Ulma slowly stood up from the ground with a loud groan of pain. This was the tenth or eleventh time she had been knocked to the floor from sparring with the grove guardian Teldor. Who was a hulking behemoth of a satyr with two huge antlers coming out from his helmet.
Around now had to be the time that the third year would begin and she felt like she had gotten nowhere in the soon span of a year. She felt like she was stuck in mud and couldn't move forward, but only sink further and further down struggling against the mud that was eating her slowly.
The nightmares had returned, but far from bad like they had been, but the worst part was that they didn't only depict her horrible child trauma, but now they also depicted nightmares of horrible things happening to her friends and mentors.
She kept waking up on a sandy beach and seeing her friends dead. The only one that never died fully was Samuel, he always kept coming back. But every time it was like a hollow husk begging to be killed.
It made her fear sleeping. But Revana the goddess of Nature helped soothe her spirit many times. "Come child, sleep under the willow." She had urged Ulma to do and every time it helped her sleep.
But today was another of her physical fighting days as she fought against the strongest guardian. It was a large demi plane where the goddess Revana had built a nature paradise, where rare creatures existed as if they were common ones. Several biomes specifically dedicated to those creatures existed and Revana tended to the place that was her sacred garden.
There were several of her highest commanding servants that acted as guardians of this place whenever she was absent and Teldor was one of them. He was the one that had urged her to become stronger physically as well.
Ulma had rejected the idea until Revana had commanded her to do so. There was no point in arguing with the goddess so Ulma simply went along with it, but she had started to hade getting so many bruises and cuts that hurt. Although she could always heal herself quite easily it only made the pain worse in the long run.
She stood once more tall and proud and summoned a wooden quarterstaff from the floor. "Alright!" She exclaimed and Teldor quickly gripped his own quarterstaff and started advancing on her again, attacking her from every side.
A few more times beaten and Teldor had her perform physical exercise instead which left her drenched in sweat from all the pushups she had done. Trisphyra had never pushed her this hard, and Ulma remembered all the times she had complained when Triss was being though.
Now it seemed like a complete vacation in comparison to this brute force training she had to endure. She had thought about giving up many times, but every time she was close to quitting she remembered how stupid she had been.
She didn't dare to go back, afraid that Samuel and her friends wouldn't accept her back. It made her stay because she had nowhere else to go. But it also filled her heart with pain and sorrow and terrible regret.
Ulma was about to go rest for the day when the bridge into the paradise opened and Revana came home. Many of the creatures came running to meet her and greet her, wanting to bask in the light of a goddess.
But Ulma was tired and walked to the willow feeling sick instead. She sat down and felt the tears roll as the mist slowly crept in. "What is wrong child!" Revanas voice suddenly spoke from behind the willow and it made Ulma jump but Revana quickly walked around.
She was a goddess that stood at least three meters tall with her hair that changed with the seasons, green, brown, red, blonde. With twigs and sticks woven into her hair and her face that was always young like a fae creature.
Her eyes changed color as well depending on her mood. Bright when she was happy and darker color when she was angry, the goddess now looked worried and slowly sat down next to Ulma before putting an arm around her and pulling her in.
Ulma gladly leaned on Revana and sniffed a few times. "I miss them!" She said after a few moments of calming down. "I understand child, I miss my friends and family too." Her words made Ulma look up at the understanding goddess.
"The celestial war killed so many of my friends and family." Revana sighed and looked over the many groves in her plane. "But do not worry, you will meet them again one day!" She said but Ulma stood up in anger.
"Will I really? I cut my connections with them.. I left like an idiot, because you told me I had too! Here I am a year later and I have got almost nothing to show for it! Maybe I am not worth the trouble?!" She angrily yelled at the goddess that put one of her large hands on the side of Ulmas face.
"I promise you will meet them one day. They will be just fine without you for some time!" The goddess said with a smile but it didn't reassure Ulma because of all the nightmares she had been having.
