Ydryin being shocked at Ani's new form.

Ani

A cloud of ethereal embers spring into being, floating in the air in a gentle dance before the sound of gentle hoof-fall and a gentle warmth suffuses the air around you with Ydryin's entrance.

 

Midnight shadows coalesce around a new day, and Mother Night embraces the land in utter darkness.

It is now the 6th of Juliary, 535 years after the Coming of Estarra.

 

A shaded woodland.

Soothing shades of blue light shimmer through the air, cast from a healing shrine of Maylea nearby. A light cover of clouds hides the sky in a sheet of white. Ivy continues to cover the forest floor in this open area of the woods. The elms that dominate to the north have become more sparse, interspersed with trees of other species. The woods seem darker here, as if a larger tree were spreading its branches wide across the forest. Looking to the south, a massive trunk is visible between the rows of grey-brown bark. A hornbeam sapling clings tenaciously to the ground here. Reaching up as high as the eye can see looms the awesome presence of a living totem. Ydryin, the Scorched Hamadryad is here, wreathed in divine fire.

You see exits leading south and northwest.

 

You have emoted: Ani lifts a leafy branch in greeting to Ydryin, "Hello there".

 

You have recovered balance on all limbs.

 

Ydryin's good half of his mouth hangs open in shock for several long moment, staring up at you. "You...are...."

 

You fix Ydryin with an introspective gaze and dig your roots into the ground. A rush of air fills your trunk as you consider Ydryin further, and with a deep rumbling, the captured air escapes as a deep, low 'hoom'.

 

Ydryin rears back in surprise at the sudden hoom, taking a tender step back as he continues staring with a good eye wide open, "I thought you were...how are you...What?!" He suddenly springs to life, hooves starting up several wild fires as he trots and prances around your trunk, looking it up and down, "When did you become a dryad?!"

 

You have emoted: Eyes sparkling as she watches the hamadryad's reaction, Ani creaks as her face turns up into a smile, her laughter a deep rumbling in her trunk before it emits in a lighter hoom past her lips. "I was once human, but I have become a wildewood...", her eyes grow thoughtful, trying to remember, "I shed the human form and embraced the forest, and became even more part of the verdant land, yes?" Her branches shift, rustling leaves as if in question.

 

Ydryin comes to a slow still finally, and while there is disappointment playing around his mouth for a few seconds his eyes are still wide with wonder, "You can just DO that?! I thought little Feyr was always like that..." His head visibly moves as he cranes to look up towards your blooms and branches, nodding as though in agreement with the arrangement of your canopy. "I have to say, I didn't expect you to share my autumn colours. I always thought you were spring, in pretty pinks and greens."

 

You have emoted: Ani looks up to her leaves, branches moving with a crackle and a snap to cause her her colourful canopy to dance in the first touches of dawn's light. "Those who follow the teachings of the druids are able to bond with the forest more closely, closer than those druids who can meld with the land. Feyr is one such druid, Elarin sometimes another. I believe even our new Marshall sometimes takes such a bond." She smiles, "Pinks and greens, and spring? Perhaps I will change with the seasons? It was only at the end of summer, on the cusp of autumn, did I become wildewood after-all!"

 

A loud crack sounds as Ydryin's mouth turns up in a pained smile, the blackened half of his face shedding dark bark and a small flurry of ash.

 

"I had come here with a purpose, a question to ask you, but I admit I am a little shocked. I didn't..." Ydryin pauses and his mouth opens and closes, like a fish desperately attempting to find water in which to breathe, "How do you feel? To have the wind blow through your branches, to feel the power of the earth flowing through your roots, to...to...to see the little animals come up to nest in your canopy and steal your fruit and petals for their own decoration?"

 

You have emoted: The dancing leaves still as Ani contemplates the question put forth, the bark of her brow furrowing deeply. "I feel...different, in a good way." Suddenly her form quivers, leaves rippling in amusement as she bursts out with, "I can see a lot more from up here!! But ahh..yes, to feel the wind and the earth, to be connected..." she trails off a few moments, eyes growing distant before finding Ydryin again, "I feel like this was meant to be the form I am in, what better way to nurture the forest and the world, no?" She waves her twig-fingers slowly through the air, "What is the question you wanted to ask me?"

 

You say to Ydryin, "I don't mind the little animals as much, but some of our faelings have taken to perching in my branches!"

 

"I will give you the same warning passed down between my kind since our dawn, little Ani." The hamadryad looks up in careful consideration, his face suddenly looking ancient and wizened as his age should suggest he be, and a serious tone to his voice as he urges, "The forest sings to you, and calls you to be with her. The rooted slumber will entice you beyond what you know, and until you can resist it you should take care to root where another you trust can easily find and wake you." Ydryin smiles a moment after, though, and is back to his normal jovial self as he off-handedly quips, "Oh, I think I meant to ask you about what game I should run next. Something like that, but then you became a TREE!"

