by P. G. Thomas
Chapter 12
Waking early the next day, Alron checked to ensure all five members of the new Earth Guards were present. As he returned to the inn, Lauren came down to join everyone for the first meal. Then, like clockwork, right after it, Mirtza and John, followed by the Dawnfalcons, left to visit Gayne.
As Lauren picked at her breakfast, sipping her bean juice, she looked at Alron, “I have an appointment with my new friends tomorrow, but all of my clothes are old and worn.”
Alron was one of the most skilled Earth Guards, and in his long service, much had been asked of him. Some of the tasks were distasteful, and some he would never repeat to his closest friends. He could track enemies for weeks in a forest, battle a dozen opponents to victory, shoot an arrow farther than most, but of shopping, he knew nothing. At the dinner table the night before, he could sense a change in Lauren’s mood from meeting the new Earth Mothers, and wanting to encourage this new optimism, he gladly offered to take her shopping. By the time they returned, he advised that if she ever wanted new clothes, he would gladly hunt down the finest deer, tan the hide, and sew the dress himself, rather than to be tortured like that again
They ended up visiting about forty stores, buying goods from at least half of them, and at the end of the day, Lauren had six new outfits, two of which were dresses. Gingaar had also tagged along, at Lauren’s insistence, and her reward was three new outfits. When they returned to the inn, Lauren and Gingaar grabbed Fodu, dragging him up to their room so that he could alter their garments.
*******
It was after the midday meal the following day when Pintar went upstairs. Knocking on her door, he advised, “An elf is downstairs asking for you.”
“I’ll be right down, thank you.”
Lauren had taken a long bath that morning so that she could try out all of her new soaps, and now Gingaar was helping her get dressed. They discussed what she should wear, deciding on a simple buckskin dress with a flowered blouse, and her jacket from the bus. On the right side of her blouse, she placed six of the pins that the Earth Mother had given her. Then set the other five pins inside the left breast pocket, so only the ends were exposed, which she covered with an expensive handkerchief she had also purchased. She was uncertain what was going to happen, but if she liked the direction the five were going, she was willing to follow. If she disagreed, she would expose the other pins, changing the direction. She had also purchased a selection of mixed teas to take as a gift. Grabbing her tri-wood staff, she headed down to the street where an open-air coach waited for her. Entering it, Alron and Panry took their positions on the back bumper, and two other Earth Guards stood on the sides of the coach. As it wandered through the streets, Lauren could feel the stares, but today she was without care, as she looked and felt great. They pulled up in front of the Earth Mother’s house, being a large three-story wooden building of simple construction. Walking up to the door, the Earth Guards dismounted, taking up positions on the porch. When a servant opened the door, they led Lauren inside to the large sitting room where the five waited for her.
Arora, pouring tea, had her back to Lauren, and turning, she saw the staff. “Welcome…” she was unable to take her eyes off the tri-wood staff.
“You will have to forgive the old ones, as they sometimes forget where they are,” Nur said, “Please come over here and sit. Would you like some tea?”
“Yes, I also brought you a small gift for your hospitality the other day and for today.”
“Expensive they are. We thank you,” Brook said taking the box, “Please remove your coat as we want you to be comfortable.”
Taking off her jacket, she placed it on the back of a chair, allowing the six pins to glisten in the light.
Brook began, “We have discussed what you told us the day before. We were wondering if we can go over it again?”
“Arora, is there anything wrong?” asked Lauren.
“Your staff, may I examine it?”
When Lauren joined them at the inn, she had left the staff at the table, so none of the five had seen it. She handed the staff to Arora, who then examined it in silence for several minutes, “Where did you get this?”
“One of the first nights camping here, we took refuge under a covered forest. I found it there.”
“Covered forest?”
“Yes, Mirtza took us to find elves. Some of my friends were injured, and he thought they would be able to help. When we went to the forest where they should have been, we found a large forest with a black tarp stretched over it and a deep dry moat around it. It was there that I found it.”
“What did Earth Mother tell you of it?” asked Arora.
“She told me one was Iron Wood but nothing else.”
Arora passed the staff to the other four, “Did you ever ask about it again?”
“I figured that if she wanted to tell me, she would have.”
Fritza, Lindo, and Nur failed to share Arora’s reaction to the staff. However, when Brook saw it last, she said, “She needs to know.”
“Does it be my place?” asked Arora.
All five burst into conversation, “Yes, you need to tell her. To tell her what? Three, not have I seen such before. What do you mean? What are we talking about? Ancient woods they are. You are not making sense. Only in beginning does Mother gift. You are not serious…”
Lauren was unable to keep up with the conversation, as she seemed to be invisible. Clearly, there was a significance about the staff, so pulling the handkerchief from her pocket, she concealed a fake cough. “Please tell me about my staff.” When Brook and Arora looked up, Lauren stuffed the handkerchief back into her pocket, leaving the five pins exposed.
Arora’s eyes went wide, “Earth Mother gifts you all her pins? Why?”
“Gingaar explained that they had importance. That, should I meet other Earth Mothers, she wanted to ensure my words they would hear. You’re the first of the order that I’ve met, so beyond that, I don’t know. Now, why’re you so excited about this piece of wood?”
