Prologue: Green Sky

[Eireleen]

Argent merely sat and watched as Uthaal went about his tasks. She had seen fires before, though not campfires specifically. She kept a fair distance from it, slightly farther from it than Uthaal was. She sat with her knees bent upward, and her hands between them, just like a dog would sit. Her tail laid still on the ground behind her. In the light of the fire, even in the dark forest, it was easy to see how dirty she was. She had gone eight days without a bath, and her clothes were stained almost entirely red from the hunts of each night. The fur on her tail, once a bright silver, looked more like a dark brown because of the dirt and mud soaked into it.

"There is very little that I do..." Argent replied, "Before, I would spend time by talking with Miervaldis, or gathering things for him...before that, most of my time was spent with my pack." She still remembered the time she spent before she was awakened, though most of it was fuzzy and unclear. It was almost like trying to remember a dream just after one had woken up. "...Now, when I'm not hunting, I normally just wander around...there isn't anything to do for enjoyment."

She looked up to the trees for a moment. She had seen the sky before, but only through the less dense patches of trees. She hadn't ever seen it clearly before. "I haven't seen anything outside the forest..." She said, "Miervaldis once spoke of a place on a 'mountain'...is it true that there are rocks so large that they reach many times above the treetops?"

She was only the slightest bit curious. She was afraid of the outside world far more than she was interested in it. But if she was traveling with someone else, who knew what it was like, perhaps it wouldn't be as dangerous.

Her eyes laid to rest on Uthaal's right arm, wrapped in bandages. "Is your arm injured?" She asked, unconsciously pointing her nose towards it. She had been bandaged herself before, whenever she had been wounded. But she didn't know how to do such things herself.

[Linwelin]

As Argent spoke, Uthaal simply listened curiously, knowing that just as he expected to share his experiences with her, her life had a point of view he would never know. Though the way she spoke about her life brought a pall of sorrow and fear over the conversation. He could see now that Argent's life truly was only these woods. Then, to his surprise, she asked about outside the forest, even if only a small part of it.

"Miervaldis once spoke of a place on a 'mountain'...is it true that there are rocks so large that they reach many times above the treetops?"

Uthaal nodded, almost excitedly, "Yes, and not just above the trees, but reaching into the very sky itself! They're amazing pieces of nature." He looks around as he says this. "Though now that I think on it, have you ever seen the sky and clouds? This forest is quite dense, so I imagine you haven't if you've never been to the edge of the woods." He sees Argent hesitant to respond, so just continues speaking about the world. "Well it's not just mountains outside the forest. There are wide open plains that stretch on for distances 10 times that of this forest, just like a giant glade; then there's the ocean, which is an immeasurably large body of water, like an endless lake. Both of these things are beautiful beyond words. And the best part is, you will definitely get your chance to see them! And not to mention a sunset out in the open...like a giant orange jewel in the sky, sitting on the clouds and mountains." Uthaal realizes he's rambling again. "Sorry, my love for the world got the best of me. Honestly, my words don't do them justice, it's something you need to see for yourself. And I'll tell you now, it is worth seeing, and nothing to be afraid of."

Then Argent had a new interest, realizing it while Uthaal had rambled. This one, Uthaal had expected at some point, but wasn't quite sure how to describe it yet. Still, he would try, at least a little.

"Is your arm injured?"

"Ah, this?" Uthaal clarified. "It isn't so much of an injury as it is a mark. It will not go away until I complete my journey. It is also why I have visions. So no worries, I am fine, and it's nothing like a disease, so you're safe. I just cover it because it occasionally disturbs passers-by." He simply smiled his usual, comforting smile, knowing he's talked enough and that he should give his friend a chance to speak again.

[Eireleen]

"I've seen small parts of it," Argent replied, "but I haven't seen the sky clearly..." She listened curiously as Uthaal began to explain so much of the world. But try as she might, it was difficult for her to really imagine what any of it would look like. It sounded amazing, but she couldn't form such images in her mind. The most wide-open space she had ever seen was a small forest clearing. She didn't even know what the horizon looked like. It was always blocked by the trees.