 

Laroine, riding a snow white woolly rhino with a curved horn and white-feathered wings, arrives from the south.

A snow white woolly rhino with a curved horn and white-feathered wings stomps in from the south.

 

Pysynne enters from the south, emanating an aura of immense power.

 

You have emoted: Ani nods to Ydryin, "I will take heed of your advice, I don't really want to get lost or slumber, not when the forest has so much activity now." She lets out a soft hoom, ending in a rough laugh at Ydryin's exclamation. "I'm sorry to shock you so! It was not my intention, I promise. As for games.. you can't go wrong with the hamster hunting and scavenger hunting - but perhaps some games of Vengeance? Or a knowledge quiz of some kind.."

 

Laroine doffs an elegant, wide-brimmed hat of snow-white silk and pale gold ribbon cordially.

 

Laroine smiles softly.

 

A loud crack sounds as Ydryin's mouth turns up in a pained smile, the blackened half of his face shedding dark bark and a small flurry of ash.

 

Pysynne inclines his head politely to those around him.

 

In a gravelly voice, Spirit-Touched Pysynne says to Laroine, "I will find you some grass."

 

Laroine Dekoven whispers, "Pardon me.. I shall be moving along. Merry meet, you all."

 

Laroine smiles softly at Pysynne.

 

Pysynne leaves to the northwest, emanating an aura of immense power.

 

Laroine doffs an elegant, wide-brimmed hat of snow-white silk and pale gold ribbon cordially.

 

Laroine, riding a snow white woolly rhino with a curved horn and white-feathered wings, leaves to the south.

A snow white woolly rhino with a curved horn and white-feathered wings stomps away to the south.

 

You laughingly say to Ydryin, "Even a war games for those who like to hit each other."

 

"Catching hamsters is hard work, but people did seem to enjoy that, yes..." Ydryin ponders the question as he casually glances in the direction the Marshall left towards, "Yes, that might work. Little ones do enjoy slaughter, it seems. And that gets me bitten less."

 

Your eyes sparkle with amusement at Ydryin.

 

The musky scent of loam and leaves fills you with vibrancy.

 

You say to Ydryin, "I could always ask the commune what they'd like to see, for some ideas over the next few weaves and give you a list?"

 

Ydryin, the Scorched Hamadryad says, "Well, I will leave you now to think, and plan. I might catch a few hordes of hamsters just in case, but...yes, that is a fantastic idea!"

 

Shadows grow longer in anticipation for the return of their dark mistress as Father Sun's chase brings him closer to the world's edge.

 

Ydryin, the Scorched Hamadryad says, "Also uh...if you see Jolanthe, be sure to try her new dish. She was excited to send me one, so I tried to eat it and well..."

 

Ydryin glances askance at a platter of burned and blackened venison.

 

You say to Ydryin, "Did you enjoy it?"

 

Ydryin proudly shows off a platter of burned and blackened venison:

What was once a masterpiece of plating and careful cooking skill has been ruined by exposure to flame. Long patterns of searing suspiciously similar to fingers are layered along the meat itself, which blackened in a manner that takes the phrase 'well done' to an extreme. The sauce to its side has boiled and congealed in a horrifying manner against the meat, dragged about the dish and against the meat like the entrails of a dying beat, while the poor mushrooms are little more than blackened orbs left to roll about and shed their burnt flesh as they do.

 

Ydryin, the Scorched Hamadryad says, "I tried to."

 

The air is filled with the soft whisper of antlered leaves as the Mother Moonhart casts a silvery radiance before your vision, her foliage echoing Serenwilde's song of nature unblemished across the First World.

 

You have emoted: Ani's mouth opens and closes silently for several moments before she simply replies, "Oh. Oh my."

 

The musky scent of loam and leaves fills you with vibrancy.

 

You say, "That is.. a creation.."

 

A bright aura of blue light glows forth from the Glinshari Circle, signalling that the Flame of Glinshari continues to shine.

 

Ydryin, the Scorched Hamadryad says, "I was...excited, and forgot for a moment that I'm now always on fire. To Her credit, the Lady Bloom tried to warn me, but I already was touching it."

 

Flickering orange light flares in the scars across Ydryin's chest as a hazy, coughing laugh escapes his mouth.

 

Ydryin nods his head sagely before he begins to glow brighter and brighter, "But, I will let you return to enjoying your new form. Be well, little Ani."

 

Ydryin's form glows and becomes ethereal, fading away into hundreds of burning blossoms like a cloud of dandelion puffs that spread into the wind around the area, the temperature returning to normal as his attention is called elsewhere.