Act 1: Rest.
After a few more minutes of running we slowed down, as the deers were out of breath. "We should rest old man." I told him as I saw a small clearing near a pond with many of those water-tubers poking out of the water.
"I. . . Alright we rest." The old elk sounded tired while the other deers already caught their breath. I unmounted the elk as he started drinking from the pond while his daughter ate from the sparse grass in the clearing. As I harvested what I could to make a meal, the girls helped.
"Tell me old man, do your people have magic?" I asked him as I pulled my third tuber from the pond, they were bigger than the ones in the river.
"We do, the females have their magic of speaking to the earth to know where to move, when the land starts to become bare." The old elk said as he stopped drinking. Isn't that more instinct than magic? I thought as I asked him another question.
"And of the males?" I asked as I moved out from the pond, my lower body and arms steaming. I then moved towards the camp the girls had started to build standing just infront of an unlit campfire.
"We males have what we call the 'Strike of the elk father' It is a powerful attack letting us channel the strength of our ancestors, of the fathers before us. Into our antlers, but it shortens our life, sapping our vitality for each strike." I nodded that actually explains how one warrior can protect an entire herd, as small as it is.
"Thank you old man, now I'll show you my magic, I call it Fire" and with a strike of stones, a burst of blue flames sparked to life giving us heat, lighting the dark forest.
The elk and his daughters were awed by it as I started cooking on the fire making a veggie stew with very thin slices of dried meat, not wanting them to know what they would eat. "I call this stew. It is made of mushrooms, clover, tubers, and flower petals."
I told the deers as I served them their first hot meal in bowls of wood. "Cool it a little before eating." I told them while showing them how to by blowing on my stew before I drank and ate from my bowl.
"Ohh! This iis amazing! Good~" The deers liked it while the old elk stayed quiet happily eating his.
"Can you really not change shape like my sisters do?" I asked them, I'm not sure if magic in this world was universal or softly genetic, I needed to be sure.
"No, that gift is for the small kin of the earth." The elk elder said as he motioned for me to give him more and I did, good thing I was able to make large batches even with my clay cauldron.
"Small kin?" Spark asked as she ate from her own bowl.
"It's what I call the smaller folks, that are friendly to my people, like you rabbit-folks." The elder elk said simply as he laid down, satisfied with his meal.
Act 2: Forest father.
After an hour of rest we continued, as we did I felt something, as the trees held still, the light within the forest grew darker. "Old elk, do you feel that? The trees, they've grown still."
The old elk stopped followed by his daughters, he looked toward what I think was his eldest. "The Forest-father seems to have noticed us, do not worry rabbit hero, this is a blessing among us who dwell in his forest." said the eldest deer daughter.
I nodded and we continued. "Should I use my magic? Predators fear my fire, and it would help us travel through this dark." The elk was quiet as we walked slower now as the forest was much darker.
"Does it sap your vitality much like my magic?" He asked, I heard worry in his voice. As I felt pride and shame in his essence.
"It does not, it only requires my strikers and wood." As I said that I used my ember stick, and lit up a blue fire torch, that brightly gave light to the forest.
We continued and as we did I felt eyes watch upon us all around, just beyond my light. Then a powerful voice spoke "Are you the one the old snake called the woodcrafter?"
The elk stopped as the other deers did the same, then they bowed their heads. "We greet you Father-forest." The deers said as the old elk stayed silent.
The forest spirit took the form of a wooden elk twice the size of the elder I sat upon. "I am Lazir, Father-forest, I have come to find the people of my sisters." I said honestly fearful of the consequences of lies.
"I know, the river had told me you would come. . . tell me, why would I let such a dangerous beast within my forest?" He said his eyes upon my fire, and upon the gear in which I coated myself with.
I smiled as I took a handful of white dust from my pack and poured it slowly upon the land, the elk was confused by my action. "For I am no beast but a human, and I brought with me a gift, bone from a cursed beast, purified by my fire and turned to bone-ash."
I felt it as the land of the forest, ate the bone ash I poured every grain of it. The place became quiet as I felt contemplation from the forest spirit. Then the tree started their movements the sounds of the forest back.
"I accept your gift and am willing to give two boons before I leave." I smiled at my success, but when I looked around everyone I saw only the deers understood the forest spirit and they looked at me hoping.
"Tell me where I can find the closest rabbit herd and the closest young elk training in your forest." I felt happiness from the deers, as I looked directly into the ember eyes of the forest spirits avatar.
