Seated upon the cushion of spongy emerald moss blanketing the roots of the massive craggy boulder overlooking the serene glassy pool at the misty forest glen's heart, young Eric Emberhart at first struggled mightily to adequately still his restless mind and body enough to properly enter into the meditative trance state that the patient High Priestess Nyfiel had so gently yet firmly instructed him to do.
Though Eric scrunched his eyes closed with intense concentration until swirling abstract patterns and shapes of prismatic color began to dance and burst across the darkness in his mind's eye, and attempted unsuccessfully to redirect all his mental faculties fully inward for self-contemplation, his hammering young heart still frantically keeping time with the hypnotic notes of birdsong echoing from the ancient trees and the thousands of aimless thoughts endlessly crisscrossing every corner of his imagination made sinking into a profoundly serene and receptive state of communion with the unseen realms seem essentially unreachable, at least for the present moment.
After an interminable amount of time had passed without producing any noticeable changes taking place in his physical perceptions or mental processes, Eric finally had to reluctantly acknowledge, mostly to himself, that he felt not one iota differently in either body or mind than he had when Lady Feywood, Lady Ellara, and himself first arrived at this isolated mist-veiled glen, tucked away like a hidden jewel from the rest of the outside world deep in the sun-dappled heart of the primordial forest.
The melodious birdsong and rustling of unseen creatures meandering through the underbrush still pierced Eric's eardrums just as sharp and jarring as crystalline shards cracking underfoot. Meanwhile, his coltish legs were fast falling asleep, tingling and cramping painfully underneath his folded weight.
Likely sensing the undercurrent of silent yet growing anxiety, nervous self-doubt, and frustrated impatience gradually brewing within her young pupil through some undefinable empathic connection imparted by her spiritual office, the High Priestess Nyfiel soundlessly glided over the grass to come kneel at Eric's side, her footfalls smooth as a wisp of owl-borne feathers drifting on the whispers of the eventide breeze.
The ornately embroidered hem of the druid priestess's moss-hued ritual vestments softly swished through the emerald blades as she moved with lithe elven grace. Once situated, she counseled in a tone brimming with patience and compassion, "Peace now, dear child. Journeying into the inner realms is as much about self-discovery and radical self-acceptance wherever you may find yourself along the winding path as it is about successfully connecting with external esoteric forces."
Her reassuring words washed over Eric's spirit like a soothing cool balm, immediately quieting the last stubborn clouds of doubt still winding their way through his mind and uncoiling the last visceral shreds of tension still that remained entwined inside the fibers of his physical form. He exhaled fully, intentionally releasing the last faint stubborn wisps of resistance from his psyche on the long outward breath.
Bolstered and heartened by the High Priestess's sagacious guidance, Eric resettled into a more comfortable cross-legged pose atop the spongy emerald moss. This time, instead of exerting unnecessary energy fiercely battling the persistent external sensory distractions or vainly struggling to force his mind into a faulty facsimile state of false tranquility, he simply noticed each new thought or physical sensation that spontaneously arose then flitted through the lens of his mindful awareness kindly yet objectively, without self-judgment or unrealistic expectations, before gently returning his focus once more to the circular path of breath continuously flowing through his core with each conscious inhale and exhale.
After several more patient cycles of surrendering fully to the present moment and mindfully maintaining razor-sharp focus solely on the rhythmic rise and fall blooming continually within his physical form, Eric finally felt his inner eye slowly creak open, like the gradual unfurling of a sacred moon lotus flower stretching its delicate petals wide to embrace the luminous golden first light of dawn.
The swirling fathomless dark void that had stretched vast and silent behind Eric's closed eyelids now gradually dissolved away like evaporating morning dew, fading into illusory smoke on the wind. In its stead, materializing through the receding mist, emerged the mouth of an ancient cave with smooth, intricately rune-etched walls of luminous translucent crystal that seemed to emit its own inner radiance.
The resplendent passage called out to Eric wordlessly, resonating on a primal frequency that reverberated through the marrow of his bones. Trusting fully in both his spiritual intuition and the High Priestess's wisdom that his benevolent animal spirit guide awaited somewhere within the prismatic crystalline depths, Eric Emberhart slowly rose to stand, flecks of emerald moss still clinging to the fibers of his trousers.
Then, with head held high and shoulders squared with conviction, he ventured forth into the beckoning dazzling unknown without the slightest shred of trepidation to hold him back, fiercely determined to discover what deeper awakening into his magical birthright these ancient Elven rites might reveal, regardless of whatever inner or outer demons he had to face along the way...
His true inner journey was finally commencing in earnest.