She looked down to Uthaal's arm inquisitively. It was difficult for her to imagine that suffering a wound would result in visions. But it wouldn't be the first thing that was difficult for her to imagine. "...Where were you going before you came here?" She asked, "You were led here by a vision, right? Where were you headed before that happened?"

[Linwelin]

Seeing Argent's curiosity during his explanations was refreshing. It's why he enjoyed telling such tales, to see others experience the same feelings he had felt when he experienced them.

"Before now, I was in a small village in the middle of one of those large plains I was talking about." Uthaal was happy that he had found someone to tell of his travels, knowing that this is probably the same feeling Miervaldis must have had. "They were suffering from a large gathering of rats. The rats were eating all of their crops, as well as spreading disease. And since rats don't make good food themselves, the people could do nothing. I came to be there because of my first vision. It was my job to teach the people why exactly the rodents had started to leave their habitat and infest the village. It turned out to be some invasive farming and clearing of land, which caused the rats' home to flood; this took quite a while to fix, and even more time to regrow. I was there for a few years."

[Eireleen]

Argent continued to listen, showing interest in the tale, although not overtly. Though her face was as stoic as ever, her tail would give her away, swishing to and fro as her ears perked up. She certainly agreed that rats weren't good for eating, as she had tried them herself on a few occasions. It reminded her of the small garden Miervaldis had once kept behind their shed. It grew only a small amount o food, but it was a farm nonetheless. He had often stated that he made it so small on purpose, in order to not disturb the forest.

She scratched behind her ear for a moment before turning back to Uthaal, asking what was perhaps a more important question. "...Where are you going now?" She asked quietly, "Where will you take me?" It was perhaps a meaningless question for her. She knew nothing of the outside world, and even if Uthaal told her an exact place, she likely wouldn't recognize it. But she asked it because it was something that she wanted to know.

[Linwelin]

As Uthaal told his tale, he couldn't help but notice how much Argent was trying to hide the excitement about it all. That, or she didn't know how to express it well yet. The tail spoke volumes for her, though. She was definitely starting to grow on him, that's for sure.

"Well, that IS a good question." Uthaal says, pausing for a moment. "I haven't really decided. You see, I came here because I was called to you, but I wasn't given any further details in the vision. How to you feel about just traveling and seeing the world? There's still a lot that even I haven't seen, and I travel quite a bit."

[Eireleen]

"...That's fine." Argent replied softly. "I have no destination of my own." She was happy if just to have a place to go. It made her feel like she had a purpose - if she looked to the future, there was something there. For over a week, she had merely been living day-to-day, unsure of what to do. She had been granted this body so that she could do more than just an animal's whims. If she did nothing but hunt and sleep, she was wasting the gift she had been given.

She looked up to the trees. She couldn't see the sky beyond the leaves, but she knew that it was late. But that was fine. She was nocturnal, though she wasn't sure if Uthaal was. "I have no belongings. I can leave whenever you are ready." She stated, "...We can visit the grave before we go."

[Linwelin]

"That good to hear. I'd like to rest for the night though. Haven't done so for a while, what with all the visions and travel." Uthaal replied, happy to see her in good spirits, even with the sudden changes. "For now, let's eat." he says as he hands Argent one of the pieces of skewered venison. He takes one for himself, and sets one down for Din. The pair begins eating it, quickly and immediately.

"So, I know this was brought on you suddenly," Uthaal starts, "but how do you like this new life? Anything you've found that you enjoy or appreciate more? I'd like to hear about you a bit more, what are your thoughts?"

