The Druid [on hold]

Druid: Freedom

"It is now my sister's, Death's, turn to teach.  She will show you the final steps of your learning, and she will show you the beginnings of your first."

Derek opened his eyes.  He was back in his cell.  The cold stones' cracking that he had not heard cried out to him.

"No more!  Free us from this suffering, Druid!  Man has Erred here!  Man has Erred!"

Derek blinked and let his vision clear.  The pain returned to his fragile form, but he felt it not.  He felt a great loss in this very room.  This was no longer a cell of his imprisonment, it was a tomb.

In front of him, where the plant was, now crushed and covered in a muddy foot print, hovered a shadow.  It held a feminine form.  It was both relieving and frightening at the same time.  Derek fought both the urge to run in fear and the urge to embrace this woman in exhilaration.  She said nothing.  She had no need.  Derek understood who, what and why she was here.

There were no words spoken, but there was understanding gained in the mud covered crushed form of Derek's flower.  Death's power was only granted to her through time.  The passing of all things.  But the understanding that its passing will bring about the first step of something more.  The last step of a life and the first step of another.

Derek looked at her.  He looked at the mysterious, all encompassing shadow that was Death, and he nodded.  She smiled and faded.

This life, a simple and short one at that, was ended too quickly.  He knew it was just a means of his learning.  But it was a sacred life.  One that was ended by accident, so no blame could be declared.  No true fault could be accused.  But Derek was back in his own body.  And he could blame.  He could throw fault.  He still had emotion, and SOMEONE had destroyed the life he gave his own to create.  And he knew who did it.  That same muddy foot print that had first brought in the seed.

He whispered, "Make me whole."  He felt the grass tens of feet below him surge.  He felt the roots of an old tree, dying tree creak and groan and reach for him.  The stone cracked.  The cell shook.  The wind howled.

He felt an itch on his head.  Where his ears used to be.  Flesh weaved itself into shape.  Nerves grew out of nowhere.  His mouth, vacant for many years now had fullness of a tongue once again.  His bones twisted, cracked, shattered, and reformed back into perfect form.  His muscles bulged with power and strength.

It was no longer his body, as his new ears were pointy and had a tinge of green akin to grass.  His tongue was brown and had the consistency of mud.  His bones were infused with the eternity of stone.  His muscles now were more tree than flesh.  He knew he was no longer a human being at all.

He knelt at the plant and touched it.  There was still life there, but it needed a push.  He knew it had only one type of nourishment it needed.

"It is time to rest," he stated reaching for the wooden door of the cell.  The old wood sighed in relief and cracked and shattered.  It splintered by the weight of the cold rusty metal that it had held up for generations.

The winds told him where to go.  He turned left.  A man stepped out from a corner.  His eyes opened wide at seeing Derek out of his cell.  There was recognition, but confusion as well.

"Move," Derek whispered.  The stones around him obeyed his request.  As if fashioned by his will, they shot out pieces of themselves at the man.  In an instant, the man was a crumpled broken and bleeding mess.  He saw Death caress the man in mercy.  She looked back at him.  Derek nodded.  There would be no human lives to plague this little bit of Earth.  Ever again.

Derek walked on guided by the gentle whispers of the wind.  Bullets were fired at him.  Bullets' trajectories were changed mid-flight.  Men died.  Death walked beside Derek, giving mercy to those who suffered and anguish to those who reveled.

"Here!" came the sharp whisper of the wind.  Derek stopped in front of a door.  It was made of iron, and he could not compel it to obey, so he simply pushed it open.

Six explosions.  Loud, yet silent pierced his new ears.  Six bullets pierced his body.  The pain and impact made him stumbled backwards, but he was not down.  Red blood ran from the holes in his body.  He knew he didn't have long.

As if it were a part of his body, a vine grew out of his arm, then another and another.  They intertwined each other and grew hard and sharp.  Derek stepped into the room and swung with all his might.  And skewered his tormentor.

The room they were in was almost no better than a torture room.  The walls were lined with sharpened metal and chains.  Books filled with all manner of vile practice lined several book shelves.  A simple wooden desk adorned the center of the room.

Derek spoke.  For the first time since his imprisonment he spoke in the tongue of man.  But in his words was the power of Gaia, Time, Life, and Death.  Though the words were foreign to the man, he understood all that was said.

"Oh foolish child of Adam. Whose entire existence is but a wink of an eternity of winks in the eyes of Time. Your crimes against man are of no concern to me. Even your actions against me pale in comparison to what you have done in your carelessness. Blame and fault are a thing of man; accidents can be forgiven by them. I do not serve man, and Gaia seeks retribution for your affront.

She has told her children to abandon you. You will forever walk this world as a dying being, but never dead. You will never feel the warmth or pleasures of life, but instead only feel the cold and pains your have suffered upon others. The steel you have used to captivate your victims shall victimize you. Now, and until the end of Time."

With that, Derek released his tormentor.  He stepped back and watched the change occur.

All blood fled the man from the wound Derek had given him.  The man screamed.  His eyes sunk, shriveled, and turned to dust.  His tongue ashed and fell from his screaming mouth.  His well-muscled body shrunk to that of a ghoul.  The chains on the walls rattled, ripped themselves freed of the wall and violently wrapped themselves around the man.  He wailed as his clothing became a shroud.  The weight of the chains forced him onto his knees.

"This is where you will stay.  Your sin has bound you here.  Guard my creation."

Derek left a red path that was followed only by the howls of the creature abandoned by Life and Death and no longer touched by Time.  He walked outside into the warm embrace of the sun.  He took a deep breath.

"Freedom is your's, my son," Gaia said.  "What you do with it is up to you.  Choose quickly or Time will decide for you."

His body felt heavy and weak, but he stood strong.  He knew the path that he must follow.

"No.  I will not allow Time to be wasted here, but that does not mean I am his ally," Derek said with the Tongue.  "I give my last to the one whom I first gave its first.  Live."  He released his final breath.

Out of the ground erupted tendrils of nature.  The very fingers of Gaia that wrapped around the ancient stone tower, squeezed, and crushed the stone into a pile.  It crashed to the ground in a ruined heap.  In the dead center of this heap was the blue flower with red veins.

Gaia looked upon the dying form of Derek Last.

"Derek Last, like you who had given first and last, you are the first and last of your kind.  A seed of Adam nurtured by nature and tested by man.  Live.  As a being both inside and out of Time.  Stand."  Gaia reached down and helped Derek stand.  Both Life and Death stood on either side of him.  They reached for him.  Touching him at the same time, they helped him stand.  "You will live as a mortal, died as a mortal, but you will always come back as so much more.  You are no longer a man.  You are my Avatar.  The perfect embodiment of the Cycle of Nature.  You will live many lives, and each life shall be the seed for the next, but for this one, just live and serve.  I shall call when I have need of a direct approach to solving matters."

Derek closed his eyes.  When he opened them again, he was in a room of white.