ran through a forest. He bent down to survey what appeared to be a dying plant. "Not good. Not good at all." The man said. The man continued to run, passing dead animals that were littered in the forest. The man, who had on some sort of funny hat, stopped and plucked a mushroom, sniffing it and making a noise, putting it in his bag. He paused again and looked at, as well as tasted, some sap from a tree. It looked infected.

I finally got a good look as he did that. He had stopped and looked very worried, his brows furrowed and knit together, they were almost touching. He was a very... interesting man. He held a staff similar to Gandalf's, except there were branches on one side, and a different shaped gem inside it. One eyebrow of his flicked up, while the other pointed down. His robe looked to have been one of magnificence at one point, but looked rather ragged now, as though it had been ignored and unkempt over time. Even his beard was as eccentric as he was. One side was very short, while the other was quite long. He had wild brown eyes that darted everywhere, and, what looked like bird dung along the side of his face and in his hair. This must be Radagast

He whistled in a high pitch, sounding like a bird. Lo and behold, a little sparrow appeared. The man who I concluded was Radagast, lifted his hat, revealing a bird's nest. Two birds land inside the nest. Radagast put his hat back and ran over to a little hedgehog who was writhing on the ground. He picked it up and cradled it. "Oh no! Sebastian! Good gracious!" He said to the creature. He continued on his way, running through the forest.

He brought the little hedgehog to his home, which my mind told me was called Rhosgobel. Radagast tried many remedies to heal Sebastian. He used an herb poultice he didn't drink. He tried sprinkling powder over it, blowing some strange smoke over him, everything. At one point, other hedgehogs, presumably his family, had moved around Sebastian, and Radagast said, "Move back! Give him some air, for goodness sake!" The others backed off. Sebastian continued to whimper and writhe in pain.

"I don't understand why it's not working;" He held the tiny wrist of Sebastian, checking his pulse. "It's not as if it's witchcraft... " He trailed off, standing up. A dark look descends upon the wizard's face, and once again he spoke, but he voice was deeper than it was before, much like Gandalf in Bag End. "Witchcraft. Oh, but it is. A dark and powerful magic."

A crack sounded from above and with wild eyes, he looked up and saw several silhouettes of spiders crawling up the side of his house. Radagast scurried around to barricade the door with a bench, as though that would keep out the giant spiders. Sebastian made a croaking noise, and started to take shallow breaths, gasping. He made one small chitter, and ceased to move.

Radagast looked heartbroken at the sight of his hedgehog gone. His house began to creak at the sound of the spiders now crawling around over the top of his roof. Radagast scurried to his staff, and pulled out the blue gem inside. The other small rodents began to make for Radagast's clothes in an attempt to flee. The wizard sat himself down, cradling Sebastian. He held the stone to Sebastian's mouth.

"Si a hlare ómaquettar, lerya laman," The spiders started creating holes in his roof, their legs poking through. "naiquentallo. Na coilerya en-vinyanta." As he finished the incantation his expression dropped and he fell into a strange trance. Black smoke came from the creature's mouth, and suddenly he came out of it, Sebastian moving and chittering once again. He made a small noise and looked down at the hedgehog in his arms.

The spiders outside began to crawl away, seeming to have found nothing they wanted.

~ ~ ~

My eyes snapped open to see it was late afternoon. I tried to sit up but a pain in my head stabbed me and I groaned. "Iridian! She's awake" A blurred voice said. My eyes were stabbed by the light, and I squinted to see four figures above me. My eyes were still unable to focus. I moaned again, trying to sit up and cover my eyes. Hands pushed me back down gently. "Don't. You'll make it worse." I knew that voice.