Once

Chapter 4

Briar was so confused as to what was happening. The next thing she knew, the door to Rylan's cottage was thrown open and a huge man stepped through the threshold. Rylan was not what Briar was expecting. This Troll was huge in stature, but not in width. It was more that he was a tree that came to life. His limbs were dark gray branches with leaves for fingers instead of actual fingers. There was no skin on him, just bark and foliage. His legs resembled roots that stretched into the ground. Wait, not into the ground, literally in the ground. His feet disappeared into the floor beneath him, with the ground moving around the stumps like liquid. 

"The Dreamweaver, you say?" Rylan's voice was deep, almost scratchy. The three nymphs looked at him and nodded. "Can someone explain to me what is going on?" Briar asked, getting a look from Felicity. "Come in, wipe your feet", Rylan scoffed as he turned toward the inside of the house and left the door open for the four women to walk through. 

Briar stepped into the cottage and was astounded at how different it looked inside. There was no roof, sunlight streamed into the kitchen, or what Briar thought might be a kitchen. There were trees scattered around the room that soared towards the open roof, with birds chirping high above, some even flying from the trees to the ground. The amount of greenery that surrounded them confused Briar because from the outside, the cottage looked like a normal house, small, but exactly what she would have thought a cottage would look like. So the inside was definitely something to behold. The kitchen was off to the side, with cabinets and countertops created from the wood and branches around it. All of the furniture was made from either foliage or trees, and Briar noticed that the inside was a bit humid. It almost felt and looked like they were in a greenhouse. 

"Alright," Rylan sat down on at a table near a window, his finger branches molding into the table before him. "Tell me what you know," he motioned for Briar to sit at the chair across from him. What she knew? She didn't know anything. "Rylan, Briar knows exactly one thing: that she is sitting in a chair." Willow said, her sarcasm dripping from her lips. Rylan rolled his eyes at Willow. "I mean," he grunted, "tell me about your dream, Weaver." 

"Before I do," Briar asserted, "can you four please tell me what a Dreamweaver is? And what the fuck is going on?" She was upset now, not getting answers right away ate at her patience. The three nymphs eyes grew wide at her words, but eventually they relented. Felicity waved her hand and suddenly, she was about the same height as Briar, clothed in a light sage green dress with flowers in her braided hair. Briar was caught off guard by the sudden change of appearance, but at this point everything today had been so weird to her, she just decided to go with it. 

"Long ago," Felicity began before being cut off by Willow. "Not this again."

"She needs to know how everything started and how we got here today." Felicity quipped. 

"Maybe start with 'Once upon a time'", Gwen commented and Briar jumped because she almost forgot Gwen was with them. By this time, both Willow and Gwen had changed into the human-forms like Felicity. 

"Good Lyr, can I please tell our history the way I was taught?" Felicity exclaimed, putting her hands on the table. Willow crossed her arms and relented, while Gwen rested her chin in her hands, ready for the story. 

"Long ago, there were four realms: Aetheria, Novaria, Creatia, and Luminae. The four were harmonious at first, with Aetheria being the governing realm, Novaria being the realm for all agriculture and drink, Creatia being the realm for all creativity to flow and Luminae being the realm that harnessed the energy from the sun to produce energy for all four realms. These were called the Radiant Epoch. Each realm had a High Sovereign, with the entire world being governed by a Supreme Chancellor.