"The closest herd of rabbits are an hour south from here at your current speed and the closest Elk willing to take on wives is west from here a day of travel away." I nodded telling this to my party as the forest spirit walked away dissolving into the forest.
I mounted off the Elder elk and my sisters followed. "Thank you for guiding us Elder." I said bowing to the Elder elk he looked at me and then bowed himself.
"It's been a pleasant time, young hero." He was smiling as he raised his head high, and turned around but before they left I took a rope bag from my basket bag.
"Here elder Elk. It's dried fruit. Just bite it open to eat if you want something sweet." I said, tying it around his thick neck.
"Thank you for the gift." And with that and the girls hugging and saying their goodbyes, the deers and elder elk left towards the west while I and my sisters walked towards the south, slowing just to make them their own torches.
Act 3: Forest-rabbits.
The forest was much more beautiful, in the light of my flames it showed many plants we had missed in the darkness and haste of our movement. "Do you girls know of this?"
I asked as I kneeled and looked at much growing in moss covered rotting fallen old tree, that were large enough to stop us in our walk. "Sorry brother, but I've never seen that before." Ash said the other girls agreed.
"Hello, do you understand me?" I spoke to it but gained no answer, much like the other plants this one doesn't have a spirit I can talk to.
"You sounded like the rocks being cracked open. . . did it speak to you?" Tinder asked as she kneeled next to me looking at the mushroom.
"Unfortunately no, it doesn't have a spirit for me to talk to." I said, shaking my head.
"Can we go now?" Amber asked, her mouth turned and frustration in her voice.
I nodded, taking my flint knife and taking a sample of the mushroom, Tinder did the same. "Let's go." I said as we walked around the large fallen tree. I didn't have any tools to climb it and I wouldn't risk scaling it barehanded or with grass ropes and flint knives.
"Wonder what they'll be like?" Spark said as we walked over the rotted branches and leaves of the fallen tree.
"Mother called them distant kin, so I believe they'll take us in no matter what." Ash said her voice confident as she pressed on the forest path.
"They'll definitely take us! I swear they'll make me a warrior when it happens." Amber said bravely as she puffed her furred chest outwards.
"Hopefully they'll take me as a crafter. I like foraging, but doing that all day would be dreadful." Said Tinder as she looked around for more of the red-yellow mushrooms.
The group quieted as we walked, and then I felt they're waiting for something. "Vivi, how about you? Care to join a rabbit folk herd?" Vivi was walking closest to me as we continued her nose, always twitching seemingly vigilant of other predators.
"Maybe, before my pack changed, we were friendly with the herds in the forest. . .but it might be better for me not to, I think I'll leave outside the herd only going inside when invited." I nodded. I understood her fear of becoming cursed again, something we wouldn't try even with my ability to cure her again.
"How about you brother?" Spark asked as she held my left hand making me look down on her. I looked into her caramel eyes and Cinnamon Furred face.
"I'm not sure, I might become a sage for the herd or mystic." The girls were confused by the new words I said, this was normal and why being a sage fits.
"A sage is a person that knows many things and can be asked questions that most people won't know, how to answer and a mystic are those able to talk to spirit and able to do magic to solve problems." I answered and they seemed to understand quickly.
"The mystic sounds like the shamans some elders become when they gain the ability to talk to spirits." Ash said as we pushed through a wall of sticks.
"Mom, told us about it in a story of the 'elder who found fruits'." I was interested that they already had the job I wanted.
"Can you tell the story while we're walking?" Ash nodded as she told of the story of an elder lost while she foraged, but then with the whispers of the trees, and with her gifting them with a song she was given their fruits and way back home.
"Good story sister." We stopped as those words freezed us and made us look up, then with a jump five rabbit-folks popped out from the ground covered in dried leaves.
We immediately took formation, me in the front while the girls locked side by side behind me and Vivi took my side. Our spears pointed towards them. "Good." the one in front said her face was visible with the fire.
"Your light was hard not to notice, we're from the herd you're looking for." The rabbit-folk woman said as she removed her leaf cloak, she was armored with polished red-brown wood, her chest, legs, and arms covered with wooden plating.
Her face masked with wood, and her hand held a wooden club with a polished stone ax head. "I'm the head warrior." he said, her voice commanding. "Follow us will lead you to our herd lands." And we did follow them as they led us into a path covered by sticks and leaves.