Whisperwood

And indeed, Ildia had lost him. Though the gnomes would come to commend her for her brave attempt to save their son, she would live on with a guilt that she could not shake, a guilt which would outlast the lives of her mother, the gnomes and Nalme: she would live on with a guilt that made it impossible for her to ever again put into words what had transpired that night.

However, that would not come to mean that this tale was forever lost. Quite the contrary; it had only just begun. For what truly transpired that fateful night had not led to the young gnome's demise: it had brought about the start of a new life.

The half-elven girl had hid the babe in a cave, deeming it the safest possible place to hide. She huddled at its entrance, in fright of the wolves at least as much as of the darkness behind. Trembling, Ildia peered into the darkness, hoping the wolves would pass and the party would live. When finally the poor child had found the will to convince herself to pick up Ermic and return to the camp, she was met by the intimidating sight of a large brown bear emerging from the shadowy cavern. Rather than directly devour the gnome, the beast stepped over him and sent a monstrous roar echoing into the obsidian night. Ildia ran, abandoning the baby to a fate which she could only imagine to be horrible. When finally she had mustered the courage to return, she found bear and gnome gone, only his blanket left behind as a relic of Ermic Longleaf's existence; a blanket she has saved to this day to remind her of her deed.

Though the little one was presumed lost, and this was true in a sense, he was far from dead. Quite the contrary, the bear who had taken him away had lost her cub to the winter, and adopted the gnome as a suitable replacement. Thus she raised him; not to be a gnome, but to be a beast.

Several years went by, and what the gnome lacked in posture was more than compensated for by his veracity. During his thirteenth year, his adopted mother fell ill. Finally, to spare her the torment of a prolonged death, he mustered the strength to slay the one he loved. As he had come to see fit for every one of his kills, so did he treat her: he ate her, for undevoured prey was akin to wasteful death. For the first time, he took a trophy, her left upper canine.

This he wore around his neck, and her fur over his body. Soon, the halflings who lived in Sleepyhollow would come to regard him as a figure of myth; "the Little Bear", "the Whisper in the Woods", "the Wild One". Eventually, these stories spread and drew the attention of the druidic circles.

After much consideration, they decided to send a druid of the moon, 'Alghtwin', to educate this wild gnome. Alghtwin was an elf of age beyond reckoning, one who spent most of his days in the guise of a brown bear. In this form, he easily won the gnome's respect. For several years, Alghtwin would teach the little gnome. He taught him about the wilds, about nature, philosophy and ethics. He explained to him what the civilized people needed, and the natural order of things. He taught him to be kind but bound to his protective instincts. 'Whisperwood', as he had finally come to call him, proved an eager and talented student and a promising druid. Thus, after only five years, he was accepted into the druidic circles and charged with the forest's protection. He became a fierce guardian, but also one of great compassion.

He lived like a beast, but a gentle one. Whisperwood understood that his charges would hunt to eat, and tolerated the halflings doing the same. At times, he would lead lost children out of the woods to the edge of the village, though he never approached it directly. Twice, however, he mauled and ate those who had come to hunt for sport rather than for sustenance. Those who tended to leave their spoils to rot came to avoid the woods. Woodcutters too found themselves tolerated, so long as they stuck to the outer forest, and touched not the great trees that made up the core of the woodlands.

During his twenty-second year, Whisperwood came across a halfling girl not much younger than he. 'Lilei Hearthshovels', she was called, and she gathered mushrooms for a living: a simple life providing the halflings with a type of food of which they were especially fond. So enamoured was he with the beautiful halfling girl that after weeks of hesitance, Whisperwood approached her not to chase her off, but to learn more about her. And indeed did he learn. He learned to speak her tongue, to cook, to joke..

.. to love.

Lilei succumbed to a fever two years after they had met, leaving Whisperwood once again alone. He grew bitter and reclusive, and started obsessing over the medicinal herbs in the forest. If only he had known how to apply these and treat her, she would have lived. Such was his folly, such his regret. Their tale is still told in Sleepyhollow, though oft with contempt for the wild gnome.

On his twenty-sixth, the woods starting decaying. What had been his home for all of his years grew hostile. The animals entered a malign rage or fell deadly ill. Whisperwood could not cure the beasts, and the halflings started avoiding the forest altogether, believing that its protector had been corrupted by grief. Slowly, the ground came to smell of death, the trees of rot, the beasts of blight. Eventually, the land grew so ill that the dead refused to stay in the beyond.

Finally, along with the beasts, Lilei too rose from the grave. Upon seeing her half-devoured cadaver rise with nothing but hatred of the living like so many of the beasts he had put back down, he succumbed to desperation: he abandoned his task. Whisperwood was not strong enough to save the woods which he was tasked to protect, not strong enough to cure the blight, not strong enough to lay Lilei to rest. Thus, he set out, so that he could find what strength he missed in the world beyond the canopies.