"If you truly believe you have nothing to show for it then you are very wrong... you have made great strides in controlling your power and making all of nature accept you! You are a great queen of nature in making."
"Trissphyra was a good teacher, but she wasn't the perfect teacher that you needed. Although connected to nature, she is the child of one of my cousins - whose power differs from my own. They are protectors that can use nature yes... but their power doesn't originate from nature alone. But of the moon."
Revana looked up at the three moons that were closer than anything Ulma had ever seen before coming to this place. One could almost reach out a hand and touch the surface, or at least thats what the feeling was.
"Luna'Celesia!" Ulma mumbled to herself as she looked at the white moon. "So Triss is like me? Just another goddess?" She asked in curiosity now that her anger had subsided and Revana gave her a smile. "Yes and no!"
"She was blessed by the goddess of the white moon and thus became like a second mother to Triss. But you were not blessed by me! You were blessed by nature itself!" Revana turned her head to look at Ulma.
"I am the goddess of nature, but nature is as original as the cosmos or magic... it is its own thing, and that own things chose you to be Queen." Revana smiled proudly at Ulma who couldn't help but blush.
"Your power will grow to almost match my own one day, but the difference between us is that you will be allowed to interfere directly. I can send my guardians and protect nature whenever chaos is involved, but otherwise I haveto let nature itself decide."
"Perhaps nature decided it wanted someone that could interfere in the world of mortals where I am not allowed." Revana sighed and Ulma took one of her hands with her own. "I find it silly that you cannot interfere, but I suppose I can understand why."
Revana chuckled at her words. "You have a good heart! Never forget it. Because it will be your greatest strength, balancing logic and feeling when it comes to nature is quite important after all!" Revana stretched her arms out and took in the sight of her own plane.
"I just hope he can forgive me." Ulma said and grew quiet again.
Revana chuckled, "I don't think there is much to forgive, he is in a simillar position to yourself after all!" She gave Ulma a wink and Ulma quickly looked at her excitedly. "What do you mean?"
Revana held a finger over her mouth, "I cannot tell you, otherwise Sentinel will be quite angry with me!" Her words made Ulma roll her eyes.
"Right... Sentinel, the one that punishes interfering gods..." She sat back down with a sigh. She very well understood some parts of gods now being allowed to interfere, Sentinel was the god of balance after all, and he would keep the balance at all cost.
Thats why he had been given the strongest power of all the other gods by the allfather Lithor. So that no god could go against his judgement. He was uncorruptable and steadfast according to what Ulma had learned.
Apperantely he was also quite good at making the god equivalence of good drinks. Not that Ulma ever intended to find out what that meant. Soon enough Ulma was deep asleep and Revana walked away, leaving the half elf to her rest.
Teldor walked up to his goddess and knelt. "I mean no offence my lady, but when are you going to tell the child the truth about her friends?" He dared look at his goddess and saw the pitch black eyes and the tears that started flowing.
"My dear Teldor! I do not think I have the heart to do so... I am afraid she will end up hating me and leave this place before her training is complete. That cannot be allowed to happen!"
"You are not allowed to tell her anything! If she must come to hate me, then let it be after her training is complete." Revana sighed and overlooked the long valley her plane extended into.
Suddenly she was hit by a familliar feeling and looked over her shoulder... "No! That can't be! You're supposed to have fallen..." She said and tears started running like a small river as her eyes turned white.
In her godly eyes she saw a humanoid creature surrounded by a bright white light. "Cousin Bright!" She held a hand over her mouth and felt her knees give way as she was left crying on the floor with her guardians surrounding her to see what was wrong.
Needless to say they were quite surprised when they saw she was crying tears of joy.
"The defender graces us with his presence again, the chaos hunter." She mumbled as she started whiping away her tears with a smile and turned to where Ulma was resting. It was now more important than ever that she continue and complete her training.