Tesca Chronicles (IC)

[Fythalen]

When she said the m'lord bit he looked at her sideways with a knowing grin and as she left he watched her go. "M'lord, shall I give Tyron and them the signal?" One of his guards asked out of ear shot from the now former King. When Cael nodded he ran out into the hall and gave a loud whistle and the noise from the "fighting" immediately stopped.

Turns out Tyron and his merry band of boys had been sitting and wrestling in a far off hall within the castle simply moaning, yelling, and bashing their swords against each other and their shields. Once they had broken past the main guard at the gate, which had been done rather easily, their job was to make sure the King felt fear. Cael knew that without the King genuinely fearing for his and his family's life he would never have given up the throne willingly. Nor would he had Cael simply barged in with his men and demanded it from him. The whole thing had been carefully planned and now executed and cheers from Tyron and the men erupted within the halls.

*~*~*~*~*

As Evelynn busied herself about her room setting aside clothes, the noise outside of her chambers took on a different note. Cheering replaced the sounds of battle and eventually all went quiet. But as she slipped into the tub something happened, a rush of energy seemed to invade her mind and paralyzed her.

She found herself dreaming of a golden clearing within a dense forest, the sun shone brightly overhead forcing the humidity in the air to an unbearable level. In the middle of the clearing stood a lone tree, an old oak that seemed to be grasping at its last few moments of life. Staring at the tree, she saw a woman practically melt out of the woodwork of the trunk causing the tree to topple over, dead and withered.

[Zhaliora]

Evelynn looked around her in shock. "Where am I?" She stared at the woman whom had exited the tree in even greater shock backing away a few steps. When the woman approached her, she froze, she did not feel hostility, but there was something else, but she did not know what. "Who are you and where am I?" she asked the woman. Evelynn was afraid and the humidity was suffocating and she took another half step away from the approaching woman when she did not answer her question. "I ask again, who are you and where am I?"

[Fythalen]

"I am one of the mother's many daughters just as you are. You are in my wood, the Golden Wood. You are here because I asked my mother to bring you here so that I may speak to you." The wood nymph, for indeed that was what she was, waved her hand so that the grass around Evelynn came alive to weave a gown of grass around her naked form.

[Zhaliora]

Evelynn had been too shocked to even notice that she had been in the nude until just now. She mumbled a small thanks. "But why do you want to talk to me? I am surely none of importance enough for you to call me here like this." She knew that this was magic, she had been shown some magic in her life and she had also read about it in books. "And whom is this mother you speak about?"

[Fythalen]

The nymph paused as she evaluated how best to answer her question. "She is the ground you stand upon, the air we breath, she controls the life and death of every living thing." The nymph clearly became lost in thought as she spun around in place looking up at the sky. "But alas...I am wrong to be cheerful for I bring tidings of grave importance."

"My sister," The nymph reached out to touch Evelynn's cheek, her hands had all the appearance of normal skin but the texture felt like the softness of new growth on a leaf. "You are kind and turn your face away from battle. You will struggle to hold onto your disdain of violence in the coming months for heavy days lie before you where men will kill and be killed. Nature will be caught in the middle as always and suffer the consequences but something is now changing and the earth grows restless as a result."

Holding out her hand a small seed lay in her palm. "I invest in the future by giving this to you. Plant this only when the world is close to an end and all hope has been lost. I will find you. You must speak of this to no one, do you understand?"

[Zhaliora]

"Mother.....earth?" Evelynn asked when she was given the description from the nymph.
She looked at the seed in her hand; "I don't understand. Why do you trust me with this? What have I done that is so trustworthy? I don't understand. But if you entrust me with something like this. There must be something, right?" she closed her hand around the seed. "I was told that the magical creatures had great wisdom........but is it really wise to entrust me with such a heavy burden? I am not a mage, nor am I very wise, nor powerful, I am just a normal woman."

[Fythalen]

The nymph just smiled. "Even the very wisest may be blinded by the ages gone by. But though I do not foresee the outcome, I see that you will become apart of a great many things that are yet to come. In that time take care to not lose yourself," Brushing her cheek once more with a finger the image suddenly began to fade away.

