The Hollow Grove: The Companions [Book 2]

[52] Path of the Willows

"I just want you to know, it's safe to return," Haygen said.  "And if you want, I will take you back home."  He looked about him.  "We can leave now if you are willing.  I have Horses ready."

Selene smiled.  "You've done a wonderful thing."  She placed her hand on his cheek.  "Coming all the way here.  My little boy.  So grown.  But I see in your heart that you don't want to leave any more than I do."

Haygen turned his head.  She heard the truth in her words and cursed his mother for her insight.  "I just want you to be safe." 

They sat in a private corner near the vegetable gardens.  The rows upon rows of the east garden needed little tending with the help of Druid magic, but every once in a while, his mother brought him out here for small talk to reconnect with her him. 

"Safe?" asked his mother with a soft smile.  "Where is joy in safety when others suffer and darkness looms."

Haygen put his hands to hips.  "There's always...darkness looming all the time.  I just wish you had the old grove back with the old cottage and the old Druids.  Back the way it used to be before..."

"We need to move forward," said Selene.

Haygen shook his head and looked to the sky.  The sun rode high in the blue sky, mocking him with its power.  "I don't know how."

"What of the Cold Ranger?" asked Selene.

"Cold Ranger?  You mean Anyu."

"I see the way you look at each other."

"I can take you back and return to her."

"She gathered her people to fight for the Seeking Stones," said his mother, "and you want to run off?  I don't think that is what you want."

"No."

She embraced him, her head barely at the middle of his chest.  She pulled away and held his hand.  She led him over to the Seeking Stones.  "It is time for you to speak with the Stones."

They made it over to the Stones and he looked about making sure no one watched him.

"Why do you call her the Cold Ranger?" asked Haygen confused out of the blue.

Selene laughed.  "She's the only one to go into the lake of the Seeking Stones naked, saying that the water was warm like a bath."

That sounds like her, Haygen thought.  Suddenly, he didn't like the idea of a bunch of Druids seeing Anyu naked and he changed the subject. 

"Alright, so what do I do?" asked the Half-orc.

"If you are willing, I would like you to take the Rite.  The Path of the Willows.  The initiation."  She looked away, her eyes down.  "We would like it very much, if the will is yours, to embrace bloodline of our family and fight as one of us.  You never had the opportunity before as, well, I knew you were leaving us and the power is sacred.  However, since you returned as you are..."

The Druid Passage, thought Haygen.  The Path of the Willows.  He remembered seeing the ceremony so many times back home.  Normally given to children, and back then he always wondered why he never walked the gray stones back in the old grove. 

"I would become a Druid like you?" asked Haygen.  His shifted warily, not sure how he felt about using magic even if it was one with nature.

Selene nodded.  "We, Wayland and I, have found you more than worthy."  Then she added, "The Arch Druid's approval is needed."

Haygen nodded.  "Wayland is a good Man.  He loves you.  I can see it.  And you love him."

Selene said, "I do.  And you love Anyu."