The Grove of Druidry was newly formed. No more than a decade old. The scourge of Low-Earth required a hasty formation of man's mightiest and most lively to stop an uprising of endless casualties.
Despite the organizations young age, they held skillful warriors within their ranks. Legends, even. Like the special unit of Seer's that occupied the front of the massive formation preparing for war.
Seer's. They were labeled as such for their intense connection to nature. A connection so deep and profound, many of them could gaze into the future thanks to the Roots of Fate. A supernatural force of nature existing in a plane running alongside the physical world.
Their power was not to be taken lightly. Neither was their announcement of bad omens. It's what brought everyone out in the rain and thunder of a visibly dark day.
"Today, I, Caspien Greencrest, come to you all with a foretelling of the future. Low will become high and blood will fill our oceans-- rivers even. The entrails of your loved ones will be dined on by your neighbors. Madness will be brought to your doorsteps-- IF we do not end the Low Earth Uprising before it begins. I saw it all. It will come by the next full moon if we do not do something on this very day. May all be confirmed by my unit of fellow Seer Druids." The leading Seer looked to his closest confidants.
They all gave a confirming nod and salute by interlocking their fingers like a canopy of tangled branches.
All except one.
Caspien was tall. Well over seven feet with thick bones and a commanding visage seemingly meant for moments like these. He looked over his men at the front and let his oak-wood brown eyes settle on their newest Seer.
He rolled his eyes, "Do you object, Thena?"
Thena was pulled from her daydreams as the Pillar-Oak called her name. He never called her name-- much less looked her way unless it was with contempt. As if he blame her for her father forcing her to join the Seer's.
Thena nervously shook her head, causing her curly locks of hair to sashay across her cloaked shoulders.
"Good. Now pay attention, war is afoot and I'd hate for us to lose precious royal blood." Caspien chastised her kindly.
Thena dropped her head, stiffening as the man beside her let out a wolfish growl.
"You're in formation, you damned weed! Stand tall or I'll rip your throat out." The man snarled. His name was Lucian Peltwalker. He was almost as tall as Caspien and twice as short tempered with a wild mane of curly black and grey hair. Also a talented shape-shifter. Previously he was a bounty hunter, then he started to see glimpses of the future when he howled to full moons.
Thena nodded and stood straighter once more. Caspien continued his speech. Thena's ears caught the sound of something else...
"She never speaks...." Someone whispered among the regular druidic warriors behind her.
"Dumb bramble-brain. If her daddy was anyone else she wouldn't even be cleaning auroch dung from my valley-keep." Someone else whispered.
"The hell is a blind teenage girl going to do in a war anyway?"
"Maybe her father's trying to get rid of her.... so soon after he had to slay his wife too. Perhaps the former Pillar-Oak has gone insane. Thank the rooting that Caspien stepped up."
The problem with Thena being blind was that all her other senses were magnified.Gossip didn't exist behind her back. It was as up close and personal as standard dialogue. Thankfully she had thick skin-- and she wasn't talking about Earthen-Hide Cultivation Techniques!
Pilar-Oak/PO. Caspien finished his speech on a high note, leaving the Grove of Druids in a wild rage of justice and defense of life.
Thena joined the Seer's at the front of the traveling party. Their mounts welcomed them like old friends. Or guardian spirits. Which they were both of.
Caspien bowed to his brown furred owl-bear, Eamon, before mounting up with a proud roar and wave of his sun-sword.
Lucien saddled up beside him on his giant dire-wolf, Hunter. He wasn't the best with names. The two canine brutes howled as lightning split the dark and illuminated their horrific frames.
"Try to stay in human form this time, Lucian. I'd hate to shoot you again-- accidentally of course. Love you." A tan skinned woman covered in tattoos and wolf pelts said as she mounted a horse sized golden wolf-hound with green eyes.
"Love you too Leanna, but if you shoot me again, I won't let the fact that you're my sister stop me and Hunter from turning you into a post-war snack. I don't like that golden rat-hound, Sandy, anyways." Lucian replied from the other side of Caspien.
"Save your violence for Low-Earth " Caspien demanded.
The siblings fell in line, giggling predatorily to eachother. Their relationship was weird. Their mounts gave eachother wicked side eyes from within their horned helms and spiked collars.
Thena mounted her Bull, Titus, and dug her soggy boots into the stirrups anxiously. The beasts striped fur smoothened at her touch. Anxiously, he stamped his bladed hooves into the muddy earth.
"Easy, brother. We've slain Wyrmm colonies in the Cloud-Piercer Mountains. Every full moon we run the south Center-Earth perimeter and slay the Maddened with brute force and felinoid swiftness. We are as formidable as weeds are enduring. Breathe with me. We may be blind, but our vision remains." Thena whispered to Titus.
The eyeless bull sighed, stabilizing and growing calm.
"Now show me your rage!" Titus leapt up on his back- legs and roared
"I reckon your speech was better than Caspien's, miha."
Thena turned at the sound of the familiar voice, "Ranger??"
The old Druid giggled, "Only in rain can I sneak past your nose. You look well, Thena. Strong as your brother, Titus."
"Thank you— but why are you out here?" Thena leaned to the left to take in his scents. Rice crops, spices and sunlight. So different from the others. Supposedly his mother was from High-Earth, making him half Fire-Speaker. Making him a Demi-god. An old one. Even in the shadows of rain, she could feel his heat. It wafted off his uniquely dark skin. It flowed on his accented words.
"I've been deployed just as you have, no?" Ranger answered her question with a question as he rode in on his desert-panther, fire-paw.
"Who cleared you?" Thena asked.
"The Pilar-Oak himself. He said this battle field will need a Demi-god to temper the darkness of Low-Earth. The way I see it, he is right."
Thena could almost hear him wink at the play on words.
Then he keeled over and erupted into a coughing fit.
"Ranger! Ranger, you shouldn't be here. You're sick. You've been in enough battles."
"Just this last one then, miha." Ranger cleared his throat.
"What??"
"DRUIDS!! Our voyage to Low-Earth begins now!"
With a roar for all that is living and green, the Grove of Druids took off in a blur.
Thena couldn't manage a roar as she ran beside her old mentor. She could smell his sickness even in the rain now. And all she could think about was what he kept asking her leading up to this war.
"What do you see in your dreams, miha?"
She always said the same thing. She'd been seeing the same thing for weeks. It's part of why her father— the previous Pilar-Oak, used his final call to get her into the Seer's.
"I see a boy…. with wings."