Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

Ch. 138 The Oracle's Prayer

Ves'rigand watched as the elf with short dark hair and eyepatch nodded when the small green-haired girl finished drawing something on the ground with fine-grained white sand. He pulled her close and kissed her on the head in the same way Alvidan did.

The small girl stepped forward and kneeled in the circle. Ves'rigand wished that she was able to hear better. That was when she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she could hear what the girl was saying was saying loud and clear. She looked to her side and saw the archdruid nod at her, she smiled her thanks in silence and turned her attention back to the young dryad girl.

"I want..." the girl sniffled and paused for a long time. The Guildmaster rubbed the girls back comfortingly as she continued. "... I want to say thank you. After Mommy and daddy died, you kept me safe for so long. Even when everybody hated me, you protected me. Now I have a new family with a papa who loves me so much. But that's not all, Miss Wendy and Tiki also take really good care of me. Naomi and Evie are like my big sisters. Naomi is really silly, she always makes me laugh. Evie pretends to be mean, but she always gives me sweets from the kitchen when no one is looking. Then Papa brought home a big brother. He was very quiet and polite at first, but papa teased him and made him yell." The girl giggled and sniffled.

"Before I knew it, I was surrounded by family. Even though it was scary sometimes like that first night when I was lonely, and papa let me cuddle with him. Then I had one of those nightmares that said the city would be destroyed. I was so scared papa was going to get rid of me like everyone else did. But he didn't he hugged me and fed me cookies until I felt better. Then he helped me learn how to control my powers, and no matter how many bad dreams that I had and no matter how many times I bit or scratched, he hug me and then tells me that he would make sure the bad dreams never came true and some of them didn't." The girl spilled her heart.

Ves'rigand slumped slightly as the emotional struggle of the girl sent aches through her heart and body.

"I love my new papa, he has taught me many things. Like how to fight, how to make friends, and how to make French Toast. He taught me that fear is important, it can keep you safe, but it is more important to be brave. He says bravery isn't being without fear, its not letting fear stop you from doing what is important. That's because papa is the bravest person I know. He is more scared then anyone, even me. Every day he is so scared he can hardly move. He doesn't say so, but I know. And every day is scarier than the next. He is afraid that he will be taken away from the people that matter to him. So every day he fights in his own way. He smiles at me and tries to help people. Which is why, even though I'm scared I want to help people too." The girl had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I have a big brother now, and he is training to be a druid." The girl giggled through he tears. "He's not very good, but he is getting better. I want to help him, and he just broke his staff. I wanted to help pay for a new one, but papa said there was another way. He said we could ask a tree to become one. When he said that, you were the first one that I thought of. You've protected me for so long I wanted to ask if you would protect him too just like you protected me and my mom before me. Pretty please." The girl asked.

"Now make sure you have a clear image of in your head and do what I told you." The Guildmaster sniffled.

The girl nodded without turning to look at him. "In mother Gaia's honor." She said as she bowed and pressed her head against the ground.

"In mother Gaia's honor." The Guildmaster said as he also bowed and pressed his head to the ground.

Ves'rigand heard shuffling on either side of her. When she tore her attention away from the girl and her adopted father, she saw that the desolate woods around them had filled with more druids than she had ever seen in one place in her entire life. Thousands of robed figures bowed as far as she could see. At the fringes of crowds, dryads had stepped out of their trees like anyone would step out of their front door. Many were shriveled and old with skin dry and cracked with age. They slowly walked with a masterful grace as streams of glowing golden magic trailed behind them.

Dryads held many mysteries, one of them was that even though they had long lives there were many factors that could end them prematurely. Those factors had led to the decline of dryads in the southern continent. Finding out the reasons and solving it was a hefty task for the few remaining druids of the southern forest. Sometimes though, it was simply because they felt it was their time to go and they disappeared into their tree and passed away with their tree as it slowly died. Almost nothing could raise them from their eternal slumber at that point.

Now, dozens came out of their trees which was something Ves'rigand had never seen before. But it made the ache in her heart even more because their trees were dark and dying. But the tree the girl spoke to, had the ominous ashen look of a tree that had not only died, but had petrified into stone. It was caused by a tree who mourned for their druid by 'crying'. An act where they literally forced every ounce of moisture out through magic Mother Gaia provided in order to become their gravestone. The tree may have sheltered her from the rain, but it hadn't been alive or a tree for a long time.

That was when she heard singing. It was a hymn in a language Ves'rigand didn't understand but recognized. The first language, a language so old only Gaia and the first gods remembered it. And although she didn't understand the words, she understood the meaning.

I have heard you my child.

Thousands of voices rose in harmony around them. Ves'rigand saw thousands of dryads approach from all directions with glowing green eyes that lit up the night like fireflies. All around them the trees and ground released little balls of energy that turned into tiny winged pixies. They fluttered and converged on the petrified ashen tree.

The next moment she felt Alvidan do something he didn't do very often, especially while they were in public. He walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a loving embrace.

He whispered into her ear. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we are the only ones watching. Pay close attention. Making staves is a sacred thing, but this is a once in a lifetime experience and the two of us are the only ones that will be able to see it." That was also when he wiped her tears with a handkerchief and she noticed how much she had been crying. He was rarely so bold, but she always felt indiscernibly safe in his arms. Even though they weren't the strong arms of a warrior, that didn't matter to her, they were the gentle calculating arms of a man who treated her like the most precious woman in the world.

The glowing pixies fluttered to the branches of the tree and turned into vibrant incandescent leaves. The vision was beautiful, and the concentration of magic was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was like the entire area was under a healing affect with cleansing and buffing effects she couldn't name, and they just kept getting stronger. It became intense and the euphoria of power filled her body until it ached to stand still. The older dryads linked hands and formed a circle around the two in front at the tree, and Ves'rigand's gasp caught in her throat as the dead tree began to move.