[Zhaliora]

Evelynn shot up in the bath, water splashing everywhere. "What a dream...." But then she felt something in her hand so she opened it and looked, only to find the seed from her dream to be there. "Wha....." She stared at the seed dumbfounded. "It was real?" She walked over to her bed and lay down on it, still holding the seed in her open hand, staring at it. "I still don't understand why I was given this. It feels so, overwhelming." She put the seed on her bedside table and got up before slowly getting dressed, thinking about what the nymph had said. "Nature will suffer? The end of the world? AHHH...I don't get it!" she said and fell onto the bed hard.

[Fythalen]

As Cael’s men entered the throne room in the throes of celebrating, Cael stood there looking at the sword he now held, his mind racing. The council had scuttled away fearful of what the new King might have in store for him, Cael was unbothered by this, with any luck they would sneak quietly out of the castle saving him the trouble of having to dismiss them one by one. Many men were calling for food and ale to be brought to the great hall so that the celebration might continue.

Calling Tyron over to him Cael walked with him towards the end of the hall, talking in whispers.

“How long do you think until they reach the city?” Cael asked weighed the sword in his hand, for some reason it bothered him.

“At least a day if not more. Everett’s men will be here in two days, perhaps three.” They briefly discussed some of the reinforcements that should be implemented immediately before Cael called a servant over to him and Tyron went off to see to the preparations.

Taking care of a few details that would inform the public of the changing hands of power, Cael restored some semblance of order to his men and gave them their orders. The entrance from the caves needed have reinforcements as did the outer wall. It was to both of these places that he sent the bulk of his men. A handful he kept to patrol throughout the town in case there should be any rioting as a result of Cael’s ascension to the throne. The King and Queen he saw to it that they were escorted gently from their chambers to another room in a far corner of the castle. The room was well decorated and their belongings too were restored to them in their new quarters.

When the affairs that couldn’t wait until morning were taken care of, it was well past midnight and Cael’s shoulder ached painfully. After being scolded by Tyron for over exertion he relented. Finding a quiet corner somewhere in the castle he stole a pillow from one of the nearby rooms and sat himself on a windowsill to promptly fall asleep.

[Zhaliora]

"I can't sleep, that dream is bothering me." Evelynn was lying in her bed, trying to fall asleep, but she could not. "I get the gist of it, that she wants me to plant the seed when the end is neigh. But the end of what? My end? The kingdoms end? The end of the world as we know it?" She took out the seed from her pendant that was hanging from her neck where she had put it before trying to sleep. "What will this seed do when I plant it? It seemed like it had a lot of power. It would need a lot of power to stop the end of the world." Evelynn put the seed back into the pendant and she then got out of the bed and put on a coat before walking outside the room. "I need to take a walk to calm my mind down, perhaps some exercise might help me out too." She started walking around inside the castle in the passages that she knew she would not disturb anyone whom might be sleeping. She walked and walked, but her mind kept being filled with thought about the seed and the dream.

"*Sigh* I can't figure it out, not yet at least, and she told me not to talk about it to anyone, so I can't even ask anyone for help with it." As she was walking, she noticed that one of the doors was open. "This is not supposed to be open now" she thought and walked over to the door. Just when she was about to close the door, she saw Cael sitting on the windowsill, fast asleep. "Oh that fool, he'll freeze and get a cold sleeping there." She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "Cael, you can't sleep there, it's bad for your health" she said and poked him on the cheek. "Come on, wake up you lazy bum" she poked him a little harder this time, but it was no use, Cael was not waking up. "*Sigh* What am I now supposed to do now?" she looked around in the room for something to cover him up with, but she found nothing. "Oh darn it. Guess there is no choice then" she thought and removed her coat before she laid it over him and crept up into his lap, covering both herself and Cael with the coat. "This should keep us both warm" she thought and before she knew it, she was fast asleep herself in his lap. Her dream was her old, happy dream again, without the seed or the nymph there to interrupt her.