[Eireleen]

Argent held the stretch of cooked meat with only slight apprehension. It was still hot, having just been removed from the fire. It had been a while since she had eaten properly cooked food. Her teeth tore through it cleanly, biting off a sizeable chunk of the crispy, steaming meat. In one way, it wasn't very satisfying. It tore far too easily, almost like paper, instead of the tough sinew and ligaments that she was used to ripping through in a dead animal. In another way, though, the taste of cooked meat was very different. It wasn't at all bad.

"...I would rather go back to the way I was." She said it quietly, in a saddened voice. The first year of her new life was the first and only happiness she had ever experienced. But since he died, her life had been an existence of sadness and loneliness.

Truthfully, she didn't think she would ever feel true happiness again.

"Back then...I was never sad, or unhappy. But now that I have emotions...lately, it seems like that's all I've felt." She admits, her tail remaining dormant across the ground. "...If I could go back to the way I was before...I wouldn't feel such things."

She remained silent for a while, taking another cautionary bite of the cooked venison. Her lonely words hung heavily in the humid air. "...But...I'm glad that I was able to save him." She added, "...Without me...he would have felt the same as I do, right now..."

[Linwelin]

"Those feelings aren't as bad as you think...no one feels well after a friend's death. I believe you will grow to cherish those feelings he has given you." Uthaal starts, having slowed his eating to listen more intently. "The truth is, I don't believe you know how great a gift you've been given. He has given you the ability to explore the world, and not have to depend on this forest alone. He has given you the ability to commune with both animals and humanoids alike, though both may be harder than how you spoke before."

Uthaal pauses to look her over and make sure he wasn't drilling it in too hard. Over-information while a being is depressed is dangerous, and even if she didn't know the name for it, Argent was certainly depressed. Not that it wasn't understandable. She had lost the only person that she knew in this new world. There is now one in this world that WOULDN'T feel loneliness in this circumstance.

"How I see it is this. Miervaldis may have awakened you on his own whim, but he treated you as a close friend. He wanted to make sure you were happy with who you are. And right now, I don't think he would want you to stop living your life to its fullest due to mourning him. The greatest thing you can do to honor his memory is to continue you living, and show him you are happy with your life now. All he's ever wanted was to make his close friends happy..." Uthaal suddenly trails off with his last statement, thinking for a moment, leaving another long silence. "And who knows, maybe some day we'll find a way to reverse the transformation, and you can choose whether to return to being a wolf, or to remain as you are." He smiles wistfully back at Argent.

[Eireleen]

Argent looked up at Uthaal, her eyes seeming to unfocus for a bit. It was difficult to tell what she was thinking behind such a gaze - her mouth merely hung slightly open as she thought long and hard about the past.

She remembered the time when she and Miervaldis had first met. Not when she was a wolf, but right after she was Awakened, when she truly saw him for the first time. Her first emotion had been this same loneliness, and crushing despair. Her entire pack had been massacred by adventurers. Her family, her friends, all dead. And that night, she cried into his arms. He had gently patted her on the head, like a loving grandfather.

"...He told me, back then..." She finished her own thoughts out loud, in a wistful voice. "...He...didn't want me to be lonely..."

If they had met one more time, right now, she knew that he would tell her those same words again.

The next morning held the end of the rains. The ground was still wet, illuminated by the rays of sunlight that pierced the treetops. The lonely shack in the woods had been left just as Argent remembered it. All of their meager belongings were in the exact same place, undisturbed. It was a sorry-looking structure by architectural standards. The roof barely looked like it could keep out the rain, and its size was little more than that of a house's single room. It could have passed for an especially large outhouse. But to Argent, it was once their home.

A few meters behind it, the soil was disturbed slightly. It had clearly been dug up and replaced. The fallen leaves strewn across the ground were cleared away, leaving it bare. The only marker on the area was a single stick, about half a meter long, which had been planted into the ground.

The silver girl stood there silently, looking down at it. The memory of digging the grave was still fresh in her mind. She would never forget the feeling of the wet soil on her hands as her claws parted the ground. All the while, he had been laying right beside her, his eyes closed.

