Month: October 2015

The winged female’s voice purred, “Be comforted, caregiver of the forest. You have tirelessly served our world from your time as a sapling. Now your skills are needed anew in another realm.”

The siren’s voice blended her words into soothing silkiness. The Tree Shepherd would have uprooted and walked over the ledge of Mount Airie’s tallest cliff had she asked! The ancient tree herder summoned strength, resisted her beguiling smile, and said, “I assume you’ve cast lots with the traveling sorcerer, winsome wench!”

The Tree Shepherd heard the distant, incessant chopping of woodsmen’s axes. The gentle fluttering of wings distracted him. Wyverns, dragons of many ilks, Manticores, rocs, griffons, Pegasi, and Cloudmares regularly flew over Mount Airie. A pleasing fragrance filled the air. Only on rare occasions had the Tree Shepherd beheld sirens. The siren glided gracefully to a point just beyond the reach of his lower branches and stared at the massive tree. Long orange red hair fell disheveled across her chest and down her back. Each long hair bristled with radiance and life. Large feathered wings sprouted from the small of her back and rose above her svelte figure. She attempted to disguise the presence of the long full brushy tail that extended behind her. The wondrous extraordinary female smiled demurely. When she spoke her melodious voice warmed the Tree Shepherd’s every branch and root.

“Be comforted, great one. You have served our world long and well. I’ve watched from your time as a sapling. Now your skills are needed anew,” the winged female’s voice purred.

The Tree Shepherd argued, “Use your ability of Translocation! Every sorcerer on Sagain feels the inimitability of the spell! Transfer the scroll-bearing trees to a bluewood stand! Leave them to Sagain!”

Rhiann answered, “The woodsmen felled the bluewoods. There’s no place on Sagain I can hide them. Let me preserve this piece of our world.”

The Tree Shepherd despondently replied, “I can’t really stop you.”

The sorcerer calmly replied, “You cannot.”

The sorcerer  traced a circle around the nearest toot and see scroll tree, raised his staff, and uttered lyrical phrases. An intense aura followed. The tree and sorcerer vanished.

Rhiann said, “Magick pervades all of Sagain. Light and Dark Sorcerers grow evermore powerful. Power begets greed. The woodsmen’s axes draw nearer each passing day. You cannot protect the “toot and see scroll” trees. I know a place where one of the remaining trees might be safe. A place touched by Magick… sometimes. The little tree will flourish.”

The Tree Shepherd argued, “Now only three trees remain. I can’t allow you to take one.”

Rhiann interrupted, “Do you really feel the woodsmen will resist removing the silver scroll tubes?”

Rhiann carefully removed a second “toot and see scroll” fruit. At the instant the fruit separated from the tree, the remaining eleven mature fruits and recently developed nubbin fell from the tree, landed on the green grass, shimmered briefly, and crumbled into gray dust. Patches of gray earth remained where the scrolls fell onto the grass. The dirt had the consistency of soot from an old fire and no aura of Magick. The tree was now simply an attractive green bush thirteen feet tall. Rhiann removed the first fruit from his pocket. It remained intact.

Rhiann cried out, “****!”

The Tree Shepherd commented, “A painful lesson. Magick seldom rewards greed. One must remove only one fruit and allow the harvested fruit’s bud must to mature.”

The sorcerer inspected the silver tube closely. The fruit was clearly inedible. The little scroll had clear lenses at both ends and holes spaced along the slender tube. Was it a simple flute?  The sorcerer peered through the end of the flute-like structures. The lenses magnified objects viewed in the distance.

The fluted tube was a looking glass!

Rhiann Klarje flipped the lenses to the side, blew air through the end of the device, covered the other holes along the length of the devices, and played melodiously haunting notes.

The Tree Shepherd’s limited teleportation spells restricted his movement to the area around Mount Airie. He arrived at the small grove of trees with flute shaped fruits and chased away a three-eyed roc eater. Rocs favored the fruits of the purplanana trees that grew in this area. The third eye in the back of the roc eater’s head improved the predator’s hunting. The “toot and see scroll” trees were unharmed. The trees had had sprouted like the Tree Shepherd at the time of the great light and stood at this place as long as he had walked and rooted in Sagain’s soil. The four thirteen-foot tall trees had thirteen branches, thirteen inch diameter trunks, leaves divided by thirteen veins, and bore thirteen fruits. The fruits were shaped like small fluted silver scroll tubes.

Garnet brushed back another bead of sweat from his brow. Half a century of trudging up and down the hillsides of the thriving Virginia orchard had not dulled his vision. Garnet had followed and widened his father’s footsteps. The gentle Virginian still outworked younger men. Today he carried a ladder thrice his height on his shoulder and walked alone toward another tree to thin apples. Garnet knew every tree in the orchard.  Rhiann Klarje enjoyed his visits to the simple blue world. This orchard became one of his favorite places. The sorcerer remained inconspicuous during his visits. The blue world was Nature’s domain. Rhiann saw Magick in Nature and marveled at the simple farmer’s skill in tending his grove. Garnet’s skills rivaled the most veteran tree herders on Sagain, and he performed the tasks without the benefit of Magick.

The Traveler’s Tome recorded the gathering of the apple tree from a place called Carroll County in the cloud shrouded beautiful blue world. Translocation had carried Rhiann Klarje to the lands of the third planet from an unremarkable little sun. The little planet sat in the sun’s Goldilocks’s zone, and Nature expressed many climacteric variations. The sorcerer enjoyed the blue-greenness of the mountains. Locals referred to the mountains as the Blue Ridge. Names of passages through the mountains intrigued the sorcerer. He particularly liked Fancy Gap, Orchard Gap, Wards Gap, and Low Gap. Rhiann Klarje explored widely in the area and investigated a mountain called Sugarloaf. He anticipated finding a Jellybean Bush in a place so named, but he found only green trees and foliage. Enterprising gentlemen named Ralph and Arthur had established an orchard in thermal belts and grew luscious fruits called apples. The traveler found numerous varieties of the delicious fruit. Ralph’s son Sam and Arthur’s son Garnet had nurtured the growth and the orchard flourished.