The black lion

Chapter 6

The night is Elunia's favorite moment, the silence offered by the night mantle, the stars shining in the sky and the moon at the top, an incredible celestial spectacle, a cooler climate and almost absolute tranquility.

It's not that she doesn't like the company of others, but as a Druid she prefers the company of nature spirits and it's hard to feel them when she's around people.

So when night comes, Elunia usually goes out and walks through the forest enjoying the silence and the feeling of the spirits around her.

Too bad, the nights had stopped being moments of peace for her for a few days now. Without warning the spirits of nature began to get restless, for those not initiated in the druidic arts this is not noticeable, but for a Druid master with centuries of experience it is as if someone was constantly shouting right next to her ears.

The problem here is that she doesn't know why, nature spirits are less communicative than what people usually believe, their language is complex to understand and they often prefer to remain silent.

She cannot hope to understand them either, the nature spirits are as old as the world itself and omnipresent, she, though long-lived and powerful, cannot hope to understand beings like these more than they allow her to understand.

So she can only suffer in silence feeling their agitation, hoping that at some point they will deign to give her even a small clue as to why they put themselves in this unprecedented state in Elunia's experience.

While she continues to fulfill her work as a Druid, helping the inhabitants of the forest as well as the forest itself.

Something that must be done, because for centuries the elven Druids have been fewer and fewer. The reason for such a decline does not have much to do with mystical issues, but rather social ones, after all to be a Druid one must be trained from childhood and is only truly considered a Druid until adulthood, with the advancement of society many Elves stopped seeing Druids as a necessity.

And she can't blame them, nowadays they have weapons made of strong metals to protect themselves, easy access to magic that once didn't exist in the form of potions and enchanted items. In addition, with the advancement of society, mortals can now easily build their own houses, without the need to beg the spirits of the trees to allow them to make their trunks their home.

It's sad to think about it, but the Druid profession is one that is dying, and Elunia may be part of the last generations.

One more proof of how little they are necessary is that during this trip the people required more of her experience as elders of her people and as healers than her Druidic magic, the only thing that needs it is the forest and unfortunately that is not enough to attract to young people who wish to learn and become Druids in the future.

Elunia let out a heavy sigh as she thought about the sad fate that the future holds for her profession. She looked at the night sky covered in stars and with the full moon shining overhead. "Maybe... If I had children, I could teach them." She whispered to herself. a habit she had developed after spending so much time traveling alone.

She is certainly old, by elven standards she is even a complete old woman, but Druidic magic has kept her relatively preserved and she is definitely still fertile, the problem would be clearly finding some man with whom to conceive life.

Her appearance has earned her compliments from non-elven races, but for the most part the elves see her for what she is, an old woman, apart from other old and already infertile elves, she would not really attract the attention of any man.

Again, she let out a sigh, this time of disappointment, she decided to abandon that idea, and she also assumed that it would be selfish to have children just so that they could have the profession that she chose for them.

Before she could continue thinking about some other things trying to distract herself from the agitation of the spirits, she could hear something completely unusual in the forests of Alfheim, the sound of a horse's hooves hitting the ground.

Confused and alert, she took her staff in hand, began gathering Druidic energy at its tip, ready to release some kind of magic in case they were bandits of some kind.

The sound approached at a pace that showed that the horse was not running, but it was not exactly walking either, an in between which made it clear to her that whoever it was was not so desperate, but at the same time not so calm. She lowered her staff a little.

But it was when she finally saw the horse and its riders that she lowered it completely, immediately recognizing the inhabitants of her town, the young Lireahil and her father Ahren, both of whom, upon seeing her, stopped the horse and got off it immediately.

"Elunia!" They shouted together, running towards her. When she looked at them more closely, she could immediately notice their physical condition: dirty, smelly, with bags under their eyes. They had hardly slept or taken breaks, and as soon as they got off, the horse seemed to let out sounds of relief, making her notice that it was They had been pushing the horse to his limits.

"Lireahil, Ahren, what are you doing here?" She asked immediately, preferring not to get lost in useless questions. Her long life has taught her that when you see people you know act strangely, it is best to ask directly instead of going around the bush.

"You must return with us to the village immediately!" Lireahil began to speak, her tone was fast and the Druid had trouble understanding what she said.

"It's important, Elunia, we explained it to you along the way, but the sooner we return the better, this is what the destiny of our entire kingdom is about!" The girl's father said as quickly as the latter and almost as incomprehensible.

Again, Elunia knew that it was best not to ask unnecessary questions, she knew Ahren before he was even born, the same for Lireahil, since she helped her mothers in their birth.

"Okay, okay, let's go back then," said the woman. "Bring the horse closer, if we must return immediately, then it would be best to do so by magical means.

She proposed, to which Lireahil quickly went to look for the horse, approaching her.

With everyone now close enough, Elunia hit her staff on the ground and using Druidic energies she asked the spirits of the trees to allow them to travel through their roots and they allowed her.

Thus, the three elves and the horse were swallowed by the earth as if they had fallen into water and for several minutes they were unable to see anything other than the greenish sap of the roots of the mother tree.

This is a Druidic magic that only works in Alfheim because in reality Alfheim is truly a titanic forest composed of a single tree, at the heart of the kingdom is the well-known mother tree, a titanic tree that rises by hundreds and hundreds. of meters and whose roots run thousands and thousands of kilometers, each tree in the kingdom is nothing more than an extension of the mother tree, even those that are clearly of different species, and as such traveling through the gigantic roots of the mother tree is possible for the druids. like Elunia.

Although it is not a trip as fast as the magical teleportation that some rare magicians know how to use and it does not leave them as clean either, because after several minutes traveling they emerged from the ground right in the center of their town covered in the sap from the roots.

And as for how they are alive despite having traveled through the sap that has a lot to do with the use of the spirits of the air to allow them to maintain their breathing long enough to finish the journey, Elunia knows that many Druids have died traveling through the sap. by forgetting to first call on the spirits of the air and allowing them to hold their breath for longer than normal.

Elunia quickly removed the sap from her eyes and as soon as she did she looked at the town in confusion. High wooden barricades had been erected around the entire town, preventing easy access to any invaders.

That was surprising in itself, but what surprised him most were the spirits, they are especially agitated in the town... But not in a negative way, they seem to be happy, like children dancing with happiness.