It was their last stop on their way out of the forest. Argent paid her reverence wordlessly, knowing that it might be the last time she ever visited this place.

[Linwelin]

Uthaal looked around the cabin and grounds, doing everything he could to keep himself together. You old fool...there was no reason to be such a recluse...

When he came to the grave, Uthaal couldn't hide it any longer. A tear rolled down his face as he knelt down, saying a blessing. He whispered softly, his voice quivering slightly, "Goodbye, old friend...rest peacefully...I only wish I had found you sooner..." He said one final blessing then got to.his feet, wiping his eyes.

"Thank you for bringing me here...I'm ready now, let's depart."

[Throndir]

As Uthaal finished saying his words of farewell and somber remembrance, the scenery around the two companions seemed to change and waiver. It looked as if their surroundings became akin to a painting washed out with a flood of water. As the sights twisted and the sceneries meshed into each other in seemingly random ways, the greens of the trees, the browns of the earth, and the dark hues that lay all around them began began to collide and create an almost surrealistic view. Everything around them seemed to change, except for themselves. As the landscape morphed, Uthaal and Argent kept their same solid and familiar form.

The sight was dazzling, if not a little overwhelming and unexpected. Yet even with all the strangeness that ran around the two, there was still a comforting presence that lay heavily saturated where they stood at Miervaldis' old cabin and his grave. It was a feeling of familiarity to the druid, Uthaal; it felt like a warm glow to the druid and he immediately recognized the feeling for what it was.

However, within moments the swirling and waivering stopped. The whole event lasted just a few seconds, but to the duo who stood there, it felt many times longer than that.

As the last of the strange swirling disappeared back into the void, they found themselves back where they originally were. They immediately saw the familiar shack that was Miervaldis' home. But something was different about the sight. It was morning when they left their makeshift camp from the night before, and morning still when they had arrived again at the cabin. Yet the skies were dark, and the woods glistened with the light of the full moon that watched somewhere from above them. When before it had just rained heavily, the grounds were still dry.

It was the same place, but yet it was not. For some strange reason or another, both Argent and Uthaaal felt that something was different. Not just the lack of light from the morning sun, or the suddenly dry ground, but there was an almost light and joyful feeling that lingered in the area. It felt carefree as if the troubles of the outside world was denied entrance to the place. When the two had arrived at the abandoned shack before, it felt like a sadness and sense of loss was there. But now, with all of nature around them, it felt just like home of a druid.

And then they saw it. Where once a patch of uncovered ground was located just a few meters behind the shack, instead, like the rest of the grounds around them, fallen leaves and twigs dotted the area. Where ever they were, Miervaldis' grave was gone.

[Linwelin]

"The grave..." Uthaal muttered in a whisper. Serpentstaff...what miracle have you performed? Still somewhat in a trance, he first made sure Argent was well, "Argent...you felt that as well, right? Are you alright?" She seemed confused and shaken, yet strangely relaxed. Uthaal then realized he had already experienced the presence himself, and remembered how he first reacted. He knew how awestruck the wolf-girl must be, and decided not to press her too much.

Something kept drawing him toward the shack, but he would check it again once he knew his friend had recovered.

[Eireleen]

Argent was visibly shaken. The swirling colors had been sudden in and of themselves, a once familiar scenery twisting and warping into the unknown. But more than that were the scents. Uthaal would never have understood. In that one moment, it was as though she had been assailed with every scent and smell in the forest. The morning dew and the night fog, the smell of a fresh corpse and the smell of life, all at the same time.

She stepped back as the world righted itself again. Blinking, she straightened to her feet, confirming that the world was again as it was. Except for one difference. The smell of death no longer graced the clearing.

"...The grave..." Argent spoke breathlessly, her voice coming out as a whisper. Somehow, she felt very calm. It reminded her of the way she used to feel when Miervaldis scratched her ears. She turned to Uthaal, looking for answers in his eyes. "What...happened...?"