Arora looked like she had seen a ghost, “Gingaar Huntinghawk? She is her great daughter. Does she have the gift?”
“I believe Huntinghawk is her last name. I didn’t know she was related to Earth Mother. As for the gift, Gingaar says she doesn’t have it. Now, please tell me about the staff.”
“Of Iron Wood,” began Arora, “you know. The second is Sage Wood, Mother’s knowledge. The last is Core Wood, Mother’s power. Only twice has Mother gifted these woods. Earth Mother first and second did receive them, and you now wear their pins. Years great, uncountable, but once again, he magnificent woods are with us.”
“You are sure?” asked Brook.
“Never did I think Core Wood power I will feel. Raw, vast, untamed, creation and destruction both it does be, but tempered by Sage Wood.”
Lauren, taking the staff back, tried to feel what Arora had felt, but to her, it was just wood.
Arora ran her hands through her hair, “I grow uncomfortable with these names. What did Earth Mother proclaim you?”
“Earth Daughter.”
“Fine, Earth Daughter, I am Earth Mother, and this is Earth Mother, Earth Mother, Earth Mother, and this is Earth Daughter.” Arora pointed to Brook, Fritza, Lindo, and Nur in turn.
Lauren looked to Nur, “How do you know to whom the question is asked?”
“We just know. Do not even think about questioning it and accept it. Otherwise, it will drive you mad.”
As Arora began to talk, Lauren leaned the staff against her chair.
“Now, Earth Daughter, caution you need to exercise with Core Wood,” began Arora, but then she suddenly stopped. “Your staff? Where did you put it?”
She reached out, “Its right here,” and the other four saw it appear in her hand.
“How can that be?” asked Brook.
“All three woods unify to shield its appearance,” began Arora, “so not any else can find it should it be lost. Not have I seen such a miracle before.”
“What?”
“When you set the staff down,” translated Nur, “it goes invisible. I guess it is a type of security, so if you ever lost it, nobody would be able to find it, using the power to harm Mother or her children.”
Setting the staff down, she could still see it. They’re probably just pranking me.
“Caution you will need to exercise with Core Wood,” began Arora again. “It is possible that your actions will cause a chain reaction. If too much power shifts, the transfer to compensate can be great for the loss. If too much energy is brought forward, it can move other elements in its wake. It is your to use like you see fit, but you should exercise caution. Now please start your story from where it began.”
Lauren repeated her story, starting with the bus, and several hours later, stopped just before the events of the sword. Just as she was about to repeat Aaro’s story, followed by the naming ceremony and the possession of Eric, a servant walked in, announcing that lunch was ready. When the meal began, the conversation again switched to trivial events in town. When they went back into the front room, Brook asked about the mass graves, so Lauren started her story with their search of the midlander villages, ending with the Royal House fort several hours later.
Most nodded in agreement, but the healing after the capture caused them some concern, “We don’t know how it happened. When I left, I didn’t know what would happen to my brother. Eric and Mirtza, I felt would heal, but in a number of months. John was recovering, but when I came back, even his scars were gone.” Lauren started to speak and then went quiet.
“Tell us as it may help,” Arora said.
“With so many hurt so badly, I was upset. I guess I called to Mother. When Alron showed up the next day, he was angry. He said that I Invoked, but I’m uncertain of what that means. John thought that Gingaar had healed them. I just don’t know.”
Her story had taken the entire day to tell, and when Arora yawned, she said, “Earth Daughter, we shall send a carriage for you tomorrow. I did not expect your story to be so long. There is still much we need to discuss, but this day is almost over.”
“Thank you, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ve one question if I may?” Lauren looked at Lindo and Fritza, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I didn’t know there was any midlander Earth Mothers.”
“Our great families moved into the Newlands and beyond long before the others did,” replied Fritza. “Mother found us and recognized her gift. The same goes for our Earth Guards. I don’t know how many midlander Earth Mothers there are, but if one’s heart is open, and one’s intentions are good, then Mother will accept any with the gift.”
When Lauren returned to the inn, she saw Logan, Zack, and Eric sitting at one of the porch tables. While the past week had gone better than the first, she was still trying to understand what the Earth Mother had told her about her staff. However, the one thing that was still bothering her was Mother. Since the silence was starting to concern her, she went up to her room to think.
Ryan was hoping to talk with Lauren, but when he saw her go up the stairs, he went out, joining the others on the porch where he heard Logan and Zack both laughing. “What’s up?”
“We’re trying to figure out if Eric’s the tin man, the scarecrow, or the lion,” began Logan. “We already know who has the roles of Dorothy,” and then Logan turned to Zack, “and Toto.”
“Dude, that’s so not funny.”
Ryan poured himself a drink, “Explain this to me.”
“Well, Dude, he looks like the tin man, but he acts like a real lion, yet he walks around like the scarecrow, no brain.”
“So he lacks intelligence and emotion. What’s your point?” asked Ryan.
“Didn’t know we needed one,” advised Logan. “Just having some fun, that’s all.”
“If Eric was here, he could defend himself. This Eric, he doesn’t know that you’re making fun of him. He’s defenseless.”
