Ashar's Tale

Story Night, 3/4/04

As the wind of time ever gnaws at life’s stone, ages pass from flesh to bone as do those lives and stories that were given life within.  Some fade in the wind like sand and dust, swept away without thought in the storm, but others pass on and on, ever etched from stone to stone, and carried though the winds of time, a gleaming window open to the forgotten past where we danced with gods and knew naught but light.

Alanashe Delinda smiled as the two elves before him embraced together in the ritual of marriage, most blessed of them all in the eyes of blessed Alyssa, whom delighted in rebirth and renewal, part of the Great Cycle of Nature and Life.  The High Priest had presided over all parts of the ritual, from the gathering of a single flower of every kind found in their home of Feladan to the exchange of polished elm rings, handcrafted by the man and wife from dead branches found in the Forest Home.  Life mingles with death, and both continue ever on.  The Lady of the Leaves smiles on those who rejoice in the earth and the trees, on those who bring forth life to continue on as lifes end is doomed follow.  Leading them to a hill within sight of the sea, with their hands they planted in the ground a seed of their ring tree.  Blessed be those marriages which bring forth life both to nature and elf-kind.  Light shine on the land of trees, the jewel of the Lady of Leaves.

For years Alanashe had worked up among the ranks of the Lady of Leaves, ever since his service with the Elvish Military.  Unlike most of his peers who chose to man the fragile walls of the Forest Home, he chose the Great Cathedral of Alyssa, curiosity drawing him to find faith with life, and communion with nature.  The day his service ended, he joined the Church as a Tree Tender, taking care of the elms and oaks and cedars and trees of every land that graced the grounds and hid the delicate structure itself.  For thrice his army service he tended those trees, nurturing them to heights rarely seen, unknowingly nurturing also his natural gift with nature and the forces of life.  A humble one, he did not even ask to become an Acolyte of Nature until he had raised thirty years of wood, and when the priests touched his head and felt for his link with nature, with the heart, they drew back amazed, for his faith and might dwarfed their own.  In that moment, they brought him into the great marvel of granite and oak, and before the Mahogany Altar, he bound his soul and his life to that of the Lady of Leaves.

After only a decade of service, Alyssa’s Prodigy swore again, this time not to give his life to nature, but to use his life to spread and nurture and shepard the Forest , to heal corruption and to defend the land until his last breath.  Chosen of Alyssa, for nigh a century the Forest of Feladan was a wonder of the world, beautiful beyond what man could conceive.

Then the Gods were eclipsed by the Scaled Wing, as Istara’s Winged Children crafted a great civilization of stone, and nature began to fade before the gems and stone of the Dragon Home.

Alanashe, at the end of an old life among the old, was reflecting upon the glory of the Cycle: of Nature, of Life, and of Death when the first Dragon landed.  As many of the elves bowed before him, he bowed his head in mourning, as his communion with his god gave him foresight for what would come.  He saw the Worship of Dragonkind supplant the gods, and the forests he had tended with Alyssa’s disciples grow wild and desolate.  He beheld Alyssa’s name falling from Holy to fond, and from fond to fading, and from fading to forgotten.  He beheld the trees of the Cathedral torn down to create a great temple of gigantic proportions to the new gods, and the altar before which he stands carved with images of the Dragon. 

Slowly walking outside, he took the seed of the Mahogany tree from which Alyssa’s Altar came, and buried it in a small box of stone.  As he stood, a great shadow fell over him.

“Life mingles with death, and both go ever on.  The Cycle continues on, between rebirth and return, and ever will Alyssa smile upon it, and those of us who maintain it.”

Thus did the Age of Dragons take hold in the world.

Ages fade, and that which was within is sometimes lost, but with the Laments end, and the Return of hope, perhaps the Gods will smile upon us once more?