“I’ve seen the Dude fight, and I wouldn’t call him defenseless.”
“Zack, Logan. You both know Eric is your friend. Right now, he doesn’t need you making fun of him. We should be trying to find a way to help him.”
“The Dude is brain dead.”
“No, he’s on auto-pilot,” added Logan.
“You make him sound like a zombie, void of any emotion,” began Ryan.
“Sound familiar, Zack? Compared to you, there are two differences. You could defend yourself, and you wouldn’t go after somebody who was defenseless.”
“Well, when Eric was Eric, he picked on weaker kids.” Logan sensed that the conversation was beginning to sour, “He was the one that started the bounty on John’s glasses, started to call him Harry.”
“When Eric is Eric, then you can make fun of him, if you still want. Right now, we should find a way to help him.”
“Dude, you can stay and help him, but I’m going to help myself to more beer.” Zack left the table, followed quickly by Logan.
“Why do you care?” asked Eric.
“Well, if you’re still in there. Caring is what friends do. I was once in a similar position, trapped in my shell. Friends came by, talked to me. I couldn’t move or acknowledge them, but I heard them. You were one of them that came to visit me in the hospital. You cared about me, so shouldn’t I care about you?”
“Caring is fruitless.”
“Caring is an emotion that makes us human. It’s only through feelings that we learn, grow, understand, and sometimes hurt. All of those emotions that we experience, they define us, creating our characters, giving us dimensions and limitations. A male bear will kill its own offspring to bring a female bear into heat. Animal instincts versus human emotions; what do you think is better?”
Eric’s head started to twitch from one side to the other.
“While bears are one of the top predators, they also have enemies, like wolves that prey on bear cubs. If the male bear, instead of killing its own offspring, protected it, there would be more bears. It would then be unsafe for wolves to hunt bear cubs, and instead bears would kill wolf cubs. Which is better, living in the moment and not caring, or caring about what happens in the future?” Ryan stood, leaving Eric sitting at the table, hoping his words were getting through.
*******
John and Mirtza spent the next three days with Gayne. As a whole, they found John’s theory on the source of magic to be plausible, agreeing that the northern lights were intense at times throughout the year. For John, the next step was to learn how they enchanted the gold.
“The study of magic, as we call it, was started about thirty years ago,” Gayne said, “The Newlands had been opened up, and we were making more contact with the elves. That was when the stories began of magical plants that could heal and such. I was one of several young, intelligent men from the Bright Coast, who went out to see these forests and elves. We wanted to understand what was happening, but the elves had no desire to share their information. Realizing other mysteries may exist, we would never be able to do all that we needed to do by ourselves. So we started a school, as it provided gold for the exploration and free labor. Our approach over the last years has been equally lackluster and amazing. We did manage to find more elf forests, but all we could do was collect samples. We were never able to determine why the forest on one side of a road was average while the other looked anything but.”
“How did you find those forests?” asked John.
“In most cases it was Iron Wood trees. We would climb the tallest hills, looking for the tallest trees. No tree grows taller.”
“And the gold?”
“We lacked progress with plants, especially without the help of the elves. I guess our first lucky break happened by accident. A student, after his first year of school, returned the following year with his family pet, a cat. He had a wealthy girlfriend, who had a small gold charm made into the shape of a cat, which she put on its collar. Before you ask, I have no idea why. She was a girl? It looked cute? We have enough problems understand
ing magic. Maybe when we know it better, we can use it to unlock the secrets of the female mind, but I think both are a long way off. One night when he was playing with the cat, he knocked the charm off the collar, and the cat chased after it. Before he could grab it, the cat pounced on it, swallowing it, and after a few days, the charm exited the cat as one would expect. As the student was trying to clean off the non-gold matter, another cat suddenly appeared under his hand. He was shocked, and when he waved his hand at it again, it reverted to the gold charm. Uncertain of what had happened or why, he took his charm to several of the teachers, and I was present when he made a cat appear. While we were astounded, none of us could explain what happened. If he had not been wearing a platinum ring, we still would not know about the magic in the precious metals. So we developed a new branch of study, examining precious metals. It took us a while to realize there was a relationship between gold and platinum, and to this day, we still have no idea why. We started to experiment with feeding different charms to animals, but you can well imagine the difficulty that we experienced, and some failed badly, in more ways than one. Somebody had the idea to make an amulet. We would then sedate an animal, attaching the amulet to them for varying lengths of time. Then, when we waved a platinum ring over it, the animal would appear.”
John looked puzzled, “Mirtza waved his cloak to change the amulets into animals?”
“Like I said, we are rather new to this. We thought that waving a cloak over the amulets looked more dramatic and impressive. We simply sewed a platinum ring into the cloak.” He shyly looked away from Mirtza, “We did have students to impress, and the cloak looked more inspiring than just the ring.”
“Okay,” John said with a smile.
“Long story short, we had amulets made of everything, sticking them on anything. The best results seemed to be when the amulet was of a similar shape to the item we attached it to. There are great journals back at the school of all that we performed. Amulets that failed to work, we melted down, casting them as jewelry. From that, we found out they would slowly lose their ability to transform.”